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

[ca420]

Military recruiting for major fleet battles or sector patrols etc.

Bulletin board can display an ad for pilots and you must fly a certain amount of missions for which ever race you have signed up for.

Example......

I am at Split trading dock then if I sign up to do militery piloting missions then I would be working for the Split and gain recogniyion with them and possibly lose recognition with other races depending on the missions required.

Also have periodic Xenon sector fleet battles for retaliation from Xenon sector attacks. Don't need many but a few every once in a while would be cool.

[vuohi]

First break the BBS into 5 parts. Fight, Trade, Build, Think, News. Always have at least one of each type in every station. Always tailored to the type of station. ie. pirate type stuff in pirate stations, boring boron flavored stuff in theirs, teladi for profitsss in theirs, etc.

1) Fight. There has been a lot of good ideas on this one already posted. Assassination is always nice. In pirate stations get kill the local faction missions to get rep with the pirates. In faction A space get kill/capture missions against rival faction B. Either take part in or prevent a raid on another factions space.

2) Trade. Guy in station X wants you to bring him N amount of Y. Guy wants you to sell his N amount of Y at station X because he cant dock there. Guy in station X wants to buy ship Y but he has bad rep with faction A.

3) Build. have the system calculate a resource shortfall and have a rep from faction A offer a reward if they build station X in sector W to off set the shortfall. have the "repair you station", "sell your station", "buy a poorly run station" type stuff. have the ability to upgrade your station from a M to a L for a fee.

4) Think. If player has a licence for faction A, list a story about pirate contiband coming in through sector W and a reward for its capture or destruction, but do not list very much info besides sector W. Or if in pirate station list a juicy convoy of high grade weapons going from Paranid Prime to Thuroks Beard through many pirate sectors. Vague clues to stations that are special "a paranid communications station is in a sector on the border with the pirates and even has a pirate base in it." (priest pity)

5) News. have it current. if the player or computer builds station X in sector W, post a news story. If the player or computer looses ships or station, have a news story. "A Split Mamba destroyed a Boron Dolphin in Family Whi today. The Queen vows retribution for the terrible act. yada yada yada" If a rival faction/pirates/etc wipes out the last station in sector W, post another story about how terrible it is and someone must do something (with new offer under fight pop up).

[foxd0nut]

I reckon a new mission chain would be cool. Where there is a message on a bulletin board of a lost ship/ sector/ planet/ riches, in a part of space that has not yet been claimed or even discovered. What you can do is participate in trying to find the item/s in question and you get to keep it if you find it. Along the way there are more clues as more information is found out.

Perhaps there is a guy who has made it his lifelong dream to find a lost "super station" that has super powerful unknown weapons, technology and ships. Perhaps it belongs to the race that built the jumpgates, or just some unknown race that there is very little information about. So, this guy has a block of data that he is translating. But he is old and can't fly a ship like he used to. So, he employs you to do it. He translates the data bit by bit and sends you the info.

Along the way there are enemies trying to hurt you. And there is a string of sectors far away from the known universe that can only be reached by jumpdrive, but have jumpgates connecting them. So this guy conveniently translates the coordinates to one of these random sectors.

You jump there and continue to receive information from this guy, telling you where it is. The thing your trying to find is very well hidden, maybe even cloakedm and you have to figure out how to access it. This guy tells you what you need to do, and you do it, and you eventually find the station or whatever your trying to find.

It turns out to be really sweet, plus you are in an as yet unknown part of the universe with limited resources and such.

This story could be expanded into a real epic sorta thing. I would personally love to play something like this as it gets away from the normal baddies like the Xenon. Perhaps the Kha'ak can make an appearance, but only a short one. This could even be the entire theme of an expansion.

This would add variety to the X universe. Because, lets face it, it's a universe after all. This would create new experiences for the player and you could also use it as an excue to add new tech and such. Plus, at the end, you get to claim the overall prize and use it completely. Not be limited in anyway. You found it, you get it.

I know it's not much. But this is currently at the top of my X universe wish list.

[Skeeter]

I rather would like some missions like these as i think they would be fun and different kinda.

1.

