Missions: a comedy of errors

[Indy Original]

Last week I accepted a mission to go and hunt down a known pirate, Dmitry Fedotov, the same kind of mission I've done a thousand times before. But when I arrived in Alberta, the star system I had been told to go to, I received a message telling me that the pirate was not there:

Unfortunately, although Progenitor Martin instructed me to rendezvous with one of his agents in Dubbuennel for more information, the mission itself wanted me to go to Tir, a different system entirely! I wasn't sure which system I should go to, so I tossed a coin and set course for Tir - and sure enough, that was where I found my contact, Elster Kemory:

And yet the message that I received from him claimed to be from a 'Hidden Contact', even though Elster Kemory's name was clearly displayed on my screen, and I had literally been told his name in advance when I was instructed to go and find him! Also... although Mr Kemory told me that he had seen Dmitry Fedotov in Alberta, the system that I had already been to, the mission itself wanted me to go to Dubbuennel, the system where Progenitor Martin had said I would find Elster Kemory...

Feeling a little confused, I decided to check the Mission status in my cockpit's left-hand panel, whereupon I was confronted with this:

'Locate the target in the Dubbuennel system between $####ContactTimeStart:style:name=keyword'... well alright then! At least now I felt confident which star system I should go to; so I made my way over to Dubbuennel, and scanned the Nav Beacon in the hope of finding my quarry.

But once again, I was to be denied! Because despite Progenitor Martin's assurances, it turned out that my target's last-known location was currently unknown, and the only clue I had was that I should 'scan'. Scan what?!

Feeling bemused, I jumped back into super-cruise, and was immediately told that a 'mission related signal source' had been detected... so I didn't have to scan anything after all, my ship's sensors were apparently more than sufficient. But under normal circumstances, my ship's sensors can only detect signal sources up to one thousand light-seconds away, whereas the mission related signal source was nearly double that distance... so, how had they detected it? And if my ship's humble sensor array could detect it, why couldn't the Nav Beacon do so?!

And then, as I headed towards the signal source (which was now labelled 'Mission Target', so there was no doubt that it was indeed where I needed to go), I suddenly found myself being interdicted... by none other than Known Pirate Dmitry Fedotov!

But... what? How did he get behind me?! According to my sensors, he should still be 1,625 light-seconds in front of me... and yet there he was, right behind me, audaciously trying to pull me out of supercruise. How?

Of course, I submitted to the interdiction and blew the poor sucker away, thus completing my mission - and I've been playing Elite for years, so this is not the first time I've been interdicted by a pirate who was apparently in two places at once, on the contrary, I know that this is something that happens all the time. But when there can be this many glitches and contradictions in a single mission, it does somewhat underline how much of a farce the Missions in Elite Dangerous can be... and now that Horizons 3.8 is officially in 'maintenance mode', I do worry that this is the way it will stay, forever. After all, none of these glitches are game-breaking, which probably explains why they have never been addressed, even after so many years... I have no doubt that most of them could easily be fixed, but will they ever be?

Or... is this as good as it is ever going to get?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

and now that Horizons 3.8 is officially in 'maintenance mode', I do worry that this is the way it will stay, forever

I can't imagine that it'd be considered important enough to fix there, but that shouldn't stop them fixing it in 4.0

What will stop them fixing it in 4.0 is that this is (by design) one of the many bugs it's impossible to report via their bug tracker.

 

[Indy Original]

I can't imagine that it'd be considered important enough to fix there, but that shouldn't stop them fixing it in 4.0

What will stop them fixing it in 4.0 is that this is (by design) one of the many bugs it's impossible to report via their bug tracker.

Well, yes - and these were not the only 'minor, unreportable' bugs I encountered during that same play session!

For example, I also took on a few Planetary Scan missions, and two of them happened to be located on the same moon, as shown here:

...This picture was taken after I had successfully scanned one of the outposts, and I was flying away to try and escape mass lock, so that I could re-enter supercruise and make my way to the other outpost, on the far side of the moon.

But as soon as I make the jump to supercruise...

...The outpost on the far side of the planet disappears, and the only outpost left is the one 15.9 km behind me, the one that I have already scanned! It is described as a 'Search Zone' again, but I don't have to search for it, because I have already found it - I can just turn around, fly straight back down, and scan it again to complete the second mission.

