Increase payout for massacre missions

[Bionic Bytes]

Currently (as per the patches post 2.4) you can't stack massacre missions in combat zones. yes, technically you can from different mission givers, but in reality that doesn't happen and you need to complete each mission one at a time.
As things stand, the payout reward for killing 95/108 ships can be between 14-18 million which is simply not enough given the length of time it takes to complete the mission and the risk involved (yet alone the 30+ million for an Annaconda re-buy). When the mission stacking was allowed, the payouts when stacked were good enough without being too much given that it would take 4-5 hours to complete non-stop.
I would like to request either allowing stacking massacre missions (3-5 of them) or drastically increasing the payout whilst increasing the time to complete the missions; there is no way to stack 3 missions of 90+ kills each and complete this within the current 24 hour time frame....not unless you think that giving up sleep, work and family life is acceptable.

 

[MBaldelli]

You are aware this has been done because people were exploiting the apparent gold fountain this had created? So good luck in getting this decision reversed.

 

[CMDR R.Hunter]

You are aware this has been done because people were exploiting the apparent gold fountain this had created? So good luck in getting this decision reversed.

As opposed to the current gold fountain that is being a space-UBER driver. The direction this game is taking is worrying. Military missions should be looked into with detail. Rank Payoff should be greater, and quantity should be greater as well. This game is catered to the needs of passive players who are content with hauling cargo and passengers ad nauseam. Why not make it so for players who seek some thrill and excitement in their space faring adventure? As it stands, even as a combat focused pilot, you will have to haul cargo or intel or passengers at one point or another to advance, vs a player who can avoid combat altogether and achieve 2/3 elite ranks with TOP Fed rank and TOP Game Ships. :/

 

[MBaldelli]

As opposed to the current gold fountain that is being a space-UBER driver. The direction this game is taking is worrying. Military missions should be looked into with detail. Rank Payoff should be greater, and quantity should be greater as well. This game is catered to the needs of passive players who are content with hauling cargo and passengers ad nauseam. Why not make it so for players who seek some thrill and excitement in their space faring adventure? As it stands, even as a combat focused pilot, you will have to haul cargo or intel or passengers at one point or another to advance, vs a player who can avoid combat altogether and achieve 2/3 elite ranks with TOP Fed rank and TOP Game Ships. :/

I know... Believe me, I know.. I was doing courier missions yesterday and I had one pay 320K credits because the destination was around the second star of the system 318K LS from entry. Yet I saw the day before a courier mission to Colonia for 2,500 credits. I swear it's pure RNG for pay out.

 

[Bionic Bytes]

You are aware this has been done because people were exploiting the apparent gold fountain this had created? So good luck in getting this decision reversed.

Yes fully aware but the tweaking has made the career choice of a combat pilot untenable because the payout is just too low and time to complete too short. There really is no point in the mission board giving several massacre missions as you can’t stack them and must complete each sequentially which you know is going to take far too long.
I tried the spec ops mission types the other day and was surprised that the mission (once accepted) wanted me to kill 45 ships of a certain kind. I had to abandon as I estimated that it would take months of time to complete!!

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Rather than allowing stacking (which was silly) or increasing the payout (which is decent per-mission), I would prefer reducing the kill count required.

100 kills in a CZ takes a *while*: in my FDL I'm not in any danger out there, but I'd expect to have to go back to reload at least 4-5 times, taking maybe 3 hours to complete the mission. For that, I'd get about 5 million credits, plus the actual bonds.

Or, I could take a single cargo haul mission in my Python and get the same money in ten minutes, with maybe one easy pirate to evade or kill along the way.

(Yes: obviously a suitably-fit Corvette or Anaconda could get CZ kills quicker and need to return for reloading less - it could also take three times the cargo of my Python, so that makes the disparity worse, not better)

Reduce the kill count for the massacre mission to 10 kills, and it takes a similar amount of time to the trade missions for similar pay. Pick up a couple, do them, return to the station to reload and pick up a couple more if I feel like carrying on with the CZ. Having to commit several hours to it means I just don't bother with the missions at all.

 

[AbsinthSvK]

starting comparing payout? What is roof? 200M per 40min in long passenger missions?

exploiting stacking massacre missions? OH you know killing ships need some skill and you must play game. Not just fly forward and watch TV.
Balance? Zero.

For all who play game for money: start doing long passenger missions and then play other missions only for fun, not for money.

 

[MBaldelli]

starting comparing payout? What is roof? 200M per 40min in long passenger missions?

exploiting stacking massacre missions? OH you know killing ships need some skill and you must play game. Not just fly forward and watch TV.
Balance? Zero.

For all who play game for money: start doing long passenger missions and then play other missions only for fun, not for money.

One of the biggest ongoing problems that I've noticed through the year I've been with this game is the fact that we have a poorly designed sandbox economy that is split between:

1. Every day Missions can have RNG payouts that while I'm sure there is some logic to them, doesn't seem to have consistent logic to them.
2. Changes to the economy done by frequent requests from the player base that change focus from exploration, passenger/taxi, Assassination, Skimmer, etc.
3. An apparent admission from FDev that they know the economy is completely knackered and throw out gold fountains haphazardly based on updates. Like Ceos/Sothis, Quince, etc.

I believe that we of the player base need to unify our voice and say, "okay enough. Work on the whole thing, don't piecemeal it anymore."

 

[Bionic Bytes]

Rather than allowing stacking (which was silly) or increasing the payout (which is decent per-mission), I would prefer reducing the kill count required.

I actually prefer this method (reducing the kill count) to level the playing field in CZ massacre missions. I have flown many, many hours on CZ missions in a tanked G2/3 engineered Anaconda and really struggle to kill more than 20 ships in any one batch without having to return to base to repair and reload. The main issue is that the NPC ships are too heavily engineered, tanked to the max and choose crazy kamikaze tactics. The ships in RES sites are no match in comparison.
So, yes, massively reduce the kill count and then the rewards match the risk involved.

 

[Moesis]

I agree about the kill counts, IMO they become too high for higher tiers of these missions. Considering that there's 2 (basic) types of these missions, this is a far larger problem for the massacre missions outside of conflict zones, than within them, this mission type really does need to be reworked IMO.

I'm not so much bothered about the cash earned, the issue is they become tedious quickly, and when you have a high combat rank, you rarely see sensible target counts like those offered at the lower mission ranks, because the mission ranks are influenced by your rank.

I'd actually like to see them do a kind of goal type mission structure for these missions, i.e. kind of like community goals (only personal per commander instead) where you essentially get a contract to kill x of target type (where x is quite small 4-8 or so) and that is essentially tier 1, you can then hand in the mission or keep going (if you want) and earn a tier 2 - reward after 8-16 kills tier 3 16-32 etc with payments rising for each tier (similar to what already happens behind the scenes with the missions offered at the moment).

This way time need not be as much of an issue (i.e. they could have an unknown time essentially 24+ hrs, but forced to end when the current faction state does), and some other elements could be added in like, you've got the mission active so you are sided with that faction until you turn in the mission or it ends, now perhaps crimes against opposing combatants could be turned off system wide, and you could be hunted outside conflict zones in that system, i.e the system is now a conflict area, and the conflict zones, are simply hot-spots of activity.

Anyway just my ramblings.