I'd like to talk about the current implementation of war-time massacres and how I think mission goals and rewards could be rearranged to gel better with the current incarnation of combat zones. Massacres are the principal war-time BGS mission, as well as being the primary way to make wars profitable. As a result they're a key co-op focus for many player groups. Unfortunately due to a couple of nuances in CZ design we have a situation where having a mission discourages full participation in CZ events, as well as discouraging challenge, which is kind of a shame.
- The first part of the issue is not very contentious one, I don't think. CZ 'wrinkle' NPCs don't count towards massacre mission quotas. That means Spec Ops, Captains, Correspondents & Capital Ships all distract from your war-time mission rather than contributing to it. I am fairly sure most people would consider this to be an oversight or bug rather than intentional design. This matters because if you're working through a 72 kill massacre you're then not systemically encouraged to spend time, ammo and effort dealing with event NPCs. Especially given these missions are on a relatively short timer. Players under pressure (or just wishing) to complete their mission may end up in less-fun gameplay loops like spamming Low CZs, in which every kill will count towards your quota, or participating in High CZs but ignoring the event NPCs entirely. It would be nice if participating in the events was incentivised correctly.
- It goes further than just events though, let's say you're in a High CZ with your friends - target prioritisation should, logically and in the name of fun, prioritise the highest threat enemy in the zone as well as working towards peeling aggro from your team, generating a tight furball so you can close the zone fast. Massacre missions however often encourage players to harvest cheap/easy kills from trashmobs like Eagles and Asp Scouts just to push their quota. 72 ships ain't gonna kill themselves, after all.
- Moreover, bonds for events are still not correctly assigned. It's been raised on the Issue Tracker multiple times by many people but nothing has been done about it. Completing events always results in a bond for the opposing side, and has done since the exploration patch. This is a straight-up bug, but still worth mentioning.
I'd like to make it clear at this point, as I'm aware these forums are on a hair trigger re. 'optimising the fun out of your game' - I don't play this way. Churning Low CZs is dull. Ignoring Spec Ops feels like a cop-out. I would've quit Elite a long time ago if I only went where the rewards are, but I still think it's worth pointing out from time-to-time that there's actually no reason for Elite not to have a more traditionally balanced risk:reward ratio.
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What I'd like to see changed: I personally think a better format of war-time mission would be # of CZs completed rather than # of ships killed. With different values attributed to different CZ threat levels, this simple change would shift focus to being good at CZs and engaging with the wrinkles they have to offer, rather than looking for the low-hanging fruit.
Failing that, please at least consider making event ships count towards mission quotas (and fixing the misassignment of bonds bug that's been around since... 2019?)
Apologies for the wall of text. Edit: typos and grammar
- The first part of the issue is not very contentious one, I don't think. CZ 'wrinkle' NPCs don't count towards massacre mission quotas. That means Spec Ops, Captains, Correspondents & Capital Ships all distract from your war-time mission rather than contributing to it. I am fairly sure most people would consider this to be an oversight or bug rather than intentional design. This matters because if you're working through a 72 kill massacre you're then not systemically encouraged to spend time, ammo and effort dealing with event NPCs. Especially given these missions are on a relatively short timer. Players under pressure (or just wishing) to complete their mission may end up in less-fun gameplay loops like spamming Low CZs, in which every kill will count towards your quota, or participating in High CZs but ignoring the event NPCs entirely. It would be nice if participating in the events was incentivised correctly.
- It goes further than just events though, let's say you're in a High CZ with your friends - target prioritisation should, logically and in the name of fun, prioritise the highest threat enemy in the zone as well as working towards peeling aggro from your team, generating a tight furball so you can close the zone fast. Massacre missions however often encourage players to harvest cheap/easy kills from trashmobs like Eagles and Asp Scouts just to push their quota. 72 ships ain't gonna kill themselves, after all.
- Moreover, bonds for events are still not correctly assigned. It's been raised on the Issue Tracker multiple times by many people but nothing has been done about it. Completing events always results in a bond for the opposing side, and has done since the exploration patch. This is a straight-up bug, but still worth mentioning.
I'd like to make it clear at this point, as I'm aware these forums are on a hair trigger re. 'optimising the fun out of your game' - I don't play this way. Churning Low CZs is dull. Ignoring Spec Ops feels like a cop-out. I would've quit Elite a long time ago if I only went where the rewards are, but I still think it's worth pointing out from time-to-time that there's actually no reason for Elite not to have a more traditionally balanced risk:reward ratio.
____
What I'd like to see changed: I personally think a better format of war-time mission would be # of CZs completed rather than # of ships killed. With different values attributed to different CZ threat levels, this simple change would shift focus to being good at CZs and engaging with the wrinkles they have to offer, rather than looking for the low-hanging fruit.
Failing that, please at least consider making event ships count towards mission quotas (and fixing the misassignment of bonds bug that's been around since... 2019?)
Apologies for the wall of text. Edit: typos and grammar
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