Here's another livestream for you! Please put your questions related to missions in the thread below. We'll also answer questions from the chat live on the night
"Join Ed, Adam Bourke-Waite and Dominic Corner as they answer your questions from the forum and the chat!
This livestream is focusing on missions specifically, so please keep your questions pointed towards missions!
Are there plans afoot for more detailed and adventurous missions?
(IE things like:
Using mission-specific craft with benefits/issues.
Chasing pirates across planetary rings, then into them, following spilled cargo to their asteroid base...
Infiltrating factions, gaining their trust, then betraying them horribly.
Some examples of 'mission-specific ships':
-Take this wonky T6, with my experimental scanner, and scan the unstable sun in that anarchic zone. Please don't damage the T6, it reminds me of my aunt.
-Return this Sidewinder to my less son and bring back my Eagle, which he's managed to crash. (And which he can't afford to repair, the reckless idiot. Don't buy him any drinks! He's annoyed enough of the local pirates as it is...)
-I need a driver for this T7 full of toxic waste. The contract's big, but you will have to smuggle it past security. Clearances got lost in the ether, you know how it is. Ship integrity is fine right now, absolutely fine. Bring it back when you're done though, I can get a lot for the parts.
-The Kinzo Crew are dominating the local extraction site. I need you to set up a blockade just for them. Disable four of their ships any way you can. This Clipper equipped with anti-FSD mines and guided missiles may help. Any spoils you accidentally find are of course yours to keep.
Stuff like that )
And might we see some of the story and audio trappings from the new training missions hit the full game at any point?
With more and more players reaching Triple Elite status, could there perhaps be some kind of cosmetic reward offered for clearing their save and starting over? Sort of like prestiging in CQC, but without any in game advantage. A paint job from the store, perhaps? Naming a station (pending Dev approval)?
Perhaps unlocking more challenging start points? Starting off in Colonia, for example. Or having a Wanted status for a month that can't be suisidewindered away?
Why are FDev still permitting mode-switch mission stacking?
a) For mission stacking in general (kill credits contributing to every mission)
b) For gaining access to three times as many missions from a single station as would be available without this exploit?
Neither of these are in any way good. Why aren't they being fixed?
Mission variation :
- many Systems seem to offer hardly any Missions at all, while others are always holding the max. amount. Intentional or an over-reaction to Faction States?
- in some Systems, only a single Faction seems to always offer all Missions, leaving none for all others. Intentional or a missing sanity check in the Mission distribution across Factions?
- Factions at War frequently offer Missions that have zero impact (non-Combat) but still call them "War Support" which is quite misleading. Bug?
- Factions at War frequently offer no dedicated Missions to assist their Conflict. Bug?
Mission Generation :
- Massacre Missions seem almost exclusive to Planetary Bases, hardly ever found at Outposts or Stations. Intentional or Bug?
- "Warzone Missions" are labeled like any other illegal Massacre Missions, despite being a legitimate and legal contribution to an ongoing War effort. Oversight?
Total amount of Missions :
- a huge, wealthy 11 Billion Population System offers no more Missions than any backdoor 2k tiny Population System. Any plans to change that?
- depending on distribution amongst Factions and total number of Factions inside a System, I often find it very difficult to find any suitable Mission in some Systems. Any Plans to scale up the total amount of Missions offered?
Faction ethos :
- although most of the V1.3 fallout on Missions vs. Faction ethos has been corrected, still seeing Democracies occasionally asking for things like "Deliver Slaves to support our Expansion efforts". Intentional or oversight?
Influence effects and Target Factions of Missions :
- as the Target Faction seems entirely random, it often makes absolutely no sense seeing a Democracy sending Supplies to an Anarchy Faction. Any chance we get a proper "pairing" of Faction types that support each other so it becomes more credible?
- the Influence Effects on the Target Faction seem extremely variable, from nothing upto (it seems) the same full Influence effect as for the Mission-issuing Faction, causing variable and often undesired Influence swings in the target Systems. Intentional?
Mission types :
- Exploration Missions still don't exist, despite being asked for since a long time. What's the holdup?
- couldn't UC become a 3rd, separate Mission-giving Institution, besides Conventional and Passenger Missions?
Mission Rewards :
- Mining Missions oddly always seem to carry Mining-Commodities as a Reward which is rather weird and often rather redundant. Any plans to change that and randomize it like on any other Mission Template?
- any plans to rebalance the distribution? (i.e. stop the current flood of Biotech Conductors and maybe increase the amount of things like Cracked Industrial Firmware (personally counting that as a Grade 6 Item - "exceedingly rare")?
- Conventional Materials gathering/scooping gives 3x the item collected, but Mission Reward remained unchanged (1x). Any plans to streamline that (i.e. 3x applying to Materials from Mission Rewards as well)?
Anomalies / Bugs / Exploits :
- any plans to make the Mission board persistent across Modes (effectively stopping Mode-Hopping) ?
- any plans to fix Missions which' execution adds i.e. every Kill Count to every single Mission carried ?
BGS Transparency :
- any chance to get a more precise prediction of the Influence Impact of any given Mission?
