Starting Missions Pay Too Much?

[CaptainSim]

I was thinking about this recently. The missions seem to offer too much money, especially when you start the game. After completing only two or three missions I have enough to purchase a second ship already. Perhaps make most missions pay only a 10-20k to start, with the payments growing as your experience level increases? Obviously there could be a few exceptions, to simulate the occasional windfall. What do you think?

[CaptainX4]

yeah, we keep requesting this since release but it doesnt seem to be "priority" if its ever even noted. best part would be for many of us if there was a challenge to get to the top but there isnt and there are those who dont want it, they absolutely dont want it in the game (even though a simple alternative start could just step through). I would get even further, I wish there were no occasional windfalls and starting missions should only pay 1-5k, but for this to have an effect ship and module prices would have to be redesigned for basics being extreme cheap and bigger and better things to be hugely more expensive... I would say, like in x3, but i would just get the criticism that i want x4 to be x3

[GCU Grey Area]

What do you think?

Doesn't bother me too much. Mostly do the missions in order to increase faction rep enough to buy trade data. The mission rewards are trivial in comparison to how much that costs.

[Tamina]

It would be nice to just have them being tied to the actual difficulty level (and have them work to begin with). Some missions are just so blatantly easy sometimes, they can be easily abused as a regular cheating system.

[Chris0132]

One of the things I like about X4 is that it is far less grindy than X3 so I would prefer not to go back to that. I would rather see more things that require expenditure of money, more missions and goals for large fleets or stations, than simply making it take ages to get a fleet or station.

I've so far put about 150 hours in without SETA because a: I can't find the parts and b: it's not really needed. The latter is a big step up from X3. The pacing produces a game you can just play.

[MHDriver]

I never did any missions when I first started other than the anomaly one. I just farmed crystals endlessly until I was able to get some mining and trading ships and well off that way. Once I started doing missions I only did the station and fleet building ones and with the bug in 1.6 I ended up will all those damn stations and the fleets so it really would not have mattered what the missions payed.

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

In my opinion, they pay a little too much at the very beginning of your playthrough but are irrelevant mid game and after.
The only viable missions, from a financial point of view, are station construction ones.

[adeine]

The bigger problem in my opinion is how closely priced different tiers of equipment are, rendering for instance the Mk1 weapon variants completely pointless.

Arguably the same can be said for most of the S ships.

[zazie]

I remember entering the X-Universe with X2 - and gave up, because I haven't been warned about the "steep learning curve". Having heard about, I found my way into the game with X3R - and learning from several "test starts". But it was a pain to gain the first credits, every found Moskito was a relief .
Later, i seconded a post saying that the first hours of X3TC are the best because you are really struggling to become rich.

X4 is a new game. Egosoft should not only have customers that have been playing the X-games for decades (yes, we ar getting older ...) but find NEW players. The game mechanics and the UI might have become more accessible but no one can deny that the mechanics of X4 are still hard to learn.

In this perspective the Missions are handy for beginners as they can make some bucks quite easily. Egosoft should therefore NOT change the mission-rewards.

In the perspective of X-veterans I don't see a point why you should take those missions with a high pay-off. Veterans know the hard way to make money, shipping Water through half of the Universe with the starting ship, e.g. No one is FORCED to take those missions.

And as a last 'hint': Missions given by SCA or HAT often don't pay at all. Go and grab those

[radcapricorn]

It would be nice to just have them being tied to the actual difficulty level (and have them work to begin with). Some missions are just so blatantly easy sometimes, they can be easily abused as a regular cheating system.

Difficulty level?..

Shoot things that aren't moving and that we give you nice targeting for, when normally that's not allowed. IMPOSSIBLE.
Force that ship to drop a container. Yes, it will be moving. Yes, it will be shooting back. Yes, destroying it before it drops the container will fail the mission. EASY.
Scan a station to X%. MEDIUM.

Also:
Repair two satellites. 185000Cr.
Destroy station's defenses. 191000Cr.

[Horux]

I remember entering the X-Universe with X2 - and gave up, because I haven't been warned about the "steep learning curve". Having heard about, I found my way into the game with X3R - and learning from several "test starts". But it was a pain to gain the first credits, every found Moskito was a relief .
Later, i seconded a post saying that the first hours of X3TC are the best because you are really struggling to become rich.

X4 is a new game. Egosoft should not only have customers that have been playing the X-games for decades (yes, we ar getting older ...) but find NEW players. The game mechanics and the UI might have become more accessible but no one can deny that the mechanics of X4 are still hard to learn.

In this perspective the Missions are handy for beginners as they can make some bucks quite easily. Egosoft should therefore NOT change the mission-rewards.

In the perspective of X-veterans I don't see a point why you should take those missions with a high pay-off. Veterans know the hard way to make money, shipping Water through half of the Universe with the starting ship, e.g. No one is FORCED to take those missions.

