Feature Request: Missions should bias towards targetting the same faction

[Nightstorm]

It may be 'narrow', but I'm proposing something that doesn't fundamentally change how the BGS operates - Rubbernuke's proposal creates (to my eyes) a large amount of extra player state that feeds into the BGS. That would be a big shift for FD to work on. Maybe they will do something like that in 4.0, but in the meantime there are changes they could make to the BGS, almost qualifying as QOL changes, that I feel would make it feel more self-aware. I'm just suggesting a tweak, and FD will notice it or they won't. Probably won't, and that's fine.

The commodity market, meanwhile, is totally soulless, whereas missions are like stories where the faction actually interacts with you. Why not marry the two? Missions that ask you to buy from this commodity market and take to one of our others? Or a totally different idea, not mission-based: have the faction NPCs thank you when you make a delivery of something particularly important. Or sometimes suggest a bonus if you trade a certain commodity? But that's kind of off-topic.

 

[Greybeard_LXI]

I'm seeing a lot of passion in this discussion, but there are a couple things that seem to be ignored.

Corporations do sell to competitors. I worked at a General Motors factory that made tail lights for Ford trucks. Both sides felt they came out better by working together.

We are small fry in the game. We do not move enough cargo to support millions of people in a system. Most cargo is carried by invisible mega ships. We just get the overflow and special orders.

It really seems that factions get way too much influence for the percentage of missions we complete.

 

[Jmanis]

The commodity market, meanwhile, is totally soulless, whereas missions are like stories where the faction actually interacts with you.

But your proposal seeks to make missions more soulless, by reducing the diversity of destination factions/consumers[/quote]

Why not marry the two? Missions that ask you to buy from this commodity market and take to one of our others?

This exists. Source missions. If it fills your RP bucket, go buy it from one of your own markets.

I get what you're after, but your proposal breaks game balance, and makes significant assumptions about the way factions operate which basically homogenises the environment, achieving the exact opposite of what you're asking for.

 

[Nightstorm]

But your proposal seeks to make missions more soulless, by reducing the diversity of destination factions/consumers

This exists. Source missions. If it fills your RP bucket, go buy it from one of your own markets.

I get what you're after, but your proposal breaks game balance, and makes significant assumptions about the way factions operate which basically homogenises the environment, achieving the exact opposite of what you're asking for.[/QUOTE]
Source missions - you're quite right, these give the commander freedom to fetch from their own faction. Good point.

I'm only asking to adjust the mix, not reduce diversity in any significant sense. If there was just one intra-faction mission on a board of 10, it would feel like the game wasn't just picking a random system and a random faction for each mission.

It really seems that factions get way too much influence for the percentage of missions we complete.

Oh, I agree, they totally do. If it was in any way realistic none of us would play the BGS. We worked for 6 months after the ED launch to 'flip' Lugh to our independent faction. And, because 'bugs', we failed, which is what lead to the lovely folks at FD setting up the War for Lugh. How we kept going I'll never know. The mission system we've got now is better, and it's way cheaper to gain control of a system for better or worse. I'm just suggesting one little way it could be more a bit more interesting, seem a bit more self-aware.

 

[Winterwalker]

The only thing that concerns me about this idea is that it takes away some player agency? If the faction board targets particular other factions, isn't that the BGS playing you, rather than you playing the BGS?

Meaning having the freedom to put your weight behind bringing one particular faction up, probably includes the freedom to make mistakes or my freedom to target a different faction from the one your faction chose?

I like the thinking but wonder if the BGS isn't better left a blank canvas, for players to imprint their ideas on to. Will watch this thread though.