Short version-
I really like the missions, having a long term goal is a great motivator and can keep people playing. However, DB now has too many long term goals. Leveling up, the new contracts, credits for mercs, it all takes a long time to complete.
Missions really were the only short term goal a player could do and Dirty Bomb (I feel) is played best in shorter, controlled bursts rather than in long, drawn out sessions. Removing the short term goals a casual or new player could do hurts the approachability of the game. I feel like the contracts could be a great middle ground for the long term goals of characters and credits - and for the shorter missions.
I propose having the short term missions in tandem with the daily contracts. The 3 hour missions could return to the game and be tweaked a tiny bit here or there, but every day a player could choose 1 contract from a small pool or 3. They could even use the current tokens to reroll the 3 choices given.
These contracts could be “Play as x character and get x points”, “get x points in combat”, etc. These wouldn’t work as missions, but as contracts that the PLayer could choose willingly, it makes them feel like THEY are doing the contract, rather than the game TELLING them to do the contract and being given ways to ignore it. The more variety in missions and events you could do would make the game feel much more player friendly and help hide the grind of the game with the gameplay. Choosing your contracts FEELS better to play than being given long missions that will take hours to complete.
This feels like the best solution to me given the current state of the game and playing off the new ideas the contracts can present. Would love to hear @stayfreshshoe or some developer feedback on this and player ideas.