Branching Missions (wrinkles) are a great concept that help to make missions more varied. However, I do feel that improvements can be made to make them even better at doing their job.
-When branches trigger: at present, mission branches almost always seem to trigger either after leaving Hyperspace or after transitioning from Supercruise to N-Space. Instead, I'd rather see them trigger with a much more random, natural feeling distribution.
More varied & meaningful text: As with the missions themselves, a lot of the text for mission "wrinkles" leaves me a bit flat. Again, I think the text for Follow-on missions would make a great starting point for rewriting the text for mission "wrinkles", to make them more varied & engaging.
More varied "wrinkle" types: I do think that there could be a lot more variety in the kinds of wrinkles we could get, and add more potential twists to the wrinkles we already have. For example, an assassination mission with a "new location" wrinkle might require the player to salvage a black box (instead of meeting a contact).....or might require you to do a surface scan. Instead of a basic redirect or reduced time frame for haulage missions, you might get a wrinkle to salvage trade data, to help the mission givers ascertain the best time of place to deliver the goods you're hauling (both being optional, of course), another wrinkle is to get an NPC from a rival faction demanding you hand over the specific cargo you're carrying for your mission. A salvage mission might have a "meet with a contact" wrinkle, or might have a wrinkle that requires you to do a scan first. Alternatively, you might get a wrinkle where rival faction members will try to steal your salvage-either at the USS site, or as you are bringing the salvage back home (rather than kill you).
Of course, IMHO, it is in passenger contracts where the opportunity for more wrinkle variety exists. Like doing salvage missions for passengers, or meeting with contacts, or engaging in criminal acts for them....to name a few of the obvious ones.
frequency & wrinkle number per mission: I am increasingly of the opinion that, now that almost all wrinkles are effectively avoidable/optional, then there is no reason not to increase the frequency with which wrinkles can trigger-if only the "counter offer from a rival faction" wrinkle. Likewise, I see no reason why a single mission couldn't occasionally trigger 2, 3 or......in some very rare cases....even 4 wrinkles. For example, like an assassination mission might trigger the "meet a contact" wrinkle.....but then triggers a "your contact is under attack by pirates, you must save him" wrinkle some time after you enter the target system. Again, passenger missions are the most likely candidates for triggering multiple wrinkles.
Anyway, just a few thoughts.
CMDR Marcus Hicks II.
-When branches trigger: at present, mission branches almost always seem to trigger either after leaving Hyperspace or after transitioning from Supercruise to N-Space. Instead, I'd rather see them trigger with a much more random, natural feeling distribution.
More varied & meaningful text: As with the missions themselves, a lot of the text for mission "wrinkles" leaves me a bit flat. Again, I think the text for Follow-on missions would make a great starting point for rewriting the text for mission "wrinkles", to make them more varied & engaging.
More varied "wrinkle" types: I do think that there could be a lot more variety in the kinds of wrinkles we could get, and add more potential twists to the wrinkles we already have. For example, an assassination mission with a "new location" wrinkle might require the player to salvage a black box (instead of meeting a contact).....or might require you to do a surface scan. Instead of a basic redirect or reduced time frame for haulage missions, you might get a wrinkle to salvage trade data, to help the mission givers ascertain the best time of place to deliver the goods you're hauling (both being optional, of course), another wrinkle is to get an NPC from a rival faction demanding you hand over the specific cargo you're carrying for your mission. A salvage mission might have a "meet with a contact" wrinkle, or might have a wrinkle that requires you to do a scan first. Alternatively, you might get a wrinkle where rival faction members will try to steal your salvage-either at the USS site, or as you are bringing the salvage back home (rather than kill you).
Of course, IMHO, it is in passenger contracts where the opportunity for more wrinkle variety exists. Like doing salvage missions for passengers, or meeting with contacts, or engaging in criminal acts for them....to name a few of the obvious ones.
frequency & wrinkle number per mission: I am increasingly of the opinion that, now that almost all wrinkles are effectively avoidable/optional, then there is no reason not to increase the frequency with which wrinkles can trigger-if only the "counter offer from a rival faction" wrinkle. Likewise, I see no reason why a single mission couldn't occasionally trigger 2, 3 or......in some very rare cases....even 4 wrinkles. For example, like an assassination mission might trigger the "meet a contact" wrinkle.....but then triggers a "your contact is under attack by pirates, you must save him" wrinkle some time after you enter the target system. Again, passenger missions are the most likely candidates for triggering multiple wrinkles.
Anyway, just a few thoughts.
CMDR Marcus Hicks II.
. Does anyone else have any ideas for improving Mission Wrinkles?