I am posting here because I assume this thread is monitored by people who care about this, like the dev responsible:). If I am offtopic here, please tell me to gtfo:)
I like the idea of boosting mission difficulty/income, but some aspects of missions' usefulness has been actually nerfed by the change.
1. Practice aspect. Old missions used to be good for practice. I learned to fly a cruiser by killing ossie cannon fodder in missions for BHG. Now, noobs have little chance to get sufficient practice with caps - Conn is unreliable, cap missions are too hard.
2. Solo game aspect. Old missions were one of the few things which were fun to do when the server was empty. Now, lone wolf is pretty much screwed. When there are like 40 players on server, am I supposed to mindlessly powertrade in an empty space? Or slaughter legions of snubs in easy missions? You know, when I have three friends around, I know better fun than to do missions. But when alone..
3. New possiblities are awesome dev's work, but please don't take away old possibilities.
Wider range of mission difficulty is great and hard missions were much needed. It is sometimes "more real" than real cap battle:)
But why ONLY huge waves of many caps that are almost better than average living cap pilot? I miss some middle way, 1 BS and 2 cruisers mission or something like that..
Mission are more than a slow money-making alternative to trading. The mission system's change reflects the experienced/powergamer point of view. But there are casual/new players, and the missions are important for them. I fear the missions suit them less after the changes
In Freelancer Discovery, you can be anyone you want. It's strange that so many people choose to be douchebags.