Forums » General

Test the Pirate Mission!

Jan 09, 2006 momerath42 link
Greetings,

The going has been slower than I'd hoped, but we're nearly there now. I've fixed several bugs with the mission system in general and the Hive Hunt and Escort missions particularly. I've also finished the Pirate mission including greatly improving the npc pirates' behavior and adding the functionality needed to remove the target cargo from your inventory (for which you are rewarded, of course).

There are known bugs with all 3 missions, but I think they're fun already, and I could use some feedback, especially on the pirate mission. Here or by email is good.

The missions are available on the test server now. The Hive Hunt missions are only posted to Sedina K-13, and I'm making escort missions from there extra-frequent. This means that there should be a good supply of pirate missions in D-14. Escort missions will be available less frequently all over the universe, with Pirate missions wherever they are interceptable (in the appropriate Corvus stations).

~Michael

P.S. I'm developing on another machine now, which should make the mission-availability more reliable, but I won't be there to help and answer questions as much as last time.

Edit: When I said the missions "are" available... I meant "will be available in about 10 minutes";)
Jan 09, 2006 yodaofborg link
Well, i managed to bag me a moth and some helio for my mission, to my suprise, not only could I take 2 missions, but I also got to keep the helio, and get repeatedly payed :D

[logfile]
[01/09/06 16:52:47] 28b4f0[100]<Unknown player node> oooh, i type /updatestation with the mission active, and now im on two, one to aquire heliocene, and one for plascores
[01/09/06 16:53:04] 28b4f0[100]<Spellcast> that'll need fixing
[01/09/06 16:53:24] 28b4f0[100]<Spellcast> or maybe its dependent on the new UI
[01/09/06 16:53:26] 28b4f0[100]<Unknown player node> oh, and i still have the heliocene
[01/09/06 16:53:35] ffffffPeople in the room: Unknown player node
[01/09/06 16:53:35] You are now in Sedina V Hold (Corvus Research).
[01/09/06 16:53:38] 00ff00Excellent, 1564 crates. Here are 30985 credits.
[01/09/06 16:53:38] 00ff0012932 credits received
[01/09/06 16:53:53] 28b4f0[100]<Unknown player node> and yay, it payed me for it again
[01/09/06 16:53:55] 28b4f0[100]Unknown player node giggles
[01/09/06 16:53:59] 28b4f0[100]<Spellcast> hmm part of my convoy dissapeared
[01/09/06 16:54:21] 28b4f0[100]<Spellcast> and no reward/endmission
[01/09/06 16:54:28] ffffffPeople in the room: Unknown player node
[01/09/06 16:54:28] You are now in Sedina V Hold (Corvus Research).
[01/09/06 16:54:31] 00ff00Excellent, 1564 crates. Here are 89665 credits.
[01/09/06 16:54:31] 00ff006600 credits received
[01/09/06 16:55:05] ffffffPeople in the room: Unknown player node
[01/09/06 16:55:05] You are now in Sedina V Hold (Corvus Research).
[01/09/06 16:55:09] 00ff00Excellent, 1564 crates. Here are 51827 credits.
[01/09/06 16:55:09] 00ff0026116 credits received
[01/09/06 16:55:09] 28b4f0[100]<Spellcast> hmmm
[01/09/06 16:55:17] 28b4f0[100]<Spellcast> gonna go drop a few suggestions on the board
[01/09/06 16:55:19] 28b4f0[100]<Spellcast> brb
[01/09/06 16:55:22] 28b4f0[100]<Unknown player node> rgr
[01/09/06 16:55:35] 999999Logged on: Andrew d'Bacons, Arlina Solestia
[01/09/06 16:55:53] ffffffPeople in the room: Unknown player node
[01/09/06 16:55:53] You are now in Sedina V Hold (Corvus Research).
[01/09/06 16:55:56] 00ff00Excellent, 1564 crates. Here are 91551 credits.
[01/09/06 16:55:56] 00ff009248 credits received
[01/09/06 16:56:04] 00ff00Trading/Commerce +66
[/logfile]

heh
Jan 09, 2006 Spellcast link
ok, interesting new toys.. :)

A few quick observations.

UPN and I were on the same mission from different sides, he was pirate i was escort. The pirate timer appears to be out of sync by about 2 minutes fast because his countdown ended and mine was still at 2 minutes. the convoy that launched on my timer was the one he was supposed to be attacking.

Its very easy to loose the transports in a place like B-8. they get spread out, a convoy is supposed to stick together.

As an escort, it tells me i'm being added to the group, but i dont appear to end up in a group, since the hud cant be changed to groupmode and the convoy doesnt appear white on radar. Is that part something that needs the new UI ?

I escorted a voy to Azek and 2 members appear to have dissapeared. they are in the sector list at the destination but show as being out of range. I also didnt get a reward for that mission.

The faction stnading loss for killing a convoy member in its launch sector is probably not high enough, especially since the defenders get creamed by SF if they go after the attackers.

The convoys need to SLOW DOWN and STICK TOGETHER more. It's like CtC all over again.. defending is almost impossible.
Jan 09, 2006 CrazySpence link
hey are the missions not working? i've seen convoys come and go yet no escort or piracy missions...if they are only available to decent faction could you give me a lil boost in xang xi and corvus on the test server so i can try them out! thanks
Jan 09, 2006 momerath42 link
Yoda:
The two missions available thing will be fixed soon.

Spellcast:
The escort mission *is* supposed to start later than the accompanying pirate mission so that the pirates have time to intercept. How much time depends on whether/when players take each of the missions.

Also, we can't yet group the mission-takers programatically.

We are going to slow the convoys down- I think they'll group better just by doing that.

We'll look into the faction loss thing.

Spence:
Something may be wrong- I'll check on it. Also, I'll lower the faction requirement (it's just above neutral now, but I'll lower it more for testing).
Jan 09, 2006 CrazySpence link
this isn't the first time I have tanked my faction testing things on the test server last time around a1k0n upped it back to above neutral this may be the better solution as it is hard to test when I can't buy anything except mark 1 ships in sedina heh
Jan 09, 2006 momerath42 link
Hmmm. Yea, OK, I've got a solution- means everyone will get full faction on every mission-begin, though. Will be in place shortly.
Edit: in place.
Jan 10, 2006 CrazySpence link
I took the escort mission just now it was pretty cool except! the mission never ended....and there were no members of my voy hanging out anywhere cause I went back and checked.

What was cool was that there were corvus pursuits in every sector along the way they even managed to finally wear down one of my moths and kill it. I sent a corvus hog and vulture to their doom along the way!

What would be cooler is if corvus ships automatically appeared red when you take the escort missions as even before that faction workaround you added corvus were green to me
Jan 10, 2006 yodaofborg link
Oh, hmm, Momerath, further down the log you can see i completed the same mission several times with the same cargo, and the crate count is way borked.

I had 20cu of helio, it said "Excellent, 1564 crates. Here are 89665 credits." and then i got payed "6600 credits received" :)
Jan 10, 2006 sarahanne link
LOL, that station master must have been blind drunk but the freight computer knew how many crates you actually had and paid you the correct amount.
Jan 10, 2006 momerath42 link
Hehe, yea, the reward stuff is probably the buggiest part of the system right now. Even worse than what you've reported- you can actually jettison the mission cargo, dock and be paid, go pick it up, jettison, get paid, etc :) I have to add jettison and sale handling to Deliverator.
Jan 10, 2006 CygnusX link
Sharanne: That's what happens when you put LeberMac in charge of your logistics.
Jan 10, 2006 LeberMac link
Hey!