About the Ancient Ruins, with added austerity....

[Stealthie]

I finished building my DBX exploration ship and decided that I'd use the Ancient Ruins mission to field-test it, while earning a few credits.

Having completed the mission, I'm not sure what to think about the giant reduction in bonus that was recently applied to the mission.
If pressed, despite originally being a bit annoyed that it'd been nerfed, I think I actually prefer the mission with the much smaller bonus.

Thing is, previously, with a Cr100m bonus on the line, there was a lot LOT of pressure to make sure everything goes according to plan.
You get one obelisk that doesn't respond as expected, or you realise that you've completed one less scan than you should have, and a MAJOR panic ensues (possibly involving flying hundreds of Ly to check you did something correctly) because if it doesn't all work out perfectly then you've blown Cr100m.

Now, OTOH, it just doesn't really matter too much.
I've made myself a little tick-box matrix to tick-off all the scans at each site so I know where I'm at.
I must've screwed-up at some point and ticked-off the wrong box because, after completing something like 60-odd scans, it seemed like I did a duplicate of one I'd already completed.
Previously, this would have provoked a panic where I'd go back through all the mission updates, going through all the tick-boxes to cross-check which ones I'd completed, and figure out where the mistake was.
Now, I just don't care either way.
It'll either turn out I did make a mistake with the scan - in which case I'll just get Cr100m at the end - or it'll turn out I made a mistake with the tick-boxes and I'll get the full Cr111m.
Not a big deal either way, in the grand scheme of things.

I dunno if this was FDev's intention, or whether they just decided the AR mission had been a source of big credits for long enough, but I really think they've made it a less stressful, and thus more enjoyable, mission by reducing the bonus.


I really, really, hope FDev don't remove this mission completely though.
In the whole game, this is pretty-much the closest thing that there is to a "campaign" and, if anything, we need MORE stuff like it, not less.

How about somebody who wants us to go and scan all the logs from the Generation Ships, or wants scans from 50 neutron stars, or wants full scans from 20 uninhabited systems that include ELWs, or wants us to visit all the asteroid bases, or collect samples of all the rare-goods etc?

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I finished building my DBX exploration ship and decided that I'd use the Ancient Ruins mission to field-test it, while earning a few credits.

Having completed the mission, I'm not sure what to think about the giant reduction in bonus that was recently applied to the mission.
If pressed, despite originally being a bit annoyed that it'd been nerfed, I think I actually prefer the mission with the much smaller bonus.

Thing is, previously, with a Cr100m bonus on the line, there was a lot LOT of pressure to make sure everything goes according to plan.
You get one obelisk that doesn't respond as expected, or you realise that you've completed one less scan than you should have, and a MAJOR panic ensues (possibly involving flying hundreds of Ly to check you did something correctly) because if it doesn't all work out perfectly then you've blown Cr100m.

Now, OTOH, it just doesn't really matter too much.
I've made myself a little tick-box matrix to tick-off all the scans at each site so I know where I'm at.
I must've screwed-up at some point and ticked-off the wrong box because, after completing something like 60-odd scans, it seemed like I did a duplicate of one I'd already completed.
Previously, this would have provoked a panic where I'd go back through all the mission updates, going through all the tick-boxes to cross-check which ones I'd completed, and figure out where the mistake was.
Now, I just don't care either way.
It'll either turn out I did make a mistake with the scan - in which case I'll just get Cr100m at the end - or it'll turn out I made a mistake with the tick-boxes and I'll get the full Cr111m.
Not a big deal either way, in the grand scheme of things.

I dunno if this was FDev's intention, or whether they just decided the AR mission had been a source of big credits for long enough, but I really think they've made it a less stressful, and thus more enjoyable, mission by reducing the bonus.


I really, really, hope FDev don't remove this mission completely though.
In the whole game, this is pretty-much the closest thing that there is to a "campaign" and, if anything, we need MORE stuff like it, not less.

How about somebody who wants us to go and scan all the logs from the Generation Ships, or wants scans from 50 neutron stars, or wants full scans from 20 uninhabited systems that include ELWs, or wants us to visit all the asteroid bases, or collect samples of all the rare-goods etc?

I made one of those too - see this thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...r-Volunteers?highlight=Looking+for+Volunteers for details.
I've gone through great lengths to make is as panic-free as I can, and it's worked well for me so far.

And I do agree - this is easily one of my favorite missions, because of all that is involved. I'd love to see more of this sort of stuff - be it scans like this, or searching high and low for some obscure thing that doesn't just show up on your navigation map or you get led by the nose directly to in the future. I even like the random Tip Off missions to go to some coordinates in some distant system and see what's there (except for when they're High Sec +++ bases, and I only brought a DBX... then that's just kind of mean lol).

