Dream mission...

[_____________Trosida]

Really great ideas throughout the thread and everyone should see them!

[_____________Yureiko]

Can't of any ideas right now.

[Sean-Roach]

Two things.

You shouldn't need to check off the professions involved. The terminal could be programmed to read the professions of all the team members at start and tailor the mission based on that info.

Barring that, though. I'd like to see shouts of "We need a doc for a rescue mission", or "Any engineers want to go on a team mission? We've got a mission that's going to need one."

Of course, for deficient skills, you could have disposible gear. A pack of gear given out by the mission terminal that works like comparible QL items, but only need half as much skill to work, and ONLY work at all in the target zone. Perhaps even having charges that can't be refreshed.

"In this bag is a tube of nano-paste, layer 3x, a notum alloy tube, a pulse emmitter, a <mission datafield> poison antidote autoinjector, and nano-fingers for 3 buffs which are critical to the completion of this mission."

"Provided is a prototype crossbow. This thing works as well as any QL 125 crossbow you're likely to find, but uses pistol skill instead, and only needs a skill of 250 to use. Unfortunately, this weapon is unstable. We're confident that it will work in that location, but due to humidity, among other factors, we're also quite sure it won't work anywhere else."

[_____________Trosida]

How about if the mission could tell you some vague information:

You'll need an agent rated at least 180 and possibly higher.
The engineer needs to score at least 235 on a mech eng competency test.

and so...

I like the idea of mission specific items used to solve mission puzzles that'd be pretty cool!

[______________Orchid]

Ive been pushing profession sensitive quests for 3 weeks now, been in contact with ARKs and GMs, hope to infilitrate deeper though and whisper sweet nothings in Gaute's ear :P

[_____________Yureiko]

Originally posted by Trosida
How about if the mission could tell you some vague information:

You'll need an agent rated at least 180 and possibly higher.
The engineer needs to score at least 235 on a mech eng competency test.

and so...

I like the idea of mission specific items used to solve mission puzzles that'd be pretty cool!

That's interesting. I think that would be the best way to be able to prepare for the mission. That is, to know in advance what skills would be needed. (Or at least the key skills.)

How would one get one of these missions any way? I am betting it could simply utilize the same set up as now. Only setting it to bad/money would get you dangerous missions like rescue missions, or something like that. Or missions that require getting through security (which would developed from the current addition of lots of locked chests that things due to the Bad setting.)

Right now there aren't a lot of missions types. So adding more into the mix would certainly change what you have. Also, Sean Roach's thought that it could recognize the classes of the team members is interesting, but that might add more programming into this.

Also the sider bars decree what one will find in the missions, like a lot of locked chests and trapped things comes from "bad", I beleive.

So, adding the new mission types into the mix, and making some of the part s variables (like high security, broken times, etc) then one could still get the current mission types and also ahve a means of customizing missions.

[Nullifax]

Actually my concept of Bad and Good on the mkission slider would be more like this:

Bad Missions:
Assassination
Sabotage
Theft

Good Missions:
Rescue
Stop Outbreak/Bomb/etc.
Surveilance/Recon

Additions of locked chests and traps, etc. should be determined by other things on the sliders. Locked chests I think should appear more in Stealth missions. Alarms, etc. should appear in stealth missions. Missions that are "direct" would not have such devices and instead would require you to simply kill or otherwise disable any enemies in your way (calm). In Mystical missions, there should be puzzles that would be based on nano skills. For example there might be a force field which must be nuked to disable. Physical would mean that you need to use tradeskills instead of nano skills.

Also, it would be nice if the rewards for these types of missions would be tailored along the puzzles in them. For example, in stealth missions you would be more likely to find as loot things like cloaking devices, and weapons which require aimed shot or sneak attack, and items which add to or require conceal and perception. You might also be more likely to find agi/sense armor.

Direct missions you would find more weapons which require more direct attacks like fling, burst, brawl, or fast attack. You would be more likely to find str/stam and agi/str armor. You might also be more likely to find hp buffing items and items which buff attack skills.

Mystical missions you would find more nanoformulas on the whole. You would be more likely to find int/psy armor and psy/stam armor. You would be more likely to find items which buff nano skills as well.

