Missions

[Captain86]

So far the only missions I see or perhaps 3 missions when I dock with either a ship or station

The 3-4 missions are range in the amount of credits offered and typically have 3-20 fighters.

I am able to work with the NPC or AI fighters there mostly to take out some of them but I seem to lack understanding on how to complete these missions they never seem to end.

Except the mission where you go find a cargo container that one I was able to finish but cannot seem to earn any credits because once that mission is gone I can't finish any of the others.

The objective seems to get interupted on the chat window and tells me to about a distress call and I can only assume I'm suppose to drop my mission and handle the distress call because it continuously tells me it timed out.

Says to deliver food crates but I have no credits to purchase the food crates so it's sort of a paradox it always times out no matter which mission I seem to take

Please advise

[RAYfighter]

So far the only missions I see or perhaps 3 missions when I dock with either a ship or station

The 3-4 missions are range in the amount of credits offered and typically have 3-20 fighters.

I am able to work with the NPC or AI fighters there mostly to take out some of them but I seem to lack understanding on how to complete these missions they never seem to end.

Except the mission where you go find a cargo container that one I was able to finish but cannot seem to earn any credits because once that mission is gone I can't finish any of the others.

The objective seems to get interupted on the chat window and tells me to about a distress call and I can only assume I'm suppose to drop my mission and handle the distress call because it continuously tells me it timed out.

Says to deliver food crates but I have no credits to purchase the food crates so it's sort of a paradox it always times out no matter which mission I seem to take

Please advise

I am not entirely sure if I understood right, but this is how the mission should be completed:

- deliver food crates:

deliver anything actually - when you accept this contract, they put the thing they want you to deliver right in your cargo. you can see it when you look at your cargo in your Inventory Console.
Turn your ship to read 0 at your compass (top center of your cockpit), and fire your hyperdrive to jump at waypoint location (F2).
After the jump, you should see a big carrier and a green dropzone box under it. Set your speed at around 2000-2400 and turn on IDS (spacebar key). Navigate your ship so it flies by the dropzone box, and when you are inside, hit "J" to jettison your cargo. You should immediately hear the message about your contract done, and read good news about cash being transferred to your account. This way you can easily do this contract even in hostile zone, with many enemies around, firing guns and missiles at you - you simply run though, drop your delivery, and run away. After successful delivery you can open up your Navi map (F1), rightclick the base you want to return to, close the map (F1 again), level your ship (compass 0, horizon perfectly ahead), wait until IDS lines up with this direction, and F2 to jump. Levelled like this you will smoothly enter the Station's docking bay.
(just a note about jettison of cargo - it will throw out everything you had in your cargo space. If you want to keep there any other items you had, open up your Inventory (F3) and leftclick only the delivery they gave you. It's doable at full speed, too)

[MiaZ]

"Distress call" missions are not the same as standard contracts. They are also optional and there is no loss to reputation or whatever if you choice not to complete or if you fail a distress call.
They do have a good payout if you can complete those distress calls though.

They are not easy. Its a bit of a race to get there in time usually.
Only try going for it if its a call to a area close by until you get more experience and equipment.

[Marvin]

Ignore the distress call if you've already accepted a contract. As MiaZ said, the two are entirely different objectives. As for the "containers" contract ... there are two types. One, you only need to fly close to the container to complete the contract. Two, you must tractor the container and carry it back to the station or city where you took the contract ... at which time, Chat will let you know the contract is completed.

[Captain86]

hmm interesting

I see so if I'm in a contract I can disregard the distress call, but it seems there is a timer that starts and ends whether I take the mission or not and it always says failed because I didn't answer the distress call that timer comes up almost as soon as the distress call message comes in.

I assumed I failed the mission because I thought I was suppose to answer, but I guess I just failed because I didn't get close enough to the carrier to do the detailed scan or perhaps I wasn't close enough for long enough for the detailed scan

At least I know now that the distress call is not why i failed

I don't take any missions that require multi jumps because I'll likely run out of fuel before I can finish the mission if I can finish it at all.

Thanks

[morbosfist]

The distress call timer tells you how long you have to answer the distress call. It's a mission on a timer, more or less. The contracts you accept have no actual time limit aside from the conditions of the contract. Your scanning mission, for example, will last as long as that ship manages to survive. If you can't manage to hang around for 60 seconds, you can always try again.

There are no contracts that require multijumps, travel time for the campaign missions notwithstanding. Certain waypoint missions do require several jumps in the same system, but that uses almost no fuel. Distress calls are very often several jump gates away.

[Edited on 6-18-2012 by morbosfist]

[Marvin]

You will sometimes see two timers, on atop the other. The Distress Call timer, when not answered by anyone (btw, every player in MP gets the same distress call at the same time), will display a "failure" message after the time elapses ... not your fault and it doesn't count against you (or against anyone else in MP). The other timer will show if you've accepted an escort contract ... it's not really a timer but, instead, distance the capital ship must go before reaching its jump point.

When on a spy mission, the timer counts down the number of seconds before telemetry sends the data back to whoever offered the contract. As for contracts taking you to another star system, that will happen if you decide to become a taxi driver and take on a passenger.

[SeeJay]

Hi and welcome.

You can turn off the distress calls if you want.
Just open nav (F1) and down to your right you have a button for it.
(It's always default on, so you need to do it every time you start the game).

See you out there!

[Captain86]

Thanks all

I'm late to respond we did some computer upgrading and reloaded everything so I haven't been on windows for a while

Anyhow, just checking in and loading evochron and hunting down my license number from my emails so I can get playing finally

Hope to see you out there