Please Remove Mission Timers

apophis13

A
1. We are players (ie, your consumers, the people that pay you). We are not hostages or slaves. We're not even employees.
2. Players should be able to stop using a product if they wish. They should be allowed to do other things, such as eat, sleep, work out, go to work, spend time with family, or even play other games. We should be able to take a break, come back, and continue playing where we left off.
3. Every other game allows this. I can't think of a game that has timers on its missions and quests. I've played a lot of MMORPGs over the years. Actually, I've played nearly all of them starting with Everquest 1. I can take a break playing FF14 for a year if I want and come back, and the quests are still there right where I left them. Disallowing players from taking a break from the game is really just truly a bizarre and off-putting design choice and feels like you're trying to, like, trap people into playing more than they want to or something? People don't work that way. So, if that is the intent, give it up. It won't work. If this choice is just a random design choice with no real impetus behind it, it should be easy to get rid of. Honestly, this is a simple, win-win, all gain and no loss. You should do it.
4. Some people like exploring the game world and trying out different things. Making your missions broken in this way dissuades people from doing this.

And, thus, you just need to get rid of this terrible idea and allow people to play your game at their pace. Presumably, you want people to play your game, right. You don't want the design choices to be so unpleasant that people just give up and go do other things because if you want to play this, you're forced against your will to keep playing whether you want to or not. If you want to condition people to dislike your product, this is how you do it. So, just, get rid of the timers.

And, I mean, ignore me if you want. I'm not relying on you for income. I don't have to pay for overhead or servers or payroll. But, if you genuinely want to make people like your game more and to make the game more pleasant and inviting, this is an easy way to do it!

Best of luck!
 

apophis13

A
Well, yes, that's also annoying, but they should just scrap the whole thing altogether. What if it's late, and you just want to go to bed? It's just a game. This is why exploring is really the best content. You can quit and come back later, and it's fine. You can take as long as you want, and it's fine. I mean, the capability to take a break from a game and come back later was pioneered in 1976. Why should we intentionally write more code to remove that functionality now? It was a good idea then. It's still a good idea!
 

Shir

Shir
All missions interact with faction and system state, Bgs etc.. so they have to stay relevant. Meaning a couple of days later available missions are different, rewards are different, old missions might be irrelevant, factions might be different, even the system can have different owners. It's very realistic, factions want you to do stuff, but in a timely manner.
 
Last edited:

apophis13

A
alexzk said:
Don't take new missions before the bed's time. Problem solved.


I play missions when I can spare 3-4 hours at least.
System is good as is for the immersion, it gives a feeling that I live there and it is NOT a game.
Click to expand...
Or...and hear me out here....or, I can play a game that has a sensible system where I can save and quit and come back when I feel like it. There are lots and lots and lots of them. You can fan-guard for Elite all you want. They are not doing well. And, not being able to take a break when needed is a terrible design, and most people are going to hate it. And, it has nothing to do with "realism". Not being forced to play 24/7 doesn't break immersion. It's assumed that you can pause, save, walk away, then come back when you want and continue on. You don't play Skyrim saying, "Oh, man, I have to play this 24/7 until I finish it. I won't eat or sleep or anything. It's this and nothing else or there's no immersion." No, you play it, enjoy it, then save and quit when you want to do something else, then you return when you want. That's pretty much a standard game design assumption.
 

apophis13

A
Shir said:
All missions interact with faction and system state, Bgs etc.. so they have to stay relevant.
Click to expand...
Who cares? The faction doesn't disappear. You can turn it in and, at that time, they can update whatever stuff in the background (that no one cares about anyways), they want to. I bet they could make this change in under an hour using find and replace in the code. Something like this would be the easiest thing ever. In fact, I bet you dollars to donuts, they literally have a setting somewhere already built in that just turns mission timers off. They could probably make this change in under a minute. Like, I cannot imagine that they designed it without the ability to modify or remove mission timers. The only reason they are there is probably because they want to save on server data, but, like, every player is limited to missions anyways. Nah, this is just a cop out. I guarantee that doing this would be an easy fix to a really terrible design feature.
 

Shir

Shir
Unfortunately (or rather fortunately) the game doesn't work this way. The Bgs has thousands of parameters that interact together. Factions can disappear if not native if you make them withdraw from the system - one of the joys of BGS.. :)

The basics of Elite has always been the 1:1 Galaxy, the great flight model, and the interactive galaxy. Examples: Combat missions that expire after the war is over, missions for food or medicine when there's famine or outbreak, literally all missions are state specific and change every day with the click. Passenger missions that pay great, but if you do a few the payout drops. Elites world is not static unlike most other MMOs.

Think of Wow with quests changing every day depending on what players do.
 

apophis13

A
Shir said:
Unfortunately (or rather fortunately) the game doesn't work this way. The Bgs has thousands of parameters that interact together. Factions can disappear if not native if you make them withdraw from the system - one of the joys of BGS.. :)

The basics of Elite has always been the 1:1 Galaxy, the great flight model, and the interactive galaxy. Examples: Combat missions that expire after the war is over, missions for food or medicine when there's famine or outbreak, literally all missions are state specific and change every day with the click. Passenger missions that pay great, but if you do a few the payout drops. Elites world is not static unlike most other MMOs.

