Forums » General
Please take lots of escort missions.
We're testing Erlang with some new memory settings, so we'd like to get some people taking Escort missions (and other Kourier related activity) and see how it holds up. Nothing too crazy, just normal behaviour, but take an escort mission if you have a moment. Thanks.
NP incarnate I will take a bunch tomorrow its now become my favorite thing to do;)
I took a bunch tonight. Didn't encounter a single problem. I'm very impressed with how far escort missions have come on the new Kourier architecture.
PS. Thanks for the excellent escort profits devs... I'm getting rich =) Think I'll give up trading for escort missions from now on =)
PS. Thanks for the excellent escort profits devs... I'm getting rich =) Think I'll give up trading for escort missions from now on =)
They could use a price reduction of oh, 400k? :P
Heh. Or at least rewards given by pilots level, or something.
Heh. Or at least rewards given by pilots level, or something.
I don't know what escort missions you guys have been taking, but I've been getting hosed on profits. I took a mission yesterday that went through 3 wormholes and paid out less than 200k.
Payout is based on the profit the convoys make on their route. If someone tanks the trade route before the escort mission is taken, I believe that will cause a "hosing" of your own profits.
Incarnate... I took a few escort missions today. The only problem I encountered was that on several of them, one moth seemed to have trouble docking. Like, flying into the side of the station, flying into roids, etc. In one instance, the moth spent almost 2 full minutes boosting into a roid, then turned and flew 3km away from the station, turned around, and came back to dock. The mission completed successfully, but it was pretty annoying to have to watch a moth try to commit suicide on a roid for a few minutes before it docked.
I did 3 1 wh missions. They went fine. and gave me between 225 and 600K.
I did several last night and the only problem I had was on one a moth got stupid and tried docking with the holes in the side of the station and two of the escorts kept bumping it and me around when I tried to nudge it toward the dock. After me booming and doing something else for about 10 mins they finally docked and the mission finished properly
Yep, they are working very well now, I have taken a large number of them in recent days.
I too have seen a few problems with docking at complex stations with projecting sections or hollow internal areas, but the lost moth seems to time out after a while and the mission completes .
There is still a bug with HS missions that affects voys. If I take an HS mission which relates to a HS sector which is empty and then abort the HS group will override a convoy group if another player subsequently takes the same empty HS mission . The convoy mission continues , and payment and xp is received normally at the destination. I suspect this is HS or grouping related not voy related and will stop happening when HS missions are sorted out.
I still think that the payment offered for escorts is a bit on the high side, but I accept that eventually it will be tied to a more realistic economy .
The trade and combat xp is set as a multiple of the number of sectors the voy passes through . It would be nice to see the trade xp connected to both number of sectors and size of voy .
When in a storm the payment and xp for any bot killed is a fixed value . It would be good to see that scaled according to the difficulty of the bot, but these are minor points for longer term consideration.
Overall I am very impressed with the way convoys move about space , grats to all concerned.
Ecka
I too have seen a few problems with docking at complex stations with projecting sections or hollow internal areas, but the lost moth seems to time out after a while and the mission completes .
There is still a bug with HS missions that affects voys. If I take an HS mission which relates to a HS sector which is empty and then abort the HS group will override a convoy group if another player subsequently takes the same empty HS mission . The convoy mission continues , and payment and xp is received normally at the destination. I suspect this is HS or grouping related not voy related and will stop happening when HS missions are sorted out.
I still think that the payment offered for escorts is a bit on the high side, but I accept that eventually it will be tied to a more realistic economy .
The trade and combat xp is set as a multiple of the number of sectors the voy passes through . It would be nice to see the trade xp connected to both number of sectors and size of voy .
When in a storm the payment and xp for any bot killed is a fixed value . It would be good to see that scaled according to the difficulty of the bot, but these are minor points for longer term consideration.
Overall I am very impressed with the way convoys move about space , grats to all concerned.
Ecka
I took a bunch of escort missions, and here are my comments.
They work great now. In ion storms all members have jump points that match yours, fleet stays together well. Defenders react accordingly, and I saw exactly zero bugs in the ones I took.
Problems
It would be nice if the lead ship would announce its jumps to the group, and maybe have all the NPC's message combat and events for more immersion. (E.G. "Hostile target sighted, engaging Orun collector xyz", "Heavy Moth Rakta Zeos taking damage from Orun Collector xyz") etc.
