Assault mission type is fun; could use more of it

[Somnia]

After being reminded by a recent sortie that the Assault mission type exists (Kuva Fortress), it should be pointed out, as a great point of positive feedback, that it was pretty unusually fun and stood out among a lot of the other content (Arbitrations, open world Bounties, Sanctuary Onslaught, etc.), and felt like a pretty proper battle/assault with all the chaos players wreak over the course of flying through the fortress defenses and the varied-but-quick objectives it rapidly slings at you, all without overstaying its welcome, notably. (The fortress tileset itself probably contributes to the battlefield/raid feeling, though, having pillboxes, turrets, and spotlight-esque defenses, etc.)

It's concentrated action without too much space/time between its objectives, and without having you do multiple of the same objective in the same mission. Action too brief to hit burnout, and varied enough to not get as boring as other mission types. Might be a worthwhile subject of review/study.

Edited June 28, 2019 by Oaxs

[TeaHawk]

It reminds me of PAYDAY. You even start by drilling a huge vault door. I agree. It's fun somehow.

[RunningChaos]

1 hour ago, Oaxs said:

After being reminded by a recent sortie that the Assault mission type exists (Kuva Fortress), it should be pointed out, as a great point of positive feedback, that it was pretty unusually fun and stood out among a lot of the other content (Arbitrations, open world Bounties, Sanctuary Onslaught, etc.), and felt like a pretty proper battle/assault with all the chaos players wreak over the course of flying through the fortress defenses and the varied-but-quick objectives it rapidly slings at you, all without overstaying its welcome, notably. (The fortress tileset itself probably contributes to the battlefield/raid feeling, though, having pillboxes, turrets, and spotlight-esque defenses, etc.)

It's concentrated action without too much space/time between its objectives, and without having you do multiple of the same objective in the same mission. Action too brief to hit burnout, and varied enough to not get as boring as other mission types. Might be a worthwhile subject of review/study.

I actually like the Invasion Exterminate missions where you go from ons faction ship to the other. Things actually explode and things are happening around you. Did one the other day and it was kinda awesome.

[Steel_Rook]

Assault is hardly the only one. Infested Salvage also only shows up on a single node and Defection has at most three. I do agree, though - Assault really is one of the game's more interesting, more complex modes. It really does remind me of Payday 2 with the various instructions and the mission-specific objectives. The game can use more missions with complex objectives that don't boil down to "go ONE place, do ONE thing, leave." Speaking of Payday, I'd like to see a few more theft missions, where we need to steal and physically carry a number of items to a dropoff point, with the potential to stuck around and steal more, maybe even as an endless mission type.

For me, part of the problem with Warframe is that its gameplay is very reductive. Its gameplay mechanics are nicely complex and varied enough, but its mission structure is so cripplingly simplistic as to make combat feel tedious by proxy. When you boil the game to just shooting a gun and swinging a sword for hours on end, it loses its charm very quickly. More elaborate, at least semi-story-driven objectives could help stave this off, but very few missions work that way.

[Somnia]

13 hours ago, Steel_Rook said:

[...] More elaborate, at least semi-story-driven objectives could help stave this off, but very few missions work that way.

With that said, maybe fewer mission nodes overall with aforementioned stronger mission design like this might be what serves the game well. Quality over quantity. That would also concentrate matchmaking players; fewer empty/desolate nodes you'll probably be soloing even while set to public. Unexpectedly, also a more integral way to bring back raids in a sense, or to remove the need to, by that level of mission character just being regular gameplay missions, albeit in manageable bite-sizes.

Better to focus on delving deeper into the specific characteristics and situations of each planet, much like how Jupiter got fleshed out on the aesthetic front.

Orb Vallis bounties are probably somewhere in the opposite direction; they're distant, repetitive, and especially dissonant with what you're supposedly doing story-wise because the objectives are very disconnected from the fluff premise and have you doing the same objectives. (Like the one involving bombing someone's transport, that never involves direct interaction from Tenno, only the most remote "we assure you it's there off-screen" sort.) .

Edited June 29, 2019 by Oaxs

[Steel_Rook]

16 hours ago, Oaxs said:

With that said, maybe fewer mission nodes overall with aforementioned stronger mission design like this might be what serves the game well. Quality over quantity. That would also concentrate matchmaking players; fewer empty/desolate nodes you'll probably be soloing even while set to public.

