Bulletin board missions. What did you like? What would you like?

[BurnIt!]

[Update 17.02.2006]
We would like to thank every one for their input into new bulletin board mission ideas, it is very much appreciated.

In order to give us time to read all the posts and catalog them we are now locking this thread.


Once again thank your for your contributions!
[/Update]



Hi everybody,

the question sounds simple but it actually isn't.

While we are of course still working on improving X3 we also have to look into the future - and this future holds an addon for X3.
With this addon we want to focus on bulletin board missions and would like to request your feedback on this.

Please note that special rules apply to this thread; I will list these further down.

What we want to know:

With regards to X3:

What missions did you like - what was fun?

We are not so much interested in what outcome or reward you liked most but rather what was the greatest fun while playing.

With regards to possible bulletin board missions for the addon:

Which missions would you like to play, what would be fun?

Again we are not so much interested in the rewards (sector ownership, HQ, new ships, goods, weapons, shields... we know that already ) but rather in the actual missions - what happens that you would like to play. This also means do not post ideas on changing the bulletin board itself.

Also please don't just throw in some keywords but rather take the time to describe what you have in mind. Comments like "I want to r0xx0r and kill'em'all is mega fun" unfortunately is not really helpful. Also don't forget that there's not just FIGHT - TRADE, BUILD and THINK also make nice missions


Now for those special rules I mentioned:
please do NOT discuss the ideas posted here - we want to keep this thread an overviewable list.
The moderators have been asked to delete any irrelevant posts from this thread entirely. (So please no "/signed" or "/agreed" etc.)



We are looking forward to reading your ideas! Enjoy!

[NullAshton]

Woohoo, first post!

Anyway... I haven't played the game much, but I enjoyed the starting missions in which you were in a turret in another ship. Especially the city chase.

Maybe you could put these turret missions into X3 somehow? Make it avaliable for new players to accept as BB missions, as the ship you get in normal difficulty isn't that powerful and it would allow people to focus on fighting and not trading if they want to. You would accept the mission, and when you undock, you would ride around on their turret to their destination, defending them.

As for BUILD missions, maybe letting AI yet players micromanage their stations? It would be rare, but the AI could occasionally post an advertisments for managers needed. The player would have to manage the factory, usually in poor condition, and supply the 'parent' factory with so many resources a stazura. It would be a neat way to let new players get started off with factory building, without them having to spend hours getting enough money.

[Augustini]

I would like to see more missions alltogether, meaning that i have only come across 2 missions in 4 weeks of playing the game. I would like to see at least 1 mission available each time i dock at a station.

On the mission request list. I would like to see some Escort missions. They could be in a couple of variants:

1. The most simple one would be to escort a single TP/TS from one sector to another (not escort missions from station to station in the same sector!) Where there would be a 50-75% chance of getting attacked.

2. Escort a TL would be the second kind. Where you would need to cross more than 2 or 3 sectors before the mission would be completed and a 100% chance of getting attacked at least once. But maybe a 30-50% chance of getting attacked in several sectors.

3. The most difficult one would be to escort a convoy of TS's on a journey over at least 5 sectors, with an even greater risk of attacks. Also the attackers should be more numerous on these missions.

[Augustini]

Another idea, would be to make a "Capture that ship" mission where you would be forced to look at your weapons and make shure you're not equipped with too devasting weapons.

The ships to be captured should range from M3,M4,M5,M6 and maybe even TS's and TP's (no capships, since they can't be capped)

The mission description should not give any hint as to what kind of ship you would be capping, this should be a suprise untill you find your target, meaning also that the player would make a gamble with his weapon loadout or really try and make a balanced choice of weapons.

If the target ship were to be destroyed, mission failed. However, if the target ship is captured, and then the player refuses to deliver it back to it's rightfull owners, the player would take a reputation hit with race that gave him the mission.

Or else too many people would be tempted to keep some of the ships themselves.

The info on the BBS with the mission could possibly say that "A ship containing classified software/weapons or whatever, was stolen today, bla.bla.bla...

[clagg0]

[Off topic content removed by Graphil - If you want to complain about bugs in X3 please do so in another post on the main forum]

The obvious missions such as escort, take person to there, would be frowned upon as it's the easiest thing to do.

One mission could involve providing a system that is sadly lacking a resource with the right kind of product by building a factory. Making it harder by eliminating the enemy base / ship would be a challenge to the players who just build and not fight.

