Poll follow up: Missions

[Bernd]

I understand that missions are perceived by some as lacking. On the one hand problems with individual small missions (generic missions as we call them) and the lack of a larger plots on the other (both things we try to improve but take a bit more time). But one follow up question in the form of a poll again....

How many of you already joined a subscription mission (e.g the war effort) and how do you like that part of the game? Can this be a replacement in part for a plot?

[Kalantris]

Main reasons I disliked the effort missions:

• Complete lack of story
• Complete lack of voiceover
• No need to complete them to become an ally, rep is better farmed by traders
• Insane missions (like finding a Xenon ship with spaceweed)
• Not enough missions forcing you to choose a side /I mean there's no response from HOP because you complete most of the Argon vs HOP chain for example/
• Not enough incentive to participate
• A lot of reasons not to participate
• Complete lack of impact of the war effort missions /it's not like factions start fighting over sectors or anything/

[Bernd]

Maybe I should add another option to ask why you dislike it... Is it that the individual missions have too many bugs or is it the general concept of being hired by a faction?

[Bernd]

Main reasons I disliked the effort missions:

• Complete lack of impact of the war effort missions /it's not like factions start fighting over sectors or anything/

Actually they should and sector ownership does go back and forth. It does not happen because you join though, you can make a bit of a difference in a war that is otherwise based on economic power.

[Wou]

HI,
I've joined all of them, but barely did any.

Can this be a replacement in part for a plot?

Sure they could, if they actually lead somewhere. Had some bigger effect, some long-term goal, some shiny, unique reward at the end.
Maybe I'm wrong but to me it seems like all this is just pretty much the same "generlc missions" but glued together in packs of 3-4, but having all the same problems.
So with difficulty and payment not being scaled (or even related to each other) in any way, and no other benefit for doing them on top of the rather smallish payments there is very little incentive for me to take any.

Even if the whole experience was bug free would I really bother with either the tedium of walking through space and fixing satellites or the challenge of boarding a friggin destroyer to earn less than my ships and factories are doing in the meantime?

[Bernd]

HI,
I've joined all of them, but barely did any.

Can this be a replacement in part for a plot?

Sure they could, if they actually lead somewhere. Had some bigger effect, some long-term goal, some shiny, unique reward at the end.
Maybe I'm wrong but to me it seems like all this is just pretty much the same "generlc missions" but glued together in packs of 3-4, but having all the same problems.
So with difficulty and payment not being scaled (or even related to each other) in any way, and no other benefit for doing them on top of the rather smallish payments there is very little incentive for me to take any.

Even if the whole experience was bug free would I really bother with either the tedium of walking through space and fixing satellites or the challenge of boarding a friggin destroyer to earn less than my ships and factories are doing in the meantime?

The impact such missions have on the success of the overall war depend a lot on the type of missions. By pure number the majority are simpler missions with smaller outcome, but there should also be already now some larger scale missions. But yes, more of the large scale will be a focus of the next few months.

[Dreez]

I love the feature and it makes you feel more apart of an alive universe.. however ,
despite being signed up for both Argon Vs Xenon and several trade companies and max rep with several factions, i've yet to see a single mission from them .

I do miss the "defense" missions from X3, they were a dependable way to getting cash, dangerous but well paying if you could handle it.
I feel that missions in general are missing the very important impact of faction-standings.

Merry Christmas Bernt.

[bm01]

Maybe I should add another option to ask why you dislike it... Is it that the individual missions have too many bugs or is it the general concept of being hired by a faction?

For me, it's the lack of sense of progression. I don't really feel like what I do really matters. I join an organization or faction and I'm just doing random missions one after another without knowing if it really does something or not.

There should be some kind of feedback, an interface with results and impacts of some sort.

Maybe there are other issues but this is why I stopped doing them.

[Mavo Pi]

In my opinion the general concept is fine but it needs some more refined missions. Also some mission bugs and lack of engaging fight missions deter from the experience. What's missing are more missions to take out a small wing of enemy fighters, not destroying only a single ship or capturing a well defended destroyer The fight missions are most of the time too easy (destroying mines) or too difficult in early game (capture behemoth which a large escort of fighters).

Also in most chains there is at least one nearly impossible mission. Examples are to find a xenon with spaceweed(the idea is fine but you have to give some hints, like asking someone at a bar who tells you where you can find a xenon spawned for this mission). Another example is to provide a 4 or 5 star crewman. I am 120 hours in and still most of my crew is zero to 2 stars with a hand full of 3 and 4 star pilots. Delivering combat ships to a faction should provide you the purchase costs in addition to the reward or they are a waste of time.

