mission server - the death of ED

[GreyAreaUK]

So who here thinks a 30 minute wait is ok?

Strawman argument.

And FWIW, when high-paying passenger missions were a thing I didn't board flip, I just trundled around the local area, picking up what I could. I don't assume that the mission boards are there for my limitless convenience.

It is​ possible to play the game without resorting to this sort of thing.

 

[babelfisch]

Yes, I know what you're saying. What we're discussing however is when that becomes an issue because it will and it won't just be 10 minutes.

So who here thinks a 30 minute wait is ok?

Nobody of course so what are the devs going to do to address that issue? This is the point where we are now - we've asked the question and it's up to them to answer it.

I agree that something needs to be done about missions, I don't think rellogging should stay in the game though.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

That assumes you want to do any of that but we all know at times we want to do a specific thing and now you have another gate to jump over, potentially. You're just adding a whole bunch more of time doing nothing to do something

Also remember that unlike a ferw people here, most people don't sink thousands of hours into the game or even hundreds. You add even more wait to their free time and you'll lose players, not gain them.

But game doesn't let you specific thing over and over and over and over again. It clearly tries player to change roles, figure out new things to do and so on and so forth.

It is by design. It is stupid for player to expect game to serve his needs if game isn't designed to do so.

If that means player wants to leave? Please, do so. Problem is, you never do, despite not playing ED at all.

 

[rootsrat]

Serious Questions:
Of the ones frequently posting in this thread...

1. who does use the mission board and in what frequency?
2. who requires the mission board direly for his playstyle?
3. who board flips? (add reason please)
4. what do you think will be the result of the "server fix"?

1. I do - pretty much every single gameplay session (when I'm in the bubble or unless I'm doing something very specific)
2. I do - but I don't do it for money. And when I do it for BGS, I just take whatever's available on the board.
3. I don't - because it's immersion breaking to me and it feels like cheating.
4. People will stop cheating the system. Hopefully it will be a first step towards improving the mission system (I can imagine having a dedicated mission server will allow the devs to improve the system better than previously)

Yes, I know what you're saying. What we're discussing however is when that becomes an issue because it will and it won't just be 10 minutes.

So who here thinks a 30 minute wait is ok?

Nobody of course so what are the devs going to do to address that issue? This is the point where we are now - we've asked the question and it's up to them to answer it.

Where does the 30 minutes come from?

What is the reason for you waiting 30 minutes? Is it to fill up your ship with the missions you want rather than the ones the game offers you? If so, did you ever think that filling up your ship only with the best paying missions all to the same destination is perhaps not the way the developers intended the game to be played? And before you come up with the "but... blaze your own trail!" - yes, blaze it within the intended framework and within the design that was implemented. Which I honestly don't think was "fill up my ship with 20 mission to the same system, all paying gazillion of credits".

 

[babelfisch]

Serious Questions:
Of the ones frequently posting in this thread...

1. who does use the mission board and in what frequency?
2. who requires the mission board direly for his playstyle?
3. who board flips? (add reason please)
4. what do you think will be the result of the "server fix"?

1. I use the mission board regularly, several times each session.
2. I require the mission board for playing a mercenary.
3. I never board flip because it's an out of game action and an exploit. I am not a BGS player but if I would be I'd call it cheating.
4. Faster loading times, less errors, less cheating.

 

[Stigbob]

Serious Questions:
Of the ones frequently posting in this thread...

1. who does use the mission board and in what frequency?
2. who requires the mission board direly for his playstyle?
3. who board flips? (add reason please)
4. what do you think will be the result of the "server fix"?

1. Every time I play the game. I check the missions take anything that's fun & useful to the current PMF BGS goals. If not I switch to another of our systems/stations or just pop off and do whatever I feel like. I also keep on friendly terms with all the other local factions so I can take their missions as long as I don't make a habit of it and start boosting them.

2. The majority of stuff I do is mission related, I keep a selection of ships/modules at my home system so I can grab any mission I feel like and add a lot of variety.

