Index Specters Need to Go

[Voltage]

I am aware there have been topics on this in the past via Reddit and on the Forums, but both threads are archived. That is an indicator how old this problem is. Specters in The Index are the biggest nuisance that literally cost players time and Credits. They capture too many points, they steal the carrier's (me) points, they teleport to points, they slow the run down, and they mess up flawless math (15+8, 15+8,15+8, and 21+10, or 15+8, 15+8, 15+8, 15+8, and 6+2). An Ember specter just made me miss out on an extra round squeezed in for a Prodman poster. That is 500,000 Credits (booster equipped) wasted because of awful AI. Can we please just remove them please?

The Index is easy in the first few rounds no matter which setup you use, but the awful AI makes it worse. In later rounds, specters caused from disconnected players cannot die easily, and they steal points from players who actually calculate their investment into the vault. This is beyond frustrating over the weekend and up until now. This has been in the game since The Index as added with The Glast Gambit. It is time specters are removed from the mode entirely.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Voltage

[Jigoogly]

I second this. Either over haul specter a.I. from the ground up or take em out to pasture.

[-FrutyX-]

Well yeah,the spectre's can be only a burden instead of a help,also they make you unable to score points as players wants since they are teleporting to points and scoring how they want ,making the game totally uncontrollable for players.

 

[xXDeadsinxX]

I don’t think removing the index specters entirely from the game would be the best option, personally, I think reworking the specter AI would be the better alternative to be honest.

[Voltage]

7 minutes ago, xXDeadsinxX said:

I don’t think removing the index specters entirely from the game would be the best option, personally, I think reworking the specter AI would be the better alternative to be honest.

I think it would. No matter how amazing the AI is, it cannot read a player's mind on how much they will invest. A specter will always be a detriment to a team for The Index. They are offensive and try to take over. Removing them does no harm, only good. The mission is an endgame Credit farm. Players should never have to rely on AI for the outcome of a run. That is just crummy design.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Voltage

[Omega-Shadowblade]

6 minutes ago, Voltage said:

I think it would. No matter how amazing the AI is, it cannot read a player's mind on how much they will invest. A specter will always be a detriment to a team for The Index. They are offensive and try to take over. Removing them does no harm, only good. The mission is an endgame Credit farm. Players should never have to rely on AI for the outcome of a run. That is just crummy design.

Or, perhaps knowing how we players operate, they give us a handicap for not forming a group. I can think of more than a few ways that people could harvest enemies if the opponents didn't have other targets to fight.

[taiiat]

they can be dumb sometimes indeed - they seem to be less dumb ever since the Update that made Specters use their Abilities way better atleast?
the other side of the fence is that i presume that they are there not only to get the heat off of less experienced Players but also to not make it too easy either (impossible for the Enemies to ever acquire any Points to attempt to score with if you're on the ball).

so i've always agreed to some degree but i also don't really expect them to go away.
if something were to happen i could see having the Specter count scale with the Tier of the Index. low Tier having more of them and one less each Tier up.
which would mean a 2Player Squad would have no Specters in High Risk, and a 3Player Squad in Medium Risk(or Specters only in Low Risk). but i'm not going to hold my breath.

Edited September 12, 2018 by taiiat

[xXDeadsinxX]

18 minutes ago, Voltage said:

I think it would. No matter how amazing the AI is, it cannot read a player's mind on how much they will invest. A specter will always be a detriment to a team for The Index. They are offensive and try to take over. Removing them does no harm, only good. The mission is an endgame Credit farm. Players should never have to rely on AI for the outcome of a run. That is just crummy design.

Didn’t think of it like that before, it definitely is a bad design of choice for sure. So maybe instead of completely removing them from the index, maybe it could be better if they changed how the index worked so that the AI isn’t completely useless.

[Karasueve]

2 minutes ago, taiiat said:

they can be dumb sometimes indeed - they seem to be less dumb ever since the Update that made Specters use their Abilities way better atleast?
the other side of the fence is that i presume that they are there not only to get the heat off of less experienced Players but also to not make it too easy either (impossible for the Enemies to ever acquire any Points to attempt to score with if you're on the ball).

so i've always agreed to some degree but i also don't really expect them to go away.
if something were to happen i could see having the Specter count scale with the Tier of the Index. low Tier having more of them and one less each Tier up.
which would mean a 2Player Squad would have no Specters in High Risk, and a 3Player Squad in Medium Risk(or Specters only in Low Risk). but i'm not going to hold my breath.

Maybe if players leave, make it a choice whether you want any Specters or not? I feel like that would be a good middle ground for the experienced players that dont want them, and the less experienced players who probably want all the help they can get.

[Voltage]

7 minutes ago, xXDeadsinxX said:

Didn’t think of it like that before, it definitely is a bad design of choice for sure. So maybe instead of completely removing them from the index, maybe it could be better if they changed how the index worked so that the AI isn’t completely useless.

I think a fair medium would be just removing their ability to pick up and score points. Allowing them to exist and shoot is good enough.

[xXDeadsinxX]

Just now, Voltage said:

I think a fair medium would be just removing their ability to pick up and score points. Allowing them to exist and shoot is good enough.

That doesn’t sound too bad actually.

[taiiat]

1 hour ago, Voltage said:

I think a fair medium would be just removing their ability to pick up and score points. Allowing them to exist and shoot is good enough.

that gives me a thought - what if they brought Points over to Players like a doggo