Faction reputation and annoying missions

I'm in the process of switching factions right now to join a clan. I'm going from Tangent to Biotech and these two factions are enemies with each other. Since I couldn't get inside the Biotech HQ without the guards murdering me, I had to do 40 kill missions. (Did I miss something, was there another way??)

Having radiated roaches next to roaches, sewer flies next to sewer bees, etc, makes the process of finding the exact type of mob more boring and time consuming than it needs to be. I've seen some archived posts suggesting that kill missions be more general and I couldn't agree more. I'm suggesting something like "kill 10 creatures living in the sewers" or even "kill 5 enemies with a rank greater than 15."

Back in the day, you could get faction rep from killing other runners (and even some npcs). I suppose just gen-rep camping a noob alt to get your reputation up was pretty broken and silly, but you know what? it was a million times more interesting and fun than doing 40 sewer/cellar missions. I remember being afraid to kill another member of my own faction for fear of the reputation consequences; it actually affected player politics on some levels.

You could become factionless by ruining your faction reputation. Is it even possible to lose faction reputation today? I can't figure out how to lower my rep at all. I kinda wanna make another factionless, neg-SL, crazy guy that looks like an npc....

You will lose faction symp (as well as SL) by brutally murdering members of a allied or neutral faction, both players and NPCs. As for regaining it, "nobody" is doing vermin control, but "everybody" would buy some chemicals here and then and check for more technical missions within an HQ. Which is of course not accessible to you if you want to switch from TT to BT directly without going through a 3rd, neutral (or allied) faction. In that case you'd have to bear the chores of killing small crap in the noob sewers (hint: there are smallies of a more predictable spawn than roaches). But, well, nobody forced you to go that way, so you will need to go by game mechanics.

In general: Theres no doubt that the Neocron misions system is desperately crying for more love. We all can hear it sobbing.

Not exactly sure if faction guards won't kill you anyway, regardless of your faction symp rank... just for the political constellation.
At least thats how it always used to be for me, do a detour over a third faction. Aggis and Giant Rats are still the way to go.

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Originally Posted by Drachenpaladin

Not exactly sure if faction guards won't kill you anyway, regardless of your faction symp rank... just for the political constellation.

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Yes they will try to, but a PPU can handle that. Not sure if that PPU wants to stay with you for all the time you want to level symp in the HQ, tho.

There are multiple ways to accomplish this faction change to an enemy faction

- Do kill missions (like you did)

- Do recycle / research missions (stealth or ppu is fine, otherwise you need to use your environment to not get shot)

- Jump over to an neutral / friendly faction (while you're there do the epic), then go to the faction you want to become in the first place


You nowadays only get sympathy for your own faction if you kill something (or someone :)), so this does not work very well. The easiest way to level sympathy is to be Pro-DoY if you know what i mean - if not, please don't read the last sentence.

Yes the mission system (with all the missions) needs some serious rework. We need:

- Kill missions
-- 5 of a kind
--- Distinguish the enemy
-- 10 of a kind
--- Distinguish the enemy
-- Endless (maybe put a 2 - 4 hour limit on that or something) get xp / symp / money for every kill
--- Distiguish the enemy

- Tradeskill missions
-- Const
-- Ress
-- Recycle
-- Barter
-- Repair (yes, please do that :))

If i need to research 3 times TL 150 cubes i do want to have money / skill for the kill missions that are nearly equal. 3 cubes are done kinda fast comparing that to kill 5 Desert Beasts i.e. - the only ones equal are launcher cyclops missions.

We need more quests, less numb mission running with always the same texts. That NPC needs a delivery - yea, he waited a long time for it, thanks, here you go. Piss off, asshole!

There has to be a story that is tailored to the runner himself, maybe linked to his skills. If he has 100+ pistol skill, you might want him to kill some warbots, if he has 100+ rifle skill, put him in an dangerous dungeon where he cannot go on distance combat.

We need group missions (team missions) with actual loot / rewards that is useful for those players. We need an system that works with accomplishments (1000 launcher cyclops kills you get a rocket launcher / pistol / rifle depending on your skill that is).