Physical missions you would find a lot of items for tradeskills. By this I don't mean nano pylons but instead more like broken weapons or armor. You would also find items which boost tradeskills. You should also be more likely to find instruction discs (LIKE NULLITY SPHERE and GRID ARMOR). Since these sealed weapons and armor would be totally unavailable as normal mission rewards, they would be much more valuable (like sealed weapons of high quality are now). These weapons and armor should also be slightly superior to those currently available in stores or as mission rewards, or even the ones findable in chests that are already in one piece (afterall why fix broken armor when you can FIND whole working armor which is better).

[______________Racius]

YES!

[_____________Trosida]

What a great idea that the mission sliders could actually effect types of puzzles (along with profession selection) and loot to be found!

[________Puppetfinger]

This thread is full of good ideas, and therefore deserves my bumpage. :P

But I would also like to se Guild Missions and Faction Missions.

The Guild Missions would give rewards to everyone in the guild, once completed. The Faction Missions could both involve huge planetary events and small scale events and would be given to all members of a faction (Show up in the missions-window in those empty spaces). It could involve GMs and story-line characters and could give each guild a small section of the mission to complete. It would take massive action from the whole faction (huge amounts of the player-base would be involved) to complete them, but would in turn give players a feeling of truly contributing to the storyline and give them a sense of, ex. the Clans, be fighting for the same cause.

I know this might be very far-fetched, but it would be sooooo sweet.

[_____________Trosida]

That's not *that* far fetched. I mean these missions are *supposed* to be involved with this war (which is around here somewhere I know it is) on the planet. Such an idea makes a great goal for the evolution of the mission system.

Not that far out there, should be the ultimate point of all this. Special faction and guild type missions that require the coordinated efforts of a large group of people...

For example:

Group A has to get into position in clan territory.

Group B has to infiltrate a secret clan base and disable some satellite tracking, or computer system.

Way is opened for Group A to carry out its extraction, or assassination, or attack.

Group C (clan) finds out where B is and is permitted to attempt to engage them.

Group D learns of Group A and moves to intercept.

ALL CAN BE DONE WITH THE CURRENT MISSION SYSTEM! It's a meta team mission. What would have to be done is that these missions have to be arranged by an ARK or GM to gather the groups who want to participate. Beyond that you can have the dream mission aspect for group B and A, as well as inter-group conflict and faction conflict.

Perhaps if group B succeeds and group A wins some section of the map flips to Omni alignment.

Now *that's* high level content!

[____________JLefrere]

Genius.

[Sean-Roach]

That'd be good, but. each mission area that was eligable would have to be made the "capitol" of that region of the map.

Missions should only be done on the areas that border another of opposing, not necessarily opposite, faction. Ones that would be bordered on three? sides by the opposition, (assuming square sections, probably 4 for hexagons), or rather about 270 degrees, (75%), more or less, should be reserved for the highest levels, Those that would only be bordered on two sides, or about 180 degrees, (50%) by the opposition, if successful, should be offered to the upper-mid level teams. Those that only fill a gap between two other friendly-held territories, should be offered to probably mid-level players. Thus the boarder moves back and forth, with the occasional "fingers" into enemy territory.

A grid layout would be good, a hexagonical overlay would be better, freeform would be harder to calculate, but not impossible. (Total border length/border length bordered by areas held by that particular adversary. Total is a constant for each area, the shared border for each bordering area is as well.) Grid or hex would be easier.

For the highest of the high, possibly whole towns could be taken. I'd limit this to one of the following two situations. Either the town itself fills a gap, (and is still offered to a very high level group), or the town is taken by several teams, who all manage to get missions in the same town, (the mission areas in the town sharing the region, the town, also, when the computer decides to throw this curveball, the mission booths should be on the lookout for 20 teams, 10 from each side, to participate) and all managing to complete their individual missions. I'd say if 10 top invading groups, or rather every invading team, completes satisfactorily, then it doesn't matter where on the map the town is, it falls, and the terrain around it can then be taken by the same level groups to "finger" out into enemy territory. If 50% of the groups succeed, then the town needs to be at least, oh, say an hours run by a newbie without a car or buffs, from the border. 75%, half an hours run. 25% of the teams successful, a 90 minute run. Of course, for the next week, real-time, missions to reclaim that town should have a massive priority for any teams of sufficient level, that ask for one. And of course, as the town, at least at first, would be cut off, you'd only need 1 in 10 successes to reclaim the town and start pacifying reconquered territories around it.

