(a lot of) Extra Missions

[hsfilgueiras]

I dont know how others feel about this subject but i love quests that make you feel like the NPCs are having their own stories in the background while you try to save the galaxy and i find these are lacking in the game right now, most quests are delivery or demand and so my suggestions are the following mission ideas for bulletin boards or map signals or even civillian ships if you guys are interested in adding quest to loaders and haulers directly as a dialogue option like "you sent a transmission about  a job?": 

If anyone has any suggestions to add/change feel free to reply, i will try to answer and then together we can fine tune these ideas.

Oh and these are of course just basic name and goal ideas, you guys have all the power to change the name to something you find more fitting or the goal these are just a few sketches so the galaxy feels more organic and as i dont know how the game works in terms of coding some of these might be very difficult to implement or just impossible so take your pick of the ones you are able to employ and find interesting

"Escort Caravan"/"Hiring Guards" (can be obtained by talking with a merchant ship): Instead of having to help distress call now you are hired before hand to accompany a caravan/miner through a dangerous route (2 jumps minimum) and protect them from an inevitable pirate/xsotan/enemy faction attack (that occurs on the secod or 3rd jump). Player is allowed to betray the loaded caravan and take a massive relations hit. (on the first or second jump) but he can also fail the mission if all merchants are killed in an ambush, he gets lower payment and relations if some of the merchants are killed but some make it to their goal.

Caravan Member/Extra Hands (can be obtained by talking with a merchant ship) : Instead of a straight forward delivery mission you'll accompany a caravan that might visit multiple systems, this time not as a guard but as one of the haulers, as such you are required a minimum cargo hold of X value. When you arrive in a new sector the caravan leader may request you to dock at a station to deliver goods and then go to another to pickup goods (using the same option of the delivery quests instead of buying the goods yourself, this is because the caravan master bought them already and you will just be carrying them) the player can of course do his own trading in the meantime and is free to jump away with the cargo the NPCs paid for in which case he fails the mission. To complete the mission follow the caravan delivering and picking up goods without deviating from the route too much and without selling the goods at another stations for your own profit.

Deal with the competition (merchant ship or factory/trading post) The player's objective is to disrupt a merchant or a station (much harder) from completing their delivery/production (this could be just for flavour or you can, for example, give the "moving station" modifier to factories so they cant sell stuff for 10 minutes) they can be from the same faction as the questgiver in which case you suffer a relation penalty (yes even tho you completed the quest, threatning someone seems like it would have bigger consequences then slightly helping someone else), to disrupt the target you can either destroy them (and get their loot as extra reward with a bigger relation penalty) or threaten them (success based on your combat power AKA firepower/shield HP/size/etc) you can also accept a payment from your target (smaller than the original one) to leave them be and not take any penalty.

Tax evaders/ Illegal product (military outpost or military vessel, requires good relations)The player is given a few set of coordinates where a smugglers outpost is found, after visiting the multiple coordinates and confirming the location of the smuggler hideout, the player (who was giving permission from the outpost or military ship) may scan any civillian ships from the faction trying to unbrand or sell illegal goods at the outpost , ideally there should be no combat but if the smugglers decide to intervene on the arrest you have to swiftly crush them. This quest still needs some fine tuning with interactions between player and the civ ship or the smugglers

Valuable Cargo/ VIP transport (military outpost, research station, equipment dock, requires good relations): A faction will ask for the players help to transport an important person (a scientist, or a politician for example) or valuable cargo (a new weapon prototype, a ship blueprint ) because their armed froces are stretched thin from their current war with another faction, the player will then have to deliver the cargo to another system from the allied faction in a certain time frame. If the player jumps through uncharted sectors on his way he is likely going to get ambushed and fight his way out....or just surrender the cargo and take a massive relation penalty but a relation boost with the other faction. The player can aswell actively seek out to betray his employers by selling the cargo at another faction territory or at a smugglers den.

Capture enemy Vessel/Hostile study (military outpost, research station, equipment dock) : The player is hired to board and capture either a combat ship from an enemy faction or a xsotan ship and deliver it back to the station who hired him so they can reverse engineer the vessel to gain the upperhand on their enemy. To add a but of spice you can make the player have a specific target like a "new battleship model" which is on its way to a shipyard to be outfitted with heavy ordinance and right now isnt in its full potential making this the perfect time to strike, or a xsotn ship with exquisite behaviour, like the quantum or the one who opens wormholes.

