Mission system is broken before its even ingame

[PredatorFour]

Until they add xp gains for defending territory, the mission system will be flawed when introduced imo. Just imagine making a mission to defend a base, while there is also a mission to attack a base.... hmmm i wonder where the troops/zerg will go ?? Always to where the xp is.

You would end up with people only wanting to attack and not defend.... which on a whole is what the gameplay is like already.

They need to give defenders XP for successful base/ outpost defends before this gets introduced or it wont work.

[Hamma]

You get bonus percentage on top of normal XP for base defense rather than a bulk reward, which means you could actually get more XP for defending a base than attacking it.

Problem is that's not communicated and people don't know it's happening so it seems like there is no incentive.

[bpostal]

Hmm, hadn't thought of that but I can see the possibility.
Personally though, as a commander, if possible I'd put down several missions for defense to try to lure as many people as possible to do the right thing as possible. Ex: At a tech plant ideally there'd be a mission for some Bursters on the roof, plus a mission for engys and medic support for them; a mission for defensive troops in/around the smaller buildings outside the superstructure to hold the gens; a mission for armored sallies to push out; a super huge high priority mission set on each of the exterior hard spawn points...I will give ALL the XP and things to get these bastards to play the game like they ought.
Unless of course I can only place one mission every 5 min or something like that, then it'd be a 'hold this tech plant please' and then I'd cry a little.

[Alareth]

Originally Posted by Hamma

You get bonus percentage on top of normal XP for base defense rather than a bulk reward, which means you could actually get more XP for defending a base than attacking it.

Problem is that's not communicated and people don't know it's happening so it seems like there is no incentive.

The bonus to defense isn't wrapped in a big shiny package with trumpets and fanfare like the capture bonus.

In addition, to get the bonus you actually have to do something and can't just idle in the area while the control bar changes color.

I've pointed out how defense can net more xp many times on the official forum but gotten nowhere.

[Canaris]

Originally Posted by Hamma

You get bonus percentage on top of normal XP for base defense rather than a bulk reward, which means you could actually get more XP for defending a base than attacking it.

Problem is that's not communicated and people don't know it's happening so it seems like there is no incentive.

hmm maybe they could add something like - "Kill 100xp + 10xp def bonus" so people would see it

[Babyfark McGeez]

Well, instead of more xp i would rather say attacking rewards you with "more easy" xp.
Unlike defending you have a guaranteed sum of xp without having to actively do xp-worthy acts.

And from a pure min-max perspective, if you have a hotdrop avaible would you rather:
- Drop on a major facility where the bar of your faction is allready moving up and you get a guaranteed 1k xp
or
- Drop on a major facility under assault and shoot 9 baddies / do alot of support to gain the same amount of xp "manually"

The first choice nets you a guaranteed 1k xp in a rather short amount of time, the second is unreliable and takes longer.

[maradine]

Originally Posted by Babyfark McGeez

And from a pure min-max perspective, if you have a hotdrop avaible would you rather:
- Drop on a major facility where the bar of your faction is allready moving up and you get a guaranteed 1k xp
or
- Drop on a major facility under assault and shoot 9 baddies / do alot of support to gain the same amount of xp "manually"

I guess that depends entirely on whether you're here for the cert. points or the gameplay. I think flitting around the map, collecting pregnant base captures is about the worst waste of a gaming rig you can engineer in an FPS. But then, I'm here for the shooting.

[Rolfski]

Originally Posted by bpostal

Hmm, hadn't thought of that but I can see the possibility.
Personally though, as a commander, if possible I'd put down several missions for defense to try to lure as many people as possible to do the right thing as possible. Ex: At a tech plant ideally there'd be a mission for some Bursters on the roof, plus a mission for engys and medic support for them; a mission for defensive troops in/around the smaller buildings outside the superstructure to hold the gens; a mission for armored sallies to push out; a super huge high priority mission set on each of the exterior hard spawn points...I will give ALL the XP and things to get these bastards to play the game like they ought.
Unless of course I can only place one mission every 5 min or something like that, then it'd be a 'hold this tech plant please' and then I'd cry a little.

I would love it if the game would make it possible for such detailed, tactical assignments and the game would give you then XP for following orders as well as bonus XP depending on how successful you were at conducting these orders.
This would also allow you to really specialize in a role (i.e. anti air max) and then become some sort of mercenary, always looking for assignments where you're specific role is needed.

I don't expect the version 1.0 of this system to be this detailed though.

[Lonehunter]

One of the problems I'm beginning to see is defenders not sticking around to secure a base. IF the enemy has taken your tech plant and you finally push them out, clear all spawns, and have plenty of reinforcements, even with full staff on cap points it takes too long to revert back to your control. You're not getting any bonus xp by waiting around for a cap to go through.

On offense your waiting for an xp boost, on Defense...the satisfaction of knowing the enemy has to cap through a whole progress bar?

But back on topic to mission system: It's really a shame we haven't seen anything on it yet. It always seemed like one of Higby's biggest points when selling the game, it was THE BRIDGE for the gap between new and experienced players.

Since every single review gave PS2 great scores but couldn't help mentioning the EXTREMELY steep learning curve and no new player assistance what so ever, I can only wonder if PS2 would have got some perfect scores if the Mission System was in place.

But we don't even know ANYTHING about it. NO concepts, no tests, no beta, no articles, no mentions, we really have no proof it's still planned to be implemented