Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 :: [one page] |
|
Author |
Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 23 post(s) |
|
CCP Fallout
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:16:00 -
[1]
Okay, everyone. Please raise your hand if you are tired of your mission agents giving you boring, random missions. Raise them higher if you're just downright annoyed that they give you the same missions over and over and over again. Frankly, we are, too. That's why Apocrypha, our next and most expansive expansion will include a brand new feature: Epic Mission Arcs!
In his newest blog, CCP Molock gives us the 411 on what's in store for epic arcs. Learn how epic arcs will bring an ongoing story into New Eden with branching missions that will bring exciting challenges to both new and old players alike.
Fallout Associate Community Manager CCP Hf, EVE Online
|
|
KingKenny
Minmatar Warp Core Tech
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:18:00 -
[2]
Edited by: KingKenny on 25/02/2009 16:19:21 1st Time I been first ever in nearly 6 years.
So how long before those non noobs can get a challanging epic mission? Weeks, months or longer?
|
Nora Syrinx
Knights of the Old Empire AAA Citizens
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:25:00 -
[3]
Nice one still a little dissapointment were not getting more missions until some time after the expansion The Strong Will Survive |
Newbee
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:25:00 -
[4]
whoooohooo! nice one
|
Nerad Tendo
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:27:00 -
[5]
I'm just happy to be on the first page.
I'm gonna have to dust off my enyo and give this thing a whirl.
This is gonna be sweet ccp!
Where can I go to meet this new agent on SISI?
|
Iosue
Brau Haus
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:30:00 -
[6]
so will this be similar to a "campaign" one finds in other games?
|
Gamer4liff
Caldari Metalworks THE INTERSTELLAR FOUNDRY
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:41:00 -
[7]
So how exactly do you know where to look for these epic agents? -----------
Originally by: CCP Whisper Deal with it.
|
Last Wolf
Umbra Wing
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:48:00 -
[8]
Sweet mother of pearl! Its gonna be GRREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAT! Besides, I'm never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down |
Mashie Saldana
Sharks With Frickin' Laser Beams
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:51:00 -
[9]
Originally by: Gamer4liff So how exactly do you know where to look for these epic agents?
Here is a good start.
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:51:00 -
[10]
Quote: So how exactly do you know where to look for these epic agents?
You'll be referred to the initial Epic Arc agent by another agent. Prep your resume.
|
|
|
Ki Tarra
Caldari Ki Tech Industries
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:52:00 -
[11]
How tightly bound are the time limits going to be on these mission arcs.
I know several people who have "failed" the current new player mission set because currently a mission set must be completed within one week of requesting the first mission.
Epic Mission Arc will be an Epic Fail if taking off for a week to deal with real life screws up the entire arc.
As much as it might break realism, if you are going to be string together more than a 2 or 3 missions, there needs to be a way to take an extended break without tossing a spanner into the works.
|
Dan Grobag
Caldari French Empire Squad
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:52:00 -
[12]
That look like cosmos missions to me.
|
el caido
School of Applied Knowledge
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:54:00 -
[13]
Quote:
Finally, while the rewards for Epic Missions won't be vastly greater than those for normal missions, they will tend to give out cool new toys (or at least exceptional rewards) at the ends of chapters and, of course, at the end of each complete arc.
Can you clarify this please? It almost seems like a contradiction.
|
|
CCP Big Dumb Object
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:54:00 -
[14]
Originally by: Ki Tarra How tightly bound are the time limits going to be on these mission arcs.
Epic Arc missions will not expire.
|
|
gordon861
Minmatar PROGENITOR CORPORATION
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:55:00 -
[15]
So they have been Quote: Two sprint teams in our Atlanta office have worked concurrently on Epic Missions for months now: One team consisted entirely of programmers, the other of content developers.
And they have produced : from http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1007292&page=2#43
Quote: For Epic Arcs, what we're delivering on March 10 is actually two things; one is massive new mission arc that's accessible to most players, the other is an entirely new mission mechanic that makes all this possible. That one arc is honestly just the beginning. We have a new mission mechanic and we have a raft of new improvements to what we can do in missions as well - we're definitely going to be using all of this stuff.
Just one arc, for the newbi players to get them started, this patch is sounding more like the NGE every week...
Originally by: CCP Arkanon I frown on employees being power players to the extent that their gameplay results in any sort of domination over others. I donĘt believe CCP employees should run the EVE universe. |
Steve Thomas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:57:00 -
[16]
Edited by: Steve Thomas on 25/02/2009 17:02:02
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas
Quote: So how exactly do you know where to look for these epic agents?
You'll be referred to the initial Epic Arc agent by another agent. Prep your resume.
so how many of these are there in developement?
and will they actualy be released by winter expansion this year, or "soon"(tm) along with the Faction war update, industry update and other "soon" items?
*.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.*
Stop freaking worrying about why things the developerd did 5 years and more ago no longer make sence. |
gordon861
Minmatar PROGENITOR CORPORATION
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:58:00 -
[17]
Originally by: Steve Thomas
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas
Quote: So how exactly do you know where to look for these epic agents?
You'll be referred to the initial Epic Arc agent by another agent. Prep your resume.
so how many of thies are there?
er ... just one
Originally by: CCP Arkanon I frown on employees being power players to the extent that their gameplay results in any sort of domination over others. I donĘt believe CCP employees should run the EVE universe. |
|
CCP Big Dumb Object
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 16:59:00 -
[18]
Originally by: el caido
Quote:
Finally, while the rewards for Epic Missions won't be vastly greater than those for normal missions, they will tend to give out cool new toys (or at least exceptional rewards) at the ends of chapters and, of course, at the end of each complete arc.
Can you clarify this please? It almost seems like a contradiction.
An epic arc is itself broken into chapters. Our first arc, "Blood-Stained Stars", is comprised of 7 chapters, each between 5-10 missions each. Chapters allow us to break the story into discrete chunks of more focused sub-narratives, as well as divide the workload effectively between numerous designers. It also helps us keep a better pace through the arc, both in narrative and in pay-outs.
|
|
el caido
School of Applied Knowledge
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:01:00 -
[19]
I understand the chapters; I am confused by the reward system. Am I to assume that missions won't pay much more than comparable normal missions, but we will receive something special at the end ...? Isn't that a contradiction?
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:01:00 -
[20]
Quote: Quote: Finally, while the rewards for Epic Missions won't be vastly greater than those for normal missions, they will tend to give out cool new toys (or at least exceptional rewards) at the ends of chapters and, of course, at the end of each complete arc. Can you clarify this please? It almost seems like a contradiction.
The Epic Arcs are not randomly generated missions, so if we want to make a story that ends with you receiving, say, a shiny storyline or collector item, we can do that. Hell, we can tune the awards to give you a Titan at the end, if we wanted to. You know, as your reward for saving CONCORD or something. We are telling stories now, strings of stories, and the rewards can be based upon what you do in the story.
|
|
|
el caido
School of Applied Knowledge
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:02:00 -
[21]
Thanks. Can't wait to see them live.
|
Dan Grobag
Caldari French Empire Squad
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:03:00 -
[22]
How will it work with other players ?
Is it single player minded, can it work in group, can someone come to your epic instance and wreck the outcome ?
|
Ki Tarra
Caldari Ki Tech Industries
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:04:00 -
[23]
Originally by: CCP Big Dumb Object
Not only do we get Epic Missions, we get Epic Dev names.
|
gordon861
Minmatar PROGENITOR CORPORATION
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:10:00 -
[24]
Originally by: el caido Thanks. Can't wait to see IT live.
Fixed the quote.
Should be fun.
More lag than Jita as 20k Empire Dwellers rush to that one agent to be the first to finish it on the 11th March.
I hope they use this New Mission System more than they used the last New Mission System and actually deliver on the promises.
Originally by: CCP Arkanon I frown on employees being power players to the extent that their gameplay results in any sort of domination over others. I donĘt believe CCP employees should run the EVE universe. |
Macmuelli
Gallente Meltd0wn Imperial Republic Of the North
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:12:00 -
[25]
Will this missions brings us into all 4 faction space to complete them? And what happend to the players, which have such a negative standings they got follwed, when entering this empire faction systems? Are there any mods or Riggs, which allows us to go to the enemie faction space to complete it, without getting toasted or followed by the navy on every gate/ place?
A great company/ game and expansion.
looking forward breg mac
eve since 2003 |
Lieutenant Isis
Gristle Industries
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:15:00 -
[26]
Sounds really cool. Hope CCP can generate a few mission arcs for older players pretty soon!
Originally by: Roc Wieler I enhance my RP experience by filling my bathtub with red jello, balancing a wooden plank across it, then play EVE naked on my laptop.
|
Steve Thomas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:19:00 -
[27]
Originally by: gordon861
Originally by: el caido Thanks. Can't wait to see IT live.
Fixed the quote.
Should be fun.
More lag than Jita as 20k Empire Dwellers rush to that one agent to be the first to finish it on the 11th March.
I hope they use this New Mission System more than they used the last New Mission System and actually deliver on the promises.
I hate to say this but that would virtualy be a first for CCP since they launched EVE,
*.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.*
Stop freaking worrying about why things the developerd did 5 years and more ago no longer make sence. |
De Guantanamo
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:37:00 -
[28]
First page.
Protip: the word epic is overrated.
Looking forward to testing this out though.
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:42:00 -
[29]
Quote: Will this missions brings us into all 4 faction space to complete them?
Yes, this arc will span all four factions. We don't give you anything special to combat your negative standings in certain Empire space, but I can give you a warning that you shouldn't fly this particular arc if you are worried about getting ganked because of your negative standing.
"Blood-Stained Stars" is geared towards newer players as a chance to see all of EVE in a story-driven context. It'll give them a chance to leave the starter systems and the familiar space and to actually see what the other Empires are like. You can certainly fly this arc as an older player, but if you are worried about your standing, keep that factor in mind.
