2020 PvE Overhaul, Phase 1: Current State and NPC/Mission Reworks

[Kazinsal]

First round of payout tweaks is active as of this morning based on player feedback:

• Gunboat bounty payout has been increased from $600,000 to $900,000.
  
  Gunboat missions were previously not worth doing, considering rank 19 fighters were worth $500,000 per kill and gunboats are significantly dangerous in solo missioning.
• Cruiser bounty payout has been increased from $800,000 to $1,200,000.
  
  Cruiser payout needed to be bumped to match a linear increase from gunboats, as well as to make them more interesting in solo play.
• Battlecruiser bounty payout has been increased from $1,200,000 to $1,800,000.
  
  Again, battlecruiser payout needed to be bumped, as well as to make it generally more worth taking missions against them.

I'm looking to rework gunboat NPCs to have more unified loadouts, since they're all over the place, as well as a general overhaul of fighter NPC loadouts and difficulties. I'm also thinking of ways to more accurately delineate different classifications of missions, though due to the arcane mess that is Freelancer's mission system, this may be extremely difficult to implement.

It's been good to hear feedback about the new PvE systems we're building. I'm looking forward to being able to continue this line of development for Discovery and to seeing what people think of what we come up with.

---

Retired, permanently.