Missions & Complexes

There needs to be more selection in what missions you get from an agent. The system of of, "And here's a random mission for you," is horrible. You get two chances to get what you want (and then go have some fun), or, after that, you have to either waste time moving ships/modules around trying to find a spot that will give you something interesting or (worse) you do something you don't want to do for a while so that you can get another chance to use the same vendor agent(s): this is just horrible for casual players.

These agents need to offer a better selection of missions. This means more choices in what type of missions you take, what faction they are against, how much time the mission will take, and whether the the mission is going to be "relaxing" (since some people seem to prefer predictable content) or an "adrenaline rush" (since others don't).

Another option the agents need to give is "scalability". This means, if I want to take a fleet of 5 into a mission, the mission should be harder and pay more. Likewise for a fleet of 10 or 20... or perhaps even 50+?...

You should consider new types of missions that involve more than one party: i.e. competitive and cooperative missions. As it stands completing a combat mission (generally) consists of 3 possible things: destroy a particular enemy ship, scoop a particular loot, and enter a particular room. Typically, the only way to complete any of these objectives is to destroy scores of enemy ships.... *snore*. Change things up a bit: have objectives that cannot be accessed by *pew pew* alone: have missions that require one guy to hack a database while another distracts the enemy (hacking might first need to be made more interesting for this); have a mission that divides the fleet by requiring a logistics ship to transfer energy to a "generator" structure that allows half the party safe passage to the kill switch while both groups are under attack; have missions where two different parties are hired for the same job (though given different entry points into the mission) and are competing against each other to complete objectives (basically this would be an type of 'arena': especially good for low sec missions).

Incursions dynamically scale their content?
Incursions improve the faction of my choice?
Incursions are in ready and available in a place where my things are set up and ready to go?
Incursions offer solo content whose challenges and duration can be scaled as desired?
Incursions offer all these options at all scales of fleet?

I have to say, in an incursion, the last thing I feel is that I'm working in a coordinated effort with the other fleets in the constellation against Nation.

Nation's defeat is more like a by-product of random gunfire and looting.

Ah, sorry if I over did it. I'm used to having to board a rhetorical abaddon to fight off forum trolls.

Once you go through all that mess remember EVE is a one of a kind game.
Any other game can not really be used as a comparison.

There is always level 3 missions if level 4 require too much conscious thought.
Would hate for you (keep pve easy) guys to have to do more than land, target, shoot, collect mission item, and leave.

I'm sorry but I disagree with all the talk about making regular missions into Fleet Ops. That sounds a lot like Incursions and besides that, wasn't level 5 missions supposed to encourage Fleet Ops?

As for a specific Agent offering different mission types, that's how it used to be back before the 'Agents Made Easy' expansion. Course everyone constantly cried about getting random courier missions from Security Division, or random encounter missions from Distribution Division, etc.

Seems players are now crying that all they ever get is the same type of mission offers and want variety. Quick fix, go to another Agent Division.

Since there's only 3 different Agent Divisions, what CCP needs to do is have each of those Agent Divisions available in each system / station, basically covering all the agent levels. Then when a player get's tired of running missions with their usual Agent Division, they can quickly do a couple of missions with a different Agent and Division, just to add a little variety / change of pace. If pressed for time, they can access a lower level agent, etc.

If there actually needs to be a change, just have the Agents offer a choice to the player, ie:

Security Division - option to choose between Anti-Pirate or Anti-Empire.
Distribution Division - option to choose between Short Haul or Long Haul.
Mining Division - option to choose between Small or Large Mine Fields.

Now about adding a 4th Agent Division, that actually sounds like a good idea.

If I recall correctly, the old Astrosurveying Division Agents had players go into areas to 'Hack Cans' which required the use of Codebreaker and or Analyzer. Most of those missions involved NPC combat as well. Now if these missions also required scanning to find the mission site, I think that would really break up the monotony. Of course these Agents would also offer the player a choice between Anti-Pirate or Anti-Empire.

As I said before, currently the NPC EWAR is vastly overpowered and unbalanced. That is the main issue with the current NPC mission mechanic, everything else is secondary.

DMC

So you want to incorporate some excitement into your missions, ie: not be predictable and boring?

Then try running high level missions in a smaller ship class. You want MORE risk? Fleet up with a couple of other players, head to low security and run level 5 missions.

I use to run level 3 encounter missions in a Tech 1 Frigate (Rifter) and it would take most of the bonus time to complete them. Naturally the modules were Faction / Deadspace but the adrenalin rush was definitely present, not to mention it required more tactics than just fly in, target and shoot. I also know players who run level 4 encounter missions in Assault Frigates.

As for 'The privilege of wealth', why not? Just exactly what is the problem with spending ISK on upgrading the ship fit making mission completion easier? What else are you gonna spend ISK on anyway? That's like saying I'm not camping just because I use an RV Motor-home to sleep in instead of a tent.

