Why do you mode-switch (question to people who actually do that)

[rootsrat]

Honest question. Why do you mode-hop, when there are alternatives?

As a recent example I can use the Smeaton Orbital Credit-mine. There are so many systems around the destination one that have those high-payout passenger mission available. And yet I see a lot of people sitting in just one station, logging in and out, clearly switching between Solo/Group/Open to refresh the mission board.

Why would you do that, rather than actually play the game and travel between a few surrounding systems or even stations within the same system and gather multiple passenger missions?


::EDIT::

UPDATE:

Thanks for the replies all. It seems the trend here is that it's just faster and more convenient. I did suspect that this would be the main case.


(Also, nowhere in my post I have suggested that you should not do that or that it's a bad thing to do.)


So, to carry on then - what would be your idea to make this better? What I've seen so far (also from some other threads on the subject):


- Allow players to request specific types of mission
- Generate many more missions per board for bigger variety (that's already been improved a few patches ago)
- Allow for manual boar refresh via a button


Any other suggestions?

 

[Anon Sin]

I have and do mode/board flip at times but only when i'm tired and only then to just do donations! Oh i've just noticed your a moderator,is this a trap,will i be shadow banned? Did i mention i love you moderators and respect the amazing work that you all do!!! o7

 

[Bdragon4]

Its faster. I'm doing data missions for the rank grind and while I could fly around trying to find different data missions, its more effective to load up on missions that run to the same station or system. Its less running around, you gain more rep with the station you're working with, and I get my rank faster.

Mode-Switching and Credit-mining won't go away until new goals are added to the game, though. Right now, the only thing to achieve is unlocking new ships and the Pilot Ranks (which aren't hard at all).

 

[Patau82]

I only really do it to get missions I want when doing BGS work, for example if i'm only getting mining mission and I'm not equipped or planning on going mining!

 

[verminstar]

Honest question. Why do you mode-hop, when there are alternatives?

As a recent example I can use the Smeaton Orbital Credit-mine. There are so many systems around the destination one that have those high-payout passenger mission available. And yet I see a lot of people sitting in just one station, logging in and out, clearly switching between Solo/Group/Open to refresh the mission board.

Why would you do that, rather than actually play the game and travel between a few surrounding systems or even stations within the same system and gather multiple passenger missions?

Its quicker just refreshing the board...its annoying as hell going to several stations just to fill the hold or the seats when ye can flip the boards and get the same results in half the time. Or just logout of one mode, make a cuppa tea, leave some sarcasm on the forum, then log back into a different mode. One could fly to the several stations and systems, but in the end, ye have no cuppa tea to show fer it.

Convenience is the word Im looking for...in a game where very little is convenient, one can but use the tools provided.

The only other time Ill switch into solo is when Im coming into busy areas...experience is the reason...other people see me as their content which wastes my time and time is the only resource that has any real value in this game.

 

[IcyScope]

I will admit I have mode switched, reasons you ask are simple. The reputation system sucks. For example, I joined power play a few months back and decided to pledge to Z. Hudson. I lived out of his home system for the following weeks doing nothing but missions and running trade data. I did not board switch once during this time. When I was done delivering my allotment of propaganda I would do trade missions running cargo here, there everywhere. After 4 weeks of doing this I might of completed 1 rank gain. I have since then gone to some systems that have large data delivery missions to single locations and with the aid of board hopping, I completed my ranking up in a little under 2 weeks. I also admit I was probably slower then most on this. I truly hate reputation grinds in all Games, it turned me Off WoW back in the day as well. Add to that you have to reputation grind with the local factions before you even have a chance to get a full compliment of missions I think it is all rather silly and while it is not engaging game play, it is a means to and end so I can play the way I want to play.

 

[GG7]

To get the mission type (s) I want in a timely manner.

Right now I am focusing on Pirate Lord Assassination missions which are hit or miss on the mission boards at any given time. My home base is the Stross Installation in the HIP 5623 system, and it offers these at a higher rate than most stations do.

Still... You will often see ZERO on offer when you first check. It is only after flipping the board do you start seeing a few on offer here and there and with a reward and difficulty level I am looking for. (2 Million or more payout and a Threat Level 4 target, which will be a Deadly or Elite NPC flying a Corvette or Anaconda)

But there are times when I will flip the board from Solo to Open or vice versa and go from Zero on offer to close to a dozen across all the mission givers/factions.

