Question about 'hold cargo for a while' mission.

[DonBardon]

I got a mission today - hold this until NPC contacts you in sector sec_name. But I noticed there's neither a concrete ETA nor a timer for this mission, and it's not the first time I have to deal with this. Sometimes everything ends up alright: I play for a couple of hours and at some point the mission triggers and I have to run to that system to find NPC. Yet today I accepted the mission, waited for 40 minutes and had to go.
Wouldn't it make sense to know if you're going to be able to complete the mission at the time of accepting it? I think it's a pain in the neck to find stuff like that around. Well, tell me what you think (for it might as well be just me).

 

[MickyG1982]

It's every bit as vague as it is meant to be. "Hold onto this cargo" or package or data. And continue doing whatever it is you want to do. Around about an hour or so later you will get a message saying the mission has updated. In general this timer is how long before your contact will be at the jump in point. They'll hang around for 20 or so mins afterwards or until you jump in. They will contact you, follow them and their directions, get paid.

 

[vernonator]

It's every bit as vague as it is meant to be. "Hold onto this cargo" or package or data. And continue doing whatever it is you want to do. Around about an hour or so later you will get a message saying the mission has updated. In general this timer is how long before your contact will be at the jump in point. They'll hang around for 20 or so mins afterwards or until you jump in. They will contact you, follow them and their directions, get paid.

That's IF the mission is not bugged - in my experience (I don't trade or explore - missions and bounty hunting is why I play) about 50% of these missions just never happen. The contact never shows, so I have stopped taking them altogether - low pay, even lower when 1/2 are bugged, just not worth the effort.

 

[bkrownd]

I won't do these missions until they're much more fleshed out or fixed. I took one and went to the system where I got a com in supercruise from the contact, and just as I found them in the contact list I was interdicted by another ship. When I got back into supercruise the contact was gone and I wasted 20-30 minutes cruising around the system looking for them. I don't have time for that kind of crap.

 

[DonBardon]

It's every bit as vague as it is meant to be. "Hold onto this cargo" or package or data. And continue doing whatever it is you want to do. [...]

I see that it could be a real life situation - not knowing how long you're going to protect the cargo for. And even though I think ELITE as a simulator does well in making us feel the missions are somewhat veridic, it is no way to justify a considerable sacrifice on gameplay. Just for what I said - I could totally do the mission, except after 1 hour playing I might actually need* to go do something else.

I'd like FD to let us know wether this is a bug or meant to be.
PS: A decent fix would be having a hidden timer for the NPC to spawn that considers the time the player is online. I know it is messes up with realisim, but this needs adressing (and I never claimed my ideas are any good).