I have sympathy for the sentiment here. Everyone is used to colorful descriptions of "go get me x number of cobal heads", but that's the nature of things. They want the pirates dead, you want to fight pirates, and you want their credits. How do you suppose they should ask?
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In the vastness of space, how do you go about finding one tiny ship, or even a few of them? You have to hunt for them. U.S.S.'s are pretty realistic in some ways. If they introduces a Scanner that you could install that would make it easier to hunt them down, that would be ok. The player would have to decide to equip that, it gives them a choice.
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They tried to add some variance, with the guys that offer you counter missions, but we eat up content so fast we tire of the mechanic. I have to say we have to be patient and consider doing other tasks and missions. If you only focus on one type of activity it will get old fast. Diversify your activities, and they won't irk you so much.
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On another note: What do you think can come of a thread like this? Do you suppose the Dev's are going to say "I heard they were bored with this core mechanic, let's change it tomorrow. Screw the update, we have to change how U.S.S. spawn"?