Losing my with these Smear Campaign Plans for Yarden Bond

Punchdrunk1973

P
so close to rage quitting...

I've come back to the game after 3 years away, bought odyssey, got myself a python mk2 and a cobra V. Ok, this is good. Guess I'll check out this odyssey stuff.
Surprisingly I quite enjoy the ground based play, so I think I'll unlock the engineers.
bad BAD game design on this, but it's Elite, so I start grinding it out. Eventually I get to Yarden Bond, I checked Inara, so I'd already sold 5 smear campaigns that I was lucky to get early.
No unlock, eventually I discover that this is probably because I sold them to bartenders BEFORE being referred to her.
ok, get some more... 2 days play of flipping boards, going through every mission at multiple sites before I eventually find a mission with this reward. Do it, hand in the mission.
Run to the bartender - NO smear campaigns in my inventory!
what the bloody g hell?

I'm not spending another 8+ hours just hoping that a mission pops up with a specific material reward so I can progress. What idiot designed a system that is locked behind totally random mission rewards?

"go to the colonia engineer instead" - yeah except apparently there are NO engineering mats at all in Colonia due to yet another bug. But Odyssey has been out for years??? UGH
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
You can only sell Smear Campaigns to Anarchy bartenders. Everything was working great before Powerplay v2 (settlements outside PP control don't make loot). Frontier can't add a thing without breaking 5 others.
 

Punchdrunk1973

P
Thanks all. But after a night's sleep I've calmed down and Metatheurgist was right. It's the "only sell to anarchy" thing. I had 22 smear campaigns but the game. wasn't showing them as I wasn't in an anarchy system.

How on earth are we supposed to know that? I swear without the forums and Inara this game would be unplayable.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
It's not a bug, it's...questionable coding technique.

One of the ways you can control user behavior and input error is to remove input options. I do this all the time because I'm a lazy slob but only for my own projects that only me or my friends are using. I know what's going on and if my friends get confused they can just turn around and ask "what's going on?"

It's a perfectly valid technique. If you are supposed to enter a number code, you could let someone input letters and write an error trap to say 'Hey, numbers only!' or you could just remove the ability to enter letters. Not only is that more efficient it's easier. If you have a C4 module slot, you could display every module available or you could just show everything C4 and under. Not only don't you have write an error that says "Not that one!" you also remove clutter. Again easier and better.

But you can take this too far.

If you remove Smear Campaigns in non-anarchy systems, sure that stops the user from selling them but it leaves the user confused. They know they have them but they don't know why they can't see them, so they think it's a bug and get annoyed. The right thing to do would be to show the SC in the list but either disable it with a message that says "Illegal in this jurisdiction" or pop up a message that says the same when you try to sell it. This would inform the player and let them make a positive gameplay decision...but that is more work.

If a module would exceed the ship's Thruster or FSD mass the game just removes the ability to equip the module by hiding it. Sure that stops the user from making a ship that can't fly but again it leaves the user confused since they know they have the module in storage but they don't know why they can't equip it. The right thing to do would be to leave it as an option but disabled with a message explaining why it can't be equipped or a popup saying the same if you tried. Informative and lets the player make a positive gameplay decision...but again, more work.

Frontier's reliance on this technique in many places when I've realised what's happening often has me wondering what sort of standards they have over there. :unsure:
 

SteveWW57

SteveWW57
In a way, it is logical when interacting with a non anarchy that any "dodgy" stuff that you have will not show when interacting. It only shows what you have that the bartender is willing to deal with.

I have lots of mats that are only really relevant to Colonia, but I am not going back. I am happy to pass them on to someone in need. Apart from the Colonia only mats, it is worth taking as many mats as you can for Ody Engineering as it is easier to get stuff in the bubble I have found.
 

Firedrax

F
Regardless of which type of system you are in, prohibited items in that system can still be seen via the right panel storage details.
 

Lloydww

L
You can find out what Odyssey stuff you own under the Storage tab in your right (4) panel. Item and data which can only be sold in anarchy systems are marked as prohibited or some such.
 

Cemenotar

Cemenotar
metatheurgist said:
It's not a bug, it's...questionable coding technique.

One of the ways you can control user behavior and input error is to remove input options. I do this all the time because I'm a lazy slob but only for my own projects that only me or my friends are using. I know what's going on and if my friends get confused they can just turn around and ask "what's going on?"

It's a perfectly valid technique. If you are supposed to enter a number code, you could let someone input letters and write an error trap to say 'Hey, numbers only!' or you could just remove the ability to enter letters. Not only is that more efficient it's easier. If you have a C4 module slot, you could display every module available or you could just show everything C4 and under. Not only don't you have write an error that says "Not that one!" you also remove clutter. Again easier and better.

But you can take this too far.

If you remove Smear Campaigns in non-anarchy systems, sure that stops the user from selling them but it leaves the user confused. They know they have them but they don't know why they can't see them, so they think it's a bug and get annoyed. The right thing to do would be to show the SC in the list but either disable it with a message that says "Illegal in this jurisdiction" or pop up a message that says the same when you try to sell it. This would inform the player and let them make a positive gameplay decision...but that is more work.

If a module would exceed the ship's Thruster or FSD mass the game just removes the ability to equip the module by hiding it. Sure that stops the user from making a ship that can't fly but again it leaves the user confused since they know they have the module in storage but they don't know why they can't equip it. The right thing to do would be to leave it as an option but disabled with a message explaining why it can't be equipped or a popup saying the same if you tried. Informative and lets the player make a positive gameplay decision...but again, more work.

Frontier's reliance on this technique in many places when I've realised what's happening often has me wondering what sort of standards they have over there. :unsure:
Click to expand...
The only issue with this post, is that as far as ship outfitting goes the game does not hide the incompatible modules, it still displays them but at the bottom of the list, and with red or grey overlay - when you click it, it will even tell you why this module cannot be fitted to said ship. It is easy to miss them being there, since they are sorted to the bottom of the list, but they are still there. So it is not like they use this technique everywhere, since they clearly don't but they did use it for bartenders menu.
Meanwhile there are placess they could use that technique but didn't, for example delivery of odyssey goods/data in power contact - it lists all the kinds of items regardless of if you have that thing to deliver or not, which means that to deliver each specific bundle you have to scroll through long list of things you didn't happen to pick up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom