Simple procedural missions while out in the black

[MK Regular]

• Needing "all this additional equipment to explore", and
• "Who's actually going to risk potential billions in exploration data for some risky thing worth a couple million"

That's the thing with this particular suggestion, the missions don't:

• Require any equipment that an explorer is unlikely to have
• Require players to make any risks that they aren't already taking (outside of possible pirates for black boxes / escape pods when returning)
• Occur so frequently that they are completely ignored (OP said something like once every 200-500 jumps)
• Require any additional assets other than the message text

On top of that, OP has also suggested a toggle in the communications tab that filters out the notifications (I'm not sure if there is a filter that will already do this for tip-off missions) for players that don't want their exploration sessions to be interrupted. There just is so much win in this suggestion that I can't bring myself to do anything other than support it.

 

[Darth Wonko]

You know how sometimes you'll be chilling in your ship somewhere in the bubble and a mission or tipoff will land in your inbox?

Wouldn't it be cool if that happened in deep space?

Not all the time. Just once every few hours or days, to break things up and give you some occasional structure if you want it.

A scout ship has been lost and we've determined you're the only ship in a thousand light years of the site. If you can scan the wreck/retrieve a black box/rescue a survivor, the Pilots Federation will pay you several million credits.

Universal Cartographics have detected atypical magnetic activity in System X. If you can go there and scan the whole system, we'll pay you a 500% bonus on it.

Scientists have had reports of an unusual genus of void life in the vicinity of Nebula Y. If you can locate some and get a composition scan/research sample, they'll reward you handsomely.

The missions given would obviously have to take into account what modules you have on board.

Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to implement

Great idea, CMDR! o7

 

[zombieapocalypse]

Yeah, I'd definitely like for there to be more to do and discover outside the bubble. The very occasional distress beacon to investigate, shipwrecks to be found and salvaged, random semi-persistent sci-fi anomalies to analyse, etc. I'd also like there to be more dangers and challenges out there.

 

[Nasc]

You know how sometimes you'll be chilling in your ship somewhere in the bubble and a mission or tipoff will land in your inbox?

Wouldn't it be cool if that happened in deep space?

Not all the time. Just once every few hours or days, to break things up and give you some occasional structure if you want it.

A scout ship has been lost and we've determined you're the only ship in a thousand light years of the site. If you can scan the wreck/retrieve a black box/rescue a survivor, the Pilots Federation will pay you several million credits.

Universal Cartographics have detected atypical magnetic activity in System X. If you can go there and scan the whole system, we'll pay you a 500% bonus on it.

Scientists have had reports of an unusual genus of void life in the vicinity of Nebula Y. If you can locate some and get a composition scan/research sample, they'll reward you handsomely.

The missions given would obviously have to take into account what modules you have on board.

Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to implement

It would certainly be nice to get a little, perhaps meaningful surprise like that.
Something else to get excited about besides bio signs and ELW's to scan.

 

[CMDR Yates]

Ah, misread what "out in the black" meant.

It's funny... while I've not made a suggestion like the OP before, I have suggested activites for out in deep space, particularly requiring the various limpets and other bits and bobs.

I guess part of the problem is all the explorers wanted USS and other activities taken out of deep space because it disturbed their feng shui about coming across that sort of thing in so-called "uninhabited space"... and secondly there was a lot of revulsion at the idea of

• Needing "all this additional equipment to explore", and
• "Who's actually going to risk potential billions in exploration data for some risky thing worth a couple million"

Just what I've been hit with before. Personally, I think it's a great idea from the OP

Yeah, definitely, I can honestly see both sides of that. It's nice to have an opportunity to use all the tools at our disposal, but it would be frustrating to stumble on interesting content we can't engage with because the nearest limpet controller or whatever is 15,000 light years away.

It's also a challenge to balance the crucial feeling of isolation with enough opportunities for gameplay. I really want more to do out there. Back when the game first came out, deep space was full of NPCs, and even after Horizons came out, you'd be tripping over crashed human ships left and right on a far-flung random ice moon, light millennia from Sol. And it was kinda silly.

