@Egosoft. A list of "must be done asap" things.

[Pitagora]

I obviously don't know the "great plan" of the devs, but I'm an avid spacesims player, so I hope I can gather support on the following points, from the majority of the players here.

I'll not point out stuff which is clearly bugged atm, because I'm quite confident the devs are already working on those (like SCA station "tumors" or miners queing up with full cargo to deliver ore to a station desperately in need of silicon).
I would like to point out a list of annoying/boring/incomprehensible things that seems to be working as intended in the game. Trying to shrink the list to the minimum to see if I can get wide support from others reading this post, while explaining the single points as much as I can. This list is priority sorted.

1) Mission goals and rewards.
- 95% of the missions are best kept in the lists of availability than actually accepted. While the other 5% are too good to being left there. The player basically ends up doing the same mission over and over again. Some examples:
- In dangerous extractions (or whatever the name is in non localized games) when you finally land the rescued ship where the client wants, you get an immediate dialogue option. If you answer "not yet" the mission fails, if you don't answer the mission fails, if you are navigating the map the mission fails, basically if you are doing anything else than staring at the screen when the dialogue popup, the mission fails. This should behave like the fleet delivery missions, where a guy appear on the right monitor to ask for the transfer and wait for your aknowledge before you get the dialogue option.
- Delivery missions sometime asks for unneeded stuff in the sector. Got a mission asking for nostrop oil in 18 billion, where (in my game at least) 3 stations actually produce it and no stations need it.
- Killing xenon stations turrets are impossible 99% of the times. Rockets can't do the job either because are not sufficent or because they destroy the section. Capitals ends up destroyng the platforms. Smaller ships got swarmed by 100 drones per try. Sniper ray guns are not an option because they can't be aimed on a turret from 10 kilometers. And spending literally hours on surgical strikes risk being voided by a passing odysseus destroyng a station section out of nowhere. A very easy fix should be NOT failing the mission if a section filled with turrets is destroyed in the process. Maybe failing it if you wipe out completely the station.
- Prospecting missions shoud pop up on ACTUAL field yelds not on theoretical gamestart values, or whorse, arbitrary numbers. I had to abort many of them after filling sectors with 50+ probes just to end up getting half of the requested yeld on the best spot.
- Mission rewards should be on par of the difficulty. Having basic mod stuff on a difficult mission is silly. And of course after a short while nobody cares about ship skins, what about giving some top tier blast chambers? Got just 5 of them in my 13 gameplay days game. Basically all the other mods I've got was stripped down from free hokkaidos.
- Mission rewards from those huge "political" story missions should throw a "bone" to the player at the end... Even a tiny unique modded S or M ship/project shoud do the job after spending 500mil credits, giving up 36 ships and building a huge station for our customers/partners.

2) Repeated orders.
- We desperately need basically 2 things in repeated orders: "Dump all your cargo/inventory in this ship/station" command and ability to skip current order to proceed on the next one queued.

3) Override system. Sounds good, doesn't work.
- Ship on full travel speed shouldn't stop if asked to bail cargo by a passing pirate. They of course should notify me, but not stop running in the meanwhile. Of course I've to be quick enough to pause the game, check the situation an issue orders where needed, but stopping in front of a gate that leads to safety is really infuriating.
- If you flee, be sure to flee in the opposite direction of the threat not thowards it.
- Once I've issued an override option that should be executed on a "do-it-or-die-trying" fashion. Stopping again for the same reason once the ovverride order was given makes no sense. And that leads to another issue. Override orders should be a little more complex. I'd add "fly there" and "dock there" options.

4) Looting system.
- Really one of the most boring part of the game. We can teleport an entire HQ across the galaxy but those pesky majaglit containers 1 km away from my ship, have to be picked up "bumping" on them, no exceptions!
- The "magnet" on my 10 meters explorer ship is as powerful as my Asgard one!
- Really, either you change the magnet behaviour/range on a per ship basis or you finally agree on teleporting, at least inventory loot, on my ship with a single keypress... Freelancer style.
- Loot containers life in space shoul be at least doubled. With the current looting mechanics they timeout too early. Introducing loot teleport, on the other hand, will make current timeout setting quite balanced.