And as a last 'hint': Missions given by SCA or HAT often don't pay at all. Go and grab those

I think the actual height of mission reward is to high. I agree, that grinding just for grinding is not fun at all. But with the rewards at the moment, you need 10 minuts on the highway to get enough money to switch from your starter ship to the next one. And this is done without any challange. The income rate needs to grow somehow exponential, so that you do not need weeks to get to XL ships, but at the moment one weekend and you can have all ship classes. That is to fast, in my opinion.

[Tomonor]

Not only do they pay too much, but they are way too easy to complete (no challenge, just repetitivity), and they don't come with certain limitations anymore (for instance, you need this or that kind of ship to complete this mission; you need this and that rank so I, the mission giver even acknowledge your existance).

[Ramokthan]

Uh oh i actually don't do missions for money bc i know other ways to make much more money in shorter time.

Anyone kill me now bc i imply Missions give not enough money to make it profitable?

Actually i think its fine the way it is, but either all things you can buy should be more expensive... and i mean far more expensive, at least 10 times.

Why?
I Start new game and need about 90 minutes of making money to have a minimum of 10 millions on my stock without owning any ship or station.
with that you can already buy a almost endgame M Ship with full best in slot equipment.

Remembering back the days or X3 where you needed at least 8 (20 hours more likely) hours to get a M6/M7 (which was my preferred player ship class).

My method of making money is crystal farming. Its really good but somewhat luck dependant, however luck gets less involved the longer you perform it.

After that i usually start buying Mining ships and let them automine, but as said in another thread this doesnt work properly anymore for me anymore.

[Karmaticdamage]

Considering the hundreds of millions you have to pay to get your own shipyards up and running, no I don't think they pay too much. In the late game the amount of money from missions is so tiny that they are only worth doing for rep/achievements.

[Shehriazad]

Mission variation is more of a problem to me than mission rewards tbh.


They are TOO generic. Missions given should aside from a feeeew generics always reflect the attributes of any given faction.


Teladi missions should almost always have horrible pay but allow you to earn something on the side. (Like they will ask you to deliver a resource and only pay a little bit but point you to a factory with super low buy prices so you can actually get extra cash for bringing more than what was asked from the mission)

Paranid Missions should show their religious zealousy (is that a word?). And I dont necessarily mean like WAR. It could be "We have a traitor, nuke that motherhugger" or "OMG a shipment of holy Pontifex statues was lost to pirates, GET THAT STUFF BACK BY FORCE!

Argon missions would be more diplomatic and defensive in nature.


That kind of stuff...and the rewards would then match the mission factions.

Paranids just want stuff done but their missions will ruin your reputation with others HARD or be insanely hard but pay handsomely.
Teladi missions will be very easy but only extra effort will give you good rewards.
Argon will be a middle ground.


I think that would be more interesting...of course the geneal "build station" quests should still exist...but at a higher faction rep requirement. And once you go up to high rep you actually get some insane missions that could actually put you in a tough spot.

[radcapricorn]

zealousy (is that a word?)

Zealotry. You're welcome

[surferx]

When I restarted after 2.0 came out, I had some self imposed limitations. No crystal mining, and I am not doing missions other than the Boron/anomaly. It's hard not to go out and do that repair satellites for quick credits but I like the challenge. I will take up mission offers only after the current one is set up and finished. I would like to see missions based on requiring higher faction rep and they could even include a game start with higher rep already in place for those impatient players who want a fleet built within the first 30 hours; to each his own.

[adeine]

and they could even include a game start with higher rep already in place for those impatient players who want a fleet built within the first 30 hours; to each his own.

This is what I don't understand. X games are perfectly suited to accommodate a wide range of 'options' with different game starts - those who want to start out with things and skip the grind, those who want to work their way up from nothing and upgrade ship to ship. If they wanted to make the series more accessible for new players, why didn't they just make the default game start a relatively wealthy one and price things accordingly?

Instead even the Explorer/you-start-with-nothing game starts you basically don't have an early game.

Things like slowly being able to afford upgrading your ship in X2, buying more shields, better weapons, then working your way through the different M5/4/3 ships on offer until you could make the big leap to a larger vessel, and spread out from there. It was great to be able to have that full range of 'game-states' in one universe, from making incremental upgrades to one ship, to working your way through different ship types, and eventually ending up with a fleet and trading empire. Each step of the way feeling like ~~ a whole new game ~~

Right now X4 essentially skips all but the last part. Which is still neat, but makes the lack of variety even more strongly felt when most of X4's equipment and ships are pointless (as you can easily afford better versions and vessels from the get go).

[pvarn]

"The mission rewards are trivial in comparison to how much that costs." Agreed. Those missions and the PHQ series is intended to get new players up to speed quick enough to counter the rapidly growing Xenon threat.
While a lot of X series seasoned players and full-time players who quickly find the fastest way to end the game don't need that help (they can also refuse the help) casual players like myself do need them and there are those who do not master the finer details of the game in the first few hours no try to install every mod as they come out might leave the game early due to frustration. As the fixes keep rolling in, I greatly appreciate the design of the game the more ES puts into the patches revealing the breadth and complexity. I would have quit the first day without the pause key! If you don't like a feature, don't use it if you don't have to rather than demanding all other payers have to live without it also.
-Pv-