Frontier, my time is valuable

[kofeyh]

I have my computer set up on my desk in the living room, facing the TV across the room, so I can easily watch Netflix or a movie while I'm playing Elite.

I don't have any other games where this setup is necessary or useful however. Heck even Civ VI requires more interactions and attentiveness than Elite.




Frack.

I had a console on my desk for a while; it's seen more use when I'm playing elite, than actually me intentionally using it instead of the PC. Elite is amazing; just, my god the infernal waiting.

 

[kofeyh]

And there's frequently a secret technique that you have to employ to even get the things to spawn in the first place, before you can even start spinning the roulette wheel

Locate a system of the correct sort, where the secondary star is quite some distance away; a few hundred thousand LS is good; set course for it, somewhere between the two, you'll be in deep space and if you keep the throttle at the right speed, you can coast along and have USS spawn fairly often. This saves flying in deep space for hours and realising you're not in the "correct" deep space. Or in some cases not even in deep space because of secondary/ ternary star locations.

But I digress.

 

[JesusOnEez]

Don't worry. You just told everyone where you are. Your next game session will be much more exciting.

I make a point of doing that...it's in my sig for crying out loud. I want more player interaction whilst not looking specifically for PvP. My unshielded T7 is called "The Sitting Duck", "PIR8-ME", and a play exclusively in open...in three years I've been ganked and/or pirated 4 times. 4. I'd welcome more interaction even if I did get blown up.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Mission uss should spawn instantly when arriving at the body. Or, alternatively, some gameplay mechanic must be added so you actively find it. Waiting for it is just really poor design.

 

[JesusOnEez]

Whaddayaknow, whaddayasay! A complaint I can get behind for a change. (Also take note: op is complaining in an emotional way, yet not offending anybody in advance that might disagree. I say a rarity indeed!)
Seriously op, you're right here. Had the same problem with a number of assassination missions. The damn mission-USS just refused to pop up.
This used to happen quite a lot back in the day. But that was back in the day...
So what gives FDev? Mind checking in on this old bug poppin up again?

Whelp, thanks!

In my remaining hour, after I gave up at Bhotega, I went elsewhere to do another salvage mission. That arrived within a minute, then I went back to Bhotega, and the signal source appeared within 5 minutes. Nice and consistent...

A couple of my pickups were straightforward, no interference. The Bhotega one ended up being a race for my collector limpets whilst a wing of 3 Elite gits started firing at me...managed to get the hell out before the shields dropped on my FDS...that was quite good fun in the end..."Gogogogogogogo you slow POS!"

 

[AbsinthSvK]

Then you are playing the wrong game for you.

more likely, game is playing with us

 

[Tuub t Tute]

Mission uss should spawn instantly when arriving at the body. Or, alternatively, some gameplay mechanic must be added so you actively find it. Waiting for it is just really poor design.

Ah, I remember the joy of taking assassination mission in FFE on the Amiga and having to sit and wait for a day and a half for the mark to spawn! Even with time advance, it was purgatory. Especially when it turned out the intel was wrong and the mark wasn't there...

 

[zombieapocalypse]

I would say that if your time is so valuable, why the hell are you playing video games? But joking aside, randomly spawning USSs is relied on far too much for missions and is rather poor gameplay in my opinion. It needs a serious rethink/redesign.

 

[Stigbob]

Drop into other signals, I think instance changes reset the RNG and you get your target faster. It also gives you something fun to do and profit while you wait.

 

[pzykozomatik]

I have stunning toe nails.

Since we're talking of Klingon ones, do they also have a "kill" setting?

 

[JesusOnEez]

Drop into other signals, I think instance changes reset the RNG and you get your target faster. It also gives you something fun to do and profit while you wait.

Not a bad idea to be fair.

 

[Mechanist]

Netflix, Podcasts, Seinfeld reruns.....

Fantastic gameplay content.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I just spent 30 minutes waiting for a salvage mission signal source to appear in Bhotega before I gave up. I had an hour and a half to play this evening. A third wasted.

Can you please make these poxy things appear once you're in proximity to the target body? At most a minute or so. There's simply no gameplay need for a random number generated wait period...what am I supposed to do in game in the meantime for crying out loud? I can only listen to Galnet so many times.

/rant

They always pop up within a minute for me. Not too sure what you were doing wrong, if it was you that is. Could be a bug.

 

[Stigbob]

Not a bad idea to be fair.

I've no idea if it actually works or not on the RNG, purely anecdotally it definitely seems much faster to me but that could just be because I've something else to do. You will sometimes see your target pop up as you drop into another signal, so it could be a frustrating approach for some players.

Give it a bash.

 

[conceit]

When the mission target does not spawn within 5 minutes, I tend to cancel the mission. I already found out that some missions never spawn and filed a report with one concrete example. Also, it might be an issue of orbital altitude. I often saw missions spawn at 0.1Ls. In case of gas giants this can mean to fly between planet and rings. On one of my last missions I was flying higher (about 0.8 Ls, right over the rings) for a few minutes, but the mission spawned as soon as I got closer. Just an anekdote, barely enough for making a rule of it, but worth a try if this problem occurs again.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

It could be bad luck, it could be you at the wrong place. How you would know about it I have no idea neither,.

 

[gooddoc]

OP, if your time is THAT valuable..............don't play games then!

 

[Shockbot]

I just spent 30 minutes waiting for a salvage mission signal source to appear in Bhotega before I gave up. I had an hour and a half to play this evening. A third wasted.

Can you please make these poxy things appear once you're in proximity to the target body? At most a minute or so. There's simply no gameplay need for a random number generated wait period...what am I supposed to do in game in the meantime for crying out loud? I can only listen to Galnet so many times.

/rant

If you want to play Elite you have to take your time. I only plying when I am in the mood and I have time for. Than I have to come up with a plan what I want to achieve and than go straight for it. I tried many things so I know what fits to me or not and Missions where I have to wait are not for me .

 

[avow555]

I had a kill mission for 16 targets, loads of targets of the correct faction spawned but in a 3 hour window only 1 was a mission target.
Logged of in disgust.
Total waste of time!

 

[zarrazee]

I make a point of doing that...it's in my sig for crying out loud. I want more player interaction whilst not looking specifically for PvP. My unshielded T7 is called "The Sitting Duck", "PIR8-ME", and a play exclusively in open...in three years I've been ganked and/or pirated 4 times. 4. I'd welcome more interaction even if I did get blown up.

I've run out of stuff I want to do in the game - send me a friend request and I'll happily blow you up every time I logon.

Not a sarcastic post

CMDR Zarra Zarson