3. Nope, I'm happy to take or leave what's on offer.

4. Added stability. No negatives at all. The grinder/exploit mindset doesn't focus on fun anyway so it won't even alter the volume of forum complaining it'll just alter the subject for a bit.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

1. who does use the mission board and in what frequency?
2. who requires the mission board direly for his playstyle?
3. who board flips? (add reason please)
4. what do you think will be the result of the "server fix"?

1 - Most play sessions.
2 - I require it for certain ingame roles.
3 - Only once that I can think of, to gain an invite for Qwent when it was notoriously awkward to do so. Never since.
4 - From my own perspective nothing much will change, because I never assume that the mission boards will have exactly what I want 100% of the time.

 

[Mohrgan]

1. who does use the mission board and in what frequency?
2. who requires the mission board direly for his playstyle?
3. who board flips? (add reason please)
4. what do you think will be the result of the "server fix"?

1) I look to the mission board every play session, often multiple times per session.
2) I understand the game enough to know, that if there are no missions of use to me at the moment, I have many alternative activities to propel my game play.
3) I have never board flipped. I just don't see that as a worthy use of my gaming time. I have delayed leaving dock for the 10 min reset before.
4) I expect less delays in loading the mission board, fewer disconnects, and a more balanced effect on the BGS through mission running. Less cherry picking will result in a better balance of 'filled buckets'.

 

[fu9ar]

So, I presume you don't eat salt because part of it is Chlorine, which is a poison? After all, that is the "logic" you are applying to the argument.

You're being ridiculous.

 

[xRebel-Scumx]

Serious Questions:
Of the ones frequently posting in this thread...

1. who does use the mission board and in what frequency?
2. who requires the mission board direly for his playstyle?
3. who board flips? (add reason please)
4. what do you think will be the result of the "server fix"?

My Answers are as follows

1. It really depends where I am, but if im in my playergroup's bubble then I am using the mission board a lot every play session.

2. I try to vary my activities to spice things up but the main activity that using the boards is essential for is passenger runs. But if I am playing for my player faction then I need to use the boards for the majority of player group/role play sessions.

3. I was forced to board flip a lot for a few reasons, the biggest seems to have been fixed recently...for so long that I cant exactly remember the mission boards were utterly broken but only in the systems my p.g were in. Just empty boards for my faction (and sometimes another) but fully stocked for all the others, and if its a war/civil war state no massacres for us but a full board for our opponents. Even in the few systems that were not entirely affected by this bug our rival factions would get up to 15 donates plus other missions while we got 5 or 6 with 4 or 5 being copy pastes resulting in me regularly flipping the board in the hope that something, anything would appear on the board for me this time.
The other reason is simply that there isn't enough variety and I am tired of seeing the same copy paste missions hour after hour.
There are other reasons to flip, looking for efc or biotech or other mission only drops for example. (this isn't as bad as it was but is still an issue)

4. I am not going to speculate on what might be, but what I know for sure is that those pesky high paying missions aka goldrushes will be nerfed even more swiftly and mercilessly with these changes.
And also implementing these changes as-is will effectively reduce the choice available to us through the boards and will tilt gameplay towards the old ways of the circle of life (traders, pirates feeding off the traders and bounty hunters feeding off the pirates) this may be a good idea this all depends on fdev making other changes to those professions i.m.o

 

[kilon]

Serious Questions:
Of the ones frequently posting in this thread...

1. who does use the mission board and in what frequency?
2. who requires the mission board direly for his playstyle?
3. who board flips? (add reason please)
4. what do you think will be the result of the "server fix"?

My answers:
1. I use it mainly when doing BGS work, as missions generate most influence and spice up the routine.
Since there are no interesting piracy missions and the way those work is not evolving,
missions during a non-BGS focussed session is way lower, maybe once a week.

