Introduction Missions: Do we really need them?

Okay, so you're playing the latest of your many alts, and you're feeling good. You just leveled to level 15 and now your contacts are all introducing new ones, ones you've never really worked with before with previous characters. So hey, a chance for something a little new, right? And you still got that one that offers that badge mission, so even better!

So you fly/hop/jog/bamf over to your new contact, introduce yourself, then hit "ask about available missions"... and get this:

"Speak with Longbow Liaison for Bloody Bay
Briefing

I'm sure you've heard about what's going on in Bloody Bay..."

GRRRRRR!!!

It isn't just Bloody Bay, though. There's Jim Temblor, Stephanie Peebles, Gordon Bower, the other PVP zones, and the Hero Corps representitive too, if my memory serves me. And all these missions do is make you drop everything you were doing, swing out of your current stomping grounds (possibly dodging too-high level badguys along the way), make a total of 2, maybe 3 mouseclicks (including the one to close the dialogue box you've read countless times before), then hoof it all the way back to the contact to be able to actually do anything with them. Annoying, isn't it?

Back in Issue 12 (I think), the devs came up with a lovely way to avoid repeating the same rigamarole with Ashley McKnight and Montague Castanella: they called you instead of vice versa. That means you don't have to waste time with a boring errand to meet them, and you can start their story arcs when *you* want to.

I suggest that these older contacts be given pop-up messages as well, to update older content and save veterans (and rookies) with dull fetchquests. You already centralized the contacts in King's Row (a very welcome change), and I believe players would be equally grateful for this.

As for the PvP Liasons and Hero Corp rep, give them popup windows as well without making them actual contacts. Just have something like "Hello Hero, I'm calling to inform you you've been given clearance to operate in Bloody Bay. Look for me on your map the next time you're in Skyway to learn more about PvP and Bloody Bay". And the Hero Corp rep... seeing as there's no equivalent redside, it just looks really extraneous. Perhaps drop it altogether and add a "So what does this do?" option for HC/Fateweavers to fill new players in on how it works?

All in all I think trimming these extra missions will cut down on pointless errand-running and do a better job of introducing new areas to new players. Any thoughts?

Not a bad idea. Still if you think about it, each alt is suppossed to be someone new, someone different than all your other characters. They've never met any of those contacts YOU'VE met, so I can see from a story-line point of view how it really shouldn't be changed. Is it sort of annoying for the player? Maybe.

Mission drop, though. It too works great.

I've always been against introduction missions.

IMO level by level introductions and guides etc should be moved to those old unused data terminals.

Downside to removing those missions is, what about the new players who haven't run them a thousand times before already?

Some of the things aren't obvious when playing through the first time. How many new players would see Faultline if they didn't have to talk to Jim Temblor? If they're interested in PvP talking to those liasons are the ONLY place you learn where to PvP at.

Sure, they can be told by other players, but they may not htink to ask the right questions to find things out.

Point being, yes, they ARE annoying to veteran players who know all that stuff already, but that's not who those missions are meant for. They're meant for the first time player so they can learn stuff about the game.