Search and destroy:

You are hired by the military of local race. You are then given a mission to hunt down a random ship in a nebula or asteroid field (its hiding). You are given a new prototype scanning device which will beap when you are getting closer to the target. When you are within 10km the enemy will attempt to run rather than attack you as its carrying spy secrets which the military want back. This mission is completed when you destroy and pick up the cargo container containing the stuff the military wanted (unique ware randomly generated name from list in a file like spy pictures or documents or tech prototypes. Take this back to the station you recieved this mission for pay. Less if you just destroy the ship and forgot to pickup the cargo container (such as accidental destroyed or ship didnt jettitson it in time).

2.

Miners Guild mission.

The miners guild needs a few high output factorys silicon and ore and they want you to find them 2 asteroids which contain high value or ore and silicon (1 of each). The mission will differ as in randomly generated values needed.

The only problem is i know is that if you already scaned loads of asteroids and know high value asteroids then the mission would be done instantly so if you can find a way to scan for the mission so its enjoyable and doable so that scnas are only for the guild then this could work and would be a good Think and Search combo mission. Perhaps the guild will want certain sectors that they were looking at scanning for the high value asteroids maybe? And perhaps to make it more interesting you could have when mission is accepted that a TL spawns near the station you got the mission from and this is where you must comm them with co-ords of the asteroids. (so they can actually build on them as once co-ords are recieved and varified mission is almost done as all you do then is escort the miners guild TL to where the sector is so it can build the mining stations. Once the TL arrives in the sector and has built the two stations then mission is won and reward is given.


3.

Emergency assitance mission

Description:

The khaak, xenon or enemy race is attacking a few sectors, the govenments want assitance from its allies. So depending on who you take mission for and who its alies are you go to allied races home system and comm the flagship of allied race and a new option comes up to tell them about the mission of mercy and request for assitance. So if your argon and the split or khaak are attacking say three core systems then you would goto kingdoms end and see if the boron flagship will help the argons with ships to the sectors where the fighting is happening. Some races will refuse to help so you may have to help them yourselfs or get another allied race (of the race your doing mission for not allied to u) to help.

Once a allied race agrees to help and threat is eliminated then mission is won, depending on time taken and losses for the spawned fleets for that specific mission the reward will differ. Time is also a factor possibly.

I supose this can be like the mission in X-BTF where you go around rounding up the races to join a major battle against the xenon, just trimmed down to fit a bbs mission perhaps.


4.

Simple message delivery. You recieve a message once bbs mission accepted and you just deliver it to a ship or station. Comm usage optional as message could be encoded on a data rod or somit.



Missions could be without reward like money/ships/whatever and just give bigger boosts to race realtions than normal. Would be nice to never fire a shot sometimes


Ill think of more later. But what would be enjoyable is complex multi purpose mission combining the 4 elements of X Universe, the TRADE, FIGHT, BUILD, THINK (discovery as well).

[By0Z]

In X2 there was a mission where you had to destroy the asteroid station, sorry been awhile since I played any of the plot. How about a mission where your given the "whatever" ship and have to go into a sector undercover, avoid being scanned, or killed plant a device, to keep track of whats going on, then have to be able to go retrive it safley. Like the mission in X2 the device it self doesn't stand out so you have to remember where you leave it, and they don't trash it right away.


Maybe some sort of spying mission where you have to leave the saftey of any ship, sneak in to a TL, or station, steal some info or plant a bug, or even steal one of their ships and get away.


And if I repeated anyone else's ideas, sorry after I read the first 2 pages, I just wanted to put in my 2cents worth.

[Elwood J Blues]

[NBMR - G]

A BBS mission could be the only possible way to get a ship from a previous X game. You look it up on the BBS board and find a lead. You have to follow all the leads before you come to something like what happed when you discovered the Gunner in X2. Might take 3-4 hours of solid gameplay to follow all the leads and you might sometimes come up to a false ending and find a ship thats just registered as Elite or Bayamon as a tribute name as the pilot had a soft spot for the ship that now does not exist.

Elwood J Blues.

[EidolonsFury]

One of the things I have really enjoyed on the BBS, is the gambling. I would really like to see this direction explored into things other than just blackjack. I would also like to see specific places/casinos where you could just keep gambling. This way, once the player has a bit of money he doesn't mind losing, or just looking for a fast return, he can dock at the Casino and just have choice after choice of enticing games to try and beat the odds at.

I would like to see bounty hunter type missions offered to those with a police license. Not even necessarily having a specific ship which you must immediately find, but rather you are informed of the general last known where abouts of the ship. The wanted ship can move through the galaxy like any other ship, so if you take a long time going after it, it might be far from the place mentioned in the BBS. I would also like to be able to undertake more than one bounty at a time, so they become more or less targets of opportunity. If I happen to cross paths with the ship, I am free to attempt to capture the piliot, and bring him to justice.

