The design that wouldn't die: Mission Tables

[Pua]

Kathranis' point is kinda obvious, unlike WoD, the mission table is something that you do when you are on a break from all the other content. If anyone is honestly camping the mission table, then it's playing Legion very wrongly.

I got his point. His point wasn't up for debate.

What happened, ultimately, is that he missed mine; it would appear you potentially have, too.

I'm not arguing that mission tables are somehow like Warlords.

I'm saying that they are mandatory, and not the wholly optional aspect that some people seem to be implying that they are. If you want your third relic, or to complete your order hall campaign, the mission table is not optional.

That's it. There's nothing else to take from what I said.

And based off of the replies here, a large number of people disagree with your assessment.

And they're perfectly entitled to. It's my assessment.

[khazmodan]

"I don't like it so it's bad design".

ikr, they should really have brought all of it back because i love getting into a game with promises of adventure and instead looking at spread sheets. id rather kill a million mobs than have to do these mission tables but they are there and they are easy and they have random timers that keep interrupting the adventure for easy payoffs so why leave the order hall at all?. I guess Blizzard thinks they can get by with customers that would rather sit in an office and look at spread sheets all day, thats cool, cya in 2 years.

[JemiS]

Do you like them? Do you think they add to your playing experience? Because I think most people just.don't.enjoy.them. Small, big, whatever, no one wants a facebook game. And more importantly, having them be an immediate roadblock at the start of the expansion was a huge mistake by Blizz. There's such a negative vibe around garrisons that they needed to make it 100% optional but something that gave nice rewards. Not something that stops you in your tracks for days while you wait for some damn idiot to go run a quest you could do in 5 minutes.

Everyone I play with enjoys them, and thinks they're cool. But we all got into WoW after playing the original Warcraft RTS games, and I think it's a fun reminder of that. So long as they're not overused, or become a major pivotal point of gameplay. As they are now, I see them when I go back to add a trait to my artifact or get a quest that sends me back there, and that's how it should be- a fun extra that doesn't drive the rest of my gameplay.

It's a minor thing, and people are complaining over, quite literally, nothing but the UI design. If it was a series of 5 quests where one new one became available each day, that would be fine. But having a timer that shows minions going out and "readying" your quest, that upsets people.

In short, not everyone is like you. Just because you don't like them doesn't mean "everyone hates them".

[khazmodan]

Everyone I play with enjoys them, and thinks they're cool. But we all got into WoW after playing the original Warcraft RTS games, and I think it's a fun reminder of that. So long as they're not overused, or become a major pivotal point of gameplay. As they are now, I see them when I go back to add a trait to my artifact or get a quest that sends me back there, and that's how it should be- a fun extra that doesn't drive the rest of my gameplay.

It's a minor thing, and people are complaining over, quite literally, nothing but the UI design. If it was a series of 5 quests where one new one became available each day, that would be fine. But having a timer that shows minions going out and "readying" your quest, that upsets people.

In short, not everyone is like you. Just because you don't like them doesn't mean "everyone hates them".

i played warcraft 2 back in the 90s but i dont remember any spreadsheets...

[Themanintobuildafire]

I think the OP is going to shit the bed when he reads 7.1 will have an APP for your phone where you can do your order hall missions!

I personally loved the mission tables. Like one developer said: it gives you something to look forward to when you first log in. He was right.

I wish they had it so I could do it on my phone with launch...

[TheRogue]

Don't worry, you'll have a phone app soon to manage all this stuff to your hearts content......at work.

[Florena]

On the surface it's the same formula, but people seem to be overlooking the difference in implementation.

You get fewer followers. Fewer missions. And the rewards are toned down from what they were in WOD. You get artifact power from it, but it's not your primary source of AP. The only parts where it's required are the missions you have to do in the class order hall campaign, and the only problem with that really is the time gating part of it. (One 40 hour block of missions and then a 60 hour block later.)


You don't get raid loot from it. There's also a lot more to do out in the world with world quests and Suramar than we had in WOD. It's not the same situation at all.

[ComputerNerd]

It's exactly the same thing. Sure there are fewer missions but I still have to stop what I'm doing every 2 hours and go send followers on new missions. Maybe we'll get to a point at endgame where we can just ignore the damn thing but as for now it's just an annoyance.

The class order hall content in it is the problem really.
The XP and AP rewards are just a convenience and come quicker from other sources.

Do you like them? Do you think they add to your playing experience? Because I think most people just.don't.enjoy.them. Small, big, whatever, no one wants a facebook game. And more importantly, having them be an immediate roadblock at the start of the expansion was a huge mistake by Blizz. There's such a negative vibe around garrisons that they needed to make it 100% optional but something that gave nice rewards. Not something that stops you in your tracks for days while you wait for some damn idiot to go run a quest you could do in 5 minutes.

The negative vibe tends to come from stupid players who immediately decide that a mission table meant a clone of garrisons.
The constant comparisons to "facebook games" proves that.
That term now is just thrown at anything deemed below some arbitrary level of difficulty or interactivity.
Anything deemed "below" a player.

