[Suggestion] comprehensive rework of mission system

[DarthVicious]

I hate to do this, and understand if ideas like this are a bridge too far at this stage of development. But putting it out here anyway.

I hate the 2 week mission cycle. Changing it to 1 week or 1 month will not help. Its tedious. And for large stretches of the game feels like unnecessary busy work, being forced to assign missions I don't really care about.

I would rather have a system where councilors have roles that are always active, or a passive effect, that is applied based on where the councillor is assigned.

CORE SUGGESTION
Missions should be passive and open ended, with a combination of daily/weekly/monthly rolls advancing their assignments as long as they are in place.

Example 1: Assigning a diplomat/evangelist/journalist to a nation would automatically and consistently improve public support. Say 1% a day with an RNG roll once a week to give a bonus or malus, a bi-weekly or monthly roll could determine whether they gain a control point. The rolls would ofc be influenced by unrest, public support, faction status, enemy councillor presence, and of course stat allocation. A councillor with high persuasion will raise influence faster. A councillor with high command might get a bonus to their weekly or bi-weekly roll to win a CP. Thus, all things being equal, you will gain about 7% influence per week, with an ever increasing chance to win a CP (bi weekly roll say, with the win chance increasing as you gain public support). This would effectively combine the public campaign and control point missions into a single passive mission that would have the same effect, but without the player having to continuously intervene.

Example 2: Assigning an officer to a nation will reduce unrest, auto surveil for enemy councillors, protect it against losing public interest, and auto investigate councillors that are detected (if they remain in that country). Assigning an activist might rapidly increase unrest. A scientist would provide bonus to education investments and science output. An astronaut would provide bonus to boost and MC investment. A commando or soldier would provide military bonuses.

Example 3: Rebels/activists/spies/officers could be assigned to act against other nations or factions. If assigned to a independent or rival nation, they would increase unrest, negatively influence IP investments, sabotage facilities, etc. If assigned to act against a faction they would investigate, steal technology, do hostile takeovers, and attempt to detain or assassinate their rivals.

So instead of assigning a mission every two weeks, with a fixed duration and uncertain outcome (you win or lose the roll), you would instead position councillors in nations to passively influence them one way or another, with a more or less consistent effect over time, but still with a degree of RNG, with a number of external modifiers (unrest, popularity, stat allocation, enemy councillors in the same nation, etc).

The advantages of such a system is that the frequency of user intervention is flexible. You can assign your councillors and forget about them, or shuffle them around as you deem fit.

It should also reduce sudden unexpected events based on a single lucky roll. Things like assassinations or capture would take time to build up but would still nail an inattentive player. You might receive warnings that your councillor has been detected, or is under investigation, or is being stalked or followed, before they are ultimately captured or assassinated.

[anonusername]

I find the mission system to work really well so long as I have an actual Earth surface goal to focus on. It mostly loses steam when I am either
1. Waiting for CP techs, hate reduction, federation cooldown, etc. before actively taking countries or attacking enemies.
2. Late enough in the game to have already taken all the nations I want and crippled all competitors.

(1) is alright, since I can focus on preparing for the next push or pursing secondary objectives. (2) is extremely boring and distracts from the escalating war in space.

[Maty83]

I feel like the current system is fairly good right up until the point where your space assets are more important than any ground ops. However, the problem there becomes that you cannot just send off your councillors to do space stuff, since the other factions will still be on Earth-One of the reasons why large nations are so good lategame. They can be protected by a lot of stuff.