Hi guys,
I've posted something like this before, but felt it was worth reiterating now that we have a clear focus on improving core game-play in Beyond. Of course, few game-play elements have enjoyed as much of a continuous improvement as missions have....especially since 2.1....but I do feel that further improvements can be made in the coming season.
Text: For an immersion obsessed gamer like myself, the text for a mission can often be a make-or-break scenario. Yet too often the mission texts (those in the top left hand corner of the mission screen) come across as dry & somewhat repetitive.
Now I realise that procedural generation places certain limits on text variability, but I feel that there is more that can be done in this area.
Fleshing out the actual text, to make it a little less dry & generic is a good start, but you should also create a data base of about 12-20 different sets of text, for each type of mission (salvage, assassination, passenger, surface scan etc etc) that can be selected for display when a player clicks on that mission
Another technique could be to make use of $Strings that can be used to insert mission specific names & descriptors, to help make the text feel even more unique.
Lastly, certain missions will give you a nice bit of extra text in your inbox after you accept it. It's worth considering adding this to *all* missions.
Mission Wrinkles: These are a great idea, in principle, but I think they need even more fleshing out. Look at adding in more potential wrinkles for each type of mission, even if those wrinkles change the nature of the original mission and/or add in a new, optional mission. For example, an Assassination might have a wrinkle that leads to an optional Liberation Mission (the Pirate we want killed has also stolen some Rare Artwork, if you can liberate them for us, we'd be most grateful). A Salvage Mission might have a wrinkle that turns it into a Liberation Mission....'cause someone got the stuff before you could get there. Don't be afraid to have more difficult missions consist of *multiple* wrinkles, & don't be afraid to have failure to achieve an Optional Wrinkle (like Time Bonus or new Destination) trigger a new, non-optional Wrinkle (for example, the New Destination wrinkle for a Salvage Mission might have mentioned that enemies are keeping an eye on the current destination, so you need to take it somewhere it is less "hot". Ignoring that Wrinkle would then trigger an "Enemies sent against you" or a "Don't get Scanned" wrinkle. Lastly, for the most difficult missions, don't be afraid to remove the optional status of certain Wrinkle types.
Mission Follow-on: As with Wrinkles, a great idea in principle, but definitely needs much more fleshing out. Nearly every mission a player does could have 3-6 potential follow-on missions that make sense within the context of the original mission. Black Box Salvage can, for example, lead to assassinations, surface salvage, hostage rescue or massacre missions. Taking a Rebel Leader to a Station could have an Assassination, Surface Scan, Salvage, Bulk Passenger or Delivery Mission follow-on. There are many, many more.....all of which I've listed in previous posts, so won't repeat here. This would then, of course, entail a significant increase in the spawn rate of follow-on missions, especially for more difficult missions.
Mission Rank vs Mission Difficulty: What missions need, more than anything, is a much closer relationship between Mission Rank & the Mission Difficulty. Each Faction should offer missions of all Ranks (from Harmless to Elite, or its relative rank in Trade or Exploration), regardless of the rank of the pilot, & commanders should be able to filter the mission board based on Mission Rank (because sometimes that Elite Pilot still just wants to do some milk-runs).
Difficulty, of course, doesn't need to relate to combat, though that is definitely one way to increase the difficulty. Of course, mission specific enemies need to be much less avoidable, & their AI needs to be more mission specific too.
Other ways to increase difficulty would be to make the mission target harder to find and/or to reach (salvage hidden amongst asteroids or within a large wreckage field, assassination targets on Silent Running, ready to ambush you, Data-point(s) hidden deep within a sprawling Outpost), throwing in mission rivals (rival ships sent to snag your salvage, or to kill your assassination target, or to capture the items you were sent to liberate), or by having the missions be over much longer distances and/or much shorter time frames (time frames even less than 24 hours, for the most difficult missions).
Of course, the most difficult missions could use a combination of any-or all-of the above.
As I mentioned previously, another way to differentiate the more difficult missions is to throw in multiple wrinkles, & have a much higher chance of the mission spawning a follow-on.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on how I feel missions can be improved even further, without any need to abandon the Procedural Generation system we currently have.
