Immediately encountering hostiles on escort and patrol contracts.

[Professor Paul1290]

I find it a bit odd the way patrol and escort contracts always have the hostile ships already there when you jump in. I think it makes them feel too much like the other contracts.

Do you think escort contracts might be better if the hostiles weren't immediately present when you jump in? I mean sure you might have a bit of time just idly following the ship, but I think it would give it a slightly different feel from the other contracts involving combat. Perhaps the number of hostile ships, if any, that actually arrive could be somewhat random.

I think the patrol contracts could have it so that there aren't always hostile ships at every single waypoint. Right now they just seem a bit too much like a few plain combat contracts strung together. Again, perhaps it could be a bit more random how many hostiles there are, if any.


I kind of feel that there are already contracts that will definitely always throw you at X number of hostile ships and it seems a bit redundant for these contracts to do the same thing.


[Edited on 5-11-2011 by Professor Paul1290]

[Dave S]

Are you thinking along the lines of asking for a long-range patrol or escort type contract where you just fly in formation for a while then get jumped?

For the multiple waypoint missions, it won't set you up to proceed to the next waypoint until you grease a certain number of bad guys. That aspect may be hard to change. Remember that bad guys are usually pretty easy to kill in this game in large numbers, so having them trickle in to be slaughtered may take some of the challenge out the contract.

I see what you are getting at, but I'm not sure that having them arrive piecemal would be the best answer. I'll stew on this and see if I can think of some good suggestions along this line;)

[Nigel_Strange]

Couple of things I find odd:

1. The bad guys tend to make pretty short work of the cruisers if given the chance.
2. Enemy cruisers seem to take an awful beating before going down. Friendlies seem to rely on the intrepid player to do all the work.

What if, instead of a giant cruiser, you were just supposed to escort another civilian ship? I think that would improve the difficulty immensely. How many times have you been swarmed by enemies waiting outside the docks, shooting at the shields, just itching for you to get out so they can shoot you? Well, imagine the poor merchant who is trying to make an honest living, but has to get all the way from the station to the warp gate, surrounded by savages? You can smell their fear, and perhaps, their money.

What if they paid you to escort them to the warp gate? Seems like a short distance if you're in a Starmaster, kicking back, sipping cognac on your way to the vonari sectors, but for Melvin Milksop in his Hummingbird frame, that picture looks like a lot of hurt. He'd pay good money for some assurance.

Of course, keeping Melvin alive is nigh impossible, but it's a thought.

[Marvin]

Of course, keeping Melvin alive is nigh impossible, but it's a thought.

You can say that again. Oh, wait ... you said Melvin. Sorry. Nevermind. True, though.

[Dave S]

Escorting another civilian ship to a waypoint would be kinda cool. Though I would have to ask Vice to add some sort of an icon that would seperately identify the ship being escorted so I can keep it straight. Heck that would be useful now. I've been on escort missions where one or two more capital ships jump into the same area and I lose track of who I am escorting because everyone looks the same, because they are from the same faction.

[Professor Paul1290]

I think escorting ships to and from gates and stations would be a nice addition to the escort missions.

I also think it would be nice to vary the number of enemy ships to have it be more unpredictable.

This might sound a bit odd, but I wouldn't mind there being escort missions where there are no hostiles at all, and everything goes perfectly smoothly. In fact I think it would be a nice way to contrast the ones that do end up having combat. I think patrol missions could benefit from this as well, allowing for a decent chance of no hostile ships showing up at all.

Again, we already have missions where you are certain to encounter combat when you take them so I think it would add a bit of variety to have the escort and patrol be more unpredictable in this way.

[Jack Dandy]

Gotta agree with all of you.

Take Freespace 2 for example. The game's known for keeping the player on his toes all the time since missions rarely ended as they were supposed to in the briefing.
Surprise enemy attacks, and other random occurences could make the various contracts far more thrilling.

Very important, since you spend most of the game doing them.

[xingbing1]

I gotta say I really like the idea that on escort contracts especially, having some go just smoothly would be nice, but what would be *epic* is if you're flying along, no bogies incoming and you think this might be one of the contracts where nobody feels like potshots when suddenly POW loads of bad guys decloak and you fight off swarms of them. That would be fun! (tm, for those who get the reference )

[BraveHart]

"You can mix it up a bit by changing your degree and pitch before jumping to the nav point"...

[Marvin]

Really? Which pitch and heading provides for the fewest enemy ships?

[DennyMala]

LOL

What I'd like to see for a civvy escort mission, is the ability to plan the strategy with the civvy ship.

I mean, if the AI just fly his trip to the gate getting nose to nose with the enemy.... well, it makes it hard and it makes no sense at all.

Having the choice on how to plan the mission will be a nice add and will boost strategical play in the game.

After all this you gotta remember that you can jump straight out of a station into the gate.... I'd not pay a dime for an escort I don't need.

[BraveHart]

"I personally set my heading to 180 degrees and use a pitch of Zero....this will put you directly behind the hostile capital ship...using reverse thrusters helps to slow you down"...."I use this for a escort mission also and usually end up behind the hostile cap ship but it allows me ample time to fly over and protect the escort ship"....."the majority of the smaller hostile ship are busy from mid ship to the front of the hostile Capital ship"...."As far as the fewest Hostiles fighter, that would depend where you do your mission/contracts. Fauston gets real busy real quick and the war zones can get real busy also...this is just to name a few because I'm having a YODA moment and all other thoughts are turning to space dust "...."Another good way to help take out less hostiles is to wait a moment to fly to the nav point by delaying your launch while everyone else warps out. I have a lot of degrees and pitch that I practice and had gotten pretty good at it...It takes practice doing this, but give it a chance and you will soon learn some more of 'ol Yoda's secrets

Edit: "Answer to Marvins question"


[Edited on 5-17-2011 by BraveHart]

[Marvin]

Thanks, BraveHart. I'll do some testing ... see if I can manage an escort mission in Pearl. Btw, great pix from today.

[Maarschalk]

Really? Which pitch and heading provides for the fewest enemy ships?

Pitch: High C
Heading: A Major..........Sorry could not resist.....:P:P

[Marvin]

That high C pitch is what you get when you jump in the lake ... and the water is really cold.