Military missions

[GeordieMarv]

Been playing Elite since the Premium BETA, I am a kick starter backer. So I love the game, I really do.
But what's going on with the missions/bulletin boards for the military/navy?

I am currently an Ensign for the Federal Navy, not the faction I had planned...it's just how it turned out . But I have to say I am finding the missions for the military extremely boring/tedious/mundane.
Where is the variation? Where is the excitement? Maybe it's just me, and I'm not actually a high enough rank yet and maybe the good missions are about to come? But I mean, I'm an "Ensign"...which is only 3 ranks away from the very top Federal Navy rank of "Post Commander". So I would have expected to see some variation in the military based missions by now.

Currently I get the usual missions, maybe even the odd "go to here and get a permit" mission. Which you do, and then have to go back to doing mundane missions to get that faction/station to like you. Very occasionally you will get the odd "assassination" mission. Go here, kill this ship for 150,000c.

There was talk (I believe in one of the dev diary videos) of how maybe doing a mission would give you a special "contact". There was even talk of you maybe being able to then give this "contact" to a friend so he could then also get missions from him! Did this ever make it into the game at all? I hope so, I really do.

Why can't I be given, say a mission to go and scan an unknown world. Surely it can't be that hard for the game to look and pick a system that is totally undiscovered and make me go there? I mean I'm no coder, but surely things like this can be done. Why can't I get a mission to go and scan/photograph a known pirate outpost? Or a known Imperial station/outpost?

More importantly, why can I not be sent to a warzone to kill lots of ships? I would have thought doing missions for the military (be it Federation or Imperial) would be lots and lots of missions like this? Where, as I say is the excitement? I want to be fighting in wars on the outer edges of populated space, not doing some mundane delivery job or the occasional assassination mission!

Don't get me wrong, I love this game...I'm just being honest and saying that I find the whole military based stuff extremely flat.

Maybe it is just me, and as I have stated I'm simply not seeing the interesting stuff because I'm not a high enough rank. Has anyone else had any exciting missions? Is there any commanders here of a higher federal rank than myself that have seen ANYTHING remotely interesting to do for said military? I really really hope it's just a case of me not getting the good stuff yet...if not... come on FD! Give us something exciting to do for these military missions...please!

 

[Whiterose]

I was waiting for a naval Ascesnsion mission to Baron. Boom up it pops, great I was thinking kill a general in an Anaconda, run a gauntlet with some data. Nope....deliver two canisters of food. Great....really felt like I had earnt my rank.

 

[GeordieMarv]

I was waiting for a naval Ascesnsion mission to Baron. Boom up it pops, great I was thinking kill a general in an Anaconda, run a gauntlet with some data. Nope....deliver two canisters of food. Great....really felt like I had earnt my rank.

yes, disappointing isn't it. I'm glad that it's not just me.

 

[vulkman]

Yeah, I too would love to see some more X-Wing-ish or Wing Commander-ish missions, with checkpoints to patrol, ships to escort, specific targets to destroy or disable etc., but maybe that will come with Wings, as right now it wouldn't make a lot of sense as you would have to do all of that on your own.

 

[GeordieMarv]

Yeah, I too would love to see some more X-Wing-ish or Wing Commander-ish missions, with checkpoints to patrol, ships to escort, specific targets to destroy or disable etc., but maybe that will come with Wings, as right now it wouldn't make a lot of sense as you would have to do all of that on your own.

Yeah I know what you're saying...but surely there are things they can give solitary ships to do. Other than the usual mundane delivery jobs etc.
Hopefully "wings" will add some much needed gameplay. But I just feel the whole military stuff isn't really that different than the trading stuff. Well except for the odd assassination mission.
I really hope FD does something about this, at the moment it's just doesn't feel that I'm doing stuff for the military at all!