I've posted something like this before, but felt it was worth reiterating now that we have a clear focus on improving core game-play in Beyond. Of course, few game-play elements have enjoyed as much of a continuous improvement as missions have....especially since 2.1....but I do feel that further improvements can be made in the coming season.
Text: For an immersion obsessed gamer like myself, the text for a mission can often be a make-or-break scenario. Yet too often the mission texts (those in the top left hand corner of the mission screen) come across as dry & somewhat repetitive.
Now I realise that procedural generation places certain limits on text variability, but I feel that there is more that can be done in this area.
Fleshing out the actual text, to make it a little less dry & generic is a good start, but you should also create a data base of about 12-20 different sets of text, for each type of mission (salvage, assassination, passenger, surface scan etc etc) that can be selected for display when a player clicks on that mission
Another technique could be to make use of $Strings that can be used to insert mission specific names & descriptors, to help make the text feel even more unique.
Lastly, certain missions will give you a nice bit of extra text in your inbox after you accept it. It's worth considering adding this to *all* missions.
Mission Wrinkles: These are a great idea, in principle, but I think they need even more fleshing out. Look at adding in more potential wrinkles for each type of mission, even if those wrinkles change the nature of the original mission and/or add in a new, optional mission. For example, an Assassination might have a wrinkle that leads to an optional Liberation Mission (the Pirate we want killed has also stolen some Rare Artwork, if you can liberate them for us, we'd be most grateful). A Salvage Mission might have a wrinkle that turns it into a Liberation Mission....'cause someone got the stuff before you could get there. Don't be afraid to have more difficult missions consist of *multiple* wrinkles, & don't be afraid to have failure to achieve an Optional Wrinkle (like Time Bonus or new Destination) trigger a new, non-optional Wrinkle (for example, the New Destination wrinkle for a Salvage Mission might have mentioned that enemies are keeping an eye on the current destination, so you need to take it somewhere it is less "hot". Ignoring that Wrinkle would then trigger an "Enemies sent against you" or a "Don't get Scanned" wrinkle. Lastly, for the most difficult missions, don't be afraid to remove the optional status of certain Wrinkle types.
Mission Follow-on: As with Wrinkles, a great idea in principle, but definitely needs much more fleshing out. Nearly every mission a player does could have 3-6 potential follow-on missions that make sense within the context of the original mission. Black Box Salvage can, for example, lead to assassinations, surface salvage, hostage rescue or massacre missions. Taking a Rebel Leader to a Station could have an Assassination, Surface Scan, Salvage, Bulk Passenger or Delivery Mission follow-on. There are many, many more.....all of which I've listed in previous posts, so won't repeat here. This would then, of course, entail a significant increase in the spawn rate of follow-on missions, especially for more difficult missions.
Mission Rank vs Mission Difficulty: What missions need, more than anything, is a much closer relationship between Mission Rank & the Mission Difficulty. Each Faction should offer missions of all Ranks (from Harmless to Elite, or its relative rank in Trade or Exploration), regardless of the rank of the pilot, & commanders should be able to filter the mission board based on Mission Rank (because sometimes that Elite Pilot still just wants to do some milk-runs).
Difficulty, of course, doesn't need to relate to combat, though that is definitely one way to increase the difficulty. Of course, mission specific enemies need to be much less avoidable, & their AI needs to be more mission specific too.
Other ways to increase difficulty would be to make the mission target harder to find and/or to reach (salvage hidden amongst asteroids or within a large wreckage field, assassination targets on Silent Running, ready to ambush you, Data-point(s) hidden deep within a sprawling Outpost), throwing in mission rivals (rival ships sent to snag your salvage, or to kill your assassination target, or to capture the items you were sent to liberate), or by having the missions be over much longer distances and/or much shorter time frames (time frames even less than 24 hours, for the most difficult missions).
Of course, the most difficult missions could use a combination of any-or all-of the above.
As I mentioned previously, another way to differentiate the more difficult missions is to throw in multiple wrinkles, & have a much higher chance of the mission spawning a follow-on.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on how I feel missions can be improved even further, without any need to abandon the Procedural Generation system we currently have.
To me what you describe is how to make missions 'more difficult', which doesn't necessarily represent an improvement to everyone.