I didn't realise Tip-Offs were galactic "junk mail".

[Stealthie]

I was under the impression that you got them as a result of working for various factions.
I know that when, for example, I was grinding Imp' rank I was getting them constantly as a result (I thought) of doing heaps of missions for the same faction.

So, I was just out in the middle of nowhere when I stumbled across another 2 ship parked-up in the middle of the same barren desert - both looking for the same ship I was.

Which, presumably, means they both got the same Tip-Off I got, at roughly the same time (yesterday).

So, anybody know exactly how Tip-Offs are generated?
Do they get generated randomly and then transmitted to random players, does everybody get them or is there something else which dictates whether or not you get them?

 

[Happy Shrapnel]

They are a waste of time, another half-rsed attempt at content.

 

[fruitbat]

If they yielded rare mats like CIF EFC BTC DWE Arsenic and MEF etc they might become worth following up.

As it stands now, not at all.

 

[Red Anders]

As a concept I'm fine with them but I'm not doing another one until we get the ability to set a waypoint at their co-ordinates and fly to it directly. Or maybe, y'know, the game could actually generate one when we enter the system, or scan the planet.

And no OP, I don't know how they're generated - obviously they're given out as you get friendly with a faction because like you, the only time I've got them is when I've been running missions for rank but I assumed they were totally RNG in terms of locations and systems. Sounds like they're actually pulled from a table of some sort if you're finding other players with the same one.

 

[Stealthie]

If they yielded rare mats like CIF EFC BTC DWE and MEF etc they might become worth following up.

As it stands now, not at all.

See, that's something I could get behind.

Use them as a way to "nudge" people toward discovering stuff.

You wouldn't want to put EVERY Tip-Off at a remarkable site otherwise people would just think "Oh, I must follow Tip-Offs cos they always lead to crashed alien ships and abandoned settlements etc" but it'd be nice if there was an elevated chance of there being something nearby for an observant CMDR to find.

After all, from a lore perspective, if a variety of ships are crashing in mysterious circumstances it stands to reason that some of them would be involved in something dodgy or interesting.
It'd be nice if some of that dodgy/interesting stuff could be revealed to the player, rather than just "collecting the ship's flight recorder" for galactic insurance underwriters.

 

[John Stoutbeard]

We tried to make sense of it a while back, over there : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ing-we-cannot-stop-them-and-we-need-your-help!
Personally I think it's just a way FD use to convey parts of the story. To give us a bit of flavor.

Too bad I've not seen the mysterious messages & possible intriguing messages lately.
It seems to have become just another way of farming income, scanning beacons & doing things I generally can do through generic missions.
A bit sad really.

 

[Faded Glory]

I believe that they are generated when you spend a certain amount of time in a specific system, at least I remember Dom saying something to that effect. That was quite some time ago, and I suspect it was on the livestream that he and Adam did.

 

[Lightspeed]

They used to be really good payouts, worth the effort to drop whatever you were doing and work out how to reach the co-ordinates given. They even had 'promise' of another follow-on, with something like a message from a missing pilot, but they were a dead end and the payouts were nerfed for reasons I don't understand.

Pity, really, because this looked like it could have opened up into some depth of play with one tip-off leading to another.

 

[insanephoton]

To be honest I don't think I've ever had a tip off, maybe it's because I tend not to hang around anywhere too long, pretty much soon as I get Allied with a place I find a reason to be somewhere else. The closest to a tipoff I get is the occasional job offer.

 

[Andovar]

Pity, really, because this looked like it could have opened up into some depth of play with one tip-off leading to another.

This is what I'd like to see.
Either that or a chained mission system where it actually feels like a cohesive chain of missions/tasks.

Here's to hoping we get something like this in 2.5

 

[Drelthar]

It's another currently disconeected element in what could be some really fun stuff.

I just hope the "After 2.4 base game stuff" includes stitching this stuff together.

As with everything in Elite, so much potential...

 

[Stealthie]

This is what I'd like to see.
Either that or a chained mission system where it actually feels like a cohesive chain of missions/tasks.

