I believe this idea has been bandied around a couple of times before, but I can't find any posts with a consistent framework of mission timeouts. If I've missed it, please feel free to close/merge this topic.
Presently in Onlink it appears that one can talk to a mission contact, ask for some/all of the money up front, and leave the mission in the mission queue pretty much forever. Sure, you need to do the mission to actually gain levels as an agent, but there's no strong motivation to do it for money, or do it in a timely fashion.
As a client of Uplink corporation, I expect to see results, especially if I'm paying money up front. As such, I'd love to see missions come with a timeout. The timeout doesn't need to be crushing, but it does need to be there.
I would suggest as a first cut:
- 7 days, if no money is paid up-front.
- 4 days, if half the money is paid up-front.
- 2 days, if all the money is paid up-front.
This provides plenty of time to actually do the mission, but means the player can't just go on collecting missions they never attempt. It also gives the player some more choices when negotiating missions. Presently the optimal technique appears to be always asking for money up-front.
If a mission expires, or is abandoned, then the client expects their money back. Uplink corporation wants to keep on the good side of their customers, so payments from other missions first pays off your mission debt before it goes into your pocket.
Penalties for missions that expire where no money was paid up-front can just be a hit to one's agent rating, as it is now.
Variant 1: Asking for more money results in an even shorter timeout. "Sure, we'll pay you $x due to your excellent record, but we expect the job completed within $y days."
Variant 2: If you don't pay your mission debt, your former customer makes you a target. You can expect hostile agents to give you a criminal record, put embarrassing diseases against your name in the medical database, and list your personal number in the phone-book as a discreet escort with "porridge fetishes a speciality".
Variant 3: When a mission is expires or abandoned, the client expects their money back with interest. This encourages agents to ask for less money "up front" if they're not sure of their capabilities.
Variant 4: Missions cancelled by hitting the "abandon" button carry a lesser penalty than those which have expired due to a timeout. The penalty is proportional to the amount of time elapsed since the mission was accepted. Telling a client you can't do the work an hour after you've accepted it is inconvenient, but understandable. Telling a client you can't do their work after four days is much more serious. Not even attempting to tell a client their work won't get done is even worse.
In this variant, I would suggest having the penalty be proportional to the percentage of time elapsed towards mission expiry. Asking for money up-front and waiting one day before cancelling carries the same penalty as asking for no money up-front and waiting 3.5 days. I'd also have a minimum penalty if missions are abandoned, to prevent players from accepting missions, checking to see if they involve a desired target, and immediately dropping them otherwise.
Feedback, comments and ideas all welcome.
Paul
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