Now that we've got wings and Multi-crew in the game, it think it's time we think about how missions should work with multiple players involved. Missions are a big part of the game: they add depth and story (albeit light story) and allow players to affect and gain influence with minor and major factions within the game.
I'm hoping that this discussion will help inform ED as they continue to iterate missions in future releases.
My thoughts:
1. All players in a wing or a crew should benefit from a mission.
1a. One possibility: Wing or Crew-specific missions. These missions would be designed from the outset to require multiple wing members or crewmates. The upside is that they are easier to build and balance. The downside is that wings and crews are temporary constructs, and how to handle different wingmates when a mission is turned is likely difficult.
1b. Another possibility: Missions could have secondary rewards for additional crew/wings (I'm just going to say crew from now on. I mean crew and wingmates). So 100,000 credits for the pilot to chooses the mission, and 50,000 for each crew. The crew would have to be present both when the mission is chosen and when it's handed in. For wings, I think local space should be enough, rather than making them land.
1c. A third possibility: Mission owners can select their own split. Mission rewards could be split evenly or unevenly across crew, at the discretion of the mission owner (the pilot who chose the mission). Possibly keep 100%, keep 50% and split remainder, split evenly.
2. Money, influence, reputation, and material rewards should go to all crew. Commodity as well, IF we get commodity storage. To use a sci fi analogies, the crewmates of the Enterprise, the Millennium Falcon, and Serenity are nearly as famous as their captain. From a gameplay point of view, if pilots can do more apart than together, then they will play apart.
3. Gaming the system will happen, but that is not a reason not to implement. If 80% of the people using it use it as designed, and the rest get a bit richer than intended, or move the needle on system influence more than intended, then further updates can address outrageous problems.
Please comment and let me know your thoughts on this. Hopefully we can help inform Frontier Dev as they move ahead on this.[up]
I'm hoping that this discussion will help inform ED as they continue to iterate missions in future releases.
My thoughts:
1. All players in a wing or a crew should benefit from a mission.
1a. One possibility: Wing or Crew-specific missions. These missions would be designed from the outset to require multiple wing members or crewmates. The upside is that they are easier to build and balance. The downside is that wings and crews are temporary constructs, and how to handle different wingmates when a mission is turned is likely difficult.
1b. Another possibility: Missions could have secondary rewards for additional crew/wings (I'm just going to say crew from now on. I mean crew and wingmates). So 100,000 credits for the pilot to chooses the mission, and 50,000 for each crew. The crew would have to be present both when the mission is chosen and when it's handed in. For wings, I think local space should be enough, rather than making them land.
1c. A third possibility: Mission owners can select their own split. Mission rewards could be split evenly or unevenly across crew, at the discretion of the mission owner (the pilot who chose the mission). Possibly keep 100%, keep 50% and split remainder, split evenly.
2. Money, influence, reputation, and material rewards should go to all crew. Commodity as well, IF we get commodity storage. To use a sci fi analogies, the crewmates of the Enterprise, the Millennium Falcon, and Serenity are nearly as famous as their captain. From a gameplay point of view, if pilots can do more apart than together, then they will play apart.
3. Gaming the system will happen, but that is not a reason not to implement. If 80% of the people using it use it as designed, and the rest get a bit richer than intended, or move the needle on system influence more than intended, then further updates can address outrageous problems.
Please comment and let me know your thoughts on this. Hopefully we can help inform Frontier Dev as they move ahead on this.[up]