[Scarlet Spear - Mute Duck and a player's skepticism]

In the video above you can see me ask LD about the event and the game seems to just stop working. Instead, as my youtube description says, it probably has to do with how I have subtitles off as well as character voices. As such for the first couple of days I thought my game somehow soft-locked and I couldn't do the event because of some odd bug. Instead it appears LD is mute and the game doesn't show any indication that it is working. Perhaps I should have known to wait, but if you click on something and nothing seems to happen I'd argue it is the developers fault for not properly indicating that something is happening.

Regardless, and this is a tangent, I do not enjoy this event and think I will skip it so nothing really lost on my end.

[Last Lich Node is Defection]

So in the video above you can see me scroll through all the planets nodes (sometimes twice since I wasn't really all that focused) and the only one that has a Lich mission I can access is a defection one on Phobos. I didn't see that Lich symbol on any other planet or mission node, nor the red mist that surrounds them to show that a Lich mission is available. I am hoping that maybe in my haste/somewhat annoyed state that I might have skipped over another, but I am 99% sure that I only have the Defection node left.

For those who don;t know or haven't tried, it seems a Lich Defection mission is bugged and I have run two thirty minute missions, saving between 14-16 crews, and neither my Lich nor did any thralls spawn. As such I am stuck with this node since I can;t get another to activate. You either have to clear all missions while killing at least one thrall OR face your Lich and try to parazon them and fail. My Lich never showed so I did not have an opportunity to parazon them, thus blocking the latter requirement.

I have googled "Defection Lich" and it seems the only post is about how someone was able to have a Thrall Defector spawn, but that has not happened for me and I am not sure if there is a sequence you need to do in order for that to happen. Or hell maybe you can only tell through looking at Kavor Defectors but when I did I never noticed anything particularly thrall-ish about them.

So I did send a support ticket hoping that someone over at DE can do something, but in the meantime I am going to try and get recruited by someone else who has a different Lich mission and hope my spawns in their mission so I can parazon them and get a new planet.

[The oddities that are the select-fire guns]

When I was able to get my hands on the Kuva Hind I couldn't help but think. "Why would I want to switch fire modes on this in the middle of a mission?" And then this made me question if I ever thought of this with the other primaries that have multiple fire modes, and I am not sure.

But now that I have 5 forma on my K. Hind I looked back at the guns I remembered and briefly looked them over on the wiki (called Hybrids, huh) and I must say, could we get some consistency here DE?

While things like Fire Rate (FR), Accuracy (ACC), Critical Chance (CC), Critical Damage (CD) and Status Chance (SC) change between the modes, (usually with the pattern that a slower FR = more CC, CD and/or SC) the damage between the modes and how it is dealt vary widely.

The Tiberon P. and the Argonak (the former has 3 modes while the later has 2) share the exact same damage between all modes. That is whether in Semi or Auto (or Burst for the TP) these modes will deal a total of 57 damage for the Argonak and 46 damage for the Tiberon P.

Meanwhile our newest hybrid, the K. Hind, has three fire modes where the Auto and Burst both deal a total of 30 damage BUT how the damage is shared between Impact, Puncture and Slash (IPS) is different (with I/P/S = 7.5/7.5/15 for the Burst and 6/6/18 for the Auto...not sure if that 3 converted to slash is that big of a deal). Then the Semi mode does 90 total damage (18/18/54) but to compound this confusing mess each shot fires three rounds per shot. Meaning the damage is equivalent to 3x the auto mode, but really not since the shot is 1 big round that just so happens to consume three rounds...this is an odd gun if you ask me.

But let's not stop there; The Zenith has a unique function when selecting the fire mode in its tossing out a disk that reveals enemy positions in a certain radius from the disk. On top of that each mode kind of has its own distinct usage; the Auto mode has a high SC with low CC and CD, while the Semi has an abysmal SC but very high CC and CD. So there is this design of the Auto mod being your status inducing gun with your Semi mode for sniping targets further away. ON TOP OF THAT the Semi mode has (i think) INFINITE PUNCH THROUGH, and since it highlights enemies as whatever your energy color dots being objects you can kill enemies before you even see them. It also shares the damage change like the K. Hind, but in a less head scratching way where the Auto does 30 damage per shot, and the Semi does 150 damage per shot but consumes 3 rounds as well so it's like the gun fused its projectiles before each shot. The only real complaint I have about this selective fire is the fact that it needs to have that disc launching mechanic which can be cumbersome.

The Stradavar P. is probably the most sensible of all these though if you ask me. It has only two modes, Auto and Semi, and you can switch between them with no disc or any sort of hindrance. The Auto mode is a low-damage with a decent CC, a high CD, and a low SC while the Semi mode is a higher damage that increase all three stats to a degree and has an innate 1 meter punch through. However the FR between the two modes will be making you switch to and from depending on your target. This is just a neat, straight forward assault type gun where you can mow down fodder targets in Auto but if a heavier unit comes at you or something is behind a shield or wall you can switch to the Semi and dispatch them with ease. The only real complaint is I kind of wish I could just push the middle mouse button to shoot the Semi round, but perhaps the switch is to give it some balance. Which I can understand.

So with this wall of text all I am trying to say is that the guns with a select fire mode need to have some consistency. Why can't the Tiberon P and Argonak have some innate punch through in their Semi modes like the Stradavar P. and Zenith? Is perhaps having 3 different modes on one gun overkill, and the Tiberon P. and K. Hind loose their Auto modes and stick with a Burst/Semi selection? Why can't I choose which mode I want to default to at the start of a mission?

As for other hybrid guns like the Battacor, Tenoram and Quellor, well they don'y have a selective fire so much as an alternative charge type fire so I didn't want to compare them. As for the Harpak...what about it, does anyone use it?

If anything I would love to see DE incorporate more select fire hybrid type guns like the Fulmin. That is, and I doubt this can happen because spaghetti code, I would love to see the hind be only a Burst or Semi mode gun, BUT the Burst uses rifle ammo while the Semi uses Shotgun ammo and each are treated like their respective ammo types. Now how this is implemented I can offer some ideas, but I doubt they would be used:

1. When modding the gun have an arrow where you can switch between and 8+1 mod capacity rifle and a 8+1 mod capacity shotgun and treat the one gun like it is two.

2. Increase mode capacity to say 14+1 exilus, where you can fit in at most 8 rifles mods + 6 shotgun OR 8 shotgun mods + 6 rifle mods or some mix. The mod applied would only affect that aspect of the gun so you could put in a Primed Cold Rifle and a Primed Electric Shotgun but have it only apply to the gun it is meant to do so.

I don't know, at most I hope DE sees this and just goes back to work on some of these select fire guns and bring them all up to some standard (for this player personally, something mirroring the Stradavar P. or Zenith)

[Rakta Dark Dagger not link-able nor showing up in profile]

See screenshots, the Rakta Dark Dagger from the Red Veil Syndicate is not link-able nor is one able to see if they have acquired affinity for it or not.