Another idea might be to find a rare object that requires the building of a special detector first. Maybe portions could be scattered around to slow the building of the detector.

Another might be to re-build relations with a certain race so that trade can be sought and it's up to you to do several missions (escort, take person there etc) to build up the relations.

[FileCop]

What I actually liked a lot was the plot missions.
I really found those exciting and a great change. After them the missions I take from BBS seem to be mostly fighting missions, but mainly because the other stuff sounds dull. Move 10 units of stuff to some station. Hardly interesting

I guess I'd like to see more story content. The story behind the plot really kept me going. And I loved that the missions were in fact different from anything you experience from BBS or the game regularly. Like the missions flying inside stations - trying to find different stuff, running against time etc.
The drone inside asteroid and ship inside roids and stuff was also interesting - though the drone in roid thing took just a bit too long to stay interesting.

So maybe some missions in that order.
And maybe some more connected missions, so you make a mini-plot from BBS missions. Where you complete something and a short sequence or story leads you on to next part of it etc.

About the build part. Missions where you work (maybe pay a little or something) and as a rewards gets factories built - or you help move components to build stations and get one as reward or something might also be a nice thing. Especially in the beginning of the game. Maybe further on special rewards like Nvidium mines or something could be rewarded. Or special factories - like maybe a solar power plant running on solar power and not using crystals.
Those are just examples, but what I mean is missions with some sort of reward you can NOT get in the normal game, but which would be very helpful/useful to the player. Of course the missions with the best of these things should be hard, expensive or possibly be part of a long sequence of missions as I suggested.

You might know eve-online, which I've been playing for 2 and a half year.
They have an agent system, which I guess can be compared to the BBS missions. Here you work for agents in specific fields like combat or trade (or mixed), and gain "loyalty points". With these you then get offers for ships, modules and other things otherwise not available in the game. The more points, the better rewards. The tougher missions, the more points per mission.

Doesn't have to be exactly like this of course, but something similar I think might bring a new purpose to the BBS missions and make it a great part of the game - other than just building and empire and clear the universe of pirates.

[redlotus]

I'll try to keep this short and to the point.

What did you like - what was fun?

Assassination Missions. Followed by a close second of XI missions.

Which missions would you like to play, what would be fun?

Fight:
As we all know, 1.3 added kha'ak invasions where the attacked system was completely unable to fend off the attack. I would like to see BBS missions where the affected system sends out a distress call for all available pilots. This would offer a much larger financial reward compared to the miniscule 10K that you get now (if you have a Police License, that is). Also, if the player accepts the mission, maybe have a small group of fighters/corvettes join the fight once the player enters the system.

Trade:
BBS Mission at Equipment Docks where the EQ owner is asking for equipment that can only be purchased from rival races. For example, Borons need 25MJ which are generally only available from the Split or the Argon want to purchase a Docking Computer which are only available from the Paranid.

Build:
An older station owner wants to retire and is offering to sell to you for a percentage of profits. He will take half of the profits (selling price-production cost)/2 until the station is paid off. Since he is letting you make a 'payment plan,' he will end up taking 1.5-2x the cost of the station if it were purchased new. This would help early-game players to get a start without having to front the credits needed for a new station.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll edit this post if I can think of a 'Think' mission.

[Yeorin]

Some pirate-specific missions would be cool. For instance, maybe a wealthy-but-shady Mine operator needs more slaves. So, he asks you to acquire them. He'd pay X credits for each slave, plus X amount ontop if you get all of them. Or maybe a junkie needs a fix, so he requests some spaceweed

A 'THINK' Mission: Infiltration missions. A station owner asks you to earn the trust of a rival station manager by doing business with him (supplying him and such). Then on one trade run you take in a load of explosives or operatives. Depending on this payload, the station is either destroyed or taken over by the other station owner. If destroyed, the player gets a credit reward. If taken over, the player gets a profit % for a certain amount of time (as long as it's not profit from the player purchasing that station's wares! Imagine buying silicon, selling it for full price, then getting a portion of your money back from the original purchase).

An offshoot of this: One race asks you to sabotage another race's station, Shipyard, or Equipment Dock....or perhaps requests you destroy a certain pirate base. This would only be available when you have a very high ranking with that race.

