Mission variation suggestions
Currently, the billboard missions feel quite limited and repetitive in nature.
I fully expect they'll be fleshed out more in future updates.
These are just some things I'd like to see:
--
1. Non-faction missions
Missions carrying items or messages for civilians.
No rep change with failure / late arrival / completion, just a straight fee/no fee ending.
Perhaps if you have a current criminal record, they might be unavailable for you.
"Scientific mineral samples for the lab - don't worry, they're not dangerous"
"Some old vintage Trek Wars action figures I sold on gBay"
"My ex-husbands junk he left at my apartment. He's lucky I'm sending them back and not blowing them out the airlock"
"Birthday presents for my niece at X station in the X system, I can't make the party personally"
and some of these missions may get you interdicted and attacked
"Private investigative evidence on a known criminal - too delicate to send digitally, you should be ready to defend yourself"
"Some photos of a local politician in a compromising situation - you may get some heat over this"
"These are the books for a nearby mining outfit - I'd advise you deliver them before the company realise they're missing"
others may be more time intensive
"Scoop for the front pages of a newcast, it has to arrive before publishing deadline"
"Transplant organs for a patient, they must ship urgently"
--
2. Different rewards
Currently the rewards are all credits or reputation.
I'd like to see rewards of commodities, or rare goods - related to the job:
"We have 40 canisters of Gallite to go to our refining operations team at X station - our usual carrier is running late, get them over pronto. They're only expecting 35, so you can keep the rest"
"Our partners at X have requested a delivery of 6 progenitor cells. We have no credits at our disposal currently, but can give you 2 extra units for payment upon delivery"
and for the odd mission - a unique module or weapon - like a weapon with 20% less overheating, or a shield bay with 10% less weight...
Upon mission completion, you get a message "see our guy Joe down in the outfitting bays, he's got something special for you" and a rare module will turn up at 0cr. That way you can choose to fit it or not, but if you do, you can sell off your existing module.
perhaps Decals for some missions - get to a certain rank with the Empire and get an insignia for your ships.
for a hugely complex / high risk job you could even find a free ship waiting for you in the shipyard.
--
3. Smuggling jobs
In it's current state, smuggling prohibited goods is pointless. sometimes there will be someone buying prohibited goods but they always want them marked stolen. Black markets pay LESS than market price for prohibited goods, even if they aren't stolen. Right now, the only way to make money from illegal goods is scooping them up in space.
I'd like to see more bulletin board posts with people wanting prohibited goods, non-stolen, at above market prices. this would make smuggling a more realistic gameplay approach.
You could also have jobs where you are asked to deliver illegal goods from one station to another, so the standard delivery has a smuggling aspect added to it.
--
4. Exploration Missions
Being asked to provide full system scans with detailed planetary scans of specific systems:
"Our partners at Universal Cartographics would like to update their records on X, X, and X systems"
Or more specific:
"Our mining division is looking for quiet, private opportunities outside of the current populated area - we need scans of 4 pristine reserves metallic-ring gas giants at least 50 LY from an inhabited system"
--
5. Long distance missions
Most missions tend to be related to systems just one or two jumps away.
Courier missions to systems 30 or 40LY away, just variations on the standard missions but with more distant destinations (and rewards to match)
--
6. Multi-threaded missions
Right now, missions tend to have one or two outcomes - either the mission itself, or an update (to abandon or change delivery / target) from a USS encounter.
If more of these changes came from interdictions rather than USS encounters, and missions would not always complete in one, but instead lead onto more work, increasing the risk, time, and reward.
--
7. Some variety on current salvage missions
The salvage missions right now tend to be: Military Plans / Black Boxes / Revel Tranmissions / Prototype Tech / Ancient Artefacts
It would be good to have some "We lost a shipment of X in X sector - please investigate and retrieve any salvagable items"
With variable outcomes - wreckage & salvage, or perhaps an encounter where you find the ship, the pilot themself is stealing the cargo, asks you to "I'm sick of working for such little pay. I found a buyer who'll take my cargo - say you found wreckage and no survivors, I'll cut you in"
There could also be honeytraps - pirates or feds waiting on silent running until you scoop up items, then attacking / scanning you.
--
8. Defend the miners / base/ convoy missions
The "defend the miners" is the only option here that I can see being easy to implement - head to a designated resource gathering site and stop X number of pirates
"Our guys mining the belt around X planet have been having some local trouble - get yourself out there and make sure a half-dozen of them know we're serious about protecting our crew!"
When you arrive, you are automatically allied with a couple of ships that are mining, while pirates are spawned and attack them, you need to kill the pirates as well as making sure the miners survive.
With the current supercruise situation I'm not sure how you could defend a convoy, and most of the bases are pretty good at defending themselves. Perhaps you could be sent to defend a transfer from mining ships to a larger cargo carrier...
--
9. Localised event generated missions
A localised event would turn up on Galnet - perhaps in system and only other systems within 15LY or so. This would generate both changes in commodity demands and reactive missions in that system and nearby. These missions wouldn't be drastically different from the current ones, but generated to go with unexpected changes to commodity demands.
"Outbreak of Lavian Inlfuenze at X station - 20t of basic medicines required, top prices paid"
"Motherload seam struck in asteroid belt around X - we need bioreplicating litchen now!"
"Blight effects grain harvest at X, our usual supplies have been cut - please deliver 30 units to us now, we'll pay over-the-odds prices"
"Celebrity wedding at X - our partners require liquor and lotd of it"
I fully expect they'll be fleshed out more in future updates.