This NEVER happens without doing at least one flip from Solo to Open or Open to Solo.

So that is why I do it. If the mission delivery system worked properly, I wouldn't be forced to use this workaround. But as far as workarounds go, this one works great.

To those poor and misguided few who actually believe this to be some form of cheat or exploit...

First of all I find it ridiculous that anyone would attempt to make such an absurd claim in the first place. Even more troubling are those who claim to have tried it once or twice as if this is something to be ashamed of rather than being what "Smart Gamers" do when they run up against a design flaw or disfunction in a game's mechanics.

My response to these opinions and attitudes is more or less this...

"Hey! If you want to waste half your game session time staring at a static mission board waiting for it to refresh itself, only to find another new list devoid of the missions you are looking for that is your choice.

But don't insult my intelligence by acting as if your choice is some kind of high moral ground or something. As far as I am concerned, you look like an idiot sitting there waiting for a broken mission board to magically start working properly."

 

[kurush]

With existing game mechanics you are intentionally handicapping yourself if you don't mode switch to fill on missions when you actually do missions. Nothing wrong with intentionally handicapping yourself, but expecting everybody to do this is kinda silly.

 

[Mengy]

I've done it a few times, but yeah the main reason is that it's faster and more convenient than flying around randomly hunting for those particularly mission types that I am after. Sometimes I just want to do some surface salvage missions but I can't find them anywhere, so it really is quicker to just flip modes a few times in order to find a SS mission where I'm at, as one will come up eventually.

Mode-Switching and Credit-mining won't go away until new goals are added to the game, though. Right now, the only thing to achieve is unlocking new ships and the Pilot Ranks (which aren't hard at all).

Actually, there is a very easy way to make mode flipping obsolete: allow the player to ask for mission types instead of sifting through a variety of randomly generated mission types. For example, if I could just request that the mission giver provide me a list of available surface salvage missions to choose from then I'd never have to board flip again. It would be a great QoL change to the mission system to allow players more input towards the mission types offered.

 

[Kaocraft]

Honest question. Why do you mode-hop, when there are alternatives?

As a recent example I can use the Smeaton Orbital Credit-mine. There are so many systems around the destination one that have those high-payout passenger mission available. And yet I see a lot of people sitting in just one station, logging in and out, clearly switching between Solo/Group/Open to refresh the mission board.

Why would you do that, rather than actually play the game and travel between a few surrounding systems or even stations within the same system and gather multiple passenger missions?

Have you tried it? How about this: try doing the mode switching thing, and then try accumulating a similar amount of missions in a similar configuration by adhering to your weird made-up rules. It's not even close. Mode-switching is way way better in every conceivable way.

Travel between systems and stations purely to collect missions is anti-fun. It's all Supercruise and thinly disguised loading screens (transition in and out of SC, hyperspace tunnels, waiting to dock, waiting for station services to load, waiting for mission screen to load, waiting for landing pad to rotate and release when you leave the station, etc.) It's way MORE loading screens than gameplay, and the gameplay that's there, is shallow and dull.

Basically, it would be dumb to do anything other than mode switching. I'm 100% in favor of Frontier fixing their game so that missions are unified across servers and can't be refreshed this way. Until that time, mode switching is part of the game and is the objectively smartest, sanest, and most correct way to accumulate a bunch of similar missions.

 

[ozrix84]

don't have the time to wait around for the board to refresh

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I've done it exactly once.

It was a few updates ago, when there was a problem with a Mystery Contact who would cause missions to fail as soon as they were accepted. It was a known issue at the time, and I was working on finding and completing a Navy Rank mission for the Federation - I found my mission, accepted the mission, and auto-failed the mission. I was all to glad to mode-switch to get a new mission that did not auto-fail.

That's the only time I've done it.

I have also used log-out/log-in to reset the obelisks for the Alien Ruins quest, back when they finally fixed this so there were no missing obelisks and you didn't need to stuff a half-dozen commanders into the same instance to get the last ones you needed to light - which they fixed by changing all of them and we had to figure out what combinations worked which obelisks - only because this was faster and more efficient than taking off, pulling a mid-orbital U-turn, landing again and going though the process of elimination to figure out what cargo combos worked with which obelisks.