A 'FIGHT' mission: A variation on assassinations. Instead of killing someone, your job is to bring them in as a prisoner...which means coercing them into ejecting


Aside from all that, take some ideas from all the BBS scripts out there. The assassin/Mercenary/Smuggler guild scripts come to mind....I'd love to see those sorts of things with more in-depth incorporation (like background story.)

Gambling on the BBS (especially in Teladi space) would also be cool. I believe there's a script that impliments this, though.

Hmmm...what else, what else, what else? All I can think of for now.

[X_x_X]

i loved those missions with timelimit, it gives a more realistic and intense feeling, eg "bring me there in 12 jazuras" this could be heavily extented!

for example "help my name is abc i´m getting atacked from xy, please get him off my back before he kills me!

but the thing i liked most were the xenon invasion missions, makes you feel you didn´t buy your m6/m3 just for fun

this could also be extented, in a way even players with m1/m2 will have fun, for example taking out hostile sectors or sumtin like that

i would love a more dynamic bbs, even if his means a 50 mb patch, with not reading the same messages over and over again, it would add munch more atmospehere and fun

[Jsangster]

Great

This is all in reference to a Non-Plot Game

I would like to see a mission in the bulletin board, where if you have your own TL,
someone asks you to place a station for them...
_________________________________________________________________________

I would like to see a station or ship under attack by either pirates or others,
call for help, the same way that when your attacking a target it calls for help

_________________________________________________________________________

I liked the bulletin board entries that tell you of activities actually taking place,
like the khaak invasions, if they were more frequent (the messages, not the attacks)
and more accurate that would be good. Maybe even have some saying a cluster has just
appeared in sector "sectorname" be on the lookout.

the same could be said for pirate incursions.

________________________________________________________________________

I like the news about stations getting destroyed, etc. what about having news about
stations getting built, especially player created stations

________________________________________________________________________

A Twist On what someone else said

I like the assasination missions, but what about just reconnisance or capture missions.
something like be on the lookout for ship named, etc etc. reward if captured.that
would mean that the ship to be captured would have to have a real high
capture probability, meaning theyd bail easily, then youd capture the space suit,
and bring him/her to a certain trading station for incarceration, would require
police license, cargo bay life support. No money given if you run over the space
suit without having your docking bay open.

And you have to order the captured ship back to the nearest trading station where it then dissapears,
if you dont you get the reputation hit. if the ship gets destroyed by someone else, you
STILL get the race rep hit. so youd have to guard it. (no one specifically going after it though)
since it will be SLOOOOOWWWW and possibly unshielded.

________________________________________________________________________

What about if somone asks you to personally fly a ship to a location , lets say a factory needs
a new ts delivered. you can have the ship you were in originally follow you, if you dont deliver
it, you get a race rep hit. if you deliver it you get a race increase. If you deliver it in hostile
circumstances you get extra money and extra race rep bonus, more than if you encountered no enemies.
difficulty rising with notoriety.

________________________________________________________________________

maybe an entry where someone asks you if you have a map of a certain sector, if you have an advanced
sat there, you can sell them the information.

[Iron Giant]

I would like to see missions that fit together better with the persistant universe, instead of it being seperate.

The ULTIMATE add on pack of missions would be a linked together war where the actions of the player really affect the outcome, not just a scripted, linear set of missions.

Lose Omicron Lyrea, you can't buy the specific ships there. Let the war get to close to your budding empire, you'll start to take losses of your own. Ignore calls for help from convoys, your allies start to suffer. This way, the missions really matter and draw you in, instead of just being a means to and end (finish this mission, so I can do next mission, rinse, repeat).

There could be periods of peace for just peaceful trading, or a stalemate, or an end to hostilitys if your allies (with your help) fight back the enemy.

Better yet, missions could be listed as, not just Win/Lose, but there could be different degrees of Win/Loss. A well executed mission that met all objectives might push the enemy back for a while, but a mission that met no objectives wouldn't necessarily have to be redone, but there would be other consequences, like the loss of that system.

If you ignore the war altogether, that would be ok, but you might find that you are trapped in some small section of space eeking out a living behind enemy lines, cut off from the rest of the galaxy for a while.

THAT would be awesome. If done well, it could make for some major replayablity too.

[Admiral Sagan]

I would like there to be more presonalized BBS messages. Example:

Pirate Attack In __________________
A pirate* attack on (station name) in the sector (sector name) was ended by (your name) who destroyed (number) pirate ships before local police forces could respond.