We have more Epic Arcs to come, and they may be geared to certain factions or Empires. But just like you would not run missions in some Empire space or for certain factions because of your standings, you probably would not run some Epic Arcs for the same reasons.
|
|
Steve Thomas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 17:48:00 -
[30]
Originally by: gordon861 Edited by: gordon861 on 25/02/2009 16:57:23 So they have : Quote: .
And they have produced : from http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1007292&page=2#43
Quote: .
Just one arc, for the newbi players to get them started, this patch is sounding more like the NGE every week...
ok you just failed
first the SW NGE explination can be found here
http://www.massively.com/2008/06/26/a-star-wars-galaxies-history-lesson-from-launch-to-the-nge-5/
second at the core nothings realy changed. they did not delete the drones or the ships that use them, they did not re-do the comat system to where its something completly diferent, they did not streamline skill training to where anyone can role up a Jovian and can hop into a Jove titan in your first month and be able to own half of space. . . only to find out that titans = frigates.
they just promised us a ****load of features and yet again failed to deliver on them because they ran out of time and now they have to focus on the NEXT expansion and they will get back to fitting in what they realy wanted to do "Soon".
only this time they made the mistake of useing the word "Epic"
*.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.*
Stop freaking worrying about why things the developerd did 5 years and more ago no longer make sence. |
|
Ralitge boyter
Minmatar BrightSpark Alliance
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 18:07:00 -
[31]
Please don't tell me that the idea is really as it states on the expansion features page, having to hop across may different systems and visiting all 4 empires... mission running is only useful if one can do it as a pass time while waiting for other things to do, others to come online. Making a player spend a long time hopping from one system to the next and then having no better pay then the current missions makes very little sens to me. Sure it is fun once or twice, but every arch is just another part 1 of xx mission and the goal behind these missions is to make ISK and some how help the faction you are fighting for. Now helping the faction doesn't seem to be part of the deal so the only thing left is making ISK and that is exactly what these arcs with their many hops will prevent from happening. Since all systems are the same the only difference being a different color in the back ground there is really no point to dragging your ship all over the place just to get less income (more jumps between missions is less time doing missions, thus less income).
I like the idea but arcs should be contained in smaller locations then the once hinted at on the expansion features page, if that is the idea for all of them please stop now as it is just a waist of time for all involved. ------------------------------------------- Should you disagree with me, well I guess that is because I disagree with you. If you have a problem with that please feel free not to tell me. |
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 18:12:00 -
[32]
The features page is only referring to the "Blood-Stained Stars." Other arcs will have as large (or small) of a scope as we make them.
Epic Arcs are about stories; that's what we will provide. Yes, you will get rewards, some of them might be OMGAWESOME, some may be typical. But whatever it is, we will provide you with a story and context.
|
|
Jason Edwards
Internet Tough Guy
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 18:20:00 -
[33]
Quote: they will tend to give out cool new toys (or at least exceptional rewards) at the ends of chapters and, of course, at the end of each complete arc.
Watch them be like cosmos offerings which are like totally horrible mods. 1bil isk says they wont be giving away Gold Magnates and Guardian-Vexors
Quote: Additionally, we've introduced the ability to complete and accept missions remotely, rather than forcing players to fly all the way back to their agent's station to report in.
This is interesting.
1. Completing mission can be done now simply by docking at any station and then turning it in. Exception being cosmos and couriers where you have to be there. 2. Being able to accept missions remotely would be cool. So I went on sisi to check.
Seems not...
"Sounds good. Please stop by so we can formalize the mission contract."
Quote: (I mean, this is a setting that relies on FTL communications, right? Yet I can't call my agent? Well, no longer.)
I can finalize a trade contract in space. Why I need to goto my agent does seem silly. ------------------------ To make a megathron from scratch, you must first invent the eve universe. ------------------------ Life sucks and then you get podded. |
Steve Thomas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 18:21:00 -
[34]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas The features page is only referring to the "Blood-Stained Stars." Other arcs will have as large (or small) of a scope as we make them.
Epic Arcs are about stories; that's what we will provide. Yes, you will get rewards, some of them might be OMGAWESOME, some may be typical. But whatever it is, we will provide you with a story and context.
sigh
please stop calling them epic arcs. from what I saw on Sisi its as epic as toast.
Yes I agree more missions are better. Yes I agree that finaly figureing out how to include If-then-Else logic to storylines is an improvment so that at least its not randomly giving you the same mission three times in a row. and yes I hope to see more of them.
But I learned to tune out industry buzzspeak a long time ago when i saw a game dev describe the facial hair customimsation they had as revolutionary.(you could pick the color and width of the beard!!!!! Set it wide enough and it might actualy peek through the helmet your character wears 24-7!!!!!!!
*.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.*
Stop freaking worrying about why things the developerd did 5 years and more ago no longer make sence. |
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 18:25:00 -
[35]
Remote completion is an option available to us, not a default setting. It's not quite an epic option, but it is revolutionarily epic-like.
|
|
Steve Thomas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 18:39:00 -
[36]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas Remote completion is an option available to us, not a default setting. It's not quite an epic option, but it is revolutionarily epic-like.
ok let me get the cattleprod.
seriously its like the Dev speak drinking game around here. every time they use a buzz word take a shot!
Ok we get that your proud of the new mission threads and that you can now use if then else logic to make it more interesting. And we do want more of this.
but shesh! enogh with the Devbuzzspeak! Im out of Bannanas to make the morning after cure!
*.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.* *.*
Stop freaking worrying about why things the developerd did 5 years and more ago no longer make sence. |
Jason Edwards
Internet Tough Guy
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 18:49:00 -
[37]
Also looking at the new agent screen now that I made it to my agent. I like it. Saves me from clicking more info CONSTANTLY.
I notice a new button "delay" but it's purpose is basically non-existent. If you simply hit the X and close the convo with the agent. That is delay. Kind of pointless to add delay in there. But whatever I guess. ------------------------ To make a megathron from scratch, you must first invent the eve universe. ------------------------ Life sucks and then you get podded. |
Kiotsu Adler
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 18:50:00 -
[38]
We will see new arcs integrating new "AI" in the future? Some of them will be desgined for group? Will rewards scalate according to that? etc.
Epic fail on delivering though, I think it's better to not promise stuff you can't deliver later. But hey, every game developer does this for "unknown" (hype) reasons.
|
Manfred Rickenbocker
The Elliance
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 19:03:00 -
[39]
Some simple questions:
Is there a limit on the number of times you can run an Epic Arc (noting that COSMOS could only be run once)?
How often can you run an Epic Arc?
Are there controls in place to prevent farming of some of these Epic Arcs?
How do Epic Arcs affect factional and/or corporation standings?
How is the reward system going to work? Simplistic LP/Cash/Item payouts like normal missions (with quick-completion bonuses)? (I rather hope not)
How do you choose different branches within the arc? ------------------------ Peace through superior firepower: a guiding principle for uncertain times. |
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 19:13:00 -
[40]
Edited by: CCP Jasonitas on 25/02/2009 19:15:23
Quote: Some simple questions: Is there a limit on the number of times you can run an Epic Arc (noting that COSMOS could only be run once)? How often can you run an Epic Arc? Are there controls in place to prevent farming of some of these Epic Arcs? How do Epic Arcs affect factional and/or corporation standings? How is the reward system going to work? Simplistic LP/Cash/Item payouts like normal missions (with quick-completion bonuses)? (I rather hope not) How do you choose different branches within the arc? Will these Epic Arcs be taking us into player owned 0.0 space (like some of the exploration missions did) or try and take us into potentially unreachable locations in 0.0 (like trying to go to pirate faction space)? Can you detail what, if any, changes were made to the current mission system?
All fantastic questions. Most of them have been answered in another thread here.
(Not trying to avoid your question, just trying to be as efficient as possible in answering forum questions while still trying to get my work done.)
|
|
|
Fedurium
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 20:21:00 -
[41]
Edited by: Fedurium on 25/02/2009 20:22:20 Hi,
As i was reading the blog i read the following: "Shortly after Apocrypha, now that our new tools and development processes are in good working order, you can expect lots of new Epic Arcs for various factions and security levels to appear on a regular basis." Does this mean that you will be updaten/creating new missions at a more regualer base so it is possible to update with "minor patches" or is it still based on the two expansions a year?
|
Disteeler
Segunda Fundacion
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 20:29:00 -
[42]
Edited by: Disteeler on 25/02/2009 20:29:03
"we consider this single new Epic Arc to be our greatest victory for the release. "
Way to go CCP. Less is more.
Reality check is in order. And for the love of god, drop over-hyping expansions.
"Keep pumping $ and Ē guys!"
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 20:29:00 -
[43]
Quote: Does this mean that you will be updaten/creating new missions at a more regualer base so it is possible to update with "minor patches" or is it still based on the two expansions a year?
We can insert new Epic Arcs at patches, not just at full-fledged expansions.
|
|
MotherMoon
Huang Yinglong
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 20:46:00 -
[44]
wait I'm confused... you said 7 chapters... but... are they always the same? or do they have whole different ending like promised? So two players have have totally different stories?
or what?
I hope it's not like ones of those games where you think you have some control but the ending is always the same :(
can you give us some sort of idea? like a a nice drawing or something?
|
Bethulsunamen
Amarr Viziam
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 21:07:00 -
[45]
Edited by: Bethulsunamen on 25/02/2009 21:08:03 The blog sort of says two wierd things..
1. It says that finally you can accept and finish missions remotely by calling your agent, yet at the end of that sentence it says, but most missions wont allow that yet. So essentially, this feature is what your team has been working on, but it doesnt REALLY exist, yet?
