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Escort navigation route

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Jun 04, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
Pey, I don't want to see pictures of your "girlfriend."
Jun 04, 2009 peytros link
here she is lecter



one of many
Jun 04, 2009 kihjin link
Armonia: great idea. vo might as well just hand you credits for doing nothing. there is barely any resistance to trade as it is right now.

No one is saying that these missions should yield 500,000 credits for doing nothing. Perhaps VO's risk model needs to be modified to appropriately calculate the compensation based on preceived risk and actual profit from the cargo sold.

Armonia: if you want to escort a voy as a "fighter pilot" then be a fighter pilot.

I actually agree with this statement. If player commanded convoys (re: NPC hiring) is Coming Soon (TM) which would allow navigational routing, then the fighter escort missions don't really need this functionality.

Armonia: i have seen threads on this before, it makes me angry.

Why are you angry? You might be displeased. You could be annoyed. Angry though? There's no need to be angry about discussion. This is how we move toward improvement.

Armonia: i would like to hear 1 good reason why you should be able to get to point a to point b without seeing any enemies.

As the good Doctor points out, this is ideally what a convoy would do. I wouldn't want to drive through the less-than-secure part of town with a van load of gold. The principle is to avoid trouble if at all possible. Where is the benefit in passing through a risky area when alternative, safer, routes exist? There is none. I would like to hear one good reason on why I should have to pass through the risky area. The obvious exception is if I am making a delivery TO that risky area. Otherwise, I'd just as well go around.

Armonia: so, you honestly think you should be able to plot the course of your convoy and dodge any kind of threat?

Proper planning and coordination should almost always yield this result. If you purposefully drive through the bad part of space, what are you going to expect, a friendly welcoming party?

Armonia: you should be able to make a nice profit for doing nothing? wow. i wish life worked that way.

The profit you earn should be based on the preceived risk, the time you spent, and as a percentage of profit from the cargo. What do you think about mining? That's basically profit for nothing... except the time you spend, and the perceived risk of the ores you are acquiring.
Jun 04, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
Ugh, that's pretty 'rode hard & put away wet' looking pey. Looks like she might have a meth problem, too.

You be sure to double bag now, ya hear?
Jun 04, 2009 peytros link
oye all the time lecter. but hey the photoshoot asked for a model that looked like she had a meth problem so we did a little method acting har har
Jun 04, 2009 kihjin link
Thanks to whoever decided to degenerate this thread into a picture swapping contest, and to all those who participated.
Jun 04, 2009 toshiro link
peytros, you don't have to apologize to me. For one thing, the picture I used (and will not use anymore, to avoid inflation) contained artwork by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, so you should apologize to him for mutilating his work.

For another, you shouldn't take pictures in your own room. Or at least put your stuff away, to make it more neutral (and less embarrassing for yourself). And wear a shirt next time.
Jun 04, 2009 ShankTank link
Clear!

(Stabilizes thread)

Anyways, here are my points:
1) You are not in charge of the escort, it's not your cargo, you are a simple fighter escort grunt being hired on short notice. The imaginary cigar chomping boss in the station is not going to listen to your suggestion.
2) Convoy escorting is a combat mission, all these points relating it to trade and mining missions are void.
3) You could do something silly like jump the convoy to hive sectors and a) get compensated for kills, b) have a bunch of npc escorts aid you fighting hive in this random sector, and c) it wouldn't make any sense at all! It's silly! What is the imaginary boss in point #1 going to say?
4) As of now, wormholes are not a reliable source of danger; especially in nation space! Hive don't attack wormholes and someone complained about npc rats lagging so the devs had to take them out. Ion storms are pretty much the only reason the convoys need escorts right now.

Of course, I can see how this would be perfectly fine once players get to hire npcs to carry their loot. In this case, it's your loss of credits and loot if you do all the silly things said above to risk their insignificant npc lives (evil laugh).
Jun 04, 2009 kihjin link
ShankTank: 2) Convoy escorting is a combat mission, all these points relating it to trade and mining missions are void.

"Fighter" escorts tend to award significantly more Trade XP than they do Combat XP. Also, the loot awarded is rather significant for the time spent.

ShankTank: 3) You could do something silly like jump the convoy to hive sectors and a) get compensated for kills, b) have a bunch of npc escorts aid you fighting hive in this random sector, and c) it wouldn't make any sense at all! It's silly! What is the imaginary boss in point #1 going to say?

What would a non-imaginary boss say?

I provided you with a nagivation route that you opted to ignore. As a result, we lost 2 of our moth loads. I'm taking this out of your compensation. Here's 1000 credits. If this happens again don't bother asking for more work.
Jun 04, 2009 ShankTank link
What I meant was that the idea that this "boss" would let you plot this course in the first place is silly.

Also keep in mind that you are being hired for a combat role and that it's license, not experience. License as opposed to experience in the way that you contribute to the flow of the economy (as a government would view as contributing to trade) rather than becoming better in skill at pulling around cargo (experience). Credits are awarded based on time spent because the idea is that the more time you spend escorting the convoy, the more trouble you're going to run into.

It's a combat mission, which is very obvious. You take a combat ship and you combat the combatants that intend to combat your convoy. If ion storms are made easily avoidable then there are no combatants left to combat with combat ships, you might as well take a moth XC with 200 sunflares to guard the convoy.
Jun 05, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
If ion storms are made easily avoidable then there are no combatants left to combat with combat ships, you might as well take a moth XC with 200 sunflares to guard the convoy.

(1) There's not necessarily any ion storms to avoid.

(2) You'll make some pirates very happy in that XC.

What I meant was that the idea that this "boss" would let you plot this course in the first place is silly.

No, it's entirely likely. Part of hiring a combat escort through dangerous terrain is paying for their knowledge of the safest route. For example, if I know that there's a blockade along the shortest route between convoy origin and convoy destination, the boss would not only let but encourage me to take them the long way around.

This is a terrible idea, but not for any of the brutally idiotic reasons you keep arguing. Just quit while you're not quite down to Simple Jack level.

And can someone please moderate that foul looking thing Pey put up there? I just threw up a bit in my mouth.
Jun 05, 2009 ShankTank link
Face -----> keyboard.

There aren't any pirates in nation space anymore, especially not in wormhole sectors. If players had the ability to plot around asteroid sectors then these escorts would be incredibly dull. And it's common knowledge that as of now there are too many ion storms and not enough pirates, so I'm pretty sure you've got your points in reverse.

It's not your loot, it's the corporation's. Custom navigation for convoys only makes sense if it is your loot and your convoy.

And please don't stoop down discussions with insults like that, 'tis the scent that attracts pey.
Jun 05, 2009 kihjin link
ShankTank: If players had the ability to plot around asteroid sectors then these escorts would be incredibly dull.

Whether or not escort missions are incredibly dull is irrelevant, and also subjective. I personally find mining and mineral prospecting to be incredibly dull. Also, I don't HAVE to mine in a sector fill with TyCorps but if I choose to, I may or may not be rewarded for my efforts.

Other players may assert that ANYTHING other than PvP is "dull." Certainly the "dull-ness factor" is relevant in the big picture, but not for this discussion.

Escorts don't HAVE to be especially difficult or non-trivial.
However for such escorts that ARE trivial, the compensation awarded and the XP given should be reasonable. In nation space, preceived risk is rather low depending on the length of the travel. Obviously travel within the same system has almost zero preceived risk. Such an escort shouldn't yield an inflated wage.
Grey space changes this dynamic as there are no protections and rogue entities are much more likely.

My argument is: If I can earn 500k from a 10 minute escort, why bother doing anything else? The only reason would be to do something different, or to access game functionality.