Yes, I also commented on the rewards, I did an escort mission from edras to deneb and got a reward of 8000 credits, which is rather meager and I got 3400 combat points.

I destroyed 6 bots in the process and got 1000 credits for each.

That's odd, I took a mission from Deneb O-3 to Eo G-13 and got almost 20k credits when it finished. No combat points though, 'cause I didn't shoot any bots.

EDIT: I just took a mission back from Eo G-13 to Deneb K-5, and only got 1000 credits. :/

EDIT2: Thanks for the explanation mom, didn't realize you got different rewards based on the type of cargo the 'voys are carrying :)

The end-of-mission monetary reward is a cut of the profit made by the convoy. Specifically it's:
Profit * .5 * (1/NumPlayers) * PercentageOfRouteFollowed

So, at most (you're the only player escort and you follow the whole way) you get half the profits made. The profit calculation is simple in itself (exactly what you'd expect), but the way the stations price things (not the same as the player-visible prices) and quote prices to each other, etc, is rather complex and likely to change. The big issue at the moment (which we may solve for the short term simply by disabling the profit-based reward), is that a convoy might be formed to ship just low-profit ore, or all phase-arrays. If anyone has recommendations on this subject (we have ideas, but a discussion might be useful), start a thread in suggestions.

Tried the escort mission.

First one went fine with proper grouping and no storms along the route. Although when the convoy undocked, there was a smaller part of the group heading out a different direction and as they exited the WH they scattered in all directions.

The second escort mission was odd, only one ship (Heavy Behemoth) came out and no group was made. Followed the route, no storms. When arriving at the destination the moth just floated away and would not dock, so I fired at it. It boosted toward the dock and undocked. Then the mission felt like grouping the convoy but there was nothing new but a moth with no commands and a peeved player.

Suggestion moved to this thread. RR

Suggestion moved to this thread. RR

Keep testing the new Escort Missions and report results here and make suggestions in the Suggestions thread.

Momerath: I tested the Hive Hunt missions (as requested) and I found that when you kill a queen in the hive-hunt-with-15-bots-or-more mission, you pass the mission and all bots warp out, but a new queen warps in, I don't think that is expected behavior.

I took a hive hunt mission with a friend. This hive hunt mission had as its goal the destruction of the Levi. Of course this means you need a large combat group.

After a while (perhaps after getting killed, I'm not sure) I got kicked out of the group and when my friend tried to re-invite me, it said the group was full. When I tried to re-take the mission, I still didn't get into the group.

Edit: I know there's a maximum of 8 people per group, but shouldn't there be two groups then? Or at least one with the PC's?

Just did an escort mission.

First: I noticed bots don't really turbo all the time, at least not enough not to be caught by pirates.

Second: I attacked the moths in my convoy, got the (explain consequences warning, I guess that's still to be implemented)

Third: When I killed both moths, they both didn't drop ANY cargo.

Fourth: When I shot at them, they moths only returned fire after I hit the turret.

Fifth: The other escorts didn't attack me at all.

Second try:

Killed the two moths I was escorting, they contained cargo. I was expelled from the group, but the mission didn't stop

Third try:

Killed two moths and a centaur. I got the "you got kicked out message three times", after the other moth docked, I still got my reward and combat increase. None of the ships were carrying any cargo. The other escorts didn't attack me unless I hit them.

Thanks for all the testing!

The latest reported bugs should be fixed now, and we're fast approaching release. Anyone who can test right now, please do, and report *any* problems you run into, because they *should* all be fixed (except the first mission message sometimes just goes to the advancement log, but we'll fix or work around that shortly).

PS- thanks for moving the suggestions RelayeR; I'll respond to them as soon as we've released what we've got and nothing is on fire :)

I just significantly improved the flocking behavior, but the initial form-up is still totally ridiculous. Working on that now, and trying to definitively solve the storm exit desync problem.

Bots should stay together but not so rigidly as to prevent them from turboing.

Sorry all! No release until friday. There is a client bug (mission messages not going to your mission log) that would make the mission confusing, so we're going to release the new Kourier/Deliverator changes along with our semi-regularly-scheduled client update.