[Eats Compost]

It's a better version of the same system. They trimmed it down like crazy and reduced its importance significantly. Outside of being an alternative time gate for some quests, it's nowhere near as important as things we do out in the world.

I think they considered it a point of pride to make a system that they spent so long developing into something the playerbase doesn't completely loathe. In that sense, they succeeded. It's a perfect example of how less of something can make it better. What was once a boring, overbearing and uninteractive obligation now feels more like the periodic reward that it was meant to be. Thematically, it's also way better at capturing the idea of sending strong people to do important things, rather than sending an army of chumps to do inconsequential nonsense.

[Deleted]

Order Hall missions are so inconsequential that whining about them is grasping at straws.

If it triggers you that hard to click 3 times on a few icons once or twice per day, just don't do them, you won't be losing much at all.

[Deleted]

Call me late to the party, but weren't we promised that the class hall mission table would have vast improvements over the WOD garrison version?

But they do, can't you see? They no longer constitute a free gold factory for example.

One of my friends was trying to tell me last night how he had looooved the mission table system and how he knew "a lot of people on a lot of forums" who loved it too. That's why, he alleged, Blizzard kept it in the game. Never mind laziness, obstinacy, or ignoring the players.

They didn't ignore The Players. Just you and your 2 friends.

No. It was because so many people loved mission tables.

I loved the fact I could still raid a bit while not paying Blizzard money that it didn't earn. Sweet.

And now I'm hearing that you have to do the missions to get artifact power. What the actual fuck?

You don't. Garrison table missions are just one minor source of extra artefact power.

I, for one, fucking hated the Facebook-game bullshit. I was subbed for much of WoD, but I absolutely refused to acknowledge the existence of my garrison, especially those missions.

I was under the impression that a vast majority hated them, too, and that's why there was such an outcry when they were out into the Alpha.

You impression was wrong. Vast majority of players hated the wing clip but loved the freebies.

[fangless]

Order Hall missions are so inconsequential that whining about them is grasping at straws.

If it triggers you that hard to click 3 times on a few icons once or twice per day, just don't do them, you won't be losing much at all.

Seems to me that it's a problem when your unique, story-drive, class content is 1/2 waiting for 8-12 hour "missions" to complete. That's not fun or interactive, it's just artificial extension.

The missions are super lazy, and maybe alright if they're just some side thing you can do for kicks to get some AP or w/e. But when there's so much focus on them for the main class hall progression, it starts to really stand out as boring.

[Berndorf]

All they really are is a way to artificially time gate certain things and another reason to keep people feeling like they need to log in on a daily basis. Not that I think they totally ruin the expansion or anything but that's what it is. The sooner people can accept this the better. I will be very surprised if Bliz has the audacity to put a form of it in the next exp. At the very least they should make the 'mission board' accessible outside of your class hall.

[caervek]

It's the same shit.

Nono, there's now less missions, and you're not allowed as many followers. See it is different :P

[shyguybman]

There's nothing wrong with the mission table, as long as they don't make it like WoD where it was TOO rewarding then it's fine imo. You can only have 5 "champions"(followers) at time and I assume you will always have less than 10 missions as well, I don't think I have seen more than 4 so far.

[Deleted]

All they really are is a way to artificially time gate certain things and another reason to keep people feeling like they need to log in on a daily basis. Not that I think they totally ruin the expansion or anything but that's what it is. The sooner people can accept this the better. I will be very surprised if Bliz has the audacity to put a form of it in the next exp. At the very least they should make the 'mission board' accessible outside of your class hall.

You can. By using your damn phone starting this evening.

[Zequill]

Yes, the mission is back. Yes, it kind of look the same but they made a lot of changes. It's the 3.0 version and it's better.

Like the naval one, you have less heroes so you can't have 10 missions active at a time. Bigger reward, less missions.
They took the naval idea of expendable troups so you don't sit on your team and made it way better. You can't loose your big hero like they did with the ships but you have a bunch of expendable extra you send in mission. You can't just login and do mission, you will run out of resource.
The threat don't only reduce success rate, you can ignore some but your mission will take longer/cost more/kill your extra. More decision making.
Like what have been said, you still get more AP/gold/items outside, but it's a nice extra if you want to play the game.

Yes having the order campaign gated behind but that same chain quest give you the champion to send in those mission. They end up being pure time gate. They would have find a other way to gate them with or without the missions tables.

Try it. Love it? Keep playing it! Hate it? Stop once you get the campaign one out of the way.

[Ifeanychukwu]

It's totes different man! Garrison's had a table. Order Garris....er, I mean Order Halls have a mission board. One was horizontal, one is vertical. It's totally different!

It's not the same as garrisons!

/Checks resources
/Chooses mission
/Drags and drops followers
/Sees acceptable mission success chance
/Waits four hours

Legion is gonna be so much more awesome than WoD!!


Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Because something you spend 2 minutes doing is the entire expansion....

[Berndorf]

You can. By using your damn phone starting this evening.

The table should be accessible while out in the gaming world imo without having to bring my phone and apps into it.

[Deleted]

Don't like the missions tables, sure I can live with them but they still suck. But what I hate is all the %¤##!! timegating. They may have changed many things since WoD, but all the timegates and crappy RNG elements still exist.