Whatever happened to these comments from Braben in PC Gamer.

[fennster]

I don't think I ever came to see the resolution of this. Did anything change or did anyone find out what missions we have all missed out on? As far as I can tell it's all stayed pretty much the same.

Febuary, 2016. David Braben.

“There are missions out there I know almost no players have seen,” he says. “But we haven’t communicated it properly. There’s so much in there, and what we see from play patterns is that many do the same thing over and over. In that cycle, they just don’t get to see some of the variation. I’m not blaming players. We got it wrong.”
Braben adds that even when he was playing the game in a certain way, he wasn’t seeing everything. “I wasn’t making friends with the minor factions. I was missing out on missions. And most players do that,” he says. “It’s a shame, because the missions actually drive you around the galaxy. But if you keep going back to the same place, you won’t venture very far. We need to change the way we communicate that.”


Full article..

http://www.pcgamer.com/david-braben-on-arena-and-the-future-of-elite-dangerous/

 

[dannysquid]

For me, Engineers goes some way to addressing this as you have to leave your comfort zone to achieve anything. You can't rely on one sort of activity if you want to upgrade all your modules.

 

[fennster]

For me, Engineers goes some way to addressing this as you have to leave your comfort zone to achieve anything. You can't rely on one sort of activity if you want to upgrade all your modules.

But this implies they were there from the very start.

 

[Dommarraa]

Maybe they are there, maybe they are not. It would not be the first time he has misunderstood what his staff have coded, or expressed himself ambiguously.

Trouble is, if they are ultra rare, FD will just have to be patient. As soon as they increase the spawn rate, or puttup big PLOT HERE signs, they would lose anything interesting about them.

 

[rdizz]

The problem is ranking up requires you to go back to the same place does it not? I mean didn't they design it this way? No one wants to drive around the galaxy in a sidewinder.... well maybe some of you do

 

[JetJaguar]

yeah, I recall and wonder about this statement too occasionally. What were these other missions? He seemed to imply if you stayed in one area and keep doing missions for the same faction it would unlock other different missions that you wont normally see unless you gain more faction rep.

 

[rdizz]

yeah, I recall and wonder about this statement too occasionally. What were these other missions? He seemed to imply if you stayed in one area and keep doing missions for the same faction it would unlock other different missions that you wont normally see unless you gain more faction rep.

Which means going back to the same station....

 

[DustyArne]

Indeed, getting allied in a system with more then 1 faction does spawn those tipoff missions and other missions as well..

 

[fennster]

Indeed, getting allied in a system with more then 1 faction does spawn those tipoff missions and other missions as well..

So those are the missions that "almost no players have ever seen"? Alright then.

 

[DustyArne]

So those are the missions that "almost no players have ever seen"? Alright then.

where did i said that?

 

[MickyG1982]

So those are the missions that "almost no players have ever seen"? Alright then.

At that time, probably yes.

 

[fennster]

where did i said that?

I just took the comment with no quote to refer to the OP. Doesn't make sense in context to post above. So sorry, my mistake.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

I've tried exactly that.

Got Allied with plenty of Factions in plenty of locations. Got System Permits and got Allied with Factions there as well.
Went to the Founders World and got Allied with both Pilots Federation and even the Dark Wheel.

What came from it all?

Spoiler

Nothing.... Absolutely Nothing. Just more of the same. Exactly the same found everywhere else.
Flown a crapton of the old "Founders/ELITE" only Missions. Nothing of interest.
Flown many of the "Player flies around in System for over 2hrs" in-flight offers. Nothing. Just RNG-picked "more of the same", exactly the same as picking up any such Mission from the Mission Board.
Flown many TipOff Missions. Nothing either. Nothing of interest. Except a boatload of bugs and wasted trips, that is.

 

[fennster]

At that time, probably yes.

Players gain tip off missions from having high enough rep with local factions. So up until that point almost no player had gained enough rep to be able to get a tip off?

We are talking about a game where Cannon can rip audio and put through a spectrograph to find maps or PvP players analyse the last MW consumption, Shield MJ and DPS given from a rail gun.....

But somehow almost all players missed these missions?

 

[TopCat160]

I decide against a lot of missions because they involve coming back to the same station to get the reward.

Passenger sightseeing missions, and salvage and other retrieval missions - fair play. They need the stuff you gone off to pick up.

But why do you have to come back again to collect the reward after an assassination or massacre mission? Pointless IMO - twice the travel for no purpose.

I'd do a lot more in the way of combat if I didn't have to keep coming back to the mission giver.

 

[goemon]

i always wanted to test that. you know, taking a cobra, and only taking missions which lead to another system and so on ... to see where it goes.

but i'm highly sceptical, as when i did my trade-all-rares-ingame (there are over 130 now), i used to pick up a mission or two between the market refresh (with more rares). i haven't seen anything special coming from that.

maybe it was just meant in the very geographical sense? missions could drive you through the bubble, while many players take bases (which makes sense, as the game rewards local reputation)?

 

[Faded Glory]

Players gain tip off missions from having high enough rep with local factions. So up until that point almost no player had gained enough rep to be able to get a tip off?

I'm pretty sure that tip off missions spawn when a player spends a specific amount of time in one system, I don't think it has anything to do with rep. This is based on a comment from the mission devs. It's then just a random spawn, and yes, every tip off mission that I've seen has wanted me to travel a couple of hundred light years, hence the idea that they will encourage players to discover new stuff (?) so I have only ever bothered once.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Needle in a needle stack?
Grain of sand on the beach?

Perhaps the intent was to have us search and scan and eyeball gauge every square inch of the galaxy to discover and share some amazing find... and maybe that works for some folks.
If I happened to find something never-before-seen though...

If it makes me credits, I'm going to keep my mouth shut and profit.
If it doesn't, then I might share, or might not, just depends.

I certainly wouldn't post it on reddit, and may not post it here.
I might create my own unaffiliated website and post such finds there - and might even sell membership to my own site, depending on the value of such a find.

And that's the problem with such a giant sandbox where Everyone Is Over Here <--- and the cool stuff is ----------------> Over There.

 

[Lightspeed]

Needle in a needle stack?
Grain of sand on the beach?

Perhaps the intent was to have us search and scan and eyeball gauge every square inch of the galaxy to discover and share some amazing find... and maybe that works for some folks.
If I happened to find something never-before-seen though...

If it makes me credits, I'm going to keep my mouth shut and profit.
If it doesn't, then I might share, or might not, just depends.

I certainly wouldn't post it on reddit, and may not post it here.
I might create my own unaffiliated website and post such finds there - and might even sell membership to my own site, depending on the value of such a find.

And that's the problem with such a giant sandbox where Everyone Is Over Here <--- and the cool stuff is ----------------> Over There.

Where are you now?

- - - Updated - - -

I'm pretty sure that tip off missions spawn when a player spends a specific amount of time in one system, I don't think it has anything to do with rep. This is based on a comment from the mission devs. It's then just a random spawn, and yes, every tip off mission that I've seen has wanted me to travel a couple of hundred light years, hence the idea that they will encourage players to discover new stuff (?) so I have only ever bothered once.

That's been my experience. The only time I picked up a tip-off mission was when I was doing missions in a pretty confined group of systems, because the ordinary missions were spawning with the increased rep.

 

[CMDR Harada]

I would guess that there could be thousands of things undiscovered in the game. Alien ruins, bases, and who knows what else. IF, and this is a big IF, you scanned every planet, in every system, in detail.. you might find some cool stuff. Maybe.

I don't think it's missions based.. I've been to so many systems gaining rank, trading, and trading rares. I check the board in every system. I've run the 7 or 8 hop trade runs in the trade helper, going to out of the way outposts in my Python. Nothing.

I've been to loads of systems fighting, or just bombing around.. I haven't seen anything cool or weird on the boards. I check every time I dock to re-arm re-fuel. Nothing.

I mined for a bit ( to get my RNGIneers stuff ). Nothing.

I made it half way to Sag-A in an early AspX with a 27 LY jump range ( back when that was considered pretty good ). Nothing. There are some explorers who scan every planet, of every system they discover. I think that borders on OCD, but that is my opinion. I don't see them showing off anything I'd consider 'cool' or 'unique'. So, NOTHING.

I guess the point is, that like a riddle, the answer is easy to see if you know it already. So, knowing that if I jump 1500 LYs outside the bubble in the direction of the Rift, with two UAs, and deposit one each at two alien wreck sites and THEN head for Colonia, I'll encounter a procedurally generated Generation ship to read degraded logs about 'strange lights', and THEN I'll get the OPTION to pursue a mission if I decode the rest of the logs that will give me a vague hint about a new location that can only be reached with a god-roll FSD in an Anaconda loaded to the bulk heads with jumponium..

I'll give them that there might be something cool, on the 4th small moon, circling a gas giant 5,400,000 LS out from the jump point in a system 750 LYs from Sol.. IF I do a detailed scan.

And it's all sitting right there in plain sight !

I don't see it, But it might be there.

https://youtu.be/Gt9qvVt0E_Y