 

[Tuub t Tute]

Same, flew around for a week grinding faction and having 1 or 2 unobtainables of the Exbeur permit on almost every bulletin board. Finally Naval mission pops up with "fly this 2t of grain 10LY for us, there's a good chap..." #picardfacepalm

 

[Abil Midena]

I was waiting for a naval Ascesnsion mission to Baron. Boom up it pops, great I was thinking kill a general in an Anaconda, run a gauntlet with some data. Nope....deliver two canisters of food. Great....really felt like I had earnt my rank.

But that food was caviar. And that General needed his caviar. You sucked up to a General and got promoted. Just like real life!

 

[iFez]

They should add some missions where you have to go to a system where there is a civil war going on with a Federation faction, and that you have to collect some combat bonds to help the Federation. This type of mission would make sense because you are part of the Federation Navy, so you should fight every now and again and you should be trying to make the Federation stronger across the Universe.

This way you would also be automatically led to systems where things are happening, and if other pilots get the same mission (or the same mission but for the Empire/Alliance), then we might get some nice player interaction.

 

[GeordieMarv]

They should add some missions where you have to go to a system where there is a civil war going on with a Federation faction, and that you have to collect some combat bonds to help the Federation. This type of mission would make sense because you are part of the Federation Navy, so you should fight every now and again and you should be trying to make the Federation stronger across the Universe.

This way you would also be automatically led to systems where things are happening, and if other pilots get the same mission (or the same mission but for the Empire/Alliance), then we might get some nice player interaction.

Yes, this is exactly the sort of thing I mean. It seems preposterous that we don't get things like this.
Yes I know there are warzones that I can go to myself, but why can't one of the Federal Navy missions send me there?
Surely as Fed member, I should be fighting "enemies of the Federation" be that Pirates, Imperials or who ever. I mean, go and deliver 2 canister's of food?? Really???
For the love of god FD, make these missions exciting! If I wanted to be delivering 2 canisters of food, surely I would just be trading and not working for the military?

 

[GeordieMarv]

I would like to think that someone (games designer maybe) from FD can post in this thread and explain why we don't get stuff like this.
Or even let us know if we can ever expect anything like this with the addition of wings. But sadly I feel even wings won't make too much difference.


Will wings allow me and a friend to do bb missions? I doubt it!
If a friend is doing stuff for the Imperials and I'm doing stuff for the Federation, surely we won't be able to share a bb mission? How would that effect my friends Imperial rating if we share a federal mission?
I think wings will give people the ability to stay together and do "bigger USS signals" and that is all. Hopefully I am wrong though.

 

[Kerrec Snowmane]

Post Commander is the highest rank in the Federation? Wow, what a bummer. Based on the trivialness of the naval progression missions I got, I figured I was just at the beginning... not the end.

 

[GeordieMarv]

Post Commander is the highest rank in the Federation? Wow, what a bummer. Based on the trivialness of the naval progression missions I got, I figured I was just at the beginning... not the end.

Exactly! The ranking for the Federation is as follows :-

Recruit
Cadet
Midshipman
Petty Officer
Chief Petty Officer
Warrant Officer
Ensign
Lieutenant
Lieutenant Commander
Post Commander

I am glad that it's not just me that is really disappointed with the state of the "military" missions. It will be interesting to (hopefully) hear from some commanders higher than "Federal Ensign" or "Imperial Baron" and see what sort of missions they get. But I kind of doubt that they are getting anything wildly exciting either.

 

[Feldspar]

It definitely feels like a placeholder, hopefully it will be flesh out soon, but now it is just a series of mostly uninspiring tasks that do not vary from the usual bulletin board missions.

 

[Vagabond]

Yeah I'd very much like to see the mission mechanic improve. And especially so military ones as they already have a theme.

And tying them in with their own background simulation (as stated above; i.e warzones, civil wars, anarchy space) seems like the easiest and most graceful way to achieve that.

 

[Dogeh]

A Naval mission appeared on my Bulletin Board last night.
So I just clicked it and completed the assassination of a General. Never thought much about it, or read it.
Mind you, it was 20 minutes of searching every USS and finding pirates, canisters of chemical waste and unhappy Imperial Navy Eagles.

