[Scarlet Spear] Our rewards should not be dependent on the performance of others. And other concerns.

[zencookie]

I get it. Multiple teams cooperating is a cool concept, but when you don't know if you're going to receive ~2300 credits or ~7800 credits upon starting a mission, we're gambling with our time, and the stakes are quite high. The bonus is held hostage and the ransom can only be paid by other people This is like... waitress wage salary. Imagine working for hours, and whether you're getting paid the full amount depends on the customers. Only we can't affect the people we play with, especially considering match-making is busted.

This also creates castes of players. A streamer, for example, will be more capable of pulling in enough people to properly fill a flotilla and earn the full rewards, possibly multiple times. And hell... Looking at this patch note "Players who reached the 100/100 Murex Driven Away that jumped to a different Flotilla and played a mission, would not receive Victory Payout from the completed Flotilla once the timer expired." I'm thinking to myself: "Doesn't this incentivize doing a 17 Condrix run and then hopping to another flotilla? Am I reading this correctly? Is playing like locusts now the intended way to earn points? Surely this can't be right..."

Here's my current mood. I got the Basmu, I can live without the Lacera, even without maxed Arcanes. I have thus far. I'd rather do something less gambly with my time. Yes, a lot of things in the game are chance-based, and while that irks me too, at least farming and opening relics doesn't take 45 minutes of intense gameplay, and waiting for a timer to run out while hoping for the best and fearing for the worst. And simply playing earns me relic packs through syndicates, so I have better odds of getting the relics I'm looking for.

I'm not trying to be entitled here. I have over 2000 hours played. I've farmed almost everything that I can without burning myself out. The game's always been very fair with its rewards. Even when I was frustrated because I had to run 8 radshares for a specific piece, I didn't feel cheated. But this... This time feels unfair. I don't even see a reason not to grant the bonus even if 100 Murexes weren't driven a way, or hell, a percentage of the bonus... 80% of the bonus for 80 Murexes. 100 Murexes is an arbitrary number, and that's exactly what it is, a number. When 99 ticks to 100, the only people who are going to notice anything at all is that people running their missions will have theirs cut short. But that's gonna happen if the timer runs out, right? Or maybe scale the reward for completing Condrices up, and scale down the bonus reward. There are many ways to fix this.

And I get this too, you're trying to create immersive storytelling, but that fails for two reasons. First, because you're trying to instill meaning into the story by punishing us for outcomes beyond our control. Secondly, because of the way quests are written; as unique timelines, ie. Lua really could only be found by one of us. But it was found by most of us, so we have to suspend that disbelief when interacting with others. It literally could not have happened the way we experienced it for all of us. I've rambled for too long already, so I think I'm gonna go. But before I do!:

PS. Some minor bonus qualms: 1) Can you please tone down sentient damage? Getting one-shotted from almost full health isn't fun (~900, with 2 max-rank Umbral mods), especially when your vision is limited because you're zooming at a priority target. Or maybe implement a ramp-up time so that we can seek cover, or Adaptation can catch up, or something. But I suspect their damage formulas haven't been revised since a time when they didn't imagine there would be level 150+ versions of them running around. Please look into it either way. 2) Knockdowns seem a bit excessive (which is un-fun when combined with instagib damage). 3) The red smoke makes it hard to see enemies, especially when they're so fast and players are blowing stuff up.

PPS. Have I stressed it enough that I like the concept, just not the design?

Edited March 27, 2020 by zencookie