2. It says that the Epic mission arcs are another thing you've been working on, and blah blah awesome stuff (i agree), but then at the end, same thing. But only 1 at release, the new player arc... So the main feature you've been working on, is not REALLY in either, just an extention of the New Player Experience?
Not trying to pass judgement here, nor am i trying to say that you dont deserve your salary :P I just find it strange that most features & "stuff" your team worked on isnt even fully (or half, or one third) completed. The new mission screen is cool, but frankly not really a feature.
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 21:22:00 -
[46]
Edited by: CCP Jasonitas on 25/02/2009 21:24:00 Edited by: CCP Jasonitas on 25/02/2009 21:23:11
Quote: 1. It says that finally you can accept and finish missions remotely by calling your agent, yet at the end of that sentence it says, but most missions wont allow that yet. So essentially, this feature is what your team has been working on, but it doesnt REALLY exist, yet?
"Blood-Stained Stars" will have remote completions in it. We did not go back and put this feature in all of the older missions because, well, we didn't have the time, and it's not always necessary. Remote completion is yet another tool we can use for missions, not something we always will use. Although, personally, I really like that I don't have to keep ping-ponging with agents. Remote complete fits nicely in the Epic Arc system, as well as other mission types.
Quote: 2. It says that the Epic mission arcs are another thing you've been working on, and blah blah awesome stuff (i agree), but then at the end, same thing. But only 1 at release, the new player arc... So the main feature you've been working on, is not REALLY in either, just an extention of the New Player Experience?
We've primarily been working on the tools and the design of the Epic Mission System. I think CCP Molock used this metaphor before, but I'll use it here: It's like working on a car's engine, transmission, and chassis while you're racing it. For that reason, we only focused on one arc in order for us to hammer out all of the kinks in the system. We aimed this at newer players, though not every Epic Arc will be aimed at new players. In essence, the main feature we have been working on is the tools to create these arcs. In that sense, it will be done and ready for Apocrypha. But if you're talking about adding Epic Arcs into EVE as the feature, well, that 'll never be done because we'll keep pumping Epic Arcs out for forseeable future.
Quote: Not trying to pass judgement here, nor am i trying to say that you dont deserve your salary :P I just find it strange that most features & "stuff" your team worked on isnt even fully (or half, or one third) completed. The new mission screen is cool, but frankly not really a feature.
The feature is done. It's a very subtle feature because a lot of it is backend stuff that we, the content devs, will be working with. But think of it as a massive doughnut filled with limitless potential. We have the doughnut made, but you you're only seeing it from one side and only get one bite. Eventually, you'll be able to devour it with gusto, filling your playful stomachs with creamy, Epic Arc filling.
|
|
Antonia Frak
Republic University
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 21:28:00 -
[47]
Edited by: Antonia Frak on 25/02/2009 21:28:17
In other words, "we rushed the expansion because we ran out of time and we have a deal with Atari for the retail box and so those new players will get the first batch of benefits of all this".
|
Mark Shuttleworth
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 21:30:00 -
[48]
CCP: "Remote completion is an option available to us, not a default setting. It's not quite an epic option, but it is revolutionarily epic-like."
Ok so let me get this right, ccp reserves the right to determine which missions will have the remote-completion option. Now for this first epic mission arc you say that it will span all 4 factions, so lets just say it starts in, oh I don't know, Jita at the end of chapter 1 you find yourself in amarr space, therefore without remote completion we would have to travel back and forth after every single mission to start a new mission, so obviously remote-completion would be extremely useful here.
As well, will remote completion be available, on story line missions, I understand not putting them on normal missions, but storylines are kind of the in between of normal missions and epic missions.
|
Garr Anders
Minmatar Thukk U
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 21:38:00 -
[49]
I sadly don't have time to check this on singularity myself, but are mission decisions in those epic arcs only done and the end/start of a mission or are there decisions to be made during a mission/in space/ on the fly as well ? ----- Garr Anders
"The only winning move is not to play" is about the best damn advice anyone can get regarding arguing over the internet. - referring to the Movie WarGames 1983
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 21:38:00 -
[50]
Quote: As well, will remote completion be available, on story line missions
Yes, we can use them on any mission type now. We did not have the time to put them on older missions, but we can use remote completion on missions in the future.
Chapters in the "Blood-Stained Stars" are devoted to different Empires. For this Epic Arc, we did not want the players to constantly do 30 jumps, so you will stay in relative close quarters for each chapter. (Jumping between chapters is a different story, but it is unavoidable - New Eden is a big place. But don't worry, it's nothing too onerous.) But yes, in the case you pointed out, remote completion is great to have. It's pretty great to have anyway; I know I enjoy being able to avoid going back to station to finish a mission.
|
|
|
Manfred Rickenbocker
The Elliance
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 21:45:00 -
[51]
Edited by: Manfred Rickenbocker on 25/02/2009 21:45:35 Ill update this for simplicity for anyone else who cares.
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas Edited by: CCP Jasonitas on 25/02/2009 19:15:23
Quote: Some simple questions: Is there a limit on the number of times you can run an Epic Arc (noting that COSMOS could only be run once)? How often can you run an Epic Arc? Are there controls in place to prevent farming of some of these Epic Arcs? 3 Months, OK. Still concerned about farming a bit.
How do Epic Arcs affect factional and/or corporation standings? How is the reward system going to work? Simplistic LP/Cash/Item payouts like normal missions (with quick-completion bonuses)? Not really explained. Can I get more detail?
How do you choose different branches within the arc? Unknown?
Will these Epic Arcs be taking us into player owned 0.0 space (like some of the exploration missions did) or try and take us into potentially unreachable locations in 0.0 (like trying to go to pirate faction space)? Understandable I guess. But there is some concern with missions always sending you to the same place. Similar to how pirates camp Lv 5 mission agents since there are so few; similarly if an arc always sends you to the same system pirates can camp out and wait for their victims to come to them. It would definitely lower any incentive to run that arc. Im not against mission camping, its disappointing to make it too easy to do.
Can you detail what, if any, changes were made to the current mission system? None will be made as far as I can see.
All fantastic questions. Most of them have been answered in another thread here.
(Not trying to avoid your question, just trying to be as efficient as possible in answering forum questions while still trying to get my work done.)
------------------------ Peace through superior firepower: a guiding principle for uncertain times. |
Dolgozo Lany
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 21:55:00 -
[52]
In 2009 please make all missions multi-sequence, direct-player-decision-based missions like the epic ones.
Please always put in random factors: branches how a mission can be followed up. Even the same named mission should have multiple sequences you can complete. This way you can make the 1 hour long Extravaganzas history.
Let's demolish the opportunity for the agent-macro-farmers. More player decision based missions are the way to go. Simple 'Pick missions -> Kill -> Report mission' repetitions are so '90s.
IMO with the whole Epic Arc missions you will show us if the whole mission system can be changed or not.
|
Manfred Rickenbocker
The Elliance
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 21:56:00 -
[53]
Two other questions while Im thinking about it:
Does the 3 month restart timer start at the beginning of the acceptance of the arc or at completion?
Will there be persistent journal entries to track your arc completions, branches you chose, and when you can try the arc again?
... and one other question stolen from above:
Will there be or can there be non-tangible or bragging rights rewards similar to corporation medals or militia ranks available for completing Epic Arcs? (Something that if you look at someone's profile, it shows they did it) ------------------------ Peace through superior firepower: a guiding principle for uncertain times. |
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 22:00:00 -
[54]
Quote: Is there a limit on the number of times you can run an Epic Arc (noting that COSMOS could only be run once)? How often can you run an Epic Arc? Are there controls in place to prevent farming of some of these Epic Arcs? 3 Months, OK. Still concerned about farming a bit. Entrance criteria is important because of similar situations to that 3 billion ISK Amarr Cosmos farm trick a while back.
"Blood-Stained Stars" is something like 50-60 missions, with rather normal cash payouts for most of the missions. The rewards won't be tremendous, thus farming won't be terribly efficient (especially since they can only do it once every 3 months or so). If they want to farm the system, there are more lucrative and efficient ways, I'm sure. When we introduce other arcs, particularly higher level ones, it will be much harder to farm those, especially given the 3 month delay.
|
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 22:06:00 -
[55]
Quote: Does the 3 month restart timer start at the beginning of the acceptance of the arc or at completion? Will there be persistent journal entries to track your arc completions, branches you chose, and when you can try the arc again?
1. The 3 month restart begins once you complete the quest. Epic missions do not time out, thus you can take your sweet time in completing them (if you wanted to).
2. We have a new tab in the journal called "Epic Mission Journal" that keeps track of your Epic Arc status. It's pretty spiffy looking. Check it out on Sisi, if it's there.
|
|
MotherMoon
Huang Yinglong
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 22:07:00 -
[56]
um... you guys... cn you still fit in a rework of the agent tab? it would be realy nice to have a folder for these new agents so we donb't get lost and have no idea where we should be going.
|
|
CCP Big Dumb Object
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 22:13:00 -
[57]
Edited by: CCP Big Dumb Object on 25/02/2009 22:17:17
Originally by: Garr Anders I sadly don't have time to check this on singularity myself, but are mission decisions in those epic arcs only done and the end/start of a mission or are there decisions to be made during a mission/in space/ on the fly as well ?
Current decision/branching points are handled in a new mission type called Agent Interaction. The entire purpose of this mission is to have the player make an explicit choice about the next mission. The Agent Interaction can present up to 5 missions as potential follow ups. We do have missions that can be completed in a number of ways, but these are options that result in the same end result and not a method of branching itself.
