I'd like to discuss the state of Missions in Elite Dangerous. Let me preface this by saying, I love Elite Dangerous, and I want it to succeed to the highest degree possible. If I didn't care, I wouldn't be writing this.
The entire mission system, including bulletin board offerings and random Unidentified Signal Source (USS) encounters, looks like an unfinished placeholder. Elite offers an incredible foundation for exciting things to happen in, but exciting and compelling content is far too rare.
In my opinion, missions represent the biggest "missed opportunity" in the game. They are so disappointing that they sap much of my enthusiasm for the experience.
What's wrong with the missions as they are currently implemented? They are extremely generic, predictable, and simplistic.
Missions are generic because they always feel like they are just a another random thing to do, with nothing at stake. Instead of going to a specific target, you simply cruise around waiting for a USS to appear. There is no investment or sense of place, no traveling to interesting orbital locations or ring systems, it all just falls into your lap with the unsatisfying appearance of a USS. For combat missions, why not have players sweep target several targeted locations in a patrol? This would make it feel more like you are accomplishing something. Some nav points would be full of pirates or enemy combatants, others would be empty or contain civilians in different states of distress.
Missions are predictable because there are so few mission templates. Assassination missions almost always generate a single elite Anaconda. Trade missions don't appear to generate any additional risk, like pirate ambushes. Likewise, salvage missions are almost always just a wreck with the cargo floating around. There are no aggressive competing salvagers or pirate ambushes. There needs to be a greater variety of challenges and things that can "go wrong". These things shouldn't happen all the time, just some of the time.
Finally, missions are overly simplistic. This is the biggest issue. Missions generally have you facing the same unstructured scenarios that you run into during a "free roam" session. They provide additional rewards for activities that are already available, but they do not produce compelling new scenarios. Let's take Piracy missions for example. Here is the kind of scenario I imagine and wish would happen:
Player is tasked with tracking down a specific freighter carrying a unique artifact/cargo. Yes, by "unique" I mean there is only one, and the client wants it intact. The player must track down the freighter, possibly pull it out of supercruise, fend off a hostile escort wing, possibly pursue it with a wake scanner, compel the freighter to drop its cargo, successfully scoop it up without destroying it, and then travel to a delivery location (possibly in deep space, possibly at a station). During this last phase, the player is potentially pursued by authorities, bounty hunters, or mob hitmen. This scenario would have a variety of templates that change the type of ships involved, and the strength of the opposition etc. Sometimes these encounters would take place in orbit of a planet, in an asteroid field/ring system, or in deep space.
Now compare this to how Piracy missions currently stand. Player is tasked with bringing stolen standard cargo to a station. You can get it from anywhere, but it has to be stolen. Done.
In general there should be more types of missions too: rescue missions, escort missions, exploration missions, mining/prospecting missions, etc. There should also be more emergent spontaneous missions that are offered during free flight, like distress signals, refueling requests, and "shady offers" from smugglers.
So please Frontier, I implore you: create more complex and interesting mission templates. I know it has to be compatible with procedural generation, but the game has so much more potential than what is currently offered. If you need ideas, I'm sure your loyal fans on the forum could offer many exciting scenarios!
TLDR: Missions are generic, predictable, and simplistic. The game could be made so much better by providing players with more complex, variable, and exciting mission templates.
Final question to readers who made it this far: What plausible mission templates and event scenarios would you like to see in the game?
The entire mission system, including bulletin board offerings and random Unidentified Signal Source (USS) encounters, looks like an unfinished placeholder. Elite offers an incredible foundation for exciting things to happen in, but exciting and compelling content is far too rare.
In my opinion, missions represent the biggest "missed opportunity" in the game. They are so disappointing that they sap much of my enthusiasm for the experience.
What's wrong with the missions as they are currently implemented? They are extremely generic, predictable, and simplistic.
Missions are generic because they always feel like they are just a another random thing to do, with nothing at stake. Instead of going to a specific target, you simply cruise around waiting for a USS to appear. There is no investment or sense of place, no traveling to interesting orbital locations or ring systems, it all just falls into your lap with the unsatisfying appearance of a USS. For combat missions, why not have players sweep target several targeted locations in a patrol? This would make it feel more like you are accomplishing something. Some nav points would be full of pirates or enemy combatants, others would be empty or contain civilians in different states of distress.
Missions are predictable because there are so few mission templates. Assassination missions almost always generate a single elite Anaconda. Trade missions don't appear to generate any additional risk, like pirate ambushes. Likewise, salvage missions are almost always just a wreck with the cargo floating around. There are no aggressive competing salvagers or pirate ambushes. There needs to be a greater variety of challenges and things that can "go wrong". These things shouldn't happen all the time, just some of the time.
Finally, missions are overly simplistic. This is the biggest issue. Missions generally have you facing the same unstructured scenarios that you run into during a "free roam" session. They provide additional rewards for activities that are already available, but they do not produce compelling new scenarios. Let's take Piracy missions for example. Here is the kind of scenario I imagine and wish would happen:
Player is tasked with tracking down a specific freighter carrying a unique artifact/cargo. Yes, by "unique" I mean there is only one, and the client wants it intact. The player must track down the freighter, possibly pull it out of supercruise, fend off a hostile escort wing, possibly pursue it with a wake scanner, compel the freighter to drop its cargo, successfully scoop it up without destroying it, and then travel to a delivery location (possibly in deep space, possibly at a station). During this last phase, the player is potentially pursued by authorities, bounty hunters, or mob hitmen. This scenario would have a variety of templates that change the type of ships involved, and the strength of the opposition etc. Sometimes these encounters would take place in orbit of a planet, in an asteroid field/ring system, or in deep space.
Now compare this to how Piracy missions currently stand. Player is tasked with bringing stolen standard cargo to a station. You can get it from anywhere, but it has to be stolen. Done.
In general there should be more types of missions too: rescue missions, escort missions, exploration missions, mining/prospecting missions, etc. There should also be more emergent spontaneous missions that are offered during free flight, like distress signals, refueling requests, and "shady offers" from smugglers.
So please Frontier, I implore you: create more complex and interesting mission templates. I know it has to be compatible with procedural generation, but the game has so much more potential than what is currently offered. If you need ideas, I'm sure your loyal fans on the forum could offer many exciting scenarios!
TLDR: Missions are generic, predictable, and simplistic. The game could be made so much better by providing players with more complex, variable, and exciting mission templates.
Final question to readers who made it this far: What plausible mission templates and event scenarios would you like to see in the game?