I'm not entirely sure what causes this glitch, because it does not always happen - I think one mission takes priority over the other one, and if you pick the 'right' outpost to go to first, it will disappear as intended and you will have to go and search for the second outpost normally. But if you pick the 'wrong' outpost, scanning it will complete the mission that had priority, even though that mission was meant to be for the other outpost... and then the other outpost will disappear, even though you never went to it, leaving only the outpost that you have already been to. It saves a lot of time when it happens, but it's still a glitch!

And even if bugs like this are not game-breaking, they are still immersion breaking...

 

[Nadreck]

I;ve just had an on-foot mission to assassinate someone. I got a warning that he was "preparing to flee" but had been delayed somehow (odd, normally they just flee to a different system). I hadn't been given another destination, so I landed at the settlement I'd been given, and found a terminal.

He'd gone. Not listed as staff. No clue where he went. Revisiting and relogging didn't help. I had to abandon the mission.

And it's not as if I was slow getting there, though the settlement was over 4,000ls away. Did the timer not take that into account?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I'm not entirely sure what causes this glitch, because it does not always happen - I think one mission takes priority over the other one, and if you pick the 'right' outpost to go to first, it will disappear as intended and you will have to go and search for the second outpost normally.

Yes, I think so.

Better than it used to be - at least now it can only complete the "wrong" mission if the targets are on the same planet - for a while they didn't even have to be in the same system! - but still pretty noticeable in systems without many landables.

 

[Ned Flandalorian]

The mixed up destinations in the messages seemed to happen during one of the updates last year, AFAIK it only affect Horizons.

 

[Indy Original]

The mixed up destinations in the messages seemed to happen during one of the updates last year, AFAIK it only affect Horizons.

Gah! I suppose that's good news for Odyssey players - but if it only affects Horizons, that makes it even less likely that Frontier will ever find the time to fix it!

It seems so strange, to me... when it comes to making a full-sized replica of the entire Milky Way Galaxy complete with a noble attempt at scientific accuracy, or implementing a great flight model with six degrees of freedom, Frontier generally get it right, and they've been getting it right since day one. But when it comes to making sure that the correct text is displayed on the screen, that's where they stumble?! How can the developers simultaneously be so capable, and yet be so... absent-minded?!

There have been a number of threads in recent weeks, asking what people would like Frontier to change, or to add to the game; but more than anything I would like a Mission Board that reliably spawns a wide variety of bug-free missions, and I doubt that we will ever get it. It's tragic really, because in many ways, the Missions are Elite Dangerous, since that is what most (?) players will spend much of their time doing, and with just a few small tweaks the Missions could be so much better than they are... more involved, more narrative, more logically consistent! But it seems to be so far down Frontier's list of priorities that we have more chance of getting ship interiors than we have of getting improved text boxes...

Frontier have shown that they can do the 'big' stuff, but they consistently overlook the small stuff - and yet it's the small stuff that makes a good game great.

 

[MDHansen]

I think the funniest moment I had with one of thse missions is when in the split second I dropped in to the mission signal was interdicted by the same jolly fellow. I do enter the signal though, to see my target in front ofg me, followed 5 seconds later by the same guy, who interdicted me, just to be followed by a third of the same criminal, most likely dropping in on my wake!

I'd say finding a unicorn is more likely

 

[St0rmFury]

And then, as I headed towards the signal source (which was now labelled 'Mission Target', so there was no doubt that it was indeed where I needed to go), I suddenly found myself being interdicted... by none other than Known Pirate Dmitry Fedotov!

 

[Kenpachi85]

I always abandon assasination missions when they run to different systems not worth the time to me. Usually stack 20 massacre/assasination missions out of Sol and would rather just dump the mission and move on to the rest.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I think the funniest moment I had with one of thse missions is when in the split second I dropped in to the mission signal was interdicted by the same jolly fellow. I do enter the signal though, to see my target in front ofg me, followed 5 seconds later by the same guy, who interdicted me, just to be followed by a third of the same criminal, most likely dropping in on my wake!

Ah, I see you found the "Kill Spartacus" mission.

 

[BL1P]

I think the funniest moment I had with one of thse missions is when in the split second I dropped in to the mission signal was interdicted by the same jolly fellow. I do enter the signal though, to see my target in front ofg me, followed 5 seconds later by the same guy, who interdicted me, just to be followed by a third of the same criminal, most likely dropping in on my wake!

I'd say finding a unicorn is more likely

I had the same thing happen with a Wing Assasination Mission. 3 Fdls and 9 or more vutures, I stayed just until my shields where about to go then did a brave sir robbin.

