Must've missed it in the mission brief . . . what a mess . . .

[JetsonRING]

[uhh] So, accepted a "kill the pirate" mission, jumped in the Eagle and went to the indicated system.

When I get to the system, after scanning the NAV beacon I get a message saying the target is not actually in this system, I have to go to another system and meet an informant who will tell me where the pirate actually is. So I fly to this second system and head for the only station in the area, thinking, logically if there is an informant they will be at the only station in the system.

[???] As I approach the station, out of habit I scan ships. Well, well, well there is my informant, in another ship. As he zips past me I receive a message saying "We can't talk here, follow my wake" and he disappears into witch-space presumably to another, third system leaving a wake signature that I cannot scan because my Eagle does not have a wake-scanner!

Now . . . maybe I missed the part in the mission brief where it told me I would need one but I have never seen a "kill the pirate" mission that required me to carry a wake-scanner in order to complete the mission and I do not recall the mission brief stating that I might need one. I am in a Montreal Foxtrot EAGLE for RBGebus sake with a single utility slot (where the heat-sink unit is fitted), where the Foxtrot would I fit a wake-scanner?

[wacko] This is just way too much Bravo Sierra for the pay I was offered. I abandoned the mission and moved on. Since when do I need to fit a wake-scanner to kill a pirate?

 

[rrobes]

These missions w/ an informant seem so makeshift.

You take the mission, go to the target system and scan, then you get the message to contact an informant in another system.

When you get to the informant, he tells you to go back to the original target system to find your prey, you scan again and get your destination.

It is busywork, not very much fun and subtracts, not adds, to the game. I'd rather be interdicted by an elite something than chasing the weasel.

 

[Tel Prydain]

I get the idea - trying to make you feel like a bounty hunter chasing down a lead.

 

[CMDR Crumpeteer]

Informants drop into normal space, you just target the wake and drop into it like you do with a station. You don't need a wake scanner for that.

I have never seen one tell you to follow them to another system.

 

[Schmack]

These missions w/ an informant seem so makeshift.

You take the mission, go to the target system and scan, then you get the message to contact an informant in another system.

When you get to the informant, he tells you to go back to the original target system to find your prey, you scan again and get your destination.

It is busywork, not very much fun and subtracts, not adds, to the game. I'd rather be interdicted by an elite something than chasing the weasel.

And if you have 5 of these stacked, you do it 5 times.

Same with the artwork missions, blackbox missions, ect...

There are only so many levers to pull. The problem isn't the missions but the fact that you have to do so damn many of them to get any rep with a faction (that decays in a very short time) so you can actually do what you came there to do in the 1st place.

Informants drop into normal space, you just target the wake and drop into it like you do with a station. You don't need a wake scanner for that.

I have never seen one tell you to follow them to another system.

And his wake would tell you for sure, High Wake or Low Wake.

 

[the100thmonkey]

If you go to the target system and honk early (i.e. before the window stated in the mission description), you get a message telling you to find a contact in another system. The contact drops to normal space. You know this because it says "low wake". If they had jumed to a different system, it would have said "high wake."

Minor faction reputation does not decay. Only major faction rep does.

 

[Vasious]

Yes, dont need a wake scanner, contacts are always in a ship in SC, wait for them to contact you and drop, lock on their low wake and then drop down, they will update the mission.

And yes oddly often they send you back to the original target system.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Same guy who posted the same thing on reddit?

Same answer regardless. They dropped out of SC, they didn't high wake.

 

[kofeyh]

I get the idea - trying to make you feel like a bounty hunter chasing down a lead.

This is Frontier's way; interesting ideas that, ostensibly, don't actually work in practice, because they presume a bunch of actions are automatically enjoyable for a considerable percentage of the player base, even when repeated ~16,504 times, and there's precious little QC to ensure the outcomes match the intent.

But at least people are not making billions per second, so it's all worked out in the end. [noob]

[uhh] So, accepted a "kill the pirate" mission, jumped in the Eagle and went to the indicated system.

At the risk of sounding patronising, if the ship jumped to another system, you'd need a scanner as that is classed as a 'high wake'' if they dropped out of Super Cruise, ie low-waked, then target the wake signature and you'll be able to drop out once within range and join them. It really does seem patronising to say this, though, so you have my apologies.

--

The game makes a rather large number of assumptions about how much commanders know; mission description text has gotten better, but unless it specifically said you should fit a wake scanner, none is required.

