For the record - I do this extremely rarely, when I don't have much time to play or for example when I'm completing some equipment for a new ship and I'm short on money for the last required module... Other than that I prefer to go around the stations in the given system. I treat ED as a role playing game (in fact I role play in most of the games) and mode-hopping kills my immershun (yeah I said it).
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, as some of the posters suggested, so please read with understanding.)
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?
Rework the mission system completely in a way that better reflects how independent ship owners actually do things.
Here's what an Elite Dangerous mission system should look like
1: The player docks and accesses the mssion board
2: The mission board fills up with the initial offers, written as ads looking for pilots to do this and that. Standing things that some faction might want any ship happening by to do. The standard default mission board, designed for the wandering player who's just looking for something to do at the moment. Similar to the current system. For them what we have is not broken because they're just looking for something to do. It's the professionals that are forced to mode switch.
3: Players should then be able to access a separate mission field by "ADVERTIZING FOR WORK."
4: Advertizing for work window should allow you to
a: declare your intended destination
b: filter for combat, mission, faction, and Power status (for example, I want to do a noncombat mission for the Federation, I expect local Federation factions, if there are any, to come up with data missions, hauling missions, etc)
c: For passengers, filter for faction, type of passenger (criminal/businessman/aid worker etc), accommodation demand, and price per head per LS
d: if you are unknown in a system, it wouldn't be unreasonable to need to Advertize multiple times to meet a target number of missions for a large ship, especially if you're being selective
e:Better missions and more enthusiastic responses to advertizing should occur as you become more popular in a station. It should much easier to fill a large ship in a station where you are Cordial or Friendly.
5: You then pay a fee to reset the board targeting exactly those kinds of missions. The board than proliferates the missions you target, that you would qualify for.
a:I think that fee should start out pretty steep, say 150,000 credits, and then slowly decline as you gain favor with the station controller. This may seem like a lot, but this is a feature for end game players for whom 150k is pennies. For small to medium sized ships the basic board should usually be alright -- by the time a player might actually need this feature, they can probably afford to pay 150k for it.
c: For bulk passenger missions, the description of the price per head per LY should be included in the mission description. I know it exists in the background, and it's important information for a bulk passenger captain since it can allow them to make an informed decision in the rare case when he has to choose between two desired mission types.
6: Quantities and amounts for advertized missions
absolutely must be directly tailored to the cargo, passenger and combat capability of the ship you are flying, as well as the station departing from and the intended destination No more 2-24 passengers for a ship with a passenger capacity of 300, that's the single biggest problem that's causing board flipping right now. Getting the right mission should absolutely allow you to fill your hold/seats with 2-3 missions at most. You wouldn't try to commission a massive luxury liner to move 2 guys to the next town over, and neither should factions in this game. Their demands of you should evolve as your capacity to handle things evolves. It's how things work. The current mission board doesn't even come close to this.
7: Information for potential hauling and bulk passenger missions on the board
must absolutely list and be sortable by price, distance in LY from the station, distance in LS from the target star, and unit price (price per head or per ton of cargo))
8: VIP missions and bulk passenger missions
must be listed
separately and people seeking one
absolutely should be able to filter out the other.
That's all I can think of for now, but if you guys can rejigger the mission system to resemble something like I just listed, board flipping (which as mentioned previously is actioanlly the SYMPTOM of the real problem, which is the immature mission system stuck in the late 90s that the game has long since
completely outgrown) ought to be a thing of the past.
