Missions & Complexes

To Hell with your pathetic numbers tweaking called "rebalance" and visual and prototyping mumbo-jumbo.
Revamp missions now !
Ghet the real job done already, slow-poking for a year is out of question.


Also solo lowsec mission-run is bs at its core. Who wants to run it properly(without covert ships) when its camped 24\7 by some ret.ard.ed low-life.

Good to hear that missions are being looked at.

Most of the time I enjoy them as they are.

Most people do find them a grind, a few small changes could go a long way.

a. Order of Spawns, so less predictability
b. Reward Changes
c. More missions
d. Standings effecting missions
e. Read above, some excellent idea's!!
f. Multi selection, so no need to keep redocking, or a mission where if you dock or leave you fail the mission, plan the use of resources etc
g. Variation on Spawns, like Dread Pirate

PART 1 / 2

Taken into consideration previous i will try to gather my current thoughts and proposals on the missions revamp topic,
trying to address EVE content designers, in the spirit of "catering as much of the more player base as possible" as CCP Affinity said.
Generally, it does not have to be a revelation, small continuous enhancements will do the job and not everything at once.
I know this could be a long post, please bare with me. I will try to express it in points.

1. As i have said there exist roughly 2 sorts of mission players. Those that do the missions for funding other activities and
those who do them for the PvE. In order to keep both happy, i would suggest keep current missions (and i am speaking
for the level 4 ones which is the vast majority being taken and done) as they are now to keep the first happy. They
need badly the predictability. I am not saying change nothing to them, just change them as little as possible. Now for the
second sort of players...

2. Focus on introducing new level 4 missions. The other/lower level missions are just a stepping path. I am not saying it is a bad thing to add more Level 1 - 3 or a waste of time, but level 4 is where (the vast majority of) missioners final arrive and care.

3. Addition of much more new missions. I know that in MMOs content is always consumed faster than it can be introduced but players can help alleviate that in a major degree. If you can't allocate the resources for making those, provide us the ways/tools to aid you on that. Make a specification and a tool, not something fancy, for example a simple webpage tailored for EVE where we can submit missions for EVE (you can use ISDs as a first screen). Make the specs strict i mean we have to specify which/how many rats, structures, distances, triggers, gates, lore text, ships allowed, awards, change in standings etc. Even missions as series.

4. Design of these new missions could utilize existing mission stuff and introduce new possibilities. For example, i have in my hangar lots of Zor's, Macleri's etc DNA that is asking to be used. Or Drone AI chips. How to use them ? Lots of possibilities.

i. This DNA could be utilized in a new mission to unlock a gate for a non obligatory mission room with rats. It does not have to be a bonus room in the final stage, it can be in the middle stage an alternative path. The DNA is consumed to activate the gate. Inside the room beyond the rats, there can be a very small random number of containers (or not, random based) that can be hacked as in exploration missions. Nothing fancy here, or expensive just spicy, i guess you get the point.

ii.This DNA could be used to be put in a structure for example that can be called Zor's Den. When it is placed inside and of course it is consumed, a can is ejected which small random stuff of Ancient Salvage Materials, Skillbook, minerals, PI materials, BPCs, Rig materials, trash if any level.. Not much stuff to be abused, and of course not all of the above (i described a loot table) just something spicy. Actually you unlock/break into his/her house is what is being done and loot his/her stuff, that criminal/pirate has accumulated from his/her activity.

iii. In the non-obligatory mission room i described in i. make a small probability of having a faction spawn rat. Not much probability and not a huge bounty rat, in order not to be abused, but as an incentive for the players to spend the time/effort to enter the room and do it.

iv. The DNAs could be handing to an appropriate Concord Agent to increase your security standing if you have negative one.

Use unused stuff in one mission to provide/unlock non obligatory possibilities in another missions. Via bonus/alternative rooms etc. That's the general idea!

5. Use different random number/size of rats in the new missions. I know 10 BS or 15 cruisers or 9 cruisers+10 frigs+7destroyers may not seem much but it's random and players will like it. Also, it's another story to have just to tank 8-10 BS and another to have frigs too that warp scramble you and you cannot warp out and come again.