 

[Hadarmil]

The game makes a rather large number of assumptions about how much commanders know; mission description text has gotten better, but unless it specifically said you should fit a wake scanner, none is required.

Too many missions require CMDRs to research outside of the game. Another thing to add to the "beyond" QOL pile...

 

[Vasious]

Too many missions require CMDRs to research outside of the game. Another thing to add to the "beyond" QOL pile...

This isn't one however

The Mission tells one to travel to system A and scan the beacon
on scanning the beacon One is told to meet contact in system B
On seeing the contact the contact tell you "I am going to drop down, follow my wake"

None of that needs information outside the game, and I am not counting the manual or tutorial videos to go with the tutorial missions found in game.
The manual has information on following peoples low wakes, and I would consider it reasonable to expect people to have read the manual.
If you are one of the people who feels "I shouldn't have to read the manual or do the tutorials" than that is on you.

I am amazed by the number of people who will look things up on TP sites, but not consult the manual, and say the need to look things up on TP sites when a more concise answer was in the manual or in one of the tutorial videos, but they then still refuse to look there

The OP has an issue as they assumed the contact one 1) in a station and 2) jumped to a different system and didn't try to follow their wake.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Too many missions require CMDRs to research outside of the game. Another thing to add to the "beyond" QOL pile...

The guy actually says "Follow my wake" in game. You watch and see his wake appear.

There are criticisms to be had about some missions, but these assassination missions actually do tell you everything and even go out of their way to lead you to where you need to go, and present that information in game.

 

[FrogsFriend]

I think people are missing the part where the 'contact' is already in normal space at the station and either goes to SC or jumps to another system. Perhaps the OP should have gone to SC too and maybe found him there to follow his wake back down.

 

[Aashenfox]

It's the same with all the missions in Elite. The first time you do them, you will fail, you will be left wondering what the hell is going on.

Then you come on the forums, and get enlightened and from then on, they're easy. It should not be like this. FD.

 

[Arthur Shappey]

I think people are missing the part where the 'contact' is already in normal space at the station and either goes to SC or jumps to another system. Perhaps the OP should have gone to SC too and maybe found him there to follow his wake back down.

I agree, that is the key difference.

I've done dozens of these missions, and only met the contact in supercruise - where they have invariably dropped out of supercruise creating a low-wake to follow. Not so easy if they are in normal cruise in the first place. But I guess the OP could have gone to supercruise, spotted the contact, the contact would have dropped out again, and the OP could have followed - all without a wake scanner.

Either that or it is another bug. Even if it is a bug, you could jump out of the system and back in again. The contact will still be there, and will keep appearing until the information has been given [or I guess it is too late]

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

It sounds like people need to be explained they can follow NPCs in their wakes no?

And yeah, missions are well explained in that regard.

 

[Aashenfox]

The guy actually says "Follow my wake" in game. You watch and see his wake appear.

There are criticisms to be had about some missions, but these assassination missions actually do tell you everything and even go out of their way to lead you to where you need to go, and present that information in game.

I spat my coffee... Assassinations, straightforward?? The assassinations are arguably THE most convoluted, 'what the hell is going on?' missions in the game.

1) The problem: First, you have to jump into a nav beacon (or honk scanner) at target system, this is in the briefing, but people don't read briefings (and YES, it IS FD's fault for not compensating for players who don't read briefings carefully), so many times players warp into system and fly around for an hour wondering what to do.
1) The Solution: Have a box pop up 'Scan the system for the target. If you don't have a discovery scanner, go to the nav beacon and scan the beacon (find Nav Beacon in left panel 'Navigation')'.

2) The problem: When you've done step 1, you get a message stating a 'target' body. OK, thinks the player, I have a target body, my target must be there, ON that body. NO. The target is not ON that body (how many threads have we seen saying I got sent to X body but it's not landable, how do I find my target? OR, I landed but my target is nowhere to be found (poor sods)).
2) The solution: Have the message actually state to go to the body and NOT LAND, but fly in the vicinity looking for a 'Mission USS' with blue text.

3) The problem. Nobody ever tells you how close you have to be to a target body to get the mission USS. My instinct was to go into a close orbit which was the right one, but many players are sitting 10 light seconds out thinking they are 'at' the body.
3) The solution: Point out that you need to get quite close to the body to get this to pop up.

