Missions - substantially increase their numbers (mode switch exploit)

[Karlos Ploryman]

Hello commanders, hello Frontier.

I must be honest with you all and tell the truth... I do switch modes to get the mission list refreshed, because I am usually looking for something specific. Even mode switching in a station with many factions (most of them allied to me), it takes quite some time to achieve what I want. I also take any mission offering something rare, which I think I will need eventually in the future. I do not really use this exploit for mission stacking (for example long range hauling from Ceos), more for engineer materials and commodities gathering.

I do understand the point of commanders, who claim that this should be somehow prevented by FDEVs. I do agree.

BUT.

I would like to see something changed... Two options described below:

* substantially increase the number of missions spawned when you land in the station / outpost / base... Do not force players to mode switch, give them many more options to choose from


* mission rewards (materials or commodities) should be optional... For example faction XY offers a Elite assasination mission ( with possible commodity reward ) - the player gets the opportunity to choose the reward from a RNG generated list (cooling hoses, magnetic emmiter coil, HN shock mount or Platinum)



This way players would experience much less frustration from not being able to find what they are looking for, people would mode switch a lot less IMHO.


What do you think fellas?

Thank you for civilised discussion ;-)

Commander Karlos Ploryman

 

[_Flin_]

Instead of Relogging, there could be a "Reload" button to get a different mission list.

 

[Karlos Ploryman]

Instead of Relogging, there could be a "Reload" button to get a different mission list.

This might help out...
Or the time for MB respawn could be much shorter - something like 5 minutes.
Or undocking, flying around the station and docking again could respawn the MB too... People would not mode switch, the would perfect their docking skills instead ! :-D

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

IMHO, to simulate a live environment on the BSS, have missions load, and randomly after 60-90 seconds or so, they may disappear and be replaced with a new mission.
(Never while you're reading it).
It'll kind of feel like NPCs are taking on missions too.

So if you sit and watch the board, you'll see missions disappear, and others pop up to replace them.

 

[Lestenio]

This might help out...
Or the time for MB respawn could be much shorter - something like 5 minutes.
Or undocking, flying around the station and docking again could respawn the MB too... People would not mode switch, the would perfect their docking skills instead ! :-D

mode switching takes seconds. Undocking, leaving, docking takes a few mins.
I'd rather mode switch

 

[777Driver]

Do not force players to mode switch, give them many

Players are not forced to mode switch, it's a choice. I've never had a reason to mode switch, only exceptions are outposts with no free landing pads.

The point of having limited missions is to encourage players to hunt around for what they need.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Instead of Relogging, there could be a "Reload" button to get a different mission list.

I can see Dav having a meltdown, along with the servers!

 

[Ouberos]

Players are not forced to mode switch, it's a choice. I've never had a reason to mode switch, only exceptions are outposts with no free landing pads.

The point of having limited missions is to encourage players to hunt around for what they need.

I'm inclined to agree. The missions are often a product of the BGS state in that system. They impact the BGS too so you can't have too many variations until the server tick at the end of each period.

Also I disagree with the mode switch exploit. I tried it once to see what the fuss was and felt as though I had cheated myself so I vowed not to use it. The only time I switch modes now is if I want to do something naughty in private.

Or if I need a landing pad.

There is an exploit to get multiple spawns of Diamond miners but again I would rather not use it. I have no issue with others doing so. It's their game after all.

 

[goemon]

i like the second suggestion (bargaining mission rewards) a lot.
___

for the main thing (mission availability): as somebody, who play the back ground simulation a lot, i care about the effect of more missions available.

you want more missions available, so you find the type of missions you want to do, and i can understand that.

but missions are "heavy hitters" in terms of the BGS.

more missions available would either make it necessary, to lower the effect of missions on the BGS (because people can take more missions per day, which are fast to accomplish), which would on the other hand make it hard for small groups to influence a system (even without any counter), if the effect was lowered.

or, if the effect isn't lowered, it would make it very easy to influence the BGS via missions - which is also a problem for the game.

or, third possibility, the influence effect of missions shouldn't be type (and rank?) depending so much, and most missions would be of an low influence effect, while there are random missions of all type with higher influence values (e.g. you have 75% boom data delivery missions with low influence (and state?) effect, 20% with medium and 5% with high influence (and state?) effect. which opens up the question: why has one assassination of a high ranked military target has a high influence effect, and the other one a low influence effect.

