Unique / Limited-availability mission with unique rewards (e.g. Modified 6A FSD)

[ZenonSeth]

The Problem

Following the recent Community Goal, I saw a lot of people complaining that they missed it, and thus the unique reward that came with it. (I got the FSD as I was lucky to join early but this still applies)

Additionally because of how CGs work, 25% of all the people who participate won't get the reward.
There will ALWAYS be 25% of the people who will put in an effort but won't get the reward, regardless of the number of participants.

It's understandable that some modules are more useful than others and might not be a good idea to simply make it freely available even if its purchased via materials. But there are other ways to limit items like that, not just by CG rewards.

An Alternative Solution

Limited-availability missions. Meaning specifically missions that have a limitation on how many times you can complete them. For example

• Unique Mission: Can only be completed once, and its reward obtained only once per account.
  • This type of mission can provide significantly different and powerful rewards, for example the Modified 6A FSD
  • This falls under the general category of "Mission that can only be completed X times", though a 1-time mission is more enticing imho.
• Limited Mission: Can be taken any time, but once completed will not be available again until [1 Month / 6 Months / 1 Year etc] later.
  • Could offer less powerful rewards, but still provide a way to not make it too easy for the player to obtain these things easily

But how would the player actually know about these types of missions? There's many ways but there's already an unlock mechanic in the game that might help with this:

Engineers. Engineers can be the sole providers of these types of missions. This would both make it easier for players to discover the missions (as visiting engineers is already an important part of the game), and also a way to lock some of these missions behind Engineers that require more effort to unlock.

Example
After reaching Grade 5 Access with Felicity Farseer, she might offer a unique mission asking the player to perform a series of tasks:

1. Go to at least 3 ship crash sites and scan the ships to learn more about the effects of crashing on a FSD.
2. Then perform 10 Neutron Star boosted jumps from different stars within 2 hours, and return to her without repairing the FSD, so she can study the effects.
3. Finally go in some star system where she learned of a pirate ship with unique FSD characteristics. You need to kill a few pirate ships of a certain faction to find the one that drops the unique FSD as cargo/data
4. Then after some time she will offer the reward: A uniquely modified 6A FSD - possibly in exchange for some materials. This won't be an unlockable, but a one-time reward.

As each engineer already has some areas they specialize in, their respective unique items might would be related to their field.

I personally think these would be a better way to limit powerful modules, and would also add some more variety to missions.

 

[Rebel Yell]

They should put all these modules available at tech brokers... full stop.

Locking modules behind game specific activities (as it may happen to loot-based games) is unfair. I. e. first for forcing players to pick a side in a confrontation for the reward, when such players for their ethos may have picked the opponent. Second: because players who are not attending the CG have no clue/chance to get the module and/or if it will available somewhere else.

 

[Red Anders]

Well they have rolled the previous specials out to tech brokers and it seems to be their usual process. People who get these items from CGs etc are just getting an advance chance to obtain and use them and get them without paying the tech broker upgrade costs.

So everybody does not get a prize. This is fine.

 

[varonica]

And some people will still complain that system is to difficult and demand an easier way to get them. Entitlement is something that can't be removed, only ignored.

So everybody does not get a prize. This is fine.

It is indeed!

 

[Rebel Yell]

Well they have rolled the previous specials out to tech brokers and it seems to be their usual process. People who get these items from CGs etc are just getting an advance chance to obtain and use them and get them without paying the tech broker upgrade costs.

So everybody does not get a prize. This is fine.

Some of them are not available (i.e. the double engineered rails for example). These rails, which have some kind of usefulness (as many other modules of course) were locked behind a "support imperial business". Since I shoot imperials on sight, no matter of the rank etc, why should I have put aside my ancestral hate toward blues for that? No way, I'm breaking my coherence and my anti-imp ethos for a rail... and that's why the whole "prize thing" is flawed behind some bad design idea.

 

[Red Anders]

Some of them are not available (i.e. the double engineered rails for example). These rails, which have some kind of usefulness (as many other modules of course) were locked behind a "support imperial business". Since I shoot imperials on sight, no matter of the rank etc, why should I have put aside my ancestral hate toward blues for that? No way, I'm breaking my coherence and my anti-imp ethos for a rail... and that's why the whole "prize thing" is flawed behind some bad design idea.

I guess it comes down to how you see the game design. In your case, your actions (being vehemently anti-Imperial) have consequences (not being able to acquire weapons distributed to support Imperial business). I don't see that as a bad thing at all. I mean your argument sounds like 'I don't want to be in your club, but I want the membership perks please'.

If anything the game does this way too much in my opinion.