Well that was cool... but not... :(

[Jmanis]

So I was undocking from my usual hangout when I noticed on the Nav panel a "Search Zone" on a planet, like the ones you get for Planetary Scan/Salvage missions.

Except I didn't have any of those missions, had two massacre missions. I was in Open so thought "Maybe it's just some weird instancing thing". Switched modes, it's still there. Odd

So I fetch a ship with an SRV... come back, Search Zone is still there. Fly on down... looks and feels like a typical beacon scan mission. Some sort of bug maybe? A clue for my massacre missions?

Jump out, take out the skimmers, scan the beacon and get this message:

That's pretty cool, I thought.

Why's the timer red though, and the mission unacceptable? Even though I literally just got this mission offer, it expired 4 18 hours ago (now 3am GMT+10). I wouldn't have taken it anyway, wrong faction offering it, but a cool thing, if only it actually offered a valid mission :/

Off to the bugreports I guess. Just thought I'd point this out coz it's a fairly neat mechanic which is similar to a suggestion I've made for exploration in general.

 

[SAB380]

Governor Church is obviously trolling you.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

So I was undocking from my usual hangout when I noticed on the Nav panel a "Search Zone" on a planet, like the ones you get for Planetary Scan/Salvage missions.

Except I didn't have any of those missions, had two massacre missions. I was in Open so thought "Maybe it's just some weird instancing thing". Switched modes, it's still there. Odd

So I fetch a ship with an SRV... come back, Search Zone is still there. Fly on down... looks and feels like a typical beacon scan mission. Some sort of bug maybe? A clue for my massacre missions?

Jump out, take out the skimmers, scan the beacon and get this message:



That's pretty cool, I thought.

Why's the timer red though, and the mission unacceptable? Even though I literally just got this mission offer, it expired 4 18 hours ago (now 3am GMT+10). I wouldn't have taken it anyway, wrong faction offering it, but a cool thing, if only it actually offered a valid mission :/

Off to the bugreports I guess. Just thought I'd point this out coz it's a fairly neat mechanic which is similar to a suggestion I've made for exploration in general.

Sounds like a great new idea, but one which is bugged. Did you bug report it?

 

[Vasious]

Thread title makes sense

Was it after 0945 Galactic Standard time when you got the message.

Seems like that would be the issue, the mission window had come and gone before you could accept

Seems like it is a variant of the Assassination missions that require you to scan a data point at a surface outpost

whilst the mission timer might give you a whole day, sometimes you can scan the data point only to find out you have missed your targets window.

Which makes sense and not what a bug

 

[Ayerc]

Do you have a "Tip Off" message in your inbox? I have not done any yet, but they point you to some surface coordinates with a search area and can branch from there as I understand it. They typically have a multi-day window in which to accept them by showing up at the given location.

I wonder if this is a result of not accepting one within that time frame?

 

[Faded Glory]

Not really that new...

I got one if I recall in 2.4, and it was also bug reported here in the 3.0 beta.

Yes. This was my bug report from some time ago.

 

[Arthur Shappey]

...
whilst the mission timer might give you a whole day, sometimes you can scan the data point only to find out you have missed your targets window.

Which makes sense and not what a bug

It may make sense, but I would argue it is still a bug. The mission text should not suggest you have all day, and/or it should make very clear you will need to hurry in case the time window expires.

It would be oh such much better if there were a more dynamic way of tracking down players or NPCs [for instance hacking into Navigation Beacons or Space Station mainframes, finding signatures of when their ships passed through, and activating trackers etc]

As it is, all we have is the clumsy time-window and a USS mission signal.

 

[Jack Schitt]

How long had you been docked? I'm wondering if the wrinkle spawned while you were on your way in and you just didn't notice until you were leaving.

I love the idea of this mechanic; random search areas that pop up as you're going about your business. Maybe FD could change the text for these to "Local transmission detected" or something, for flavour. But if they're bugged that's not so impressive.