Forums » Suggestions
Mission Intro Detail
I suggest that missions that can be taken only once - like the new Valent party one - have this feature CLEARLY marked in the mission intro dialog.
I discovered with great pleasure that I cannot take the mission again. I took it "to see what it was about", then logged off because I was in a hurry, and tried since then to have it offered again, till Obsidian was so nice to inform me that I cannot take it anymore.
Since such missions are TOTALLY different from ALL other ones (which you can take/abort any number of times), I'd love for some signs of this uniqueness. AFAICT, there was none.
Thanks.
I discovered with great pleasure that I cannot take the mission again. I took it "to see what it was about", then logged off because I was in a hurry, and tried since then to have it offered again, till Obsidian was so nice to inform me that I cannot take it anymore.
Since such missions are TOTALLY different from ALL other ones (which you can take/abort any number of times), I'd love for some signs of this uniqueness. AFAICT, there was none.
Thanks.
Haha.
I'd say this is probably up to the mission designer, as they specify the Intro text. In some cases, perhaps the player isn't supposed to know the consequences of failing, aborting or completing the mission beforehand. People have been asking for actions to have consequences, and for missions and storylines with some personality. In order for that to happen, then they have to feel less like a game, and more like an actual interaction between characters in a story.
Rather than allow the mission to be retaken (thus breaking the immersion), missions and story arcs should anticipate these situations, and branch off in other ways to keep the player involved. Maybe your character falls out of favor with the character or group that offered the mission, and have to do some other work to get back into their good graces. The "Mission Aborted" case should be handled by the designer just as well as the mission intro and objectives themselves.
For the Devs:
If a mission is aborted because the character logged out, the "mission aborted" event should be handled when the character logs in again, allowing any such story progression to properly take place.
Rather than allow the mission to be retaken (thus breaking the immersion), missions and story arcs should anticipate these situations, and branch off in other ways to keep the player involved. Maybe your character falls out of favor with the character or group that offered the mission, and have to do some other work to get back into their good graces. The "Mission Aborted" case should be handled by the designer just as well as the mission intro and objectives themselves.
For the Devs:
If a mission is aborted because the character logged out, the "mission aborted" event should be handled when the character logs in again, allowing any such story progression to properly take place.
This was the first released PCC mission, and this problem has been noted and discussed on the PCC forums. It was the reason for Incarnates comments in the news post.
"In other news, I have some more PCC missions to push into production, once I take a look at them. The last ones were very well received, kudos to Phaserlight (I need to also help him coordinate on fixing the few issues that did crop up, we're still working on giving the PCC all the features they need. Being able to view and copy missions they submitted which were accepted into production is one of them)."
Phaserlight can explain it more if he likes, but there was a reason it was written as a take once only mission.
"In other news, I have some more PCC missions to push into production, once I take a look at them. The last ones were very well received, kudos to Phaserlight (I need to also help him coordinate on fixing the few issues that did crop up, we're still working on giving the PCC all the features they need. Being able to view and copy missions they submitted which were accepted into production is one of them)."
Phaserlight can explain it more if he likes, but there was a reason it was written as a take once only mission.
I'm ok with take-once missions. Like the XangXi rush for ore mission. They are interesting and challenging. But since they behave in a completely different way than anything else in game (that can be repeated at will), I'm just suggesting to be sure that the player knows what he/she's doing, since they won't behave like he/she expects to.
Some hidden details and twists are ok, even desirable. You don't know beforehand what awaits you when you take the X1 pilot mission tree.
Some serious consequence for your actions is ok, even desirable. Plant an l-mine in a non-nation corp station dock and you will learn to hate those "consequences for your actions" for the rest of your gaming experience.
But hiding such details and discussions in a private forum, with an obscure reference in a news post (obscure for everybody but the subscribers of said forum), about a feature that works totally different from the rest of the game, strikes me as a very bad design decision.
That's why I offered my suggestion. Not to whine: it's a PCC mission, the only one being added after how many submitted? How bad can be to fail/abort/ignore it? If it's important to take it, then don't wonder that player retention is so low. If it's not important to take it, then why bother fixing it?
Some hidden details and twists are ok, even desirable. You don't know beforehand what awaits you when you take the X1 pilot mission tree.
Some serious consequence for your actions is ok, even desirable. Plant an l-mine in a non-nation corp station dock and you will learn to hate those "consequences for your actions" for the rest of your gaming experience.
But hiding such details and discussions in a private forum, with an obscure reference in a news post (obscure for everybody but the subscribers of said forum), about a feature that works totally different from the rest of the game, strikes me as a very bad design decision.
That's why I offered my suggestion. Not to whine: it's a PCC mission, the only one being added after how many submitted? How bad can be to fail/abort/ignore it? If it's important to take it, then don't wonder that player retention is so low. If it's not important to take it, then why bother fixing it?
Yeah, not clearly warning the player about being unable to re-take the first mission was an oversight, sorry about that. There are a couple later missions which are also critical not to fail/abort, let me know if it's unclear which ones.
I'm working on another tree (in Itani space) that ends with a side mission which re-triggers the first mission in the first tree (if it was failed), I can't guarantee when I'll be done with it or if it will get approved though so please bear with. The first tree took about four months to complete from conception to design to playtesting to submission to production.
I am getting faster at using the editor and the PCC are a great group of people to collaborate with, however I also have to deal with real life.
That being said, I love doing this and I'm not gonna stop anytime soon. The story hasn't even really kicked off yet at the end of the first arc. I'll try to see if I can get some additional text added to the mission intro in the meantime.
Just out of curiosity, who has finished the whole arc? It ends after the gun running mission where you divert the shipment rather than bringing it to Vanitus stronghold.
I'm working on another tree (in Itani space) that ends with a side mission which re-triggers the first mission in the first tree (if it was failed), I can't guarantee when I'll be done with it or if it will get approved though so please bear with. The first tree took about four months to complete from conception to design to playtesting to submission to production.
I am getting faster at using the editor and the PCC are a great group of people to collaborate with, however I also have to deal with real life.
That being said, I love doing this and I'm not gonna stop anytime soon. The story hasn't even really kicked off yet at the end of the first arc. I'll try to see if I can get some additional text added to the mission intro in the meantime.
Just out of curiosity, who has finished the whole arc? It ends after the gun running mission where you divert the shipment rather than bringing it to Vanitus stronghold.
Thanks for replies, Miharu and Phaserlight.