I'd like to get feedback on this list from other players. I'd like to understand if the point listed are just seen as my personal opinions or can be widely shared by the player base.

I'm actually very curious to see if there are players who think the exact opposite on these 4 points and like it how the game works right now.

[GCU Grey Area]

- Killing xenon stations turrets are impossible 99% of the times. Rockets can't do the job either because are not sufficent or because they destroy the section. Capitals ends up destroyng the platforms.

These missions can be done with a capital ship. Have successfully completed such missions many times with very few failures due to destroying part of the station, none recently.

Turrets on Xenon defence modules & S/M docks are not a problem - those are very tough modules, extremely hard to inadvertently destroy with a bit of collateral damage. If the target's a defence platform, which are composed entirely of such modules, it's very hard to fail such missions.

Main ones you have to watch out for are turrets on storage modules & the defence modules which look like Argon defence disks, found on Xenon wharves, shipyards & solar power plants. Those are a bit more flimsy, however still entirely possible to snipe the turrets on them with a destroyer's main gun if you're careful.

Recommend setting up a weapon config with just a single gun, fire it in short bursts & pause before firing again until those shots hit, so you can judge how much damage each burst is inflicting. Only fire sufficient shots to destroy the turret. Bear in mind that, when shooting relatively slow projectiles at a range of 10km or so, if the first shot destroys the turret there can be a LOT more damage still heading towards the station if you just fire continuously.

[Pitagora]

Recommend setting up a weapon config with just a single gun, fire it in short bursts & pause before firing again until those shots hit, so you can judge how much damage each burst is inflicting. Only fire sufficient shots to destroy the turret. Bear in mind that, when shooting relatively slow projectiles at a range of 10km or so, if the first shot destroys the turret there can be a LOT more damage still heading towards the station if you just fire continuously.

Did you really finished a 60 turrets missions on a xenon wharf without killing the platforms? Or you just talking about early game 10 turrets mission on generic stations? Because the latter are not a problem obviously...

[GCU Grey Area]

Did you really finished a 60 turrets missions on a xenon wharf without killing the platforms?

Yes, have successfully completed these missions on all types of Xenon stations, including wharves.

[Duncaroos]

Looting system when not the player is a bit of a pain, I'd agree. Cargo drones for L/XL ships are super slow that the cargo despawns before the drones even get there. Only useful thing is telling a S fighter go and do the collect cargo, but it always a manual thing.

I miss the X3 MARS mod that had your MK1/2 fighters go and pick up cargo...was the best and oddly fun.

[sh1pman]

Yes, have successfully completed these missions on all types of Xenon stations, including wharves.

Wharves are fine, shipyards are much worse. For whatever reason they have Argon defence modules on them, which are super weak and explode after 1-2 volleys from a main battery.

[Pitagora]

Did you really finished a 60 turrets missions on a xenon wharf without killing the platforms?

Yes, have successfully completed these missions on all types of Xenon stations, including wharves.

You deserve an applause for you patience... I honestly give up after 2 hours... even if no paranid odysseus showed up to blow the sections I'm sniping.

Yes, have successfully completed these missions on all types of Xenon stations, including wharves.

Wharves are fine, shipyards are much worse. For whatever reason they have Argon defence modules on them, which are super weak and explode after 1-2 volleys from a main battery.

That's the point... Anyway it's not about how feasible is a particular mission, it's about game mechanics.

Do you guys think is better now or is better if we can actually blow up an entire defence module sometimes without failing the mission? This is the main question.

[Tamina]

Except for the "ASAP" title and the loot mechanics critique, I can actually agree with one of these threads for a change. Well made points.

