Okay, I didn't think I'd see this day, but I've been trying to regain some points again with the revamped mission systems, and I've come to the conclusion that the group missions have lost almost all their appeal.

a) you get bots based on the highest player.
Hmm. This makes oddly matched groups annoying to say the best.

b) you get numbers based on the highest player.
Okay, take a player who's baseline is 4 bots and one who's baseline is 6 bots. Put them in a group and they have to kill 12 bots.
What?

c) There is no teamwork bonus, only teamwork penalties.
previously, a group got a bonus from whacking bots based on the highest level player. Ie. when you teamed up with a few good players, regardless of level, one had higher levels than the others (of course, he also changed the highest bots, but not -all- the bots) And you got a reward based on this.

Right now, you, as a group, get penalized for dying, without any bonus to the group for succeeding.

Ie. For a mission to kill 12 prosus assaults, a group gets +500 combat.

For a solo mission to kill 4 prosus asssaults, a single player gets +500 combat.

This all equals out at:
groups are meaningless.

I'm consiously filing this under bugs, since its a regression, and I seriously doubt that you had this in mind when you changed the group botting missions.

please, encourage groups rather than discourage them!

You actually get less credits for group missions. I was in a group with two other people, so we had to kill 15 bots for each reward. Just killing TyCorp Assaults, I get 300 combat, and 1500cr for every 4 when flying single. In that group we were getting 300 combat and 500cr. By my count, for 15 bots in a single mission, I get 900 combat and 4500cr with another bonus after one more kill. On top of that, I'm a much better bot combat pilot than they were, and I can stay in a system and kill 30 - 40 TyCorp Assaults pretty easily before needing to repair, but they weren't as experienced and kept getting killed, so we generally had to kill 17 bots for each bonus. It was really disappointing for me.

I've definitely found this problem also. I'd also like to see more variety in the group missions instead of just going out and killing a bunch of bots. Maybe add group variants of all the different kinds of missions

I also see this as a bug, I however have a possible solution.

Change it so that the number of bots to be destroyed in a group mission is the same as the sum of the base number of bots for each player. Then subtract 1 bot for each player over the first.
(eg 2 people you subtract 1 bot, 3 people subtract 2, etc)

Finally, add 50 points to the list bonus for each player over the first. (2 people, each list is worth +50/+50/+50, 3 people +100/+100/+100, etc)

The cash award needs to be changed so that it isnt split between all players, but so that that amount is awarded to each player.

My thoughts were on the line of spellcasts, but also noting that the amount of bots ought to be based on the average on the sum of all players selected ones, minus some for the group.

Yeah, this definitely needs looking at; group missions are a horrible mess at the moment.

BUMPAGE!

Okay.

1 player: 7 bots. the hardest is the prosus assault.

- Why was the universe nerfed before release?
. I miss fighting DenTek Assaults, Axia RA-18 and Valent A-47. The DenTek Assaults can still be found and are great fun fighting, but why aren't they on the list?

3 players. me + ruby + n00bie. 24 bots.
- WHAT?
- credits : 500 - is this meant to be an insult?
- payment... 350 combat XP each round. (tycorps die faster than prosus)

Now I'm getting annoyed here..

Hopefully this isn't too off topic, but I'd like to see the group mission "go find and kill a hive queen".

Also, I almost always have a problem with friendly fire. Being UIT, I often bot with some Itani friends, and I often hit them on accident or they hit me on accident. I find this very irriating when one of us is low on health.

I suggest that group missions should only give GROUP bonusses if the group fights in the same sector. It is, in my opinion, meaningless, if two or three people build a 'group' and kill bots in different SYSTEMS. That is no group combat!

bumping

I completely agree with Spider. Grouping should bear real incentives. We should be able to progress FASTER when we take the time and effort to group and coordinate our actions. That means breaking down the diminishing return on the number of bots per bonus relative to the number and levels of players.

I'd also like to point out another frustrating diminishing return: the number of bots per bonus in the Advanced Combat Mission changes erratically (it oscillated between 6 and 8 for my character, with no apparent reason, last week) and prevents players from reaching anything above combat level 10. This is absurd. I should not get paid _less_ if I do a better job ! I believe there already is a cap on the level achievable (16), so why add such a brake on player progress ?

there is no hard cap on level.

Level 14 however takes, umm ~1 million XP, level 15 would take ~1.5 million, and level 16 would be ~2.25 million.

the highest *known* piece of equipment is the valent maud at level 13 trade.

Group missions definitely need a boost. Even if it was just to make the number of bots needed be equal to the sum of what each player would have to do solo and subtract 1 for every player in the group beyond the first.

the formula is (level x 1.5) + 2000 = newlevel.

(0000 x 1.5) + 2000 = 2000 -LV1
(2000 x 1.5) + 2000 = 5000 -LV2
(5000 x 1.5) + 2000 = 9500 -LV3
(9500 x 1.5) + 2000 = 16250 -LV4
(16250 x 1.5) + 2000 = 41562.5 -LV5 (41563)
(41562.5 x 1.5) + 2000 = 64343.75 -LV6 (64344)
(64343.75 x 1.5) + 2000 = 98515.62 - LV7 (98516)
(98515.62 x 1.5) + 2000 = 149773.43 - LV8 (149773)
(149773.43 x 1.5) + 2000 = 226660.16 - LV9 (226660)
(226660.16 x 1.5) + 2000 = 341990.23 - LV10 (341990)
(341990.23 x 1.5) + 2000 = 514985.35 - LV11 (514985)
(514985.35 x 1.5) + 2000 = 774478.02 - LV12 (774478)
(774478.02 x 1.5) + 2000 = 1163717.04 -LV13 (1163717)
(1163717.04 x 1.5) + 2000 = 1747575.56 - LV14 (1747576)
(1747575.56 x 1.5) + 2000 = 2623363.34 - LV15 (2623363)
(2623363.34 x 1.5) + 2000 = 3937045.01 - LV16 (3937045)

- OK so i lost a level somewhere in my original calculations. level 13 is a bit over 1.1 million, level 14 is 1.75 million, level 15 is 2.6 million and level 16 is almost 4 million.

anyway its a lot of XP

(for more decimal places, do the figures yourself)

"I should not get paid _less_ if I do a better job !"

they just wanted to make it more like real life.