The Mission Board - Single Server or not, its a flop.

[Chaparral]

Ya, that 10 billion is irrelevant really - you are not looking for work from the general population, or corporations based on the planet surface. You are looking for work from small/medium political factions who are all fighting with each other for control of a station/system. Factions who will be offering missions based on their current state and place relative to other factions - which makes perfect sense in the context of who we are within the galaxy.

10 billion people is irrelevant. That's funny. So despite the fact that there is a HUGE population, where people want food, drugs, slaves, assassinations, etc., you can't get a job doing anything but source and return. This makes no sense on its face.

The Mission Board fails to meet the core game premise.

Only for the 2.8%ers.

Now that is truly funny. A totally different topic of course.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Disagree on just about every word.

You are a lone pilot seeking work from those able to provide it. Take your pick, or not. Someone else will be along soon who will take the mission.

And, my Sidewinder, Sidney, has a lucrative side business counseling the ones who do...

 

[Stealthie]

So on planet earth with 7 billion people there are no fishing jobs. Do you even read your own posts?

In a galaxy with a massively diverse range of economies it's foolish to assume they will all provide every type of activity.

Do you even understand analogies?

 

[Chaparral]

The Killer Dungeon Master want's his game, not your pleasure. And, he charged you money for it.

Valid.

My point still stands. The Mission Board is not structured to support the the core profession promise of the game.

 

[Chaparral]

In a galaxy with a massively diverse range of economies it's foolish to assume they will all provide every type of activity.

Do you even understand analogies?

I especially understand flawed analogies.

On planets with billions, all profession - based missions should be available.

 

[Colonel Kenney]

Single server is not going to be good at all...

Unless they deluge each location with 10x the amount of missions. If it remains the same it will be a flop. Either cycle in and out new missions at very regular intervals to allow people to stack missions or this game is dead.

 

[Chaparral]

Single server is not going to be good at all...

Unless they deluge each location with 10x the amount of missions. If it remains the same it will be a flop. Either cycle in and out new missions at very regular intervals to allow people to stack missions or this game is dead.

I don't know about dead, but certainly farther from the stated goal of the game.

 

[Leadfoot]

So on planet earth with 7 billion people there are no fishing jobs. Do you even read your own posts?

I do believe me mentioned turning up in Kansas. His point was that there aren't a lot of fishing jobs there. Not a lot of oceanfront property there. You might be able to catch something down on the creek over yonder.

So no one eats, smuggles, bounty hunts, does drugs, etc. during a civil war. Makes no sense.

No one stops anyone from just going somewhere, bringing in tons of cereal and milk for the masses.
Also, there are tons of ships coming and going that obviously bring those low-priced mundane things in.

I did notice lots of "Kill our enemies", "blow up this base for us", and "sneak in these illegal weapons for us" missions, so yeah, they're in there as well. Of course, anyone doing drugs during a time of civil war is going to get into trouble with "The Man."

 

[Kayweg]

I especially understand flawed analogies.

On planets with billions, all profession - based missions should be available.

I cannot disagree with that, but i don't know how (after 4 years) you would still expect that the game wants, attempts, or even has the capability to do this.
There never has been a connection between what the needs and desires of a multi-billion population are and what missions there are spawned.
Yet i'll still agree about the general lack of variety, because even wars or civil wars offer many more possible mission scenarios than "kill stuff" or "deliver stuff".
But the game isn't capable of incorporating those either.

 

[Chaparral]

I do believe me mentioned turning up in Kansas. His point was that there aren't a lot of fishing jobs there. Not a lot of oceanfront property there. You might be able to catch something down on the creek over yonder.

No one stops anyone from just going somewhere, bringing in tons of cereal and milk for the masses.
Also, there are tons of ships coming and going that obviously bring those low-priced mundane things in.

I did notice lots of "Kill our enemies", "blow up this base for us", and "sneak in these illegal weapons for us" missions, so yeah, they're in there as well. Of course, anyone doing drugs during a time of civil war is going to get into trouble with "The Man."

We are talking about planets or systems of planets with billions of people not a single state without an ocean. Might as well say there are no zebras in my kitchen, so I should not expect to see zebras in my state.

We are also talking about a core promise of the game, and the primary vehicle through which tasks are assigned through the game.

That vehicle does not meet the expectations of the promise. The vehicle isn't even designed to support the stated goal. That's a problem.

 

[matemaster]

Be what you want to be in Elite Dangerous - trader, explorer, bounty hunter, pirate, smuggler etc., but the Mission Board is not organized by profession, it is organized by faction.