Which reminds me...

Are chained-missions still a thing?

I was finding them pretty regularly when they were first implemented, to the point where I was starting to have to wonder whether I wanted to get involved in a chain of missions before taking the first one.

In the last week, since I've been back playing ED, I don't think I've seen a single one.

 

[DragonIV]

Which reminds me...

Are chained-missions still a thing?

I was finding them pretty regularly when they were first implemented, to the point where I was starting to have to wonder whether I wanted to get involved in a chain of missions before taking the first one.

In the last week, since I've been back playing ED, I don't think I've seen a single one.

They show up if you take data missions. However, after taking a few, I did a few linked missions and each generated one followup mission, which I did...and the chain promptly ended for whatever reason.

Have also done tip off missions, and yeah...non-plussed. Found the ship eventually both times, and there was a fat lot of nothing lying around. Both times, supposed to scan something, but roaming all over in my SRV yielded nothing I could target. Pretty much at the point that I just do my own thing because all these "neat new things" are half-baked most of the time.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

They are a waste of time, another half-rsed attempt at content.

Well, if you're a galactic vagabond like me they are quite nice. Shame that they are just one-off's to fixed locations. It would be nice if they were the start of little scripted stories.

 

[Stealthie]

And no OP, I don't know how they're generated - obviously they're given out as you get friendly with a faction because like you, the only time I've got them is when I've been running missions for rank but I assumed they were totally RNG in terms of locations and systems. Sounds like they're actually pulled from a table of some sort if you're finding other players with the same one.

Yeah, that was what I was thinking.

They must be generated in some kind of table and then something else decides who deserves to get one and then picks one (randomly?) from the table and sends it.

I tend to treat them as a priority, partly for "lore" reasons (I assume there might be survivors) and partly just cos I like getting out and about rather than just hopping from one station to another.
Even so, I've never met another CMDR doing the same mission at the same time as me so it kind of surprised me to find two others this time.

We tried to make sense of it a while back, over there : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ing-we-cannot-stop-them-and-we-need-your-help!
Personally I think it's just a way FD use to convey parts of the story. To give us a bit of flavor.

I notice there's quite a bit of speculation due to the fact that the crashed ships are often DBXs and they also, allegedly, have similar ship-ident's to the Black-Flight DBXs which seem to be at the heart of a lot of controversy at the moment.

Personally, I think this is a bit of a stretch.
More likely, FDev just modeled a couple of crashed ships and a DBX happened to be one they chose.

Course, I'll be happy to eat my words if it turns out there IS more to it all.

 

[Mohrgan]

When I did one, and found nothing, I expected I just used the Long./Lat. display wrong. I guesses that the real desired location was on the opposite side of the rock, and went home.

 

[VonBlade]

I used to really enjoy them, the discovery, then I had a few that led me to absolutely nothing (yes I was at the right coords) and gave up.

 

[rrobes]

Unfortunately tip-offs were bugged when I first tried one way back, the location was wrong by quite a few ly's.

The current ones plus the missions also offered are low pay and no interest. They usually appear when I am busy with something else. If they offered some value, they would be would be attractive.

 

[John Stoutbeard]

I notice there's quite a bit of speculation due to the fact that the crashed ships are often DBXs and they also, allegedly, have similar ship-ident's to the Black-Flight DBXs which seem to be at the heart of a lot of controversy at the moment.

Personally, I think this is a bit of a stretch.
More likely, FDev just modeled a couple of crashed ships and a DBX happened to be one they chose.

Course, I'll be happy to eat my words if it turns out there IS more to it all.

Yes, I agree. The whole Condor F63 / DBX speculations is a bit of a stretch, people just exercising their imagination.
However, quite a few of the original messages regarding "The Thing" was quite intriguing. As to whether it pointed to the AI, Thargoids or Guardian mysteries we don't know for sure. Or perhaps it was an attempt to connect several of the stories in some way.

Anyway, forgot to mention that we did get the tip-offs as part of rank progression with the major factions. Usually a couple of tips per rank progress.