Please bring back mission quality scaling by rank

'pandering' 'salt' 'kids' and such are all words typically used here by people with no coherent argument to make. Back in the day mission boards often had less than five missions. There are ten ranks per type, and three types. It means that the average station would have 1-2 missions of the type you wanted, and if you weren't very high ranked there would be plenty of times where none of the stations you'd visit would have even one mission of the general type you'd want and could take, and plenty of times no mission you could take at all, regardless of if you'd even want it. That was clearly a bad situation for the overwhelming majority of players, and it made very little sense. PF ranks modify the frequency of high-rank missions spawning btw.

Yep, and that was a good decision - at that time. FD have since expanded the mission boards to a point where a single faction occasionally offers more missions than the whole board did in the old times. In this scenario, returning to the old system and then giving a proper balance pass to the payouts per rank would be the way to go. As it is now, new players can get rich a little too fast, and Elite players rarely find anything even worth their while.
 
OP, you're idea is missing the level of reward offered. If you have a high local reputation due to previous successful missions then missions should be offered with a level of reward commensurate with that level of reputation. If you have a low level of local reputation then you may still be offered a mission but with a lower level of remuneration since the faction is taking a bigger risk on you.
It does not matter how you get a good result, using Wings or any other group of players (NPC wings?), you are the one signing the contract.

Your reputation with a faction's affliated power, if any, may have a weighting on the level of reward.
Your reputation with a faction's adversaries, if any, may have a weighting on the level of reward. You may not be offered a mission if you have too high a reputation with an adversary faction.

This is not a complete 'plan' by any means, but a 'back of a packet' train of thought.

Like with many thngs in ED the mission system does not make sense when one delves into it.
The old adage: it's just a game.
 
Why is that overpowered? All it does is allow you to go somewhere else and get good missions there, too. It's not as if people go around grinding for reputation everywhere, they tend to just stick to the same places where they have a high rep and that's it. It shouldn't require grinding rank to get some change of scenery.

Your idea cuts off a big portion of end-game experience (working the local rep with factions), which is always a bad thing. So sorry, but Frontier though it through better than you did;)
 
Obviously the ideal would be lots more missions and then we use filters and searches (take on a mission then filter button for other jobs to that system)
However if that is technically not doable then the answer could be the same mission templates for everyone but them then scaled afterwards (client side?) So that they are suitable for our Cmdr . IF we have over levelled due to farming exploits and this makes missions too difficult then an added button in advance saying "search for easier missions as I am feeling like a lazy day" (ie think of lore context wording) and then it simply generates the missions for a few more ranks lower than we are

On filters... I made this suggestion a while back:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/456902-Overhaul-of-Mission-Board-UI-and-Mission-Lists
 
Obviously the ideal would be lots more missions and then we use filters and searches (take on a mission then filter button for other jobs to that system)
However if that is technically not doable then the answer could be the same mission templates for everyone but them then scaled afterwards (client side?) So that they are suitable for our Cmdr . IF we have over levelled due to farming exploits and this makes missions too difficult then an added button in advance saying "search for easier missions as I am feeling like a lazy day" (ie think of lore context wording) and then it simply generates the missions for a few more ranks lower than we are

They tried adding even more missions in a previous beta, and apparently what we have now is what is possible without disconnecting too many people when they access the board.

Yep, and that was a good decision - at that time. FD have since expanded the mission boards to a point where a single faction occasionally offers more missions than the whole board did in the old times. In this scenario, returning to the old system and then giving a proper balance pass to the payouts per rank would be the way to go. As it is now, new players can get rich a little too fast, and Elite players rarely find anything even worth their while.

It is definitely worth considering if you'd ask me. :)
 
They tried adding even more missions in a previous beta, and apparently what we have now is what is possible without disconnecting too many people when they access the board.

All they need to do is pre-empt the mission board generation by giving you options to restrict by:
- Faction type; and/or
- Broad category (Combat, trade, criminal etc)

...*before* generating anything, and also not generate missions which cannot be taken due to rank/ship size/reputation limitations.

The limiting factor is the size of the bundle being sent to the client timing out, not the amount of missions to be generated, and at the moment 80-95% of what gets sent to the client is guaranteed wasted because there's no pre-empting of what the player wants.

