Hi all,
so I've been doing my fair share of missions since release and figured that I'd post some suggestions. IMO the mission system currently has the most potential to produce fun an engaging gameplay, because all the building blocks seem to be in place and it takes just a few expansions and adjustments to become something truly great for this game. The game desperately needs content for longevity, to give players something to do and work with.
So here goes. Feel free to add your input. Hopefully the devs see this and get something useful out of it.
That's basically all I have on my mind right now.
If anything, the main point I want to get across is this: The mission system is the single potent system in the game right now when you think about creating more content for longterm enjoyment. I think it should be one of the main focuses for FD during the coming months. Multiplayer coop will mean nothing if there's nothing for people to actually do. The mission system can solve this problem in a elegant way, and set us up for even better content in the long term.
Cheers,
R.J.
so I've been doing my fair share of missions since release and figured that I'd post some suggestions. IMO the mission system currently has the most potential to produce fun an engaging gameplay, because all the building blocks seem to be in place and it takes just a few expansions and adjustments to become something truly great for this game. The game desperately needs content for longevity, to give players something to do and work with.
So here goes. Feel free to add your input. Hopefully the devs see this and get something useful out of it.
- Moving missions to Contacts
- Problem: One of the major issues with the way missions are currently presented is the bulletin board. For example: When I am bounty hunting I'm looking for assassination and hunting missions. So naturally it becomes frustrating when the bulletin board RNG offers only hauling or fetching missions. Hopping stations or waiting for the BB to update becomes a nuisance quickly. It can take an hour or more doing nothing but hopping stations and scouring bulletin boards just to get a few of the missions you actually want to do. And then, when you get the missions, they may be offered by a faction you don't necessarily want to do missions for, as it may cost reputation with the faction you're looking to up your rep with. In my opinion this is an annoying and useless timesink. Getting the missions you want to do is a frustrating immersion breaker when it all hinges on the BB RNG and it simpl doesn't give you the missions you're looking for. I've had several evenings where I would log in to do some missions and log out an hour later, simply because the game wouldn't offer any worthwhile missions.
- Solution: Move missions to Contacts. In addition to security office, etc, there should be several contacts at every station. These then act as representatives for the factions present in the system. So, for example, when you dock at a station owned by Imperial Society there should be contacts from that faction at the station. These contacts then offer you missions. What type of missions they offer depends on which subdivision of the faction they belong to. So, for example, a contact belonging to the Imperial Society armed forces would primarily offer pirate hunting and assasination missions. A smuggler contact from the local pirate faction would offer you smuggling missions, the occassional assassination and ask you to kill authority vessels.
Doing missions for these contacts increases reputation with their respective faction and raises their influence.
Offering missions this way solves a lot of problems at once:- It removes the RNG factor involved with finding missions you want to do. If assassination missions are your thing, you can look for the appropriate contacts and they will offer you the gameplay you're looking for every time. Less downtime, more fun.
- Presenting missions this way is much more intuitive as it adds a human element. "I'm doing missions for this guy at station X. He's an Imperial Society guy. They will like me more when I work for him. He's my friend. He gives me bacon.".
- Point 2 makes it much easier to create more interesting missions with multiple escalations and a real sense of progression. Contacts may send you to talk to other contacts, and those other contacts may require certain faction standings or other prerequisites before they talk to you: "Yeah I know where this guy is... but I'm not telling you a damn thing unless you bring me beer... and bacon... don't forget the damn bacon!"
- You facilitate faction warfare and events in a more accessible format. You can dynamically add and remove contacts which then offer specific missions in specific places in light of specific events.
- All the above turns contacts into a sort of commodity where knowledge about the best contacts of a given faction is valuable info for players to share amongst each other. Example case: "Hey! If we all do missions for this guy at that station we can provoke civil war!"
- In essence, you are creating dynamic mission hubs for players to share and exploit. These will become POIs for players to gather around and new gameplay will emerge through and offered by them.
- Lastly, a side benefit of moving missions to contacts is the fact that you de-clutter the bulletin board. It can become a place revolving around news and events exclusively, with more room for interaction. The contacts can then act as facilitators and distributors of storyline missions and events.
- More variety and difficulty
- Problem: Missions are too basic right now. "Kill this, haul that". The simplicity and monotony of it turns it into a pure, mindless grind for credits.
- Solution: The suggestions above are one half of the solution to this. The other half is simple. Just expand missions with everything in the cookie cutter book for MMO quest design. VIP Escort missions, escalating missions with multiple paths, long term goal missions ("Aquire Knight rank in the Empire", "Kill 1000 Empire Authority vessels.").
I don't think this needs further explanation. Yes, missions will still be somewhat repetitive even if you add a lot of them. No, they won't be a huge innovation in gamedesign. But they will provide more variety and that in and of itself makes the game a lot more fun. You will also have a framework you can expand for some truly innovative, dynamic mission designs which incorporate elements of procedural generation to them. These then give you the opportunity for some great multiplayer action, something this game desperately needs.
The way I see Elite right now, even with wings added the multiplayer will not be fun for long because there simply isn't enough content for players to group around and enjoy. Wings are great, but they will need stuff to do.
Missions also need to become more difficult once you imrpove your ship and equipment (especially in light of multiplayer coop). It can be as simple as being given the opportunity to take on two Anacondas instead of just one for an assassination mission, or three, or a whole fleet of them.
That's basically all I have on my mind right now.
If anything, the main point I want to get across is this: The mission system is the single potent system in the game right now when you think about creating more content for longterm enjoyment. I think it should be one of the main focuses for FD during the coming months. Multiplayer coop will mean nothing if there's nothing for people to actually do. The mission system can solve this problem in a elegant way, and set us up for even better content in the long term.
Cheers,
R.J.
