It's Official (I think)....2.4.03 has "broken" Surface Scan Missions

[Marc_Hicks]

Sigh, so depressing really. For a few glorious days, well paid Surface Scan missions were exactly as I wanted them. Sufficiently dangerous to make me feel I'd earned my pay. Trespass Zones, Skimmers, Private Data-points & Defense Turrets. Really got my adrenaline pumping.

Sadly, out of nearly a dozen Surface Scan missions I've done since last Friday, not a single one has had an element of difficulty or danger attached to it. Nearly 1 million credits to casually drive up, scan the data point, then drive out equally casually is *not* my idea of fun.

Please, FDev, fix Surface Scan missions & make them worth doing again.....I am BEGGING you!

Marc_Hicks.

 

[Aashenfox]

Sigh, so depressing really. For a few glorious days, well paid Surface Scan missions were exactly as I wanted them. Sufficiently dangerous to make me feel I'd earned my pay. Trespass Zones, Skimmers, Private Data-points & Defense Turrets. Really got my adrenaline pumping.

Sadly, out of nearly a dozen Surface Scan missions I've done since last Friday, not a single one has had an element of difficulty or danger attached to it. Nearly 1 million credits to casually drive up, scan the data point, then drive out equally casually is *not* my idea of fun.

Please, FDev, fix Surface Scan missions & make them worth doing again.....I am BEGGING you!

Marc_Hicks.

I admit I haven't done a lot of surface scan missions, perhaps 50, but I can count on one hand the number of times I had to shoot a skimmer or enter a marked zone. If I did some of those now, and I had to deal with exclusion zones and skimmers, I'd be here making thread asking what happened! Not trying to say anything, just its funny how perceptions are in this game. Blame RNGesus I guess.

 

[[VR] Enexemander]

Sigh, so depressing really. For a few glorious days, well paid Surface Scan missions were exactly as I wanted them. Sufficiently dangerous to make me feel I'd earned my pay. Trespass Zones, Skimmers, Private Data-points & Defense Turrets. Really got my adrenaline pumping.

Sadly, out of nearly a dozen Surface Scan missions I've done since last Friday, not a single one has had an element of difficulty or danger attached to it. Nearly 1 million credits to casually drive up, scan the data point, then drive out equally casually is *not* my idea of fun.

Please, FDev, fix Surface Scan missions & make them worth doing again.....I am BEGGING you!

Marc_Hicks.

Those missions, as far as I know, have always depended on the target and maybe their BGS state. Very rarely are they hostile (though it happens).

If you want a hostile mission like that, take the skimmer kill and surface generator destruction missions. They are a lot of fun. I have a dropship kitted out with dumbfires, a fixed beam, and an SRV that I do these with. Last one was a skimmer kill mission for 8 million. cr/hour it's not the best, but it is fun!

 

[Achibot]

You need to take on surface scan missions from protagonists in conflict zones to get the gameplay you desire. Somewhat struggling with why this is not obvious to you?

 

[FrogsFriend]

Weird. Mine have gone the other way. At first I was getting all "scan our malfunctioning beacon and report back" with no zones, skimmers or turrets, but over the last few days they've all been guarded, even the malfunction ones, resulting in lots of local bounties and getting chased across moons in my SRV by System Defence Force ships.

Mind you, I'm still getting bugs with non-completing missions, scans completing the wrong mission, etc. So win some, lose some I guess

 

[Whiterose]

You need to take on surface scan missions from protagonists in conflict zones to get the gameplay you desire. Somewhat struggling with why this is not obvious to you?

Why did you feel the need to add the overtly patronising comment at the end. Just because its obvious to you does mean its obvious to everyone.

 

[askavir]

Could it be that you only had a string of RNG bad luck?

Some bases are cakewalks, so others are tougher. So depending on the mood of RNGeejus, you could have landed a string of tougher ones before, and now a string of cakewalks.

I'm just asking this because you posted last week about the unavailability of follow-up missions, and I keep seeing a lot of them, first in the pleaides region, and now again after I moved to the Eravate region. It might be just an RNGeesus thing, or some BGS effect thing (or a mix of both - most probable), not necessarily a change in the game.

 

[Achibot]

Why did you feel the need to add the overtly patronising comment at the end. Just because its obvious to you does mean its obvious to everyone.

