Forcing players to have missions is a bad idea

Agreed. I know where to go so I don't need a big icon constantly reminding me. I can see how it could be good for new players, but we definitely need a choice on whether to have it displayed or not.

Well, what if you are not in a squad?
I don't know what tin-foil hats have to do with it. If you solo, you cant see what you're capping unless you're where the Man tells you you should be. Basically the current system deliberately restricts information to you unless you obey some authority. What if you are not in a platoon? What if your squad splits? What if commander is elsewhere? Again, missions are ok, deliberately restricting information on the cap you happen to be standing on is definitely not ok. Having to keep checking your map just to see what's your cap status is crazy uncool. Just make cap timer visible at all times and we're golden.

You can please everyone by allowing it to be turned off.

We don't want this crap in our faces for 12months while you add the features that apply to any player above br50.

This is incorrect and very misleading. Yes you can "go about your day" but you are then severely gimped in that you are denied absolutely critical information on what is the status of the cap point you actually happen to be on. In order to see points and timer status you have to open up the map screen, which may take up to several seconds due to dodgy programming, which can lead to getting you killed not to mention how flow/immersion breaking it is.

So, while you can "go about your day" you can do so with hobbled feet and a blindfold.

Agreed totally.

As a long serving platoon leader and BR100 player I really do not want or need this feature, it is an insult to my intelligence and makes the game "dot to dot".

We didn't ask for this, heaven knows why it's here and heaven knows what purpose it is meant to serve, other than belittling the long term players of this game like myself and countless others...

At least have the decency and provide us with an option to turn it off please.

PlanetSide as game and concept has never had the likes of this and really doesn't need it, seriously stop right now.

Thanks.

Actually, in this case you can please everyone... by giving the option to turn it on or off.

I'd also like to disable this feature. It's more annoying screen clutter i don't want or need.

Whilst I appreciate the time it took you to reply, and address the concerns in this thread, most of what you said makes very little sense in the terms you have used to justify this addition. Also while I am aware that this mission system is the bones of something possibly more complex, I can't see the reasoning for putting this half-baked system in, other than to appease the 'we must have new content every patch,' crowd.

In regards to point 1. If it is a actively managed public squad/platoon, then we already have all the tools at our disposal to herd those in it to the place they need to be; Squad Waypoints, Smoke and Squad Beacons. In addition to this we have a functioning chat/VOIP system and a passable Squad management system. If players are still struggling to be 'cohesive' after all the gentle prodding and harsher threatening (be it in text chat or VOIP, 'get to the squad waypoint or you will be kicked'), then the problem is most likely with the solo player and not with the fact they they don't know where to go.

On the other hand Squads with Squad Leaders who just open a squad and just leave it and don't manage it, well then that's not something SOE should be catering to, certainly not with a change that affects everyone. These kinds of squads wont have any cohesion whether there is a beeping Mission message or not, and these leaderless, headless chicken squads should be discouraged rather than catered to.

In regards to 2 and comments about how the cap timer issue and roving squad leaders is 'less convenient' really shows a casual disregard for your dedicated players and outfits, who most likely have contributed far more in both time and money than your casual player. It also shows a casual disregard/wilful ignorance of the organised aspects of this game, that highlights how little those who push features out like this unfinished actually play this game at any degree of a high level. As a BR100 and a member of a fairly well regarded NC Outfit on Miller, there are numerous occasions in organised operations where squad leads will be in the air, or on the way to a base further down the chain in advance of any cap. Not having immediate access to the cap timer on screen for the rest of the squad can be a considerable inconvenience, especially when a lot of deployments are timed to the second. Because of your 'feature not a bug' of not displaying the cap for Eisa under a Freyr mission, that is a failing of YOUR UI and the way YOU decided to display Mission information. It cannot and should not be retconned as a 'Feature' because the dev team were unable to conceive of a better way of displaying both these (seemingly vital) bits of information without it being confusing.