Beyond that, once I log in, I stay logged in either as long as the connection will have me, or until I'm done for the night.

 

[iFred]

Honest question. Why do you mode-hop, when there are alternatives?

As a recent example I can use the Smeaton Orbital Credit-mine. There are so many systems around the destination one that have those high-payout passenger mission available. And yet I see a lot of people sitting in just one station, logging in and out, clearly switching between Solo/Group/Open to refresh the mission board.

Why would you do that, rather than actually play the game and travel between a few surrounding systems or even stations within the same system and gather multiple passenger missions?

A) Because I can
B) Because I want my ship fully loaded
C) Because there´s no sense not taking all available missions
D) Just to annoy the guys who don´t mode switch
E) To brag on da Intarwebb with billions of credits

 

[operant]

Because it is an option.
Because it makes the game richer.

 

[Sylveria]

I've done it a couple times- haven't really found it to be useful to me. Then again, I'm a patient person who can wait for the board to refresh itself, or simply move on to another activity I enjoy.

Personally, I think the implementation of a "refresh" button would make it a lot simpler than the method people currently (and already) employ as a means to limit the time they're waiting, but I think it's only one issue in a slew of mission-related issues that really need to be addressed as a whole.

 

[Lightspeed]

I can't remember having mode switched for missions, but I've used it multiple times at Dav's Hope trying .... to ...... find ...... chemical manipulators ........ that just wouldn't spawn ! In the end I had to fly away and use an alternative game mechanism lol.

But in the past, at places like Dav's Hope the mode switching has speeded up an otherwise extremely slow retrieval of materials. The alternative is to log off, wait 10 mins and log back in .... which is just the same as slow motion mode switching as far as I can perceive.

Similarly at a Haz RES site, when you get a random spawn of little to no NPCs to attack, or low value ships. A mode switch appears to reset the spawn of ships. Either that or fly away and come back to reset the spawn that way.

So mode switching is a bit like flipping a coin to reset an RNG, as far as I can perceive, to achieve an objective.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Honest question. Why do you mode-hop, when there are alternatives?

As a recent example I can use the Smeaton Orbital Credit-mine. There are so many systems around the destination one that have those high-payout passenger mission available. And yet I see a lot of people sitting in just one station, logging in and out, clearly switching between Solo/Group/Open to refresh the mission board.

Why would you do that, rather than actually play the game and travel between a few surrounding systems or even stations within the same system and gather multiple passenger missions?

In my case, because it's faster. Pure and simple.
Edit: Or was.

I don't mind travelling; but sometimes I just couldn't be bothered to land..dock..disembark..travel..land..dock..disembark..travel..land.

 

[Pyrotiger]

With existing game mechanics you are intentionally handicapping yourself if you don't mode switch to fill on missions when you actually do missions. Nothing wrong with intentionally handicapping yourself, but expecting everybody to do this is kinda silly.

My POV too.

It also annoys people who think the game should be played their way. It makes it more fun.

What's next, "Why do you use auto-pilot?" Sheesh.

 

[MAUXUS]

To fill all cabins/cargo before leaving the station, to minimize expenses/risk and maximize profits. This is a no-brainer really. Even in 2018, airplanes did not fly around different airports looking for passengers/cargo to fill their cabins/cargo. You fill it, then you depart. I'm also of the opinion that the best "fix" for board-switching is to allow the station to provide plenty of missions/passengers/cargo to fill your ship twice over. Then instead of limiting the payout amount of missions/passengers, increase the expenses (and maybe risk) for completing the trip with a fully loaded cabin/cargo. For example a fully loaded ship would 1) burn more fuel 2) would be more attractive to pirates 3) the more the total payout upon completion, the more difficult would be to beat pirates sent after you (pirates get stronger) and in some cases they would attack in wings too. That would cause pilots to reduce cargo/cabins space in favor of better defenses/offenses, which in turn gives them less space for cargo/passengers.

 

[racer1]

I hate it, but it is the most efficient way to do lots of things, so I do it. Some things I use it for:

Missions
Searching for rare mats on planets
Getting the mats I want from installations/bases

I don't do it very often but if I "need" something gated by RNG, it gives extra dice rolls.