Edit: I just wanted to add I still love the game so far or I would not have spent that much time in it the past few weeks. But there are some mechanics which need to be more refined in the future.

[Wou]

The impact such missions have on the success of the overall war depend a lot on the type of missions. By pure number the majority are simpler missions with smaller outcome, but there should also be already now some larger scale missions. But yes, more of the large scale will be a focus of the next few months.

That's great too know, I would be really cool if the missions we're doing had some visible impact, and were more involved.

But there still is the balance, scaling, and "what's in it for me" aspect of things.
Early on you do like 3 repair jobs and you can replace your starter ship with a proper fighter like Nova in, what, an hour? To me it feels way to quick and easy.
And then 20h or 50h later ... sure, you could place some mines, satellites, scan some things hunt some Xenon Ps, but why would you bother with something so easy and boring for less than 1% of what you currently have?
On the other hand there are a few missions that feel plain impossible (at some character progression level at least), or just very tedious while offering the same meager pay. Hunt an elusive Xenon, Bring in Colossus Behemoth and 3x Cerberus to Argon Prime, board a destroyer, and so on, all for the same ~100k each.

[Graaf]

I don't want to join a side.

All I have to do is point at the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition #34 & #35.

[mrtus]

Having plots would be nice, also I feel like the missions are lacking a bit. I'd be more excited for them if there were more combat missions vs 'Build a fleet', 'Build a station', 'Gather Intel', 'Find this specific ship', etc. I'd love to be able to pick up a mission that takes me to an area of space and has me engage in more combat. As they are now, it doesn't feel like much.

Maybe something like, "We've detected a blockade/fleet forming in X area of space and we need you to go out and destroy it before they can become a threat." or "We've discovered x faction/xenon are attempting to build a station and we need you to go in and prevent it by any means neccessary." and it'll spawn in ships/structures for us to fight/destroy, and the difficulty could play into it too. From Easy-Impossible could determine just how many ships you'd be going up against which would make going in with your own fleet pretty fun/worthwhile.

It'd be nice to have stuff like that added to the subscriptions, and to the random missions we can pickup from stations.

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

I joined the Paranid one against the other Paranid faction HOP, but since I'm still relatively early in my game I did not want to take missions and make an enemy that would harm my traders.

[Kalantris]

Actually they should and sector ownership does go back and forth. It does not happen because you join though, you can make a bit of a difference in a war that is otherwise based on economic power.

Indeed, but I would imagine joining the war effort would allow the player to tip the scales of the balance of the universe and actually allow him to make the war happen.

Imagine this chain of quests:

1. Supply stations with resources /as a result the faction starts producing an invasion fleet/
2. Gather a fleet for the faction /certain number of ships the faction takes control over once you produce them and adds them to the invasion fleet/
3. Supply the faction with your own fleet /certain number of ships you have to produce for your own fleet/
4. Move the fleet to an appointed sector /where the invasion fleet is waiting/
5. Fly your fleet with the invading fleet to the gate
6. Invasion
   • Destroy an enemy station
   • Destroy an enemy administrative center
   • Build a base for your faction with an administrative center
   • Allow your faction to take the sector
7. Profit.

That way the player could actually cause a change on the map and hopefully make the other faction counterattack and start some serious back and forth pulling all faction resources from Xenon gates to allow them to take a foothold somewhere and maybe grab a sector or two. You know, stir the pot in general.

[Kadatherion]

There's two fundamental issues with mission chains right now, imo:

1) They are bug ridden. Nothing much to add, several of them need fixing, you already know about that.

2) For a game that has gone such lenghts (sometimes even *too much*, at least according to some people's tastes) to evolve towards "immersion" (like station interiors and other mechanics), these missions are really lacking in actual... immersion. They feel like an endless repeat of menial, repetitive tasks with little to no context. This is why quite a few people grow tired with them very soon, and never look back. While I'm among those who are totally fine with X4 not having a main plot, the emergent / random content needs quite some more work to make you feel attached and invested into what you are actually doing.

While we need more variety in mission themselves (right now chains are basically shuffles of the same arguably few basic random missions), with the more complex, maybe even scripted, one here and there, these chains also need to be connected with more lore. And there should also be something rewarding (in terms of immersion rather than simple monetary rewards) to work towards: affecting more or less indirectly the war efforts is fine, but, for instance, there could be more involved, scripted missions that actually change something relevant in the universe (or at least tell you so) that unlock after you have finished some chains and had some effect in shaping the universe/war efforts. These special missions should give you just a bit of "story" (even 100% text only is fine, no need to waste resources in recording lines in the studios if that's going to be an issue), so that you feel you aren't just doing the same things over and over again just for that 200k more you don't need anymore anyway, and could also be the tool to reward the player with something special he cannot obtain in any other way (the odd custom personal ship, for instance, after working for a war faction for a long time, or a special station production module after working for the Teladi Trade Guild and finishing a few of their mission chains and then a special, unique mission, things like that).

