mission server - the death of ED

Jex =TE=

Banned
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.

I'd love all the sycophants and white knights to leave and not bother us anymore with their lack of facts and knowledge of gaming but they remain - can't have everything now, can we.

As usual, you can't read again. I didn't say the game has to be tailored to the player. GreyAreaUK - this is a strawman, mate ;) Where you try to make out someone said something they didn't.

What I'm saying is if most of the missions presented to you suck - having to wait 10 minutes is a ridiculous design choice. Make the missions mroe fun and more of a challenge then you won't have the forums constantly crying out for "more money incentive" because they're just too boring to play without them.
 
That’s a good point. Will leaving the system and then coming back refresh the new version of the board? It might take less than 10 minutes to flip it

In ten minutes, I could take some “garbage” (I use the term loosely) missions, complete them, take more “garbage” missions at my destination, complete them, and be half half way back to where I started with some returning “garbage” missions. ;)

As for whether or not jumping out and in again will “refresh” the boards... the whole point ofa dedicated server is to ensure that the mission board remains persistent for all players.
 
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/446165-Implementation-of-a-dedicated-mission-server/page59

FDEV, for the love of the game, please don't do this. Missions are the core activity of the game. To wait 10 mins to find the activity you want to play is simply too long. To assume only 2.8% of players refresh the board is a joke, or someone has seriously misunderstood the statistics he's been reading.

Putt simply: If you made the above changes, and that's it, it WILL be a MAJOR cause for the games death. WATCH carefully the active players statistic between now and Q4 launch because it will drop off. Nobody in their sane mind will wait 10 minuets for a mission. Many people have limited time available to play, perhaps an hour or two each week, and to have that time wasted in unproductive mission refresh will kill it for them, like myself.

You absolutely must address the large number of issues with the current missions - something you are not planning on doing. This is the second mistake.

Fix the mission wrinkles - the clean kill bonus preventing completions, the woeful payouts (yea 10% bump - an absolute insult), kill count for massacre missions, fix the endless other mission related issues mentioned all over these forums.

If you don't believe me have a focused feedback on your proposed changes to the non-refresh mission server. All hell will break loose.

This is my suggestion: Have someone actually play ED, from the ground up in a sidewinder, and measure how long it takes him to 'progress' to a python using your new mission server. Then have him progress to Corvette/Cutter. Lets have these metrics posted on the forums.
I can promise you the estimated time will be somewhere close to astronomical. I know this because I've done it and put the time in, and that's with the ability to refresh the board as many times as I need.

So true, but before I continue reading (I've only read the OP) I know that there will be many who agree 100%, but the white knights (Who know this is true-except probably won't be the death of ED, but will cause a ton of rage quitting will defend ED like the mission boards matter not in the game.) Will defend ED by any means.

The missions have really been screwed for me since the update in June/July, I have been disgusted with the game ever since, completed my goal of triple E, and have not played since.

I have been mad at FD for over a year, once I learned of the way they rule ED and break it, let bugs live and multiply, etc...

I laugh at the white knights as FD breaking promises about icy planets, carriers, etc, then NERFING the mission boards, etc, multiplied 1000 times, "Oh, this is wonderful news, it means they are working on better stuff, yeah, that's it, they are really getting things going now, Woo Hoo!!!"

To new players:

Welcome to Nerfville, enjoy.

Poor Noobs, they are really going to need a lot of direction starting the game now, and the sad thing is, they do not know how bad they have it.

I am glad I made Triple E, because now, the grind is going to be much much worse.
 
They recently said this:

'While we understand that this is a practice utilised by some* players, this was never the intended use of the mission system.'

And there was a livestream 1 or 2 years ago with Dom and Adam where they said it's not intended but they can't do something about it in the short term (like, you know, putting them on a seperate server...).

There also was a comment where they said that it's unintended but they are not going to punish people for using it.
 
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.

Here is my third hearsay to this topic:
"Board flipping is not in the spirit of Elite", was what FD said.
Whatever that is.... (we know it, they want us to grind more). ;)

Exactly.

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

There is nothing fair and organic about the BGS.
The reason is, that it is transaction based.
A trader or smuggler still has the transaction tools at hand:
One trip, sell multiple stacks of different goods.
Fair? Nah, mission users get butchered.

The only way the BGS would be fair, is
if there never was BGS.

If you change BGS to value based checks,
small ships are at a disadvantage and people
with money to invest (lots of expensive luggage)
or already invested money (expensive hardware to kill hard NPCs)
rule the BGS in every way, while missions have less impact.

You see this is a vicious circle, and here i say, that BGS
should not be about individual transactions or values CMDRs
bring to a faction or cost a faction, but about how much he contributes
to the faction's goals and within their morals, a.k.a. PLEDGING LOYALTY.

We need to be able to affiliate ourselves with factions and let them
ask for help here and there (campaigning), bringing the ressources to
wage wars and expand, etc.

PvE people and PvP people would impact the BGS,
while everyone can pledge directly to a minor faction they
want to support, showing in SC and contributing with their
deeds towards a campaign goal.
Basically powerplay needs to be removed and tied into minor factions,
adding in campaigns and PvE goals, not just one bland activity for each faction.


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.

I am inclined to agree, board flipping is however a symptom of a deeper disease.

What I'm saying is if most of the missions presented to you suck - having to wait 10 minutes is a ridiculous design choice. Make the missions mroe fun and more of a challenge then you won't have the forums constantly crying out for "more money incentive" because they're just too boring to play without them.

The work done on missions isn't enough for me personally.
They are bland cardboard cutouts to me, that lack any direct connection,
as they are copied templates without spice just tied to a single BGS state.

