SOS Flares to allow players to call in a random, geared player. Doubles as an in game way for geared players to be rewarded for helping those who need it most.

[ADirtyMonk]

With the addition of the Wolf, an enemy that is scaled such that it is very difficult to take down if he happens to drop in on a group of new/under geared/leveling players. Warframe could do to take a leaf out of Monster Hunter's book and add in an "SOS flare" type mechanic. Especially since the Wolf is not planned to go away any time soon. The purpose is to give under prepared players a chance to fight and get the rare drops instead of having to run, or eat the mission fail (depending on game mode), or spend 20+ minutes on a fight just to get a junk mod.

Activating an SOS flare would allow a 5th and even 6th highly geared player to join in at the cost of a severe affinity/resource malus for the entire group (essentially they only collect the special drop).

It would obey the following rules:

1. Flares can only be used if (the Lotus/Ordis/Lordis will give a voice prompt that you can call for help)
   • a "special unit" (Stalker, Wolf, Zanuka, G3, thumper, etc, etc) is in the field
   • if the defense objective is below 60% HP
   • if the enemy interception bar is above 80%
   • if life support is under 30%
2. Flares cannot be used during
   • Sorties
   • Arbitration
   • Rathuum
   • Index
   • SO/ESO
   • Quests
   • Junctions
   • "super boss hunts" or any boss fight that is not a random encounter (Eidolon Hunts, Orb Mothers, etc)
3. A majority of the players in mission must agree to activate the flare. If in a squad of 4, 3 players must use the flare. If a squad of 3, 2 players must use the flare. If in a squad of 2, one person can activate the flare.
4. The player(s) brought in cannot activate the flare.
5. The player(s) brought in can only be randomly chosen and must fulfill the following conditions
   • Is not in a mission/a squad/the navigation window/trade window
   • Is >MR 20 (arbitrary MR picked for demonstration purposes)
   • Has a Rank 30 warframe, and at least 2 rank 30 weapons equipped with mods in every slot
6. Players cannot be chosen more than 3 times a day (unless there is no other players to draw from)
7. The prospective player gets a transmission from the Lotus asking whether or not they accept the distress signal (including the Host's ping). If they accept, they are loaded into the session.
8. Flares can only be used twice a mission with 3 minutes cool down between uses (in case the first player has the wrong gear/is trolling, if you get 2 random trolls in a row that's tough luck).
9. The mission ends as soon as possible. For non-endless, the players must fulfill the mission conditions. For endless missions the entire group is forced to extract at the next possible opportunity.

Maluses:

• If a player has not completed that particular star chart mission node it will remain uncompleted.
• Calling in a 5th player reduces ALL collected resources/affinity/blueprints/etc gained by 75% to a minimum value of 1, does not affect rewards gained from completing a rotation
• Calling in a 6th player increases the reduction to 100% to a minimum value of 1, does not affect rewards gained from completing a rotation

 

For the helpers.

• They must fulfill the conditions outlined in Rule 4
• They are affected by the resource/affinity malus.
• They get one "Favor of the Lotus" for each successful response, i.e. the squad makes it to extraction

"Favor of the Lotus" can be exchanged for: (values only meant to demonstrate relative difficulty to acquire)

• 30 ducat (1)
• 1000 Endo (1)
• 7000 Kuva (1)
• Forma BP (2)
• Catalyst (5)
• Reactor (5)
• Random Riven Mod (6)
• Unique Glyph - Low Tier (10)
• Unique Glyph - Medium Tier (20)
• Unique Glyph - High Tier (40)
• Unique Glyph - Legendary Tier (60)
• Unique Ephemera 1 - 15
• Unique Ephemera 2 - 30
• Unique Ephemera 3 - 60
• Unique Ephemera 4 - 120
• Unique Syandana - 50
• Unique Armor Set - 75
• Unique Operator Suit - 75
• Unique Operator Eye Accessory - 25
• Unique Operator Ear Accessory - 25
• Unique Operator Facial Accessory - 25
• etc. (As a vet I am always short on endo, kuva, forma. Overall the shop should be heavily skewed towards difficult to acquire cosmetics. I highly advise against mods or arcanes.)

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by ADirtyMonk

[taiiat]

see, the thing is, that the SOS Flare in Monster Hunter, is how you Matchmake at all. you have that already in Warframe, by default.
so the benefits that it has in Monster Hunter, don't line up the same way.

but, carry on.

[ADirtyMonk]

49 minutes ago, taiiat said:

see, the thing is, that the SOS Flare in Monster Hunter, is how you Matchmake at all. you have that already in Warframe, by default.
so the benefits that it has in Monster Hunter, don't line up the same way.

but, carry on.

Yeah. I guess it was a bit of a stretch considering how SOS flare is usually used but I couldnt think of another game that had a similar mechanic to what I was going for. I guess I was going more for the how the flare is used in a lot of the first monster encounters in World where you solo until you hit the monster then you drop the SOS to get a full squad at the loss of 3/4 of your Zenny and Palico (since you're supposed to get your ass kicked the first time around, but at least with a squad you can clear) so the effect is somewhat similar to what I'm trying to describe.

Edited April 26, 2019 by ADirtyMonk