Let's just call them mini (very mini) plots. They would be needed for having a change of pace and prevent boredom, and they could also be used to introduce future content. I don't know, one of these days you bring Kha'ak capital ships back in the game? Cool. But let them begin to spawn in the universe after a couple special mission chains that narrate us how and why the Kha'ak are back in full force. The game has several cool mechanics and features here and there, but even when they work as intended, they all feel a bit disconnected and artificial.

[Knossos]

Hey Bernd, love the polls. It shows some great community focused thinking.

• I love the diversity. It seems like there are so many different kinds of missions to do now.
• I miss pirate-killing missions. Station defense for example. Assassination is mostly just faction people. Usually traders and not really a "combat" mission. I want bigger fights against smallish pirate fleets.

If you are looking for this as a way to replace plots. I hope you don't. It is a good suppliment.

I enjoyed the HQ plot, short though it was. Plots give you something to strive towards, that isn't an objective created by you. Usually with some big reward at the end that you wouldn't get any other way. Like the HUB plot. Lots of people didn't like the grind. I figured that it was just a great way to get players to build a decent industrial base. I really liked it. Or perhaps it would give you a special ship, one that goes much faster, but is perhaps less well armed. Just things that add some uniqueness to the game. Special ships don't even need special models. Go-faster stripes would even be enough. I enjoy a developing story in a game. It helps to keep me motivated and interested in a game.

You can't get the same satisfaction from a generic Preston Garvey mission. Those types of missions keep you going indefinitely, but they aren't as rewarding to complete. Simply because they aren't unique.

An initial plot is even a great way to get users to understand the game. Instead of having separate tutorials, if you had a plot, you could combine all of that through a story. Part of the story could be related to preventing a Xenon attack. OK, build a station here with turrets. The plot guides you through it.

A lot of what other people have mentioned is true for me too. Things are pretty samey in the war missions. Rewards aren't particularly big. What might be good, is a large scale battle mission. Huge reward, to cover your impending loses. Perhaps fights like that cannot be guaranteed, because it all revolves on the economy. If the faction can't build, it can't make fleets for these missions.

I completely agree with Mavo. More combat missions would be great. Not necessarily against factions either, but against pirates and xenon, for those of us that want to keep our standing. Though I personally haven't seen a destroyer capture mission yet.

And, along the same point that Mavo makes about finding a 4 / 5 star crewman. I ignore all of those related missions. It is hard enough to get my own crew well leveled. Perhaps if there was a training facility to level your crew at.

That's about all I have to say on missions. Schöne Feiertage!

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

I like the idea of joining the factions and helping them. I didn't like the execution.

When I open up the list of jobs to do, it's a bloody mess. A single mission required to scan asteroids, kill enemies, build a station and deliver wares. This is a bloody, bloody mess. If I want to do combat, then please don't throw building or trading into the mix. If I want to do ware hauling, please do NOT throw mining and resource probing into the mix. It disconnects me from the game so badly. A combat chain, should be all about combat. A construction chain should be nothing but construction missions. A hauling chain should be all about hauling. Please don't mix stuff together.

I don't have anything against having the option to do a chaotic mix up mission of everything bundled together. BUT every single chain is like this, there are no normal, homogeneous mission chains for faction, which is what made me drop the feature completly.

[cicero111]

Would be nice with some "join the war effort" job offers from the invasion fleets - legend says they do invasions and stuff but haven't stumbled on to any of them actually doing that yet (do mostly trading empire a.t.m.). Would make that dynamic a lot more visual - could perhaps be something like the patrol mission at the start of "Final Fury" questline in X3, loved that one.
If could join as a mercenary without much faction rep hit as well I could do these without risking my trader empire would immediately implode afterward.

[LameFox]

I joined but my main interest is combat missions and combat is still pretty mediocre at this point so it's hard to say whether I like the missions in principle. Like Argon keep wanting me to proactively kill two Xenon P's, which is just laughably easy, I can fly into the Xenon's own sector and kill 2 around the gate even before the 'hazard' becomes a problem. So what do I blame there, the missions for having such a simple target as two P's? Or the fact that killing two P's even in their own territory is so easy it could almost happen by accident?

[birdtable]

I have joined a few, but not done any..... not very appealing, ..