Planned Missions Based on NPC Type

[Wilavid7]

What would really improve single player as well as multiplayer would be missions (quests) that you receive from NPC's. The NPC'c could spawn on default stations, much like how shopkeepers spawn at Advanced Shops. Different types of NPC's could spawn at different stations, such as Scientists and Merchants at Trading Guild Stations and miners/salvagers at abandoned stations.
The missions could work similarly to the contract system in Kerbal Space Program. You could accept missions or put them into a waiting list to accept later on by talking to the NPC. The missions could use a system like the tutorial station already ingame. You are given a waypoint and objective to complete in exchange for a reward. There could even be a series of objectives for more advanced misions. The more difficult/risky the mission, the greater the reward. There could be a indicator of the mission difficulty so that there are starter missions for beginners and more dangerous endgame missions.
The different NPC's could give different Mission types and different rewards. These are a few example I came up with.

Merchants could offer missions to escort a cargo freighter through a pirate swarm, destroy a fleet of pirates blockading a trade station, or offer lists of blocks that they would pay for above shop prices. They could pay in credits or access to their own shipyards.

Miners/Salvagers could offer missions to exterminate an alien infestation on the abandoned station, complete a specific blueprint and return it, survive waves of pirates and fight a boss battle at the end with a pirate capital ship, or transport a damaged ship docked inside your own through a wave of pirates. They could pay in materials like blocks or ores/shards.

Scientists could offer exploration missions like activate a scanner in a certain space phenomenon (Black hole, whatever else the devs have planned), bring back an alien specimen with certain characteristics to the NPC, or colonize a planet/asteroid. They could pay with special items that can only be obtained through them like advanced astronaut tools or weapons, completed ship blueprints, etc. They would give a reason to explore the galaxy and use jumpdrives and warp gates rather than stay in your own system.

Missions would really improve single player by giving you a reason to make ships other than to just blow up a few pirates. It would also improve multi player, especially if there were harder missions that could be accepted by multiple faction members. They would improve the community content section especially if custom mission could be made ingame, saved, and uploaded.

 

[kiraen]

Much of this is already planned, but there are a few things that need to be done first.

 

[Ixalite]

I suspect something like this is coming with the FAUNA update

 

[jayman38]

I definitely like the idea of different "fixers" offering different mission types.

...
Merchants could offer missions to escort a cargo freighter through a pirate swarm, destroy a fleet of pirates blockading a trade station, or offer lists of blocks that they would pay for above shop prices. They could pay in credits or access to their own shipyards.....

Please, no escort missions. Escort missions are not fun. A fun replacement would be to spawn a merchant freighter convoy at certain coordinates nearby and then spawn enemies to attack it, with conditions that so much of the convoy (80% of the ships must still have 80% of their blueprint's block count, for example) must survive so long (10 minutes should be good enough) before friendly ships jump in to simulate an armed escort and give you a success rating on the mission.

Edit: To keep from cluttering up the universe with friendly cargo convoys, the mission control routine should "jump" the convoys and escort ships out of the area, into oblivion shortly after the mission is declared successful, to simulate them going on their way.

I've learned from a million escort missions in games throughout modern history that escort missions are suitable for robots, not players.

 

[Wilavid7]

A fun replacement would be to spawn a merchant freighter convoy at certain coordinates nearby and then spawn enemies to attack it, with conditions that so much of the convoy (80% of the ships must still have 80% of their blueprint's block count, for example) must survive so long (10 minutes should be good enough) before friendly ships jump in to simulate an armed escort and give you a success rating on the mission.

Yeah, that's a much better mission than an escort. Most of these examples just I came up with on the fly, so they could definitely use improvement, but they get the idea across.

 

[SneakyFish]

Or there could be a merchant company other than the Trading Guild and you would be able to take on privateering contracts from them and the TG, seizing shipments, sabotage, general piracy stuff. Capitalism.

