An hour of mining for two concussion rocket launchers? Ten queens or so for 2 Corvus Widowmakers?

Agreed. As much as I enjoyed doing these missions, I felt completely dissappointed after completing them. If you're gonna give me fun, long missions please reward me appropriatly.

The new hive research mission for example, I only get 2 corvus widowmakers and a few credits, cannot be taken a second time. If you are worried about messing up the game balance please remember that I can only do this mission once, thus only get the weapons/item once. Even if it is super powerfull I would be hesitant to use it since I can't get more, and if I used it would sooner or later lose it by accident if nothing else. Maybe make it so that I can't drop the weapon/item if I get shot down, but please give me something I can brag about. I don't want crappy laser guns with a shiny new name for going to all that effort.

And the conc missile launcher from the XX mission was even worse, with one crappy weapon that's pretty much useless (and apperently costs 100000 per shot to refill). I am very disappointed :(

Devs, if you want us to test/play these missions please make it worth the effort........

PS: I want my queen cores back, at least they were worth some bragging rights :)

It's going to lead into other missions, which I haven't finished yet, including one that will allow you to get the widowmaker on your own (a crafting mission, but for single-unit weapons instead of 50 like the concussion mine launcher, so it would be easy). These things are all designed as trees, but are sometimes rolled out singley for testing purposes. Yes, it's a little disappointing, but if it gets you the "foot in the door" with corvus for future missions, is that really so bad?

If you want me to hold back until every tree is finished, you won't see any new missions for months. There is a tradeoff.

That's cool Incarnate. Could you at least post a short mission timeline or something so we know where this is going? I'm not asking for anything long, just a brief outline of what I will get in the future for doing all these super long mission.

Thank you for at least telling us there are plans to make these missions somewhat worthwhile :)

Not really, I'm still trying to figure them out as I go along, I have only a general idea of what I want to accomplish and am not entirely sure how I'm going to go about it (what faction is best? which rewards are best? how will it play out? what else will it impact? what does this mission say about the given faction? how does it help define the universe?).. it usually starts to come out as I go along. And this is in between setting priorities for the rest of the company (which I still need to do tonight), trying to get some new ships ready, trying to keep us in business, and so on. I would have extensive mission-priority timelines if my job were, say, "mission writer".

Seriously though, if something sucks, please tell me so, but do generally assume that it sucks because it isn't finished. Sometimes I do stuff that sucks and totally don't know it, or knowingly leave things sucking for a long time (faction system, etc etc), but at least 80% of the time on new content it's because it's not working, or not finished.. and often from rushing to get some new content in the game because people were unhappy.

Also, for the record, ALL missions are going to build on one another. All of them. That's why we had the Accomplishment flag system in the first place. User-created PCC missions will build on mine, mine on theirs, everyone's on everyone elses, and so on. So, in effect, there is no way of knowing what missions or gameplay might be opened up next year by the "corvus_hive=1" flag I set last night. Hopefully lots.

It's nice that this a part of a longer mission line, but if there's another one that lets me make/buy "Widowmakers" I'm not touching it with a 10' pole. They suck, and they suck bad.

AAPs are better, by a lot, and I can get those free off dead convoys. Bump the stats in a major way already. And seriously, 150k for completion? Add a zero to that already, killing 15 queens isn't cheap.

Alright. To be constructive: In a few words, the reward blows for the work one does. Infinite access to the guns? Sure, 15 or so Queens is fine. We do 10 for the Hive Postiron, unlimited access. Maybe lower the count or something, like one Queen Core for two Widowmakers.

Many would still not do it for that though. :/

I think you're missing the point Monky--nobody in their right minds wants these things. I wouldn't pop one queen for unlimited CWs. I'd rather retain the challenge of the mission and make the reward something that isn't (surprise, surprise) just like everything else in game already, but crappier.

Seeing that you have to do lots of combat for this mission, wouldn't it be nice to get some combat/weapons xp as well?

You already get massive weapons XP per queen kill. As for combat XP, I'd say that, too, should be on a per kill basis given in the field. See, e.g., the current set up for killing hive critters in Sedina.

Make queen drops the method for integrating new weapons on the basis that they're 'advanced hive designs' maybe?

Well, they already drop hive posis and (on a seemingly lower % chance rate) hive queen gattling turrets. I could see, eventually, there being upgraded versions of these with correspondingly lower chances to drop.