(I've seen several x Million Cr Passenger Missions cause surprisingly little Influence gains, all while a similar number of conventional Longrange Delivery Missions of far lower value had a surprisingly profound effect on Influence)
Bonus Question / Feature request
Faction Support - Improving the Quality of a System with Missions :
- apart from i.e. Donations to help Influence and/or a Boom State, there's currently no means to actually affect a System and "improve it".
-> similar to Donations, could we get dedicated "Charity Missions" that have a deeper effect purely aimed at supporting a System?
--> i.e. eventually resulting in better/more System Authority, improve System Security levels, maybe even grow Population and improve Facilities/Shipyard/Outfitting over time?
(mainly a thing for dedicated Faction supporters/Groups, but I think it would be super-cool if we could actually "take care" of every single System, even if it's a remote and otherwise uninteresting one. Build it up and make it an asset to the Faction. Grow a poor, tiny Economy into something better with alot of effort and dedication.)
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Just to demonstrate, the Mission System just presented me with this Situation (an Election has just started for us, so I try to Support our Faction using the Mission System) :
(zero Conventional Missions available, so I'm screwed in that respect. Nothing I could do with that)
(Luckily I have an alternative : Passengers. Too bad the only 2 Missions ask me to do either a 42000LY or a 62000LY tour)
Although I'm no friend of it, no other places in this System I could check out. Hence... now even I might be basically forced to mode-hop, if I don't want to spent my next hours praying for a suitable Mission to spawn :/
The current Beta is focusing on combat, and there are those who feel combat is the only aspect being given any real focus. Any hints about future love for exploration gameplay and mechanics that can be dropped?
You've hopefully seen the excellent mock up for scientific missions that made the rounds, but if not, here's the link: http://m.imgur.com/a/rMKSZ
Is possible make high ranked delivery missions well paid but really dangerous/challenging? (included possibility use engineered npcs, or theirs wing(s)).
Last one from me. Could the engineers perhaps be given the ability to change a fixed weapon to gimbled or turreted and vice versa? This of course would have to have a financial cost equal to the difference between weapons as well as a material cost, and while the effects and stats would carry over, they'd also scale accordingly based of their fundamental differences (damage, power use, etc)
Will engineers ever be able to give you missions that are rewarded with the things you need? For example, could Todd have missions that provide articulation motors / unicorn hair all the time, thus cutting out the Roulette of Madness™ that we have in regular missions elsewhere?
Mission idea: have a mission where for a period of time (21hrs like massacre missions) you become a cop and you have to patrol a system interdicting, scanning, and responding to emergency call POIs?
We currently have community supplied Galnet stories, Community goals and Tourist destinations/descriptions.
Have you considered the idea of getting the fabulous ED community to supply you with some richer, more varied and interesting mission outlines as well?
Currently virtually all missions (except charity and a few others) require you to jump to another system and then back again. Are there any plans to add more intra-system missions? If a minor faction hires me to kill a pirate lord, I'd expect that at least sometimes that pirate would happen to be terrorizing the system giving the mission rather than always another.
During the new tutorials we have some excellent storyline based missions. Is there any chance of something closer to that coming into the main game? (even something closer to the old Damocles video would be awesome)
Have you considered making the Materials/Commodites rewards reflect your status with the Faction? ie. when Cordial you get one, Friendly you get two, and Allied you get three mats? This would certainly also help a bit with hard to come by materials, such as Exquisite Focus Crystals (when they are re-introduced into the game), and it's already implemented with Credit rewards.
Also, is it possible to expand a bit on the interaction with the faction representative? The older Elite games had the possibility to ask questions about the missions. The answer to all these are now pretty much in the game already, but there is still the opportunity to introduce negotiations. For example they offer you three different Materials, and you are able to choose the one you want. Or, they offer you a reward, but you negotiate to get Credits and/or another mat/com instead of the reward the propose.
When: June 3251 (takes place 16th July 3251)
News: Imperial Herald, Federal Times, RIG
Where: Federation, Empire,
BBS Message: RENOVATION REQUIRED
Prerequisites: None?
Reward: 10,000 Credits
You will see press reports of a big case in Ackwada (-5,-3) involving the family of Dien D'Writ who are being sued for libel by the Rockforth Corporation. Apparently, D'Writ was assassinated by the Rockforth Corp, and his family tried to bring Rockforth to trial for murder. However, the Rockforths buy up a complete legal establishment, and move it to Ackwada. They then rewrite Independent Systems Law to enable them to sue the D'Writs for libel. Since the D'Writs have nowhere near the financial resources of the huge Corporation, they put out a contract to destroy the legal academy.
This mission is fairly difficult, as the Academy is defended with a large number of fighters. Therefore, it is recommended that you fly very low to stay safe. When you are in range, fire a number of missiles at the Academy (ideally, you should use the most explosive ones you can get), then run away very quickly. It is best to save before firing, as people have had problems with destroying the target properly.
Are you happy that your driving me mad by having to take notes for Lave Radio at 8:30, whilst putting the kids to bed (I don't do multi-tasking well).
Are there any plans for enhancing the external / debug view in the near future? (Scott Manley was asking!!)
Will is be possible to have a special window resolution so that 3D side by side mode in in 8*9 ratio for each eye? (Would be very useful for those of use Android Based VR headsets)
Is there going to be an organised big fight in Beta, to help test the new weapons loadouts?
