survivor dispatch missions

[Maledictus]

So, I just sent away my first survivor, to his death as it turns out. But that's not the point. The thing is, it was a very underwhelming experience. click-click-click-death. Is there any chance it could be a bit more like this:

Sending a survivor away takes up game time. It would take a survivor x "game hours" to return, so you (as the player) could go out on your own. Or make tea. When the survivor returns you get a message (through the log?) informing you of his/her return. When you get back to the settlement you are greeted either by the survivor (if he/she lived) or their ghost (if he/she died) and they deliver the report on how they did. You could add stuff like selecting how long a survivor may take to do the mission; shorter time/lower chance of success/higher chance of living through it, medium time/normal chance of success/normal chance of living through it, longer time/better chance of success/lower chance of living through it.
This addes more "life" to the game world. When out on a mission the survivors are not in the settlement, giving a better feel of them actually doing something.

Something for the mantis?

My other mantis items (for voting/comments):
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=9131
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=8461

[BenMiff]

I do agree there needs to be a bit more to survivor missions to make them non-instantaneous. That said, I don't think waiting is the right solution; it would get tedious waiting with no way to influence how long the mission takes once started. I'd rather completion time be based on in-game actions; allot an amount of time for each stash room found, boss defeated and mission completed (i.e. the things you normally do anyway), and once enough of those have been done the mission completes.

As an added bonus to this, it means you can't exploit sunrise / nightfall to avoid waiting, which I can see being the most common response to having to wait anyway.

[Maledictus]

Not sure I understand. Do you mean that you don't go out exploring during the game's night time?
I'm not suggesting that one would have to wait, that would indeed be dull, but I suppose you could if you would want to. The fun would obviously be that you can go out exploring yourself while the survivors are doing the same.

[NyQuil]

I tend to agree on the instantaneous retrieval of supplies and such by the survivors a bit off putting.  I feel like if I need something, I can just send a bunch of survivors in rotation to get a few of them, and instantly have it.    Maybe instead of in game time, it would take them a certain amount of "time" based on missions you complete yourself and thus are temporarily distracting the overlord so they can attempt their mission.   So an easy to get item might take one mission for you, and some harder to get items would be 2 or 3 missions for you?

[Misery]

I tend to agree on the instantaneous retrieval of supplies and such by the survivors a bit off putting.  I feel like if I need something, I can just send a bunch of survivors in rotation to get a few of them, and instantly have it.    Maybe instead of in game time, it would take them a certain amount of "time" based on missions you complete yourself and thus are temporarily distracting the overlord so they can attempt their mission.   So an easy to get item might take one mission for you, and some harder to get items would be 2 or 3 missions for you?

I agree with this as well.  Having a time-related element would make sense here.

Though, that's only if the current balance gets changed a bit.... right now there's more than enough of a "time" cost for these, in terms of getting the gift items and such that you need, since the stash drop rates are still rather wacky at the moment.