About Squadlink (yes its too early...kinda)

[ZoneDymo]

Hey all, as from the sum up of tennocon from the warframe website:

Signal the Squad Link: Transcend beyond your solo objective and tap into a larger mission by reaching out to other squads of Tenno using the Squad Link. In multi-objective missions from space, players can call up active players on Orb Vallis or Plains of Eidolon (or vice versa) to help the bigger cause -- lower enemy ship shields, steal valuable data, and more, as the New War looms.


In the notes for Tennocon it says that squadlink is specifically for PoE and OV.
I can accept that for a start, to get it all working, get the kinks out of it.
This however cannot ever be it. If it is Squadlink will be dead in the water, it would mean squadlink is only a thing for Railjack missions and only for those that take place above Earth or Venus aaaand...thats it.
(and boy do I shudder the thought of all the squadlink missions being put over earth or venus just for this, that would be painfully fake and limiting "hey look, my kingpin is flying YET AGAIN over earth, who would have though?")

Steve specifically mentioned during the presentation at 28:55 "all across the game" and specifically mentioned the quote "a lone tenno is raiding the ship for supplies", which plays during a survival mission.

So I reaaaally hope... no I demand, that squadlink actually gets implemented "all across the game".

Example of how I imagine it would work:
A squad is doing a spy mission, they are encountering a lot of resistance, they open up squadlink.
A different squad is doing an Exterminate mission, they open up squadlink, they accept offering help to "spy squad", at that point their Exterminate mission changes to a temporary survival mission.
(a lone tenno operative is raiding this ship for supplies.....)
They attract the enemy agro so the "spy squad" can do their stuff in relative peace, when the spy squad is done (meaning, got all 3 objectives) the squadlink ends, both teams get a reward.
"spy squad" heads for extraction while "distraction squad" finishes up their exterminate mission and after that heads for extraction.

Another example:
How cool would it be to help with defection missions from your railjack?
Ground Squad brings the defectors to their escape ships, Space Squad keeps the space clean of enemies while the defectors fly through it to safety.
It would be like those, hold the sector clean (% control) of grineer ,on the plains but instead it would be in space.
 

Edited July 12, 2019 by ZoneDymo

[Lazarow]

I dig it. But keep[ in mind that squad link should be bypassable in solo and should not need to call help but be bale to do the mission more difficult without squadlink as a player like me perffers to not rely on people too much. also wonder how squad link would work on plains and vallis can it pop up during bounties and if accepted then do the squad thing then after that bounty continues? or is it just for free roam/no bounty selection sessions

[Rawbeard]

gonna be fun when the lone tenno extracts after 5 minutes of survival. or vice versa. squad link will really only work with entirely premade groups and should probably be a trial type mode.

[ZoneDymo]

4 hours ago, Rawbeard said:

gonna be fun when the lone tenno extracts after 5 minutes of survival. or vice versa. squad link will really only work with entirely premade groups and should probably be a trial type mode.

Im not sure what you mean.
If the lone tenno extracts after 5 minutes of survival, and that is too soon, then they wont get the squadlink reward and the spy team will just open squadlink again for some more help or just see if they cant manage the last objective without it.

Not to mention that there is no extracting, there would be a time where in they need to survive, lets say 10 minutes, after that they did their part and got their reward and can continue on their normal mission.
 

4 hours ago, AwkwardLazarow said:

I dig it. But keep[ in mind that squad link should be bypassable in solo and should not need to call help but be bale to do the mission more difficult without squadlink as a player like me perffers to not rely on people too much. also wonder how squad link would work on plains and vallis can it pop up during bounties and if accepted then do the squad thing then after that bounty continues? or is it just for free roam/no bounty selection sessions

Well of course, they did say that in the tennocon demonstration "keep in mind, this is possible alone but it will be much more difficult".
Obviously there has to be some balancing to be done but DE is well aware that not everyone wants to bother with Squadlink all the time, so that wont be a requirement, but it can help.

I also dont really think its going to be of much influence to lone players, you just drop squadlink, someone will accept and you go about your business.
It will require no more effort then say, drop a energy pill or so.

As for the second part, like in my example, I HOPE you are able to interrupt your current mission to do something for squadlink and then pick it up again.
It makes little sense to go the open worlds to just fart around hoping someone needs help.....

Edited July 12, 2019 by ZoneDymo

[Refticus]

i honestly do think squadlink is going to be dead on release or a hated feature on both ends if it has good rewards that you simply cannot ignore.

think of it this way, when you enter the plains of eidolon or orb vallis, you go there to do a task or a mission and that's it, you don't want to suddenly have to do something else you never asked for. while the squadlink beacon works well for that, many people are just going to ignore it resulting in the other party not getting the help they need. alternatively, there's going to be a lot of competition over who gets squadlink opportunities if there's good rewards behind it, this will be because there's only going to be a limited amount of squadlink chances at one time.

i also can't see people just lounging around on the open world maps once railjack launches, players would likely want to immediately jump into the new content. this results in a ton of squadlink requests, but nobody to answer them. they did say squadlink had alternative methods for solo players, but we have yet to see these in action or get a description as to how a railjack mission (like the one we saw at tennocon) without squadlink would work.

it's a cool idea, but cool ideas often just don't work or fall flat when put into place.

[ZoneDymo]

2 hours ago, Refticus said:

i honestly do think squadlink is going to be dead on release or a hated feature on both ends if it has good rewards that you simply cannot ignore.

think of it this way, when you enter the plains of eidolon or orb vallis, you go there to do a task or a mission and that's it, you don't want to suddenly have to do something else you never asked for. while the squadlink beacon works well for that, many people are just going to ignore it resulting in the other party not getting the help they need. alternatively, there's going to be a lot of competition over who gets squadlink opportunities if there's good rewards behind it, this will be because there's only going to be a limited amount of squadlink chances at one time.

i also can't see people just lounging around on the open world maps once railjack launches, players would likely want to immediately jump into the new content. this results in a ton of squadlink requests, but nobody to answer them. they did say squadlink had alternative methods for solo players, but we have yet to see these in action or get a description as to how a railjack mission (like the one we saw at tennocon) without squadlink would work.

it's a cool idea, but cool ideas often just don't work or fall flat when put into place.

Well that is imo a too negative attitude.

There are pleeeenty of players in this game, start any mission and its filled up within seconds.
As you said, if you go into the OV or PoE with a goal, just dont deploy the beacon, ez, but if you want some rewards for doing a small task, activate it and see what comes up, no pressure.

Also lets not forget that Railjack will probably require some previous progress in the game before you can do it, not to mention the resources and time to build it, so not nearly everyone of the millions of players will be doing railjack right away.

Is interesting how you think that there will be tons of requests (indicating you are aware that there are a lot of players out there) and at the same time believe there will be no answers (suddenly there are zero players out there).

We need to look at this lose/disconnected from ourselves and recognize tons of players are going to the plains today and tomorrow and the day after for the very first time and have plenty to do there still.

Edited July 12, 2019 by ZoneDymo