These are just some things I'd like to see:
--
1. Non-faction missions
Missions carrying items or messages for civilians.
No rep change with failure / late arrival / completion, just a straight fee/no fee ending.
Perhaps if you have a current criminal record, they might be unavailable for you.
"Scientific mineral samples for the lab - don't worry, they're not dangerous"
"Some old vintage Trek Wars action figures I sold on gBay"
"My ex-husbands junk he left at my apartment. He's lucky I'm sending them back and not blowing them out the airlock"
"Birthday presents for my niece at X station in the X system, I can't make the party personally"
and some of these missions may get you interdicted and attacked
"Private investigative evidence on a known criminal - too delicate to send digitally, you should be ready to defend yourself"
"Some photos of a local politician in a compromising situation - you may get some heat over this"
"These are the books for a nearby mining outfit - I'd advise you deliver them before the company realise they're missing"
others may be more time intensive
"Scoop for the front pages of a newcast, it has to arrive before publishing deadline"
"Transplant organs for a patient, they must ship urgently"
--
2. Different rewards
Currently the rewards are all credits or reputation.
I'd like to see rewards of commodities, or rare goods - related to the job:
"We have 40 canisters of Gallite to go to our refining operations team at X station - our usual carrier is running late, get them over pronto. They're only expecting 35, so you can keep the rest"
"Our partners at X have requested a delivery of 6 progenitor cells. We have no credits at our disposal currently, but can give you 2 extra units for payment upon delivery"
and for the odd mission - a unique module or weapon - like a weapon with 20% less overheating, or a shield bay with 10% less weight...
Upon mission completion, you get a message "see our guy Joe down in the outfitting bays, he's got something special for you" and a rare module will turn up at 0cr. That way you can choose to fit it or not, but if you do, you can sell off your existing module.
perhaps Decals for some missions - get to a certain rank with the Empire and get an insignia for your ships.
for a hugely complex / high risk job you could even find a free ship waiting for you in the shipyard.
--
3. Smuggling jobs
In it's current state, smuggling prohibited goods is pointless. sometimes there will be someone buying prohibited goods but they always want them marked stolen. Black markets pay LESS than market price for prohibited goods, even if they aren't stolen. Right now, the only way to make money from illegal goods is scooping them up in space.
I'd like to see more bulletin board posts with people wanting prohibited goods, non-stolen, at above market prices. this would make smuggling a more realistic gameplay approach.
You could also have jobs where you are asked to deliver illegal goods from one station to another, so the standard delivery has a smuggling aspect added to it.
--
4. Exploration Missions
Being asked to provide full system scans with detailed planetary scans of specific systems:
"Our partners at Universal Cartographics would like to update their records on X, X, and X systems"
Or more specific:
"Our mining division is looking for quiet, private opportunities outside of the current populated area - we need scans of 4 pristine reserves metallic-ring gas giants at least 50 LY from an inhabited system"
--
5. Long distance missions
Most missions tend to be related to systems just one or two jumps away.
Courier missions to systems 30 or 40LY away, just variations on the standard missions but with more distant destinations (and rewards to match)
--
6. Multi-threaded missions
Right now, missions tend to have one or two outcomes - either the mission itself, or an update (to abandon or change delivery / target) from a USS encounter.
If more of these changes came from interdictions rather than USS encounters, and missions would not always complete in one, but instead lead onto more work, increasing the risk, time, and reward.
--
7. Some variety on current salvage missions
The salvage missions right now tend to be: Military Plans / Black Boxes / Revel Tranmissions / Prototype Tech / Ancient Artefacts
It would be good to have some "We lost a shipment of X in X sector - please investigate and retrieve any salvagable items"
With variable outcomes - wreckage & salvage, or perhaps an encounter where you find the ship, the pilot themself is stealing the cargo, asks you to "I'm sick of working for such little pay. I found a buyer who'll take my cargo - say you found wreckage and no survivors, I'll cut you in"
There could also be honeytraps - pirates or feds waiting on silent running until you scoop up items, then attacking / scanning you.
--
8. Defend the miners / base/ convoy missions
The "defend the miners" is the only option here that I can see being easy to implement - head to a designated resource gathering site and stop X number of pirates
"Our guys mining the belt around X planet have been having some local trouble - get yourself out there and make sure a half-dozen of them know we're serious about protecting our crew!"
When you arrive, you are automatically allied with a couple of ships that are mining, while pirates are spawned and attack them, you need to kill the pirates as well as making sure the miners survive.
With the current supercruise situation I'm not sure how you could defend a convoy, and most of the bases are pretty good at defending themselves. Perhaps you could be sent to defend a transfer from mining ships to a larger cargo carrier...
--
9. Localised event generated missions
A localised event would turn up on Galnet - perhaps in system and only other systems within 15LY or so. This would generate both changes in commodity demands and reactive missions in that system and nearby. These missions wouldn't be drastically different from the current ones, but generated to go with unexpected changes to commodity demands.
"Outbreak of Lavian Inlfuenze at X station - 20t of basic medicines required, top prices paid"
"Motherload seam struck in asteroid belt around X - we need bioreplicating litchen now!"
"Blight effects grain harvest at X, our usual supplies have been cut - please deliver 30 units to us now, we'll pay over-the-odds prices"
"Celebrity wedding at X - our partners require liquor and lotd of it"
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