When I got back to base, my friendly rep with the Empire had a red arrow beside it, and I hadn't advanced any ranks.
I was like, "WTH?".

Until I looked at my Fed rank which had advanced.
So now I'm going to have to kowtow to the Empire (hail the Emperor) and get my rep back up.
I guess I got the Fed Naval mission because the station that put it up on their bulletin board was an Independent station in Empire space. At least that is what I am going with.

It always pays to read the small print.

So the missions are still there.
They should get harder as you go up the ranks. The delivery of two tonnes of Animal Meat in an Agricultural station to advance to Baron is just silly.

 

[welshronaldo]

Totally agree, Marv. Have some rep. I'd actually have preferred them to leave out the military stuff until they were able to flesh out the implementation a bit. For that matter I'd be happy for them to reset military status if and when it does get some TLC even though I've ranked up a fair bit already.

 

[GeordieMarv]

Really appreciate all this feed back off my fellow commanders!
Let's hope FD pay attention and flesh things out a lot more, as currently there isn't a great deal of incentive or excitement in the military missions...this is just my humble opinion though.

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Totally agree, Marv. Have some rep. I'd actually have preferred them to leave out the military stuff until they were able to flesh out the implementation a bit. For that matter I'd be happy for them to reset military status if and when it does get some TLC even though I've ranked up a fair bit already.

Thanks man!
As I say I love this game, I just feel it could be better by a long chalk.

Edit - yes, it does make me wonder why they didn't leave stuff like this out until it was working better! Maybe because currently there is still an awful lot missing from this game as it is.

 

[Photon]

Another missing aspect with military missions is equipment.
When you're sent by a real military, you're not supposed to bring your own gun.

Why can't a military assault mission include a loaned fully equipped Drop-ship?

 

[Stein]

...
Until I looked at my Fed rank which had advanced.
...

Lol, feel your pain. I was grinding two stations to advance in Empire yesterday, when finally a naval ascension opportunity came up. Did the mission (fetch 2 stuff), ... , I'm still a squire?. Was ready to ticket as bug, until I noticed I'd become a recruit of Federation. Turns out the whole station was Fed.. So yeah, pay attention to these details.

 

[dunnst]

I'd like to get this thread back to life.

Military missions - I would very much like military specific missions system similar like in FFE (Elite 3). This means, that among the factions, I will have one tab for military, where I can contact the actual of the Federation fleet / Imperial navy / Alliance colonial forces (just made that up) on that station. Under this tab, I'd like to see all missions related with the military and I'd like to see more of them, than we have now. Exactly as GeordieMarv stated here - photographing secret bases, flying to some distant system to explore everything/destroy an outpost with nucelar missile/retrieve plans of death star/locate and kill a pilot who deserted (and fleed to 200 LY distant uninhabbited system)... et cetera.

In FFE was a special kind of mission, that gave you a lot of rep and helped your progress quite a bit (well, at least the mission said so). This mission took usualy quite some time and was much more difficult, than other missions. I think, that the same shall apply for that one mission, that allows you to rank up. You wanna rank up? No problem mate, just equip your ship with missile launcher, let us load it with nuclear ordnance, got to this 500 LY distant system, locate deep space probe somewhere in that system, scan it, dock with it manualy, upload a virus and after a minute, when the station sends this virus to our enemy, launch a nuclear missile on it. If you can do that, we will raise your rank to baron. Doing this mission doesn't necessary mean, that you will loose rep at the other faction, whos probe you just gunned down. That is why you gunned it down, so there would be no evidence. This scenario can vary, of course, for example, you will not launch a missile, but drop it when docket, or just jettison in in close range, I'll leave this one to the devs.

So, does anybody else have some suggestions to how he/she/it would like to see military missions? If enough attention is raised, the devs will surely look at it and hopefully implement it.