6. Create new epic arc(s) for some NPC Corporation(s)

i. For example, one new epic arc could be The Quafe Epic arc. I will not go into the details of describing the series of missions and alternative paths in this arc. What i can think is in the last mission, if you do it the reward could be a BPC of a new Introduced ship: The Quafe Ferry. This ship is a general purpose Industrial that is better from the Iteron Mark V and needs all 4 racial skills at Level I to be used. Or a production implant, an industry one that combines the bonuses of the middle or the highest (balance needed) industry implants of 2 slots.

ii. For example, one new epic arc could be The Impetus epic arc. I will not detail again missions/paths. The reward from the last mission could be an implant, a Science one that combines the bonuses of the middle or the highest (balance needed) science implants of 2 slots. Or a special scanning module, little less than deadspace/officer level.

iii. For example, one new epic arc could be The Amarr Civil Service arc. Again i will give no details for it. The final reward could be a Warfare/Mining Foreman implant that is better/combination of existing ones.

....

7. There will be a lot of structures/buildings in the new missions. (You can introduce this ability in existent old ones missions, or generally in EVE, i am just referring the new in the spirit of not changing things to the first sort of missioners i said in the beginning). They can be utilized, play a role too. How ?

By introducing a new expensive specialized ORE ship: The Scavenger or The Scrapper and its corresponding skills and a new ability: to be able scrap those structures.

PART 2 / 2


I will not go into details on the layout of the ship, i will describe its functionality and the whole concept. It could fit one ore more expensive scavenging modules in its High slots. These modules could only be fit to that kind of ship. It will have a specialized cargo, Scavenging materials Cargo. This ship could enter any mission room and could start its operation.

The scavenging module will start its cycle, which will be (numbers are just indicative, give general concept, badly need balance) 5-15 minutes let's say, (scavenging skills can change this and success hits) after locking a structure. After finishing its cycle, it will place the small quantity of random materials on its main cargo. what are these materials are ? Possibly, some fuel, fuel parts, minerals, small quantities of PI materials of various level, Trade/Industrial Goods of any kind, trash etc or just trash or nothing. Different things provide different materials. For example, if you scavenge/scrap that (unfinished) parked Ship you may get minerals and/or rig parts and/or Ship Item, if you scavenge that dome you may get other materials, if you scavenge a science lab you may get some datacore etc. There's a lot of role here. For example if you scavenge an unfinished carrier you might get one capital part. And you can forward this idea of scavenging to not only mission rooms, ie in anomalies, complexes etc. And you can scale getting that stuff with security levels. Also, in case even only one structure in a mission site has been scavenged, the mission rooms or anomaly after the leaving of the last ship from the site or during the DT will despawn to avoid farming. In case of the mission this will end the mission with fail, if it has not been delivered before DT or after leaving site. So do the mission, do the scavenging if you want or bonus rooms and hand in. Most time you may get nothing from those, only rubbish things, but the chance could increase with appropriate skill.

8. Scale the mission ISK rewards according to the standing of the player with the agent (i am not sure if this already is not being done). Having standing 3, 4 or 10 does matter. Also take into consideration the security of the player, ie if you have negative security, don't expect to get same part ISK/LP rewards as a 10 standing player.

9. Differentiate the LP store of the NPC Organizations. For example, no production implants in Science oriented Companies and vice versa. In Navy Organizations, no science/production implants etc.

10. New Mining missions

i. Introduce new mining missions with real asteroids as in belts, not the fake ones that exist now. These missions will give much lower LP rewards and much lower ISK rewards. The ore they contain they usually will be the same level or a little lower of that on belts in the system they sent you in and not in huge quantities of course, most quantities will be like the fake ore ones. They can be ore missions or ice missions or gas missions. Their offer won't be a week to avoid farming, much less such as 1 - 2 days. The asteroids will be variable in the place they are set and the distances and in the total amount that should be mined which be much less from a small anomaly site. And yes, you can keep the ore/gas/ice : the mission fulfillment will be to mine it all. There are always be a gate to enter such missions and also they can contain structures too for Scavengers as i proposed before. No Orca in these rooms will be permitted. Rats as usual.

ii. The new mining missions will have a small change to escalate. The escalation will be a new mining site, that could be relatively near (in the same region) and it has better ore than the system security it resides in. It will be always in the size of a small mining anomaly, but with better ore than an anomaly in that system could exist, it will despawn in max 2-3 days if spawn and it will be like an old gravimetric site, ie a signature. It will spawn only if the player decides to utilize the escalation by going into the system and warping in to the site. After completing it, there would be an even minor chance to escalate again into another mining site with even better ore from the previous but with same terms of the previous. But up to there. No more escalations. Of course rats in the sites as usual. And the escalation need not to be of the same kind, ie the mining site could escalate to a gas site or an ice site, and vice versa. Randomness on that.