How Agent Interactions work: The left panel of the new Agent window will display the Agent Interaction Offer (why you have to chose), followed by the title of each option and the briefing from that choice. Clicking on the title of any given choice will cause the right panel in the window to display the mission details of that mission. A button below the right pane will accept the next mission that is currently displayed above. So if we have an Agent Interaction mission of "Give Me a Dollar", we can have the player choose between "Mine A Dollar's Worth of Veld", "Kill a Dollar's Worth of Pirates", and "Burn a Unrelated Small Village of Orphans". Player Jeb can click on each title, viewing what's expected of him in each option. When he's happy with the mission he's viewing, Jeb can click the accept button and he's on the new mission.
Why we did it like this: There are various reasons we made the choice explicit instead of emergent or hidden, but it generally came down to the persistent nature of an MMO versus a single-player experience. We are huge fans the old space flight sims where slight actions can come back to revist you later. But these games have two major traits that act as a safety net for the player: save management and a finite play experience. With the save system a single player game can throw variables and extra conditions at the player. If a player does not like the result of not completing a bonus objective three missions ago, he can revert to an earlier save. Even if a player has not kept a long list of alternate saves, there is still the option to simply replay the entire campaign after the game is done. Many computer rpg games are an excellent example of this play style. Your first play through you don't have to worry about playing a saint the whole time to get the "good" ending, because you know any given character lifespan is finite, and you can go full-bore evil on the next cycle.
The persistence of EVE characters throws this for a bit of a loop. We mitigated this somewhat with the ability to replay an arc three months after completion, but three months is a long time, and not all players are going to have the opportunity to return to the same space to run that mission again. A player character has life beyond the mission content itself. So we decided the best course was to make the branching points as explicit as possible. We have not taken away the ramifications of a choice--you still only see the first mission in any given branch--but we wanted to make sure we did not blind-side the player and ruin the play experience for a character who will progress for long beyond the end of any one arc.
|
|
Destination SkillQueue
Are We There Yet
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 22:35:00 -
[58]
The 3 month limit is clearly intended to prevent farming, so how are you planning to prevent farming by using disposable alts? Can I start the arc with these alts and use another character to fly the missions and reap the benefits? I know this isn't an issue with such an low reward arc, but you must have thought about this issue. If you just limit it with standing, are the requirements higher or lower then with normal agents to balance out the special rewards you can get?
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 22:42:00 -
[59]
We certainly have thought about this issue, but the amount of effort put into this arc ("Blood-Stained Stars") vs. its actual payout is a rather inefficient way of farming a system. Even if you keep creating alts to farm the arc, you won't be getting an ideal bang for your buck, so to speak. With other arcs, we can avoid this problem by making them not aimed at new players, thus requiring more initial investment (be it standings, location, etc).
|
|
Aeo IV
Amarr Xomic OmniCorporation
|
Posted - 2009.02.25 23:37:00 -
[60]
I'm rather disappointed-- I mean, you've basically spent a few months of development time, to create some new sort of mission, but this mission is going to only be open to newer players, and will probably only give you standings with two factions, and a lot of your new players are going to be in the FW, how exactly are you planing on dealing with that? It seems to me the only people with the resources to run an epic mission are also the ones who half the time have negative standings with SoE and at least 2 of the empires, certainly, new players aren't going to have the ships or the know how to benefit from these development.
|
|
Zilnam Haa
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 00:00:00 -
[61]
Thanks CCP Jasonitas & CCP Big Dumb Object for excellent replies to all the Q's axed here:)
As a mission junkie I congratulate all your hard wurk on the Arc system/series that's just starting, & whats to come.
Yes, I am burnt out a tad on the lvl4's I grind so the new content gives me hope my space life will extend for light years to come
|
Tipz NexAstrum
Celestial Horizon Corp. I.C.C Industrial Drive Yards
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 00:23:00 -
[62]
Are these epic missions going to be focused on inter-empire conflicts (Amarr vs Minmatar/Gallente vs Caldari)? Are there plans for arcs that are only against pirate factions, so those of us that regularly traverse the four empires won't degrade our standings down to KOS?
Is there ever an option to quit the arc? Suppose I get to a branch where I don't want to continue for whatever reason, can I just say 'I'm done, see ya in three months'?
Originally by: CCP Navigator People who think I am joking or talking big are going to understand very quickly that there will be order in these forums.
|
mark atrelli
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 00:30:00 -
[63]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas
Quote: Quote:
The Epic Arcs are not randomly generated missions, so if we want to make a story that ends with you receiving, say, a shiny storyline or collector item, we can do that. Hell, we can tune the awards to give you a Titan at the end, if we wanted to. You know, as your reward for saving CONCORD or something. We are telling stories now, strings of stories, and the rewards can be based upon what you do in the story.
... if a titan is a reward... then what the hell kind of ships will we have to kill for it? sleeper fleets??
|
|
CCP Dropbear
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 01:03:00 -
[64]
Originally by: Tipz NexAstrum Are these epic missions going to be focused on inter-empire conflicts (Amarr vs Minmatar/Gallente vs Caldari)? Are there plans for arcs that are only against pirate factions, so those of us that regularly traverse the four empires won't degrade our standings down to KOS?
We actually began work on "epics" by focusing on inter-empire conflicts. For Apocrypha however, we've built an arc from the ground up to work with our new tools. We'll likely be adapting the pre-existing texts of those other arcs to fit the new system as part of the ongoing development of epic arc content. We have a head-start on future content, however.
One thing that's worth emphasizing is that developing an arc in this system doesn't always need to be an epic undertaking. We can make them big, but we are not limited to just that. The system supports endless strings of missions and branching choices, ideal for extended narratives, yes. It's also a powerful new ability, though. We can distill missions down to just include those basic features and still manage to offer drastically different gameplay to what we have now.
It doesn't take much time for us to develop just a few missions (that is, the text and the dungeons that go with it). With just four (or so) missions we can create a story where you make a choice, and then suffer (or benefit from) the consequences of that choice.
For example. You report to an epic arc agent, they ask you to spy on a hostile facility. You perform some recon on their base and report the intel back to your agent. The agent then offers you a choice; go in strong and just wipe the place out, or focus on two supplementary bases first and divert some of their forces away. You make a choice, and that choice has consequences. If you just storm in, you'll find a challenge. If you pick away at them over a series of attacks, the final encounter will be much easier.
The point here is that we can make content with those features even with small 5-part arcs (mini-epics ). This makes it easier to get content out to all of the factions. It also allows us to get content out in different ways, like you say, where working for an empire could entail fighting other empire rivals, or fighting back pirate incursions - or something else entirely.
|
|
Rhys Onasi
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 01:58:00 -
[65]
Edited by: Rhys Onasi on 26/02/2009 02:01:22
Originally by: CCP Dropbear
For example. You report to an epic arc agent, they ask you to spy on a hostile facility. You perform some recon on their base and report the intel back to your agent. The agent then offers you a choice; go in strong and just wipe the place out, or focus on two supplementary bases first and divert some of their forces away. You make a choice, and that choice has consequences. If you just storm in, you'll find a challenge. If you pick away at them over a series of attacks, the final encounter will be much easier.
So you can choose between two missions, is that what you are saying?
|
|
CCP Dropbear
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 02:01:00 -
[66]
You can choose between as many as four, actually.
|
|
Rhys Onasi
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 02:49:00 -
[67]
Originally by: CCP Dropbear You can choose between as many as four, actually.
GOOD GOD!
*scribbles furiously*
|
Manfred Rickenbocker
The Elliance
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 02:58:00 -
[68]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas
Quote: Does the 3 month restart timer start at the beginning of the acceptance of the arc or at completion? Will there be persistent journal entries to track your arc completions, branches you chose, and when you can try the arc again?
1. The 3 month restart begins once you complete the quest. Epic missions do not time out, thus you can take your sweet time in completing them (if you wanted to).
2. We have a new tab in the journal called "Epic Mission Journal" that keeps track of your Epic Arc status. It's pretty spiffy looking. Check it out on Sisi, if it's there.
Thanks for answering my questions! Cant wait to run through these missions. ------------------------ Peace through superior firepower: a guiding principle for uncertain times. |
Rhys Onasi
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 04:05:00 -
[69]
Edited by: Rhys Onasi on 26/02/2009 04:05:42 What, exatcly, is a chapter?
I'm trying to figure it out.
There's branches, but obviously it might be too complicated to have it branch after every single mission. Are the "chapters" the periods inbetween and leading up to a branch? A string of non branching missions? Or what exactly?
|
Venkul Mul
Gallente
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 07:43:00 -
[70]
Originally by: Dolgozo Lany In 2009 please make all missions multi-sequence, direct-player-decision-based missions like the epic ones.
Please always put in random factors: branches how a mission can be followed up. Even the same named mission should have multiple sequences you can complete. This way you can make the 1 hour long Extravaganzas history.
Let's demolish the opportunity for the agent-macro-farmers. More player decision based missions are the way to go. Simple 'Pick missions -> Kill -> Report mission' repetitions are so '90s.
IMO with the whole Epic Arc missions you will show us if the whole mission system can be changed or not.
No. People should be capable of logging in, playing 1 hour, complete a mission and then leave the game.
Changing all mission the way Dolgozo Lany asked in her so "well argumented" post will make running missions impossible to anyone that can't devote several hours to the game.
|
|
Venkul Mul
Gallente
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 07:54:00 -
[71]
To the Devs, 1 problem and 1 question:
Problem.
have you considered that the auto balancing feature will not work with this Epic mission arc?
CCP usual system of starting rewards at the lowest possible level and then leave the auto balancer to adjust them will backfire heavily there. The mission will be run a limited number of times so the autobalancer will have a limited quantity of data to use to adjust the rewards and the first players to do it will be veterans wanting to see the new epic arc.
So the rewards will stay to the lower level for years, not a month at most like a normal mission.