Think of Wow with quests changing every day depending on what players do.
Click to expand...
Actually, I started researching this, and I didn't know what the BGS was. This is interesting. I never knew that players could influence the Galaxy. This explains some of the really ridiculous faction names out there :D
 

varonica

varonica
I have actually played games with mission timers, but as mentioned there's a huge difference between Elite and other MMO's. Many Raids in LOTRO have timers, many missions have 1 hour timers, you get called away on an emergency the mission fails, you can't save and come back and still have the mission, it's gone. Most missions in ED have timers that run for at least 24 hours, some have timers that run for a week, I don't really see the issue here, I really don't.
 

apophis13

A
varonica said:
I have actually played games with mission timers, but as mentioned there's a huge difference between Elite and other MMO's. Many Raids in LOTRO have timers, many missions have 1 hour timers, you get called away on an emergency the mission fails, you can't save and come back and still have the mission, it's gone. Most missions in ED have timers that run for at least 24 hours, some have timers that run for a week, I don't really see the issue here, I really don't.
Click to expand...
And, some run for 3 hours. And, some run for 2 weeks, but they are literally impossible as they require you to travel further than you possibly can in 2 weeks. I'd like to do one of those missions for fun...even though the pay isn't worth it, but I can't, because it's impossible for me, as I can't/won't play every day to do it.

This is totally disingenuous, by the way. You know that there are short mission timers for some missions. Why you are pretending not to know this, I've no idea, because everyone that has played this game at all knows that. I know nothing about "engineering" or whatever, but I know there are 3 hour mission timers.
 

Kira Goto

Kira Goto
apophis13 said:
And, some run for 2 weeks, but they are literally impossible as they require you to travel further than you possibly can in 2 weeks.
Click to expand...
Colonia runs are actually possible in less than a day, but that’s only if you don’t stop for sightseeing or exploring, and do as many neutron-assisted jumps as possible. An experience I’ve personally passed on thus far.

The only mission timers I personally don’t like are the 6 hour Odyssey ones which also don’t get extended on completion/collection of required item (only the settlement reboots are). So a return to port or settlement (depending on pickup location) often turns out to be necessary before logging off for dinner/dog walk(usually both, for me) or sleep, even though you’ve done the objective and just need to return for hand-in, which generally is not affected by any BGS states.

(Bar maybe retreat? But I’ve never been in that situation…)
 

TobiasFuzz

T
apophis13 said:
Who cares? The faction doesn't disappear. You can turn it in and, at that time, they can update whatever stuff in the background (that no one cares about anyways), they want to. I bet they could make this change in under an hour using find and replace in the code. Something like this would be the easiest thing ever. In fact, I bet you dollars to donuts, they literally have a setting somewhere already built in that just turns mission timers off. They could probably make this change in under a minute. Like, I cannot imagine that they designed it without the ability to modify or remove mission timers. The only reason they are there is probably because they want to save on server data, but, like, every player is limited to missions anyways. Nah, this is just a cop out. I guarantee that doing this would be an easy fix to a really terrible design feature.
Click to expand...
Who cares? You dare to ask "who cares"?? I care. I care a lot. And the countless other players that do BGS.

This is a phenomenon of todays world. A single player demands changes. As if this player is the one and only. Egoism and hybris.

FDev, please never abandon mission-timers. Perhaps you can even make them a little bit shorter? Please? I would love that.
 

yianniv

yianniv
apophis13 said:
Who cares? The faction doesn't disappear. You can turn it in and, at that time, they can update whatever stuff in the background (that no one cares about anyways), they want to. I bet they could make this change in under an hour using find and replace in the code. Something like this would be the easiest thing ever. In fact, I bet you dollars to donuts, they literally have a setting somewhere already built in that just turns mission timers off. They could probably make this change in under a minute. Like, I cannot imagine that they designed it without the ability to modify or remove mission timers. The only reason they are there is probably because they want to save on server data, but, like, every player is limited to missions anyways. Nah, this is just a cop out. I guarantee that doing this would be an easy fix to a really terrible design feature.
Click to expand...
Your posts show a great ignorance of the game's deeper functions. The BGS that was mentioned is a whole intricate world that brings life to the occupied galaxy and affects how factions interract with one another through missions and other means.
A great document was published by passionate commanders recently, have a look if you want: The Complete BGS Guide 2024
 

Felix DiCestria

Felix DiCestria
As mentioned several times the missions are part of the NHS. The BGS is dynamic and thus the missions have timers.
These range from a couple of hours for an Odyssey mission to a month for tourist or Spire sabotage missions, (even as the spire they're directed at is being abandoned by the Thargoids) Arriving to do a sabotage job to find the Spire lifeless or a settlement reboot and find the place a hive of activity would be somewhat confusing this the missions have timers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom