Trying out Team Play -- Amazing fun, but maybe with a few fatal flaws?

[Elianydd]

Brief background: I've been playing solo on-and-off since late 2014 (lifetimer since 2015), but always with my gaming partner going "Do they have it where we can play together with me on your ship?" and me going, "They have some co-op style stuff, but I don't think it's where we need it to be yet." Yes, I know, Odyssey been out for 3 years now, but I wasn't ready to do the on-foot stuff until now.

So, a month or two ago I got back into one of my "on again" phases with E and had been having fun with space stuff. Finally decided to try out some ground-based on-foot stuff, that I'd been putting off for 3 years since it seemed like learning a whole different game. Finally tried it out, since I had to do some ground CZs to unlock an Engineer. Loved it. So, since Odyssey has 'Team' support, we took a chance and got a 2nd account to try it out together. Bear in mind, she has no interest in flying her own ship; she just wants to be the Bobbie Draper space marine on MY ship. And she actually CAN board my ship, play gunner, fighter pilot, and space marine for on-ground. Very awesome. But I'd read online there are some.... gotchas. Nevertheless, we're giving it a shot.

Ground CZs together? A blast! We take the Apex down, and whenever one of us goes down in combat, it just dropships us back into the fight. Works great.

So, next, she insisted on trying missions. "I don't know," I said, "Missions ... missions are pretty unforgiving. They're on a real-time timer and if you fail for ANY reason, you get penalized. I usually avoid them. We could just go raid a place, you know, don't NEED a mission to do that." No, she really wanted to do the missions (you know, play the game's content) and get the credit and rewards, etc.

Okay, fine, we grab a settlement raid mission to kill some folk. (All of them bad, honest!) We each grab the same mission, then notice we can 'share' missions since we're in a team, so we each also share the mission just to be sure, so now we each have it listed twice. Well, we'll see what happens.
Go there together in my ship, land, ruin their day and chalk up the required number of kills together to each get credit for one of the (2, identical) missions we each have. Good. Hang around a bit longer because she's having so much fun raiding the place (while I wait in the getaway car, err. SRV) but then she gets killed. Ends up back where her starter Sidewinder is. Annoying, but I go back to ship, hop on over, pick her back up, and we head to turn in the mission we completed. Turns out that it'd given credit to the one I'd shared so I had to turn it in first, then she could. That works.

Next day, she (only) gets a message about failing a mission. Ah, so the copy of the mission SHE'D originally taken had still been incomplete and failed. Got it. Don't do it that way next time.

So then she wants to do another! We take another similar settlement raid mission but this time we team up, only I take it, and I share it. Now we each have it only once. All good so far.
Go to the system where that faction is (pointed to by the mission) and 10+ minutes later because the nearest planet is 330k+ LS out, we're there. (My fault for not checking before taking the mission.)
Land ship, get out in Scorpion together, go start doing our space marine thing. Tons of fun again, with me in the SRV doing cover fire while she snipes from on-foot behind cover. LOVE IT.
Got our 18 kills. I virtually had to drag her away form the place (no really, if the game had a 'drag person' option I would've needed to use it!) she was having so much fun. Back in ship, hop back to turn in, and....

uh-oh. She gets disconnected. Fine, I may have to go pick her up. No biggie. Put her on planet surface at the settlement we'd just been raiding! Good thing they have short memories.
Get her to call an Apex (since I didn't want to do the 10+ minutes drive again), which comes and takes her back to turn-in station. Thank you, Apex! Fantastic.
We're both back at station, but... she's not seeing the mission any more. The one we JUST COMPLETED TOGETHER. We team back up. Still, no. I'm able to turn it in, but she gets nothing. NOTHING.
We did the entire mission from start to finish together. Heck, she did most of the work! Lost. Gone, because of a disconnect?!?
Did it not remember or store that she had that mission? I could understand my not being able to re-share the completed mission, but SHE'D DONE IT. THE WHOLE THING. Why didn't it remember that SHE had that mission?

It was like spending 2 hours making the most delicious cake in the world and then right before you eat it, a bird poops on it at the last second.

Sigh.

So is the answer for Teams to NOT use the team share-mission function? (Which seems kind of stupid, but who has control over disconnects?)
If we both took it separately (the same mission) and just don't share, would we both get credit for all the same kills?
And what if it's a power restoration mission instead? Team-sharing it seems like it'd be the best way to 'share' credit for each step, but do we want to risk the waste of time for one of us if there's a disconnect? Would we need to each take it separately and then basically do the whole thing TWICE?

We're really, REALLY trying to make this in-person team thing work because it's exactly what we've wanted all these years, and it is AMAZING FUN whenitworks, but does it maybe need some ..... quality-of-life (?) tweaks, perhaps? Or are we just doing it wrong?

And, along those lines, why no option for her to 'redeploy' back on my ship if she was teamed (and physically there) there when she died? (The only option was the default sidewinder at wherever the game decided to put her.) I know originally each player basically WAS their ship because there was no getting out, but since Odyssey, that's changed so much. How do we minimize the ... 'gotchas' and still play and do stuff together (on-foot, or with her as gunner/fighter pilot) and minimize the risk of 'oh, you just wasted your entire play session because xxxxx'.

I love this game. It is awesome. She's really trying to love this game, too, but sometimes we're getting kicked in the head, it seems.

Just had to share our experience so far with the (definitely amazing... when it works right) in-person team play.


Stay safe out there, all... or at least if you get into trouble, make sure it's of your own doing.

o7

 

[Shadowsnog]

some people think elite runs on cobra engine, but thats not really true. elite runs on patience of its players. it runs on workarounds and "it is what it is" and "it just works" (or "it just doesnt work"). and relogs. lots of relogs.
one sad reality of elite is that it is best to not think about what elite could be. "what elite could be if it was functional" belongs to that category...
it is the greatest of spectacles and the most joyous fun a space nerd can have, until the things occur and then you really know you are in elite. (when you have to relog because the ody mission commodity didnt spawn and then all the other mats disappear; when you have to relog 6x to get the cargo from your ship to the carrier; when your mission fails because the mission object teleported under the ground; when you get jailed to prison ship hundreds of ly away; when an officer wants to scan you but gets stuck so you are now a criminal for resisting...)
im glad you had so much fun and im sorry it was ruined by poopy design and execution
it is what it is...
better not to think what it could be

 

[metatheurgist]

Yep, ED is like a massive rattling clockwork. They could spend some time tightening some bolts instead of adding more rattling parts.

 

[Walter2]

Yep, ED is like a massive rattling clockwork. They could spend some time tightening some bolts instead of adding more rattling parts.

Like they promised to do a few years ago.

 

[aRJay]

Like they promised to do a few years ago.

And within a few months the forum was filling up with people complaining that there was no new stuff being added.

 

[metatheurgist]

And within a few months the forum was filling up with people complaining that there was no new stuff being added.

I think the problem there was we weren't really seeing anything else get better either. All the same old problems are still there, all the same old QoL requests are still there.

 

[Elianydd]

So today we tried a settlement raid mission again (defeat scavengers!), but this time we each took the mission separately to avoid 'shared mission' disconnect concerns. We go to the settlement together on my ship, land a ways away, then ride the SRV the last bit. (To keep the ship safely away.) She gets out on foot and I'm sniping with SRV guns, and she's having a blast. (Note to self -- running them over with SRV does NOT give us both credit, but shooting either on foot or with SRV guns does. Good to know. Too bad though, 'cause it's fun to run them over.)

As we progress, it keeps adding more mobs and upping the mission requirement. That's fine. I've seen missions change/add requirements before. We're at about 18 out of 24 (which started at 10 and kept bumping up as more mobs got dropped in) when she gets killed. Uh oh.

As an aside: Wouldn't it be awesome if I could go in the SRV and pick her up, because I'M fine? You know, revive a teammate? Why isn't that a thing???

So, she needs to 'redeploy' all the way back where we'd last left her starter ship. Fine. She can always take an Apex or I can go pick her up, and then we'll come all the way back and finish the job....? No, no, no. Mission failed on death. No way to continue for her. I still have credit for almost completing it, and could, but the point is to do it together, so I leave with it unfinished so we both will fail it. Also, the little bit of money she might've even gotten from the bounties is lost, of course. (Why can't you try again, or continue where you left off?)

So, not only no gain from the time spent, but it's a step backwards: loss of mission, loss of bounties, rep penalty for mission failure, and I expect also monetary fine for failure as well, right? No gain on failure is understandable, but why discourage me from even trying with so many penalties for failure? Don't you WANT me to do missions? (This is actually why I've mostly avoided doing missions for the 10 years on-and-off. Except for very specific types.) As she said, it seems to be designed without fun in mind.

Ah well, we'll try something tomorrow and see how it goes. I'm REALLY trying to get a new player into this game, but it just keeps beating us back in ways that seem needlessly harsh and ... un-fun. (I.e., really, really fun and amazing... until some un-fun thing seems to inevitably happen and just ruins it all.)

 

[metatheurgist]

Yep, basics like this really need to be sorted out. We're not even talking having perfect netcode here. Just give us a graceful recovery. Before you start thinking about other crap.

 

[Shadowsnog]

So today we tried a settlement raid mission again (defeat scavengers!), but this time we each took the mission separately to avoid 'shared mission' disconnect concerns. We go to the settlement together on my ship, land a ways away, then ride the SRV the last bit. (To keep the ship safely away.) She gets out on foot and I'm sniping with SRV guns, and she's having a blast. (Note to self -- running them over with SRV does NOT give us both credit, but shooting either on foot or with SRV guns does. Good to know. Too bad though, 'cause it's fun to run them over.)

As we progress, it keeps adding more mobs and upping the mission requirement. That's fine. I've seen missions change/add requirements before. We're at about 18 out of 24 (which started at 10 and kept bumping up as more mobs got dropped in) when she gets killed. Uh oh.

As an aside: Wouldn't it be awesome if I could go in the SRV and pick her up, because I'M fine? You know, revive a teammate? Why isn't that a thing???

So, she needs to 'redeploy' all the way back where we'd last left her starter ship. Fine. She can always take an Apex or I can go pick her up, and then we'll come all the way back and finish the job....? No, no, no. Mission failed on death. No way to continue for her. I still have credit for almost completing it, and could, but the point is to do it together, so I leave with it unfinished so we both will fail it. Also, the little bit of money she might've even gotten from the bounties is lost, of course. (Why can't you try again, or continue where you left off?)

So, not only no gain from the time spent, but it's a step backwards: loss of mission, loss of bounties, rep penalty for mission failure, and I expect also monetary fine for failure as well, right? No gain on failure is understandable, but why discourage me from even trying with so many penalties for failure? Don't you WANT me to do missions? (This is actually why I've mostly avoided doing missions for the 10 years on-and-off. Except for very specific types.) As she said, it seems to be designed without fun in mind.

Ah well, we'll try something tomorrow and see how it goes. I'm REALLY trying to get a new player into this game, but it just keeps beating us back in ways that seem needlessly harsh and ... un-fun. (I.e., really, really fun and amazing... until some un-fun thing seems to inevitably happen and just ruins it all.)

The only thing i can recommend is for both parties to always arrive in their own ship. That way after death you are at least nearby...

 

[nemolomen]

Ah well, we'll try something tomorrow and see how it goes. I'm REALLY trying to get a new player into this game, but it just keeps beating us back in ways that seem needlessly harsh and ... un-fun. (I.e., really, really fun and amazing... until some un-fun thing seems to inevitably happen and just ruins it all.)

I really appreciate what you're trying to do. The multiplayer in this game can be awesome, when it works well.

Another thought I had when reading your posts is that Odyssey, not unlike the base spaceship game, has a learning curve. You're just starting out with it and you're learning. When I started playing EDH almost 4 years ago, it took me weeks to come to really grips with the spaceship game and it took me weeks to come to grips with Odyssey when it came out, but it is awesome.

I think one of the reasons for that, and one of the reasons I continue to play the game, is that the Elite franchise as a whole are intentionally difficult in certain respects because improving skills is a requirement of the game, which can feel like punishment. Much of that is just understanding how the game works and working with it on its terms rather than whatever way we each think it should be. Like any game, Odyssey has its own set of rules that we must learn in order to play it "effectively".

I do have some suggestions/information for you:

1. Get her ship onto your carrier. Re-spawning on death reverts to the last place the commander docked their ship in space. Death is inevitable, we all make mistakes, eventually. But getting to that point takes time and experience. She may not be interested in learning how to fly but her being able to leave your carrier, travel a short distance and then dock at a station/settlement or land on a planet will go a very long way to improving the experience and reducing the turn around time. When one lands their own ship on a body and then dies, one ends up on their ship in orbit around that body, rather than all the way back at the station/carrier/etc...
   
   
2. Always remember that "successfully" leaving the the mission location after completing the rest of the objectives is a requirement of most if not all ground missions. In the beginning, I suggest concentrating on completing the missions. As you get more experience and become more comfortable and more adept at staying alive, then take on more auxiliary things like looting. One mistake can end a mission in a negative way, so the mission should be the priority since its the reason you're there in the first place. In order for a mission to be successful and collect the rewards, you must survive it.
   
   
3. When each of you take a mission for the same location, only one of your missions will be active in any particular instance of a location. So whoever enters the location first, their mission is the active one. I'm not sure if or how it decides who enters first when arriving in the same ship.
   
   
4. There are other mission types than combat. Some are dead easy and a way to build up credits and materials and experience. Variety is good.
   
   
5. Traveling together is not stable, unfortunately. As @Shadowsnog said above, this is one of those things that just "is what it is". I'd give it roughly 60%/40% (works/doesn't work) but I may be off. The fewer FSD transitions that need to be made, the better. "FSD transitions", from normal space to supercruise, vice versa, or either of those to/from a hyperspace jump are where the disconnects happen.I consider this as a use at your own risk feature. Its awesome when it works and it really stinks when it doesn't...
   
   
6. If you didn't know:
   1. SCO drives make in system travel much better by reducing travel time when used effectively.
      
      
   2. Search Pioneer Supplies at every station you go to for preupgraded weapons and suits. They reset/restock every Thursday morning when the weekly "tick" goes off. These can go a long way towards successfulyl completing missions by giving commanders more firepower and defense. I mostly use G3 as purchased gear. I've only upgraded one suit to G4, 1 weapon to G4 and applied 1 mod to one suit.
      
      
   3. All ground weapons are not equal and require differnt tactics to use effectively.

 

[Elianydd]

The only thing i can recommend is for both parties to always arrive in their own ship. That way after death you are at least nearby...

Certainly that would minimize the 'recovery time' when things do go badly, but our compromise -- since she has no desire whatsoever to fly her own ship -- has been to start just having her starter Sidewinder brought (via Inter Astra) to whatever station we're working out o. But we'd just moved to a different system and forgot to do that this time, so that's kind of on us. And I do have my ship always outfitted with a good jump range so it's easy to get around and go pick her up if needed. (But with Inter Astra even that hasn't been necessary.)

I understand that a player completely riding on someone else's ship isn't really how the game was intended to be played, especially since in the original, base game you effectively WERE your ship, and ship-based gameplay is still the majority of the game. However, Odyssey, esp. with Teams, does open up the gameplay possibility of playing a solely 'support' type character, and it seems that with a few tweaks -- to how shared missions are handled, 'death' (where your character isn't even really dead) recovery options, etc. -- it could do it much better. All the core systems -- teaming up, physically riding on another's ship, playing gunner role, fighter role, doing CZs together -- are all there and tons of fun.

 

[Elianydd]

I do have some suggestions/information for you:

I do appreciate all the suggestions. Thanks.

Get her ship onto your carrier....

Sadly, I'm not anywhere near the (financial) point of having a carrier of my own. Yes, it would be very useful in our situation, but not an option yet.

Always remember that "successfully" leaving the the mission location after completing the rest of the objectives is a requirement of most if not all ground missions. In the beginning, I suggest concentrating on completing the missions. As you get more experience and become more comfortable and more adept at staying alive, then take on more auxiliary things like looting.

True. In this case we hadn't even gotten to finish the main objective, as it kept adding more kills needed because it kept dropping more NPCs in. Not really a complaint. Just mentioning, as it did cause the primary objective to get drawn out into an extended thing. As soon as we'd've had all the kills needed, I would've dragged her out and scooted us out of there for the turn-in. And for purposes of looting, I always prefer to just find someplace (preferably either deserted or with criminals) outside of a mission and then can leisurely loot (or kill then loot) without worrying about when it's time to go (or if I die.) For missions, yes, always 'stay on target' for mission.

When each of you take a mission for the same location, only one of your missions will be active in any particular instance of a location. So whoever enters the location first, their mission is the active one. I'm not sure if or how it decides who enters first when arriving in the same ship.

We're still trying out different options to see what works best. We took the mission concurrently (as opposed to sharing) because of the problem with shared missions vanishing on disconnect (if you're not the one doing the sharing) that we'd run into the day prior. After last night's experience, we may go back to team-sharing the mission and just hoping there's no disconnect, since that makes it easier to complete some objectives. (With mission shared, it seems like both get credit for any mission objective completed, whereas with 'concurrent' missions, that isn't always the case.) Each way has advantages and disadvantages, but team-shared should be the way to do it for a team; it just needs to not break the system if someone gets disconnected temporarily.

There are other mission types than combat. Some are dead easy and a way to build up credits and materials. Variety is good.

True. And I think we're likely to try something completely different today. Might drop in on a (low) res spot so she can test out gunner and/or fighter, and hopefully we can mop up some bounties for pocket cash and practice. (Completely outside of a mission, so minimal death penalty and no 'failure'.)

Traveling together is not stable, unfortunately. As @Shadowsnog said above, this is one of those things that just "is what it is". I'd give it roughly 60%/40% (works/doesn't work) but I may be off. The fewer FSD transitions that need to be made, the better. "FSD transitions", from normal space to supercruise, vice versa, or either of those to/from a hyperspace jump are where the disconnects happen. I consider this as a use at your own risk feature. Its awesome when it works and it really stinks when it doesn't...

As long-time gamers, we accept that disconnects happen. But what really has been hurting is that getting disconnected seems to completely break things. I don't expect perfect connectivity, but at least make it RECOVERABLE if it happens.

This game is fantastic when things work as intended. I just hope they someday improve the 'recovery' for teams when things don't.

Why no option to get back on and re-join the team you were in when you got disconnected? It's not a program crash, so the game could know and recover. Does it even 'retry' internally to re-connect you to what you were doing? (We're in the same room, on the same network, when we game so can each see/hear what's happening for the other as well, and can communicate verbally. So I could tell her game had a problem when she got stuck in hyperspace while I was already out. It sat there for a minute or two, then gave up. Why couldn't it recover from that automatically?) If nothing else, my game/character (who was fine) should know that her character was already part of the group doing the mission, and when we re-team, automatically re-share the mission and progress, etc. And if she gets 'killed' while teamed, why no option to just put her back where she was before, i.e., pretend she was rescued by teammates, or things like that, to encourage team play and not break it completely on disconnect?

 

[nemolomen]

I do appreciate all the suggestions. Thanks.

You're welcome.

Sadly, I'm not anywhere near the (financial) point of having a carrier of my own. Yes, it would be very useful in our situation, but not an option yet.

Have you tried Exobiology yet? In one week recently, I added 1.1 Bil to my carrier balance doing exploration and ExoBio (which pays ridiculously).

As long-time gamers, we accept that disconnects happen. But what really has been hurting is that getting disconnected seems to completely break things. I don't expect perfect connectivity, but at least make it RECOVERABLE if it happens.

This game is fantastic when things work as intended. I just hope they someday improve the 'recovery' for teams when things don't.

Why no option to get back on and re-join the team you were in when you got disconnected? It's not a program crash, so the game could know and recover. Does it even 'retry' internally to re-connect you to what you were doing? (We're in the same room, on the same network, when we game so can each see/hear what's happening for the other as well, and can communicate verbally. So I could tell her game had a problem when she got stuck in hyperspace while I was already out. It sat there for a minute or two, then gave up. Why couldn't it recover from that automatically?) If nothing else, my game/character (who was fine) should know that her character was already part of the group doing the mission, and when we re-team, automatically re-share the mission and progress, etc. And if she gets 'killed' while teamed, why no option to just put her back where she was before, i.e., pretend she was rescued by teammates, or things like that, to encourage team play and not break it completely on disconnect?

I think of it this way: Elite has a lot, and I do me an a lot, of "Roguelike" characteristics but the only progress loss is since you left the station instead of completely starting over at the beginning. With the added bonus that when you die on foot the rebuy cost is 0...

 

[Jack Winter]

As it's often the ride on the ship that can cause disconnects, maybe each taking an apex, or if she doesn't want to fly a ship, you go in a ship and she in an apex. Though if the alarm goes off one has to run (IIRC) 750m to order one and then another 750m to get into it. One can however call an apex before the alarm goes off and it'll wait for a while.

I agree it would be great if the would fix some of these issues as multiplay is a lot of fun, and being disconnected like that is no fun at all.

 

[photomankc]

And within a few months the forum was filling up with people complaining that there was no new stuff being added.

And to be fair, precious few long-standing bugs were fixed and several more added.

 

[photomankc]

I think the problem there was we weren't really seeing anything else get better either. All the same old problems are still there, all the same old QoL requests are still there.

Exactly. I recall having to shout at Sally to get things addressed and even then maybe 1 out 4 ever got fixed and she was actively trying her best. Raw materials gathering has been ruined for me since somewhere in the middle of that long cycle of 'fixing' as well as the new bugs in the left / right panels and chat. No more G4 raws now unless I hunt dirt clods. I have to explicitly avoid planets with any features what-so-ever to make that viable. It was not simply forum 'noise'. It was a horrible ability to execute. They were breaking as much as they were fixing.

 

[photomankc]

As long-time gamers, we accept that disconnects happen. But what really has been hurting is that getting disconnected seems to completely break things. I don't expect perfect connectivity, but at least make it RECOVERABLE if it happens.