Border Raid/ Probing Attack (military outpost, military ship): The player is invited to join a small fleet who is going to attack another factions sector (like the casual faction wars that happen but this time you join the attack force and travel with them to your destination), because this is either a small raid or a test on the enemy response time/strength it is unlikely that they'll muster a strong enough force to stop the raid, but there just might be a big fleet on transit in a nearby sector who just happened to be close enough to come help. As for player options he can help with the raid, betray the raid, or even surrender if things take a turn for the worse. i'd just like to add that as i was writing this i imagined a scenario where a 15 ship fleet comes in to deal with the raiders and the Frigate leading the attack just messages the fleet (or the player directly in terms of actual game mechanics) saying "All ships prepare for a full retreat, Get into a defensive formation and stand your ground, we have to hold until we our engines are ready for hyperspace and target that Hyperspace blocker!" imagine how epic a desperate defense would be, but again the player probably has 10X the shield strength so you're just laughing maniacally as you salvage beam the enemies to death at point blank range.

Market Surveying(merchant ship/trading post): This one is simple and, honestly, needs the most work, the player is hired to go to a few marked systems and assess local prices and report back to the merchant for a tiny reward. Usually this wouldnt peak anyone's interest, however, as the player is scouting trade routes for the merchant, the player, of course, discovers a trade route for himself. The idea is this is a way of finding lucrative routes to exploit them yourself, you visit (4-7) sectors (just an example) and on lets say, sector 3 and 6 you find a station that sells steel tubes for -20% and one that buys them for +23% and has constant shortages, sometimes the player might not find a worthy trade route but since its a simple mission with a possible high earning sandbox reward its a nice little quest that you cna do while exploring. MAIN PROBLEM: I think that this would be one of the hardest to code/implement, again, from my limited knowledge, i see 2 ways to put this in based on how i THINK the game works: assuming the player has explored all/most of the sector from a faction, the mission would find existing trade routes (similar to the trade system) on all systems that are, lets say, 4 gates away from the current position, once a trade route is chosen, the 2 sectors in which it's based get added to the quest's sector list along with X random ones. The second way is if the player HASNT explored much of the faction territory, instead of finding an existing route the game would make a brand new one when the player enters a 2 of the marked sectors for the first time, this would only work if sectors are created when the player loads them for the first time, i assume this is the case as opposed to them already having their stations chosen before going in and then you just load the sector's layout.

Towing service (distress signals) : A good early mission, the player is called to a sector where he finds someone in need of towing, either because they ran out of energy/fuel, because of mechanical problems with the engine or because their engines were destroyed in combat. They ask the player to tow them to the nearest sector with a shipyard or repair dock by using the docking mechanic.
As i write this i just came up with the idea of it also being a chance for an ambush. "As you dock with the supposedly damaged ship your docking bay emergency lights turn on as multiple reports from your crew come in that someone is trying to force their way in by cutting the docking bay doors, multiple sensor readings appear as ships come out of hyperspace. Should we undock and risk decompression from the damage the doors have sustained or should we send in security and prepare to be boarded?" Of course there is no place in avorion for these dumb RP dialogue/reaction options. But basically you can undock and maybe sustain some hull damage from the decompression or stay docked and be boarded by a random number of boarders (this is a way to make players have security on their ships, because RN idk if there is a reason to other than multiplayer. If the AI has the normal baording restrictions well...then i dont think they will ever successfully board the player normally because of the 30% hull HP since all the other ships will keep firing and the player would die before they get captured. This way you can simulate a player being boarded without the combat beforehand.

Post Combat Repairs (Repair dock, Military outpost): The Player is hired by a faction to go to newly conquered  aquired sector or a sector that has recently been attacked and repair the stations or combat ships there, this can be done using the repair turrets (this way they get some more use in the game) or by sending your mechanics (either with crew shuttles or transporters), but beware, as newly conquered sectors might suddenly be attacked to be retaken and if you traded your damaging turrets for repair ones you might find yourself in a battle where you are outgunned.