You might leave three "hold-out" towns. Towns that won't fall for any amount of incursion short of total apathy on the part of the defenders. These should probably be OT-1, Tir, and Newland. The starting areas as listed in the original book. (Total apathy would supposedly mean that the town is the last controlled territory for that side, and on a given day no one logs in from the controlling side, or at least no one gains any reasonable, net, experience for that day.)

Another possible extra. Spoils of war. Give the original mission holders the opportunity to loot the apartments of the should-be defenders for their own use.

Of course, if an area falls, the suppression gas should drop dramatically for at least a week, regardless of whether or not the area is reconquered or not.




Sorry, I got the percentages switched earlier. Cleared up a couple other points too.

[Nullifax]

hmmmm, what would the difference between "order" and "chaos" be? Currently, it for the most part means the difference between human and monster mobs.

Maybe it would have similar effects as "good" and "evil" would. Order would be missions which bring us on a path closer to peace between the two sides. Chaos would be furthering the cause of war on that particular side. For example:

Bad
Assassination
Chaos: minor leader of a peace movement for the opposing side
Order: a ranking officer who is planning an attack against you
Sabotage
Chaos: the shield generators which block radiation storms in an enemy city
Order: the launch system of an enemy warhead
Theft
Chaos: key technology which would improve living conditions for enemy citizens
Order: a new permakill device the enemy was going to use

Good Missions:
Rescue:
Chaos: the leader of an anarchist movement awaiting execution by the enemy
Order: a peace diplomat being held hostage
Stop Outbreak/Bomb/etc.
Chaos: that the enemy had set up to wipe out mutants which had been attacking them
Order: from harming a friendly city
Surveilance/Recon:
Chaos: Town defences and return data so an invasion force can begin plans
Order: of an enemy army on the march

[___________Heartbane]

Well, here's part one of a big ol' mission idea data dump.

FINAL ROOMS/FLOORS

These could work in either solo missions or team missions, and would replace the existing "boss room".

MISSION TYPE - Humanitarian (Protect Food Supply)

REQUIRES - Good damage capacity and/or snares/roots/mezzes and/or damage/init debuffs and/or electrical engineering/chemistry skill.

A cache of emergency food supplies for the disadvantaged was broken into some time ago - ordinarily, this would not be a worry to us, as the entrance to the cache is coded to a certain frequency of key. However, not long ago a pack of Leets tunneled into the cache in their incessant quest for food and 'm4d ph4t l3wts', whatever those are. In response to this, the cache activated an emergency force field but it will only be in operation for another X hours. Your assignment is to make your way to the cache and use the Teleport Beacon on it - this will begin its transference through the Grid to another secure area. However, the process necessitates deactivating the force field. You must stop the Leets before they contaminate the cache!

The final room in this case is a long corridor, the food at one end and a shimmering barrier at the other. When the Teleport Beacon is used on the cache (which shows up as a mob), the cache begins "casting" the warp nano, which has a cast time in the range of ten minutes. Then the fun starts.

Multiple "Leet Horde" mobs begin to spawn at the barrier and aggro on the cache. Their weapon has a rather small damage range but hits very, very fast, and their aggro can't be shifted from the cache for any significant period of time. If they deal too much damage to the cache, it "dies" and the mission fails. The cache, as a mob, has a molecular structure prohibiting the running of damage shields, HoTs, and various heals, and it's not technically friendly so first-aid kits won't help it either. Killing the Hordes is an option, but their HP is rather high and they decay quickly, letting another Horde spawn at the far end of the corridor. A damage/init debuff landed on a Horde may drop its damage to the cache down to ineffective gnawing or slow it to the point where it can be killed without doing too much damage to the cache. They can be chain-rooted, snared and shot, or mezzed and left alone - AoE is better, obviously. What _isn't_ better are AoE nukes, which may damage the cache further.

