[Boss Suggestion] "Hecatomb" Grineer Submarine Flagship

[PeeAy77]

Greetings from a - relatively - new WF player.

This particular suggestion has been in my wish-list ever since I reached the Uranus nodes, during which I found out about missions combining the use of the Archwing to move around underwater.  However when I saw the presentation of Railjack and the versatility of the mode itself, I can no longer refrain from hoping for a mission like this.  But first, a couple of words on why and how I think an underwater Boss fight would be interesting enough to make.

I started playing WF with the release of PoE - like many others, I assume - and progressing through the game I learned a lot about its goods and bads.  One of the things that stood out for me were the Archwing missions.  My gaming background includes space sims dating back to the glorious era of X-Wing/TIE Fighter titles, but also more recent ones, like Star Citizen.  While to me it was an incredibly pleasant change of pace (I felt completely at home playing with Experimental Flight mode on, almost reliving moments from favourite mecha shows like Macross) I can understand why so many people fuss and cuss when it comes to Archwing missions. 

I'd say that the speed in which things happen in these missions, the unrestricted 3D environment in some of them and the need for quite good situational awareness can take a high toll on a player who's in it just for the ground-based missions.  These are to me the same reasons why the space-sim genre is quite niche and a lot of Tenno feel very uncomfortable running Archwing missions.  Which is why the Boss mission I'm about to describe could feel a little less hectic and possibly more welcome to a casual player, as it fits quite well in the underwater setting of Uranus (pun not intended) where things move at a more comfortable pace
 

Being a fan of dynamic objectives in a mission, I will begin by saying that ideally, this mission could use the Jordas Golem Assasination template, where you start off on foot and continue the fight in an Archwing. So...

1. The node where this mission takes place unlocks to the player after Tyl Regor is defeated.  Among the usual drops, players will sometimes come across an archived comms log in which Grineer Uranus Command orders Regor to complete escorting some shipments of X-Y-Z resource (or unidentified objects) to the flagship Hecatomb, currently docked in one of the Grineer underwater labs
2. Players will then have the opportunity to intercept those shipments and if possible, take out the Hecatomb as well.  The mission begins with the Tenno infiltrating the lab via Archwing and searching the tileset for the 3 escort groups.  By default these groups will be on a course to deliver their resources to the loading dock (a.k.a. mission exit to phase 2).  The Tenno will be given a time limit in which they will have to seek out and neutralize these 3 groups.
   • Players who neutralize all 3 escort groups before the timer runs out, are given an exit marker.  However, having intercepted the resource delivery, the whole base is now on alert and the Hecatomb is being prepped to launch and create a blockade around the lab, trying to deny the Tenno's means of escape.  This means that when the Tenno escape the lab, the Hecatomb will already be in weapons range and its full complement of submersible craft will be deployed around the lab.  The only hope for the Tenno will be to disable key systems on the flagship, in hopes of causing it to sink into the depths of Uranus's ocean (more on that later).  Otherwise, the blockade will deny any exit vector, until the flagship is defeated.
   • Players who succeed marginally and capture 1 or 2 of the resource shipments will have the same objective, however they will be given a chance to board the Hecatomb as it is sailing to safety and claim the rest of the resources before destroying her.  This means that the squad must complete an objective which allows them to hack an airlock and board the submarine, all under fire from the Hecatomb and escorting submersibles as the alarms will again, be set off during the skirmish in the lab.  Needless to say, in this scenario, destroying the flagship without reclaiming the rest of the resources is also an option.  However, as the Grineer now have at least part of their resources loaded onto the sub, they will be on an escape route and the Tenno will have limited time to complete either both objectives or simply destroy the Hecatomb.
   • Players who miss all of the resource shipments before they get loaded on the flagship, will enter phase 2 with the Hecatomb & crew unalerted to their presence.  They will have to board the submarine and locate *at least ONE* of the shipment caches before they can destroy the boss, and as soon as they are detected on the submarine, they will again trigger a high alert status for the Grineer taskforce, making this alternative scenario even harder than the previous 2.
3. I imagined the reward system for this mission working in tiers.  For instance, the boss has a pool of common, uncommon and rare rewards.  Finding all 3 resource caches will grant a reward from each tier.  Finding 2, only rewards from the common and uncommon pools, whereas intercepting only one, will only yield common rewards.  This creates enough incentive for players to go after all of the resource caches, but enough room to escape the mission with just one or two of them if things get too hectic.

 

Some notes of interest, as more clarification:

- Sean Bigham has artwork of some incredible looking Grineer subs which could function as escorts for the Hecatomb, which is why I included the picture.  I LOVE these designs and I'd love to see them do more than swim around or sit in drydock.

-  The Hecatomb is 'UUGE!  It's not like it can outrun Archwings.  So her escape plan (as thought up by the ingenious Grineer Cpt.Gromek, commander of the vessel) will be to commit to an emergency dive into one of the bottomless caverns in the Uranus ocean, where Tenno and Archwings would be crushed by immense pressure!  So the timed experience will have some basis and it will be... *IMMERSIVE* (pun intended) rather than the sub just vanishing when it reaches a certain navpoint, all the while sailing at 2 knots an hour...

-  There are various ways of disabling the submarine.  Most prominent I can think of is a simple reactor sabotage not unlike the usual sabotage missions across the starmap.  Another wil be destroying the ballast tanks, denying the flagship any chance of reversing its dive.  That way, the Tenno use Cpt.Gromek's plan to their advantage and send the Grineer commander plummeting into the depths.

-  I just came up with Cpt.Gromek's character, but there's enough to suggest he could himself be assasinated as a side-objective in this mission (yes, I like a lot of objective flexibility in a mission), or even added as an essential objective to assure the Hecatomb's demise.

-  I'm not saying that Hecatomb diving so deep could attract the attention of a certain organic terror of the deep and causing a massive 3-way battle during the last 10 minutes before the mission timer expires, but... you know, there could be mega-tentacled-armored-squid-monsters hiding in the cold waters of Uranus... Can't see why we don't get to fight one 😉

 

I know it's not simple and I know it includes Archwing, but seriously, after seeing the Railjack presentation I could only hope to be one of those voices DE listens to and finally we can get an "open" Archwing mission in Uranus, not just using it for transit from here to there.  I find that the underwater tileset could create unique experiences like this. 

 

Here's hoping to awesome future content and if you read this far, I thank you for your time.

 

[(PSN)OriginalEquinox]

It stopped being interesting after you said "underwater" and "archwing" , anything that contains those words needs to be kept at a minimum until they're made more user friendly

[PeeAy77]

4 minutes ago, (PS4)Equinox21697 said:

It stopped being interesting after you said "underwater" and "archwing" , anything that contains those words needs to be kept at a minimum until they're made more user friendly

I am a user.  Archwing is friendly to me.  Underwater is interesting to me.  Words were meant to be used.  Thank you for your contribution to this post, however 🙂

[Dark_Lugia]

Sounds a bit like short Raids (which were removed, cause not enough were playing them) and archwing plus underwater will scare away even more.

If we get (another) archwing rework (space and water, maybe with railjack) this might become interesting, maybe even for the new trials (i´m hoping they are still working on them 😇)

But currently i don´t see the need or anticipation for something like that even if it sound interesting.

 

Edited August 31, 2018 by Dark_Lugia