Question: the first mission in the Epic arc don't give LP. It is a common thing for them? Have you considered that when giving out the others reewards?
|
Myrhial Arkenath
Ghost Festival
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 09:04:00 -
[72]
Remote accept and complete sounds very nice, and it would certainly make me a very happy panda if this was added for all missions.
What about remote declining of missions if this gets added to normal and storyline missions, is that possible as well? And is there a range on all this?
I can imagine a scenario where a pvp player keeps contacting a nice level 4 agent in another region until he gets offered a good mission, without having to leave his base of operations unneeded. What are the thoughts of the team on this?
CEO | Diary of a pod pilot |
MotherMoon
Huang Yinglong
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 10:49:00 -
[73]
Originally by: Venkul Mul To the Devs, 1 problem and 1 question:
Problem.
have you considered that the auto balancing feature will not work with this Epic mission arc?
CCP usual system of starting rewards at the lowest possible level and then leave the auto balancer to adjust them will backfire heavily there. The mission will be run a limited number of times so the autobalancer will have a limited quantity of data to use to adjust the rewards and the first players to do it will be veterans wanting to see the new epic arc.
So the rewards will stay to the lower level for years, not a month at most like a normal mission.
Question: the first mission in the Epic arc don't give LP. It is a common thing for them? Have you considered that when giving out the others rewards?
not to mention the auto-balance doesn't work. There is a cap. and every missions ALWAYS hits this cap.
think about it, how many level 4 missions are run successfully 80-90% well the rewards have never been going down.
also factional warfare missions. They don't work, because the success rate is like 20%, and they never went up.
|
Mioelnir
Minmatar Meltd0wn Imperial Republic Of the North
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 11:46:00 -
[74]
Quote: ...you can expect lots of new Epic Arcs for various factions and security levels to appear on a regular basis.
On a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is Later[TM], 5 is Soon[TM] and 10 is ReallyReallySoon[TM], can we expect epic pirate faction arcs before or after level 5 pirate missions?
Oh, and -1 would be NotAtAll[TM]
|
galphi
Gallente Unitary Senate Unitary Enterprises
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 11:50:00 -
[75]
Great to hear new missions and new ways of running missions is coming along, for older players the current mission setup is stale and lifeless (but you already knew that). Huge, massive changes underway in Eve these days, it's all very exciting, and I for one am patiently looking forward to shiny new things to blow up :D
|
Venkul Mul
Gallente
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 12:11:00 -
[76]
Originally by: MotherMoon
Originally by: Venkul Mul To the Devs, 1 problem and 1 question:
Problem.
have you considered that the auto balancing feature will not work with this Epic mission arc?
CCP usual system of starting rewards at the lowest possible level and then leave the auto balancer to adjust them will backfire heavily there. The mission will be run a limited number of times so the autobalancer will have a limited quantity of data to use to adjust the rewards and the first players to do it will be veterans wanting to see the new epic arc.
So the rewards will stay to the lower level for years, not a month at most like a normal mission.
Question: the first mission in the Epic arc don't give LP. It is a common thing for them? Have you considered that when giving out the others rewards?
not to mention the auto-balance doesn't work. There is a cap. and every missions ALWAYS hits this cap.
think about it, how many level 4 missions are run successfully 80-90% well the rewards have never been going down.
also factional warfare missions. They don't work, because the success rate is like 20%, and they never went up.
The autobalancer consider only completion time, not success/failure and has no modifier based on group completation, so
- regular missions generally hit the bottom value (or start from the bottom value and never rise) so you rarely see them change after the first month from introduction;
- completing a mission as a group is faster so, now that it work decently and people do it, the regular missions continue to hit the floor;
- FW missions rewards are modified only by the successful missions, the others are not considered, so (probably) the number of completed missions is too small or they are done fast enough that the reward will not rise.
Remember that mission rewards start at the bottom (lowest reward) so if the success ratio is high and the completion time fast they will never move from there.
|
Shadowsword
Epsilon Lyr Tau Ceti Federation
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 12:16:00 -
[77]
Edited by: Shadowsword on 26/02/2009 12:16:16 Will those missions give us clues about what to expect? Like, "be carefull, they might have an interceptor", or "there will be sanchas, tank against EM", or will it be a complete suprise each time?
I'm not worried about this mission arc for new players, but others introduced later might get tricky for players without uberfits if we have to omni-tank.
If, say, we destroy by mistake something needed for mission completion, do we need to wait the next DT for the mission to respawn? What if the routines behind the scenes consider you already collected that something and don't give you the possibility to get it again? ------------------------------------------
|
Jowen Datloran
Caldari Science and Trade Institute
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 12:16:00 -
[78]
One arc is better than no arc.
But to be frank; I do remember how we were told years ago the same story, about how great tools you have been given for making missions and how easy it would be to put in new missions to the game, but I do not remember one single instant of you actually adding missions outside of expansions and patches.
And why are regular missions in general so unimaginative and repetitive when you have been able to make great variation in tutorial and COSMOS missions? Perhaps try to focus some effort there?
I could cook up a great number of new missions using existing game mechanics in fairly short time, so I wonder what is the bottleneck for you guys as you at least seem to appear quite creative yourself. Is it the programming team I should be complaining at? ---------------- Mr. Science & Trade Institute
|
Daedalus II
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 12:26:00 -
[79]
Originally by: CCP Big Dumb Object
The persistence of EVE characters throws this for a bit of a loop. We mitigated this somewhat with the ability to replay an arc three months after completion, but three months is a long time, and not all players are going to have the opportunity to return to the same space to run that mission again. A player character has life beyond the mission content itself. So we decided the best course was to make the branching points as explicit as possible. We have not taken away the ramifications of a choice--you still only see the first mission in any given branch--but we wanted to make sure we did not blind-side the player and ruin the play experience for a character who will progress for long beyond the end of any one arc.
Won't this severely limit new cool missions? Say you are given a mission by the epic agent to kill someone, then upon arriving in the mission that someone contacts you with a counter offer. In that case the branch must be depending on you killing or not killing the person? Ok maybe not the best example as this could be handled by dialogs. Say instead you have a mission to defend an industrial. Obviously you fail the mission if the industrial dies, but you can't very well choose in a dialog wether or not fail to protect the industrial? Can't we get any protection missions at all then? There must be many missions like this where the goal with a mission could fail but still continue on a new branch? To fail or not fail a goal can't be picked in a dialog, can it? If the target got away it got away. If the time ran out and you got discovered then you did get discovered. If you tripped the alarm you tripped the alarm.
|
Azure Dreams
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 12:32:00 -
[80]
Edited by: Azure Dreams on 26/02/2009 12:32:54 Apologies if this question was already asked but...
How about standing rewards?
With this blood stained stars mission, given that your flying around multiple empires (I assume) killing different faction enemies, what will the standing rewards be?
Are we going to see multiple standing increases for each empire or will the choices we make dictate who likes us at the end of it all?
tia
|
|
Zex Maxwell
Caldari
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 13:32:00 -
[81]
Edited by: Zex Maxwell on 26/02/2009 13:34:10
Originally by: CCP Big Dumb Object: Post #57 Stuff... lots of stuff.
That's the most i ever seen a dev post on the forums. You sure you don't want to put the highlights at the top so the people that don't want to read the wall of text can still understand what you are say? Its a good read BTW, but you know how the PVPers are: "Get to the point... or i blow your head off." ---
|
Asham Pozor
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 14:06:00 -
[82]
Well, I guess an arc for beginners that is great is better than a lot more "Shoot ship type X" for experienced folk. I'm more enthused by the remote completion, but one question:
Does this also include the ability to say "No, thanks, flying 40.000m¦ of garbage into deep 0.0 is not worth it even if I get a faction boost for it since I'll be exploding at the first gate anyway" remotely? Current storyline missions force you to fly to the storyline agent just to tell him to shut uo, which is a bit annoying if said agent is sitting in low sec. Being able to phone him and say "Nice try Jelzin, but I recognize a courier contract scam when I see one!" would be a major asset. It would also help if you spoke to an agent and had to be elsewhere before you could accept the mission - right now you're forced to fly back to the agent base within seven days or face a standing hit.
|
Blake Rathen
Caldari Yurai-Tenshin Zaibatsu Celestial Imperative
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 14:50:00 -
[83]
Thanks guys, for the new mission arcs and for your dilligence in answering all the questions here! Your efforts are appreciated.
Q: Will the 'decision points' in the arcs allow pilots to make more 'faction-ish' related decisions? For example, I get a mission from a Gallente who sends me to check out an abandoned mining platform, and warp in to find a dogfight between Gallente and Caldari npcs. Now, none are red to me, so I can pick sides by attacking one side over the other, and end up getting routed to a Caldari agent next time. If that's not how it will work, please explain!
Thanks.
|
Pitypang
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 16:05:00 -
[84]
Originally by: Venkul Mul
Originally by: Dolgozo Lany In 2009 please make all missions multi-sequence, direct-player-decision-based missions like the epic ones.
Please always put in random factors: branches how a mission can be followed up. Even the same named mission should have multiple sequences you can complete. This way you can make the 1 hour long Extravaganzas history.
Let's demolish the opportunity for the agent-macro-farmers. More player decision based missions are the way to go. Simple 'Pick missions -> Kill -> Report mission' repetitions are so '90s.
IMO with the whole Epic Arc missions you will show us if the whole mission system can be changed or not.
No. People should be capable of logging in, playing 1 hour, complete a mission and then leave the game.
Changing all mission the way Dolgozo Lany asked in her so "well argumented" post will make running missions impossible to anyone that can't devote several hours to the game.