This game is fantastic when things work as intended. I just hope they someday improve the 'recovery' for teams when things don't.

Why no option to get back on and re-join the team you were in when you got disconnected? It's not a program crash, so the game could know and recover. Does it even 'retry' internally to re-connect you to what you were doing? (We're in the same room, on the same network, when we game so can each see/hear what's happening for the other as well, and can communicate verbally. So I could tell her game had a problem when she got stuck in hyperspace while I was already out. It sat there for a minute or two, then gave up. Why couldn't it recover from that automatically?) If nothing else, my game/character (who was fine) should know that her character was already part of the group doing the mission, and when we re-team, automatically re-share the mission and progress, etc. And if she gets 'killed' while teamed, why no option to just put her back where she was before, i.e., pretend she was rescued by teammates, or things like that, to encourage team play and not break it completely on disconnect?

So right now, as I am sure you are coming to understand, team gameplay is a spotty affair. For the best possible results I would recommend that you give up the sharing of rides. It is a feature that as you see is both a fun way to work together but also asking for trouble, and the more people in the team on the ship the more trouble you invite. If nothing else I would have her always take the Apex home to turn in missions. If the mission causes an alarm you can always be the getaway driver to get her out to Apex range. The mission can be shared again after a disconnect when it is not completed, but once complete it can not be re-shared and for whatever reason they didn't implement the same system that group work in ships uses where a MSG is created that allows you to get the benefits of the mission after the team is disbanded. So anything shared on foot is just lost when the team disbands for ANY reason at all.

Taking an Apex home for her once complete can at least reduce the number of possible ways that disbanding of the team could occur. Also remember, and it sounds as if you have, that the holder of the base mission has to stay alive. So if you are the one holding the mission, it's best if you can provide cover without exposing yourself too much.



As far as instant revival of a team-mate.... that would have PvP consequences (not that they fleshed that out at ALL) and I would argue shouldn't be a thing. Perhaps a method to hold onto their body via a lifepod in the SRV and if you survive and return to the station they are revived, consequnce-free and get the mission reward. If they are impatient then they can opt to fail and get back into action now.

As mentioned earlier though, imagining all the ways it could be so much better is a fool's errand.

 

[Elianydd]

So right now, as I am sure you are coming to understand, team gameplay is a spotty affair. For the best possible results I would recommend that you give up the sharing of rides.

Certainly having her take an Apex back would likely be safer, but the fun for her IS us riding together. And, oddly, the ONLY two times we've EVER had her disconnect in all the things we've done together with her riding on my ship were the 2 times we team-shared a mission and were heading back after completion. Strangely coincidental....? Other than that, she rides on-board and we pop in and out of signal sources, land/take off planets, jump systems... never a problem (yet) EXCEPT when we team-share a mission and are heading back.

 

[photomankc]

Certainly having her take an Apex back would likely be safer, but the fun for her IS us riding together. And, oddly, the ONLY two times we've EVER had her disconnect in all the things we've done together with her riding on my ship were the 2 times we team-shared a mission and were heading back after completion. Strangely coincidental....? Other than that, she rides on-board and we pop in and out of signal sources, land/take off planets, jump systems... never a problem (yet) EXCEPT when we team-share a mission and are heading back.

Hmmm... that is is oddly coincidental. I have definitely had a lot of people ride with me and made a lot of jumps successfully but with enough time and people together it WILL disconnect eventually and the nature of the foot missions makes that painful so I avoid it now which is a shame. It works fine for doing foot CZs though. Pretty great landing a Crusader and having two scorpions emerge, then 4 commanders spill out of those. If someone disconnects, it matters not.

That's the best advise I can give right now. If the pay-off of completing the mission is important to her, then take the Apex back. Ride together to the next mission after that. Your commentary on the overall great fun spoiled by these issues is sadly on-point.

Aslo, other bugs can happen and screw up instancing as well so even coming and going separate is not a complete cure-all.

 

[Morbad]

Multi-crew has the best bugs...some of the worst too.

when an officer wants to scan you but gets stuck so you are now a criminal for resisting

Police being inept, unreasonable, and trigger happy is the single most plausible element of the setting left.

And, oddly, the ONLY two times we've EVER had her disconnect in all the things we've done together with her riding on my ship were the 2 times we team-shared a mission and were heading back after completion. Strangely coincidental....?

Those two times were possibly also some of the few times the transaction and mission servers needed to be synced between you. More things the game has to do, more likely it is to mess something up.