Bottom line: CCP has placed the content in-game for us to use as we see fit. It's easy to make missions more challenging as well as being fun, just need to change the way you approach them. ie: instead of constantly using the same ship and tactics, try something different.


DMC

So by shipping down, you've substantially increased your risk, yet your total reward is the same (though given out over a much longer period). Shouldn't that kind of daredevilry get you a higher reward? It's still bad game design not to acknowledge the challenge.


That dosen't really solve the problem of predictable PVE content it just throws a layer of possible PVP on top of it. I'll admit, it should spice things up for a while (as long as there's PVP) but once that's gone it's back to the grind. Shouldn't they both be fun?


Nothing at all is wrong with this. However, the increased DPS and tank should enable you to fight a more challenging battle for a higher reward. Instead, the increased DPS nets a higher reward per unit time, while the predictable content reduces the risk to near-zero. This is bass ackwards.


It's easy to make a broken computer screen fun... instead of playing video games on it, draw pictures and tape them to it. That's different alright.

P.S. tl;dr
I get what you're saying, but the system is still broken.

One more thing have to be taken into consideration.

The game is now 10 years old. Some vets have vast skill advantages over noobs and middle player.
That of course makes it necessary to widen the range of available play stiles.

While you are a noob, you have issues with enough gank or tank. But I have started a test, and can tell you i did hit the 200 million mark with a noob player within 3 weeks.

As a middle player youre still experiencing game content new and therefore need to invest in incursion ships, pvp, wh. These investments cause you to need to spend money. Therefore its normal you want to increase the reward coming out of the game by find a setup which maximizes that. Without that behaviour each company in the real world would go bankrupt. With the current inflation of the game its even more needed to make fast money, cause the inflation is countering the investments you have made.
Money making has changed to the worse here. Missions dont pay as much anymore. You cant do cross industry cause recycling stuff from missions dont bring you all minerals needed anymore. The drone nerf made me change to gun and missile ships. Or in fleets i use sentries.

Then there are the vets who are 4-5 years old or even older. They have seen alot of the game, bought most of the stuff they would ever need, probably went into a business which made them like 100 billion isk. They are looking for new challenges. I think this is called the "endgame" in roleplay. As for the money. There is a saying "You need money to make money". One player can buy stuff for 50 billion isk, let it in his hangar for 5 months and use a price difference to make 5 billion isk passive money. Risk? You probably have to wait 10 month to make 1 billion isk passive money which then still is 100 million passive isk per month.

Of course each play style can vary. Like middle player have concentrated on one thing and is bored more early. Or a middle class player who still needs a good income and is not blessed by a huge null sec alliance which made him having 100 billion isk.

Most of the game content was made when beeing 3 years old was like having 200 million SP today.

But i think we all can agree that those stages are separate from each other and couldnt be mixed without destroying the game to others. One high roller certainly can downgrade its ships to have a better kick. A middle class player but couldnt do it the other way around.
Therefore I think we need another agent type like the "Intelligence-Agent" I have suggested. See it as a mix of lvl 5 and incursion for solo and multiplayer to high sec. The missions should recognize how big the fleet is thats entering and adjusting the difficulty. It can be randomized, have sleeper Ai and gives more risk for better rewards. But as CCP needs an isk sink and players who manage this kind of missions are most likely vets there will be a 1 in 16 chance of loosing your ship during a mission.


@Traidir
Could you please go into detail why its bothering you so much the "near-zero" risk (which is not true imo, cause with "optimized" ships you get most likely ganked)? You are almost sounding like you dont want people to make money and optimize their income. One could think you have made this described 100 billion isk and want to keep it that way that others cant work their way up to you.

THIS.

When I'm in the mood to work on some standings on my Gallente alt, it drives me crazy to set up in a station with an agent, then have him/her offer me two missions in a row that will hurt my Amarr/Caldari standings (which I don't want to get worse). I don't want the ability to cherry pick down to the mission level, but an option to request a particular faction, or exclude a faction, would be great.

Alternatively, just removing the standing hit for declining more than one mission within 4 hours, but only if it is a Amarr/Caldari/Minmatar/Gallente standing harming mission, would work, too.

Another alternative - you can decline 1 mission every 4 hours, or you take a standing hit. Change that so that you can decline more than 1 every four hours - but instead of a standing hit, you just get a smaller standing BOOST (and maybe lower payout) for the next mission you do within the 4 hours.

this has probably been proposed already but how about a regional mission market? it would work similarly to the item market except all orders come from NPC agents and can be accepted remotely. you can read the description before accepting. once you have accepted, the mission disappears from the market. player buy orders, varying payouts, mission auctions etc. could be further developments of the basic idea.