Search & Rescue - Occupied Escape Pods should trigger missions/story pointers

nanite2000 · Sep 27, 2017

In v2.4, there's an option to hand in Occupied Escape Pods to Search & Rescue. Unfortunately, the reward for doing so is so small as to not be worth it (around 3,000 credits).

The small reward would be worth it if the rescued occupant pointed you in the direction of some of the many listening posts and unregistered comms beacons around the galaxy. These would allow players to discover more about the galaxy, challenge them with puzzles, and enrich the whole game/story experience without requiring the player to follow a strict narrative.

MBaldelli · Sep 27, 2017

nanite2000 said:
In v2.4, there's an option to hand in Occupied Escape Pods to Search & Rescue. Unfortunately, the reward for doing so is so small as to not be worth it (around 3,000 credits).

The small reward would be worth it if the rescued occupant pointed you in the direction of some of the many listening posts and unregistered comms beacons around the galaxy. These would allow players to discover more about the galaxy, challenge them with puzzles, and enrich the whole game/story experience without requiring the player to follow a strict narrative.

Like Tip Offs? I might go with it... It's a diversion..

This is also one of the few times I approve of RNG where saving the occupant turns out to be a notable person with a bigger payout. After all, we don't know who's an occupant of a life pods so it's crap shoot where it's a crewman of some Corvette, the Admiral, or some noble or diplomat. Hell, even criminals have higher pay outs in the form of rewards.

nanite2000 · Sep 27, 2017

Yes, exactly! The RNG could work the game's favour here:

* the occupant might be rich and give you a large reward.
* the occupant may have nothing, and you get a small reward.
* the occupant may be poor, but give you a tip off to something that has a higher financial bonus.
* the occupant may give you a tip off to a story thread (listening posts, thargoids, etc...).
* the occupant may give you cartographic data for a region of space that can be sold for profit.
* the occupant may ask for carriage to a star port if you have a passenger cabin.

Lots of potential here I think.

kingbankai · Sep 27, 2017

nanite2000 said:
Yes, exactly! The RNG could work the game's favour here:

* the occupant might be rich and give you a large reward.
* the occupant may have nothing, and you get a small reward.
* the occupant may be poor, but give you a tip off to something that has a higher financial bonus.
* the occupant may give you a tip off to a story thread (listening posts, thargoids, etc...).
* the occupant may give you cartographic data for a region of space that can be sold for profit.
* the occupant may ask for carriage to a star port if you have a passenger cabin.

Lots of potential here I think.

This is definitely some good material here.

I would like to add a Naval officer and gives you crap ton of rank.

nanite2000 · Sep 28, 2017

More ideas:

* The occupant can be sold as a slave on the Black Market.
* The occupant is a representative of a random minor faction, and awards you some rep with them.
* The occupant was an Imperial Slave, and wishes to be ferried to a star system, whereupon you are rewarded with rep and credits from the minor faction (s)he is aligned with.
* The occupant knows the whereabouts of some Guardian Ruins sites. You should totally check them out (after a visit to Meene of course).
* The occupant was an artist, and was floating in space as a commentary on the overwhelming loneliness we all experience in this huge galaxy, and the fleeting and delicate nature of life itself. You just ruined his art project, and he's gunning for you now. For art.

Basically, anything in this game that people complain is "hard to discover" could be discoverable through this mechanic.

Limoncello Lizard · Sep 28, 2017

All good ideas. The rescued occupant is a perfect opportunity for a chained mission to begin.

e.g.

occupant needs a lift to a nearby station where there are clues to the whereabouts of his crew
occupant saw his crewmate's pod picked up by a pirate, who need liberating
smuggle gold into a station for a bribe to determine the identity of the pirate leader
assassinate the leader of the pirate group that captured the occupant
success gets you a bounty from the pirate's cabal, so a wing of assassins are sent after you

NW3 · Sep 28, 2017

There are a lot of good ideas here.

I'd like to get a message in my inbox when I collect an occupied escape pod, with info about the occupant, his/her home system/station/faction etc. You would get credits based on how far you had to travel to return him/her to the station, lesser credits if you returned them to a nearby allied station, or lots of credits if you returned them to an opposing faction, or sold them into slavery. This poses a moral dilemma.

