Too few missions, no predictability = bad gameplay

[fuub]

Any station I go has only 5 or 6 missions. In a station with million of people living is this really the only jobs needing to be done? I feel like there should be lots of missions so the player could choose what he wants to do in the game and don't have to spend hours searching for that type of mission.

For example, I want to do surface salvage missions but I can't find them anywhere. I should be able to understand in what type of economies and states I can find these missions and there should always be many of these available in those stations.

If for example I wanted to haul cargo, I should be able to go to systems I know there are a lot of cargo missions waiting to be completed.

Etc.


No predicatibily, everything random = bad gameplay.

 

[Wylie28]

You can do all that. Many stations have more than 5 or 6 missions and the mission types are decided by many factors based on the system. You just haven't learned how it works yet. Go to a famine or outbreak system and tell me to my face missions aren't system based.

Also this isn't Elite: Missions. The missions aren't the core part of the game do something else if it bothers you that much,

 

[CMDR Dumbfries]

You hear that OP? If you want missions you are doing it wrong. You have to play the way this guy wants you to ^^^^^^^^^^^. Don't come in here with your logic. Be happy you have 6 lousy missions in a system inhabited by millions of people. If that's not enough then maybe you're playing the wrong game. /s

 

[goemon]

you can do any activity in the game without a mission.

if you like to do surface salvage - why don't you do it?

you will still gain reputation, and the market controlling faction will gain influence.

 

[jericho447]

Any station I go has only 5 or 6 missions. In a station with million of people living is this really the only jobs needing to be done? I feel like there should be lots of missions so the player could choose what he wants to do in the game and don't have to spend hours searching for that type of mission.

For example, I want to do surface salvage missions but I can't find them anywhere. I should be able to understand in what type of economies and states I can find these missions and there should always be many of these available in those stations.

If for example I wanted to haul cargo, I should be able to go to systems I know there are a lot of cargo missions waiting to be completed.

Etc.


No predicatibily, everything random = bad gameplay.

and half of them are illegal or lvl gated by ship upgrades. i get the random missions on the bb but it is anoying cause most of the missions i get are cargo, illegal and mining

 

[Ian Skippy]

While the BGS actually play a serious role in mission generation, so you can do that, I do feel there is a general improvement possible: have every station of a certain size offer all mission types at all times. These would be 'general missions', and offer relatively reduced rewards. Add to that the 'BGS missions' that give a higher reward. That way assassins will always have a job somewhere to pay the rent so to speak, but prospecting cmdrs can 'play the market' and profit from political instability, market changes etc.

 

[Vincent Starson]

If there were more missions available then people wouldn't have to switch modes to stack missions, and that would improve those user's experience while making their play time more profitable. There is already a 15 mission limit so as long as it didn't affect the load time too much, this sounds like it should be a "small" change.

 

[fuub]

You hear that OP? If you want missions you are doing it wrong. You have to play the way this guy wants you to ^^^^^^^^^^^. Don't come in here with your logic. Be happy you have 6 lousy missions in a system inhabited by millions of people. If that's not enough then maybe you're playing the wrong game. /s

lol thanks for the laugh, indeed some ppl think they own the game or something. I've learned to ignore them though.

you can do any activity in the game without a mission.

if you like to do surface salvage - why don't you do it?

you will still gain reputation, and the market controlling faction will gain influence.

I prefer the surface salvage missions approach to the planet much more since it is much better designed than the clunky blue point of interest only visible above 1.5km mechanic. Also the mission pays more than what you usually find in random POI and having to scan the nav beacon and search around the planet is a really nice design.

 

[goemon]

If there were more missions available then people wouldn't have to switch modes to stack missions, and that would improve those user's experience while making their play time more profitable. There is already a 15 mission limit so as long as it didn't affect the load time too much, this sounds like it should be a "small" change.

the problem with that is, that missions are heavy hitters in terms of influence and state change.

to give you an idea: to have the effect of a single medium influence effect mission succesfully run in a low population system, you have to smuggle ~4 cobra mkIII of illegal goods, sell 6-7 cobra mkIII full of high profit goods, or cash in 10 times bounties.

if there would always be plenty of any mission available, you would either make it very easy to influence/change/flip a system, or you would need to make the effect of a single mission much lesser, making it impossible for small groups of players to influence systems at all.

