News Implementation of a dedicated mission server

[wentbackward]

The problem is that any income in the game is down to RNG, there's no stable, decent source of income and so people board flip to earn a bit of cash. Of the 2.8% I'm sure it's a very small % then that exploit the game mechanics. This is not a welcome change unless you make it possible for a decent stable income that we can draw on when we need to. Then there'd be no need for board flipping. I think this is especially true for end-game players.

Instead of a mission board that seems effected somewhat by your ship loadout, and where it's pot luck (I've had weeks of good and weeks of bad at a time), why can't we have a jobs board where we can advertise our capability and have a more positive pick up with at least reasonable pay. At least we'll have some possibility to plan out what we want to do in game.

It's the mechanics that drive the undesired behaviour, people come to the game to play and not to grind/board flip. Exactly the same as hunting USS's for high grade manufactured mats, if you were able to collect these reliably as you go ... well hopefully I've made my point, too much is down to RNG for effort/reward.

 

[Taimaru]

Thanks for the update Will.

This is great news. Whilst I personally don't board flip so this doesn't affect me, I have always felt that board flipping puts a strain on the servers, so I think it's great that this step will help the game.

 

[yianniv]

A quick (and I think easy) QOL thought....

It's often a bit of a faff to find missions that are at destinations you're already going to or want to go to.

But it's also probably quite a faff to come up with clever interface stuff to make this less of a struggle.

So, as a simple solution, how about:

-- If a mission is going to a location which is already a mission destination this is indicated in the list.
-- If a mission is going to a location which is your currently selected system destination then this is indicated in the list.
-- If a mission is on the route to a currently selected system or existed mission destination this is indicated in the list.

This could be done either with icons or by sorting the missions so that convenient ones are first (perhaps alongside follow-on missions).

It would make things a bit quicker and easier without having to do anything ludicrously clever to the existing interface.

I made a suggestion about this:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/441642-Visual-indicator-if-mission-is-for-same-system-and-or-station-as-others-already-accepted

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Fantastic news, thank you!

The problem is that any income in the game is down to RNG, there's no stable, decent source of income and so people board flip to earn a bit of cash. Of the 2.8% I'm sure it's a very small % then that exploit the game mechanics. This is not a welcome change unless you make it possible for a decent stable income that we can draw on when we need to. Then there'd be no need for board flipping. I think this is especially true for end-game players.

Instead of a mission board that seems effected somewhat by your ship loadout, and where it's pot luck (I've had weeks of good and weeks of bad at a time), why can't we have a jobs board where we can advertise our capability and have a more positive pick up with at least reasonable pay. At least we'll have some possibility to plan out what we want to do in game.

It's the mechanics that drive the undesired behaviour, people come to the game to play and not to grind/board flip. Exactly the same as hunting USS's for high grade manufactured mats, if you were able to collect these reliably as you go ... well hopefully I've made my point, too much is down to RNG for effort/reward.

Come up with a base payout for each mission type (combat missions should have the highest base pay IMHO), then have a rank mulitplier.....but then make the mission rank meaningful in terms of either time and/or difficulty of completing the mission. If rank also influenced the types of wrinkles & follow on missions you got, then this would be an extra way to link payout to rank.

 

[RooksBailey]

Sounds good to me!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Fantastic news, thank you!

If I had my way, mission boards would be only one of *many* ways to obtain missions. Scanning Data Cores & Private Data Beacons of wrecked ships, settlement scans, certain salvage types, NPC Ship scans, random NPC passerbys, USS's.....that kind of thing. You should have the potential to pick up half a dozen missions before you even land at a station .

 

[Dr. Nagi]

I don't know how I feel about this. Sometimes you just don't get the mission you want/need, for example one that rewards you with modular terminals that you need to unlock an engineer (I forgot which one), so not being able to reload the board via flipping can be frustrating in those moments.
In order to prevent this, the amount of missions available needs to be either increased massively, or the RNG element needs to be decreased. A solution would be handling the mission generation completely different and a bit more dynamic, like giving players the ability to choose a theme for generated missions (like a button for "I only want transport missions" for example) or only generate missions that are suited for your current ship loadout.
Also the best way of making money is stacking up missions of a certain type and thus doing multiple at once, without any adjustments to the mission generation it might be huge cut in overall payouts, the 10% increase just won't cover that. I will run some numbers later today, experimenting with examples to give you an idea.