That's the challenge I tried to address: by having tip-offs come from Universal Cartographics, an organisation with access to the exploration data of thousands of commanders, and other factions with their own intelligence, we've got a means of finding what should be needle-in-the-haystack discoveries in a believable way. And if the system is able to take note of what you have outfitted (headcanon: the Deep Space Dispatch Network shares your location and loadout with UC, PF and allied factions), then we might get the chance to play with all our toys, without the frustration of showing up to stuff empty-handed.

I'd also like there to be more dangers and challenges out there.

Yep. Agree completely. I'd like there to be more phenomena like accretion discs, hot protoplanetary clouds, flare stars, and metal-eating void life.

Obviously, it's important that the danger isn't unfairly extreme or insta-deathy. The zen feel of exploration is an important part of it, and if it's too easy to lose months worth of exploration data, it runs the risk of alienating people. The danger should probably be a little bit lower than what we currently face from pirates in the bubble. We already have neutron jets, white dwarfs and very very very rare lightning clouds; a few more risks, maybe some easy enemies (that we still might still have to flee from if we're in an unarmed, stripped-down explorer), and some powerful phenomena where the danger isn't always entirely optional, requires some problem-solving skill to navigate and doubles up as eye candy, would be very welcome.

 

[CMDR ConstantinusXP]

Great idea, I like it.

 

[ARNUD SWAZZANEGGER]

I'm guessing the last thing explorer peeps want to do is a U-turn back into the bubble. So the missions that would not require having to travel back to the bubble would be nice. Like those ones you mentioned where scanning is involved, the data would obviously just be sent back without you having to return to hand it in.

 

[CMDR Yates]

I'm guessing the last thing explorer peeps want to do is a U-turn back into the bubble. So the missions that would not require having to travel back to the bubble would be nice. Like those ones you mentioned where scanning is involved, the data would obviously just be sent back without you having to return to hand it in.

Good point.

For data and scanning-related missions, I was thinking of something like Codex vouchers, which don't expire and you can exchange at any system for a cash reward on your eventual return. You wouldn't need to do a U-turn as they wouldn't expire.

Usually when we come back from the black, there's a while spent cashing in all the lines of exploration data and vouchers you've earned. It would just be more added to that bonanza.

I wouldn't be totally opposed to getting the cash right away, but it does open the can of worms of how come we can send this data back right away and get paid, but we have to fly back to sell the rest of it?

For missions involving scooping certain wreckage, escape pods or lost items, I guess it should be possible to hand the recovered items in at any Search and Rescue Contact for a large reward. It should probably pay more than the data-related missions to offset the fact you've possibly had to fly around with it in your hold for weeks. The effect on jump range would have to be factored into your decision to take the mission or not

 

[ARNUD SWAZZANEGGER]

Good point.

For data and scanning-related missions, I was thinking of something like Codex vouchers, which don't expire and you can exchange at any system for a cash reward on your eventual return. You wouldn't need to do a U-turn as they wouldn't expire.

Usually when we come back from the black, there's a while spent cashing in all the lines of exploration data and vouchers you've earned. It would just be more added to that bonanza.

I wouldn't be totally opposed to getting the cash right away, but it does open the can of worms of how come we can send this data back right away and get paid, but we have to fly back to sell the rest of it?

For missions involving scooping certain wreckage, escape pods or lost items, I guess it should be possible to hand the recovered items in at any Search and Rescue Contact for a large reward. It should probably pay more than the data-related missions to offset the fact you've possibly had to fly around with it in your hold for weeks. The effect on jump range would have to be factored into your decision to take the mission or not

Ah, then when it comes to selling the cartographic data at a station, that could be woven into the lore easy as well, since you'd be the one choosing which superpower gets that information which in turn helps them decide where to expand or perhaps even send ships into battle for the powerplay part of the game.