 

[goemon]

lI prefer the surface salvage missions approach to the planet much more since it is much better designed than the clunky blue point of interest only visible above 1.5km mechanic. Also the mission pays more than what you usually find in random POI and having to scan the nav beacon and search around the planet is a really nice design.

what i would like to see, is some kind of "contractor"-system; e.g. if you have done a type of mission successfully, the faction could hire you for that kind of jobs - and you wet get a mission of that type every time you dock till you cancel the contract. you would be paid - but there would be no influence/reputation effect besides the sandbox effects.

 

[Adhock]

Have you tried increasing you standing with any of the factions to increase how many missions at a time they offer?

Because why would they trust you with your pick of the litter if they don't trust you at all?

 

[fuub]

what i would like to see, is some kind of "contractor"-system; e.g. if you have done a type of mission successfully, the faction could hire you for that kind of jobs - and you wet get a mission of that type every time you dock till you cancel the contract. you would be paid - but there would be no influence/reputation effect besides the sandbox effects.

That would be awesome!

Have you tried increasing you standing with any of the factions to increase how many missions at a time they offer?

Because why would they trust you with your pick of the litter if they don't trust you at all?

I've tried systems where I have good rep and cant find any surface salvage mission.





After 2 hours searching I couldn't find a single surface salvage mission, and my patience is gone.

Everything is so random that its just stupid.

 

[Jmanis]

Any station I go has only 5 or 6 missions. In a station with million of people living is this really the only jobs needing to be done? I feel like there should be lots of missions so the player could choose what he wants to do in the game and don't have to spend hours searching for that type of mission.

For example, I want to do surface salvage missions but I can't find them anywhere. I should be able to understand in what type of economies and states I can find these missions and there should always be many of these available in those stations.

If for example I wanted to haul cargo, I should be able to go to systems I know there are a lot of cargo missions waiting to be completed.

Etc.


No predicatibily, everything random = bad gameplay.

What are the stations you go to? This matters a lot.

Systems I go to will generally have 30+ between all the minor factions, with between 5-11 for each faction. Fringe worlds/isolated areas have much less.

Throw on top of that the system I work in has 8 stations and three ground bases, that's at times over 300 missions available. Considering there's a (dumb and arbitrary) maximum of 30 missions you can take at once, that's more than enough.

tl;dr location matters.

 

[GODofDUTY83]

Nothing wrong with the mission setup I'd say.
Get allied with certain groups and you will get tons more missions from them.
Groups like raiders regularly hand out black op type stuff and agry based groups want their product shipped.
Everything you said is allready in place.
Maybe you jump around to much. Find a location you like and make contacts in the surrounding systems and you'll have your variety.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

I am always spoilt for choice in regards to missions, & that is even with me trying to roleplay as a scoundrel working primarily for anarchic factions.

However fuub, the OP, has a long history of bad-mouthing the game-as he clearly seems to want a scripted game that holds his hand all the way. I personally love the pseudo-random nature of missions....it helps keep things interesting.

The only thing I want is more mission templates for added variety.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

While the BGS actually play a serious role in mission generation, so you can do that, I do feel there is a general improvement possible: have every station of a certain size offer all mission types at all times. These would be 'general missions', and offer relatively reduced rewards. Add to that the 'BGS missions' that give a higher reward. That way assassins will always have a job somewhere to pay the rent so to speak, but prospecting cmdrs can 'play the market' and profit from political instability, market changes etc.

My only issue with missions, at the moment, is that it is all still too focused around the Mission Board. They have improved things a little (you can now receive mission offers in transit, which is a nice touch), but I would like them to go further still. Missions from Bulletin Boards (non faction based missions), missions from selling Intel, missions from interacting with settlements, missions from interacting with NPC ships, missions from interacting with salvage and PDB's, missions from passengers and crew). The whole galaxy should be a source of missions, not just the mission boards. I am hoping we will increasingly see this as we get further updates to the game.