Also possible are systems located in some rooms lower in the maze, which can mildly electrify the cache floor (elec eng) or spread a thick poison vapor over it (chemistry) - they won't affect players because of their insulated boots and greater height, but can do significant damage over time to Leet Hordes.

Just to make the decision a little more challenging, Leet Hordes drop large amounts of monster parts, gems, and jewelry items on death (because you're offing 20+ leets at once). So... play it safe by keeping them mezzed or try and kill them off for the loot but endanger the cache?

[shopmule]

And back to the unfortunate reality:

Looking for Team Channel: Team of 5 looking for one more (doc preferred).
/Tell #1: Fixer at your service
Response: Sorry we're looking for a doc.

Looking for Team Channel: Team of 5 looking for a healer.
10 minutes later...
/Tell #2: Fixer at your service
Response: Sorry we're looking for classes that can heal.

Looking for Team Channel: Team of 5 looking for more.
10 minutes later:
/Tell #3: Fixer at your service
Response: What level are you? ahh nevermind... you're breathing... meet at Tir Grid.

[_____________Trosida]

especially in light of the recent directions FC is heading... and of course good ole Pipboy leaving. Darn shame some great ideas banging around in that head.

[Nullifax]

I'll still hang around the forums to ***** and moan, but I didn't sign up to play DAoC in space.

What Funcom is doing to this game is like what they did to the book Starship Troopers when they made it into a movie.

The only thing this game has in common with the game they claimed they were making originally is the name.

To think, I thought mission with skillchecks etc. like this would be possible from Funcom, given it's a skill based game. However, Funcom is now turning it into level-based so I guess we can take all these ideas and toss them out the window.

Nevertheless, I will attempt to continue to contribute whenever possible to this particular topic specifically. If one day by some freak miracle, the entire design team at Funcom is fired and replaced with people who actually know what they're doing, and listen to the playerbase, then maybe some of these mission will become reality. If that day comes, I guess I'll return to check it out.

[_____________Trosida]

You know what they really need. Some anti-ego spray to hit the developers with and *then* go higher an actual game designer or two from the RPG world (there are many incredible ones out there, say... Steve Jackson) to look this mess over.

After the designer finishes laughing he can say: "First Dev to say no to me is fired. Now then here is what we do..."

'twould be a glorious day for mmorpgs when the devs are no longer allowed to design the game and instead game designers make the game and the developers programm it (and yes I mean that tongue in cheek... sorta).

Glad to hear you'll be hanging around. I plan to keep plugging away at this thread if just to see how many good ideas are out there in the community, and there are a bunch!

[Nullifax]

Here is somethig I just came up with and posted in another thread:

Gridhacking an item or object.

Gridhacking would be a special ability for Fixer's only. Gridhacking allows the Fixer to hack certain items that are not normally hackable. First, when the Fixer would jack into his gridhacking tool. This would send him to gridspace inside the item's nanobot encoding. While in that gridspace, the Fixer will encounter nanobot ICE programs which will attempt to kill him. The Fixer combats ICE by using his B&E as an attack rating and Comp Lit as defense rating. Special attacks might come available to the Fixer depending on his B&E, or possibly they might be deck upgrades he can use. Maybe even implement a series of "grid only" nanoprograms used especially to combat ICE. Items that can be gridhacked should have several different ways they can be modified but only one route should be possible for each item. That means maybe when you gridhack armor, you could lower the reqs OR raise the AC OR add an extra modifier, but not all. That's just an example. There could be examples of items that might be easier to implement a gridhack. For example maybe you can gridhack a symbiograft to increase the QL OR generate an instruction disc from it. Maybe gridhacking a nanocrystal could add charges to it. Or gridhacking another item to increase it's QL.


In any case, the first use for gridhacking that I can see would be use in these "Dream Missions." Groups with Fixers might at some point be required to gridhack a computer terminal to open a door or shut off a forcefield, etc.

The best way to implement gridhacking is to implement it for something that does not actually give the Fixer more power, just a new thing they can do; that way hopefully fewer people would complain that "Fixers are (_)|33|2!!!111 N3|2F THEM!!!!!111"