13.4 : Static missions

[Downsizr]

(ignoring whinners)

Good job on that one too !

[Zerosignal]

Originally posted by CaptFallout
Well this is sort of good.

Now 3 of the 500 previously useless NPCs might say something useful. Yay, time to go backtrack into areas we explored in beta! (sarcasm)


My guess is it's only the Arul Saba bracelet.

If it is arul saba, i look forward to it

[_____________Borrace]

Cz...how are things?

I am very excited that Funcom is creating new content, and giving the players more options to chose from in deciding how to spend their time while visiting Rubi-Ka. However, I would like to know when Funcom the current missions that are in the game; specifically, team missions and the customized missions.

Team missions don't function as they're supposed to currently. Other posts by Funcom representatives have explained that the missions are supposed to give a token to every person on the mission. When will this problem be fixed?

Customized missions have never worked. It was my understanding that you could give people missions with time limits to find things, or return things, or assasinate someone, just like the mission booths? I think that any option that would allow one player to set specific parameters (like I assume the custom missions were supposed to do) would be a fantastic addition to the game.

New content is great...but I think it is important that Funcom doesn't get new content in at the expense of features that were packaged with the game (like team missions, and custom missions). In any case, could you please ask someone who knows if you don't when the mission system, in its entirety, will be fixed?

Thank you,

Borrace

[Cz]

Ok, I try to keep this forum talking about the current patch, not future ones, but team missions is a slightly special issue, so here goes:

(And if you want to discuss this, please copy the text to the "Game Mechanics" forum and take the discussion there. )

Team Missions are currently not implemented at all. The missions used as team missions right now are single player mission, and work exactly like other single player missions (I think that's how it has been since launch, only that we have turned it on and off by mistake a few times).

We are working on a complete team mission system with special features to make team missions interesting, challenging, and worth a reward system with e.g. tokens for everybody. It should generally be a bit more different from single player missions than just slightly tougher MOBs in bigger complexes.

I am not sure how far this has come in development yet, but can assure you that it is a high priority. I'll look for a designer during the weekend, and try get word on this to you.

About player made mission: I have no idea on when this will be back in working order, but please understand that this is also a feature that we don't want to release half-done.

Ok, pack to patch 13.4 for now.

Cz

[______________Scorus]

Ok, pack to patch 13.4 for now.

But first

Can you give any kind of info on story missions such as you just did on team missions and player-created missions? Those are the ones that we mission-doers that want to participate in the storyline are so eagerly awaiting.

Scorus

[_____________Borrace]

"i don't know" is a completely valid answer.

thanks for responding.

[_____________JuJutsu]

Originally posted by Scorus
With missions, you are doing something unique. You are the ONLY person who the clans are sending to point X to solve problem Y. That's much easier to role-play.
Scorus

I don't think so Do you have ANY idea how many times I've killed Pasquale Semen in order to thwart his nefarious plans with permanent killing equipment?

[___________Shadowolf]

Ah, may be I'm missing the point here, but what's the difference between our current missions and "static" missions? Like our current ones are dynamic because the text and the item changes, whereas in the new one it will always be the same?

[_____________Naosuko]

I can tell you about Arul Saba bracelets. They're a tradeskill item. You can get part of the way there at the moment, but you need a Balanced Bracelet Blueprint to get any further, and need to talk to Arul Saba himself to get one "in return for certain help." Sounds like, if you can find him and do the mission he gives you, he'll give you the parts needed.

[______________Hodaka]

They will be scripted events. Thus Funcom has more control and has the ability to wrap some interesting story items into them.

Here's a dumb example: I go talk to someone. He tells me his daughter is lost in the woods. I go to the woods kill a certain mob. His daughter then comes back out of the mob's den and I bring her back to her father. In return, he gives me a great rifle.

Another: Someone falls sick in Tir. It requires a special healing kit. To obtain this kit, I have to go out and kill 3 different mobs and loot them. I then take these items to another NPC to combine. I then bring the completed kit back to the sick person and heal him, gaining my reward.

These are dumb and simple ideas, but as you can see, properly done, they have a lot of potential. Missions have no real story behind them other than the description. They're randomly generated and all pretty much the same.

The problem Funcom will have to overcome with static missions is camping. If they make it so everyone has to kill a certain mob, people will camp it over and over again. Everyone should be able to perform their missions without worrying about someone else, and everyone should be able to complete the mission and gain the reward if they're up to the challenge. If it becomes one big campfest, then it will get old fast..

Thus, I suggested that maybe they have a bunch of missions that rotate, so no two people get the same mission from the same NPC at the same time. Timer's could also keep a player from continually going back to the same NPC to get a new mission. They could set it so that a person could not get a new mission for 2 weeks or something from the same NPC, thus forcing them to find other NPCs who give missions.. All of the missions would be scripted and hopefully good, but they'd just rotate through random NPCs..

Originally posted by Shadowolf
Ah, may be I'm missing the point here, but what's the difference between our current missions and "static" missions? Like our current ones are dynamic because the text and the item changes, whereas in the new one it will always be the same?

[_________thirtyseven]

jws wrote: "These are dumb and simple ideas, but as you can see, properly done, they have a lot of potential. Missions have no real story behind them other than the description. They're randomly generated and all pretty much the same. "

They ARE all the same, and they're getting extremely boring. The only things to do in this game right now are
a. walk around and look at the scenery (that got old at level 2).
b. interact with other people online (which has no accomplishment value as far as the story goes).
c. do the same missions we've been doing since level 1 with harder enemies (woohoo).

Without those story based missions, there is no point in playing the game. Sure, we can gain levels, but what kind of satisfaction are we supposed to get from that?

What are we doing here?