___

also, just my personal opinion, you can do all things ingame without taking a mission for it. so, beside rare mission rewards, there isn't really a reason for me to make more missions available, because the activity itself is available all the time.

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

The elephant in the ED closet is time i.e. how long does it take a CMDR to achieve a certain goal. Different players have different expectations and tolerances to this there is not a one size fits all. What I will say is that ED currently relies on an awful lot of padding and repetition instead of skill-based complexity or difficulty for its rewards, most notably Naval Rank and major faction rep. Where mode switching comes in handy is simply reducing the time it takes to complete the goals in game which imho are far too padded out in the first place.

Is mode switching an exploit? Imho yes it is, but with a little e because it doesn't really harm anyone

Would I want FDev to get rid of mode switching benefits for missions? Yes I would BUT I don't want to see the game drawn or padded out with repetition. How would I do that? Make the goals and tasks more skill based with higher rewards, give less rep reward for repeated missions but give higher rewards for players that do a variety of missions and more skilled based missions.

Mode switching atm serves as a useful method to sprint through the grind, lower the grind, add difficulty and take away mode switching...

 

[Weps]

Instead of Relogging, there could be a "Reload" button to get a different mission list.

Why not. If the new approach is "let players do what they want when they want" then surely I should be able to pick whatever mission I please from the pool as easy as possible. A reload button seems the easy way to implement this.

I don't want to be forced to search for missions any more than I want to be forced to manage the position of my fleet. Anyone who does not appreciate this option can simply not use it. Oh yeah, and gameplay trumps realism.

 

[EValve]

I have to agree. There's no reason not to switch. It's equally hard to believe that a station hosting millions of people has no missions to offer. That's an immersion breaker for me. It's just not believable.

The current state already makes it near impossible for a single person to affect a faction's influence unless you make it your full-time job. This is where playability comes into play. Unless you are in a dedicated group you can't influence a system sufficiently if the BGS works against you.
I've tried to spend a whole weekend on a faction to bring it back into a boom state with on average 1 to two missions on the BB. It's impossible. The BGS cancels your progress by the next day. To me having to group up to even consider trying to politically influence a faction can't work out. I'm currently not playing for many reasons and this one is definitely one of them.

 

[Jmanis]

more missions available would either make it necessary, to lower the effect of missions on the BGS (because people can take more missions per day, which are fast to accomplish), which would on the other hand make it hard for small groups to influence a system (even without any counter), if the effect was lowered.

Add to that people playing the BGS would just mill the reload button til they get a stack of missions they can complete in just one hit.

And god forbid people stacking skimmer missions...

 

[Codger]

For me, the real problem is that the actual mission board refresh doesn't work correctly. The board should refresh every 10 minutes, without mode switching, but I've walked away and left my ship sitting there for 45 minutes, and when I come back I still get the same mission list. But if I switch modes I get a new list.

I'd like to see a refresh button, with a timer on it, that you can press to get the refresh to actually happen.

 

[Karlos Ploryman]

Thank you all... The BGS has not come into my mind as I do not attempt to influence it... I simply want to get the mission only commodities.

Maybe to avoid harm for the BGS, the second option (player can choose the reward) would be better. OR make these special commodities buyable somewhere ?

o7 Karlos

 

[Eloy]

IMHO, to simulate a live environment on the BSS, have missions load, and randomly after 60-90 seconds or so, they may disappear and be replaced with a new mission.
(Never while you're reading it).
It'll kind of feel like NPCs are taking on missions too.

So if you sit and watch the board, you'll see missions disappear, and others pop up to replace them.

I like this!

 

[Karlos Ploryman]

IMHO, to simulate a live environment on the BSS, have missions load, and randomly after 60-90 seconds or so, they may disappear and be replaced with a new mission.
(Never while you're reading it).
It'll kind of feel like NPCs are taking on missions too.

So if you sit and watch the board, you'll see missions disappear, and others pop up to replace them.

Yeah, good idea, I like it too, repped.

 

[ThatFuzzyTiger]

Mode switching, or to give it the correct name given the current atmosphere :

InstaMissionGeneration.

Bad for your "Immersion"

... wait for it, waaaaaait for it...

 

[SheepDip82]

I would really love to see a mission board countdown timer, new jobs posted to the boards every x minutes or something similar. I've no doubt that the re-logging would still occur, but I'd be less inclined if there was some form to it.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Thanks all

May pop that in the suggestions forum to be lost forever!