Highwayman · Sep 28, 2017

I like all of these suggestions, I'd love to see them implemented in game. Right now the random occasional missions that are offered via the comms menu are barely worth the money they offer just to read them...

Marc_Hicks · Sep 28, 2017

nanite2000 said:
In v2.4, there's an option to hand in Occupied Escape Pods to Search & Rescue. Unfortunately, the reward for doing so is so small as to not be worth it (around 3,000 credits).

The small reward would be worth it if the rescued occupant pointed you in the direction of some of the many listening posts and unregistered comms beacons around the galaxy. These would allow players to discover more about the galaxy, challenge them with puzzles, and enrich the whole game/story experience without requiring the player to follow a strict narrative.

IIRC, Adam Waite said this was a very cool idea.....but apparently is harder to implement than it sounds. Fingers crossed they can overcome any issues regarding making this a reality.

Lucius-Darcia · Sep 28, 2017

I like that idea, just hope it doesn't get degraded to those useless unworthy tip-off things xD

MBaldelli · Sep 28, 2017

Lucius-Darcia said:
I like that idea, just hope it doesn't get degraded to those useless unworthy tip-off things xD

Well, if you want you can explain to the devs in another thread about improvements to the tip offs. I have ideas, but I might not have time to do them until well passed the weekend.

Edith_The_Hutt · Sep 28, 2017

I like these ideas, particularly the simpler ones. Making the reward variable and useful to different commanders seems like a good way to make the escape pods interesting.

c00ky1970 · Sep 30, 2017

Regardless the basic reward for escape pods should be more than 1tonne of low pressure diamond or painite.

this will incentivise players to do this role, and allow new players to earn reasonable rewards without having to just transport data missions.

Daish · Oct 1, 2017

Yep agree frontier does have this on going problem of bringing in new types of game play with super poor payouts, how many times have we looking through the mission board and seen a mission for 30,000 credit mission when there are loads of overs we would happily do for 1.2 mil, I've recently seen missions to Colonia for 1mil yeah right who'd do that..!!

I agree to search and rescue is what it is we search or grind and for 3,000 credits no way worth while perhaps a mission stating a particular missing person last seen in? reward 1.5mil credits now it's worth while with maybe stacking a couple of missions the same.
so yes 150% agree search and rescue need HUGE attention to detail and involve not just planet side missions, after all its a "space" game.

Alexandr · Oct 1, 2017

good idea. but payouts from rescue agents must be raised anyway

Marc_Hicks · Oct 2, 2017

One thought I had, before 2.4 dropped, was to have other areas of Station Services linked into the Chained Mission system.

Hand in Exploration Data? That *might* trigger a Chained Mission (probably a Data Courier or Surface Scan mission).
Hand in Intel? That *might* trigger a Chained Mission (Data Courier, Surface Scan, Liberation, Piracy, Assassination being most likely).
Hand in Salvage to S&R Contact? That *might* trigger a Chained Mission (Passenger, Courier, Assassination, Salvage, Massacre, Liberation being most likely).

I'm not a programmer, but I can't see why it would be so hard to tie other parts of the board into the Chained Mission system.

Limoncello Lizard · Oct 2, 2017

Changes to your reputation could spawn follow-up missions as well. Especially when becoming allied, but even changing to hostile could have a mission.

Stellar Gambit · Oct 2, 2017

I love this idea!

MBaldelli · Oct 2, 2017

Daish said:
Yep agree frontier does have this on going problem of bringing in new types of game play with super poor payouts, how many times have we looking through the mission board and seen a mission for 30,000 credit mission when there are loads of overs we would happily do for 1.2 mil, I've recently seen missions to Colonia for 1mil yeah right who'd do that..!!

Definitely not me. It's more than 4 hours of time to get from the Bubble to Colonia. More like more than 12 hours. I like playing the game, but not that much in a sitting. Especially when you consider the typical time for it is 24 hours which seems a little unrealistic for me as a casual gamer.

Daish · Oct 2, 2017

Dear Frontier we have a HUGE question for you "PLEASE RAISE SEARCH RECUE PAYOUTS" by erm alot or maybe even based on rep with system would be good ..thank you.