The flee mechanic was supposed to be fixed but my ships regularily fly towards the enemy and not away from it. And the most frustrating part is, when I tell them to "fly to", but then they switch to flee and fly towards the enemy again...
The argons give me the task to destroy turrets of a Xenon station, well why do they dislike me destroying a whole section with turrets on top?

[Pitagora]

Except for the "ASAP" title and the loot mechanics critique, I can actually agree with one of these threads for a change. Well made points.

Thank you.

Sorry for the "ASAP" tho

Anyway, do you really like the actual loot mechanics? Or you just don't care how is done?

[GCU Grey Area]

You deserve an applause for you patience... I honestly give up after 2 hours... even if no paranid odysseus showed up to blow the sections I'm sniping.

Thanks, just one of those ends justify the means situations. The missions tend to crop up in chain missions with exceptional weapon mods as the end reward. They're not my favourite missions but I do very much enjoy modding my ships, so don't mind putting a bit of effort into getting the bits.

[Zloth2]

Prospecting missions are seriously unfun right now. What you see out the window has NO bearing on what is really there. The only ways to do this sort of mission right now is to fly through the ore/gas region and pop out your satellite every once in a while until you suddenly find the right spot or get a scout loaded with resource satellites to blanket the area until you find the right location (potentially confusing your mining efforts). And yeah, like you said, I've had some I still had to abandon because I never bumped into whatever sweet spot the game was expecting me to find. There's just no 'game' to this - it's like being presented with an entire deck of cards dealt out face down in a grid then being asked to find the 4 of clubs by turning them over one at a time.

If there were only two or three high density points in a sector and the rest of the densities fell off steadily around each of them then we could play a little "you're getting warmer, you're getting colder" game. If the densities matched what was actually being drawn, we could have a treasure hunt.

Ship on full travel speed shouldn't stop if asked to bail cargo by a passing pirate.

Actually, I don't agree with that one. I'm afraid it will make it all but impossible for pirates to intercept anything. As a player, I'm already way out of range by the time the pirate decides to deliver their ultimatum - giving the NPCs the same ability will make pirating impossible, at least in open space. Maybe pirates could be given a "harpoon"? Give them a long range beam weapon that will knock them out of travel drive long enough to do their scan and give their threat. But then, that's going to be seriously annoying to the player when trying to explore the outer reaches of a sector. Arg. Well, whatever the case, I don't think it's going to be an "ASAP" fix - maybe more of an X5 thing.

I think the answer to the 'loot magnet on huge ship' issue is to just make the drones work faster.

[Tamina]

Anyway, do you really like the actual loot mechanics? Or you just don't care how is done?

IDC

Actually, I don't agree with that one. I'm afraid it will make it all but impossible for pirates to intercept anything. As a player, I'm already way out of range by the time the pirate decides to deliver their ultimatum - giving the NPCs the same ability will make pirating impossible, at least in open space. Maybe pirates could be given a "harpoon"? Give them a long range beam weapon that will knock them out of travel drive long enough to do their scan and give their threat.

Or they could actually try to intercept the ships and not fly to their current position and then fly again to their new current position and so on. The AI is planning its path. It should be possible for pirates to intercept those paths further down, or plan attacks around gates or stations where ships are slow. I like your idea but I will never understand what is so hard to make the AI follow a target or behave.. better.

[Admiral Sausage]

- Killing xenon stations turrets are impossible 99% of the times. Rockets can't do the job either because are not sufficent or because they destroy the section. Capitals ends up destroyng the platforms. Smaller ships got swarmed by 100 drones per try. Sniper ray guns are not an option because they can't be aimed on a turret from 10 kilometers. And spending literally hours on surgical strikes risk being voided by a passing odysseus destroyng a station section out of nowhere. A very easy fix should be NOT failing the mission if a section filled with turrets is destroyed in the process. Maybe failing it if you wipe out completely the station.