Business Partner (any factory/mine or special stations similar to casinos): This one is for players who want a space wide faction that they lead and like to focus on station building, supply chains, controlling sectors, etc. Basically, the player is offered by the owner of the station to become a partner/shareholder, the owner is behind on some payments and might lose the station, if the player accepts the mission, he'll have to go to a nearby sector from that faction and pay a certain amount (i'd say from 500k to 2M) to another factory (through a dialogue), the player then return to the station owner and informs his debt is paid, he owner thank the player and makes him his business partner, giving him X% from the station income. This would be a way to secure a somewhat steady income before founding a mine because the initial investment is cheaper but the income is also smaller, however, the owner was in debt for a reason, he can try to explain that he wasnt making money before, but he is now, and the player may choose to believe him, or try to help their investment by finding good places to sell the good they produce, finding cheaper suppliers, garanteeing transport or even moving the station to a more profitable area.

Strikes! (any mine/factory, shipyards, repair docks): The bulletin board tells the player how the workers of that factory decided to go on strike and wont show up for work for an unknown amount of time, the factory cant stop, they need to fill their orders at least partially, the player is then tasked to hire crew (or give his own) for the station, they'll pay more for experienced workers but they'll take anyone because they are desperate. After this the player hires X crew (with X being comprised of different jobs aswell, or just plain untrained cremates). The player might be intercepted by the workers on strike who might turn hostile if the player decides to complete the quest fully (maybe you can choose to only hire 50% of the goal so you receive less money but more reputation because the workers on strike still got what they wanted and didnt get completely replaced). This one still needs more fine tunning.

Combat Drills/Weapons Test (Military outpost/ships, equipment dock. research station): The player is hired to be a punching bag, kind of......, this one is still just a concept, i'd like the player to help a faction with their military, either by engaging in a small combat in an empty sectors against NPC's fleets as a combat exercise so the NPCs can train their recruits aswell as tactics to fight mercenaries (a nice word to describe the player i'd say), you wouldnt lose relations for hitting their ships unless you go all the way and kill them, the player is supposed to only weaken them (either get rid of shields or get them to 30% hull) but the player might himself receive hull damage if he isnt careful and bites more than he can chew. Alternatively, if the mission comes from a research station or equipment dock the player might recieve a turret and have a mission to use it against enemies to get data and as a reward he gets a small sum of money and gets to keep the turret (be it a successful design or not) or the player might even just be used as target to test said weapons, maybe the NPCs ask the player to lower their shields so they can test the turret on hull, and turns out the turret is such a good design it almost one shots the player ship, which of these 3 ideas sound the best? 

Unidentified Threat (Any station, military ships): The player is hired to investigate a sensor reading coming straight torwards the sector in which the quest is found. Upon arriving on the system the Unknown Object detected in the player might encounter a variety of random events. Maybe its an enormous Xsotan fleet escorting a Battleship, a very rare sight outside the core an yet you watch as they fly past you torward the sector who enlisted your help, maybe its a giant asteroid bound to collide with a station and you have to destroy (mine) it completely, but what could be inside this special rock? it might even be....nothing? but the sensors picked giant energy/mass from these coordinates, how could it be nothing? wait, is that a container? drifting alone through space? could this have caused the energy spike? whats inside? perhaps a legendary energy turret? a generator system? a bomb? and as you open the container you finally remember that "most containers have owners" as a new boss comes out of hyperspace armed with the legendary turrets just like the 1 you found inside the box. There i go with RP again, but the idea is this is a way to introduce more serious encounters where the player is bound to face/find something powerful and risk their ship for it while also pretending it has consequences to the NPC faction.

Sorry for the long post, here's a potato 🥔





 

[MoreChainguns!]

This sounds like a super cool idea, and, at its core, I think it adresses the basic lack of side quests that engage the player - not just ship transport, material transport, or procurement.

[FramFramson]

However the devs do it, the "flavour" of the game's NPCs and factions needs a LOT of content to flesh out what's a rather dry universe right now. At least some of that should be a lot more variety in missions, I agree.

[Fatsack]

'Away Missions' would be cool.  Have some station or space elevator platform where you can initiate an event where you choose how much crew to send 'security' or otherwise, to a planets surface or to some ancient space ruins or something.  It would have some narrative and storytelling and give you a series of choices to make for the away team that affects how many of them survive, and what rewards you get.  Maybe they require different types of trade goods or cargo you can send with them to improve their odds or give more options to choose from or something, like skill checks in rpg dialogs etc.