It seems a bit obvious, but what trader would accept a job without knowing what the pay is? Shouldn't the trade missions tell you what the base pay of a mission is?

Ok, I'll add that to the next revision.

Does it make sense to list skill reward and faction standing change as well? I'm kinda thinking it doesn't, though obviously, that's what people are really concerned about. :)

Also, how's the balance for the rewards for the different types of jobs? Is there one job type that just isn't worth it, or one that's much more lucrative than the others?

if we can see the numbers in our character info screen we should see a numerical value for the mission for increases and decreases. If you were only giving us bars of progression then I would say not showing us the numbers would be ok. I'm for seeing what we are getting before we take the missions.

I actually really like the new trade guild missions. Though I don't think I'll ever just take a strate trade mission, you could probably take those out all together. They seem a bit redundent.

I'd like to see more of the assasination missions. Maybe it's just me but I only saw it once last night and I could not find it again when I was ready to try it out. Is it only issued in your factions barrack's???

I agree with Waylon that there shouldn't be trade xp/standing on the mission info - even though it's what everyone is concerned about most. But for believability, cash seems like a basic element to a mission.

As far as xp, I think the prospecting missions don't give enough xp since it's so much harder to build up mining xp than anything else.

And I do really like the new trade missions. I don't really see any reason to keep the old ones (at least after the new trade missions have been fully vetted). It makes a lot more sense the new way. Plus you can tailor missions to your ship - ie bulk if you are in something large or datapad style ones if you are in a centurion, etc.

I wouldn't get rid of the regular cargo missions. They still have their uses. (It might be nice to alter the text of them, however, to make it more like persons or organizations want cargo moved rather than an impersonal "we." Maybe even have them offered by non-local groups.)

I vote No on seeing the skill and faction rewards. Money will do.

I feel like the 1-hop missions give a fairly hefty reward for the work involved.

I'd like to see missions that require longer distances, with correspondingly fat rewards.

I haven't tested whether this is possible, but it would be oh-so-wonderful if groups could take bulk transport missions (which could stand to be a little bulkier, in my opinion -- up into the 120 range).

The plan was to keep the old trade missions around until the new one was fully functional. They'll be gone with the next update.

I'll add the pay to the mission list, but not the skill/standing. And keep me updated about the rewards. I'll continue to tweak the mission until everything about it is fully awesome.

I liked it back when we could take one trade mission and do like three in a row without taking another one.

Is this possible with the new trade guild missions?

I just want to say that the new trade missions are far and away superior to the older cargo runs. This is an improvement to the game that I really like. I was in a Cent, taking some small cargo runs and noticed the bulk missions, so I swapped ships to do a few runs.

I wouldn't have had a use for my old wraith otherwise.

I also liked the return trip mission that was offered at one point.

I think the reward should be given, but not the standing boost or the time bonus amount (who knows they might change their minds on those).

I did about 150 of the old cargo runs. I've done about 5 of the new ones and think they are a vast and enormous improvement. I must say though that I really dislike the 1982-era interface. But for a real opinion we need Sacred Chao or Latin Queen Isabella to weigh in.

How about me ananzi. I've definitely got more hours trading than either of them. (if you count the alpha period)

Anyhow, here's my thoughts even if you dont want them. :)

First off, the interface definitely needs a rework, maybe a GUI box of some sort because the text listing can be somewhat hard to follow. thats eye-candy tho, and not cruicial.

Having tested the missions for a fair chunk of time today, I am both impressed and dissapointed. The missions are much more interesting, and I definitely like being able to choose what type of mission i am doing. Having them broken down into categories is very nice, and having 3-6 options for each category is very nice.

With that said, from what i can see so far the reputation gain on the new missions is high. in the old missions it was low, but the new ones are definitley high. I managed to go from +750ish to +914 in reputation in about 2 hours, and i was trying all the mission types out. If i had chosen the best reputation gain missions, it probably would have taken significantly less time.

The procurement/retrieve missions are just way too high in reputation gain. I picked up a gain of +39 (and i was above 800 at the time) for doing a single procure mission to a system 4 jumps away. I came back with just over half of my cargo hold filled on a Tunguska Maud.

On the retrieve and procurement missions, the ones labeled (bulk) dont appear to give any significantly larger gains than the ones that are not bulk, even when they are comparable in distance. I would expect that having to make several trips is worth more reward of all types than just making one.

In general it appears that the trade XP gained is tied in some way to your trade level as well, which is good.

The +500 tradeXP bonus for doing your first guild mission is nice, but might allow for potential mentor point exploits, (especially if coupled with a mineral task) to remedy this i suggest breaking the guild trade mission into two parts, a beginner and advanced version,

remove the procure, special delivery, and retrieve subsets from the begginner and give a 200Xp reward for completing your first beginner mission.
Then at level 3 have the advanced mission become availible with all the options we have now. Give a player an additional +300Xp reward for his/her first advanced trade mission.

Another thing that would be nice IMO is if each station had 1 guild trade mission that had the same tasks for everyone, As tasks were completed, they would be removed. Every so often (30 minutes, every hour?) each station would generate a new mission. This way players would be encouraged to move around more during the course of taking missions.