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I really enjoyed this mission as well. I would also like to see missions from other people. Why would it only be one scientist that wants to study this place. Surely there would be hundreds, thousands or even millions of scientists that want to study the ruins. The same goes for the Thargoid bases as well.

 

[NW3]

I also enjoyed the mission. I understand why FD changed the payout, but I think it would have been much better to reduce the payout for each scan and keep a high bonus (of at least 50 million cr). Then players would still have an incentive to fully complete the mission.

 

[Factabulous]

I really enjoyed this mission as well. I would also like to see missions from other people. Why would it only be one scientist that wants to study this place. Surely there would be hundreds, thousands or even millions of scientists that want to study the ruins. The same goes for the Thargoid bases as well.

Well, there's the current CG, and prof Palin is still asking for stuff on the QT (1st link in sig if you weren't aware). Next we need Tod Blaster to ask us to go and blow sites up for $$$, and Farseer to demand scans only from Skaudai / Eta Carina ruins

 

[OfftheRails]

Have they fixed the messages coming up at the wrong times yet? I found that such a pain in the backside that I haven't returned.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I also enjoyed the mission. I understand why FD changed the payout, but I think it would have been much better to reduce the payout for each scan and keep a high bonus (of at least 50 million cr). Then players would still have an incentive to fully complete the mission.

Because 111 million credits isn't incentive enough...

Have they fixed the messages coming up at the wrong times yet? I found that such a pain in the backside that I haven't returned.

Only rarely have I had a message delayed in populating, like maybe 1 our of 90 or so, and even then the delay was only momentary, so I'd suspect they have.

 

[Factabulous]

Have they fixed the messages coming up at the wrong times yet? I found that such a pain in the backside that I haven't returned.

No - they still get delayed, go missing etc. Only change really is we know what each obelisk should give, and we got used to it

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Well, there's the current CG, and prof Palin is still asking for stuff on the QT (1st link in sig if you weren't aware). Next we need Tod Blaster to ask us to go and blow sites up for $$$, and Farseer to demand scans only from Skaudai / Eta Carina ruins

I will be doing the thargoid base soon. I just don't want to see the alien ruins get neglected as it is a fantastic area that could be developed more.

 

[Stealthie]

I also enjoyed the mission. I understand why FD changed the payout, but I think it would have been much better to reduce the payout for each scan and keep a high bonus (of at least 50 million cr). Then players would still have an incentive to fully complete the mission.

See, that's exactly what I thought until I tried it again at the weekend.

Thing is, I suspect that most people who embark on this mission probably do already intend to finish it so it doesn't need the bonus as an incentive for that.

By making the bonus negligible, they've taken all the stress out of it and I appreciate that.
Now, if you screw up one scan, you don't have to panic because you would lose half of the payment.
If you get to the last couple of sites and a scan doesn't work as expected you can just shrug your shoulders and carry on, safe in the knowledge that you're only going to lose 10% of the payout.

I guess some people might say that's a bad thing because it removes a lot of the jeopardy but I dunno.
I think the player applies enough of that, for themselves, simply by wanting to complete it and now it's just more relaxing and enjoyable.
Sure, if you think of it as only getting Cr111m instead of Cr201m, you might get a bit miffed.
If, OTOH, you just think of it as earning Cr111m in it's own right, it's still a nice little earner and it's enjoyable too.

Have they fixed the messages coming up at the wrong times yet? I found that such a pain in the backside that I haven't returned.

I'm not sure TBH.

First time I did it everything seemed to go perfectly but the next 2 times I did it I think I might've got the wrong messages because both times I found that, according to my pen & paper score-card, I'd got the same scan twice etc.
Either I accidentally ticked the wrong boxes or the game gave me the wrong messages, which made me tick the wrong boxes.

Either way, it seems like as long as you complete the right number of scans at each site, it all works out in the end.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Have they fixed the messages coming up at the wrong times yet? I found that such a pain in the backside that I haven't returned.

Seemed to work perfectly for me. I did miss one and had to go back, but that was my own error.

 

[Drelthar]

So far as I understand, the correct items to use at each obelisk were worked out by pure brute force, process of elimination right?

If so, that's a flaw I'd love to see fixed for the next thing like this,

If not, awesome, and perfect implementation of something the game desperately needs, IN GAME mysteries, you can solve in game!

 

[Stealthie]

So far as I understand, the correct items to use at each obelisk were worked out by pure brute force, process of elimination right?

