Freelancing outside the Story Campaign is fun, but it could be novel to simply create a "Mini-Campaign" by allowing one of the "Contracts" via the established in-game Rep sources to be a Hook for a 3-5 contract long series. You can use the standard formats which are already provided in the game "Battle -> Defend Base -> Escort" with some fairly basic storyline text to string them together (to keep programming/design effort to a minimum)
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Example:
You are between Storyline missions and decide to grind some Federated Suns reputation. You head to a system where there is a known presence for the faction and see a Contract with a Symbol representing "Series" (as in "Series of Missions")
The first is a Battle: "[Enemy] has taken an interest in what we're doing here and have deployed several lances to try and discover a project of ours. Thin the herd."
Second is Defend Base: "[Enemy] has found what they were looking for. Our scientists are nearly finished and we need you to keep them busy!"
Third is Escort: "Our project is complete. Get it safely off this rock and you will be AMPLY rewarded."
Maybe a Fourth being Assassinate which is a No Credit, 5/15 Salvage mission: "Your assistance in this matter has been greatly appreciated. Word from an operative on the ground states one of the [Enemy] field commanders has suffered DropShip trouble. Most of their forces are already out-system if you want to harvest something nice..." (Read as, a poorly defended and highly valuable mech will be on-field and potentially easy/good salvage)
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This can be used to deliver rare loot, rare mechs (a beat up but still semi-functional Star League mech), or just an extreme Rep bonus. Whatever the player is after.
If you'd like to add some pressure to the experience, you could make it so that each mission is a "To be attempted within X Days" sort of thing. If there is a 5 mission chain where some of your mechs take a few days worth of damage, you might scrape around trying to find something you can field... or just put a damaged mech back on the field and hope it'll carry the day.
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Example:
You are between Storyline missions and decide to grind some Federated Suns reputation. You head to a system where there is a known presence for the faction and see a Contract with a Symbol representing "Series" (as in "Series of Missions")
The first is a Battle: "[Enemy] has taken an interest in what we're doing here and have deployed several lances to try and discover a project of ours. Thin the herd."
Second is Defend Base: "[Enemy] has found what they were looking for. Our scientists are nearly finished and we need you to keep them busy!"
Third is Escort: "Our project is complete. Get it safely off this rock and you will be AMPLY rewarded."
Maybe a Fourth being Assassinate which is a No Credit, 5/15 Salvage mission: "Your assistance in this matter has been greatly appreciated. Word from an operative on the ground states one of the [Enemy] field commanders has suffered DropShip trouble. Most of their forces are already out-system if you want to harvest something nice..." (Read as, a poorly defended and highly valuable mech will be on-field and potentially easy/good salvage)
---
This can be used to deliver rare loot, rare mechs (a beat up but still semi-functional Star League mech), or just an extreme Rep bonus. Whatever the player is after.
If you'd like to add some pressure to the experience, you could make it so that each mission is a "To be attempted within X Days" sort of thing. If there is a 5 mission chain where some of your mechs take a few days worth of damage, you might scrape around trying to find something you can field... or just put a damaged mech back on the field and hope it'll carry the day.
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