General Missions in the game

[Jack Winter]

I for one would like to see addon, scripted, voice acted, mission packs for sale.

They could bring income for the game, and serve as a way to introduce the player to various facets of the game, for instance how to unlock the engineers.

 

[SergMx]

Should things be removed from the game just because X player doesn't use them and sees no point in them is more the question here. It's interesting to you because you don't use them, it's not interesting to the players that do use them, you are just removing a game play loop they partake in. While I am not against changes, it seems strange to want to just remove stuff from the game with no replacement, I mean ok the mission boards suck for some people, why not use that as an impetus to, oh I don't know, improve the mission system maybe?

That's what I'm writing about, not the dumb and primitive mission board that games had in the last century.
It's a redesigned system where you get to the station and feel like you're in a community instead of amongst puppets.
Because as far as I know even engineers give invitations and not through a terminal.
Even the bartender, if you make him feel comfortable, can tell you where a treasure ship has recently crashed.

 

[Shurimal]

That's what I'm writing about, not the dumb and primitive mission board that games had in the last century.
It's a redesigned system where you get to the station and feel like you're in a community instead of amongst puppets.

While bigger and more "alive" stations are always welcome, I feel that mission boards just make everything more effective and fluid. Running between different NPC-s to see if they offer interesting missions and compare the rewards will get old quickly--I almost always ignore the Odyssey NPC mission givers because they almost never offer missions that I am interested in or material rewards I need. NPC mission givers are preferable for unique questlines with unique rewards, but for generic procedurally generated missions a "classifieds section" in the "local newspaper" is ideal.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

What's this with people suggesting removing game features and content lately? First laser mining and now the mission board. If you don't like something, ignoring it works perfectly fine. I hate trading and hauling, but I am not asking to remove it from the game. I just don't do it.

Oh boy.

 

[Cosmo]

I remember 1 Elite. Do we really need a mission board? We have BGS, PP, Conflict Zones ...
Maybe just remove missions (tasks) from the game ? I've been thinking about this for a long time and maybe it's not such a bad idea.

We do need a mission board, because it gives players objectives and activities. In fact, ED needs more mission variety and random scenarios (encounters).

We need better missions and a stronger connection to the BGS for them. As much as I loved 84 Elite, that's about as bare bones a 80s game as you can get. The standard is a bit higher now.

Seconded.

I for one would like to see addon, scripted, voice acted, mission packs for sale.

They could bring income for the game, and serve as a way to introduce the player to various facets of the game, for instance how to unlock the engineers.

Yes story-driven missions would make ED much more interesting.

NPC mission givers are preferable for unique questlines with unique rewards, but for generic procedurally generated missions a "classifieds section" in the "local newspaper" is ideal.

Seconded.

 

[SergMx]

What's this with people suggesting removing game features and content lately? First laser mining and now the mission board. If you don't like something, ignoring it works perfectly fine. I hate trading and hauling, but I am not asking to remove it from the game. I just don't do it.

Oh boy.

Yes my proposal is difficult to understand, now I'll try to explain it more simply.
In the Odyssey station there is a hall where there are Taxi hiring, Fighting hiring, equipment, bar, etc. can it be easier to make it all just a tab in the Terminal ? Better to go straight to the Ship Terminal

Why do you think the Horizon engineer can be approached by feet ?

Yes I agree, it's hard to understand.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Most of the posted missions are one-time-only small mini-missions. Data delivery missions. Cargo missions. Assassination missions. A cmdr stacks 10 of them at once, zips out, completes the small tasks, and returns. Click-click-click to get the rewards. Then move on to the next stack of missions.

This would suck if had to approach each individual NPC, select them, ask if they have a mission available that I am interested in... next NPC... next NPC... next...

If the entire mission concept was revamped... sure the OP idea would be great. But not using the existing missions types.

The OP's idea is good in games where missions are larger scoped activities, especially when its chained with additional tasks where you keep returning to the same NPCs.