Not intended as patronising but reading it back it is a hastily & poorly expressed point. I was trying to highlight that in general throughout all mission types, not just surface scans, the BGS has a massive influence on the types of missions available at any given Mission Board. To me this implies that he has some sort of breakdown in his knowledge of an important, core game function. And reading this thread he is far from alone in that. As this function impacts a *lot* of stuff ingame misunderstanding it is likely causing issues elsewhere as well. And it's not going to help him one bit if no-one points that out. I should have elaborated more fully at the time but then it's just taken me almost 10 minutes to type this reply out on my phone so perhaps my lesson here is that forums aren't for phones.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Sigh, so depressing really. For a few glorious days, well paid Surface Scan missions were exactly as I wanted them. Sufficiently dangerous to make me feel I'd earned my pay. Trespass Zones, Skimmers, Private Data-points & Defense Turrets. Really got my adrenaline pumping.

Sadly, out of nearly a dozen Surface Scan missions I've done since last Friday, not a single one has had an element of difficulty or danger attached to it. Nearly 1 million credits to casually drive up, scan the data point, then drive out equally casually is *not* my idea of fun.

Please, FDev, fix Surface Scan missions & make them worth doing again.....I am BEGGING you!

Marc_Hicks.

Yeah, there is pretty much no gameplay whatsoever to this missions, they are the most cynical version of a Fedex quest you can imagine. The majority of mission templates simply have nothing to them. Go to X, press either button A or B, return. No challenge, no risk, no planning needed. Normally mission design uses this as a plot to get you to the fun. Not as the fun itself.

*Somewhere at Warner Bros*
"Hey, I've got a great idea for a movie!"
"Alright, pitch it..."
"Well, you have this guy and he has to go to this place..."
"Okay, then what happens?"
"Nothing, he just takes a train and reads a book for two hours."
"..."
"Okay okay, I've got another one!"
"Let's hear it..."
"So this guy falls in love with this girl."
"Okay, good start, what happens?"
"Nothing. He is really shy and just reads a book for two hours."
"Riiiight."
"Wait, wait, I've got another one!"
"Sigh, last one..."
"So this guy finds a treasure map and goes on adventure!"
"Okay, sounds cool, what happens?"
"Well, its right there on the map, so he just grabs it, sells it..."
"Hold on, please don't tell me he buys books and reads for the rest of the movie..."
"No?"
"Get out of here man, really."


Anyway, what you want is the 'urgent assassination' missions, they almost always require base infiltration first.

 

[drakhyr]

This does not match my own experience. Over the past 2-3 days I have done maybe a dozen planetary surface scan missions, all for a faction currently at peace (and with which I am allied). Payouts have ranged from 200k to 3.1m, and in probably around two-thirds of cases the target has been defended with trespass zone, skimmers and defence turrets. It sounds like OP may just have had a bad patch of RNG.

 

[Starbreaker]

Fairly certain that higher ranked surface (Deadly, Elite) scan missions have trespass zones, payout should also be a couple of millions for those. Though that doesn't make them particulary harder, just wait out the 500 credit bounty for 9 minutes.

Unless I'm mistaken and OP is talking about fixed surface bases and not those who spawn just for the mission.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

It's a simple thing for me. If the mission is a cake-walk, then the pay out shouldn't be more than about 200,000Cr.....no matter what the BGS or Faction offering the mission, or even my Reputation with said Faction. If I am being offered 1 million credits, then I expect there to be more to it than a cake-walk, whether in the form of combat at the Procedural Generated facility (with Skimmers and/or Defense Turrets and/or local Security Ships)......or on my way there or back, in the form of hostile ships sent to stop me completing my mission. I don't think that is too much to ask in terms of the mission design.

Fairly certain that higher ranked surface (Deadly, Elite) scan missions have trespass zones, payout should also be a couple of millions for those. Though that doesn't make them particulary harder, just wait out the 500 credit bounty for 9 minutes.

Unless I'm mistaken and OP is talking about fixed surface bases and not those who spawn just for the mission.

I am specifically talking about the missions at Procedural Generated buildings and outposts, not the persistent ones. Though personally I don't see why the former can't be as involved as the latter often are.

 

[5AnaHalfHatsize]

Sigh, so depressing really. For a few glorious days, well paid Surface Scan missions were exactly as I wanted them. Sufficiently dangerous to make me feel I'd earned my pay. Trespass Zones, Skimmers, Private Data-points & Defense Turrets. Really got my adrenaline pumping.

Sadly, out of nearly a dozen Surface Scan missions I've done since last Friday, not a single one has had an element of difficulty or danger attached to it. Nearly 1 million credits to casually drive up, scan the data point, then drive out equally casually is *not* my idea of fun.

Please, FDev, fix Surface Scan missions & make them worth doing again.....I am BEGGING you!

Marc_Hicks.

Yeah, not so much for me...

I decided to see if I could find a use for a vulture in my stable, long story short I ended up at a +++ med sec fed installation trying to scan a data point in my DBS for a 2.5ish Mcred mission.

