Kingdom End Missions?

[BigBANGtheory]

So let me start off by saying I'm loving the new Boron assets and sectors etc, very good very nice...

The kingdom End plot missions though... You make contact, explore a bit, lay down a path through a dangerous sector, connect more sectors, meet some royalty and do a bunch of trivial diplomatic type missions, the end. Really is that it or did I miss something?

I should point out that I didn't start a new game so most of the diplomatic requirements on reputation I'd inherited but tbh unless you roleplayed some Boron empire mogul then the process of reputation gain is the same for any other race.

[Grouch Potato]

It was just a mechanism to finally get the Boron in, the one way in one way out route and edge of the map location largely keeps them irrelevant and forgotten again after the missions.

There's 3, iirc, jump gates not in use, hopefully these can be gotten up and running in future.

[alt3rn1ty]

The kingdom End plot missions though... You make contact, explore a bit, lay down a path through a dangerous sector, connect more sectors, meet some royalty and do a bunch of trivial diplomatic type missions, the end. Really is that it or did I miss something?

Helping them to get all the build resources for their own shipyard is a bit non-trivial if its an early game and you can only just afford a Dolphin.
Same goes for helping them build a station for diplomatic relations, early game thats something to work up to much later .. I'm at that stage now in my new Custom Budgeted game start.

I have completed all of this before, and for an advanced game this can all seem a bit trivial when you have billions of credits to throw around and every ship / blueprint you need is already on tap.

[Alan Phipps]

That is very much the key here. All the different starts are intended as introductions to the game with benefits as loosely guided tutorials too. They need to be looked at mainly through the eyes of a player newer to X4.

Of course there are benefits for other more experienced players through the new game assets and gameplay elements too. Even for them though, the benefits can be more in the journey and not so much in the arrival at the notional end of it.

[BigBANGtheory]

The kingdom End plot missions though... You make contact, explore a bit, lay down a path through a dangerous sector, connect more sectors, meet some royalty and do a bunch of trivial diplomatic type missions, the end. Really is that it or did I miss something?

Helping them to get all the build resources for their own shipyard is a bit non-trivial if its an early game and you can only just afford a Dolphin.
Same goes for helping them build a station for diplomatic relations, early game thats something to work up to much later .. I'm at that stage now in my new Custom Budgeted game start.

I have completed all of this before, and for an advanced game this can all seem a bit trivial when you have billions of credits to throw around and every ship / blueprint you need is already on tap.

oh dude it was TRIVIAL to me I appreciate from a new game start it would require work, I was like you want thousands of Hull Parts np here they are like literally in storage ready to go.

those diplomatic missions were disappointing, zero challenge

[BigBANGtheory]

That is very much the key here. All the different starts are intended as introductions to the game with benefits as loosely guided tutorials too. They need to be looked at mainly through the eyes of a player newer to X4.

ah but that is a choice made by the mission designer, it didn't have to be like that and by doing so they've left the player that has gone through all previous DLCs and the base game out in the cold.

Yes there are Boron assets and they are really good but the missions are largely Bantha fodder.

[alt3rn1ty]

Yeah I think a lot of people feel the same, personally I would love these DLCs to all have much more story/mission meat in them for both noob game starts AND advanced players, but I think its just a case of small dev team and not enough time to do more than they have. Its all the writing/voice acting/3d modelling/structure/resources etcetera, and not least of which Egosoft having to figure out ways to use all the mechanisms in the game to keep the story/missions interesting to the long term players who have come to expect some clever "Think" aspects.

Its been the same throughout the X series, whenever they do stories we all crave for more **. Although there have been some story missions that really put me off personally, X3 Reunion and the race against the timer through the tunnels in an asteroid, I restarted that game 3 times but each time I was thinking "Nooo, I have to do that freakin mission again to progress", hate timers and I am rubbish at racing , but thats just a personal quirk.
But then there was a stream of missions (I think it was in X3TC/AP/FL) related to #DECA which had puzzles to figure out to determine where we had to go to in the whole map .. that was fantastic. Putting it all together though was really clever work by Egosoft, they need a lot of time to do things like that.

** Having said that, I do recall Egosoft did a few polls to get feelers on what content the community generally like to see more of, and story/missions (and subscription missions, War Efforts) did not come out top ..
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.. Of course these days the game is getting a more diverse community (redditors/nexus members making accounts here), with .. how can I say .. a less traditional outlook/appreciation of the game series qualities, so polls are changing a bit from what the very long term fans appreciate about the game series. I mean more popularity is good for Egosoft, and us because the longevity of the company is extended, but then we have to put up with many more shouts for Multi-player/PVP/VR etcetera and the more treasured aspects of the game series become less important on balance. Thats not all bad though because they do bring fresh ideas which enhance the game aswell.
Tis what it is, Egosoft have to make money and strike a balance of all aspects of the game to appeal to the majority. They do what they can in the time they have allocated for the game/dlcs, before economically they have to move on to the next and shift the teams focus.