Please do continue to help us test! The flocking code, in particular, is new and potentially troublesome in some sectors. Try to take escort missions from places like Dau G-11 that have lots of geometry around launch bays.

Edit: A1k0n believes that the ion-storm exit bug has finally been slain! Let us know if it rears its ugly head again!

Mission from Divinia G-6 to Itan E-7.

The group was made, although 2 centurions and a warthog didn't join the group but acted like part of it. Didn't run into any storms, they never went off course and they have a slight problem with some space geometry like leaving the station and avoiding the station if the come out on the opposite side of the station or avoiding a roid while proceeding to dock. I felt like docking before they all were in and I didn't receive a quick message about a completed mission but there were details in the PDA mission advancement logs.

Mission from Itan E-7 to Cantus M-5.

Same thing with all other fighter craft not joining the group. But this time there were 3 storms we ran into. The first went okay with no bots in sight (none at all in the sector) a 5,000m jump point and they all went to and there were no roids in the way so the moths were at full speed. The second storm was the exact same thing and no problems. The third was different, when the convoy entered they just wen their merry way to a different jump point which was 11km away from my starting 5km jump point. The mission ended before I was able to get out of the storm and it said I was only with the convoy for 90% of the time. I'm not sure whether the convoy jump point depends on whether I get into the storm first so they can use my jump point or it was a glitch.

Mission from Cantus M-5 to Eo K-11

Same storm problem with them picking their own jump point (they got in before I did again) but I decided to just go to my own jump point before they made it to the WH sector. When the mission completed it said I was with the the entire time. And the mission grouped all trade ships but there were fighters.

Thanks for the testing Surbius!

The npc escorts aren't supposed to be grouped with you. You should be mostly concerned with the traders and having only them be white on your radar helps. Also, if the npc escorts were part of the group, the convoys would have to be half the potential size (or however many of the escorts won't fit in the group GUI would have to be left out- confusing imho).

I'm sorry to hear that the storm-exit bug is still happening. FYI whether you arrive in the storm first *shouldn't* matter and it's not doing anything like copying their exit directly from you.

Also, there are a total of 9 systems with no old-style hive-bots on the test server because I run all 3 new-style hives sometimes, so ion storms can be pretty lonely.

Thanks again to all who've helped test!

Here's another suggestion on the issue of having convoys carry all low-price ore or all phase-arrays... Why not have convoys make more than one stop? Say a convoy is being formed in Edras. A station in Nyrius wants low-grade ore. A station in Dau wants phase-arrays. A station in Latos wants something else. Just put one or two Moths for each cargo type in the convoy. When you reach the first station, those moths leave the convoy and the rest move on to the next station. Obviously, if your moth carrying the ore gets boomed along the way, you get no profit from the station buying the ore, but you can still continue the mission and get the profit from the rest of the deliveries.

I tested another mission in where I shot a moth I was guarding. I got a warning. This means that escorting will be a pretty profitable undertaking:

I got 300k out of the moths cargo and 40k from the escort. I suggest (perhaps urge) you to let the warning be for about landing 5 shots instead of a death.

So, if it's possible, imho you should kick someone from the group when he hits a groupmember/other escort a couple of times instead of killing two of them. If that's not possible, there should be a SEVERE standing drop when killing two of them.

It would be just too attractive to kill just one moth and escort the rest, and pick up the cargo later if you get both the cargo and a nice amount of escort-money..

Hmm. Sometimes the natural variability in warpin positions is leading to the closest storm exits being on the opposite side for you and the convoy.

sd-1355.log:[Thu Jun 14 06:39:52 2007] Surbius Bondevo storm -warpin position: Vector (-2768,-284,360) fromsector: 1357 exit: Vector (-831,1546,5523)
sd-1355.log:[Thu Jun 14 06:39:55 2007] *Ruapemon Vistras storm -warpin position: Vector (-2348,-579,-247) fromsector: 1357 exit: Vector (440,430,-5430)

The storm exits are kind of perpendicular to the direction you came in from. Well, I guess the solution is to pick the closest storm exit based solely on where you came from, not taking warpin variability into account.

I have now changed it to do that, so this should be the end of those problems.