On the 10 minute thing:
Me personally it will annoy to have to wait that time docked at a station
to refresh the board.
I could fly elsewhere, yes, but what if i don't want to?

I still vote for "CMDRs can offer services to minor factions",
basically "create your own mission".
That works for Action RPGs like "Neverwinter" and has
brought forth a community that made some beatiful stories,
yet some missions to grind for gear aswell.
 
I don't share your optomism here. If after four years missions are still unbalanced and (imho) lacking reward for large ships, then this suggests a problem other than the server archicture.

This decision by FDev seems to me to be addressing a symptom rather than the underlying cause.

100% agree, after 4 years of Space Gaming Perfection (according to white knights) the mission boards and so many other things in ED are broken.

ED should have never left Alpha state, because it's never been a polished game.
 
Serious Questions:
Of the ones frequently posting in this thread...

1. who does use the mission board and in what frequency?

When I’m in the Bubble, I’m manipulating the BGS for fun and profit. For me, that means running missions.

2. who requires the mission board direly for his playstyle?

Missions are my “excuse” for flying my ship in the Bubble, so it’s a requirement.

3. who board flips? (add reason please)

I don’t. In the time it would take to log out, log back in again, and then peruse the boards a second time, I could already be turning in so-called “garbage” missions.

4. what do you think will be the result of the "server fix"?

It’ll mean more competition for the lucrative missions, which in turn will require creative solutions if you want to succeed at your goals. This is a good thing in my book. Automatic success is boring, as far as I’m concerned.
 
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.

Then go somewhere else. Sheesh. You want the game to just hand you stuff on a plate all the time?
 
Of course I can only speak for myself. I never did a lot of missions. I prefer freelancer activities. I have Deadly/Tycoon/Pioneer rank and I think I tried most things in game. My activities are split between trading and smuggling (non-mission), bounty-hunting (non-mission), wars and power-play - as well as plain sightseeing and little bit exploring.

Honestly I despise missions, because I have the impression they take away from my freedom to go where I like and do what I want.

If I have taken missions, I have taken those massacre missions back in the days they where still worthwhile in the combat-zones of war, and maybe some trading and some assassinations if they came to cross my way by chance. edit: and of course I had to do missions if I wanted to get my reputation up in a system (doing them courier missions or gifting some credits to the poor)... that's the only reason when I did some more missions, but that's more a forced thing then something I enjoyed.

Roughly I say I play:

35% sightseeing (non-mission, just me going somewhere looking at stuff) and aimless traveling and resource gathering
25% bounty-hunting/war/ pve-piracy (non-mission)
15% Trade/Smuggling (non-mission)
10% powerplay
6% exploring
4% staged pvp, racing events
3% alien-combat
1,8% missions
0,2% mining


Finally I can say: the mission server is the best idea Frontier had for a long time. This is long overdue.

I hope it will make following things better:

* no more board-hopping
* better for competitive game-styles
* a better starting point for powerplay-missions that would need to be congruent across the modes
* a better starting point for coherent wing-missions

A dedicated mission-server will make many things a lot better. Its only win. BIG WIN.
 
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Jex =TE=

Banned
Then go somewhere else. Sheesh. You want the game to just hand you stuff on a plate all the time?

Since I just answered that question would you like me to repeat it but type really s l o w l y?

It’ll mean more competition for the lucrative missions, which in turn will require creative solutions if you want to succeed at your goals. This is a good thing in my book. Automatic success is boring, as far as I’m concerned.

Could go give more detail on what you mean here, please?
 
If only 2.8% of the playerbase indulges in mode switching to refresh boards, where's the motivation to address it at all? Of all the things they could "fix" this seems pretty far (using their own math) down the list of priorities.

Yes Sir.

If only 2.8% of the community board flips, why are they not committing to more important things?
 
There is nothing fair and organic about the BGS.

The BGS is enormously flawed, but it is possible to achieve results organically, without gaming various mechanisms that one's character wouldn't be privy to.

The reason is, that it is transaction based.

They've already made some improvements in this regard; sale of exploration data, for example.

If only 2.8% of the community board flips, why are they not committing to more important things?

Firstly, Frontier never said, nor even implied that only 2.8% of the community board flips. Go ahead, post an exact quote of their statement, then read it again.

Secondly, fixing board fliping likely wasn't the prime motivation of the mission server changes.
 
They said that 2.8% of people were engaged in active board flipping every day. Most people who board flip don't do it every day, they do it to grind up something they want. That and there are also people who are board flipping to grind up billion credit accounts to sell to people with more money than sense. A billion credits is a lotta FDL gankship rebuys.
 
100% agree, after 4 years of Space Gaming Perfection (according to white knights) the mission boards and so many other things in ED are broken.

ED should have never left Alpha state, because it's never been a polished game.

Interesting, I always thought white knights continuously say the game is far from finished.
 
I don't "play" the BGS (as in actively manipulating it) but I'm interested in how the BGS affects the mission board (and not vice versa). I'm not even sure if the BGS was ever meant to be "played" in a way lots of players seem to do nowadays. That's why I basically would question the "right for board flipping" that some of us seem to claim. Otherwise, it's hard to believe that FD actually wanted to encourage this sort of gameplay that seems to build one of the main incentives of board flipping, but then state that board flipping wasn't intended by them. Makes no sense to me.

Same paradoxon as FD's first statement regarding player factions and such, later turning 180° allowing PMFs
and thus players doing something to directly affect the gameworld, distancing from the "grain of sand in the desert" mentality.
 
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