 

[Bench]

Missions or Quests (we still haven't decided on the name) that are issued from NPCs are planned for the game. However while we're confirming missions and quests are planned to be issued from NPCs, and that different NPCs will issue different missions, we're not saying that the missions you receive will be determined by a specific "type" of NPC at this stage. We can't share the specifics of how missions will work just yet, but there will obviously be rewards for completing missions or quests that will motivate players to complete them.

 

[Valck]

Missions or Quests (we still haven't decided on the name) that are issued from NPCs are planned for the game. However while we're confirming missions and quests are planned to be issued from NPCs, and that different NPCs will issue different missions, we're not saying that the missions you receive will be determined by a specific "type" of NPC at this stage. We can't share the specifics of how missions will work just yet, but there will obviously be rewards for completing missions or quests that will motivate players to complete them.

Why not have both?
In my dictionary, "missions" are one-off, relatively limited tasks with an adequate reward, and "quests" something like a connected, story-like series of missions with "instant gratification" at every step, and some more substantial (material or intangible) reward after completion.

 

[jayman38]

Missions or Quests (we still haven't decided on the name) that are issued from NPCs are planned for the game. However while we're confirming missions and quests are planned to be issued from NPCs, and that different NPCs will issue different missions, we're not saying that the missions you receive will be determined by a specific "type" of NPC at this stage. We can't share the specifics of how missions will work just yet, but there will obviously be rewards for completing missions or quests that will motivate players to complete them.

"Quests" is a classic RPG trope, so that term generally brings to mind elves, dwarves, retrieving 10 grue furs to receive the amulet of gumball purchases (a nickel on a string), seeking the holy grail, and facing the peril at castle Anthrax. I would recommend using the term "Mission", if only because it's more "space-y". Even "Project" would be a better StarMade term than "Quest".

Why not have both?
In my dictionary, "missions" are one-off, relatively limited tasks with an adequate reward, and "quests" something like a connected, story-like series of missions with "instant gratification" at every step, and some more substantial (material or intangible) reward after completion.

Missions could have sub-missions, so I'd still rather have "missions" than "quests". Unless maybe the mission is to deliver a group of 10 space elves to a space station and vanquish the station's resident laser spider, using nothing more than a laser sword and a spork. (Only to find out that the princess is in another castle!)

 

[Valck]

Even "Project" would be a better StarMade term than "Quest".

I was debating whether I should edit my post to include that aspect, but decided against it. So yes, fully agree.

 

[FatCobra]

I think mission is more appropriate for Starmade. The Enterprise went on a 5 year mission open ended mission with some pretty broad goals, and also did many one off missions.

 

[Zaphord]

Go with missions, it fits the sci-first theme better. Series of missions could be called campaigns maybe? I can see multiple missions in taking part of a big npc war called a campaign.

 

[kiraen]

Huh, i didn't post because I thought I was being nit-picky about not wanting 'quests'.
I do kinda like the idea of picking up a 'job' tho. Or a 'commission'.

 

[Parameter]

A "commision" quest would be fun.

Merchant says "I've accidentally oversold salvage modules, and If I don't get another 1000 in two hours I'm hosed. The next freight delivery isn't until sometime next station-day. Do me a favor, would ya, and bring me some salvage modules to keep me outta hot water! I'll give you 50% over system norm if you deliver in time. ... What? No, I don't care how you get 'em - build 'em, buy 'em, "find" 'em attached to some other ship - just bring them to me before I miss my delivery!"

 

[kiraen]

A "commision" quest would be fun.
etc.

I would repeat a commission like this.
I could live with escort missions if the VIP followed me. That means he keeps up and lets me figure out the best path. Which is great if he doesn't have a ship, then I just stick him in the passenger compartment and forget about him until we land.

 

[Parameter]

I would repeat a commission like this.
I could live with escort missions if the VIP followed me. That means he keeps up and lets me figure out the best path. Which is great if he doesn't have a ship, then I just stick him in the passenger compartment and forget about him until we land.