I would like to see messages mentioning the player's deeds in the universe. I would like the name to be shown to be tied to the player's input name, rather than simply Julian. So that if the player own a particularly profitable factory that makes a good amount of money per hour, then it's mentioned inside of a BBS article. Consequently, if the player owns a dud factory that just seems out of place in the sector he's placed it in, I'd like to see an article criticizing the decision. I would like the occaisional offer to buy one of my factories from me, to make it a decision of making a quick buck, or to keep the factory for what it can produce more long-term. If the player has a certain amount of kills within a given time period, I'd like to see it mentioned within the BBS, crediting the player's fighting ability. I would like to see the occaisional spam message showing up, or something from some random hacker that is looking to get noticed.

I would like to see a series of missions tied together through the BBS. These don't need to be related to the storyline at all, but possibly a more simple line of missions that move like a flow chart. A proposed mission is mentioned in the BBS at trading docks, where the player has a good race rep with. Whether the player accepts the mission or not, the mission will still happen. The flow chart can be based around 3 options per mission, the player succeeding in the mission, the player trying and failing the mission, and the player not taking the mission at all. I would like to see the outcomes effect balcance within specific sectors, causing drastic changes to the economy. If the player has stations in that particlar sector, it would be in his best interest to actually undertake the mission, as his own factories will also be effected by the outcome.

I would like to see messages of racial tension on the many border areas of the different races. I would like to occaisionally see a war break-out from the border dispute, with both sides asking for the player's help. The player can accept either side, but also has an option of working as a double-agent and double-crossing the race. It can pay off with both monetary and racial bonuses, adding a new level of thought for the player when choosing who to support. Maybe he'll go for race he has poor relations with, which will pay less, but offer more of a race boost than one he is already in good favor with. Double-crossing a race will naturally penalize the player's rep with that race. I would also like to see this border dispute to include pirates and their sectors, allowing the player to side with the pirate bases to earn some difficult favor with them.

I would like to see more pirate specific missions from pirate bases. I would like to see smuggling runs offered, illegal assassinations, and simple hired thug and body guard missions. I want to be offered missions to protect a pirate base from a government strike against that base. I would like to see enough bonuses from missions, to make it possible, and at times worthwhile to play solely as a pirate and not need to have a good rank with anyone....well, other than maybe the Teladi. I want to go on missions where you'll have pirate escorts and wingman, but maybe after the mission they turn on you and try to kill you. If you do something especially bad to a group of pirates during a mission, I'd like to see missions where you might have been set up. You go into a sector for a hit on a target, and once you destroy it, you find it was an empty ship and everyone in that sector turns hostile and tries to take you out.

Okay, I think I've listed enough for now.

[EidolonsFury]

Forgot one thing in my last post.

How about some puzzles offered on the bulletin boards, economic puzzles. For instance you dock, and get an offer to help a race out, with economic planning in one of their sectors. You're given a list of current factories within a sector, which has an economic hole, and you have to figure out how to balance that sectors economy through planned progress, by deciding what other stations, size, and how many are needed to fill that hole, without creating a surplus. If you fill the hole correctly, you might get some sort of bonus, while if you don't fill it, or create too much of a surplus of a certain item, then you get penalized for waste, and not utilizing the government's funding appropriately.

On a less involved note, there could also be simple riddles and small puzzles to do. Something to just sit and pass the time while docked at the occaisional station. Brain-teasers and that sort of thing, with multiple choice answers. Something that lets take a break from the trading and combat enviornment, and just relax while thinking of various puzzles. Even the occaisional long-winded word problem with all the crazy Teladi based times within it, causing the player to beat their head agains the desk trying to decipher it all, to find it's a simple trick question.

I just learned the Edit function, so please forgive me for not including the above post with my original one.

How about a dynamic ranking system which sends a message to the BBS on occaision, showing different stats of races within the universe, and also yourself in that list once you gain enough presence within that region. So if you have a vast trade empire, it would show how your assets rank compared to the other races. Giving you something to monitor as you continue playing for longer and longer, trying to earn more profit per factory than the different governments, or TerraCorps. The same can be applied to your fleet of ships, as it shows your your military might compares with the dominant race within a sector. So the more ships you stack in a sector, the more you might see your military presence mentioned in one of the BBS boards within that sector.