I'm not entirely sure why the Mission system had to be based around the individual, and not around the Waypoint system. Surely this would have been a far more elegant solution, Missions based on where the Platoon Squad Waypoint, or Squad Waypoint currently are (hierarchy Platoon > Squad). For solo players this could have been where their Personal Waypoint currently is. This solution would also have reinforced the Waypoint's authority to casual players in squads also, and been a much stronger carrot/stick for fulfilling point 1 of your response.

Ok, I'm now officially so annoyed with the game I'll stop playing for some time. Not being able to see status of the waypoint you are sitting on is not a bug but a FEATURE?!?! Unless you go where the hell we tell you to?!? And this is done to PREVENT CONFUSION?!?! Not seeing status of the cap you actually are on? Mind boggles. Ok, kkthnx. Nice knowing you, great engine you got there. Good bye.

I find it hilarious that with every update people threaten to leave. Its almost as if they are begrudgingly playing this F2P shooter and the tiniest change is the straw to break the camels back.

There's no downside to having the mission, there just needs to be a way to hide the display so we can clear up some screen space and get that distracting triangular thing out of the way.

In all due respect,

1. It was posted as a suggestion by SOE in this Forums
2. People liked it and DID WANT IT (go check the forum post)
3. Its not THAT bugged, and its a great asset to the game, stop hating!
4. Thank you for commenting on the thread, even if its destructive criticism, im sure its not what SOE wants but i guess they understand some people in this forums are ********.

Thanks for the reply Malorn.

As I mentioned before I do like the idea and sounds like you guys are working on "it".

Flying is one aspect but in other cases a SL will redep or upon death respawn in a different base to grab an asset of some sort then return to the squads area of operation/objective. During this, we who are fighting at the objective are unable to see that maybe C point at regent rock was lost...in a heavily contested area we cannot have our platoon/squad members hit the M key to see what is going on and still maintain some sort of combat effectiveness.

We need clear concise information relative to the objective at hand, Hiding such information at any point is a bad thing.

I just wish it didn't hide base information. I can't see if VS is about to capture it or about to lose it! It's impossible to see which faction has the point without physically looking at the point!
Person 1: "Did somebody take A?"
Person 2: "I have no idea."

1. so has many bad ideas
2. Not everyone
3. That bugged, is hardly a reason to boast about.
4. constructive without having to be personal like yourself? Thats what soe dislikes, personal abuse

1&2 - This is the foundational release of a significant system that many players did want, did ask for, and we saw significant value in adding it to all levels of play. I know players want us to release everything they could ever want all at once, but that's not really how development works. We're rolling it out in phases, with each release being something stable and of tangible value. This first phase is primarily bringing new player value and squad cohesion value out and allows us to gather data and tune the core mechanics, which we really can't reasonably do without it being on the live servers. Then we build more on it in the following releases. To see the player interest and bigger picture, see the Roadmap: https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/march-missions-system.162113/.

3 - You are implying that there are a lot of bugs with Missions and it didn't get proper testing. There is exactly one known bug with Missions currently that is uncommon/rare - defend missions sometimes do not expire when they should. In rare situations that bug gives you a bogus mission. That bug that looks to be related to the points-capturing-themselves issue we have seen the last few weeks and is very hard to repro without scale. As far as feature quality goes, this one is far from a buggy rushed release. If there are other bugs we don't know about, I'd be happy to look into them.

4 - We're always reading, even when we don't reply!

Also, forgot to add, while I'd like a way to turn off the mission display I'd like a hotkey for it so I can turn it on and check my current mission, then get the display back out of the way.

Or if your SL crashes and it goes to someone in the air/not at the point for some reason, you lose your capture information. It's a system not copasetic with how real platoons and squads work. It treats "good squad operation" like "bad squad cohesion," as well. At least let us have local base timer as a HUD option (maybe top left of screen) or in the TAB menu.

This is a case where the mission lock feature will help resolve this, as would the squad-mission feature that would implicitly lock a mission, so the squad leader could go elsewhere while maintaining the mission. That is a feature scheduled for a later Mission release with more squad focus and improvements.

Out of curiosity, will platoon, fireteam, and company leaders also have similar options when this mission (and company system) phase comes in?

It's not a very good feature then, it hides valuable information that people can use.