Aid the Planet beginner mission seems worthless...

System

Commodeties are expensive (or at least an expense), and take up cargo space. Now, while I recognize that altruism may be it's own reward, and that Starfleet likes to promote diplomacy with charity from time to time, the Aid the Planet mission is a HUGE let down for an initial Commodities mission.

First off: hauling around the ten FREE units you can pick up at when you first accept the mission takes up an inventory slot. Maybe not a big deal at first, but since you don't have a guarantee of finding an appropriate system in need in Delta Velonis right away...

Second: I just discovered that even finding A needy system doesn't mean that it needs the FREE set of ten commodity that you were given for your first mission of this type. Okay, fair enough I figure. I'll just use the replicator, recycle, and select the commodity this planet actually needs. Sure, this wrecks havok on my meager beginner energy credits, but the pay off should be worth it, right?

Third: Apparently not. After delivering the goods, all I got to show for it was a few experience and diplomatic points and a polite brush off from the ingrates.

What is UP with that!?

I used to find commodity missions fun. Sure, they cost a bit to complete, but you always got a nice random device or level appropriate item on completing them that may or may not be rare or hard to come by otherwise. Heck, even if all I got was a decorative plant or native trinket I could put on put on my desk, I'd be fine with it.

Granted, I DO like getting diplomatic points for commodity missions, however wiping out the meager enrgy credit researves of a beginner character for the first one because it doesn't automatically match up with the free unit bundle you can pick up when you accept the mission seems a bit harsh for the new guys, and may discourage new players from bothering with needy systems when they come across them.

Archived Post

You can save the space by savinbg some money and instead of buying the commodities you can replicate them using your replicator when you use the key "I".

Archived Post

Kutunto wrote:

You can save the space by savinbg some money and instead of buying the commodities you can replicate them using your replicator when you use the key "I".

The OP did mention they know how to replicate, and has used it for the mission.

I agree with the OP. The reward rarely covered the cost, but we were able to get at least some EC back with it, or at the very least had a nice toy for our ship. It's really painful to lose 1500EC replicating what's needed when you only have 2000EC in total.

Is this going to be permanent? Or is it a temporary glitch.

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Yeah I don't understand why the reward gear was taken out of this type of mission, for me it was kind of the point of the mission and spending all the EC to get the commodities. You get DXP and a piece of gear and in return you have to spend some EC to get the commodities (on the normal missions not the free first one) instead of getting the grindy combat missions over and over. I think they need to put the reward gear back in, it was just a piece of green gear its not like it was overpowering the game or anything.

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Since they took away the commodity reward, I keep declining to help planets that don't need the 10 free shield generators that you get from the commodities broker. I figure there's no point in paying to help a planet just to get nothing in return. I hope they change it to where you at least get a chunk of dilithium or bring back the commodity rewards. I'm not running a charity here and I'm not a real Starfleet officer, I'm a gamer. I need rewards or I don't help.

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There is something that you get from doing exploration mission. Diplomatic Experience Points and the beauty of that is when you get to the first Diplomatic rank you get a pack of duty officers to play with.

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AtP gifts were put in the game because the we literally had to pay to do those missions and because of that everyone was skipping them. The devs obviously think that +10 DXP is worth the expense of whatever commodities are required. They are incorrect. They want an EC sink and they think AtP are good for that since they cost EC and give nothing in return that can be sold for EC. Unfortunately, it also means that our characters have to pay to rank up in Diplomacy, at least part of the time. With the addition of the DOff system (and an alternate means of gaining DXP) there's no reason to do AtP missions at all. So Cryptic, you might want to do something about this. Maybe make any commodities we replicate for AtP be free.


Z

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You can get diplomatic XP on a lot of missions, including some with real rewards and that you don't have to spend energy credits on. Later in the game, the energy credits aren't an issue. But, at the beginning, you have none or very few. Usually, I literally can't afford to help a planet. I would sell stuff on Holodeck to scrape together enough energy creds to do the mission and get uncommon gear. Now that you don't get the gear, it's not worth it to get around 20 SP and 10 diplomatic XP and no gear. Then you not only don't have the uncommon gear but you're out energy credits that can be used to buy gear and train officers.

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Without the reward gear the aid the planet missions aren't worth doing - I'm assuming the lack of gear is a bug though.

If you have the actual commodity tutorial mission they should make the first system you scan be aid the planet for that specific commodity though. It's frustrating having to grind this for practically nothing in return.

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Yeah, i think they really should add these rewards back in. I can't count the amount of times i've thought to myself "sweet! aid the planet mission. free gear!" when playing. One of the little, enjoyable things about the game for definite.

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These missions really need to be examined, my friend and I were doing diplo missions and the Reward to Cost ratio is really out of whack. Spending over 6k or more for only 10 DXP is horribly broken. They should at least give 20 dxp while higher level diplo missions (like first contact) give 30+

The Diplo DOFF missions are horribly broken which makes leveling using them impossible. waiting 3 real life days for 8 dxp is broken, so all thats left star cluster diplo missions to level.