The Mission Board - Single Server or not, its a flop.

[Winterwalker]

War isn't just guns 'n fighting! it's logistics and planning and subterfuge, gaining an edge with secret missions and system wide propaganda - loose lips sink ships!

Definitely this ^

Until there is a commitment by FDEV to organize the Mission Board by profession-related missions, and offer missions for all stated professions at every station, the game fails to meet its fundamental stated goal.

Don't think that's the answer though. For me all that's really missing is a smatter of 'classified ads' (it used to be called bulletin board). Random missions. Military ones! Fine because the game wants more (noise).

Having the missions change according to state though is a good mechanic, otherwise all places are the same at all times. I think a classic case of the galaxy not revolving around me when I'm following any career, it's up to me to find the action, not the other way around which might be convenient but will soon lose any challenge.

 

[babelfisch]

Wouldn't that make every mission board the same no matter where you are? The game needs more diversification, not less. The civilizations need character.

Having said that, if you are looking for a type of mission, you should be able to tell from a system's government and economy which type of missions to expect.

Stop making sense.

 

[babelfisch]

Again, if you are suggesting that the player see the game through the lens of the BGS to pursue a profession, then the focus of the game is the BGS and not the profession.

All large population systems would rationally have all mission types available.



It should certainly affect mission payouts..

That's the most unreasonable argument I read the entire day and I don't even know where to begin pointing out why.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Stop making sense.

It's always showtime, here at the edge of the stage.

 

[Winterwalker]

I think you can do most careers without going anywhere near the missions anyway, can't you?

 

[Chaparral]

That's the most unreasonable argument I read the entire day and I don't even know where to begin pointing out why.

So you don't point out why? Why bother post? Weird.

 

[Winterwalker]

I would be against AEGIS missions available anywhere or jobs that (accidentally) pledge you into a power (hehe)

 

[Chaparral]

I think you can do most careers without going anywhere near the missions anyway, can't you?

This was Stigbob's point, and I agree completely. The mission board is the core mechanic for assigning tasks within the game - yet it is not at all focused on professions.

Professions being one of the core selling features of the game.

 

[Stealthie]

This was Stigbob's point, and I agree completely. The mission board is the core mechanic for assigning tasks within the game - yet it is not at all focused on professions.

Professions being one of the core selling features of the game.

My profession, in ED, is "Pilot".
I think the game has that covered pretty well.

Anything else is gravy.

 

[Vash627]

Be what you want to be in Elite Dangerous - trader, explorer, bounty hunter, pirate, smuggler etc., but the Mission Board is not organized by profession, it is organized by faction.

The core structure of the Mission Board is an expression of the BGS, it is organized by faction, the types and numbers of each mission are dictated by the system and faction state at the time.

Whether or not you choose to pursue a profession, you will be forced to submit to the BGS. There might be 10 billion people in the system, but it is entirely possible that the only task available to a player is the massacre mission.

Clearly, there is a fundamental disconnect between what the game promises (be what you want to be), and the primary vehicle to allow the player to pursue that profession - the Mission Board.

The single server will reduce mission generation times, but the organizational structure is still going to be BGS /faction based.

Until there is a commitment by FDEV to organize the Mission Board by profession-related missions, and offer missions for all stated professions at every station, the game fails to meet its fundamental stated goal.

Hmm. If the mission board always had every single mission type available no matter which faction was in control or what the system state was, then there may as well only be one system with two stations in the whole game. You could just run deliveries between those two points and do every other mission type in the single system you found yourself in at the start of the game. The BGS is there to simulate the structure of a galactic economy. If we never had to leave our home system to find missions of different types then there's no galactic economy. We'd just be picking random systems to repeat any mission type we wanted at any time we wanted, maybe we'd base the location we did the missions on arbitrary factors like our preferences on star or planet colors.

