New mission type: Rescue/escort a stranded ship

[DjVortex]

Who doesn't love a good old escort mission? The best type of mission in any game!

There's a distress call signal type where there's an npc stranded without fuel and you can refuel them (and just get a "thanks" as reward, gee.)

I think this idea could be greatly expanded: An npc is stranded far from the bubble (several hundreds of LY from the closest inhabited system) without fuel and without a fuel scoop, and your mission is to escort them back, by refueling them along the way as they run out of fuel (I would say the npc's jump range and distance from civilization should be so that it will run out of fuel about 4-6 times before reaching the inhabited system).

And as a reward something nicer than just a "thanks, bye." (It could actually be a mission at a station, with proper rewards. Something like "go to this system and escort the stranded npc back here. You'll get your payment once they arrive.")

 

[Alec Turner]

Yup, I've always thought an escort mission would be good. I like your suggestion of a threat free refuelling escort but you could of course also have higher threat level escort missions where the ship you're escorting is being hunted by npc's for some reason or another.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Agree, and there are so many possibilities when you show up in deep space to save stranded NPCs

• Ship refuel
• Ship repair
• Pickup passengers from damaged ship (passenger cabin req'd)
• Pickup escape pods from crashed ship (cargo rack req'd)
• Everybody dead or missing, scan data and/or pickup black box.
• Recover valuable cargo (cargo rack req'd).

The cmdr may or may not know what is required when accepting the mission. The ship is simply missing and cmdr must go investigate. Depending on situation maybe the cmdr can repair/refuel OR return the passengers to safety in a cabin.

 

[HRDiagram]

Who doesn't love a good old escort mission?

Me me me!

I've always hated them with a passion!

But that won't stop me from supporting this idea, since it doesn't sound bad, more content is always nice.

 

[Jmanis]

Depending on how far you want to escort them, you'll need to get FD to fix the years-old bug that you can't follow an NPC out of supercruise when they drop at a station. gl hf

Spoiler: the bug

Persisting NPCs relies on following their wake.

Normally, if an NPC drops out of space (like the ones that give you mission updates), they leave a wake you can follow, because the low wake and where they drop is at the same location.

When they drop at a station or other POI using destination lock (like what we do as players)

• The wake appears 1,000km away from station (as expected)
• The NPC drops at the station (as expected)

If you follow the wake, you'll appear 1,000km away from station... nowhere near the NPC.
If you drop at the target station, you'll break persistence by not following the wake and the NPC will be lost.

 

[DjVortex]

Agree, and there are so many possibilities when you show up in deep space to save stranded NPCs

• Ship refuel
• Ship repair
• Pickup passengers from damaged ship (passenger cabin req'd)
• Pickup escape pods from crashed ship (cargo rack req'd)
• Everybody dead or missing, scan data and/or pickup black box.
• Recover valuable cargo (cargo rack req'd).

Maybe. However, I was more thinking of having to follow the npc and keep refueling them when they run out of fuel again, until they reach safety.

(I suppose this needs some coding to keep the mission and the npc existing and alive in case you need to go restock more limpets in the middle of the mission.)

 

[DjVortex]

Persisting NPCs relies on following their wake.

Normally, if an NPC drops out of space (like the ones that give you mission updates), they leave a wake you can follow, because the low wake and where they drop is at the same location.

I suppose the alternative would be to invite the npc to a team, and use normal team tactics to follow a teammate (navlock etc). However, I could imagine this opening a full can of worms from the programming perspective, as AFAIK currently the game doesn't support in any way having npcs as team members.

 

[aRJay]

Who doesn't love a good old escort mission? The best type of mission in any game!

There's a distress call signal type where there's an npc stranded without fuel and you can refuel them (and just get a "thanks" as reward, gee.)

I think this idea could be greatly expanded: An npc is stranded far from the bubble (several hundreds of LY from the closest inhabited system) without fuel and without a fuel scoop, and your mission is to escort them back, by refueling them along the way as they run out of fuel (I would say the npc's jump range and distance from civilization should be so that it will run out of fuel about 4-6 times before reaching the inhabited system).

And as a reward something nicer than just a "thanks, bye." (It could actually be a mission at a station, with proper rewards. Something like "go to this system and escort the stranded npc back here. You'll get your payment once they arrive.")

The payment could be based on the difficulty ie how far you need to escort them.

Yup, I've always thought an escort mission would be good. I like your suggestion of a threat free refuelling escort but you could of course also have higher threat level escort missions where the ship you're escorting is being hunted by npc's for some reason or another.

With this one payment could be related to how few attacks hit the escorted ship, with the difficulty scaling with the number of attackers and the number of jumps.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Maybe. However, I was more thinking of having to follow the npc and keep refueling them when they run out of fuel again, until they reach safety.

Ya, except a deep space escort doesn't make much sense if cmdr shows up with a fleet carrier with repair & refuel. Just patch them up and sent on their way, or give them a ride.

 

[DjVortex]

Ya, except a deep space escort doesn't make much sense if cmdr shows up with a fleet carrier with repair & refuel. Just patch them up and sent on their way, or give them a ride.

If you really want to spend the time and tritium to do that, nothing's stopping you, I suppose. Much faster to just go there with a ship. And the npc wouldn't be landing on any fleet carriers.

 

[Greasetrap42]

If you really want to spend the time and tritium to do that, nothing's stopping you, I suppose. Much faster to just go there with a ship. And the npc wouldn't be landing on any fleet carriers.

A cmdr is planning on going into deep space anyway. It is what many cmdrs do. A cmdr stacks 20 deep space rescue missions. Wouldn't it make sense to use a fleet carrier and zip around in a circle? Why would a stranded NPC need an escort when a fleet carrier has arrived and repair/refuel is available?

But, if the game mechanic only allowed the NPC to be 'saved' through an escort mission to a specified destination that would force the escort mission. It just wouldn't make any sense.

 

[Jack Winter]

I suppose the alternative would be to invite the npc to a team, and use normal team tactics to follow a teammate (navlock etc). However, I could imagine this opening a full can of worms from the programming perspective, as AFAIK currently the game doesn't support in any way having npcs as team members.

I'm pretty sure that though somewhat hidden you're actually teamed up with an NPC when taking an APEX or Frontline shuttle.