Hello, didn't see that anyone has posted this before, but it seems to be a very easy solution to a big problem.

The "bouncing m" is seen in the bottom left corner of the screen to notify a player if their mission has been updated. But because the bouncing m blends in so well with the light transparent blue color of the HUD and since it's so small and discreet, it can be very difficult to notice the tiny little icon in the heat of battle. This can often lead to very frustrated newbies, of course, and I have had a few friends who experienced this first hand when they tried the game (where they took a mission and hadn't realized that they got an update for ages, hence not knowing what to do).

This problem could be solved of course by making make a MASSIVE HOT PINK M with little frilly flowers or something, but that's just stupid... So why not give it something like the "Cpt. Kirk opening his cell phone" notification sound? Perhaps if a player is already in the PDA but not looking at the mission log, it can play the sound and highlight the button path to the mission log in red (much like what is done when another player enters the station bar). The simplest solution to a problem that often turns away any new players or makes the game look "unfinished" to critics.

If you are in the PDA already, what happens is that it automatically takes you to it if an update occurs. I agree though, the bouncing M is to unnoticable.

Damn right!

I've mentioned this before in another thread. Freespace had a cool system where you always had a list of objectives on the hud.

Agreed, a sound for incoming mission communiques is needed. Also, the small green text in the upper-left of the HUD which often accompanies these communiques should be made to last longer or even remain on screen until manually acknowledged. A brief line such as "Check your Mission Log." can go a long way to stave off confusion.

Yeah, the bouncing mission icon is fine for 800x600, but for some of the larger widescreen resolutions it may be very small and way out of the player's field of view.

Further feedback and ideas are welcome.

I agree, a sound or something like proximity notification in the "Nearby Ships" list.

Oh yeah, I forgot about how it brings you to the mission log if you're in the PDA so scratch that part.

Another way to do it would be to make the bouncing animation loop sort of like how the Apple icons do on the dock if they are updated as opposed to just bouncing once. It would also get rid of the need of doing the wait 5 seconds and do remaining actions option every time the mission log updates as soon as the player undocks from the station, for those who are familiar with the mission editor.

a simple tone will do. something we dont hear normally. i dont know about the proximity warning sound, it might get a little confusing.

Use Morse code: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M_morse_code.ogg

a simple tone will do. something we dont hear normally. i dont know about the proximity warning sound, it might get a little confusing.

Well I meant like the proximity sound concept, not the actual proximity sound :)

poop

*bump*

I use a 24" wide screen. The thing is a little small when it comes up but I've just about trained myself to look for it when I'm out doing a mission. (Pretty much a n00b to the game)Some sort of sound would be good.

Daare mentioned the green text that "flashes" up when you complete a mission. Is that info not availible someplace else? I have looked and looked to see what I got for a completed mission to no avail. Or am I not looking in the right place? If it's not, then making it a bit longer or part of the mission log or permanent until acknowleged would be cool since n00bs like me are still trying to figure out what missions give what...

It's under the advancement log, same area where you find the mission logs tab.

some missions, especially ones incarnate has made the m bounces every other minute, a sound would be exceptionally annoying

Yeah, but nothing sucks more than say, testing a spy mission and having all the npcs in the sector attack you without a noticed warning or word because you never noticed the mission update. I think that partly the reason why the updates are used so often right now is so that the mission taker keeps their eye one the log.

Yeah. Its true that if every bot in the sector is going to attack you at once, it should be made more clear. It is in most cases, but some slip of the PCC mission editor can change that. Plus, most people read more slowly on a computer screen than on paper (flicker and such) and the game isn't paused (obviously) so we need a way for easier notification.

Well, someone would probably add a wait command and give time for the player to read it before the bots attack, sometimes they also have the bots hail you. But with so much going on with the game, it can be hard to notice all that. A sound notification would wake the player up and have them look and update themselves on the story line. Right now, most missions feel like you're just doing what you would do anyways rather than following a story line as looking in trying to keep focused on where the bouncing M might come up isn't as easy as just looking in the mission log for the short objectives now and then of your own accord.