In my at least half a dozen attempts to finish the mission, the base was circled by a mixture of dangerous Corvettes, elite condors (which, for some reason could withstand a stupid amount of damage), and never less than 3 birds with serious military outfitting.

After banging my head against that particular brick wall for a couple of hours I then re-purposed my FDL for surface attacks (so not all bad I guess, found a use for that thing!), at least 4 attempts later I finally managed to scan the goddamn terminal, although even then I couldn't do it without losing the buggy.

Currently on way to a massacre some skimmers in my DBS. That may or may not that will end better, but I ain't betting the house on it.

But no. in case you missed it, I don't agree that surface missions are easy in this release.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Dropped a link for thread for FD support guys. Having regression sucks Hope it is just god of propability snoozing somewhere.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Fairly certain that higher ranked surface (Deadly, Elite) scan missions have trespass zones, payout should also be a couple of millions for those. Though that doesn't make them particulary harder, just wait out the 500 credit bounty for 9 minutes.

Unless I'm mistaken and OP is talking about fixed surface bases and not those who spawn just for the mission.

I've done a fair bunch of these in the Pleiades, the elite ones generally have zero defenses and pay up to 4 million or so. They are also bugged when stacking them: scanning a datapoint for mission X often closes mission Y, so you have to scan it again for mission X (which is still open). But the 'prevent exploit' fix means you cant rescan it without re-logging. So now the only way to do stacked scan missions without exploiting is often by exploiting. I've dropped these missions for now.

 

[Old Duck]

Yeah, there is pretty much no gameplay whatsoever to this missions

What??? Surely chasing the POI circle on the HUD a half-dozen times before the base magically appears every single mission is engaging, thrilling, challenging, and entertaining gameplay that just cannot be overlooked! Take back your comment immediately, sir!

 

[drakhyr]

I've done a fair bunch of these in the Pleiades, the elite ones generally have zero defenses and pay up to 4 million or so. They are also bugged when stacking them: scanning a datapoint for mission X often closes mission Y, so you have to scan it again for mission X (which is still open). But the 'prevent exploit' fix means you cant rescan it without re-logging. So now the only way to do stacked scan missions without exploiting is often by exploiting. I've dropped these missions for now.

Again, my experience differs; out of the dozen plus such missions I've done over the past 2-3 days, only once have I had such an occurrence (and you can jump out to orbital cruise and back in again, rather than re-logging). Admittedly I've only had two or three stacked at a time. Personally I'm just pleased to see that since 2.4, multiple missions to the same system will actually send you to different targets, and different planets/moons, rather than all sending you to the same place!

 

[Crank Larson]

Same experience here. Mind you, I have noticed that pretty much all the missions I am offered are exploration ones, so I think that goes a long way to explaining why mine are fairly mundane. I think it is the War and Civil War missions that have a little excitement.

There is actually a bug still though. I keep having the wrong mission complete - when I scan a data point, the oldest planetary scan mission I took completes. This caught me out a couple of times when I got to the next system on my route to find that the scan mission was still in the one I left! It's not too bad now I know about it, I just check before I leave the current outpost (if the bug hit, then I need to log out and in again for the next search zone to spawn).

EDIT: Same as mentioned above.

Haven't checked if this has been reported, but will do later (will also try to get a video of it).

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Yeah, not so much for me...

I decided to see if I could find a use for a vulture in my stable, long story short I ended up at a +++ med sec fed installation trying to scan a data point in my DBS for a 2.5ish Mcred mission.

In my at least half a dozen attempts to finish the mission, the base was circled by a mixture of dangerous Corvettes, elite condors (which, for some reason could withstand a stupid amount of damage), and never less than 3 birds with serious military outfitting.

After banging my head against that particular brick wall for a couple of hours I then re-purposed my FDL for surface attacks (so not all bad I guess, found a use for that thing!), at least 4 attempts later I finally managed to scan the goddamn terminal, although even then I couldn't do it without losing the buggy.

Currently on way to a massacre some skimmers in my DBS. That may or may not that will end better, but I ain't betting the house on it.

But no. in case you missed it, I don't agree that surface missions are easy in this release.

Yes, but those are the persistent settlements. I am talking about Procedural Generated settlements.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

What??? Surely chasing the POI circle on the HUD a half-dozen times before the base magically appears every single mission is engaging, thrilling, challenging, and entertaining gameplay that just cannot be overlooked! Take back your comment immediately, sir!

Yes, this is what I hope they are fixing when they talk about changes to exploration & mission targets on planetary surfaces. Actually require players to use skill to find them.