Burst Ray. An S ship equipped with two of those will take out a positron turret in <1s. The missions can still take a while because you have to dodge all the drones (although I make that harder for myself by using a certain nocturnal bird ship that only has one shield), but even a 60 turret mission can be done pretty quick. In fact I'm tempted to say that those weapons make it too easy. There is certainly a problem with the weapon descriptions in the encycopedia not making it clear how weapons affect surface elements.

Otherwise I think I agree with everything.

[Pitagora]

- Killing xenon stations turrets are impossible 99% of the times. Rockets can't do the job either because are not sufficent or because they destroy the section. Capitals ends up destroyng the platforms. Smaller ships got swarmed by 100 drones per try. Sniper ray guns are not an option because they can't be aimed on a turret from 10 kilometers. And spending literally hours on surgical strikes risk being voided by a passing odysseus destroyng a station section out of nowhere. A very easy fix should be NOT failing the mission if a section filled with turrets is destroyed in the process. Maybe failing it if you wipe out completely the station.

Burst Ray. An S ship equipped with two of those will take out a positron turret in <1s. The missions can still take a while because you have to dodge all the drones (although I make that harder for myself by using a certain nocturnal bird ship that only has one shield), but even a 60 turret mission can be done pretty quick. In fact I'm tempted to say that those weapons make it too easy. There is certainly a problem with the weapon descriptions in the encycopedia not making it clear how weapons affect surface elements.

Otherwise I think I agree with everything.

Glad you agree on the other topics. Anyway, my game is localized so I'm not sure what a "burst ray" is. What faction make it? what is the range? Are these effective on graviton turrets too?

[Admiral Sausage]

Glad you agree on the other topics. Anyway, my game is localized so I'm not sure what a "burst ray" is. What faction make it? what is the range? Are these effective on graviton turrets too?

You can buy them from PAR and ALI. It comes in Mk I and Mk II variants. Of course you want the Mk II. It has a short range of only 1.8km. It's a beam weapon, so it's very accurate. It's one of the few weapons to do hull damage to a shielded target, but it's not much damage, so if you have a ship equiped with only burst rays, it won't be much good for anything other than destroying surface elements. It does huge damage to surface elements though (not shown in the encyclopedia) - enough to kill graviton turrets before they can turn to shoot at you.

[grapedog]

Pretty much the only time i take resource finding missions is if i have already done a 25 probe drop a couple times, to locate resources on my own. Then i can accept a mission, fly over to my probe, pick it up, re-drop it, and move on with life.

The xenon turret missions i don't do at all, too time consuming for the reward. Usually i can find a similar reward from a different mission.

Id like to see more factions offer missions that reward ships. And not just mineral miners, but gas miners too. Or modded destroyers, or modded corvettes/frigates.

Id like to be able to open up more black markets by completing missions. Maybe SCA missions, or TEL, ANT, and PIO trade missions... or from HAT and ALI. More ALI missions in general too.

For delivery missions, i just hack station storage. I hate having to complete them like that, but that is a quick amd dirty way to force a completion.

[NightmareNight91]

I agree with point 4, the current loot mechanics are needlessly tedious. I would love to see larger ships have a more powerful magnet, as well as maybe speeding up cargo drones, they are to slow to reliably collect loot.

[jakotheshadows]

- Killing xenon stations turrets are impossible 99% of the times. Rockets can't do the job either because are not sufficent or because they destroy the section. Capitals ends up destroyng the platforms. Smaller ships got swarmed by 100 drones per try. Sniper ray guns are not an option because they can't be aimed on a turret from 10 kilometers. And spending literally hours on surgical strikes risk being voided by a passing odysseus destroyng a station section out of nowhere. A very easy fix should be NOT failing the mission if a section filled with turrets is destroyed in the process. Maybe failing it if you wipe out completely the station.

