Curious...what qualifies a mission for 'Officer Report' credit?

captainhunter1

As the title says, I'm curious as to how a mission qualifies for credit in the 'Officer Report' daily.

I see missions I think should qualify - great missions such as Captain Revo's, "This Far No Further" and Nagorak's, "Dereliction Duty", but others that don't make sense to me.

It can't only be a time window that qualifies them - 'This Far No Further" falls in the classic timeframe (20-40 minutes), but "Dereliction Duty" does not (2-4 hours of play).

So is it based on the number mobs within said mission? Or something else?

I ask because I have both types of missions created (two long ones (2 hours each) with a fair number of mobs, and one short one (20-30 minutes) with no mobs) and none of them qualify.

Unfortunately, a side effect of not qualifing will result in less play for these missions. As an author, I would like to know what basics I should include in future missions so they will 'fit' the report criteria and have a better chance of being enjoyed.

Thanks to anyone who can help (Branflakes?)

zorbane

Do your missions have 5 reviews? Before that happens its in "probation" and won't be part of officer reports.

captainhunter1

zorbane wrote: »

Do your missions have 5 reviews? Before that happens its in "probation" and won't be part of officer reports.

Yes. All three are out of 'probation' - lol.

zorbane

captainhunter1 wrote: »

Yes. All three are out of 'probation' - lol.

Alright then we're on the same level lol. I'd like to know as well

ajstoner

On this topic from another thread:

drogyn1701 wrote: »

To my knowledge, Cryptic has specifically said that missions that qualify need to have at least 5 reviews and have an average playtime of 20 minutes or more.

If missions that meet those qualifications aren't showing up as qualifying, it can mean one of two things. Either there are more qualifications that they haven't mentioned, or there is a bug.

Of mine, i have noticed that four are marked as not qualifying even though 1 of them should take at least 40 minutes. The other three are certainly longer than 1 that does qualify.

I'm thinking that "drops" may count against you time-wise. If that is the case Cryptic should really look into revising it based upon full play-throughs.

nenfis

zorbane wrote: »

Do your missions have 5 reviews? Before that happens its in "probation" and won't be part of officer reports.

The problem with the 5 notes is that such a mission is not publicized by Cryptic's going to want to play if you have no reward?

A greeting.

ufpterrell

I was all for getting rid of the one click missions, even though I confess to using them myself at times. I'm not very experienced on the Foundry and even though I'd like to make more missions my time is quite limited due to my studies at university.

I spent a long time doing my first mission titled "Radio Silence", which is at least 20 minutes long if you read all the text. There is a lot of "press F for xxxx" in, but that's because it's supposed to be a story mission with only one bit combat at the end. Unfortunately mine doesn't qualify as an "Officer Report", even though it has more than 5 reviews. It's disappointing because I know that without qualifying for the reward it's highly unlikely that people will play it.

zorbane

I said this in another post

zorbane wrote: »

Hmm I can see it from both points of view.

On Cryptic's side:

Before people play it the game has no idea how long it takes and whether it would count. At the same time if it lets it through everything before the 5 reviews then it could easily be exploited. People can play it over and over without reviewing so it never leaves the review period.

For the Author's side:

Pretty simple, like you said how do we get the first 5 reviews?

Is there a safe middle ground? Or will we have to reply on people who go out of their way to play missions that do not reward them.

Hopefully this is just growing pains as Cryptic fine tunes what constitutes a real mission from a mission built to exploit the Investigate Officer Reports daily. We've seen Cryptic change things before when thing didn't work out (Season 7 Dilithium drops COUGH) so we'll see if they work on this. I'm hopeful that resources will be diverted to this because they can use this as a guinea pig for Neverwinter as well.

nenfis

zorbane wrote: »

I said this in another post




Hopefully this is just growing pains as Cryptic fine tunes what constitutes a real mission from a mission built to exploit the Investigate Officer Reports daily. We've seen Cryptic change things before when thing didn't work out (Season 7 Dilithium drops COUGH) so we'll see if they work on this. I'm hopeful that resources will be diverted to this because they can use this as a guinea pig for Neverwinter as well.

Zorbane the first is to thank the effort to provide authoritative information, thanks.

Another thing that bothers me is the issue of 3-line message in red stating that this mission is not valid to add, is that what you see and think that if you play this mission you will operate the computer or something, I think they should put another way to report that this mission does not count.

A greeting.

drogyn1701

There is the possibility that they put in place some additional requirements and are not releasing those to the public in an effort to prevent people from just making the absolute minimum mission with the minimum effort to continue farming the daily.

littlemonchichi

Figured out this is not 100% the Truth what they said and told us how the filter missions for the Daylies.