*could be xenon or khaak

Also on pirate stations i would like the option of doing raids on random targets with a wing of falcons or busters.

[CrossWire]

I would like to see paper chase missions, example, you are asked to repossess a ship from a certain pilot for missed repayments, but to do this you have to find him this would mean getting info from stations and npc by coercion and bribery as to his location or where he was last sighted. This not only means he would lead you a merry dance all over the universe but allso you could use you judgement to try and anticipate his next destination so as to be there waiting for him in ambush.

[Stu Austin]

I would like to see Police Stations in each of the core sectors. At the Police Stations, there would be BBS wanted posters. On the wanted posters would be information on the wanted dude. Example:
WANTED
Lefty Smith
For piracy
Last seen in Merchant Haven flying an Osprey #1234
REWARD
His ship and all possessions on board plus 2500 credits if captured alive and 5000 credits if terminated.

Have it where his ship is not shown in RED but he can be in any sector flying his Osprey and you do a scan on all Ospreys and come across him and give him an option: Live or be Terminated.
If he wants to live, have it where you can escort him and his ship to the Police Station, hand him over to the police, and collect your reward.
If he wants to fight, give him an option to surrender.
As an added bonus, have it where he escapes from jail and later on in the game when you least expect it, you will get a message from the police stating he has escaped and is looking for you. In other words, you have to keep looking over your shoulder because he can be in any ship (which is blue in color and not red showing as enemy) and you have to be on the lookout for him. Have it where you can be any rank to go after the bad guy. This would be fun and is a great concept to make the game more exciting.

[apogee]

How about Kidnap missions, only available on Pirate stations

They ask you to kidnap a station manager/faction leader whilst he is in flight, so you would need to take out his escort (if any), cap his ship (the pilot wouldnt be the target) and then guard the ship back to a pirate station, whilst hoding off attackers trying to rescue him.

Different difficulties could exist based on who the target is.

[Dioltas As Dia]

What did you like - what was fun?

There was an assassination mission ("Family Revenge") where I had to take on a Split Elephant with 4 Split Mamba escorts.

Which missions would you like to play, what would be fun?

[Note]:
Allied Race = Race mission was recieved from
opponant race = Race opposed to the Allied Race (Boron vs. Split etc...)
# = A number of.... , or if you prefer, X

Different Storys and Background for the actual BBS can be made up around each of these missions and sometimes for the same mission in different ways (e.g. Reports of an experimental weapons in Sector XX, Recon please OR Reports of a buildup in military ships in Sector XX, Recon please. etc....)

FIGHT:
Small Skirmish

* Patrol missions (e.g. first plot mission) where you either [1] take part in as a wingman OR [2] are a flight leader of the race you recieve the mission off.

* Recon Missions where you must make fly-by of certain sectors (such as opponant race sectors, pirate sectors, xenon or even khaak sectors).

* Deepstrike - Hit and Run missions where you perform guerrilla attacks with other wingmen (M5 -> M3) on opponant race/xenon/pirate/khaak sectors.

* Race Allied Policing missions where you must scan "X" number of transports in a timelimit OR scan all transports for a certain illegal good thats been rumoured to pass through the sector.

* [Pirate] Steal a certain military ship from a Race/Government

* [Pirate] Steal a certain TS with a certain freight

* [Pirate] Steal a certain TP with certain passengers

Major Skirmish

* Sector Invasion - help an Allied Race take over the sector of it's opponant race (e.g. Argon vs. Paranid and vice versa)

* Sector Defending - vice versa of Sector Invasion where you help defend an Allied Race's sector from take over.

* Sector Cleansing - Clearing sectors with huge pirate activities with the Allied Race assistance (and perhaps they may take over).

* Major Deepstrike - With a Allied Race, a taskforce (including capital ships) jump into the heart of a heavily enemy populated sector (such as Xenon or Khaak).

* [Pirate] Capture or Destroy (with a pirate task force) a captial ship of Race/Government

* [Pirate] Hit-and-Run - Destroy or heavily damage a certain Station with a wingmen of other Pirates

TRADE

* Ship Building - Deliver # amount of # wares (E.Cells etc...) to a Shipyard to help make a certain type of ship

* Aiding in Distress - Deliver # of E.Cells to a stranded Allied Race's Capital ship in deep space so it can jump back to the Allied Race's home space

* Military Transport - Transport a number of military personnel from on Allied Race's station to another OR a capital ship

* Warhead Collection - Deliver # amount of # missles to a Allied Race's Capital ship

* Rescue/Retrieve - Find a certain ship in a certain sector and transfer the freight to your own Transport and (if possible) retrieve the ship to return back to the Allied Race's station.