 

[Dragsham]

Can you describe THIS in a little more detail.
What kind of contraband is

Smuggling is twofold.
1st is just buying illegal goods and selling them for a profit.
2nd is taking a smuggling mission which is more specific.
Both methods are extremely effective In affecting influence.
They pay well too.
You must not be scanned. Especially Missions because they will fail. If I'm scanned I activate silent running and quickly as possible I land using heatsinks to control heat. This Is the most effective method to stop scans.
Lots of goods legal in one place are illegal in others. Where my anarchy faction is located I've learned the best places to buy illegal goods and smuggle to places to get the best price. Then bring back goods that sell locally for a profit.
Hope this helps

 

[Jmanis]

Mission board plays two critical functions in the game.
1. It acts as an introduction-vector to different activities for new players, which can then be done organically and for better outcomes, usually.
2. Is a semi-reliable source of all activity types, such that a player can come on and undertake the activity they enjoy, not spend 30 minutes finding the activity they enjoy.

Though to pick those two things apart a little more:
1. The missions on the board don't cover the full gamut of activities. There's no specific call to use wake scanners (to follow wakes) or use a variety of limpet modes in any missions.
2. This is only semi reliable due to the many edge cases that can exist, and it's not unreasonable for a new player to find themselves on a mission board which has a very limited set of mission types.

This could be fixed with new mission types or reworks of existing ones.

On illegal missions offered through the open boards, i agree, and think it should be done differently. To summarise many posts I've made about it:
1. Make anonymity protocols a toggle like silent running. If you are wanted or hostile, you are attacked on- sight without scan at a station. With it on, you are accepted in both situations
2. Introduce a criminal mission board, accessible only when using anonymity protocols
3. Move all illegal missions to this board
4. Make it such that instead of taking illegal missions from a particular faction, they are offered by anonymous contacts, and inflict negative effects on a particular target faction.

Smuggling more broadly needs a rework desperately, but i won't go into that... but the mission board is a crucial player experience component to allow them to do what they enjoy because the bgs and organic options are, by design, quite unreliable, or brokenly reliable. They also offer a baseline for earn rates in the game.

 

[metatheurgist]

Even in many RPGs you have 2 types of quests, NPCs quests and mission board quests. ED is no different.

 

[SergMx]

2. Introduce a criminal mission board, accessible only when using anonymity protocols

Is it only in anarchy systems or in any system, two terminals side by side ?

 

[SergMx]

Even in many RPGs you have 2 types of quests, NPCs quests and mission board quests. ED is no different.

Can you give me an example? I believe such boards were needed in the 20th century from the limitation of computers. And they're easier to program.

 

[metatheurgist]

Can you give me an example? I believe such boards were needed in the 20th century from the limitation of computers. And they're easier to program.

Dragon Age had a quest board you could check for quests, as well as the usual NPC with question mark routine. Witcher 3 also gave some quests off the notice board as well as off NPC quest givers. The Final Fantasy games often have creature hunt quests as a sideline on a "job board" as well as the usual quest givers. A terminal is just a modern take on it.

 

[varonica]

Dragon Age had a quest board you could check for quests, as well as the usual NPC with question mark routine. Witcher 3 also gave some quests off the notice board as well as off NPC quest givers. The Final Fantasy games often have creature hunt quests as a sideline on a "job board" as well as the usual quest givers. A terminal is just a modern take on it.

Also LOTRO has missions from mission givers and notice boards to take certain types of missions from that can only be obtained from them, it's not unusual in games at all as you say.

 

[Screemonster]

The biggest change I'd personally make to missions would be to allow any mission that doesn't require you to actually transport a physical item back to the point of origin be completed remotely - particularly thinking of the likes of assassinations, generator kills, most foot missions that aren't fetch missions, and so on. If you don't want a material/commodity reward, just pick the thing in the transactions panel and be like "job's done, you can wire the credits to my account." Or allow them to be completed at any mission board, not just the point of origin.

For odyssey missions in particular it'd enable a much more nomadic style of play if people aren't being forced back to their point of origin all the time.