 

[zarrazee]

Fantastic news.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

I feel some people have got the wrong end of the stick. Its all about resource management. By moving missions to a dedicated server, it should be possible to populate mission boards with far more missions, & without the current load times. That will be a *good* thing.....even for board flippers.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

and just like that, the tyranny of the majority struck down yet another playstyle.

RIP BGS. It was pretty awful while it lasted.

It wasn't playstyle, it was exploitation. FD openly said themselves.

 

[Barking_Mad]

2.8% yet if you read Reddit and here, this was a big issue. #vocalminority

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I feel some people have got the wrong end of the stick. Its all about resource management. By moving missions to a dedicated server, it should be possible to populate mission boards with far more missions, & without the current load times. That will be a *good* thing.....even for board flippers.

Really depends If they are ready to accept they might not min max sometimes, or they would need to travel to another station to get stuff they need - yes. But as some of them want that system would just generate missions they want on demand...not sure they want to play ED it is meant to be.

 

[vagabond07]

I hope you have a solution for rank missions.

Flipping to solo was the ONLY reliable way to get a rank mission when I did my rank grinds.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

2.8% yet if you read Reddit and here, this was a big issue. #vocalminority

Min maxers has ALWAYS been very vocal minority and they ALWAYS think everybody else play their way - because it should all be about efficiency and if you play game just for fun - just for different kind of fun - then there's something wrong with you.

That's just indicative in any game.

They are fast food approach fans of gaming community.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

I don't know how I feel about this. Sometimes you just don't get the mission you want/need, for example one that rewards you with modular terminals that you need to unlock an engineer (I forgot which one), so not being able to reload the board via flipping can be frustrating in those moments.
In order to prevent this, the amount of missions available needs to be either increased massively, or the RNG element needs to be decreased. A solution would be handling the mission generation completely different and a bit more dynamic, like giving players the ability to choose a theme for generated missions (like a button for "I only want transport missions" for example) or only generate missions that are suited for your current ship loadout.
Also the best way of making money is stacking up missions of a certain type and thus doing multiple at once, without any adjustments to the mission generation it might be huge cut in overall payouts, the 10% increase just won't cover that. I will run some numbers later today, experimenting with examples to give you an idea.

Hmm, if only we could "Call in Favours" to negotiate our mission parameters, including payout.

Also, I have long wanted them to bring an end to mission stacking. I want missions that feel much more unique and varied, which is anathema to stacking missions.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I feel some people have got the wrong end of the stick. Its all about resource management. By moving missions to a dedicated server, it should be possible to populate mission boards with far more missions, & without the current load times. That will be a *good* thing.....even for board flippers.

Certainly a significant gain of performance, to come

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I hope you have a solution for rank missions.

Flipping to solo was the ONLY reliable way to get a rank mission when I did my rank grinds.

Never had to flip board for rank mission. Ever. It is matter of patience and it appears just around the corner or next board visit.

Issue with board flipping was that it also created this false perception that certain missions doesn't spawn. Yes, they don't spawn instantly, on demand. But they appear sooner or later. And usually sooner. Just stop board hopping.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

I hope you have a solution for rank missions.

Flipping to solo was the ONLY reliable way to get a rank mission when I did my rank grinds.

They already did. They now turn up as Chain Missions, which are handled seperately to regular missions. Every station I go to now I get offered a rank mission......whether I want one or not.

Frankly, its high time the whole Navy Rank system got a complete overhaul anyway. Making the gaining of rank dependant on a single mission makes no sense to me. In previous iterations of the game, you gained progress towards a rank by doing a variety of different Naval Missions, then automatically got your promotion. That is what they need again

 

[Bemoteajh]

How about you give me the ability to request missions of a type that are based ON MY SHIPS CAPABILITIES! rather than showing me Go Kill X when im in a type 9

Example - I am currently headed to Shinrarta to buy a ship, I am currently in an Anaconda with 200 free cargo, Go to mission board and ask agent if there are any goods needing transport to Shinrarta since im on the way there, Agent tells me "No, but there is a delivery that is on your route."

You keep trying to push a "Personal Narrative" so rather than making us react to the world more and more have them react back every now and then eh?

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I don't know how I feel about this. Sometimes you just don't get the mission you want/need, for example one that rewards you with modular terminals that you need to unlock an engineer (I forgot which one), so not being able to reload the board via flipping can be frustrating in those moments

But mission rewards ain't shop or buffet you get what you want. You will get them eventually. Just let it loose.

And yes, there should and definitely will be more missions available.