Elite Dangerous Odyssey: The Problem with Settlement Defence Missions

Elite Dangerous Odyssey: The Problem with Settlement Defence Missions

Update 11 to Elite Dangerous Odyssey brought with it a new on foot mission type.
In this video I’m going to talk about the settlement based protect missions. What’s good about them, what isn’t so good, what I like and what I don’t like.

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Music: Epidemic Sound

[madproforg]

Non guard npcs go into hiding. Arrive for the mission and run around, you will see some of them running into those small garage like building which have opened

[andrewbryant]

I agree with you that the settlement it's self should be the target, and that it feels like a cheap mission to add. They wanted to add a different type but they don't have the time or resources to develop it properly so they just throw something together with the systems they already have in place. To attack the settlement itself they would have to program them to hack the doors, bypass security and other systems which they Havnt developed the AI to do and frontier seem to be ether slow or lack the resources to do that. Frontier do seem to take their time to develop anything for this game but I'm no programmer so I don't think it's fair for me to scrutinize I just notice it when these sorts of things drop.

[lightwoven]

Having been playing on foot exclusively for a month. I have come to some conclusions.



1. It costs a lot of time and credits to learn Odyssey.

2. There is no progression curve for gaining new or improved items. In my case I collected all items for Engineers before getting Opinion polls!

2. There is no feed back loop for achieving objectives like unlocking Engineers or upgrading weapons and suits. Visual clues or changes would be nice.

3. Upon upgrading suits, all your skins have to be reapplied!

4. There is no positive feed back loop on damage from upgraded weapons. It feels like it's all the same colour, the same output, nothing apparent for the most part. Yes there is more but it just doesn't feel like it matters.

5. I was on Dangerous for combat, I achieved Elite on foot, this irritated me. The numbers required were far lower than for ship based combat... WTF!

6. You absolutely need a 3rd party to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

7. I feel exhausted and imho for very little gain.

Overall my opinion is that Odyssey still seems like the McGuffin, no reason for any of the mission types and the whole scenario is of the placeholder variety.

[raymobula]

It feels like a beta. Demo the concept, and build other, more complex ground missions in the future? I’d love to see defend the power plant, fabrication, etc. A get x from point A to point B (ship) would be nice too.

Box of hatred … haha! The cart is always there. Mission or not.

[pkit]

I quite enjoy them as an alternative to a conflict zone. However playing solo on the higher ranked ones I sometimes run out of ammo or health in some settlements where ammo/health would normally be found. This can be quite irritating.

[marcusaurelius]

totally agree on the mcguffin being out in the open and not under lock and key somewhere.

would be nice to see interchangeable mcguffins too so not just a set of canisters every time. sometimes even a VIP.

[trouvereyork]

The protect mission is one of my favourites. I know I am in for an intense bout of murderous mayhem and with a high chance that I might fail.

The main failing of Odyssey for me is that on-foot combat doesn't really feel dangerous enough. I could basically stroll into any settlement and destroy everything and all reinforcements quite easily. I was rooting for a higher threat settlement to offer a big challenge.

Instead, the protect mission comes along. It's pretty cool really. It's integrated into the general narrative feel better as you can easily imagine that you are offering yourself as a hired gun to stiffen settlement defence. Fighting alongside a rapidly diminishing crew of friendly NPCs as waves of attackers swarm all around was great fun for me. I have only done 5-6 of these so far, but I have really enjoyed them all - even the ones I failed!

I did one as part of a team and that was even better. Coordinating fire with a teammate while enemies streamed in was pretty special.

[raymobula]

Could add another layer. Defend the McG. Then pick it up, put on the ship, travel else where. Betray the mission giver and sell it, or drop it at its destination. (Or drop it into the star). More freedom, less rails.

[thomgadget]

I've not done one of these, but your description is hilarious. You have a way with words. "Cargo hating desperados" indeed. Thanks for the entertainment :)

[matthewkaiser]

Mechwarrior Online tried escort missions, years back and everyone hated them, even though it was indeed challenging and they were removed a couple years after their introduction.
What made it hated was the target was a dead slow item. Not the run and gun movie style chase it was hoped to be. if such a protect mission could incorporate SRV's and ships or a combination, depending on the game someone has or their load-out, it could be fun. Then you could have the movie-like run and gun, get the target excitement. maybe switch it up between a crate macguffin or even a compliant individual who could be captured and then taken to a waiting vulunerable dropship waiting to take them away.

[Stoic_grimace]

I noticed the boxes before because there was always wisps of black smoke/carbon scoring inside but no cargo cans. Now I know.

[imushavem]

So, don't use a ship or missiles to destroy the cans, send teams in 6 men at at time...well that's a "different" way of thinking about game play....no wait, I guess it is standard for FD..

[Inojin]

This is why I couldn't get excited for Odyssey before it released - I knew the new missions were going to be tedious and poorly designed/implemented, just like the missions in the base game.

[geluhun]

- But you do have a box.
- I mean, of course I've got a box. Everyone's got a box, man. Even Diaz has a fucking huge box.
- Good. We're gonna use it."
;)

[frankshailes]

The one I saw wasn't cargo canisters on a trolley but some weird piece of machinery with green glowy bits that was identified as some sort of nuclear controller?

[dwsnz]

My feeling on these missions are along a similar vein to yours. I'd would say for all their McGuffin nature though the premise is a lot less jarring than the Frontline combat zone capture the flag mode which are a whole other level of logic defying fighting over a thing which is just a gamified nonsense. These protect missions are definitely much more fun and believable than those (and have better framerates!).
Also, these protect missions, sometime you actually see some settlement staff being evacuated to a little bunker area... which helps to make it be more believable. But yes this could be so much better as a protect the CMD or Power building, or protect the thing in the warehouse, or being slowly transported to the warehouse. Just a little more effort into the scenario could be better. I am very hopeful though of more mission/scenario types being rolled out - they should make it a goal to add a new one every few months -- on foot exploration/science missions would be a great addition, not everything on foot has to be murder mayhem!

[faulcondelacy]

This type of mission is too easy for me. Just grab 2 rocket launchers and camp at landing site...

[foamcastle]

I agree to you. The mission feels weird.
FDev could have done much more with that, as you mention the Box could start in an Building and drives to the landing pad, while you must protect it.
You could also combine this with a player ship: let's say you must fly to the settlement with your own ship, than activate the transportation, while it moves to the loading dock, you must protect it on Foot. When the Cargo containers arrive, you enter your ship and transfer the cargo. Thete could be some mini Storage, when the container are loaded to the landing dock, you can access it via the market or the Missionboard. Now you must fly the cargo to another settlement and there you unload it and must protect it, while it drives towards an building.
Such Missions could make real fun and could be good to be played as team. Those Missions could be habe 3 Parts, from Building to landing pad, with ship from settlement to settlement and at last landing pad to Building. The mission server could then mix this together, so you can get 1 Part, 2 Parts or all of them.

[chrishexx]

All the missions in ED suffer badly due to the nature of them having to be replicated across thousands of locations. They're ultra generic A-B mcguffins.
I'd kill for some handcrafted locations with properly scripted missions. Maybe military campaigns would be the obvious way to implement more immersive story driven fun.

[davidchandler]

These missions, for me, just underline the serious lack of creativity and talent that is working on the game these days. It's so un-immersive, it can't even FAKE being immersive, and I don't think Frontier understands why this seems so awkward in a game like Elite. I'm not trying to be overly harsh, but it's just a dumb mission setup and feels extremely low effort. It's yet another thing that feels more at home in a free-to-play asset-flip shooter and not in a game ya pay for and is meant to be set in a "real" world.