Venkul Mul, you have misunderstand me. What I was saying is that instead of a 1 hour long Extravaganza, make the Extravaganza mission work like a chapter in the new Epic Arc missions. This way I would like to sit down for 15 minutes to finish a part of the quest and move on to RL if I have only 15 minutes to play.
|
Zhang Ramses
Chaos From Order
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 16:34:00 -
[85]
What are the shortest and longest possible chains of missions that will conclude this first arc? A picture from Fanfest implied that some branches/choices would "end" an epic mission arc sooner than others. Is that still the case? Or by 7 chapters do you mean that there will be 7 opportunities to "choose your own adventure"?
I would also consider re-wording the dev blog, as it implies that the content team has spent months working on this one mission arc.
|
Ydyp Ieva
Caldari Amarrian Retribution
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 17:11:00 -
[86]
The epic arcs are a nice addition to the pve side, and I'm happy there is some making progress on them. However I have a few concerns with the new system.
The title says 'should you choose to accept it', but I'm more worried about what happens when a normal mission expires. As I noticed you get auto-offered a mission when you talk to an agent. This mission gets added to the journal and gets a date for when it expires. So atm on TQ you get a standing hit when you let the offer expires, on TQ this isn't any problem cause it is you who ask for work and then just leave them waiting and not showing up to do the job. With the new system I didn't ask them for work, they just came up with work! That is a big difference.
So I would love to see that auto-offer go away and get a button again to ask for work, or those missions offers should never expire either (but then again your journal will get cluttered), or the standing hit should be removed.
This problem is a real big one for those that frequent use locator agents to find their target and those people that go on a holiday for a few weeks. Or those that are in the region one week to get isk up, then go on a pvp course for 2 weeks with the made isk. And I'm sure I forgot a lot of other scenario's like that. ----------------------------------
|
|
CCP Dropbear
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 17:43:00 -
[87]
Originally by: Ydyp Ieva The title says 'should you choose to accept it', but I'm more worried about what happens when a normal mission expires. As I noticed you get auto-offered a mission when you talk to an agent. This mission gets added to the journal and gets a date for when it expires.
Standings hits for mission expiry have been moved from all missions, across the board.
|
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 18:18:00 -
[88]
Quote: Q: Will the 'decision points' in the arcs allow pilots to make more 'faction-ish' related decisions? For example, I get a mission from a Gallente who sends me to check out an abandoned mining platform, and warp in to find a dogfight between Gallente and Caldari npcs. Now, none are red to me, so I can pick sides by attacking one side over the other, and end up getting routed to a Caldari agent next time. If that's not how it will work, please explain!
Branching moments occur at Agent Interaction missions. In your example, you might not be able to choose sides in that battle, but when you return to the agent, your next mission may be a choice between which side you choose. Thus, that battle would begin a branching point in the story. "Blood-Stained Stars" has a branching point where you choose which faction to go with, and the story continues on with that faction. It's a rather small branching point, but it does give you a taste of what we can do with branching.
|
|
Kirja
R.u.S.H. Red Alliance
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 19:08:00 -
[89]
Single storyline? Unique rewards? "Special" agents? Somehow it sounds familiar. Cosmos...anyone? Whats up with cosmos content? Back in 2006 (2005?) i heard that Gallente cosmos missions are kind of lacking compared to other cosmos areas. Devs promised to expand it soon (tm). It's ok though it's been only 4 years...
|
Thynar
Gallente Melita Foundation
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 19:19:00 -
[90]
Originally by: CCP Dropbear Edited by: CCP Dropbear on 26/02/2009 18:14:01
Standings hits for mission expiry have been removed from all missions, across the board.
Good one! Remove standing hits for mission failure in lowsec and I will put a few battleships and cheap jumpclones in the pirates' crosshairs
Only thing that worries me about Epic Arcs is I'm persona non-grata in Amarr and soon in Caldari space. Although it's a choice I made, I would like to experience these missions without creating an alt. I hope I can experience this content with a ship that does have a chance to finish these missions and get back to friendly space.
|
|
Smagd
Encina Technologies Namtz' aar K'in
|
Posted - 2009.02.26 19:57:00 -
[91]
Sounds promising! Here's to hoping they will have a good story. I like stories with a bloody ending...
Thukker/Angel corp WANTS YOU! |
Myrhial Arkenath
Ghost Festival
|
Posted - 2009.02.27 08:41:00 -
[92]
Originally by: CCP Dropbear Edited by: CCP Dropbear on 26/02/2009 18:14:01
Originally by: Ydyp Ieva The title says 'should you choose to accept it', but I'm more worried about what happens when a normal mission expires. As I noticed you get auto-offered a mission when you talk to an agent. This mission gets added to the journal and gets a date for when it expires.
Standings hits for mission expiry have been removed from all missions, across the board.
I approve
CEO | Diary of a pod pilot |
Typhado3
Minmatar Ashen Lion Mining and Production Consortium
|
Posted - 2009.02.27 08:43:00 -
[93]
pls pls pls tell me you made mining agents give mining missions when you where fiddling around with the agent system.
ccp fix mining agent missions % pls |
Chainsaw Plankton
IDLE GUNS IDLE EMPIRE
|
Posted - 2009.02.27 09:13:00 -
[94]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas
Quote: Will this missions brings us into all 4 faction space to complete them?
Yes, this arc will span all four factions. We don't give you anything special to combat your negative standings in certain Empire space, but I can give you a warning that you shouldn't fly this particular arc if you are worried about getting ganked because of your negative standing.
"Blood-Stained Stars" is geared towards newer players as a chance to see all of EVE in a story-driven context. It'll give them a chance to leave the starter systems and the familiar space and to actually see what the other Empires are like. You can certainly fly this arc as an older player, but if you are worried about your standing, keep that factor in mind.
We have more Epic Arcs to come, and they may be geared to certain factions or Empires. But just like you would not run missions in some Empire space or for certain factions because of your standings, you probably would not run some Epic Arcs for the same reasons.
this hardly sounds epic
although by the time the noobs get through the content new content should be ready, yay for a level 3 chain (or will they just go wtf what do I do now?)
I was looking forward to slaughtering gallente. go beat around the bush for a bit and then WOAH! They brought a fleet to attack jita, intercept them in new caldari. depending on how you completed (or failed to complete) your last objectives, it could either increase or decrease the difficulty of the final mission, or even lead to a few more cleanup missions. get a caldari navy scorpion bpc for the effort. *cough* faction tier 1 bs for killing enemy empire faction missions only *cough*
I would love to have said state issue raven, but apparently other devs start throwing stuff at you for mentioning stuff like that
|
Chainsaw Plankton
IDLE GUNS IDLE EMPIRE
|
Posted - 2009.02.27 09:14:00 -
[95]
Originally by: Myrhial Arkenath
Originally by: CCP Dropbear Edited by: CCP Dropbear on 26/02/2009 18:14:01
Originally by: Ydyp Ieva The title says 'should you choose to accept it', but I'm more worried about what happens when a normal mission expires. As I noticed you get auto-offered a mission when you talk to an agent. This mission gets added to the journal and gets a date for when it expires.
Standings hits for mission expiry have been removed from all missions, across the board.
I approve
well, can I get my 10.0 cpf standing back
|
Typhado3
Minmatar Ashen Lion Mining and Production Consortium
|
Posted - 2009.02.27 09:33:00 -
[96]
Originally by: MotherMoon
Originally by: Venkul Mul To the Devs, 1 problem and 1 question:
Problem.
have you considered that the auto balancing feature will not work with this Epic mission arc?
CCP usual system of starting rewards at the lowest possible level and then leave the auto balancer to adjust them will backfire heavily there. The mission will be run a limited number of times so the autobalancer will have a limited quantity of data to use to adjust the rewards and the first players to do it will be veterans wanting to see the new epic arc.
So the rewards will stay to the lower level for years, not a month at most like a normal mission.
Question: the first mission in the Epic arc don't give LP. It is a common thing for them? Have you considered that when giving out the others rewards?
not to mention the auto-balance doesn't work. There is a cap. and every missions ALWAYS hits this cap.
think about it, how many level 4 missions are run successfully 80-90% well the rewards have never been going down.
also factional warfare missions. They don't work, because the success rate is like 20%, and they never went up.
u should try hauling missions, they autobalancer works even less for those.
ccp fix mining agent missions % pls |
MotherMoon
Huang Yinglong
|
Posted - 2009.02.27 10:42:00 -
[97]
Quote: this hardly sounds epic Sad
They aren't using the 18-24 year old version of the word epic.
|
The Snowman
Gallente Aliastra
|
Posted - 2009.02.27 10:48:00 -
[98]
OK, so from what I read we dont have branching options WITHIN the mission. its all at the Agent interaction.
So, in the future would you be able to develop your tools so that a mission can have two possible goals for completion?. Which doesnt effect the reward (you still either fail or succeed)
For example, in Worlds collide you get two gates at the start, each of these gates goes into a seperate pocket, however after this pocket BOTH gates go to the final room where your mission completion trigger is. So in a system with multiple 'mission complete triggers' you can decide to jump into seperate pockets which both have their own unique spawns and their own unique completion option.
The reasons I ask this is because some people love to just complete missions as quickly as possible, but some prefer to hang about and kill the rats with juicy bounties. So in my imaginary 'Epic - Worlds Colide' I can either complete as normal, or I can go into a seperate room with different spawns, but now that I have chosen to go into this seperate room your agent sends you a transmission to say "forget picking up the prisoners - you'v discoverd 'x-building' which we have been hunting for months, destroy this building but watch out we expect re-inforcments to arrive.
