Let’s first get something out of the way: I’m only suggesting fixes to a couple of really badspawn timers, nothing else.
That being said…
COSMOS. Yes, it’s an old and outdated mission system that hasn’t been touched in decades, but is still useful. Since the code running the COSMOS is ancient, it was important to note what needs to be changed in the first sentence of this post.
Before I present the problem, maybe I need to remind you why COSMOS is still important. COSMOS is primarily a way to gain a decent amount of faction standings without being involved in Factional Warfare. Any guide will tell you that. It’s not just important for mains, it’s important for alts as well (trading standings, FW standings,…). It’s also the only real storyline and exploration/hunting for specific items content in the game and one of the two mechanics that differentiate empire factions from each other (the other being Epic Arcs).
The problem:
The following missions have completely diabolical spawn rates:
Governor’s Aide (2 of 5) ( Nossa Farad - EVE University Wiki ) - After you destroy the initial (easy) wave, you have to wait for a single battleship drone to spawn. The wait time is 15-20 minutes. There is literally nothing else to do in the mission then to wait. I don’t know how many support tickets were submitted for broken mission objective, or how many players just gave up the mission entirely, but the spawn timer of 20 minutes is just insane.
Governor’s aide (3 of 5) ( Nossa Farad - EVE University Wiki ) - If the previous mission didn’t make you question your choice of a game and haven’t pushed you to do something interesting like watching paint dry, this one will. And it’s the very next mission from the same agent. 5 easy waves with 5 minutes of waiting between them. Another 20 minutes of your life lost.
Secrets of the Mire Keep (2 of 4) ( Kofur Karveran - EVE University Wiki ) - 8 extremely easy waves with 5 minutes spawn time between the waves. 40 minutes of pure boredom. 40 minutes is someone’s entire play time for the day.
Guild Wars (1 of 4) and (3 of 4) ( Bartezo Maphante - EVE University Wiki )- The first one has 2 easy spawns with 5 minutes between them. The second one repeats the 5 minute spawn rate for 4 spawns. Again… 15 minutes of wasting time (20 minutes in total for both missions).
And all of this can be fixed most likely by just changing a couple of integers that define the spawn rates in these missions. I am a programmer, and one thing comes to my mind about this - that guy who applied for a job at a company, fixed an issue in their software that was bugging him for years and immediately quit the job.
Well, it’s been quite a while since I did Cosmos, I’m pretty sure those Agents, or their missions, are located within Cosmos Complexes forcing players to fight through multiple rooms of NPC’s… When considering that, having their actual missions be easier to complete seems a bit more balanced…
Also if I recall correctly, Cosmos missions are actually tougher to complete than regular missions, a Level 1 Cosmos mission is like a Level 2 regular mission, Level 2 Cosmos mission is like a Level 3 regular mission, etc…
As for CCP making changes to Cosmos, would be nice if they made them repeatable like Epic Arcs, just have a longer waiting time before repeating, maybe like a one year wait period…
One change CCP should definitely do is make sure all Cosmos Agents and their missions are bug free and working correctly… Currently I think there’s a couple of Cosmos Agents and or missions that don’t work…
These are agents on beacons with no NPCs around them. The missions I’m talking about are standard missions. You take it, It spawns on a random spot in space, you complete it. They are not connected to COSMOS complexes.
Complexes might be tougher than their regular DED counterparts, missions are not. Even the toughest level 4 can be easily completed in T2 fitted Ishtar. But, the difficulty has nothing to do with the missions I’ve listed. They are extremely easy. It’s just the bad spawn timer that makes the problems.
That’s another topic. My focus is on fixing what we already have.
That is the general consensus, however it’s wrong. All missions are working correctly. There were even missions in Caldari COSMOS that led to today’s Pochven, and CCP thought of that and fixed it. I’ve been working on documenting them on EVE Uni Wiki for a while, and went through all of them (except the nullsec ones). I assume that one of the reasons for people thinking that they are broken must be that one with a spawn timer of 15-20 minutes. It really feels broken, but if you wait, the rat will spawn eventually.
I am aware of that. That’s why I’m not asking for any major changes. What I’m asking for is a little QoL tweak, just like they did when Pochven was created and some Caldari COSMOS systems ended up in it. No changes to balance or mechanics.
Bottom line, I’ve done my part and documented what needs to be done, why and in which missions. It’s not up to me or you to decide whether CCP is going to act on it or not.
Whether anyone wants it or not, COSMOS agents are the only truly exploration kind of agents that you need to search for in EVE’s open world. Any MMO/open world player will be looking for them and many will be (and are) baffled when they encounter missions as broken as these.
We’re just telling you not to get your hopes up. You’re more than welcome to hold your breath waiting for CCP to do something they’ve repeatedly said they never will, I really don’t care. You do you.
I don’t have any When I need to do these mission while training my alts, I just skip them or leave an Ishtar and do something else. So, it’s not my problem.
Like I said, it’s CCP’s product and they should decide whether they are going to support it or not. I’ve just gathered all affected missions and made a list. Simple
There are a few regular security missions that pull this ■■■■■■■■ as well. In there you have to kill four waves of two frigates, and each one has a five minutes wait period iirc.
Another mission has you warp in, and then wait five minutes for a wave of haulers to spawn.
They both suck, and whoever made these missions is horrible.
If you have mission names and levels, please post them here. If CCP decides to do something about spawn timers, let them do it all at once. It’s easier for development task management and justification of changes
Like I said, it’s been a long time since I did Cosmos… And yeah, some of the Agents are located at Beacons in space and some are located in Cosmos Complexes…
Congratulations, you ran Agents located at Beacons in space…
Whether they’re in a Cosmos Complex or not, Cosmos missions are definitely tougher than regular missions of the same level… As for your Ishtar, I don’t fly Gallente ships or use Drone Boats… Naturally it’s gonna be super easy when you don’t do any actual piloting and just have Drones do all the work…
Congratulations, you found some easy Cosmos missions…
OK, enough with the BS… I highly doubt that you’ve completed every single high sec Cosmos Agent… Even when I ran them all back in 2010, there were a couple of buggy Agents that had to be nudged by CCP to offer their mission series, one Agent would only offer the second and subsequent missions in it’s series and lastly, there were 2 broken Agents that just wouldn’t offer any missions at all…
Also there’s been other players within the past few years posting in the forums about broken Cosmos Agents not offering missions and CCP hasn’t done anything about them…
As for the spawn timer on the missions you listed, this game was never meant for instant gratification… Maybe take the time in-between the spawns to check out the scenery, maybe pop some structures for possible loot, etc…
Other than that, too bad and boo-hoo on having to wait for NPC’s to spawn…
My focus is on fixing what we already have.