I have played a bit more of the game (because dammit your combat is so addicting even if the systems surrounding it blow!) I think I have a solution to the mission board problem, at least without having to rework the whole thing. I’ve taken stabs at it before, and I don’t think I can make everyone happy. But I think this idea is low effort, like one sprint, and can make your players happier while you look into a rework. It will probably also directly resolve a bug I’ve noticed on the mission board where sometimes missions just vanish without their timer expiring, only to randomly re-appear.
For previous attempts, and ideas of mine, see these posts:
MVP objective:
Make players happier with missions selection
Improve player retention
Reduce friction for mission selection
User Story:
As a user
I want to be able to play missions that I like and that are interesting to me, at the difficulty I want to play them at, when I want to play them
Acceptance Criteria:
Criteria 1:
GIVEN the mission board
THEN populate 6 randomly chosen missions with no duplicates allowed
Note: this is a direction reduction in the number of missions.
Criteria 2:
GIVEN the mission board is being accessed by a player
WHEN the player selects a mission
THEN allow the player to choose their preferred difficulty for that mission
Criteria 3:
GIVEN the mission board
THEN populate 1 low intensity modifier
AND THEN populate 2 high intensity modifiers
Criteria 4:
GIVEN the mission board
THEN populate 0-2 other modifiers
Discussion:
The user story isn’t entirely satisfied by the acceptance criteria. I know that. The point is that I believe the above criteria solve half the problem and this could be achieved quickly. Personally I prefer to play high intensity damnation missions because, despite the lag, I dig the challenge. Currently there are usually 1-2 damnation missions available. Of these I may not like either map (or have already played it last cycle), and its fully possible for one to have Hunting Grounds (which I do not play) and one to have Low Intensity (which I find boring). This means it is a common occurance for me to have 0-1 damnation missions to play every 90+ minutes. With these changes players aren’t necessarily going to get to choose their exactly preferred mission. But it does mean that other players will always have at least 6 distinct missions to choose from, 1 low intensity mission will be available for new players looking to learn a new difficulty or clear a penance at any time.
I believe most players will be reasonably happy being able to choose from 6 missions with various modifiers at least until some other system can be designed and implemented.