12. Introduce chance based minor explorer stuff into the new missions, into bonus rooms. Not huge things in order not to compete with exploration as is now, just a bonus stage room with one-two containers that you need hacking modules if you want to utilize them and rats ofc. That bonus room might have or might not have those containers (random). And a very minor chance of a random faction spawn of usually low bounty in the bonus rooms only. Just spicy things and incentives for the players to do them. In order to enter the bonus rooms some tag/chip should be used and consumed.

13. Generally make the new missions have limited time period offer, no more than 1 to 2 days, might possibly max 3 (balance needed), to avoid farming.

14. ‌Introduce again or utilize what we had in the past : The mighty Ship Logs. Make these available again as a not often mission drop. The Logs when utilized (ie consumed) would usually lead to a site, a signature in our mission log, possibly combat but could be mining site one. What site would be Log based and/or random. It could be lead to a DED site, but better it could lead to a specifically designed for that sort of Ship Logs anomaly site with random spawns.

15. Make the Cosmos items better than T2. Don't make it as Officer ones, just better. This will make them again interesting in doing the missions.




Regards

I dunno about that. I don't do level 5's but have had WH presence since 2010. Unfortunately I just don't have time for long excursions like that and would leave the game if they made l4's similar to level 5's.

Although if they would have kept bastion mode @ 10x mass I would have just got a solo WH, would be such a time saver.

That's what D-scan is for. low sec doesn't allow bubbles so their is nothing to keep you from warping off and docking if you see probes. Even the great scanners can't keep you from seeing that last flash of the scan probe on d-scan and I warp off. When the mission sends me somewhere where there is no station, I just fit a cloak on the rattlesnake though losing a drone link augmenter is a pain. I have safe spots in every system for a 5 jump radius around my low sec lvl 5 agent system.

as I've said, I have yet to lose a ship after 3 years of running level 5s. It simply takes concentration. With the MJD ccp introduced, its even easier than before.



Low sec can be a treasure trove main because no one really goes there. Even in the busty spots the traffic is low and EVE online has soooo many tools for avoiding unwanted pvp.

I've often asked myself this question, What makes a game fun. What parts of EVE are most fun.

Increase in Power. Most people here remember when they first got out of their newb ship and into a real frigate, or out of frigates and into cruisers. This already applies to missions, and is done well.

Challenge. If something is hard to do, but not overwhelming, it gives a sense of accomplishment. I remember how hard missions were before I had BS to 4 and t2 turrets. However, an increase in spawns won't help missions. I think CCP is already doing a good job here.

Problem Solving. You know some games have puzzles to solve in them, and the game that comes to mind is Zelda. Move a block or flood a room to solve a problem. EVE missions have a little of this, in that some missions require ECCM, sensor boosters to overcome sensor dampeners, or to know the triggers. This is the area CCP should focus on. It won't help to add missions that become easier if you bring a certain module, because eve-survival will document that and the fun will be gone, or people will figure it out themselves, dock up and change their ships.

What is needed is to have problems that can be solve by what your ships can do with more generic modules, or with a variety of modules. For example, suppose you have two groups that are shooting at you, and one has longer range weapons, and is farther out, and the combined DPS is large. Your choices could be to:
1. Sensor damp the farther group
2. Neut the closer group so their guns don't work, or their reps don't work
3. ECM wither group
4. Use short range weapons to quickly dispatch the close group
5. MWD toward the farther group and out of range of the close group and shoot the long range group with short range weapons
6. fly farther away so the close group can't hit, and use your long range weapons
7. Orbit the farther group with a HAC so their can't track you
8. Have a massive tank and massive damage and slug it out.
9. Engage Bastion (love this) and shot them from afar.