As to the OP, yer I have found a few bugs with 3.8, that were fixed in ody 4.0 before they stopped supporting 3.8. Its a shame they didnt fix them on both versions before they stopped supporting 3.8.

 

[MDHansen]

I had the same thing happen with a Wing Assasination Mission. 3 Fdls and 9 or more vutures, I stayed just until my shields where about to go then did a brave sir robbin.

I'd wet my pants if I dropped in to that

 

[BL1P]

I'd wet my pants if I dropped in to that

Im getting old now, so being lost and wet is par for the course now

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Last week I accepted a mission to go and hunt down a known pirate, Dmitry Fedotov, the same kind of mission I've done a thousand times before. But when I arrived in Alberta, the star system I had been told to go to, I received a message telling me that the pirate was not there:

View attachment 324133

Unfortunately, although Progenitor Martin instructed me to rendezvous with one of his agents in Dubbuennel for more information, the mission itself wanted me to go to Tir, a different system entirely! I wasn't sure which system I should go to, so I tossed a coin and set course for Tir - and sure enough, that was where I found my contact, Elster Kemory:

View attachment 324134

And yet the message that I received from him claimed to be from a 'Hidden Contact', even though Elster Kemory's name was clearly displayed on my screen, and I had literally been told his name in advance when I was instructed to go and find him! Also... although Mr Kemory told me that he had seen Dmitry Fedotov in Alberta, the system that I had already been to, the mission itself wanted me to go to Dubbuennel, the system where Progenitor Martin had said I would find Elster Kemory...

Feeling a little confused, I decided to check the Mission status in my cockpit's left-hand panel, whereupon I was confronted with this:

View attachment 324138

'Locate the target in the Dubbuennel system between $####ContactTimeStart:style:name=keyword'... well alright then! At least now I felt confident which star system I should go to; so I made my way over to Dubbuennel, and scanned the Nav Beacon in the hope of finding my quarry.

View attachment 324139

But once again, I was to be denied! Because despite Progenitor Martin's assurances, it turned out that my target's last-known location was currently unknown, and the only clue I had was that I should 'scan'. Scan what?!

Feeling bemused, I jumped back into super-cruise, and was immediately told that a 'mission related signal source' had been detected... so I didn't have to scan anything after all, my ship's sensors were apparently more than sufficient. But under normal circumstances, my ship's sensors can only detect signal sources up to one thousand light-seconds away, whereas the mission related signal source was nearly double that distance... so, how had they detected it? And if my ship's humble sensor array could detect it, why couldn't the Nav Beacon do so?!

And then, as I headed towards the signal source (which was now labelled 'Mission Target', so there was no doubt that it was indeed where I needed to go), I suddenly found myself being interdicted... by none other than Known Pirate Dmitry Fedotov!

View attachment 324145

But... what? How did he get behind me?! According to my sensors, he should still be 1,625 light-seconds in front of me... and yet there he was, right behind me, audaciously trying to pull me out of supercruise. How?

Of course, I submitted to the interdiction and blew the poor sucker away, thus completing my mission - and I've been playing Elite for years, so this is not the first time I've been interdicted by a pirate who was apparently in two places at once, on the contrary, I know that this is something that happens all the time. But when there can be this many glitches and contradictions in a single mission, it does somewhat underline how much of a farce the Missions in Elite Dangerous can be... and now that Horizons 3.8 is officially in 'maintenance mode', I do worry that this is the way it will stay, forever. After all, none of these glitches are game-breaking, which probably explains why they have never been addressed, even after so many years... I have no doubt that most of them could easily be fixed, but will they ever be?

Or... is this as good as it is ever going to get?

I like your style and presentation. Gave me a bit of film noir feel.

 

[Kenpachi85]

I had the same thing happen with a Wing Assasination Mission. 3 Fdls and 9 or more vutures, I stayed just until my shields where about to go then did a brave sir robbin.

As to the OP, yer I have found a few bugs with 3.8, that were fixed in ody 4.0 before they stopped supporting 3.8. Its a shame they didnt fix them on both versions before they stopped supporting 3.8.

Good lord 3 assasination targets at the same place that's pretty wild. I'm used to soloing one fdl and 3 vultures np but my vettes twin 7a and twin 6a scbs wouldn't be enough for that noise.

Had a funny thing happen with an assasination mission the other day the target chased me to a level 4 massacre mission signal. She started helping me fight the massacre targets even though she was a part of the same pirate faction. I was like ok whatever and let her do her thing till we mopped everyone up then promptly blew her conda up at the end.