Horizons What does chain link missions mean?

Recently seen a few missions with what looks like a chain on it. It is also usually seperate from other missions. What is this for? What does it mean? Is it for Rank up missions?
 
It is a follow on (or chained) mission that has spawned based upon a recent mission that you did. If you look at the mission description you should see a brief blurb describing how it came about. For example, could be an assassination mission based upon a scan or data recovery mission you did recently.

These missions will be available to you for up to a week after they are spawned when you are at a station that has the faction giving it to you represented.
 

Deleted member 38366

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AFAIK they appear after you complete one (or more?) Missions for a Faction. Unsure if you need any minimum Reputation with a Faction for them to appear...

From the looks of it, they seem to be a RNG-picked standard Mission and normal Inf/Rep Mission Results.
The only thing special about them I've found out was, that their Credit Payout appears to have a (rough guesstimate) 2x Multiplicator from the looks of it.

But other than that - a completely normal Mission.

Once it's done, I haven't seen a 2nd chained Mission following that.

PS.
Most Chained Mission offers I've seen strangely see me as an Assassin (?). Many Assassination Mission offers there.
I only did a few chained Cargo Haulage Missions and they all were "We managed to produce 2 tons of [Commodity], please haul them [15-140LY] away for [250-900k] Credits".

The most notable thing I found was, that the Chained offers seemed quite persistent.
I've seen these Missions still on the Board after over an hour and repeated System Visits, which I found quite surprising.
 
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Ok that makes some sense. I just noticed it last night, and was what the hell is this? I took it, and was about to do it when server went down for maintenance.

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AFAIK they appear after you complete one (or more?) Missions for a Faction. Unsure if you need any minimum Reputation with a Faction for them to appear...

From the looks of it, they seem to be a RNG-picked standard Mission and normal Inf/Rep Mission Results.
The only thing special about them I've found out was, that their Credit Payout appears to have a (rough guesstimate) 2x Multiplicator from the looks of it.

But other than that - a completely normal Mission.

Once it's done, I haven't seen a 2nd chained Mission following that.

PS.
Most Chained Mission offers I've seen strangely see me as an Assassin (?). Many Assassination Mission offers there.
I only did a few chained Cargo Haulage Missions and they all were "We managed to produce 2 tons of [Commodity], please haul them [15-140LY] away for [250-900k] Credits".

Yup my mission was the "We managed to produce 2 tons of [Commodity], please haul them [15-140LY] away for [250-900k] Credits" type. Thanks for the replies guys.
 
AFAIK they appear after you complete one (or more?) Missions for a Faction. Unsure if you need any minimum Reputation with a Faction for them to appear...

From the looks of it, they seem to be a RNG-picked standard Mission and normal Inf/Rep Mission Results.
The only thing special about them I've found out was, that their Credit Payout appears to have a (rough guesstimate) 2x Multiplicator from the looks of it.

But other than that - a completely normal Mission.

Once it's done, I haven't seen a 2nd chained Mission following that.

PS.
Most Chained Mission offers I've seen strangely see me as an Assassin (?). Many Assassination Mission offers there.
I only did a few chained Cargo Haulage Missions and they all were "We managed to produce 2 tons of [Commodity], please haul them [15-140LY] away for [250-900k] Credits".

Any standard mission (pretty much) can spawn a chained mission, and I don't believe there is any reputation requirement. There is also no indication that a mission will spawn a follow on.

These are new in 2.3 (well 2.3.01 to be precise) and they are supposed to give an element of a story to some missions. They are indeed just standard missions, but as I described in my post above they will be linked to a mission that you did earlier. A number of different paths lead to assassination missions, such as data scans or salvage missions that identify a pirate lord to be destroyed, also assassination missions that gave you the wrong target.
 
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Recently seen a few missions with what looks like a chain on it. It is also usually seperate from other missions. What is this for? What does it mean? Is it for Rank up missions?

The clue is in the name (or icon)...

It means chained missions. Meaning you do that one, another will link on etc.
 
The clue is in the name (or icon)...

It means chained missions. Meaning you do that one, another will link on etc.

That's what I thought too - hence I have ignored them.

So is it the first link in a chain or is it a further link in a chain (follow-on)?

BTW - Why have them listed separately and at the top of the mission list (even if they are "unavailable")? Makes the board stupid:

ZXaTqaY.jpg


[arrrr]
 
I just found this post elsewhere:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...Testing-Feedback-Thread?p=5216658#post5216658

Dominic Corner
Programmer (Missions Team)
Frontier Employee

Hi guys,

Just to clarify, the first mission in a chain will look like any other mission.

Any subsequent missions in the chain will then be in the chained missions section.

Thanks,
Dom



So it looks like yes these are the second part of a "chain" of missions, not the first link as I had thought and it also makes sense of putting them at the top.


[alien]
 
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The clue is in the name (or icon)...

It means chained missions. Meaning you do that one, another will link on etc.

That's not right actually.

The mission with the chain icon is the follow on chained mission. The mission that spawned it was a standard mission that you did previously. MalcYorks has got it figured from Dom's description.

Basically there are a number of different 'chain' templates, so various different standard missions can spawn a follow on. At the moment, chains are limited to one follow on, but that is expected to increase at some point to having multiple links in a chain. Chain missions spawn fairly rarely, and it is simple RNG that determines if a follow on mission will spawn.