Compare the efficiency of generating a full mission board (approx 100 missions) vs a board with only 25 missions. It's 75% less missions, but 90% faster than generating a full board. A mission board of 25 missions relevant to the player could easily be generated if you could pre-empt on faction and broad category.

[video=youtube;1v-jOhfNcbc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v-jOhfNcbc[/video]

[video=youtube;Ljs4RR4fJRU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljs4RR4fJRU[/video]
 
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I think it's a good idea to be able to see missions you cannot take, as it helps forming an idea of what the station is about, what to expect ranking up, which ship to choose, etc..

Filtering on the other hand sounds nice, but generally elite uses a simple and slow rhythm interface, so don't see it changing.

The one thing I really dislike about the mission UI is that, when I take one, it moves me to the top of the menu, and I have to scroll down again and search where I was.. I wish I was just left on the next mission available.
 
This is one thing about the rank level missions that has always confused me - which rank do they use!

Lets say I look at a haulage mission, it will tell me that it is ranked Broker and that hostile ships could be sent against me. Well Mr FD I hate to be the bearer of bad news but my Trade rank has nothing to do with my ability to defend myself against attackers. I would much prefer that the rank level for mission be solely based on the player's combat ranking as the only danger, whether it be perceived, imagined or real, is the chance of combat during the mission, not on whether I got really good at hauling cargo from one system to another.

The suggested pilot ranks by the PIOLT'S FEDERATION, which are listed in the discription of various mission are related to the particular type of missions.

Example:, Scaning beacons, murder, bounty hunting, is realted to combat status, passenger's are related to explorine, cargo is related to trade.

The issues player's have is that the Pilots Federation and both Navy's use the same term "RANK". One (Pilot's Federation) actually pertains to experience of the various types of mission. The other (Navy(s)) is based on the number of any and all accomplished missions relating to the particular Navy(s) issued by any and all broker's affiliated with the particular Navy(s).

Tis important to remember that the Pilot Federation rank doesn't depend on whom one works for, while the Navy(s) and the Alliance does.

Example: If one is in the process of working on their Federal Ranking, then one should only accept missions from the Federal aligned broker's, indicated by the watermark next to the broker's discription. Though one can accept any mission from any broker, doing so will cause some disdain with the other causing a blue or red triangle to show up just left of the particular Navy's reputation indicator. Either pointing upwards or downwards. If for instance, one has a red triangle poin downwards, one will have to do appoximately an additonal 12 missions for the particular Navy's allilitated broker before any of the actual work is is credited to influence they have with the particular Navy(s) progress indicator. The confusing part is, once the influence is at 100%, one can't see the progess that is being added. Until one rep is at 100, where as a Naval mission will be offered, in which case if accepted an completed succesfull, thus causing the influence indicator to show how much was there above and beyond what one needed. Hence the issue one seems to have to do more missions sometimes vs other players or themselves.

Besides the one indicator the Pilot's Federation has indicating ones progress towards Elite, one can only tell one's progress by the number of rebuys they no longer have to make when involved in pew pew. Trading and Exploring doesn't have any other indicator but the one visable.
 
This is one thing about the rank level missions that has always confused me - which rank do they use!

Lets say I look at a haulage mission, it will tell me that it is ranked Broker and that hostile ships could be sent against me. Well Mr FD I hate to be the bearer of bad news but my Trade rank has nothing to do with my ability to defend myself against attackers. I would much prefer that the rank level for mission be solely based on the player's combat ranking as the only danger, whether it be perceived, imagined or real, is the chance of combat during the mission, not on whether I got really good at hauling cargo from one system to another.
An Elite trader should be able to get cargo into and out of anywhere - whether by outfighting, outrunning or outsmarting the opposition. Two of those approaches don't require any combat rank at all.

If they only need someone who can move boxes back and forth but can't cope with being shot at, there are plenty of Mostly Penniless people looking for work.
 
I preferred the original system as it gave some progression at least - but as mentioned there weren't enough missions for it work - maybe it would now?

My main issue though is that the elite trade and delivery missions don't seem any harder to me - sure they send better ships after you but I haven't failed to evade an npc interdiction in long long time - certainly not for a year at least so don't bother looking at the delivery/trade mission ranks anymore.
 
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