 

[Vincent Starson]

the problem with that is, that missions are heavy hitters in terms of influence and state change.

to give you an idea: to have the effect of a single medium influence effect mission succesfully run in a low population system, you have to smuggle ~4 cobra mkIII of illegal goods, sell 6-7 cobra mkIII full of high profit goods, or cash in 10 times bounties.

if there would always be plenty of any mission available, you would either make it very easy to influence/change/flip a system, or you would need to make the effect of a single mission much lesser, making it impossible for small groups of players to influence systems at all.

Why are you using cobra as a benchmark, those are pitiful cargo holds to compare. That's basically 1 anaconda trip. Much less time to complete a round trip trade/smuggle route than do 99% of missions.

Not sure what your point is, the BGS will be affected more by people playing more and this is bad somehow? I don't follow.

 

[veryinky]

My suggestion would be that the player have more agency in what missions they get.

Like announcing that they're going to system X so the game will generate more missions going to system X in the list.

Or advertising. Player spends X credits to advertise their services, effect is the list is reloaded with more missions. (instead of log out open/solo)
Or specifically advertising for certain types of missions, or to a specific system, one or both would decrease the payout but at least there'd be something to do.

Repeat advertising, pamphlets to advertising displays to station broadcasts to the player's face and mission request being posted on every holo display in or outside the station. Pay more, get more, but with diminishing returns, obviously.

How about the game checking what systems the player frequents and giving them missions to those systems?

How about the player selecting a reward that they want then the game generates the missions tailored to that reward, namely player offers to work for 4 modular terminals or chemical manipulators, no cash, just cheap "ubiquitous" very common items and then the game figures out a task worthy of such a reward. I once destroyed 108 Sirian Corp ships, counting crews that's the murder of about 10,000 people for 4 modular terminals. I'm sure the game could come up with more reasonable tasks for the very common items.

Though if they ever do rework missions I hope they add exploration missions. I mean actual exploration missions like; go explore this system (or list of systems the player hasn't surface scanned every planet/star) and scan everything there and come back. Or maybe "go scan this black hole/neutron star" missions. This would give players an incentive to explore the galaxy more. I know I suggest this every few months, actual exploration missions, but hey, it's been a few months since I last suggested it.

 

[Bambi]

There's too many missions already. There's a thousand things to do without a single mission needing to be taken. Yet you only think in terms of missions.

If any of the elite designers peruse this thread I'd recommend this read:
http://web.archive.org/web/20130108...nsic-rewards-in-kleis-latest-game-dont-starve

 

[goemon]

Why are you using cobra as a benchmark, those are pitiful cargo holds to compare. That's basically 1 anaconda trip. Much less time to complete a round trip trade/smuggle route than do 99% of missions.

Not sure what your point is, the BGS will be affected more by people playing more and this is bad somehow? I don't follow.

- you can run missions in a cobra, no? the current design allows players with small ships to influence the BGS. also, if you play the BGS, you'll find yourself very often in a situation, where you need access to medium pads.

- influence effects are only scaling with ship size when you trade. for the bgs it doesn't matter, whether you cash in 10 times bounties of eagles or condas

- it is not about "being affected by people playing more", it is about the time it needs to influence a system. with always a lot of missions available, a cmdr could trigger a war for system control in a low population system in 2-3 days ... in 2-3 sessions ... in a few hours. imho this would seriously damage the scale of the backgroundsimulation. it shouldn't be that easy to move

- if one would tone down the effect of missions on the other hand, to make up for more missions available, it would get impossible for a single cmdr to move influence in a backwater system.

as it is now, you will move influence for 2-5℅ in a small population system in a typical evening session of 2 hours without any other traffic, not depending on ship size. imho that is quite balanced - you make a visible difference, you can change things drastically in some weeks, while you are not the king/ruler/god, changing the world by running missions on a single evening.

___

i do know, that many cmdrs are not interested about BGS effects of missions - but as with other aspects of gamedesign (jumprange for exampel), ED caters a lot of playstyles, and a change need to be viable for many if not all of those.

with 200+ player group backed minor factions, the BGS got more focus then early on, when it mainly was a special interest field.