* Explosive Delivery - Deliver a cargo (which hiddenly contains an explosive) for an Allied Race to the opponant race disguised as the opponant race to destroy a certain station

* Exposé - Deliver from an Allied Race (purposely) illegal cargo to another freighter (TS/TL) in a bid to Entrap. Once taken the Allied Race military jumps in to disable the TS/TL and arrest him

* War-time Logistics - Deliver a # amount of either # missles or # weapons to an Allied Race's task force engaged in combat within a certain sector

* Equip and Supply - Deliver a # amount of # shields and # amount of # weapons and a # amount of E.Cells to a newly created Allied Race's ship

* [Pirate] Capture as many Slaves in a certain time limit

* [Pirate] Retrieve # illegal wares from a certain frieghter (by barter or force)

BUILD

* Lasertower Deployment - Help an Allied Race deploy a # of laser towers in a certain sector [Note: Lasertowers are not the players]

* Satellite Deployment - Help an Allied Race deploy a # of satellites in a # of sectors [Note: Satellites are not the players]

* Military Weapon Assistance - Help an Allied Race build # weapon forges in a certain sector (e.g. Build a PAC forge complex, therefore building a Alpha and Beta PAC forge)

* Military Ship Assistance - Deliver a # amount of # ships to a certain Allied Race's sector.

* Takeover Settlement - Help an Allied Race deploy stations in a newly acquired sector

* [Pirate] Deploy # of SQUASH mines to defend a Pirate sector

* [Pirate] Deploy a new Pirate base in a certain sector

THINK

* Investigation - Investigate (detective-like) missing Allied Race's ships or stations

*

there would be BBS wanted posters. On the wanted posters would be information on the wanted dude

* Derelict Ship Retrieval - Attempt to Retrieve an Allied Race's ship (but why was it derelict in the first place )

-------------------------------

If i think of more I will add them....

[Droffy]

I think it would be interesting to see missions where it makes it extreamly difficult to keep your friedly rating with other races. As in doing a mission for the paranid goverment that causes your reputation to be damaged with the boron. Etc. For instance stealing classified data etc. ALso i like the idea of a police station in core sectors, where if you have a good reputation and a police licence you can go to pick up specific crime related missions. In additon it would be good that in some of these missions the crimminal actually ejected so you could capture them alive and diliver them to the police or family who requested the carrying out of the mission in the begining.

Hope these ideas are of use to you.

[shawaddy]

What did you like - what was fun?

I liked Xenon Invasion misssions/Assasination missions

I liked finding useful stuff in space like the free ships which helped me out at the start

I liked the plot missions

It was fun to SEE lots of different charachters that were talking during the plot missions

Which missions would you like to play, what would be fun?

Expand on the Assassination missions, what about BOUNTY HUNTER missions, you have to make the target bail out and then collect him in his spacesuit and deliver him to the Military/Police or some dodgy pirate charachter who in turn pays you.

If you accept a BBS mission it would be fun to go to a cutscene and get some sort of briefing involving the race of whoever you accepted the mission off adding a military, police, inteligence agency or Gangster charachter and their style of briefing instead of just reading more text.

[antman112]

escort missons whold be cool

if story and bbs

say a TL or a TS or a TP and help it get to the place alive
(maby in the turrit or in your own ship)

i liked the idea of raceing i wish that can be made to work in X3 as its there but dont seem to work

how about help rebuilding misson where you have to place a factory in a system that has been attacked you get lots of race rank for it and you get the sum that the factory cost and a little more on top

[J_[SR]]

I would like to see a "destroy the Khakk Foothold" mission. In the mission the khakk have setup a station in an out of the way sector and you have to go and clear them out with a wing of fighters as back up.
I’d also like to see a mission were a fleet of khakk ships are traveling to one of the races home worlds to destroy it. You have to stop them before the ships get there. It would be fun to chase and fight a group of khakk through 5 sectors, having to fight through the escorts as they try to cover the bigger ships heading for the next gate.

Oh and thanks Egosoft for another great game

J_[SR]
The Silent Rebellion Lives