They are "watching" what missions are used and played and after a while some Missions, they are available for the Daily and played often are decorated with the red letters.

Watched this 2 times!!

This Mission:
"borg cube infiltration" - before the criteriums are ok and after a while not?

"Bajoran Temple" - before the criterium have been ok and fullfilled and after a while not?

2 examples. made this experience in 2 hours.

THIS IS CHEATING!!
ok, they made it harder for us to get dilithium and fleet marks.
ok, they made insane dilithium prices for this and that.

but now they start to cheat at the Player???

THIS IS NOT OK!!

chicochavez

This is strange, because both of my Allegiance missions currently qualify and I can't think of anything that would make them different from any of yours. I do wonder if there is some kind of timing mechanism in the background that collects the average play time for each mission; it would be the only way I can think of that they would know just how long a mission is.

littlemonchichi

timer? asked someone to check it out and he saw the red letters too.

this means: the mission is to easy and to quick? we make it again harder for them...:mad:

littlemonchichi

i play your mission later...

this made me again too angry and i change the game for a while.

ajstoner

I'm sorry but the very idea behind the new system is a bad one. A straight dilithium amount based upon a reasonably calculated play time is the way to go.

bareel

My vote for likely cause goes to players grabbing the mission and then dropping it which will tank the average playtime. It hardly matters though the system is beyond stupid that they are trying to use.

Either go all the way and make it grant a Dil reward based on the missions average playtime, take a bit of dev time and make unique foundry rewards of some sort, or just drop the reward to 480 for a single mission any mission and give up. If they cannot fix it properly they shouldn't have started to muck with it in the first place. It saddens me to think of the number of players who now have an even more negative view of the foundry than they used to pre S7.

kuwayuo

drogyn1701 wrote: »

There is the possibility that they put in place some additional requirements and are not releasing those to the public in an effort to prevent people from just making the absolute minimum mission with the minimum effort to continue farming the daily.

I looked at current tribble test server there were way to many not reviewable there are some that are one clicks but they want there name out to see and others were to fleet only too i do check each one on tribble since the sample small but a lot of questions since they rejecting should be a review and none is not correct and review board must review and leave no comment should be part of problem. We writers want to improve and no comments to correct is false lead going forward. So when i looked on tribble, I found kdf was not able to tell on rules since only a mission held standard, and 5 stf side. rules should be to possible job offers but i just want to get grind done and may be coaching will be way

kuwayuo

bareel wrote: »

My vote for likely cause goes to players grabbing the mission and then dropping it which will tank the average playtime. It hardly matters though the system is beyond stupid that they are trying to use.

Either go all the way and make it grant a Dil reward based on the missions average playtime, take a bit of dev time and make unique foundry rewards of some sort, or just drop the reward to 480 for a single mission any mission and give up. If they cannot fix it properly they shouldn't have started to muck with it in the first place. It saddens me to think of the number of players who now have an even more negative view of the foundry than they used to pre S7.

problem new reviews are currently an hour or longer and that shut down many ideas below time i believe there a balance it time since they post an hour limit that mean an hour clock and missions in foundry are being over either time slot must be up or time requirment be reduced people will move to where dilthium for fast and leave foundry
will be quiet this season. I exepect proper review if they rejecting and reason why and that a must.

kuwayuo

bareel wrote: »

My vote for likely cause goes to players grabbing the mission and then dropping it which will tank the average playtime. It hardly matters though the system is beyond stupid that they are trying to use.

Either go all the way and make it grant a Dil reward based on the missions average playtime, take a bit of dev time and make unique foundry rewards of some sort, or just drop the reward to 480 for a single mission any mission and give up. If they cannot fix it properly they shouldn't have started to muck with it in the first place. It saddens me to think of the number of players who now have an even more negative view of the foundry than they used to pre S7.

my vote is for better rewards in foundry and better time alotment for writers the sandard will say that since tribble is not time alotment and should done

kuwayuo

ajstoner wrote: »

I'm sorry but the very idea behind the new system is a bad one. A straight dilithium amount based upon a reasonably calculated play time is the way to go.

the time played on a mission should be a standard with 20 minutes each many multi toon want fast but with new system will not get rewards and when on tribble they rejected most mission with out review means they not giving reason for problems and was not correct

martin1970giesen

captainhunter1 wrote: »

As the title says, I'm curious as to how a mission qualifies for credit in the 'Officer Report' daily.

I see missions I think should qualify - great missions such as Captain Revo's, "This Far No Further" and Nagorak's, "Dereliction Duty", but others that don't make sense to me.

It can't only be a time window that qualifies them - 'This Far No Further" falls in the classic timeframe (20-40 minutes), but "Dereliction Duty" does not (2-4 hours of play).

