How Do I Ignore Contract Updates

stuistead · Jan 9, 2015

I have been on numerous missions where I jump to the target system to find the traders or pirates and get a 'contract update' from another pilot asking me to abandon the mission. How do I ignore their wishes and carry on the original mission. The only option I seem to get is abandon the mission.
Am I missing something?

Vendraen · Jan 9, 2015

You can simply keep killing the originally asked-for targets and it works fine.

HOWEVER, if you get the "do this instead" thing after you've killed, say, 3/6 targets... it sucks. Because it resets you back to 0 and you've got to start over.

Sparkie · Jan 9, 2015

I did one of these last night. After the counter-offer was made, it lists both sets of completion goals in the mission's details. The counter-offer didn't replace the original mission.

Tacheel · Jan 9, 2015

Sparkie said:
I did one of these last night. After the counter-offer was made, it lists both sets of completion goals in the mission's details. The counter-offer didn't replace the original mission.

I've had this and I believe this is how it is supposed to work,

However I have also had it lose the original set of goals in the mission details.

Think there may be a few bugs at play now and then.

Sparkie · Jan 9, 2015

Heh, could be.

eachann · Jan 9, 2015

if you read the updated mission it actually shows both sets of objectives.... and yes the bug where it resets your progression on the original mission is pretty annoying at times. I submitted a ticket about it some time back but never got any response from FD about it. The good news is that more often than not, the mission updater is in one of the first USS's I hit so most of the time the mission update happens before I've made any progress.

stuistead · Jan 12, 2015

I experienced the target reset bug yesterday. I had registered 2 pirate kills out of the 7 needed. Then got a 'contract update' offer which I was not interested in. However it reset my kills to zero.

starjump · Jan 12, 2015

We simply need to get a YES/NO function on one of our screens or a small window coming up as we approach them. Same with the USS trader ships. In cargo window have another option apart from jettison that says "sell" and then you blip up or down to set number on tons and hit "sell" button - just like with jettison.
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Hope we get something like that so we can choose to take a mission or not, and choose to sell or not (right now traders will just *take* your stuff and pay you).

Shads · Jan 12, 2015

Tacheel said:
I've had this and I believe this is how it is supposed to work,

However I have also had it lose the original set of goals in the mission details.

Think there may be a few bugs at play now and then.

i've had this too but if you just keep hitting the same original targets you eventually get the Mission Objective Complete messge. It sometimes feels like you are killing a lot more than was required though because the counter offer can reset the count.

Sandmann · Jan 12, 2015

Vendraen said:
HOWEVER, if you get the "do this instead" thing after you've killed, say, 3/6 targets... it sucks. Because it resets you back to 0 and you've got to start over.

Does it still do this after the 1.04 update? I thought they'd fixed that?

Jupitus · Jan 12, 2015

I find that almost all of the time the counter-offer is for less than the original... I mean, come on!! If I am trudging around doing missions to gain faction rep why would I change my mission for less CR???!!!

I have found just 1 occasion out of many where I was offered 20k instead of 12k, that's all

Sparkie · Jan 12, 2015

On a related note, does anyone know what criteria must be met for a Wanted target to count as a pirate? Perhaps a bounty minimum? Maybe they have to be Wanted on arrival rather than if they go Wanted after starting out as Clean? Reason I ask is because my mission kill counts don't go up every time I kill a Wanted ship at a Nav Point.

Jupitus said:
I find that almost all of the time the counter-offer is for less than the original... I mean, come on!! If I am trudging around doing missions to gain faction rep why would I change my mission for less CR???!!!

I have found just 1 occasion out of many where I was offered 20k instead of 12k, that's all

Plus on top of that, I guess we would not get the equivalent of the wanted bounties we get on the original targets.

Jupitus · Jan 12, 2015

Sparkie said:
On a related note, does anyone know what criteria must be met for a Wanted target to count as a pirate? Perhaps a bounty minimum? Maybe they have to be Wanted on arrival rather than if they go Wanted after starting out as Clean? Reason I ask is because my mission kill counts don't go up every time I kill a Wanted ship at a Nav Point.

Plus on top of that, I guess we would not get the equivalent of the wanted bounties we get on the original targets.

For kill x pirates missions I cruise USSs until I find NPCs saying something about what goods I am carrying etc... these are definitely pirates and then I unload on them

EDIT: Now, can someone help me with this please: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=97222

nbhamilt · Jan 12, 2015

carry a few tonnes of gold in your cargo - you soon find out who are the pirates

{SAS}Stalker · Jan 12, 2015

starjump said:
We simply need to get a YES/NO function on one of our screens or a small window coming up as we approach them. Same with the USS trader ships. In cargo window have another option apart from jettison that says "sell" and then you blip up or down to set number on tons and hit "sell" button - just like with jettison.
|
Hope we get something like that so we can choose to take a mission or not, and choose to sell or not (right now traders will just *take* your stuff and pay you).

In the context of Elite, this would be ridiculous. Elite law suggests that a simple solution is uncommon and the correct response should likely be "pancake" whereby your new mission is to retrieve grain and eggs but without telling you this fact.

Seriously though, a simple YES / NO would be fantastic!

jadefriendly · Jan 12, 2015

starjump said:
We simply need to get a YES/NO function on one of our screens or a small window coming up as we approach them. Same with the USS trader ships. In cargo window have another option apart from jettison that says "sell" and then you blip up or down to set number on tons and hit "sell" button - just like with jettison.
|
Hope we get something like that so we can choose to take a mission or not, and choose to sell or not (right now traders will just *take* your stuff and pay you).

very much this

Aircool · Jan 12, 2015

Vendraen said:
You can simply keep killing the originally asked-for targets and it works fine.

HOWEVER, if you get the "do this instead" thing after you've killed, say, 3/6 targets... it sucks. Because it resets you back to 0 and you've got to start over.

I got this a while back... I had twenty minutes left on the clock and it reset my targets to zero. There was no way I was going to kill seven pirates in that time. Extremely annoying.

Prestidigitator · Jan 12, 2015

There's also a really REALLY annoying bug where:

A USS npc gives you an 'alternate' mission goal for a 'collect slaves' mission
They actually say nothing to you three times (i.e. just their name appears next to three blank transmissions)
The big blue "Mission Goals Updated" triangle then appears
You then find that you can't turn in the 2 slaves at the original station at all (even though it's still listed as the mission goal in the transactions tab).
You can only abandon it, or turn in at the station listed in the 'Alternate' mission goal in the transactions tab. Both of which may lose you faction with the organisation you originally took the mission to gain it with(!)

This has happened every time i've taken the mission to collect 2 slaves (it has a variety of mission 'names', but they're always >120 hour timers). It's gotten to the point that I shout and try to boost away and SC (always unsucessfully) when i see an npc saying blank transmission to me now to try and not have the mission updated message.

Gorf · Jan 12, 2015

starjump said:
We simply need to get a YES/NO function on one of our screens or a small window coming up as we approach them...

We do not need a confirmation dialog! A few well-placed multi cannon rounds will send the same message to the game engine...

StayFrosty · Jan 12, 2015

starjump said:
We simply need to get a YES/NO function on one of our screens or a small window coming up as we approach them.

It most importantly needs to be made clearer, right now it's a mess and you can barely tell the difference between the original objective and the alternative.

It remains up to you to decide what you want to do, it's a sandbox, and binary choices would only restrict you and cause more problems.