Many many new ideas running around, leaking in since years, which resulted in the same old same old missions with the same system, nothing to accomplish. There is no "the way is the goal" expectation. Players expect to get the skill / sympathy, so all the way until it is finished feels boring, numb, meaningless.



Yesterday i did some research missions for 100 symp (Fallen Angels). Took me 12 symp 48 and 10 symp 90 missions to get there. This endevour lasted about 15 minutes and i swear i wanted to go for a cigarette every damn mission i completed. That's for numb mission running :)

Maybe after the balancing project has been finished we may see some updates on the mission system. Until then, i do missions for the goal, not to have fun (because they are not). Same goes for epic runs and other "quests" - i do them because i want the reward, not because the mission is fun to play through. Click here, run there, click again, kill, run there, collect, run there, run there, click again -> reward (finally over).

Long way

Easier than kill missions is recycle missions via a neutral faction with an epic that is worth selling - e.g PPR. Do very easy recycle missions for that faction, change to it and do the epic and then go to the faction you want to end up in at last. Easier possibly than trying to do kill missions. (longer winded for certain).


Far shorter way

Go to Via Rosso 3 - stand with your back to the GR in that zone and look NW (under the concrete pillar is a black shaded area with a sewer hatch in it). Go into said sewer and kill the 5 rats in one room for the very easy kill rat mission.

Alternatively the same mission can be made outside the job centre (citycom in the job centre) as across the street are 3 sewer entrances in between some concrete pillars. The far right hand one of the 3 has 2 rooms in it. As you go down the ladder into the sewer you can turn immediately left for the first room or go right and around a corner for approximately 50m. Between these 2 spawn points you will find a grand total of 5 rats. There are sometimes 4 and 1 split but on some lucky occasions you will find 5 together.

It is still a good couple of hours to do it just because its a ball ache either way but these two ways of doing it are the easiest I have found.

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Originally Posted by Drake6k

I'm in the process of switching factions right now to join a clan. I'm going from Tangent to Biotech and these two factions are enemies with each other. Since I couldn't get inside the Biotech HQ without the guards murdering me, I had to do 40 kill missions. (Did I miss something, was there another way??)

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If you're red and in an enemy HQ, the guards should be murdering you anyway with how things work now.

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Originally Posted by Drake6k

Having radiated roaches next to roaches, sewer flies next to sewer bees, etc, makes the process of finding the exact type of mob more boring and time consuming than it needs to be.

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We have a plan to re-factor most of the Quick Kill missions. This should at least make A) more missions relevant and B) it easier to find the requested number of mobs. While it still won't be massively interesting, it will at least be better. Grouping of mobs for mission targets isn't possible in the existing mission system sadly.

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Originally Posted by Drake6k

Back in the day, you could get faction rep from killing other runners (and even some npcs). I suppose just gen-rep camping a noob alt to get your reputation up was pretty broken and silly, but you know what? it was a million times more interesting and fun than doing 40 sewer/cellar missions. I remember being afraid to kill another member of my own faction for fear of the reputation consequences; it actually affected player politics on some levels.

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I totally agree we need more interesting ways to get the required sympathy to move. Perhaps a story driven mission chain would work well here, especially for jumps between hostile factions.

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Originally Posted by lawless

Same goes for epic runs and other "quests" - i do them because i want the reward, not because the mission is fun to play through. Click here, run there, click again, kill, run there, collect, run there, run there, click again -> reward (finally over).

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What other elements would you expect from a mission to make it more interesting?

I found the epic missions very good , you learn some history about the faction , you understand you are in a grey world and you have a good reward at the end.

Maybe if you made your 10 char epic you are bored , but for me épic is the way to go for making good missions ( chain missions , storyline and a good items at the end ).

ppose just gen-rep camping a noob alt to get your reputation up was pretty broken and silly, but you know what? it was a million times more interesting and fun than doing 40 sewer/cellar missions. I remember being afraid to kill another member of my own faction for fear of the reputation consequences; it actually affected player politics on some levels.