Pilot Archive
Thread: A Petition on Escorts....
It's Disappointing that recently, newpeople are coming here, wanting to make things in space ever so much easier. Why? Escorts are boring. So What. Missions take a long, dedicated period, That's good. At least the missions mean something, even if that equals tedium. You've stubbed your toe and want a band-aid. This isn't the ground. I've done four trees, one of them twice, and I intend to do another in the next day or two, and then Return to Rebel. I'm going for Storm Squadran next, Because it is considered to be the more difficult of the Pilot Branches. There should be challenges. while I support some of the changes P. B. is suggesting, I like the Kashyyyk Missions. If you notice, they incorporate many of these suggested improvements, and, people complain about them.
New comers Whine. It's the nature of the Beast. You begin something new, you think you are Hot Stuff, Then a difficulty arises; Can't finish what you started. Frustration, frustration, frustration. and the blame game ensues. Something must be at fault. The First is line is the game, then god knows what, but, the Last thing on anyone's list is that their skills fall short. While Skill and Escort Missions RARELY have anything to do with one another... Well, imagine if Psycho Bunny's suggestions were enacted... to the letter. We'd outrank Jedi for the whinest, most non-productive, flame riden forums, and, that's a stretch. Already a good many of the Kashyyyk escorts are considered by some to be to difficult to solo;
- Low Level Escorts, as low as Tier I with Tier IV attackers
- Progressive Waves
- Odd timing, and overlapping Attacks
I think they are fun but... What if this type of Escort became standard fare? I'd love it, a great many others would as well, but would you? No. I guarrantee you would hate it. I'd put money on that. What You want is an over and done with. An "I Win" button, and sure, through a JSF in there too, as a door prize. At this point these long, boring, mind numbing escorts are what we have and... they are Doable. We've All been there. It doesn't take skill, it takes persistance. And, if you don't have the gumption to stick in there and do this simple thing then, I don't really care if you become a Pilot. Why should the profession be watered down to admit anyone, and anything that comes knocking? Just so some ground hugger can snag a free badge and talk junk in Space?
I don't think so.
The main source of a lot of my suggestions has been other escort type missions Ive played in the past. Psych 101 time. Any mission based system is very BF skinner, with a task ending in a reward. Well thought out tasks reward the participant throughout the process.
The gist of my suggestions isn't geared toward making the escorts harder, reading them and seeing that is looking at them too simplisticly. Just like the thread I began on making PvE more engaging, these ideas are to make the escort process more engaging. When it's more engaging, people won't notice the difficulty. They'll feel challenged. Even Ace level pilots will look at it as a challenge. If the amount of time the escort takes is shorter the better you fly, then it would be no time at all before people are posting their "record times." Failure will still be a setback, but you won't be so upset at facing another 40minutes of boring, you'll be thinking dangit, I only had 500m to go!
Just like anything, there are two sides toan issue, and people will whine no matter what, butthere are plenty of ways to make escorts into a much more interesting type of mission than they are.
Reydon wrote:SS escorts are already to where you are always fighting. But that is also a problem. To time to go afk if you need. And if you fail another mission after, you have to redo it. And there is nothing more annoying then dieing by some fluke and having to go 2 hours of work again.
/sign
Id like to see....
blockade running escorts...think escape from Hoth...in a way
Hell, I had an Hour (H-O-U-R) long one earlier, I shot down the fighters as fast as a tier 1 could (pretty fast, actually) and then I targeted my the freighter, typed /follow, and minimized the game for some forum surfing. Then, when I heard the alarm beep, I maximized the game and did it all over again.
I'd like to see escort missions that involved more than shooting down two fighters every few minutes.
Escort missions are easy (With the exception of the RGI/Adv. X/Vaksai Mission escort)
They may be long.
They may be short.
The story missionsare never going to be shortened they are pretty much set in stone now. Besides once you get ACE you never have to do another escort if you don't want to. Escorts are a traditional esential part of any good space sim.
Regarding the escort ships traveling at slow speeds. If they went any faster you would get left behind while you do battle. More missions would fail due to getting too far away from your escortee.
Ding ding ding ding ding, we have a winner.
Kehtal wrote:
Escort missions are easy (With the exception of the RGI/Adv. X/Vaksai Mission escort)
They may be long.
They may be short.
They may be boring, to some.
But they are easy.
IMHO, they are fine as is, all I'm seeing is a bunch of people who want to fly through pilot with as little FLYING as possible.