How about the ability to bribe one sector's government, to attack an adjacent race's sector. Good for causing those border disputes, and also for finding a way eliminate rival stations within a sector to ensure your stations are dominant. There is also the chance that the attack fails, and the target sector strikes back at the sector you bribed. Thus destroying much of their local economy, and also hurting your race rank with the sector you hired, as your actions caused them to lose ships and stations.

I would also like to see overtune offers, in the BBS. Cycrow has made a script that does this, but I would like a limit as to it not showing up anymore after your ship has passed a specific amount of overtunings. That way, no one uses it to the extreme point on the same ship over and over, causing inbalance in the game environment. It doesn't has to be much overtuning, as a little can make a lot of difference in the feel of the ship. Also, it gives a player the feeling of having a more unique, and customized ship.

I would like to see various offers specific to benefit Terracorps. Whether playing the plot game or not, the station is still supposed to be very influential, so I would like to see anything more that mentions them specifically.

How about having some terrorist actions that take place, and get reported through the BBS. For instance hearing about different enviornmental accidents, misuse and abuse reports at stations, and sabotage. This would allow for some stations to be immediately destroyed (including the occaisional player owned station) while sometimes varying amounts of hull damage is done, causing the player to look for those station repair options in the BBS. You could also, hire saboteurs to attack a specific rival station. If you do enough missions for pirates and such, you can even be warned if someone has paid for an attack against you or your stations. You might be able to give a counter-offer to stop the attack, or at least reduce it, while revealing the name of the person who hired them. Thus, allowing you to find them and get a little revenge.

[search light]

hmm how about battles against capital ships once you have a high enough of a combat ranking and a capital ship of your own.
Also how about a mission where you have to guard a specific station or ship

[nirwin]

From the missions I have played, I liked the turret, race, and chase (where you keep jumping after that guy who undocks from the marauder - mission 4 or whatever) missions, so would like to see more of those.

Also how bout a treasure hunt? mission starts of with a clue, you decipher it, go to a certain station/sector, pick up a capsule with a message in it, jump somewhere else, meet a contact, solve another riddle etc. just for it to turn out to be some guy with a grudge against you for some reason luring you into an ambush?

Also I wouldn't mind some BBS posts for mundane missions such as a simple go to destination, pick-up/drop-off some goods, no attacks and small reward, just for immersions sake

OOOOh and how about some private eye missions? follow the senator and observe his actions, maybe get spotted and have to deal with his bodyguards.

How about someone's ship has been disabled (somehow, not necessarily attacked) and the owner wants you to go out there and take it some computer components to get it operational again? Maybe you have to defend it from a small pirate raid while the parts are being fitted

Good luck

[BrendanD]

I think the persistent X-Universe is the perfect platform for a dynamic military campaign like Falcon 4.

The player has a chance to join a military as a mercenary (Once he has a high enough race ranking.) and gets orders through the BBS for missions. If the player does well the enemy forces are driven back towards their home sectors if you do badly then you get pushed back (Which means your properties come under threat.)

You can face massive fines if you do badly but you are rewarded for doing well. If you do really well you can ultimately lead the assault on the enemies home system.

[apricotslice]

I'd like to see not so much missions, as complete new plot style additions to the game, which begin from an ordinary looking bbs mission for some individual or organisation.

The missions pay money, but also have consequences, add technology and add something to the overall game.

They can begin with something like an assasination or escort mission, and then the consequences of taking that mission weave a plot that keeps you going for a while.

None of this has to be main plot related, and if you build it properly, you should get many people from the forum capable of submitting plenty of interesting plot lines all ready for you to just plug in, or released as scripts.

PS, I dont play the bbs missions. I did them all in X2, and there was none of them that actually made me feel it was worth the time to do them.

Oh yeah, EDIT : I want a mission where we actually get the girl at the end of it

[easty]

This is what i would like

1.Escort missions perhaps you as part of a convoy guarding merchants

2.Many times i see ships under attacks from the enemy it would be cool if they offered a reward for you saving them

[NBMR - G]

[lt_wentoncha]

The missions where the player had to travel in the exploding pirate station and the asteroid were some of the worst gameplay I have ever experienced. I actually got vertigo because I got lost in the mission. There is no intuitive directional system for that mission; the direction arrows do no work because the escape pods are at different depths. Seriously, I was lost for an hour until I actually got the "this station's gonna s'plode" message. Wonderful, Saya and Miria die because I took a right turn when it should have been left. Maybe colors for different sector/corridors? Arrows on the walls? Hah.