4) The problem: You don't get sent to a target body, you get sent to another system to find a contact (if you don't abandon these straight away, I do, idiotic missions), so then you get sent to another system, no problem. You get to the system, and half the time your contact doesn't turn up. IF you don't know what to do (drop out of supercruise, then go back into supercruise), this is a major source of confusion.
4) The solution: Er...make the contact always appear reliably? Durrrrr

5) The problem: Even if your contact does pop up when he's supposed to, there is a 90% chance that he will do so while you are still scooping, causing him to supercruise into the corona of the star, leaving you unable to follow his wake.
5) The Solution: Fix the game already.

6) The problem: The contact tells you to follow his wake, many new players will be left saying "what's a wake?". Let's assume they go to the forums, ask what a wake is, describe the missions, get insulted by people who have forgotten what it's like to be new, then come abck and click on the white target and....find that there's no 'time to target' display for wakes, so they either keep overshooting or approach so slow it takes an hour.
6) The solution: Are you kidding me?

7) The problem. When you finally do get into the contact's instance and the contact is there (yay, well done you! Congratulatoins for not abandoning the mission yet!), you are immediately sent straight back to the system you came from. Always. Without fail. The same one.
7) The solution. Plant Onionhead in June, harvest in September.

8) The problem. Frequently, once you engage the target, another identical (with the target) ship will jump in and arbitrarily either join in on your side, or against you. I call this 'evil twin' syndrome, and I have it on video twice. I'd say it happens 1 in 10 times.
8) The solution: guesing this is coding or instancing issue, not a priority currently, but can you imagine the newbies faces when they are struggling with their primary target and another identical enemy drops in and joins the fight. Poor sods (that's twice I've said that in the description of one mission type).

Here's an additional general tip, if you get sent after a contact, don't bother, just tootle around in the system you were initially sent to for a few minutes, pop into any random uss and then back out again. There;s a very high probability that the target will interdict you either when you drop into the system or when you exit the USS that you went into. There's also a high chance he will attack you when you go into the USS.

And yeah, missions are well explained in that regard.

Er, yeh....right.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Aashenfox - well, actually, that whole hoo-ha only happens if you arrive in the target system early. If you arrive there in the actual timeframe given then your target is always there in SC

So, just don't go to the target system early. I sometimes take multiple assassination missions at once, so jump around diifferrent systems as their timers come up.

Only problem is, sometimes you get two or more in the same system, then can end up fighting off multiple targets at once (pulled one guy out of SC, the other target decided to join the party).

 

[Aashenfox]

Aashenfox - well, actually, that whole hoo-ha only happens if you arrive in the target system early. If you arrive there in the actual timeframe given then your target is always there in SC

So, just don't go to the target system early. I sometimes take multiple assassination missions at once, so jump around diifferrent systems as their timers come up.

Only problem is, sometimes you get two or more in the same system, then can end up fighting off multiple targets at once (pulled one guy out of SC, the other target decided to join the party).

ok.

9) Problem. Nowhere is it communicated or indicated what the difference is between doing these inside the stated time slot, or before or after.
9) Solution. It should not make any difference whether you are early or a little late, the mission should behave the same way within the 'total time limit' stated of 11 hours.

and some bonuses...

10) Problem. Sometimes you can cruise around the target body many, many times before the mission USS pops up. It ALWAYS does pop up eventually, but new players will never understand this is normal and give up.
10) Solution. Make the Mission USS spawn more reliable and more obvious.

11) Problem. If you stack a bunch of these and end up getting one to a distant body, you can run out of time to complete them all.
11) Solution. See solution 9.

Yes, I'm being facetious, but come on, this particular mission type is a flippin joke. Unfriendlier than a scalded ferret with a kidney stone and a chip on its shoulder.

 

[sqzbox1]

Oh good grief! Moany moany moany. OP got it wrong - no problem - we all do until we learn. It's the same with just about everything in ED - this is not a carebear hand-holding game - and I personally love it like that. Just like real life right? All these people complaining about the missions - just because it doesn't actually do the mission for you. Instead of moaning about the game why not figure out how it works and then just do it. If you need to ask for advice then do that too. I have, on severl occasions. If you ask, and do it in a positive way, people will fall all over themselves to help.

I love these missions. And taking lots if you can makes it even more interesting. Sometimes they drop in to the nav beacon - even when you have been told to go elsewhere. Love it! The system even recognises that possibility - message comes in "looks like you don't need my help on this. Great! Now go get that fee." Brilliant! Sometimes they'll interdict you - and then others will drop in and if you are good then you can do them all in one hit. Cool! Other times you have to go and sit it out at each location - no problem. What's not to love about this?