That's... Actually not a bad idea, to be honest. Only a few specific planetary nodes see any real play and a great many of them are all but entirely redundant. Not to mention that the current Star Chart design makes it pretty hard to find a specific mission unless you already know where it is. If I want to run a Spy mission on Jupiter, for instance, I have to keep mousing over nodes until I get to the right one, and sometimes clicking on them if a Nightmare or Syndicate or Sortie mission has spawned on top of the node. It would be so much simpler if I could pick a planet, pick the mission type I want to play then have the game generate a mission from the planet's tileset and level range for me. If any "special" missions exist, they could show up in a separate list over the planet, similar to how legacy Alerts worked. And obviously, have a "random mission" option, just 'cause 🙂

Mind you, I'd still like to have as close to all mission types available on all planets as is reasonable. I can understand Infested Salvage logically only working on Eris or Disruption only working on Jupiter or Assault only working in the Kuva Fortress (at least, without major development investment), but most of the others are fairly universal. A few mission types even vary by tileset already - mostly Sabotage, Spy and Rescue. I wouldn't mind seeing more tilesets have an Assault mission of their own, as well.

All of the above is done with an eye towards doing the least amount of new development work. While I don't think abolishing the dirt simple old missions will go over well, I'd personally like to see quite a few more complex missions like Assault with multi-stage objectives and potentially a guided scavenger hunt component. Due to Warframe's heavy reliance on randomisation, I don't think using fixed maps or heavily scripted events is a good idea, but we can do quite a bit within the existing system. Let's look at the following:

 

Supply raid:
While another Tenno distracts security, players raid the location for supplies. Said supplies are located in store rooms (essentially dead end loot rooms) scattered around the map, with their doors locked. To get through the doors, players must first burn through the lock using a Moltecoil Charge. An infinite amount of these is available from a crate in the spawn room, where the Datamass in Mobile Defence would otherwise spawn. This process takes 60 seconds, during which time the charge can be destroyed by enemy damage, requiring players to restart the process. Once the charge is done, the lock must be hacked via a standard hack minigame. Inside the room will be several Supply Cannisters which players must carry like a battery.

In order to secure the supplies, players must bring them to a loading dock (a separate room) where they can signal for extraction. However, the process is slow, extracting 1 cannister per 10 seconds. If cannisters are left unattended, enemies can interact with them to pick them up, then leave the map with them entirely. Individual supply cannisters can also be found in containers and lockers, similar to Batteries during Defection.

Supply Raid would not be an endless mission. However, like Spy, it players would be able to finish it with only partially completed objectives. 10 cannisters or so would be needed for completion, but securing more than that would advance players through the mission's reward rotations.

 

Security Breach:
A loud(er) version of spy, the Tenno must reach a data vault deep inside an enemy facility. The mission map would be split in three sections, each ending in a locked Security Door which must be opened by a randomly-selected method taken from existing game modes and simplified. Past the final gate would be a data vault which the players must hack, then protect for 120 seconds while data is extracted from it. This vault would have no data deletion failsafe - enemies would need to physically destroy it via gunfire. The means to unlock the three Security Doors are as follows:

Power failure: Standard Sabotage with a single coolant cell, no mission-wide effect. Security door can be opened manually from a nearby console afterwards.
System re-route: Standard Spy Vault with no data deletion. Tripping the alarm would require all players to leave, disable alarms from outside and re-enter to try again. Door opens automatically afterwards.
Fake credentials: Players would need to steal credentials from on-site personnel. Eximus enemies will drop "data orbs." Once players collect 10 of them, a random console somewhere on the map can be hacked to open the door.
Back door: A security console somewhere on the map can be hacked in order to open the door. The console will be marked on the minimap at a distance of 50 meters.
Brute force: Players are waypointed to an explosive cannister somewhere on the map. They must bring that to the door, place it nearby and shoot it. The detonation causes the door to open.
Drill the lock: A Moltecoil Charge will spawn at the start of the mission, which players must use on the door. This process takes 60 seconds, during which time the charge must be protected. If destroyed by enemy fire, players must re-light it and start the timer again. Door will open when timer exires.

Basically, the mission boils down to "get through three doors with a random breech method, then hack a console."