I found the money earned to be quite high, although once I had escorted to the same station a couple of times it curved down dramatically. More player activity will probably fix the over payment problems.
They can however be used as a free escort for you to haul your own cargo, and if nothing goes wrong you get cash for joining the ride. I took one on a long haul bringing UC batts I had purchased in Intrinos back to Geira. Loaded a Moth, and just hung with the fleet on route like a stowaway. The escort guards guarded me in an Ion storm, and many of them died while I ran like a coward. In the end they paid me 1,950,000 for this because they did such a good job all the cargo ships made it.
Bottom line is that the risk vs reward proposition is skewed. All the risk is with the games AI. Players only have to risk a simple 20k or less for a ship, and the game risks a multi million dollar convoy and pays you fly with them under protection.
Suggestion
What could be done is set up pay based on investment in the mission, and have a way to pay into the mission when it starts, or only claim the small (1k/Combat License) escort fee for just tagging along. So you sponsor the mission with your own funds, (say up to 2% or 25K per trade license maximum) and make a profit based on that investment and selling price of the goods.
If you tag along you get the extra (1k/Combat License), but the real money comes from the risk you took in paying for the initial goods. How many long haul truckers get paid by what they are hauling?
Obviously if the goods don't get sold at the far end, you don't make any profit, so keeping the fleet alive is very important to the player personally, and not just as a 'oops lost that fleet, better get a new one'.
I wouldn't mess with the goods chosen yet, but there is no reason that eventually that couldn't be player determined as well.
<Sorry if this should have been in suggestions. It seemed the right place to put it ATM.>
They work great now. In ion storms all members have jump points that match yours, fleet stays together well. Defenders react accordingly, and I saw exactly zero bugs in the ones I took.
Problems
It would be nice if the lead ship would announce its jumps to the group, and maybe have all the NPC's message combat and events for more immersion. (E.G. "Hostile target sighted, engaging Orun collector xyz", "Heavy Moth Rakta Zeos taking damage from Orun Collector xyz") etc.
I found the money earned to be quite high, although once I had escorted to the same station a couple of times it curved down dramatically. More player activity will probably fix the over payment problems.
They can however be used as a free escort for you to haul your own cargo, and if nothing goes wrong you get cash for joining the ride. I took one on a long haul bringing UC batts I had purchased in Intrinos back to Geira. Loaded a Moth, and just hung with the fleet on route like a stowaway. The escort guards guarded me in an Ion storm, and many of them died while I ran like a coward. In the end they paid me 1,950,000 for this because they did such a good job all the cargo ships made it.
Bottom line is that the risk vs reward proposition is skewed. All the risk is with the games AI. Players only have to risk a simple 20k or less for a ship, and the game risks a multi million dollar convoy and pays you fly with them under protection.
Suggestion
What could be done is set up pay based on investment in the mission, and have a way to pay into the mission when it starts, or only claim the small (1k/Combat License) escort fee for just tagging along. So you sponsor the mission with your own funds, (say up to 2% or 25K per trade license maximum) and make a profit based on that investment and selling price of the goods.
If you tag along you get the extra (1k/Combat License), but the real money comes from the risk you took in paying for the initial goods. How many long haul truckers get paid by what they are hauling?
Obviously if the goods don't get sold at the far end, you don't make any profit, so keeping the fleet alive is very important to the player personally, and not just as a 'oops lost that fleet, better get a new one'.
I wouldn't mess with the goods chosen yet, but there is no reason that eventually that couldn't be player determined as well.
<Sorry if this should have been in suggestions. It seemed the right place to put it ATM.>
Bug: When the "convoy" you are escorting consists of a single ship (a Behemoth Heavy, I have yet to see a one-ship voy of anything else) you are never paid at the end of the mission. Payment is recieved for all other escort missions, but never when there is only one ship spawned for the mission.
Only problems i found was that after the voy reached its destination and docked in the station i got no chat confirmation the mission was complete, and i didnt get payed.
yep, I confirm Miharus observation on single ship convoys.
I also note that the mission does not end and has to be aborted .
Ecka
I also note that the mission does not end and has to be aborted .
Ecka