We have a simulation of a living galaxy where the players can influence what factions are in control, and what states the systems are in. The downside is that we can't just get any particular kind of mission we want at any random location we happen to be. But it's at least somewhat realistic, it's what one might expect to happen if resources have to be shipped around from systems light years apart into regions controlled by different factions that each have different motivations and needs from time to time. Sorry that you'll have to deal with the economic simulation as is, unless FD decides to convert ED into a fully arcade style space shoot'm up.

 

[[VR] M4st0d0n]

If it's focused on the BGS, it's just an incredibly inconvenient way of engaging it. Reputation for a faction is the only thing consistent. That and the faction state. The rest is just randomly generated on a station per station basis. I can get why a mission need to be randomly generated to be varied, not why the whole board needs to be like that as well. I also dont understand why interacting with oftentimes multi-system factions need to be done docked at one station, with mission available just for this station...

At this point, I'll just assume you guys just worked with it for too long and suffer stockholm syndrome.

 

[Winterwalker]

This was Stigbob's point, and I agree completely. The mission board is the core mechanic for assigning tasks within the game - yet it is not at all focused on professions.

Professions being one of the core selling features of the game.

I see what you mean but I think the point might be that the careers aren't (meant to be) prescriptive. You want to be a trader, that's fine so go find trade jobs. These come from contacts in the station for now and they happen to be faction contacts.

Trouble is if you group the other way, by career it either screams 'game' at you or would be provided by a trading factor at the station, or a police office offering bounties, different contact each career. That could be ok but what about blackmarket, that needs tying in, so do other military missions and truth is these deep missions just aren't ready yet (mission server + codex coming soon though, nice).

A different contact for each career might be cool but there's already a lot of lists in the station so probably cooler if accessing them is done a little bit different to the bulletin board. Which I'm not against but you do need developed missions to do and that has to date been held up by not having fuilly defined 'places' to fulfil missions. We've got surface installations and visitor beacons but even these came in bit by bit. I don't know if there are any missions vs megaships yet or not but that (places) is what holds up mission development more than anything imo.

 

[Stigbob]

I see what you mean but I think the point might be that the careers aren't (meant to be) prescriptive. You want to be a trader, that's fine so go find trade jobs. These come from contacts in the station for now and they happen to be faction contacts.

Trouble is if you group the other way, by career it either screams 'game' at you or would be provided by a trading factor at the station, or a police office offering bounties, different contact each career. That could be ok but what about blackmarket, that needs tying in, so do other military missions and truth is these deep missions just aren't ready yet (mission server + codex coming soon though, nice).

A different contact for each career might be cool but there's already a lot of lists in the station so probably cooler if accessing them is done a little bit different to the bulletin board. Which I'm not against but you do need developed missions to do and that has to date been held up by not having fuilly defined 'places' to fulfil missions. We've got surface installations and visitor beacons but even these came in bit by bit. I don't know if there are any missions vs megaships yet or not.

I like it mixed together, have a look at everything and take whatever I want on impulse. Variety and all that.

 

[Chaparral]

Hmm. If the mission board always had every single mission type available no matter which faction was in control or what the system state was, then there may as well only be one system with two stations in the whole game. You could just run deliveries between those two points and do every other mission type in the single system you found yourself in at the start of the game. The BGS is there to simulate the structure of a galactic economy. If we never had to leave our home system to find missions of different types then there's no galactic economy. We'd just be picking random systems to repeat any mission type we wanted at any time we wanted, maybe we'd base the location we did the missions on arbitrary factors like our preferences on star or planet colors.

We have a simulation of a living galaxy where the players can influence what factions are in control, and what states the systems are in. The downside is that we can't just get any particular kind of mission we want at any random location we happen to be. But it's at least somewhat realistic, it's what one might expect to happen if resources have to be shipped around from systems light years apart into regions controlled by different factions that each have different motivations and needs from time to time. Sorry that you'll have to deal with the economic simulation as is, unless FD decides to convert ED into a fully arcade style space shoot'm up.

I am not suggesting that compensation be equal in all systems. System state, economy, reputation would affect mission payouts, not offerings.

 

[Winterwalker]

I am not suggesting that compensation be equal in all systems. System state, economy, reputation would affect mission payouts, not offerings.

