News Implementation of a dedicated mission server

[The Chairmaker]

Everyone is talking about board flipping, however from my perspective i wonder if by having dedicated servers it will allow the mission system to be more reflective of whats happening in the game. It may allow Frontier for example to inject specific missions at short notice into an area. For example
One of the rightfull criticisms of the game is that Thargoids can be attacking a system but everything just appears to carry on as normal, imagine if when thargoids attacked, the mission board changed to demand different things eg rescue missions, refugee evacuations.

I wonder if it will also make it easier to chain missions with a dedicated server, as there will now be persistance across the game.

Persistance also makes me wonder if the mission generating system will be tweaked to be smarter with regard to the specific factions actual state. I appreciate that missions at present are influenced by the BGS, but we could and should be able to see more complex interactions both locally within a system and regionally across a sector, with regard to events. An example i would use would be imagine if one of the major player groups such as Da Vinci corp who control over 50 systems went into outbreak, then there should be regional shortages of medicines not just in the systems they control but also within say a bubble of 30 light years around each controlled system. This would then effect pricing in that region with a knock on effect for other factions.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

But you can't. That's whole point. If you can min max all the time - what's the point of having to go elsewhere or move or look for better offers?

I AM looking for better offers, by board flipping. In principle I see what you're saying, but freight haulers don't just pick up everything that's available willy-nilly and take it to wherever the destination takes them. They at the very least try to get everything going in the same direction. In this game there's no way to do that. The best we have is same destination. Otherwise there's no way someone is going to memorize all the systems in the bubble, and there are no tools to help you without loading the galmap every time. Yes, one COULD do that, but that's not exactly compelling game play. I just want to load up some cargo and go.

Wing missions solves this partially by letting me fill my entire cargo hold with cargo to a single destination, but they pay is ridiculous right now. So...rebalance, rework etc. How about payouts for missions that scale depending on how much work you do? Do you yourself, you get 100% of the payout. do 20% of the work because you shared it, you get 20% someone else gets 80%. That way if you solo a wing mission it pays as much as a solo mission that that much cargo would have, effectively removing any distinction between wing and solo missions.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Apparently I did. Which makes my post even more on point. Board flipping was a non-issue. Uncountable hauling and undermining is.

You won't be able to touch it anyone you can't create matchmaking session with. That involves anybody living in different continent and with poor connection.

 

[stormyuk]

Sure you're not secretly trying to get an advantage on the BGS? Because that's apparently what matters.

You know what, I can hand on heart say I have never even considered the background sim when I have board hopped. Shocking I know.

Wow? Really? I guess you just want me to log in once every few hours? Days?

If it comes to that I'm out. No more cash flow from me at that point... What garbage.

This is not an instant gratification issue. This is an enjoyment issue. This is not my job, and I don't want to treat it like one.

Yeh those Guardian sites will be fun, get one BP and login the next day. Dynamic gameplay. Visit Dav's hope for some chemical manipulators once per day and pray they appear?

 

[mistohise]

I don't board flip to stack.
I have sometimes board flipped because the mission board has offered nothing that I want. Loads of the exact same mission type being offered is daft. If one mission server means we have loads of the same mission type AND no way for that to change because it will always be the same list, then that kills missions for me.
If, OTOH, it means MORE variety, then that's great.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I AM looking for better offers, by board flipping. In principle I see what you're saying, but freight haulers don't just pick up everything that's available willy-nilly and take it to wherever the destination takes them. They at the very least try to get everything going in the same direction. In this game there's no way to do that.

So it sounds way to indicate or filter missions by system you are travelling to might partially solve this issue? Because I am all for it.

 

[kittykatze]

I'm not so sure this will be a good change, one of the reasons that board flipping has to happen sometimes is that the board will give you a list entirely of missions you dont want to do and thats something thats never been stabilized even with more missions added to the pool. There was a brief time after 2.4 was released where roughly 5 times as many missions were being generated as currently but that was halted presumably because of problems loading the mission board. However, If we went back to those numbers (though we still get more now than we used to before 2.4) it could be better.

TL;DR: If this change led to being able to select one's own mission type that they want to generate, and/or if it led to a whole lot more missions being generated, it could be a very good thing, but there is no mention of that here. Without one or both of those things, there are a lot of ways this can be a change for the worse.

