Well, I've resubbed this alt mostly to talk about those missions. Now, there's only one thing that seriosuly makes me uncomfortable, and it would be very kind if you just cleared it....

Will the mission targets (the "Burners") spawn in the same security as the agent giving the mission?

More specifically, will highsec agents send players to highsec systems only, and lowsec agents send players to lowsec systems only?

I would be extremely upset if my highsec agents sent me to lowsec.

Thank you.

These missions will follow the same rules as normal security missions. They send you to a nearby system and don't care what security status it is. If you run them in an area surrounded by lots of highsec, they'll send you to highsec.

Yes, it happens sometimes, but that's a bug, not a design feature.

Yes, it happens sometimes, but that's a bug, not a design feature.

Or sneaking through a minefield while maintaining your cloak to deliver a package? What about a suicide mission where you simply kill as many NPC's as possible before your ship is ultimately destroyed, an increased number of kills provides increased rewards. So many possibilities besides combat that would keep us on our toes.

-Kor

is there a chance for a cloaky griffin to appear? I mean a NPC without alt is a bit unrealistic.

However since these missions are going to be a bit more profitable than average level 4s

As an aside, we're completely aware of blitzers (there are plenty of very efficient mission runners in this office) but we feel there's a pretty good range we can place these rewards where they'll be missions that average level 4 mission runners like to see without completely imbalancing the blitzing gameplay.

These missions should not be in highsec. Level 4 missions do not need any buff in profitability.


Really? You're comfortable with level 4 blitz income, so you're adding more on top of that? Are you really sure you want to go this route?

I completely understand why people would want to have these missions accessible from their own dedicated agents, and that is definitely something we'd like to do with similar missions in the future. However since these missions are going to be a bit more profitable than average level 4s and because there's only going to be five of them in this initial deployment, they aren't really suitable to stand on their own right now.
As an aside, we're completely aware of blitzers (there are plenty of very efficient mission runners in this office) but we feel there's a pretty good range we can place these rewards where they'll be missions that average level 4 mission runners like to see without completely imbalancing the blitzing gameplay.

So the upshot for these NPCs is that they will act in a similar manner to some of the other recently added NPCs like the Mordu's Legion asteroid belt patrols in lowsec. The only completely new functionality they will enjoy is that the Burners who use warp scramblers will shut off player MWDs in the same way that player scrams do. These NPCs will not run out of cap, or warp away. Those kinds of improvements are definitely on our medium to long term roadmap, and when we do have them ready to go the burner missions will provide excellent places testing the new capabilities.

[quote=CCP Fozzie]

Well, I've resubbed this alt mostly to talk about those missions. Now, there's only one thing that seriosuly makes me uncomfortable, and it would be very kind if you just cleared it....

Will the mission targets (the "Burners") spawn in the same security as the agent giving the mission?

More specifically, will highsec agents send players to highsec systems only, and lowsec agents send players to lowsec systems only?

I would be extremely upset if my highsec agents sent me to lowsec.

Thank you.

Oh don't worry mate, we will still find a way to blow you

You do not need to do the "battleship missions for these", hell you do not even need to own the BS to do these. Frigates are pretty damn fast after the warp speed changes so moving around until you get one of these is quite viable. Now if you want to drag whole supply train with you then that can be a bit trickier but nanoed up T3 booster can be still made to sort of not fall too far behind a frigate over the short distances.

Hey everyone. Thank you very much for the enthusiastic responses in this thread!

It's always a good feeling as a designer when the most common feedback from the community is "sounds good but you should make more of it" and "sounds good but you should let people get to it more easily".

I completely understand why people would want to have these missions accessible from their own dedicated agents, and that is definitely something we'd like to do with similar missions in the future. However since these missions are going to be a bit more profitable than average level 4s and because there's only going to be five of them in this initial deployment, they aren't really suitable to stand on their own right now.
As an aside, we're completely aware of blitzers (there are plenty of very efficient mission runners in this office) but we feel there's a pretty good range we can place these rewards where they'll be missions that average level 4 mission runners like to see without completely imbalancing the blitzing gameplay.

It's possible that we could attach some of these sorts of missions to a similar system as the pirate faction epic arcs (which also represent some very engaging small ship PVE content) in addition to their presence in the general level 4 mission pool. That kind of addition would not come until after Hyperion however.

I'm also seeing a lot of excellent questions about the capabilities of these NPCs. I want to be clear that these NPCs are evolutionary steps from previous NPCs, not revolutionary.
We have a team dedicated to improving our PVE content authoring tools, which will bear fruit for NPCs and AI in the future. In the meantime however, we are also continuing to improve our content with the tools available to us now. That's why the Hyperion release is featuring these new missions as well as the set of Incursion improvements that CCP Foxfour describes in this thread.

So the upshot for these NPCs is that they will act in a similar manner to some of the other recently added NPCs like the Mordu's Legion asteroid belt patrols in lowsec. The only completely new functionality they will enjoy is that the Burners who use warp scramblers will shut off player MWDs in the same way that player scrams do. These NPCs will not run out of cap, or warp away. Those kinds of improvements are definitely on our medium to long term roadmap, and when we do have them ready to go the burner missions will provide excellent places testing the new capabilities.