2. I require it for BGS mainly.

3. When BGSing surely do i wish to fill up on missions
without waiting 15 minutes per refresh, as the time i am willing
to invest into Elite is limited.
The BGS itself, how it works and what you can do in Elite doesn't keep me
playing, it contrary leads me to keep sessions short and effective to get done,
what i wish to see done.

4. Hammering BGS work through mission stacking, ultimately
making trade and smuggling the most efficient ways to affect BGS.
Additionally it will create a lot of bile, as there is no implication
missions get a complete overhaul, including the algorythm determining
how many missions of what kind are spawned, and there is no separation
of normal and wing missions.

I agree 100%. Board Flipping and BGS go hand in hand. This is my No 1 reason too.

 

[babelfisch]

I agree 100%. Board Flipping and BGS go hand in hand. This is my No 1 reason too.

I don't follow your logic. You can still play the BGS without board flipping, biggest difference will be that it's more fair for those who don't use exploits.

 

[xRebel-Scumx]

I don't follow your logic. You can still play the BGS without board flipping, biggest difference will be that it's more fair for those who don't use exploits.

Fdev stated flipping was "working as intended" so therefore it was never an exploit (I suspect this was purely about not having to do anything about it).

 

[MadDogMurdock]

Fdev stated flipping was "working as intended" so therefore it was never an exploit (I suspect this was purely about not having to do anything about it).

Actually they didn't. They said that it was an "undesirable outcome" that they were unable to do anything about.
That will now be resolved as a side effect of this change.

 

[xRebel-Scumx]

Actually they didn't. They said that it was an "undesirable outcome" that they were unable to do anything about.
That will now be resolved as a side effect of this change.

umm im pretty sure we got the boilerplate "working as intended" response 1st

 

[sollisb]

Serious Questions:
Of the ones frequently posting in this thread...

1. who does use the mission board and in what frequency?
2. who requires the mission board direly for his playstyle?
3. who board flips? (add reason please)
4. what do you think will be the result of the "server fix"?

1. I do for passenger missions. How often depends on what I'm buying. If I buy a cutter I need to get back 1bn. So passenger missions are the quickest return of that
2. I do for above. But it's not my main play style. HazRez combat is.
3. Yes I do. Because the missions system (not the server) is a pile of poo, unable to produce missions with any form of balancing.
4. The server fix, will address the 'Cannot connect to mission server' problem, but will not fix the problem with the actual missions. It will also fix the problem FDev have with us stacking missions. Will it help the playerbase? no, not at all.

 

[Stigbob]

umm im pretty sure we got the boilerplate "working as intended" response 1st

So the later reply supersedes the first and it's still officially just not cricket.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Strawman argument.

And FWIW, when high-paying passenger missions were a thing I didn't board flip, I just trundled around the local area, picking up what I could. I don't assume that the mission boards are there for my limitless convenience.

It is​ possible to play the game without resorting to this sort of thing.

Strawman argument you say and then can't even say why - no it isn't a strawman unless you're saying it's impossible to have to wait 30 minutes to get a mission you want. We know it's entirely possible to dock, not see a mission, wait ten minutes for the board flip only to not get a mission. It only has to happen 3 board flips. Pretty sure right now people are flipping the boards more than 3 times.

 

[Jex =TE=]

I agree that something needs to be done about missions, I don't think rellogging should stay in the game though.

Yes, something definitely needs to be done. Relogging is not a method that should be available in any game (and I've never heard of it before) but then I think the missions need a complete overhaul. Make missions fun and people don't need to board flip.

 

[Morbad]

I don't follow your logic. You can still play the BGS without board flipping, biggest difference will be that it's more fair for those who don't use exploits.

Exactly.

Those who favor a fair and organic BGS would prefer these loopholes be closed.

umm im pretty sure we got the boilerplate "working as intended" response 1st

A mechanism can be working as intended and still be subject to abuse.

It was the intent of the separate mission servers to have their own discrete mission lists.

It was never the intended gameplay to be able deliberately cycle through these servers or regenerate the mission board by logging off or mode switching.