If possible there should be a group version of the guild trade mission, perhaps one with the only option being the bulk procurement missions.

more comments as i continue to work with the trade missions.

I love Spellcast's idea about mission lists being persistent between players, but I have to disagree on the faction standing gains - I felt that it was much too difficult to gain faction with the old missions (and much too easy to lose faction, especially if you got pirated).

One other thing - I like the interface. I like it a lot. I hope you guys keep the ui exactly how it is. I wish there was more text-level stuff in the game.

Also, anyone know what happened to all the NPCs? You can't tell me yoda is ^that^ efficient a pirate!

ok, comments round 2.

First directed at lonestar. The ability to gain 100 faction in under 30 minutes is too much of a swing the other way. (i just did it, 1 - 2 jump retrieve(30), 1 - 2 jump procure(17), 1 mineral list (59))

I dont propose that the standings go all the way down to the old missions, I do suggest that they get cut back. I think 100 points of rep should take about an hour. Either the missions need to be longer distance, or the reputation needs to be smaller.

-Mineral mission. much too much REP. I just picked up something like +60 reputation for bringing 41 crates of ferric ore to a station. (+573 to +633) it took me 5 minutes of work, I undocked, mined a roid right next to the station, and docked again.

Mineral missions don't appear to remain more than one time however, tho they come back at a later point.

-reward listing. I like the fact that it breaks down your reward for you in terms of cash reward, bonus, reimbursment, Xp, and reputation. A more concrete number for the reputation would help tho.

the new mission system is definitely an improvement and much more interesting to do. but one thing i've noticed: i do the special delivery a lot in between ctc runs. sometimes it disappears. is this supposed to happen? it seems to come back once i do a regular non-guild trade mission.

the listings in the guild mission operate on some form of logic that i dont fully understand yet. :P

Its not random, because certain things are always true such as the fact that if you take a mineral mission it will not be a choice again right after you complete it.

Also it seems to be stuck occasionally. IF you do retrieve or procure missions you can see that the list sometimes remains identical right down to the mission you took.

I think that the missions should reflect on which kind of station you'r on.
So that if you'r on a mining station there would be more and/or better(lucrative?) mining missions.
And a barracks station would offer the same, but for combat missions...

Also: the datapad(~small kvantity cargo missions) missions should have a more severe standing hit if you loose the cargo.
eg. a fighter with small capacity can defend itself better that a some cargohauler.

Excellent idea for more variety between different station types there, Gobbles, I really like that.

One thing i am annoyed with is the fact that i can only do ONE mission at a time.

i under stand the logic to it (sort off) but it would be nice to do two cargo missions or 3 (the most i have seen in a station).

it would be nice to take 20 of one cargo 25 of another 30 of another and 1 of another (assuming bigger cargo ships come out).

The special missions (datapad stuff) I think depend on your standing with the station's faction. I was working on Axia (nice blasters!) yesterday and did not get the special deliv. missions right away until I'd built up some standing at Axia.

On standing, I agree then with Spellcast to a point. I have not built up that much standing in that little time. However, running in my tpd maud (with new axia blasters :)), I was able to get +123 in just under and hour, but that was on a 9 system jump delivery and back (a second mission given for the drive home, about what I would have done with a retrieval mission).

Maybe we could lower standing gains for some of the richer missions by 15-20%. The short mission (in system jumps, 1-2 system jumps, etc.) standing is already pretty low (I only got like +2 or +3 on one of them) so that is fine. Maybe we could cap it at like +6/system traversed (ie so a nine system jump and back like I did would still be around the same, but no unbalanced gains like spellcast was talking about).

What do you think?

First off id like to say that im really enjoying the trade guild missions that you have put out waylon. Respect Knuckles. No more having to bind /group create /group leave to renew the missions! Now i can just select the mission that I want to do :)))) For anyone who has been struggling to get factions, this has been the best patch in a long while.

However ive noticed a few irregularities in the trade missions.(nothin major)

1. the bulk missions (which take signifigantly longer to complete than the regular procurement/retrive missions) do not give any more faction standing or reward in general than if i did a regular non-bulk mission with the same amount of jumps.

2. There is too big of a gap between the 0 jump missions and the 1-2 jump missions. They DO take longer, but the +6 for the 0 jump and the +30 for the 1-2 jump missions (this is the retrival/procurement missions) seems like a big difference.

3. The "long jump" missions or basically anything longer than 6 jumps gives the same amount of reward for the missions that take only 2-3 jumps.(cant remember correctly so correct me on this Spell)

4. This isnt really a bug, its more of a suggestion, but the one-way misssions should ALWAYS give you the option of taking a mission back to the station where you came from. It would make things a lot easier. (turns off bind to /explode)

5. Its really easy to get faction standing at the moment. I mean REALLY easy. And anyone who has done the old missions and are doin the new ones know what im sayin. Dont fix this one too soon though....i need to get my corvus faction up :P

Other than that the missions are great! When i get home this afternoon its the first thing im doin.

Now if you could only get those unique weapons out and put in
some raids.......

EDIT: Sorry spell i didnt see some of the stuff on your thursday 7:20pm post