ok, to be honest:
i really like the new mission system.
u dont need to fly from one system to another just to kill one bot anymore.
u can stay at one spot with ur groupmembers and have action non-stop.
thx for the change ! :P

Hehe, I have a feeling this change was long overdue. Try it out for a bit, and if there's anything else you can think to improve on it, let me know.

Also, I only had a little time to test it for balance... how's the skill reward? Too high? Too low? And is it worth going after the bonus bots?

well, with this new system u level pretty fast.
i got from 5/5/5/2 to 7/7/7/2 in one day.
the days before i hardly got any points cause it always takes u around 30min to fly to APU 17 and back to "normal" bots.
that was really frustrating....

i havent gone for the bonus mobs yet, didnt know that u get extra bonus for them, sounded rather like that this bot is on the kill list too instead of giving an _-EXTRA-_ bonus.

and i kinda miss good beam upgrades like a GOOD (!) Tachyon blaster MKIII or MKIV that has less reload time, higher dmg and less energy use than the lower lvl one.

ok, played with the new combat missions a bit last night, (didnt post then because i was exhausted)

Leveling is MUCH too fast at higher levels now(I went from 8/9/9/8 to 9/10/10/8 inside of 3 hours).
Unless you have a lot of new equipment you havent told anyone about above level 10, probably the leveling needs to be slowed down. Alternatively rebalance the equipment farther up, Its actually a bit too clumped together down there at the first 6 levels anyhow.

The fact that we no longer have to travel is significant enough to cut the XP for the missions at least in half. I was getting 1350/1250/1250 for killing 5 bots. since i was killing dentek assaults and valent a3 assults i was also averaging +1200 additional XP between Light and heavy.

I could complete some of the groups of 5 in very little time. Usually about 5 to 10 minutes, occasionally i'd mess up and have to go repair which made some of the groups take longer.

You might also need to vary the bonus bots some. Once i had flown about 6 lists, i determined that the bonus bot for me was always going to be an axia Rsomething Assault or a Valent A-3 assult. It was fairly easy to find a sector that had both of those bots in it, which made it very easy to get the bonus, especially as the valent a3's also appeared on my list of bots to kill.

Hmm, lets see what else, oh maybe have the group mission changed just a bit as well, I liked how the Group mission used to work where you needed to spread out a little bit to make it the most efficient.

Maybe change the group mission so that you need to kill X bots from this list, AND X bots from this list AND X bots from this list. That way there is at least some incentive to spread out a bit in the group. To compensate I would leave the group reward just a little bit higher.

Isn't the entire point of making a group, specificly, is to work together as a, well, group? Sending pilots off to several kill lists just places us right back where we started- you have to jump all over the galaxy to get the mission done. Grouping should bring the grouped members together- not into hull contact, but not spread into multiple sectors either.

My idea for a group, not specificly to VO but to MMORPGs in general, is to get a chance to see your companions bust up some bad guys that would likely cause severe injury/death if taken on solo. Of course, there should also be ample time for chatting, banter, showing off that useless yet flashy skill, and the most important activity-

DANCING! Booyeah! (And if you say a ship can't dance, ask an Orz. They *dance* quite well with ships.)

But seriously, groups should inspire some sort of social activity, not break up players to go after multiple required targets.

If the need to create group missions with multiple bot types arises, how about making sure the target bots at least inhabit the same sector- prehaps even go so far as to suggest a target sector that has all the required bots in the mission text? If that's a bit too revealing on sector bot data in the neutral systems, then suggest larger but still manageable areas, such as naming an asteroid field where you can find a sector with the required bots. That way, some hunting is still required but not an overly large quantity, and the unwary can still be chewed up when they accidently find the Vogon Constructors while looking for the target Veritech Fighters and Zentraedi Pods or whatnot.

working together as a group is fine, but why group up at all if the mission is identical to the single player version. its faster and less hassle to just take the single player mission. Ok there is something to be said for watching each others backs, but having 4 players in the same sector would make the group mission too easy as it stands right now.

I LIKE Getting together a group of players to hunt across several sectors in order to complete a more rewarding mission in the same amount of time as a single player mission.

I just had an idea for group missions.

Spellcast makes a good point about the pointlessness of making them bring players together to kill the same bots they could kill if they were on the solo mission. So...

Instead of sending a group out on a slightly beefed "bot list" mission, make mission groups have to go hunt rouge bot convoys or hive queens. The group mission would read something like

"Hive Queen spotted moving toward [Station near where the group leader took the mission]. Intercept in [empty sector X] and destroy it before it can attack."

or

"Rouge robot ships have been spotted swarming in [empty sector x]. Previous experience indicates they may attack [station near where the group leader took the mission]. Intercept them before the swarm reaches critical mass!" And the sector would be full of swarming bots, with maybe a mid-range bot that's bigger than the average joe but not as tough as a hive queen.

This way group missions require you to actually fly in a group, but aren't just longer solo missions. Would add some interesting flair to the game too. Maybe a few months after release when you find some time ( heh.. yeah ), you could actually script it so the bots would attack the station if not killed in a half hour, and the station defenders would fight along side you.

I might stick this in a new thread...

well i dont like to spread out to all sectors cause that is NO "GROUP hunting".
a problem already mentioned is that those single player missions r easier.
u just have to kill 4 bots and with group missions it raises pretty much up to 15 bots with 3 groupmembers.
and u dont get more XP if u r grouped, so why should u do groupmissions ?

the backing each other up is not possible cause u have to fly to station like every 5min after u r out of missles or too dmged.

I'd like to suggest that when you finish a list, the experience is given first, then the list is printed... I have found the list to be shunted up out of sight by the list of experience gained.