I like the idea of taking on passengers as an "escort" mission. If you deliver them unharmed/ahead of schedule, here's a bonus. If they get wounded on-board your ship, you may be taking a penalty on your pay-off. If they're dead, well...

 

[StormWing0]

Well there are several types of escort missions that could be done in fun ways. In the case of escorting a fleet, the objectives that have to live to the destination would have to be large enough on the Structure, Armor, & Shields levels to live to their destination consistently though or the attacking ships would have to be only things of the escorted target's size or smaller outside of maybe a command ship or two.

Any Escort Quest or mission would need to spawn the things needing to be escorted nearby and so that they can be escorted without driving us insane. The main things people hate about escort missions are the things needing to be escorted are often so dumb they aren't remembering they have to actually live or the spawn badly enough to where they can't get to their destination from where they spawn.

Distance Based:
Short Range Escorts: These can be anything from NPC Ships to just passengers we need to pick up and drop off. Can be things like cargo transporting as well or maybe breaking prisoners out of pirate jails and getting them somewhere. In this case the destination isn't all that far away, usually no more than 3 standard jumps away from where it starts and can even be somewhere else within the same sector like another ship or a station, even a planet.

Long Range Escorts: These like the Short Range one can be getting just about anything from point A to B but in their case it can be wandering around the whole system you are in up to 3 default max range warpgates of distance.

Time Based:
Short Duration Escorts: Lasting no more than a few minutes at most and basically free credits if done right. At worst the max time will be around 10 to 20 minutes but most should be around 1 to 5 minutes.

Long Duration Escorts: These could be things like escorting Trading Guild ships from shop to shop where it could take between 20min to several hours to get done and normally can be picked up just by flying into the flight path if there's anyone there at the time to help and just as easily left as well. If a player holds out for the full duration they'll get the full reward otherwise the reward is for the time spent.


There's quite a few for these and the key is to not let the AI for these derp out at any cost since people will want you hung up as some kind of ornamentation if it fails to work right.

 

[jayman38]

...The main things people hate about escort missions are the things needing to be escorted are often so dumb they aren't remembering they have to actually live or the spawn badly enough to where they can't get to their destination from where they spawn....

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. Yes, Bad AI or a poorly scripted encounter is a problem. However, the main thing people hate about escort missions is the soul-crushing boredom of slowly walking some dumb object from point A to point B. If the freighter to be escorted is too dumb to move out of the way, I can handle it and will overcome the odds. That's fun. The long wait before or afterwards is harder than the combat challenge.

We're spacers. We want to be free to move where we want when we want. We don't want to be cross-walk guards. Emergency interceptions and random encounters are a million times more fun than standard escort missions. (There will people who enjoy that guard work, but they are odd exceptions.)

Now, to illustrate my point, a series of links describing escort missions and how bad they are (and some mention of some good ones!). There is mention that Resident Evil 4 had a good escort mission. I played that game repeatedly. I was not happy in the escort business, even with this presumably "good" escort mission. The first third of the game kept me coming back for more punishment.

http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/escort-missions.175744349/
http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1295455
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worst-escort-mission.131654/
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/best-escort-mission.174403/

 

[StormWing0]

Oh yes forgot about that soul crushing boredom. X_X Also making it so if the ships spawned for ship escorting that have jump drives use them to get to their destination if they need them would be a nice idea, and just have a displayed timer(s) for the charge(s) on the drive(s) so we know when they are going to jump and also show us where they are jumping so we can meet up with them.

 

[kiraen]

As long as the back story is well thought out and explains why this SOB is so damn slow, I'm willing to do most anything.

Otoh, a five page back story about how this guy must fullfill duty and honor by killing all the pirates and then he sends you to do the real work and pays you a couple of dolom capsules, I want a mission to kill this guy, please.

When you get right down to it, it's the story that makes a mission worthy. Of course, this is sandbox and it's not going to have a real plot, so skip the missions you don't like