Some of these techniques work in missions. #8 seems to work all to well. Mainly because the quantity of rats is too large, and some EWAR doesn't work. Let me explain further

1. Doesn't work. Rats seems to have a very long targeting range. Also, there are usually too many to make this work.
2. Rats have no cap. Neuting them can turn off their reps, but that is it. Again, there are usually too many to make this effective.
3. Use a tracking disruptor the turret group
3. There are generally too many rats to make ECM worthwhile.
4. Works fine, except sometimes if there are several BS's they'll spread out far, and if you have blasters, most of the time is used burning toward each BS and melting it with blasters.
5. Works as well as #4.
6. Works, but not implemented much.
7. Works, but not implemented much.
8. Generally, this is what people do for current missions
9. People will do this more when the expansion comes out.

Now, to make #1, #2 and #3 work better, and to alleviate #4, I suggest less rats in a spawn, and for the rat spawns to deal more damage, have bigger tanks. Combine the DPS and tank of a typical rat pack into 2-3 BS's, and increase the bounty accordingly. I'm assuming that #2 hasn't been implemented due to server load. Less rats should help that, and simplify their cap. I'd give them a standard amount of cap, have a fixed recharge (instead of variable like the player's) that isn't affected by what the rat is doing (ie firing, repping), and have lasers shut off at 15% cap or something, and hybrids turn off at 10% (since they use less cap).

I dock up and jump clone to high sec to do missions or incursions.

or I bring friends, refit my Snake with a cyno and set a trap.

Or I go do a low sec lvl 4

Or I log off the snake, and log in my alt on the same account and do some faction warfare, PI, or Red Vs Blue.

In other words, I find a way to keep playing EVE rather than search for an excuse as to why I can't.

What id like to see:

-Less npc spam and instead stronger opponents
it get old being like 1v200 and still raping (as well as strains older comps) and it makes the pleasure of a kill really meaningless when u just slaughtered thousands easily. it really breaks game immersion imo. make them stronger and not and f1 fest. hell even add bosses that are properly hard to kill that require planning to approach.

-Have new mission types such as
pirate bounty missions: kill x amount of npc (type as well) in x time) this could be as rare as faction spawn npc or comman as pirate frigates (be specific though) make sure some require lowsec travel and have decent reward on completion.

thats just one example, but get creative, add some depth and interesting elements to it, go for more fun less story as its not a good story telling medium. hell link it to dust https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=3089299#post3089299

-Remove the 4 factions from normal missions
this is not fleet warfare missions, why am i killing amarr as if they are somekind of pest problem? not to mention unsuspecting players being locked out of whole civilizations due to some simple missioning (reset out standings while u at it! =P)

-Make a difference between missions u are given depending on what corp gives them to you
random throwup spam of missions is less fun. make a mission more than a lucky dip. and make them good as a standalone not as a series of missions.

GIVE ME A REASON TO FEAR THE PIRATE FACTIONS!!!
they are pirates yet instead of being fearful and thinking oh this is going to be tough im like, oooh look a cash bag with boosters attached. dont make em uber omfg strong but if i see a serpentis vindi, make me feel like its a serpentis vindi. i shouldnt wanna cash in on it without any challenge. also drone storyline is so awesome and creeepy yet since they give meh drops i look at them as flying trash. they could be so much more. make em attack stations or ambush u in warp randomly thatd be neat encounters

and of course MAKE THEM MORE FUN=D

this opinion is generally only held by two types of folks:

1- those whose real life is so sad they need a virtual one to feel accomplished

2- game devs



games are meant to be entertaining! they are not meant to trick you into a false sense of accomplishment. I understand MMOs need time sinks or the cash flow stops, but devs shouldn't be making "the grind" the whole game. Its lazy, and gives devs a crutch. They say: "ok so we have XYZ fun content in game already. We can either make more inherently fun game-play, or we can get greedy and bank off the fun content we already have. just add time traps to keep players from that content, and boom we dont need to add more fun!"

TLDR: what good is fake currency when the game you earned it in isnt fun on a base level? If you wouldnt do a mission for free then they shouldnt be in the game.