Mission Failed in team

Swashbunglar · Post by **Swashbunglar** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 7:39 pm

We found something very unrealistic and totally hosed.
You, with your team, accept a mission to recover something. Be it escape pod or cargo. Team member A picks it up and it is in their cargo. You all jump back and are about to dock at the station. Team member A is under 1000 to dock, but team member B docks first. Instant mission failure despite team member A docking soon after WITH mission cargo.
We've then made sure someone with the cargo docks first. But this is very annoying and just seems unrealistic that it can't tell.. Duh cargo hold is empty in this one but the cargo is in another team member cargo hold.
I don't know it this was purposeful game mechanics or just an annoying glitch. Either way it's hosed. lol

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 7:42 pm

That is weird.....LOL....

Swashbunglar · Post by **Swashbunglar** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 8:48 pm

Yeah it happened once a couple days ago and we had forgot about it. Then again today I had the escape pod in my bay and was not a few meters from dock and taldak got there first and "Mission Failed!" and we were like oh crap! lol
Well technically that's not what I REALLY said, but I'm keeping it PG for the forum. ha ha

RobDog · Post by **RobDog** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 11:37 pm

Yea, I've never like how you fail the mission for docking back at the station empty handed, it doesn't mean you gave up. I never thought of this being a problem in a team situation, but yea that should be fixed.

DeepBlue · Post by **DeepBlue** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:26 pm

Originally posted by RobDog
Yea, I've never like how you fail the mission for docking back at the station empty handed, it doesn't mean you gave up. I never thought of this being a problem in a team situation, but yea that should be fixed.

agreed, even the fact that docking means you've failed should be fixed

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:43 pm

This would be hard to change sinds all the contracts work basically the same way in multiplay. All Multiplay players in the sector of the contract are responsible for the contract. Contracts are sector specific. So if one player decides in the middle of contract to leave the sector even if he is not doing any contracts but just happened to be in that sector when contract was selected, the contract will fail once he leaves the sector.
So any player in the same sector can jeapordise the contract......so if the contract is to retrieve an object then the person who retrieved the object should dock first. Another player again in the same sector of the contract who is not aware of a group doing a retrieve mission can jeapordise the mission by docking at the station......So it is best to do contracts with a group who all know that your doing contracts together where there are no other players. All players doing contracts in the same sector should all know the rules of contract failure.....and ussualy in group contract one of the players is the flight lead. So in combat missions all the other players have to make sure the flight lead is protected. If the flight lead is destroyed, mission failes. At least it was that way in Legends.

Swashbunglar · Post by **Swashbunglar** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 6:15 pm

Well we're all in the same sector and only a feet meters from each other..
You know I can't even get through airport security with a water bottle. But a future space station can't figure out who has the cargo or determine that they are only seconds behind in docking from the other person.... lol

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 12:42 am

I wonder though if an urelated player in the sector has already by chance the required equipment or material in his cargo bay and docks before the person who retrieved the cargo for the mission, if the contract will be completed before the person with the real retrieved cargo docks....LOL....

:P:P:P:P

[Edited on 9-25-2010 by Maarschalk]

RobDog · Post by **RobDog** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 1:01 am

Originally posted by Maarschalk
I wonder though if an urelated player in the sector as already by chance the required equipment or material in his cargo bay and docks before the person who retrieved the cargo for the mission, if the contract will be completed before the person with the real retrieved cargo docks....LOL....:P:P:P:P

haha, I'm sure that would work. All that needs to be changed (in SP as well as MP) is how a contract is terminated. It should only terminate on leaving the sector or clicking the 'cancel contract' button.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 1:17 am

As Vice has explained in a previous post now in Mercenary players who want to leave the sector without jeopordizing the contract for other players can leave by opting out of the Coop contract by canceling the contract and it will cancel the contract only for that one player that wants to opt out of the sector....so this is cool. But the player who wants to opt out has to know this as not to disrupt the mission for the other players in the sector. If a player leaves the sector who does not know about opting out by canceling still will disrupt the mission by jumping out of the sector without canceling his participation.....