I have already been doing this for the most part, regardless if it actually matters or not. I have chosen to hand in my cartogaphic data to the Federation. I have at times sold some smaller bundles of data to others just for the sake of getting rid of it when i know I'm going to head into a conflct zone or maybe do material farming taking out wanted ships and don't want to risk losing the data (and money from the data) so i just offload it to whomever.

 

[Valorin]

You know how sometimes you'll be chilling in your ship somewhere in the bubble and a mission or tipoff will land in your inbox?

Wouldn't it be cool if that happened in deep space?

Not all the time. Just once every few hours or days, to break things up and give you some occasional structure if you want it.

A scout ship has been lost and we've determined you're the only ship in a thousand light years of the site. If you can scan the wreck/retrieve a black box/rescue a survivor, the Pilots Federation will pay you several million credits.

Universal Cartographics have detected atypical magnetic activity in System X. If you can go there and scan the whole system, we'll pay you a 500% bonus on it.

Scientists have had reports of an unusual genus of void life in the vicinity of Nebula Y. If you can locate some and get a composition scan/research sample, they'll reward you handsomely.

The missions given would obviously have to take into account what modules you have on board.

Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to implement

Somehow I wouldn't like that... Maybe in areas that are well explored already, but generally I just want it to be lonely out there.
BUT I'd love more things to do out there. Scientific stuff. Not aliens or anything like that. Things that are known to be already there like acretion disks and fresh meteor impact sites, and ways to actually investigate unusual places, material deposites and so on, taking samples, perform tests on materials found and so on.
A short time ago I took a few occupied escape pods with me for the sake of immersion, and thought about how cool it would be, if those would spawn follow-up rewards or missions. I mean, Elite already has a way of generating random persons, and adding a person who says "thanks" or so to an occupied escape pod I handed in, wouldn't be that hard. Maybe that person also gives me a reward (and maybe they are rich and the reward is big!), or asks us to do something else for them with a reward attached, OR asks for work and we could get a relatively cheap crew member from that.
If something like that would be in place I would gladly take any occupied espace pod with me I can find, for other reasons than for immersion's sake. 30k isn't that much for rescuing someone from certain death.

 

[CMDR Yates]

Somehow I wouldn't like that... Maybe in areas that are well explored already, but generally I just want it to be lonely out there.
BUT I'd love more things to do out there. Scientific stuff. Not aliens or anything like that. Things that are known to be already there like acretion disks and fresh meteor impact sites, and ways to actually investigate unusual places, material deposites and so on, taking samples, perform tests on materials found and so on.
A short time ago I took a few occupied escape pods with me for the sake of immersion, and thought about how cool it would be, if those would spawn follow-up rewards or missions. I mean, Elite already has a way of generating random persons, and adding a person who says "thanks" or so to an occupied escape pod I handed in, wouldn't be that hard. Maybe that person also gives me a reward (and maybe they are rich and the reward is big!), or asks us to do something else for them with a reward attached, OR asks for work and we could get a relatively cheap crew member from that.
If something like that would be in place I would gladly take any occupied espace pod with me I can find, for other reasons than for immersion's sake. 30k isn't that much for rescuing someone from certain death.

Totally agree with the two suggestions about adding more science discoveries and gameplay resulting from rescued escape pods (more rescue contacts to find other survivors of the crash, funeral missions, financial rewards, rep rewards, maybe unwanted attention from the original assassins that destroyed the ship).

I've posted about both of those before, and I definitely think they would benefit the experience. I'd also fold slave liberation into the same mechanic, with similar but slightly different consequences. But that's another thread.

In terms of wanting it to remain lonely: would you still be opposed to deep space missions if receiving them was something you had to opt in to?

If, to get these missions, you needed to have optionally signed up to join a long-range ship dispatch service that investigates the last nav-map positions of missing explorers and sifts exploration data for possible anomalies, and if you don't sign up, or you switch it off, you don't get them?