I derived the Corvus Windowmakers from the Neutron III. The damage is up from 600 to 650, but the energy usage is up as well (14->17). It shouldn't be a useless weapon at all, although the energy usage may be a bit high. Even the law enforcement neut only does 635 damage, albeit with better energy usage and a very slight gain in velocity (202 vs 208). If someone could explain *why* it sucks, instead of just saying it does, that would be much more useful.

And, in case people didn't get it from my first reponse to this thread, the real rewards for this mission have nothing to do with money, weapons or XP. This has more to do with the type of faction than anything else (Corvus), and whether or not you want to work for them.

Either you're insulting our intelligence or you're just not thinking like someone who actually engages in combat in your creation, Inc. It's not useless: I'm sure it works nearly as well as all the other crap we already have. Which is precisely why it sucks.

Neutron IIIs are free from any unrat you find; Laws come free from station guards; AAPs are likewise obtainable by popping a moth or an atlas or a centaur. Most, though obviously not all, drop them; usually far more than in quantities of two. All three are marginally superior weapons to the CW, regardless of the minor damage differences, because of drain and velocity differences.

The reason it sucks, however, is what your last post totally missed: I don't care, and neither does anyone else who's done the mission atm (of the other three I'm aware anyway), what your eventual intention for the mission's purpose is. The requirements for completion are damn high. If all I'm getting from it for the foreseeable future (let's not talk about "Soon-tm", it's not a great support for any claim, I don't think) is two half assed guns... the mission is an insult to our dedication and an outright waste of our time. Either make it useful in the here and now, or keep it out until we have a reason to kill 10-15 queens to do it.

Is that a clear and concise enough explanation for why the CW sucks, or would you like me to go off on a tangent about how it's not very different from anything else to which we already have easier access and is more of what we don't need?

I posted the mission saturday night, and went in-game to ask for testing and feedback (of drazed, mystic etc), as it was completely untested and part of my effort to add some of the requested higher-level hive goals as quickly as possible. There were supposed to be two other missions following it by Sunday, but that clearly hasn't panned out.. and it seems I've so upset people with the one mission, that no one is interested in waiting for the tree to be finished.

So noted, thanks for the feedback. I've pulled the mission and won't make that mistake again. Of course, it may be January by the time I really have the Corvus tree fully defined and tested.

January's only a month or so off; so be it. Please no resetting the flag for completion though... collecting 10 cores and 2 matrixes once was enough for me.

I am sad :( (even if I am the only one).

As I said in the other string about this originally, I really enjoyed doing the mission, just seemed pointless at the end. I also suggested lowering the requirements (or increasing the payouts). But in the end I did have fun, I must have since I stayed up all night killing queens right?

Anyhow, I am sad that there are so many trolls on these threads that the mission should be completely removed for now. As for testing the mission, shouldn't that be done on the test server Incarnate? And only added to the actual game after feedback from the testers?

PS: I can now log into the test server, send missions at me there :)

drazed: I'd love to, man. Testing them on the test server is what I would like (and what has been oft-requested by the fledgling PCC userbase). But there is no mechanism for doing that at present, and I cannot use up Andy's time on my PCC/mission-editor problems. A major game framework (deliverator) crashing every day is a much bigger issue, so I have to suck it up and try other options, like posting it into production. That used to be ok.. it seems like there used to be more patience. Anyway, hopefully we'll get test-server usability down the road. In the meantime, I have test stuff myself or get some guides to help me, so things take longer. <shrug>. C'est la vie.

Suggested lesson from an experience that has clearly left some of the player base annoyed and a Dev a little bitter: if adding sections of content into production, accompany it with fuller disclosure than one would if simply adding a fully finished module of missions.

If we'd had a thread to read that said "New Corvus Mission Added--Part Of Incomplete Mission Tree, Stats of Completion Items are X, Y, Z. Not higher because flag is the real reward, ties into future missions, etc."... I seriously doubt this thread would have festered.

Notice is excellent preventative medicine.

I would just like to point out, as drazed did, that most of us (even those of us behind a stupid firewall that's out of my control that prevents me from actually playing the game for now) appreciate every action taken by the devs, even if the step is in the wrong direction. They are all well-intentioned actions, and when mistakes are made, every effort is made to fix them. This new mission is new content, and it's too bad someone had to be rude to the guys who stay up late and deal with frustrating code to deliver a quality product, and ruin something new for everyone else.

Thanks guys, and don't let Dr. Lecter eat you.