Assassination Missions - Another waste of time

Circuitjc · Apr 25, 2015

I just spent over a hour hunting for two different targets for assassination. I got the usual guy telling me to not kill the target and then giving me a rediculously low payout to give up my 170k plus the bounty.

I really hope the patch next week fixes this stupid idiotic mission chain. Yes, I was dumb enough to take on two at once and now I will pay the price in rep since after looking at over 50 USS's over two systems I give up. I don't have the time to grind for hours a day. I posted this because I am fed up over it.

In the same amount of time I could have made over 1m credits in bounty hunting. I won't be taking assassination mission from now on. They are not worth the pain in the ass.

Cmdr. Circuitjc Out.

CMDR Badgered · Apr 25, 2015

Just shoot the guy before he can tell you about the alternate contract. He stops his chatter and then you can go pay off the bounty from shooting and/or killing him. Afterwards the target will appear in a reasonable amount of time. It's quick money if you do it this way.

CaptainKremmen · Apr 25, 2015

There's a mission-chain bug, and a way to avoid it...

The bug occurs IF you meet someone offering you an alternative (ie. branch) before you meet someone who tells you the last known location of the target.

The trick to avoiding the bug is as follows...

- As soon as you drop into a USS, deploy weapons.
- IF there is an NPC there that comms you something like "Ah, you found us, Mister Bond...", or "I've been looking for you, Mister Bond...", etc., target them and hit them with a single shot. This will stop them talking... BEFORE they get to the mission branch trigger.
- Leave.

Once you've found an NPC who says, "I can't believe I escaped after XXX attacked me!" or some such thing, you'll get the mission location trigger out of the way. This is good, as the branching bug can no longer occur.

If you do this, you can take on several such missions at once, never have problems, and rake it in.

cryon1cang3l · Apr 25, 2015

Its not about the money that you can make per hour. Do bounty hunting or trading if you want only the money. The assasination missions are part of the gameplay and some people actually enjoy the idea to track down a pirate and kill him or change the sides etc.

Find your way in the universe, thats what the game is about. You are not forced to do anything here - you can do what ever you like. If you like bounty hunting > this is your way, find a system and kill some bad guys.

What do you want to do with this quest? The money is not bad at all (other quests bring you way less money), the idea is not bad and its a nice way to do something else than just trading or killing pirates for days.

Circuitjc · Apr 25, 2015

There's a mission-chain bug, and a way to avoid it...

Thank you for the good and informative post. I hope it gets fixed in the next patch. It is highly annoying.

cryon1cang3l said:
Its not about the money that you can make per hour. Do bounty hunting or trading if you want only the money. The assasination missions are part of the gameplay and some people actually enjoy the idea to track down a pirate and kill him or change the sides etc.

Find your way in the universe, thats what the game is about. You are not forced to do anything here - you can do what ever you like. If you like bounty hunting > this is your way, find a system and kill some bad guys.

What do you want to do with this quest? The money is not bad at all (other quests bring you way less money), the idea is not bad and its a nice way to do something else than just trading or killing pirates for days.

You are entitled to your opinion. I'm not complaining about the money. I am complaining about the apparent bug. Bugs get fixed when people report them. The assassination missions are a part of the rep grind as well and that's what I'm doing. Rep grinding is a part of the gameplay mechanics.

As far as your question, "What do you want to do with this quest?" What the hell do you think I want to do with the quest. Complete it. I do not understand your post let alone your question.

Morbad · Apr 25, 2015

The bug in the mission chain is offset by a bug in how completions are logged.

I had thought this was fixed a while ago, but I just completed six assassination missions by killing only two targets.

Gold Member · Apr 25, 2015

Circuitjc said:
I just spent over a hour hunting for two different targets for assassination. I got the usual guy telling me to not kill the target and then giving me a rediculously low payout to give up my 170k plus the bounty.

I really hope the patch next week fixes this stupid idiotic mission chain. Yes, I was dumb enough to take on two at once and now I will pay the price in rep since after looking at over 50 USS's over two systems I give up. I don't have the time to grind for hours a day. I posted this because I am fed up over it.

In the same amount of time I could have made over 1m credits in bounty hunting. I won't be taking assassination mission from now on. They are not worth the pain in the ass.

Cmdr. Circuitjc Out.

I ran out of time for one the other day, but that was because real life got in the way. Tonight I finished an assassination mission in less than an hour. Sometimes I have to check out a few USS before I get the target pop, but that seems to be the luck of the draw.

Similar things seem to happen in RES hunting. Some nights I hit the Clipper/Dropship horde, and others I hit the Eagle/Cobra horde.

Toumal · Apr 25, 2015

Needless to say, 1.3 can't come soon enough to finally fix that darn bug.

Steve72 · Apr 25, 2015

Can't wait for 1.3. Some guys posted a screen shot of mission goals for factions. Looks cool and if no bugged alternatives some real purpose at last.

Steve72 · Apr 25, 2015

No fix for all problems but definitely a step in the right direction.

Toumal · Apr 25, 2015

Premier said:
It's funny how people thinks 1.3 will be a fix-all for every problem.

My estimated guess is that there will be more bugs and complications, as the new features will be added.

1.3 will have assassination targets fly around in supercruise and ambient traffic. It doesn't take a genius to see that they had to rework most of the mission system to make that happen. It may well have other problems and bugs after 1.3, but I don't see how it would be an unreasonable expectation to have 1.3 fix this particular bug.

Unless of course you're looking for negatives before the update is even released.

*looks at your other threads*

Why yes, it appears you are!

TriumphANT · Apr 25, 2015

Slightly OT (but not as much as slagging off other users is), does the "targets flying in Supercruise" mean that they need to be interdicted to be attacked? I hope so. It'll be much more immersive in any case to have to hunt a target, rather than vaguely hoping that this USS is the right one. I understand that the mission system is rewritten, so any branch bugs should be part of the old code. New bugs will hopefully be ironed out in Beta.

Kiwirat · Apr 25, 2015

cryon1cang3l said:
Its not about the money that you can make per hour. Do bounty hunting or trading if you want only the money. The assasination missions are part of the gameplay and some people actually enjoy the idea to track down a pirate and kill him or change the sides etc.

Find your way in the universe, thats what the game is about. You are not forced to do anything here - you can do what ever you like. If you like bounty hunting > this is your way, find a system and kill some bad guys.

What do you want to do with this quest? The money is not bad at all (other quests bring you way less money), the idea is not bad and its a nice way to do something else than just trading or killing pirates for days.

Whatever... but this is about the mission bug.. some of us have wasted hours on this and it is turning peeps off the game, that along with the painful promotion system. Most of my clan have quit playing ED and are unlikely to come back. The developers need to get a fix sooner than later.

Circuitjc · Apr 25, 2015

I'm the OP. I am a software/web application developer. I know full well that patches introduce new "features". I also know that 1.3 will not fix everything. No software product is 100% solid. When you make things idiot proof they make a better idiot.

Now that I know about the chain of events that indicate the bug, if it happens to me again, I can abort it right away and not waste my precious game time beating a dead horse.

I love this game. I am glad they released as early as they did. I'm also happy to be a paid beta tester. It is interesting to be a part of the community as they morph the game closer to their vision.