I would say its more like killing Xenon Stations turrets are impossible 10% of the time. That 10% is when the Xenon somehow manage to build another module over the top of one of their turrets, and that module itself has turrets that need to be killed which may themselves be obscured by the bizarre module placement. Killing modules of course fails the mission as you said, so there are literally turrets you can't kill without failing the mission. Flying an Odysseus imo is the best way to do these missions for the battery range and accuracy it takes 2 shots for most turrets at a safe distance of 10 km, and the Odysseus is one of only 2 destroyers fast enough (with engine modifications) to outrun even an M. It takes forever, but taking a long time is not equivalent to impossible imo. They need to fix the xenon module placement and considerably beef up rewards for these missions. I want at least something on the order of 100 High Energy Catalysts for an effort of this magnitude. As an example, on such mission I have in my log that I might never actually complete expects me to kill 30 turrets, and not only that but it is seemingly picky about which turrets you kill rather than simply killing any 30 turrets. The reward for this mission is like 3m credits and a single high energy catalyst, which isn't even enough of that material for a single weapon modification. So let me get this straight, you want me to strip a substantial portion of the defenses from a Xenon Warf taking almost an hour to finish the task and you give me less than a minutes worth of drop farming as a reward? At the point where you're ready to take on the harder Xenon war missions, I think its pretty safe to say that credits aren't as much an objective from your missions so much as things like rare drops that you'd have to meticulously farm kills and pickup drops for. Many of these missions offer those, but the pitiful quantities (in my case, literally a single High Energy Catalyst, ) in which they're awarded make the missions pretty much completely not worth doing combined with the possibility of messed up xenon module placement making the missions themselves impossible.

[GCU Grey Area]

I would say its more like killing Xenon Stations turrets are impossible 10% of the time. That 10% is when the Xenon somehow manage to build another module over the top of one of their turrets, and that module itself has turrets that need to be killed which may themselves be obscured by the bizarre module placement. Killing modules of course fails the mission...

This cropped up in one of my recent missions. The final turret I needed to smash on a Xenon shipyard was on a storage module which intersected a Xenon S/M dock module, so that the turret was essentially inside the dock. Only way I managed to eliminate it was to bring in my Katana which has a torp launcher fitted. Splash damage of 1 heavy torp, launched so it impacted on the dock module directly above the turret, was sufficient to get rid of the turret without causing excessive damage to the storage module. Have since kitted out an S fighter with torps to carry aboard my Syn, just in case this happens again & don't feel like waiting for my Katana to fly halfway across the universe before I can finish the mission (Katana's a fast ship but Grand Exchange to Emperor's Pride still took quite a while).

[Pitagora]

I appreciate your feedback guys, but the question is always: "Is it fair to fail the mission for "collateral" damage?". That's the point.

I'm sure you're all very skilled pilots, but 2 hours for a single step of a single "normal" mission is more tedious than funny imo. Many players (myself included) choose to ignore that missions regardless the needed skill to complete it, but just because too much time is needed for the rewards offered.

@grapedog

Pretty much the only time i take resource finding missions is if i have already done a 25 probe drop a couple times, to locate resources on my own. Then i can accept a mission, fly over to my probe, pick it up, re-drop it, and move on with life.

Absolutely, it's the same for me as well 80% of the time. The problem is when the required numbers are not actual or possible for that sector.

The xenon turret missions i don't do at all, too time consuming for the reward. Usually i can find a similar reward from a different mission.

That's exactly the point I'm underlining.

Id like to see more factions offer missions that reward ships. And not just mineral miners, but gas miners too. Or modded destroyers, or modded corvettes/frigates.
Id like to be able to open up more black markets by completing missions. Maybe SCA missions, or TEL, ANT, and PIO trade missions... or from HAT and ALI. More ALI missions in general too.

Yup, variety is always welcome, but I'd focus to fix what is in the game already. That's the point of my post.

For delivery missions, i just hack station storage. I hate having to complete them like that, but that is a quick amd dirty way to force a completion.

Nice trick But it doesn't solve the problem when a requested resource is not listed in any of the sector stations.