I finally did my first mission a few days ago. I'd mostly been avoiding them since the feature was obscure when I first started playing (back in the summer) and since they usually take more time than I necessarily want to spend, but I should do a few (and maybe write some missions, particularly in areas I spend a bunch of time in that have -no- missions nearby, like Sunnyside in Queens).
It's kind of an oddball game feature, since it has no mechanical impact. On the other hand, it's been a good driver for me to keep playing because they provide constant variety and a nice way to check off goals on a reasonably frequent basis. Once I finish a mission, it's done, and it won't get flipped back to undone.
Around 25% of my local Agent Stats group have done a significant number of missions, including three of our very serious players, so I'm inclined to suspect it's a good feature for enough people to be worth the effort.
I cheer on anyone who adds missions in areas that have none. Be ready for poor ratings if you do anything with passcodes or hidden waypoints (but you should, you'd write good puzzles).
I'd say little mechanical impact, not no, since it grants a badge and the limiter on levelling after a certain point is badges (and while levels don't provide a lot of mechanical impact, they do grant some. They could deeply increase this without significant mechanical load by just giving people an inventory limit that went up by level).
Thanks for the side-compliment. I do have the advantage of knowing what a puzzle is supposed to look like, although not the practice that the Hunt and Interactive Fiction communities have (not that there isn't overlap there). I might if I write more than two missions, but there's also a need for more basic ones, and I'd want them to be worth the effort.
True. I don't think you can get to 16 without putting some effort into at least one badge -- Trekker and Recharger aren't hard, Sojourner isn't bad, but after that you need to work some.
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I finally did my first mission a few days ago. I'd mostly been avoiding them since the feature was obscure when I first started playing (back in the summer) and since they usually take more time than I necessarily want to spend, but I should do a few (and maybe write some missions, particularly in areas I spend a bunch of time in that have -no- missions nearby, like Sunnyside in Queens).
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It's kind of an oddball game feature, since it has no mechanical impact. On the other hand, it's been a good driver for me to keep playing because they provide constant variety and a nice way to check off goals on a reasonably frequent basis. Once I finish a mission, it's done, and it won't get flipped back to undone.
Around 25% of my local Agent Stats group have done a significant number of missions, including three of our very serious players, so I'm inclined to suspect it's a good feature for enough people to be worth the effort.
I cheer on anyone who adds missions in areas that have none. Be ready for poor ratings if you do anything with passcodes or hidden waypoints (but you should, you'd write good puzzles).
Reply
Thanks for the side-compliment. I do have the advantage of knowing what a puzzle is supposed to look like, although not the practice that the Hunt and Interactive Fiction communities have (not that there isn't overlap there). I might if I write more than two missions, but there's also a need for more basic ones, and I'd want them to be worth the effort.
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