So is it based on the number mobs within said mission? Or something else?

I ask because I have both types of missions created (two long ones (2 hours each) with a fair number of mobs, and one short one (20-30 minutes) with no mobs) and none of them qualify.

Unfortunately, a side effect of not qualifing will result in less play for these missions. As an author, I would like to know what basics I should include in future missions so they will 'fit' the report criteria and have a better chance of being enjoyed.

Thanks to anyone who can help (Branflakes?)

Missions of 2 to 4 hours, thats why i will never play those missions.
12 hours for 1440 dilitium, LOL

markhawkman

martin1970giesen wrote: »

Missions of 2 to 4 hours, thats why i will never play those missions.
12 hours for 1440 dilitium, LOL

would you do it, if the reward scaled based on the time required to complete the mission?

twg042370

You know. They could avoid all this if they just paid attention to the exploit missions and deleted them. It's not like the player base can keep a secret. And if no one knows about it, it's so little used that it's not really a problem.

markhawkman

twg042370 wrote: »

You know. They could avoid all this if they just paid attention to the exploit missions and deleted them. It's not like the player base can keep a secret. And if no one knows about it, it's so little used that it's not really a problem.

That's really just a half-baked solution. A different half-baked solution, but still...

broadnax

markhawkman wrote: »

would you do it, if the reward scaled based on the time required to complete the mission?

No. I might play them if they look interesting enough storywise -- and I have enough time. There are a few longer ones I intend to try.

But there is a reason why STO and other MMOs shoot for 30-45 minutes for a single mission (a full arc, often 3 - 5 missions, might total 2-4 hours). Many players just don't have that kind of time to devote to a single, non-raid mission (raiders are a different animal altogether).

If you give me the same 2-4 hour mission broken into 2-3 missions of 30-90 minutes apiece, I'll most likely play them if they look interesting. The Flight of the Kitty Hawk missions averaged about 90 minutes apiece for me; I'll play them again on other characters.

I have two Federation characters and would like to start a Klingon character to level excusevly through the Foundry. Yes, it will take a very long time, but then again, it will allow me to use my Oberth and Constitution class ships for a while too.

captainhunter1

Well, watching some of the other threads it appears the Foundry has had a "Borg" upgrade for Season 7.

There is no set criteria for a mission to qualify - as apparently the Foundry now actively adapts to new input (much like Borg drones adapt to different weapons fire).

This thread, http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=463551 explains it a bit.

So apparently missions are going to qualify some days, and not qualify other days, depending on how people play them (or drop them )

Does this mean that regardless of how much effort we as authors put into a mission (we could make one 100 hours long), that an algorithim that averages the number of plays/minutes can arbitrarily 'de-qualify' it for 'report' credit, thus torpedoing it from general play?

hanover

Curious...what qualifies a mission for 'Officer Report' credit?

The punitive, arbitrary whims of those seeking to dictate to us how to "correctly" play their game.

:rolleyes:

markhawkman

Sadly, I think you're right Hunter.

drogyn1701

My working theory that one of three things is happening:

1) It may not be working correctly. Always a possibility when dealing with software, hardware... any kind of ware.

2) There are unknown attributes beyond having 5 reviews and a 20+ minute average playtime with which Cryptic is evaluating these missions.

3) I am guessing that average playtime is something that is recalculated every time there is a play of a mission. If this is true, than if there is a mission with a low number of playthoughs that's riding right at that 20 minute mark, one play could push it one way or the other.

Consider, you are one of these folks who is looking to get their daily done as fast as possible. You see a mission that qualifies with say 10 reviews, so you pick it up and blow through it as quickly as possible, Fing through all the dialogue and roflstomping whatever mobs there are. You get it done in 5. Considering that we are at the very beginning of this time-related qualification fiasco, those 10 people who played it before you probably didn't blow through it in that time, but your speed run may have been enough to push the average under the limit.

thbarnak

My opinion is that if the Foundry missions have to be at least 20 minutes long to qualify for Investigate Officer Reports, I'll never play them from now on. Why would I waste time on such missions when I can make double the amount of dilithium it gives by playing STFs instead (PLUS the Borg Neural Processor AND Omega Marks)? They might be interesting for characters below level 40, but I still would not play them for dilithium since there are still better alternatives around even though PW is cracking down on dilithium-making avenues.

They should just delete the old "one-click" missions from the list and make all the remaining ones qualified for the IOR, no matter how long they are, while making IOR a non-dilithium reward mission (just like most of the missions in the game).

zorbane

If your intention is the grind dilithium then you are looking in the wrong place. The Foundry is there to provide stories for people to play. The investigate officer reports mission is just a reward for playing them.