RobDog · Post by **RobDog** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 1:20 am

Originally posted by Maarschalk
As Vice has explained in a previous post now in Mercenary players who want to leave the sector without jeopordizing the contract for other players can leave by opting out of the Coop contract by canceling the contract and it will cancel the contract only for that one player that wants to opt out of the sector....so this is cool. But the player who wants to opt out has to know this as not to disrupt the mission for the other players in the sector. If a player leaves the sector who does not know about opting out by canceling still will disrupt the mission by jumping out of the sector without canceling his participation.....

Yea but that person needs to opt out before the waypoint is reached by any players, which is usually not a very long window of time. This still doesn't address the original issue brought up, where docking at a station empty-handed terminates the contract.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 1:39 am

Yes, but I do not know if there is an easy fix for the empty-handed contract termination. If a player chooses a retrieve mission in Multiplayer with other players in the same sector who are not participarting in the contract and are just hanging around and the player doing the contract can not find the cargo to be retrieved and gives up but stays in the sector and docks at the station empty handed and then quits multiplayer and disconnects from the Server, the contract will be still active if arriving empty handed does not terminate the contract. And say I join the sector to do some contracts. In that case I will not be able to because I will get a message that tells me a contract is already active in that sector and I will not know who is participating in the contract and who is not and some of the other players might have disconnected to from the server without a completed mission unless the flight lead disconnects or leaves the sector then contract will fail and then I would be able to do contracts in that sector again.....

Post by **Vice** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 2:30 am

This still doesn't address the original issue brought up, where docking at a station empty-handed terminates the contract.

This isn't likely to change. There are both structural dependencies and exploit protections that result this in behavior. The orders need to be followed exactly and if a linked player returns with nothing, the contract will fail. Only the player who picks up the item should be the one who returns first.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 2:34 am

LOL......what I said Vice sums it up in 2 sentences.....

:P:P:P:P

RobDog · Post by **RobDog** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 2:44 am

haha, leave it to Vice. Oh well this isn't much of a problem, people just need to be aware of this rule as it can be confusing and frustrating to a new player.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:12 am

**********************Possible Spoiler Alert********************

Another way to do retrieve missions efectively in Coop is one player chooses the retrieve contract both or all players do a race to retrieve the cargo. The player who retrieves the cargo first returns with the cargo to the station and the other players stay at their location where the first container was found and the player who returned to the station chooses the next retrieve mission and the race starts again for the next one. So in that case only the player who retrieved the cargo returns to the station to select the next retrieve contract and all race to have a chance. A group of us did this in Legends quite often and was fun to do with other players. In Legends you could have multiple retrieve missions one after the other. I do not know if Mercenary also has this that multiple retrieve missions get generated one after the other. This is a quick way to get your military rank up in a group in multiplay.....

:P:P:P:P

BraveHart · Post by **BraveHart** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 4:35 am

"So you all cool your Jets and let the Pilot with the package dock first"

Swashbunglar · Post by **Swashbunglar** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 5:23 pm

I think you're missing the point.

1. Nothing in the mission instructions or in the user manual warn about this. "Noobs" are doomed for consistently fail if they don't figure out WHY it failed.

2. People forget. (We lost three missions because of this, in two days)

3. Accidents. I was shot right into the dock from jump, even though I jumped after the teammate with the cargo. Mission failed and I couldn't even stop it from happening. Not like there are Space breaks. Even reverse afterburner couldn't have stopped this. Instant mission fail.

4. All this results in wasted time, loss of money, and where I do missions loss of military rank. All of which are very uncool.

5. Exploit? Just make it so mission will not complete until the cargo is actually returned or a check to see if someone on the team has the cargo and not complete until it's physically returned. Maybe a check timer of like 30 seconds. Player A docks without cargo, a 30 second timer starts. If player B can't dock within 30 seconds, failed mission.. then you get you're over zealous fail mission rules, and we get a buffer. We can all just focus on what's important. Getting refueled/reloaded and ready for the next mission.
I'm guessing the ONLY reason for this "rule" is someone would grab the cargo and someone else would dock completing the mission without cargo. That would be an exploit. One which any of my suggestions would eliminate without direct effect on normal gameplay.

The fact that some can't see how impractical this rule is in the first place, is amazing to me. I understand attempting to remove exploits, but you shouldn't do it at the cost of effecting normal gameplay.

So just because you're a few seconds ahead of the cargo, that you wanted to get fueled, check crew, reloaded, and maybe tweak your ship as quickly as possible. You're going to be penalized.

Think it through.... That's all I ask...