An example of a chained mission template is that you take a mission to recover a black box in space. This can spawn a follow on mission to assassinate a pirate lord that was was responsible for destroying the ship whose black box you recovered.

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BTW - Why have them listed separately and at the top of the mission list (even if they are "unavailable")? Makes the board stupid:

The missions are listed separately because they will be persistent for a week, so will appear on any mission board where the faction that has given the mission has a presence for that period of time. It's also presumably to make them a bit more visible to the player.

It's actually quite nice that you have the time to be able to take them at your leisure, so to speak (and any mission timers will start from when you accept the mission). Personally I would like to see (and suggested during the beta) a 'discard' option if the follow on doesn't interest the player, although I understand that they don't count towards the mission board allocation of missions.
 
What is benefit of doing chained missions instead of normal ones?

I've got some and they look the same as normal ones - no higher payment, no bonuses... but I did just a few so maybe I am missing something.

I really hope there is some reward for finishing the chain.
 
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What is benefit of doing chained missions instead of normal ones?

I've got some and they look the same as normal ones - no higher payment, no bonuses... but I did just a few so maybe I am missing something.

I really hope there is some reward for finishing the chain.

There's no additional reward, it's meant to add some story to missions, make them more fun and engaging. :)
 
What is benefit of doing chained missions instead of normal ones?

I've got some and they look the same as normal ones - no higher payment, no bonuses... but I did just a few so maybe I am missing something.

I really hope there is some reward for finishing the chain.

They effectively spawn more missions. i.e. those missions wouldn't have been there before so especially in systems where there aren't many good missions it is useful.
 
Chain missions spawn fairly rarely, and it is simple RNG that determines if a follow on mission will spawn.
just got 5 or 6 after i completed dozen of mining missions. sent me to deliver stuff they made out of osmium i brought earlier.. good money for delivering just a few t; still plenty of cargo space left to grab ordinary missions along the way.
i like these.
 
They effectively spawn more missions. i.e. those missions wouldn't have been there before so especially in systems where there aren't many good missions it is useful.

They don't actually spawn more missions, as at the moment, if I'm understanding you correctly. A mission chain is limited to the initiating mission (which is a standard mission, there's no indication that it's the start of a chain), and a single follow on (the one with the chain icon that sits at the top of the list for that faction). It is intended that chains might become longer and more involved with time.

just got 5 or 6 after i completed dozen of mining missions. sent me to deliver stuff they made out of osmium i brought earlier.. good money for delivering just a few t; still plenty of cargo space left to grab ordinary missions along the way.
i like these.

Excellent. As I said, it's RNG, although I'm guessing some missions are more likely to spawn follow ons than others. They're a bit like busses, you won't see one for ages then a bunch come along all at once. :)
 
It looks as though FD is being cautious on this. They are pushing for more depth, but only allowing the missions to go one 'layer' deeper. My guess here (and it's only a personal opinion of course) is that FD will develop these further once they are sure there are no unintended bugs arising from the depth of two. They are exercising due diligence in maintaining control of the mission system, but at the same time experimenting with it. It's a positive sign for the future.
 
at first i liked these, but then noticed they appear/disappear randomly, maybe even change, i dunno. i thought i could keep all kinds of them on board and then do one kind of them all at once, but nooooo.. all they did created more mess on mission board. and i still have to deal with miserable 20 mission stack limit. thought i could stack some on mission board for later use as well.. disappointed
 
at first i liked these, but then noticed they appear/disappear randomly, maybe even change, i dunno. i thought i could keep all kinds of them on board and then do one kind of them all at once, but nooooo.. all they did created more mess on mission board. and i still have to deal with miserable 20 mission stack limit. thought i could stack some on mission board for later use as well.. disappointed

I'm pretty sure that follow on missions don't count towards your 20 mission limit. That info came from one of the devs...

Yes, they will be removed from the board after 7 days if you have not taken them by then, so you need to do them within that time frame if they appeal to you, and yes, sometimes the 'content' of the mission changes, for example if it's an assassination mission the target / mission rank (and name and payout) will randomly change each time you look at it. That's a bug that has been present since they were introduced, at least I think it's still considered to be unintended behavior.
 
I'm pretty sure that follow on missions don't count towards your 20 mission limit. That info came from one of the devs...

Yes, they will be removed from the board after 7 days if you have not taken them by then, so you need to do them within that time frame if they appeal to you, and yes, sometimes the 'content' of the mission changes, for example if it's an assassination mission the target / mission rank (and name and payout) will randomly change each time you look at it. That's a bug that has been present since they were introduced, at least I think it's still considered to be unintended behavior.

nope, they appear/dissappear. i cant keep them on mission board all time for 7 days. ...ah, its a bug! sorry, didnt read till all, itercepted in game lol
 
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nope, they appear/dissappear. i cant keep them on mission board all time for 7 days. ...ah, its a bug! sorry, didnt read till all, itercepted in game lol

They shouldn't disappear and re-appear from the mission board within the seven days. However, they will only appear on mission boards at stations where the faction that is giving the mission has a presence, so if you go from station A where the follow on mission is listed, and then go to a different system and dock at station B the follow on mission won't be listed if the appropriate faction isn't present at that station, but will be available again when you return to station A.

The bug is the changing 'content' of some of the missions.
 
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