Do you get what I mean?
|
Mikal Drey
Atlas Alliance
|
Posted - 2009.02.28 08:13:00 -
[99]
hey hey
yay for epic arcs and everything they bring. i submitted something similar to Scott a while back (stealing my ideas again i see )
my ONLY concern is towards agent distribution. i havent really missioned in a hub system and my away from 0.0 agent pool is in an ass end area of space where i get to play without the hassles of modern hub life. all my gear is there and my ships are there.
i really really want to do theese arcs and maybe even abuse them so that i experience all the mryiad of branches (yes rewards too) after ive played out one for storyline and immersion sexiness ofc.
will the Epic Agents That are EPIC be placed near hubs ? low sec ? ass end space ? 42 jumps from ****a ?
also with [james earl jones]EPIC AGENTS[/james earl jones] are the usual standing restrictions in place ? i am loved and worshiped like a god by Minmatar(+10) and only a minor Deiety by the Gallente (+9.72) will i have to work like a M10 Pleb to access their corp (are they even specific to new corp/division) or due to my epic standings to my beloved tribe and its corporations can i pass L1 and go directly to L5 ?
hmmm more questions that i initially suspected
Many thanks in advance
Mikal Drey Loyal and Proud Brutor
Shattered Crystal - The best place for all your online codes |
Esmenet
Gallente
|
Posted - 2009.02.28 14:12:00 -
[100]
PVE in EVE will never really be anymore challenging or different than the current missions. Its simply not designed to allow it.
People wont really do anything that gives a real challenge as they might end up losing ships and then losing isk. Some people might claim otherwise but in practice it wont happen outside of an occasional try. There is no room for the wow style "raid dungeons" as it costs too much isk, and there isnt really any special reward that you need to do it for (epics).
It wont be much more challenging as the basics of eve combat is fairly simple when the player always controls the time and place to fight.
It wont be anymore interesting as you will still be fighting the same red crosses and it wont require much more interaction to pilot your ship.
|
|
Josef Amerentev
Gallente E.M.P. Industries Malum Exuro
|
Posted - 2009.02.28 17:15:00 -
[101]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas Remote completion is an option available to us, not a default setting. It's not quite an epic option, but it is revolutionarily epic-like.
i would really like this. further, might this lead to performing agent missions remotely? ie. doing missions in a different patch of high/low than the agent is at?
|
Wolfmoon
Pack Of Pagans
|
Posted - 2009.03.01 09:27:00 -
[102]
If you send me into lowsec without an option to avoid it without getting a rep hit, I'm gonna pod you personally, then leave the game to the pvp freaks.
|
Linda kays
Gallente Valley Forge Wrath.
|
Posted - 2009.03.02 14:39:00 -
[103]
Sorry, seems I'm a bit late for this, yet I've been screaming it for ages. I like my Agents alot. But I hate when they turn in to Terrorist. Where in New eden will a good Honest gal find work that doesn't involve basicly being a terrorist in some eyes and a Freedom figthing in other? Now with Arcs there migth be a way to turn agents even more "boring". But, Hey I like bringing those homeless people a helping hand of food. I see I make a diffrence, not huge, but I see it. Like I hate the dark rigthous eyes My other agent get when he things it's natural to go shoot up freed slaves and then blame the Amarians for doing so. Come on, call that justice again. And don't think the Galente, Caldari or Amarrians don't have they small schemes, but there's a diffrence between outrigth terrorism, and turning a blind eye. As I wouldn't mind transporting Sealed Cargo. Just don't tell me what's in it then, and have the paper works in order.
Short wording, Please let me work for the various corps, without being called Freedom figther/Terrorist. That's always just a matter of which side you're on. http://elune-ferret.spaces.live.com/
|
Vyktor Abyss
IONSTAR Curatores Veritatis Alliance
|
Posted - 2009.03.03 18:16:00 -
[104]
I've read most of the posts across here and the Game Development forum on Epic Mission Arc(s).
I have to say that everything I've read points to the fact that the development team in Atlanta likes beer, and abstract thought. these two things are great elements for any creative department, but they appear to be all the Atlanta group has to offer.
By your own admission you have 2 SCRUM teams of developers working full time since August (? You reported of having designs/plans dating back to this time.), and have delivered ONE mission arc, with ONE branching point designed for ONE relatively small group of players.
You claim to have developed a new "toolset" in this time, but dont actually describe much of what this is or enables you to do compared to say the existing mission "toolset" in your blog. You in fact even suggest other many part/escalating missions are in fact "mini arcs" - begging the question : WHAT'S NEW HERE?
Everything I have read points to these ARCs actually just being a set of missions that one you complete the mission you move to the next, like you say with one branching point. So you get to fly around a lot of New Eden in one mission series - that really is nothing really new or exciting.
I'd also like to point out the fact that this ONE mission series...no sorry, "arc" falls at the first hurdle and fails to complete due to an agent bug on SiSi.
You promise that this new authoring toolset or whatever will allow you to make many many more mission arcs you have "planned" (reads: One night/long lunch we got ****ed and talked about what'd be cool, then someone made a 1 side of A4 "document" of the meeting), but CCP have been making promises like this for years now.
COSMOS missions? What the feck ever happened to COSMOS part 2? More "improved" faction warfare mission content....
What the hell happened there?
No, sorry - not buying the hype this time CCP. I will of course try it when its released and see for myself, but from the words of others this really is the not "new" dynamic and challenging missions that has been being asked for by PVE'rs for ages - it is the same old tired routine of trundle through some series of missions that CCP in your wisdom and hope to gain subs - hype by calling them "EPIC!!1!" when in fact what you really wanted to release you've not been able to do due to time constraints (4 Faction "arcs") and technical issues.
Yes I'm scathing in this post. No, I've not tried it yet. Yes this does make me a "bitter" vet. No, I'm not rage quitting because I've invested so much time in Eve. Yes you are entitled to hate me for blasting CCP.
BUT: At the end of the day, I and my fellow subscribers have been paying for this game for a long time. We are tired of cliched hype about "new" features and "Uber" mechanics that are in fact the same old tired mechanics dressed up to look like something new - but really offer nothing new.
These epic mission arcs appear to sum up for me how poorly CCP is focusing its development if 2 SCRUM teams have been working full time independently for a number of months and have only produced this.
The potential for missions to capture the excitement and offer dynamic and engaging scenarios for players to play out is massive. This expansion offers let me repeat: 1 mission series with 1 branch point that doesn't work yet.
Hardly dynamic or engaging, or even "new" considering we have 10 part (etc) mission series before.
The only explanation for such a low output is as you Atlanta folks hinted at being pulled into another area of Eve's development during this cycle. I'm guessing they needed you for Wormhole "content" as thats probably the main 'exceiting' part of this expansion.
Well hopefully that part of Eve will keep me interested until you actually churn out something "new" and dynamic for eve PVE.
- Sorry, all of this from a 0.0 pvpers probably is two faced slander, but I really am disappointed by what I've read.
|
Nathan Baxter
Department X
|
Posted - 2009.03.03 19:25:00 -
[105]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas
Quote:
"Blood-Stained Stars" is something like 50-60 missions,
Is that devided by 5 choices between each mission and 4 factions ? making it really a 5 missions story arc ? or is playing this amazing epic arc really a serie of about 60 missions to complete ? Because we heard before in the last 2 years during expensions and patches how 100 new missions were being added and turns out was about 7 missions accross level 1-2... and accross 4 factions and a slight modifications to the spawning of rats in other mission in the need for speed initiative.
Nathan
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.03.03 19:58:00 -
[106]
Edited by: CCP Jasonitas on 03/03/2009 20:00:03
Quote:
"Blood-Stained Stars" is something like 50-60 missions,
Is that devided by 5 choices between each mission and 4 factions ? making it really a 5 missions story arc ? or is playing this amazing epic arc really a serie of about 60 missions to complete ? Because we heard before in the last 2 years during expensions and patches how 100 new missions were being added and turns out was about 7 missions accross level 1-2... and accross 4 factions and a slight modifications to the spawning of rats in other mission in the need for speed initiative.
Nathan
It's about 50-60 missions across 7 chapters, mostly in sequence. There are two branching points, but they do converge again back into the main story sequence. Thus, while playing this arc, you will probably play about 40-50 missions (my numbers are estimates and approximations, mind. I'll have to sit down and actually count the missions one day.)
|
|
Tonto Auri
Vhero' Multipurpose Corp
|
Posted - 2009.03.04 02:13:00 -
[107]
Originally by: CCP Fallout Okay, everyone. Please raise your hand if you are tired of your mission agents giving you boring, random missions. Raise them higher if you're just downright annoyed that they give you the same missions over and over and over again. Frankly, we are, too. That's why Apocrypha, our next and most expansive expansion will include a brand new feature: Epic Mission Arcs!
In his newest blog, CCP Molock gives us the 411 on what's in store for epic arcs. Learn how epic arcs will bring an ongoing story into New Eden with branching missions that will bring exciting challenges to both new and old players alike.
I have to say, it's looks terrible. Leave control the same, but swap two frames in place. And it will be good. -- Thanks CCP for cu |
MotherMoon
Huang Yinglong
|
Posted - 2009.03.04 14:34:00 -
[108]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas Edited by: CCP Jasonitas on 03/03/2009 20:00:03
Quote:
"Blood-Stained Stars" is something like 50-60 missions,
Is that devided by 5 choices between each mission and 4 factions ? making it really a 5 missions story arc ? or is playing this amazing epic arc really a serie of about 60 missions to complete ? Because we heard before in the last 2 years during expensions and patches how 100 new missions were being added and turns out was about 7 missions accross level 1-2... and accross 4 factions and a slight modifications to the spawning of rats in other mission in the need for speed initiative.
Nathan
It's about 50-60 missions across 7 chapters, mostly in sequence. There are two branching points, but they do converge again back into the main story sequence. Thus, while playing this arc, you will probably play about 40-50 missions (my numbers are estimates and approximations, mind. I'll have to sit down and actually count the missions one day.)