If so, that's a flaw I'd love to see fixed for the next thing like this,

If not, awesome, and perfect implementation of something the game desperately needs, IN GAME mysteries, you can solve in game!

Yeah, it'd be nice if there was, say, a bunch of missions which'd give you a clue and then, when you put them all together, you get something that helps a lot.

I guess the problem is that it's hard to come up with things that are reasonably difficult for a few people to figure out but which don't become a total walkover when you've got a couple of hundred people all working together.

 

[NW3]

Because 111 million credits isn't incentive enough...

I think you may have misunderstood me. 111 m credits is fine; the problem is the 10 m cr bonus, which isn't high enough to encourage players to collect all the scans. Instead, people are getting the ~60 easy ones repeatedly, rather than completing the full mission.

I'd like to see the scans dropped to ~200k cr, with a 80m cr bonus for completion. That's still over 100m cr, but there's real incentive to actually complete the mission.

 

[Brrokk]

That is a great mission, completing it recently is one of the highlights of my ED play so far.

 

[Factabulous]

I'd like to see the scans dropped to ~200k cr, with a 80m cr bonus for completion. That's still over 100m cr, but there's real incentive to actually complete the mission.

So basically the opposite of the OP - wonder why FD can't please everyone

 

[OfftheRails]

Only rarely have I had a message delayed in populating, like maybe 1 our of 90 or so, and even then the delay was only momentary, so I'd suspect they have.

I may have to give this another look. The message delay was the #1 problem for me keeping track of the whole thing efficiently, and once I've got my mining lances (I heart Bunda) I'll be at a loose end somewhat.

 

[Drelthar]

Yeah, it'd be nice if there was, say, a bunch of missions which'd give you a clue and then, when you put them all together, you get something that helps a lot.

I guess the problem is that it's hard to come up with things that are reasonably difficult for a few people to figure out but which don't become a total walkover when you've got a couple of hundred people all working together.

Yep, well, the thing is, that the solution will be posted up at some point anyway, so the trick is to make following/finding the clues in game the fun part, so even if people know how to do the puzzle anyway, they still want to at least experience finding the solution themselves once.

Currently, I have little interest in "Working it out" for this puzzle, as... well, there's no working anything out, it's just trying combinations over and over again, which doesn't get me very excited

 

[Factabulous]

So you can't be bothered to work it out for yourself, and you won't follow one of the guides that tells you exactly what to do: probably isn't for you then [up]

 

[Noctover]

I finished building my DBX exploration ship and decided that I'd use the Ancient Ruins mission to field-test it, while earning a few credits.

Having completed the mission, I'm not sure what to think about the giant reduction in bonus that was recently applied to the mission.
If pressed, despite originally being a bit annoyed that it'd been nerfed, I think I actually prefer the mission with the much smaller bonus.

Thing is, previously, with a Cr100m bonus on the line, there was a lot LOT of pressure to make sure everything goes according to plan.
You get one obelisk that doesn't respond as expected, or you realise that you've completed one less scan than you should have, and a MAJOR panic ensues (possibly involving flying hundreds of Ly to check you did something correctly) because if it doesn't all work out perfectly then you've blown Cr100m.

Now, OTOH, it just doesn't really matter too much.
I've made myself a little tick-box matrix to tick-off all the scans at each site so I know where I'm at.
I must've screwed-up at some point and ticked-off the wrong box because, after completing something like 60-odd scans, it seemed like I did a duplicate of one I'd already completed.
Previously, this would have provoked a panic where I'd go back through all the mission updates, going through all the tick-boxes to cross-check which ones I'd completed, and figure out where the mistake was.
Now, I just don't care either way.
It'll either turn out I did make a mistake with the scan - in which case I'll just get Cr100m at the end - or it'll turn out I made a mistake with the tick-boxes and I'll get the full Cr111m.
Not a big deal either way, in the grand scheme of things.

I dunno if this was FDev's intention, or whether they just decided the AR mission had been a source of big credits for long enough, but I really think they've made it a less stressful, and thus more enjoyable, mission by reducing the bonus.


I really, really, hope FDev don't remove this mission completely though.
In the whole game, this is pretty-much the closest thing that there is to a "campaign" and, if anything, we need MORE stuff like it, not less.

How about somebody who wants us to go and scan all the logs from the Generation Ships, or wants scans from 50 neutron stars, or wants full scans from 20 uninhabited systems that include ELWs, or wants us to visit all the asteroid bases, or collect samples of all the rare-goods etc?

I see what you're saying, but to me what they've done is taken more of the risk out of the game, which it was already severely lacking.

Some people want tension, adrenaline and the challenge of getting things right under pressure.