The core structure of the Mission Board is an expression of the BGS, it is organized by faction, the types and numbers of each mission are dictated by the system and faction state at the time.

Whether or not you choose to pursue a profession, you will be forced to submit to the BGS. There might be 10 billion people in the system, but it is entirely possible that the only task available to a player is the massacre mission.

Clearly, there is a fundamental disconnect between what the game promises (be what you want to be), and the primary vehicle to allow the player to pursue that profession - the Mission Board.

The single server will reduce mission generation times, but the organizational structure is still going to be BGS /faction based.

Until there is a commitment by FDEV to organize the Mission Board by profession-related missions, and offer missions for all stated professions at every station, the game fails to meet its fundamental stated goal.

THIS is exactly how I perceive the situation with mission board.
There are many players me included who boardflipped not for profit highest paying easily stackable missions (e.g. skimmers) but for "be what you want in ED" like mining missions.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Wouldn't that make every mission board the same no matter where you are? The game needs more diversification, not less. The civilizations need character.

Having said that, if you are looking for a type of mission, you should be able to tell from a system's government and economy which type of missions to expect.

 

[Ethaidan]

10 billion people is irrelevant. That's funny. So despite the fact that there is a HUGE population, where people want food, drugs, slaves, assassinations, etc., you can't get a job doing anything but source and return. This makes no sense on its face.

Yes, it does make perfect sense. The mission board offers jobs from a minor political faction who has very specific aims - they are not in the business of owning and operating overall system supply logistics. Once again, some people seem to be confusing both the role of minor political factions and misunderstanding our utterly negligible role in galactic supply logistics. We are not massive transport companies with access to a centralised dustribution system that will maximise our return per run, that wiil ensure our cargo bay is always full whenever we are going to wherever we choose, that will coordinate and customise deliveries from multiple factions on demand... we work outside of the main logistics, we pick up the dregs, the extra short-term one-off demands... that is our place in this system.

 

[Chaparral]

I cannot disagree with that, but i don't know how (after 4 years) you would still expect that the game wants, attempts, or even has the capability to do this.
There never has been a connection between what the needs and desires of a multi-billion population are and what missions there are spawned.
Yet i'll still agree about the general lack of variety, because even wars or civil wars offer many more possible mission scenarios than "kill stuff" or "deliver stuff".
But the game isn't capable of incorporating those either.

Valid points. I don't expect the game to change at this point - just wish FDEV moved the ball towards the stated goal of the game.

 

[ebbrell]

was board hopping meant to be how the game is played, NO.
all Fdev are doing is fixing something (a broken mechanic) people have got familiar with.

we should look at this as a bug fix. and if they give us more missions as a result, it cannot be all bad.

lets hope it also gives them the ability to work towards dynamic missions, which surely need a controlled single board and server.

 

[Chaparral]

Wouldn't that make every mission board the same no matter where you are? The game needs more diversification, not less. The civilizations need character.

Having said that, if you are looking for a type of mission, you should be able to tell from a system's government and economy which type of missions to expect.

If your asking for a suggestion, I would scale payouts with system states and rep with the factions offering the missions. Might even have a profession ranking system that could spawn mission offerings based on profession rank.

 

[Enderby]

I'd just like to see more variation of mission types.
It's all a bit samey.

 

[Caldric]

The very fact the obviously mislead in even talking about the single server says everything to me. Plus the idea of doing this and not fixing the problems with missions to start with and why people board flipped is total nonsense. 10% increase means they know how bad their idea is.

 

[Chaparral]

Yes, it does make perfect sense. The mission board offers jobs from a minor political faction who has very specific aims - they are not in the business of owning and operating overall system supply logistics. Once again, some people seem to be confusing both the role of minor political factions and misunderstanding our utterly negligible role in galactic supply logistics. We are not massive transport companies with access to a centralised dustribution system that will maximise our return per run, that wiil ensure our cargo bay is always full whenever we are going to wherever we choose, that will coordinate and customise deliveries from multiple factions on demand... we work outside of the main logistics, we pick up the dregs, the extra short-term one-off demands... that is our place in this system.

You're still operating afield from the core profession promise of the game. You're still explaining how the mission generation system works, and how seeking profession-based tasks is secondary to complying with the BGS.

You can rationalize that only a small number of people have the capacity to distribute tasks. In 3300 the interwebs might be a bit better for job searches - especially in large population systems.

The game does not focus on it's stated player goal - professions.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

If your asking for a suggestion, I would scale payouts with system states and rep with the factions offering the missions. Might even have a profession ranking system that could spawn mission offerings based on profession rank.

That is diametrically opposed to what I'm saying.