Second, I hated the interior asteroid mission, the last one. It felt like the movie Innerspace, and I wasn't too sure if I was flying or performing a colonoscopy.

Ooops bulletin board. Well I hate the missions that pay so little, like the transport missions. I would like more assassination missions, possibly from some sector control station (work as a bounty hunter). Also, a greater number of sector invasion missions would be nice. Also, the racetrack should be playable after plot completion; in mine, whenever I click on the enter race button nothing happens.

[God-Demis]

Hello from God-Demis everyone.

I think that a very nice quest would be a..something like a patrol mission.
It would require a Police Licence of the current sector species eg Argon if miision is on Argon Prime,Boron if mission is on Kingdom End etc, and a freight scanner.The mission has to do something about someone trying to smuggle in something illegal,but you dont know who,and have to find him.So off you go,start searching almost every ship in the sector trying to find the smuggler.When and if you find him,you tell him to surrender and drop his cargo.At this point-from neutral he becomes hostile-,either he surrenders or he tries to outrun you.If he tries to outrun you,about sometime later he calls for some backup and some M3s and M4s arrive to assist him.Take them all down and bring the smuggler at final to justice.
No reward should be given for that mission.(Just Kidding)

[avicenna]

BBS missions I have enjoyed - xenon invasion and assassination missions. Will do most of the others occassionally to earn credits.

BBS missions I would like to see:

1) Hints on BBS about mysteries that can be tracked down. For example argon corvette disappeared beyond the south gate of treasure chest. Then if you search a few hundred kilometres beyond the south gate you locate a disabled badly damaged ship that can be claimed. Alternatively, a set of rumours on BBS that allow you to locate a unique alien ship if you follow the hints.

2) Kidnap rescue missions where you have to solve a series of puzzles to locate the kidnap victim. For example the rescue the senators daughter mission in privateer 2 - the darkening.

3) BBS Rumours that lead to the location of alien artifacts about the ancient gatebuilders.

[NBMR - G]

[nielsw]

would love to see some white collar crime, like a bounty to take out a competitor's factory at a strategic location.

and the possiblity for covert work, where, by taking certain precautions, you can commit some sins without the entire universe knowing about your sins...

[AjRyder]

Its quite simple really. I like missions that span about 4 or 5 seperate missions. Like a mini storey line like that extra one you had in X-Tension. That was good Also I know you said not about rewards but what was cool about that was you got a special ship a one of a kind now I do like that idea. As it can give you an edge in other missions.

[Trinsan]

1. Multiple deliveries: Deliver two or more differnet cargos to a specific trading station within a given amount of time. Find the sales outlets yourself.

2. Build a specific factory in sector X for speciex Y's expansion. You get a predefined sum of money, whatever is left from it is yours to keep. The factory itself is transferred to the species ownership. Would add an interesting growth factor to the game

3. Diplomatic transport mission... get person X from the Boron to visit the Teladi person Y. If you fail, it will unleash a diplomatic crisis between the two leading to an attack on opposite stations, freighters, property in general and not lesat neutralize your current rating with a species require new work to improve it agian. This one would be great to create more dynamics in the universe

4. Escort / Lead a group of ships from X to Y of different sorts. Some being trade ships, others being fighers / battleships or a mammoth on a remote factory construction mission.[/b]

[SpamSLapper]

One of the game aspects I enjoy most is exploration. With an expansion pack, I would certainly hope to see a few more sectors added to explore. There could be a mission where you repair one of the broken gates. This would require a huge amount of resources, plus some special items.

What would be even better would be if sectors could be added to the game in random locations. This would mean you couldn't cheat by looking up the location in the forum, and you would have the feeling of finding something truly unique. The sectors should be worthwhile finding, ie high yield roids in a nice layout. Rumours would start appearing in the BBS of a new Unknown Sector being discovered, and the race would be on to find and colonise it. If you take too long, there may be someone else's stations in there when you find it, and you might have to fight them for it. Perhaps increased UFO activity in the area could give you a clue to its whereabouts.

Speaking of UFOs... A UFO base? No, wait that's already in there, isn't it...