 

[Mephane]

Greetings Commanders,

In the next chapter of Beyond (3.3), we will be implementing and migrating mission data to a new separate server. While this mainly affects the back-end of the game, you will see some changes to missions in-game.

As it currently stands, missions are on a shared server with other elements of the game. This has the risk of problems with missions causing outages and stability issues for the rest of the game if there are technical hiccups.

So, what benefits will we see by moving missions to their own separate server?

• Any issue (generated by missions) which can cause a server outage or stability problems will no longer result in players disconnecting. Instead the missions will be unavailable for a period of time.
• If such issues do occur, the previous servers will be able to act as a back-up, offering better opportunities to recover game content as quickly as possible.
• We may see a slight decrease in mission board loading times.
• Missions will now be consistent across game modes (Solo/Open/Private Group).

It's also worth noting that, as a result of a dedicated 'mission server', there will be a removal/significant reduction of the method of refreshing mission boards by logging in and out of the game ("board flipping"). While we understand that this is a practice utilised by some* players, this was never the intended use of the mission system.

Even though there is a small number of players doing this, we will increase the credit payout of missions (by 10%) across the board so all players using the mission boards as intended will see a net profit. As a result of this, some mission reward choices will see boosted influence, reputation and rank gains. As always when it comes to missions, we will continually review and balance them where needed.

Ultimately, this is a healthy step for our overall servers and game experience.

If you have any questions or would like to share your feedback with us, please post below!

*we found that only 2.8% of daily online players were using the mission system in this way.

Great news, and about time.

Board flipping shouldn't be a thing, nor should players ever feel compelled to have to do it anyway.

 

[Lamartian]

Please, for the love of everything holy, give us a secondary, wing mission-exclusive board if we are going to lose board flipping.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

So it sounds way to indicate or filter missions by system you are travelling to might partially solve this issue? Because I am all for it.

problem, is that's not what FDev has offered. At least not as of yet. What they've put on the table so far is to take away my ability to filter/choose missions without replacing it with any other way to do it and offered me a 10% payout bump in return.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

problem, is that's not what FDev has offered. At least not as of yet. What they've put on the table so far is to take away my ability to filter/choose missions without replacing it with any other way to do it and offered me a 10% payout bump in return.

I think this post was just about dedicated mission server going into 3.3, most likely guys did some alpha and beta testing and got confirm from management. We don't know - and we can hope - there are way more mission improvements - especially to mission board - coming. If this is spirit of Q4, it sounds like really heavy push to fix all big issues with game.

 

[Elan]

I hope this will mean that there are many, many more missions available to choose from!

 

[Dean Demon]

This is great news and a step in the right direction, i've never flipped the mission board in the 4 years that i've been playing and got kind of annoyed when certain types of players did and always thought it would be great if you could be locked out of the mission board if you attempted to flip but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

 

[Codger]

Sounds good. As others have said, here's hoping this change will make it easier for you to control and enhance the mission system, going forward.

It's a very central part of the game, and it's still kinda wonky. Board flipping shouldn't be necessary, anyway, that's a silly mechanic.

We sure could use a bit more player agency in mission selection, though!

Thanks for your hard work.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I think this post was just about dedicated mission server going into 3.3, most likely guys did some alpha and beta testing and got confirm from management. We don't know - and we can hope - there are way more mission improvements - especially to mission board - coming. If this is spirit of Q4, it sounds like really heavy push to fix all big issues with game.

I hope you're right...but as I said elsewhere, my cautious optimism is still in the hospital, recovering from the last time I trusted it to FDev.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I hope this will mean that there are many, many more missions available to choose from!

If they can get back to 2.4 levels I think it will be already partially success.

 

[CMDR Flamadiddle]

Please, for the love of everything holy, give us a secondary, wing mission-exclusive board if we are going to lose board flipping.

This would help ease the pain. I for sure don't want those cluttering up and taking away from missions that I could be offered.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

If they can get back to 2.4 levels I think it will be already partially success.

oh the bygone glory days of mission boards with 80-100 missions....

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I hope you're right...but as I said elsewhere, my cautious optimism is still in the hospital, recovering from the last time I trusted it to FDev.

Sure. Wait and see approach anyway.

 

[Nova Viper Dwagon]

Remeber the Cant!
wait... I mean Gronsis!

still have not forgotten but I can see this will be useful for them ANNOYING PLAGUE KNOWN AS PLANETARY MISSIONS!, but if I see a single bug and screw up frontier! it better be tested!