 

[Galactic Fork]

Yes my proposal is difficult to understand, now I'll try to explain it more simply.
In the Odyssey station there is a hall where there are Taxi hiring, Fighting hiring, equipment, bar, etc. can it be easier to make it all just a tab in the Terminal ? Better to go straight to the Ship Terminal

Why do you think the Horizon engineer can be approached by feet ?

Yes I agree, it's hard to understand.

I've had a vaguely similar thought in the past. To decentralize missions to make it seem less like a mission board and be more organic. There'd be a Merchant Contract section, which would have your mining and goods based jobs (accessed from the ship or at a port authority on a station). Then a Local Delivery service for delivery jobs, with an office on stations, but can still quick access from the terminal. System Security would have bounty missions, of course. For illegal stuff, there'd be a black market/dark web section of the station menu you can hack into to get those jobs. For the times you take your spacelegs and go to the port authority, delivery office, etc in station, you get the added bonus of negotiation. But staying in the ship is faster.

This was all great in my head, but realistically it's kinda annoying in a video game. No matter how you do any kind of jobs or contracts system, the more spread out it becomes the more tedeous it is when you're just trying to play. It's just extra menus for the act of getting something to do. And this is coming from someone who wants immersion turned up to 11.

So right now I just look at the mission board as your ship's computer scraping all contracts from various sectors of the station's network and collating them into an easy to read board able to be filtered by employer and type of job.

 

[SergMx]

Dragon Age had a quest board you could check for quests, as well as the usual NPC with question mark routine. Witcher 3 also gave some quests off the notice board as well as off NPC quest givers. The Final Fantasy games often have creature hunt quests as a sideline on a "job board" as well as the usual quest givers. A terminal is just a modern take on it.
(and LOTRO)

Well, maybe. The thing is, even back in the days of Elite 1, I liked first person games. For some reason all 2d games and side-scrolling games seem primitive to me and I rarely pay attention to them. Well yeah it's a matter of taste.
I was thinking of Fallout 3-4, TES, etc.

 

[metatheurgist]

Well, maybe. The thing is, even back in the days of Elite 1, I liked first person games. For some reason all 2d games and side-scrolling games seem primitive to me and I rarely pay attention to them. Well yeah it's a matter of taste.
I was thinking of Fallout 3-4, TES, etc.

Dragon Age, Witcher 3 are all 3D and Final Fantasy hasn't been 2D since 7.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

Well, maybe. The thing is, even back in the days of Elite 1, I liked first person games. For some reason all 2d games and side-scrolling games seem primitive to me and I rarely pay attention to them. Well yeah it's a matter of taste.
I was thinking of Fallout 3-4, TES, etc.

So you want some descendant of Preston Garvey constantly adding things to your map?

 

[Shurimal]

So right now I just look at the mission board as your ship's computer scraping all contracts from various sectors of the station's network and collating them into an easy to read board able to be filtered by employer and type of job.

I like this interpretation Basically your ship computer has an RSS reader and instead of going to a dozen news sites you just open the app to get a unified, collated newsstream of what's going on in the neighorhood.

I was thinking of Fallout 3-4, TES, etc.

These games are story-based. You're The Hero, doing Hero Things. Most of the quests are unique (and most people don't seem to think the few procedural quests are the highlight of these games) and questgivers are important to the story, often in unique locations and unique backstories.

Compare this to E: D where you're Nobody, and minor factions are a dime a dozen doing their own local thing and not trying to cook up some grand pan-galactic scheme. You're not The Hero, you're just a spaceman trying to make their fortune and the missions are simply odd contractor jobs posted on Craigslist. It's all about as unique and romantic as some random bloke advertising that they need a contractor to build a shed in their backyard

BTW, if you go strolling in Odyssey settlements you'll find NPC questgivers. But they don't offer anything unique that the "vending machines" don't—it just takes a lot longer to find out what missions and rewards these NPC-s offer. It's like being a building contractor and needing to go door-to-door all over the town asking everyone if they happen to need a shed built, and all you get is "No, but I need someone to swap out a light switch in the cellar" and you're not an electrician.