Let's talk about hunt missions

[EggKookoo]

Ok, first, I'm going to make an assumption here. If it's a bad one, well, ok. But I know I do this. Whenever a contact gives me a choice between a door mission and an open-world "hunt X" mission, I take the door mission. In fact, when a contact runs out of door missions and only has hunt missions left, it typically prompts me to go find a new contact. Basically, I skip hunt missions if at all possible. They're just not that interesting to me. Maybe I just want the goal-oriented structure of a door mish. I dunno.

 

Some thoughts on making hunt missions more attractive.

 

[*]Some of the newer low-level hunt missions actually drop an indicator on the map where those MOB types are likely to be found. I think these are part of those new starter Hellion missions in AP, but it's a nice feature. I imagine it might be a lot of work, but what's the possibility of doing the same thing for other hunt missions? It would give them more of a sense of focus, and less of a sense of busywork.

[*]Decouple location from MOB type whenever possible. Instead of "defeat 10 Hellions in King's Row" just make it "defeat 10 Hellions" and let the player find them wherever. Sure, that might mean a level 8 player might get the mission in KR and run back to AP for some easy kills, but really, who cares? They're just cutting themselves out of that extra EXP. Also, it would mean Hellions we defeat during door missions would count toward the hunt total, which would be huge.

[*]Increase the rewards for completing hunt missions. Not EXP but maybe increased chances of interesting salvage or enhancement drops. Or was more likely to drop Tips or something?

[*]Reframe the missions more as collecting specific salvage drops that come from the target MOBs. This is more akin to how WoW typically does it -- you don't have a mission to kill boars, your job is to collect boar livers, which just happens to involve killing a lot of boars. So instead of going to kil Skulls, we're collecting a particular drop (which, of course, would have to be set to drop more often from those guys). Again, lots of dev work I'm guessing...

[*]Revisit the concept entirely. This is probably too much work to pull off, but what if accepting a hunt mission caused special versions of that MOB type to spawn nearby? Or frequently triggered an ambush. Or perhaps in combination with #2, prompt some of that MOB type to spawn randomly during other door missions. This is pretty open-ended, I understand...

 

In the interest of the biggest bang for developer buck, I feel like #2 would be the best approach. If we could hunt our targets anywhere, we could take those missions but "fill" them while doing other door missions, or just take out those targets where we encounter them instead of trying to always find them in specific places.

[PaxArcana]

+1

 

Especially suggestion #2.  Even if they tethered it so that Grey-conning enemies didn't count, it'd still help immensely.

 

"Oh bother, a mission to hunt 20 Hellions .... let's see what the Radio has for us ... oh good, a mission against some Hellions!  Two birds, one stone, let's go!"

[Razor Cure]

A LOT of the Hunts in PI need to be just scrapper. Like Kill 50 Malta, when you are lvl 40 etc. Totally stupid.

[Shinobu]

A LOT of the Hunts in PI need to be just scrapper.

 

I agree.  You just need to be a scrapper.  ;D

[Razor Cure]

lol! I meant Scrapped...but being a Scrapper fixes everything!

[RikOz]

God yes. Like that Shining Stars Part 2 mission where Grym sends you to kill Clockwork. You're level 10, and there may be a few you can kill atop the buildings just west of the university. And there may be a few on the buildings near the arson building past the tram station. And there may be a few on a couple other buildings.

 

May. Be.

 

All the other Clockwork in the zone con red or purple. If the level-appropriate ones aren't there, you can be hunting for a very long time.

 

I especially hate it when I'm trying to see if a particular contact has a story arc available, but first I have to do an unrelated street sweep for them. I'm half convinced that this is just a "gimme" mission to get out of the way so that they'll give you their phone # so that you don't have to travel all the way back to them after the first story mission. An issue I think could have been better solved by simply setting the first story mission in the same zone as the contact. (Seriously, why does every contact send you clear out of their zone for every mission?)

[Six-Six]

I'm the same when it comes to hunt vs. door missions. hunt, except in a few instances, is just not worth the time and effort in relation to xp gain or story arc progress.

 

To add to your points:

1) It's would be very helpful to have a map pin. Or maybe an alert that a certain mob you're looking for is in close proximity, similar to the hum of clues or something. maybe incorporate it in the police radio function? Another way would be a list that indexes where certain mobs are.

 

2) sometimes this "joint tally" happens for me. just now I took out 20 Tsoo, 8 of them counted for another mish. on another occasion, a door mish kill count also ticked off a hunt mission. Not always, though.

 

3) this has also happened to me. I got several rare salvages killing street thugs out of the kindness of my heart to help those being harassed. they weren't part of a mission. on my way to an actual mish, my hero just couldn't turn a blind eye to an old lady getting mugged. I don't know if it was pure dumb luck or if the devs really factored that in.

 

4) I like this. And it would work better if certain mobs only dropped or were more likely to drop certain salvages. I know this is already in effect, maybe tweak the settings a bit? It think this will also help the crafting economy, maybe hurt farmers I'm not sure.

 

5) I have a totally opposite idea. (probably not helpful). bare with me. I just took a mish for Serge(?) over at Icon to protect his shop from Tsoo. The moment I step out, two Tsoo buggers were waiting for an ambush. Ok, so you kill them right? that's two down. But now they know you're hunting them, so they make themselves scarce in the streets. But game logic suggests that the map should spawn x number of Tsoo at any given time. this means that if you're hunting them, they're avoiding you. But it also means they're congregating someplace to face you. so it might be a little harder to find them, but once you find the spot, you don't have to look anymore. There will be enough there for you, even more. what this does is introduces you to combat tactics that involve mobs of 15-25 instead of 3-4. a handful, most of us can handle; but not many of us can deal with large numbers. It will be a different kind of challenge that should encourage team play (like putting out the fire) or improve your tactics away from just going Leroy Jenkins into a mob.