Missions

[Captain Chris]

Hey guys
New to x4, long time x3 fan though.
I seem to be misunderstanding how missions work in x4, could someone clarify for me please.
X3 - Icon above station, tells me type of mission, fly close, comm station, maybe dock, go do mission.
X4 - Fly close to station, activate scan mode, randomly fly around station in case someone is transmitting, fly some more to find the "node", discover the mission is totally useless for me, repeat many times.
I'm sure that is wrong, because that would be pretty stupid and annoying :)

[Astasia]

You just fly into radar range of a station, you will see an orange icon above it indicating the type of mission if one is available. You don't have to comm the station or dock, just open the map and click quests, there will be a list of nearby quests in the system. If you join a faction's guild you will get guild quests on top of this, as soon as you enter a system they have some sort of control in you will get a list of guild quests, you don't have to be near a station to see or accept these.

That scanning mini-game you are talking about is for specific illegal style missions I think, like finding a black market trader or whatever. I've never bothered with it.

[camus]

Scanning those nodes / signal leaks is only for discovering secret missions. The normal way to get missions is looking at the map and checking the mission offers tab. There are also yellow icons shown next to stations that are offering missions, you'll discover them when you're within 40km of a station.

[Captain Chris]

Ah good, this makes more sense. I guess the first couple of systems just dont have any missions for me then.
I will have a hunt, thanks!

[Kraetzin]

You don't even have to fly within 40 km of the station to see if it has a mission. Like in X3, if you are in system, you can click on a station and an icon will show up next to it if it has a mission and what type it is. You do have to fly within 40 km to actually see what the exact offer is.

[Captain Chris]

Are missions rare? I started in Black Hole sun, have been through both of them, 3 Grand Exchanges, and the Flashpoint sector and no one has had any missions for me?

[Kraetzin]

Originally posted by GanjaDemon:

Are missions rare? I started in Black Hole sun, have been through both of them, 3 Grand Exchanges, and the Flashpoint sector and no one has had any missions for me?

I've never had any issues finding missions. An easy way to get lots of offers quickly is to hop on the circle highway, and keep your mission offers tab open. You should gets plenty of offers as you ride around.

[Captain Chris]

Ok, so whats a circle highway and how do I find one?
Been playing 12 hours now and not seen a station with a mission so I guess I am still not understanding how it works.
Honestly thnking about giving up and playing x3 again :(

[Kraetzin]

Originally posted by GanjaDemon:

Ok, so whats a circle highway and how do I find one?
Been playing 12 hours now and not seen a station with a mission so I guess I am still not understanding how it works.
Honestly thnking about giving up and playing x3 again :(

The flash point sector you were in is actually part of the highway loop. Crossing the centre of the sector is a highway that, when you enter it in and S or M ship, will take you around all of the core sectors. With the map open, and the mission offers tab selected, you should see lots of mission offers appearing as you circle around in it.

X4 takes a bit of frustration and adjustment from X3, but I can highly recommend sticking with it!

[ModerateOsprey]

Originally posted by GanjaDemon:

Ok, so whats a circle highway and how do I find one?
Been playing 12 hours now and not seen a station with a mission so I guess I am still not understanding how it works.
Honestly thnking about giving up and playing x3 again :(

Missions appear to come and go, so you have to be quickish in accepting them.

I was missing a lot of them so I set the game settings to allow travel to continue while I am in the map view and then as I am travelling I can have the map view and the mission offers tab open. Its usually not long before a couple pop up.

I try and get a few stacked up. Many aren't time sensitive.

The circle highway is a very fast route between systems. Look for sets of double lines with chevrons on them in the map.