I agree. The system's definitely working on the right lines on system states.

I can understand wanting more mission types - you're not alone - but all good things and all that.

 

[Vash627]

I am not suggesting that compensation be equal in all systems. System state, economy, reputation would affect mission payouts, not offerings.

I understand your suggestion. To do whatever you want, whenever you want, regardless of system state or controlling faction. Varying the payouts alone by grinding the same location for rep. Someone would just run point A to B, B to A between two stations for rep until they reached Allied and could get maximum payday for doing the same mission type endlessly without ever leaving that route, ever. Board flipping is being phased out because FDev does not want people to do this. It defeats the entire purpose for having the BGS at all, or even having a large galaxy at all. If you want to grind rep doing data delivery all day, that's fine, that hurts nothing but your own sanity. But to expect all mission types to be at all stations in all systems is the same as just throwing the BGS in the trash. They wouldn't remove board flipping or nerf gold rushes if this kind of simplification were okay.

 

[EDanaII]

Just to throw in my two cents... personally, I think this is all better answered with a full searchable mission board. I.e. Gi'me all missions that pay > 10,000 or show me all missions for pirates. Let's see all missions delivering palladium to X. Etc, etc, etc... that way, it can stay the way it is and Danicus & others can selectively pick the missions they want. Sounds like a win-win to me.

I doubt it will ever happen, but... it's what should be.

 

[Chaparral]

I see what you mean but I think the point might be that the careers aren't (meant to be) prescriptive. You want to be a trader, that's fine so go find trade jobs. These come from contacts in the station for now and they happen to be faction contacts.

Trouble is if you group the other way, by career it either screams 'game' at you or would be provided by a trading factor at the station, or a police office offering bounties, different contact each career. That could be ok but what about blackmarket, that needs tying in, so do other military missions and truth is these deep missions just aren't ready yet (mission server + codex coming soon though, nice).

A different contact for each career might be cool but there's already a lot of lists in the station so probably cooler if accessing them is done a little bit different to the bulletin board. Which I'm not against but you do need developed missions to do and that has to date been held up by not having fuilly defined 'places' to fulfil missions. We've got surface installations and visitor beacons but even these came in bit by bit. I don't know if there are any missions vs megaships yet or not but that (places) is what holds up mission development more than anything imo.

I don't know if it would necessarily scream game, there are career headhunters that specialize in professions, unions that have trades placement services, universities do offer placement services within content areas, etc. When you do a job search online today, it isn't necessarily by geographic area or political affiliation, it is about the job field and your area of expertise.

I do think it should be possible to sort missions by general professional category, and I do think there should be missions available in all major professional categories. Especially in large population systems.

Just to throw in my two cents... personally, I think this is all better answered with a full searchable mission board. I.e. Gi'me all missions that pay > 10,000 or show me all missions for pirates. Let's see all missions delivering palladium to X. Etc, etc, etc... that way, it can stay the way it is and Danicus & others can selectively pick the missions they want. Sounds like a win-win to me.

I doubt it will ever happen, but... it's what should be.

Agree with this.

 

[Chaparral]

I understand your suggestion. To do whatever you want, whenever you want, regardless of system state or controlling faction. Varying the payouts alone by grinding the same location for rep. Someone would just run point A to B, B to A between two stations for rep until they reached Allied and could get maximum payday for doing the same mission type endlessly without ever leaving that route, ever. Board flipping is being phased out because FDev does not want people to do this. It defeats the entire purpose for having the BGS at all, or even having a large galaxy at all. If you want to grind rep doing data delivery all day, that's fine, that hurts nothing but your own sanity. But to expect all mission types to be at all stations in all systems is the same as just throwing the BGS in the trash. They wouldn't remove board flipping or nerf gold rushes if this kind of simplification were okay.

You've made my point entirely. The Elite Dangerous advertisement should be "Go to space and play the background simulation!"

 

[Mangal Oemie]

...

we should look at this as a bug fix. and if they give us more missions as a result, it cannot be all bad.

....

FDev has already stated that the number of missions will not change