Wing mission payout imbalance

[ocflyer]

In an unnamed star system, the mission board shows 3 massacre missions from the same recruiting faction to kill the same enemy faction:
1. Solo massacre mission for 63 ships - 6.2M (98.4k per ship)
2. Wing massacre mission for 127 ships - 2.6M (20.5k per ship)
3. Wing massacre mission for 138 ships - 3.3M (23.9k per ship)

As others have observed, the wing missions don't pay commensurate with their effort. In the example above, there is no motivation for individuals to wing up because they can all get the solo mission above for 5X reward per ship. I admit that this one example doesn't truly indicate a trend but it is a reasonable indication that FD didn't give sufficient thought to wing mission rewards.

 

[ElectricZ]

Glad someone finally did the math on this. The wing assassination missions are acceptable. You are faced with a wing of 6 that benefits greatly from having wing mates. (That being said, wing assassinations do seem to spawn a very similar enemy wing every single time. Some variation would be nice.)

Wing hauling mission profits vary greatly depending on the type of cargo and reputation status of the person accepting the mission. If you are allied with a faction and they are looking to collect/deliver high credit items you can make a tidy profit. Still, if hauling is your thing, this can be fun, and with the added threat of hostiles intercepting the haulers it opens up the possibility of sharing profits with fighter escorts who wouldn't otherwise be able to contribute.

Wing massacre missions. on the other hand, are basically "take a regular massacre mission and add a '0' to the kill counts' without any increase in risk or reward. Again, the wing assassination missions offer a greater challenge with an appropriate reward. Wing massacre missions basically mean you have to fly circles in a CZ or REZ killing the same ol' opponents over and over except instead of the completion counter needing to reach 27 it's now 270, basically increasing the time spent on a treadmill.

Wing massacre missions would be better achieved by upping the quality/quantity of enemies faced, with the opposition organized in wings making for a more challenging fight requiring cooperation between pilots, as well as increased rewards for the effort.

 

[ocflyer]

Agreed. Wing assassination missions could be improved by increasing the intensity of combat, not strictly the number of enemies. Wing assassination missions should be very hard or impossible for an individual pilot to complete alone. Currently, I can complete the wing assassination missions myself without losing shields or using up all of my SCBs. Wing massacre missions could be improved similarly - increased difficulty not simply increased ship count.

In a similar vein, wing haulage missions could be improved by adding variety with some missions requiring lower tonnage but through dangerous systems or longer paths around dangerous systems while some missions requiring higher tonnage but through safer passage. Dangerous paths should include harder interdiction and enemies such that you're forced to flee or fight, not simply submit, jump, submit, jump. Wing smuggling missions could be added for higher reward but even more danger or risk of scan.​