I thought the idea was to have different ending all together :(
Is this even still possible with the new system in place?
|
Nathan Baxter
Department X
|
Posted - 2009.03.04 16:28:00 -
[109]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas Edited by: CCP Jasonitas on 03/03/2009 20:00:03
Quote:
"Blood-Stained Stars" is something like 50-60 missions,
Is that devided by 5 choices between each mission and 4 factions ? making it really a 5 missions story arc ? or is playing this amazing epic arc really a serie of about 60 missions to complete ? Because we heard before in the last 2 years during expensions and patches how 100 new missions were being added and turns out was about 7 missions accross level 1-2... and accross 4 factions and a slight modifications to the spawning of rats in other mission in the need for speed initiative.
Nathan
It's about 50-60 missions across 7 chapters, mostly in sequence. There are two branching points, but they do converge again back into the main story sequence. Thus, while playing this arc, you will probably play about 40-50 missions (my numbers are estimates and approximations, mind. I'll have to sit down and actually count the missions one day.)
Thanks CCP Jasonitas sounds very exciting tbh , can't wait to try it .
Nathan
|
Neena Vilrae
|
Posted - 2009.03.04 19:59:00 -
[110]
Originally by: Vyktor Abyss ** sad rabble ** something "new" and dynamic for eve PVE.
Wow, with that attitude you will never be happy with anything that gets added since obviously you spend more time vilifying devs and thinking about what you don't have then enjoying what you do...
I didn't see any example of what you consider "dynamic" or and suggestions for improving the mission system. Offer some suggestions instead of just vitriol and you might help the process a bit more and just might get the kind of gameplay you are after. |
|
Vyktor Abyss
IONSTAR Curatores Veritatis Alliance
|
Posted - 2009.03.04 23:10:00 -
[111]
Re: Above post
You wouldn't see anything about what would be good PVE content here because its a reply to a Dev Blog.
I used to post roughly 2 to 3 ideas a week for months on the ideas part of the forum. I never got one Dev response, despite a lot of very good feedback from a lot of players - almost noone gets CCP feedback there - Even before the CSM (When CCP were supposed to read that forum for ideas).
The sorry fact is what people have wanted for donkeys years, are player created/driven missions of sorts - or at least something that has a consequence in the universe of Eve. Faction Warfare missions were supposed to bring that to a degree but have failed hard.
Now I'm vilifying CCP rather than specific Devs tbh. because they spend months on a system and one particularly "long" mission which works almost identically to the current mission system (as far as players can tell) in ters of not "dynamically changing the universe" or impacting the world of Eve (Other than the ISK faucet we all love so much).
If its "rabble" to be demanding a better missioning system after 5 years of constant game development than more of the same (with bells on), then by all means I'll sign up for the rabble today!
Instead what we have is CCP announcing what does actually look like a great expansion in terms of wormholes, graphics updates etc - but announcing "Epic Missions Arcs...(oops)" as a major feature of this expansion is misleading marketing tosh IMHO, because the reality is (from what I've read thus far) it's possibly the weakest feature (now reduced) offering very little that is new, compared to the rest of the coming expansion.
Put it this way - I'm more excited about the statement "You will not lose standing for mission time expiring", than anything else I've read about these arcs. Sorry if that upsets people, but maybe I'll do a complete 180 after I try it - who knows!?
I'm not just bashing CCP coz I'm angry at them for not giving me what I want - I'm bashing them because - IN THIS INSTANCE: I feel they can do better. They are after all the creators of the best, most innovative game I've ever played. I just hope the real innovators at CCP will turn their eyes to the ideas forum, turn their minds to one of the key elements of eve - the mission system as a whole, and then turning eve into a better game as a result.
Shame on me then for demanding that and expressing it on the forum after 3 years paying my hard earned money.
|
Zijiruu
Amarr Vado Fututio Vestri Infernal Experiments
|
Posted - 2009.03.10 17:20:00 -
[112]
so...
how do you do this epic mission not being a new player?
referred by an agent? what agent?
|
Trademaster Joe
|
Posted - 2009.03.10 19:54:00 -
[113]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas
Quote: So how exactly do you know where to look for these epic agents?
You'll be referred to the initial Epic Arc agent by another agent. Prep your resume.
Hmm, Do all races get a referral for this first epic arc?
|
Tehopenee
|
Posted - 2009.03.12 12:03:00 -
[114]
Epic missions seem to be a good thuoght but if you have to end up in territorys where you are KOS then they do me no good. I keep seeing additions that we can almost use. If I am wrong about ending up in KOS regions when attempting a epic mission then I will be doing them. But if I am right looks to be a waste of time. :)
|
|
CCP Jasonitas
|
Posted - 2009.03.12 14:25:00 -
[115]
Quote: Epic missions seem to be a good thuoght but if you have to end up in territorys where you are KOS then they do me no good. I keep seeing additions that we can almost use. If I am wrong about ending up in KOS regions when attempting a epic mission then I will be doing them. But if I am right looks to be a waste of time. :)
Your worries only apply to this epic arc (The Blood-Stained Stars). It was intended for new players as a "tour of New Eden" of sorts. That being said, you can still fly most of the arc even if your standings are low for some faction (although there is a threshold for this). And, of course, you may not want to venture in some territory. But future arcs will be rolled out that are geared towards different factions only, so you can certainly play those.
|
|
Aolla
|
Posted - 2009.03.12 15:25:00 -
[116]
Why do I have a feeling that most of the new players wont even know about this Epic arc. Most of new players probably don't even read the forums. At the beginning of their game, you could send them a letter or send an agent to talk to them and ask them to start these epic missions. At the same time, they are new to the game, epic or non epic wont make a difference to them. Being able to talk to an agent from space and handing in missions, in my opinion, is a very smart since most of the new players who quit, quit because they get super frustrated by jumping from one system to another over and over again. But why make us so jealous?
|
|
CCP Dropbear
|
Posted - 2009.03.19 22:58:00 -
[117]
We have various things pointing newcomers (and all players) to the epic arc.
|
|
DeMichael Crimson
Minmatar Republic University
|
Posted - 2009.03.20 09:54:00 -
[118]
Well, I just did the new Epic Mission Arc and posted my report about it in this thread listed below.
EVE Information Portal EVE Online: Apocrypha Feedback Thread Page #32, Post #960
|
Crux Xybalba
Gallente Center for Advanced Studies
|
Posted - 2009.03.22 09:06:00 -
[119]
I got a problem - I came to the point when I had to choose between two alternative missions the first time. Not knowing that the offer would expire (since none of the other epic arc missions had ever expired), I waited too long and now Sister Alitura is mad at me for my indecisiveness.^^ Is there a way to get back into the epic arc?
-Crux
|
Zaff Solarstar
|
Posted - 2009.03.22 18:24:00 -
[120]
Same thing here - up to mission 46, hadnt accepted it because I went out for dinner... come home after maintenace to find the offer has expired.
It was only available to me for a few hours even though it said epic arc missions do not expire!?
Does this mean I've just lost my epic arc?
The sisters of EVE NPC keeps saying she has nothing for me.....
Can I get it back? If so, how?
Have I done 45x other missions for nothing and wont be able to see how the story ends up? :( :( |
|
Dr Atomic
|
Posted - 2009.04.07 11:10:00 -
[121]
How about Recon 4 ........5 times in the same week!
|
CetusOfAsuran
well of Urd
|
Posted - 2009.05.06 15:26:00 -
[122]
just thought would give a little positive feedback on the epic missions arc. Understandbly it was a little easy but as its kind of a test arc you need as many to go for it as possible so fair play. Hopefully though you wont make newer ones any shorter or longer, the introduction of having a proper story to follow was, quite frankly enthralling although please introduce alot more branches.
In bloodstained sisters i think there was about 8 chapters, 1 branch per chapter would be excellent, although understandably you may need the likes of dan brown and dean koontz on your team to keep up the stroy writing.
Downsides would be the looooong flightpaths chosen for some of the agents, 23 jumps almost made me forget the whole thing, and far too many courier aspects, i like explosions and lots of em.
I think also, Quote: Finally, while the rewards for Epic Missions won't be vastly greater than those for normal missions, they will tend to give out cool new toys (or at least exceptional rewards) at the ends of chapters and, of course, at the end of each complete arc.
erm where? same reward for every mission whether at the end of each chapter or the end of the arc bit lame was kinda getting excited as to what the final reward and climax in the story would be. and nothing literally nothing special.
Also nice touch putting the mission within a mission giving me the clue to follow to sister alitura in the 1st place otherwise i still probably wouldnt of got round to it.
Anyhoo big thumbs up, looking forward to many more of these, or maybe scrapping the entire current mission structure in complete favouritsm of these, could you do that? 16 missions per arc to keep with current stroyline requirements?
|
Hamish Grayson
Caldari Independent Navy Reserve
|
Posted - 2009.06.03 17:19:00 -
[123]
Originally by: CCP Jasonitas
Quote: Quote: Finally, while the rewards for Epic Missions won't be vastly greater than those for normal missions, they will tend to give out cool new toys (or at least exceptional rewards) at the ends of chapters and, of course, at the end of each complete arc. Can you clarify this please? It almost seems like a contradiction.
The Epic Arcs are not randomly generated missions, so if we want to make a story that ends with you receiving, say, a shiny storyline or collector item, we can do that. Hell, we can tune the awards to give you a Titan at the end, if we wanted to. You know, as your reward for saving CONCORD or something. We are telling stories now, strings of stories, and the rewards can be based upon what you do in the story.
That would be very immersion breaking. ============================================
It is said the warrior's is the twofold way of pen and sword |
Steel Dragon
Caldari Strip Miners and Explorers Inc
|
Posted - 2009.06.11 21:43:00 -
[124]
When can we expect Arcs for us experenced players? content lvl 4 or 5 strength. Will the NPC's be smarter more like sleepers? and will there be arcs that require a small fleet to complete (this would rock).
|
|
|
|
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 :: [one page] |