Granum Void issues

[Steel_Rook]

After spending an evening grinding out Granum Void runs for parts (I now have everything from the T1 and T3 versions), I've run into a fair few issues that I'd like to catalogue here. In no particular order:

Player spawns: When first entering the Granum Void, players are placed at random points on the map, usually on opposite ends from each other. In a game mode with this tight of a timer, that's a problem because the time spent travelling to meet each other is time lost scoring kills. It also seems to cause enemy spawning issue (more on that in a bit). I propose reusing Sanctuary Onslaught Conduits. When the Granum Void is first initiated, spawn a Conduit, then place all players who enter the Void somewhere nearby. This should ensure we all enter in the same place.

Enemy spawns: In roughly one out of every four Granum Void runs, we had issues getting enemies to spawn. We'd sit around with nothing to shoot at for 10-15 seconds, and eventually fail to reach our quota. We never figured out what was causing it, whether it's enemies failing to spawn, or enemies spawning elsewhere on the map and failing to path to us. This only seemed to happen with larger squads, and usually when players spawned far apart. My guess is that players spawning across the map cause Spectres to spawn near that location, then get stuck on terrain or fail to follow.

Enemy pathing: We found quite a few occasions of enemies getting stuck on terrain - predominantly on the pyramid. They would run into he side of it and either stop moving or very slowly slide along the wall. I can't tell if this is a sufficiently common enough issue to explain the enemy spawn issues, but it was definitely present. The Spectres also seem to move fairly slowly when trying to path to us, but then move very quickly once they arrive, often flying directly over our heads.

Void exit: Right now, there's no point in sticking around after one has hit the C rotation mark, but there's also no good way to exit the Void short of letting the timer run out. This is simple in theory - stop picking up the triangles. Even with friends on voice comms, however, this proved to be problematic - someone would invariably not be paying attention and stick an extra 30 seconds on to the run right at the end. It's also really counter-intuitive. Once again - employ a Sanctuary Onslaught mechanic. Spawn a conduit at the maximum kill count, let players jump into it to leave. Maybe then we can also have vacuum on the triangles.

[icodious]

i'll second you on the pathing and spawns but I don't think the exit would be an issue at all if this hasn't become one button stupid in public matches.  It's told to you several times in game, and news feed you need to use your xoris to fight in the Granum void the rewards are tiered to getting so many kills and that all goes right out the window when you get there and there is a Mesa or Ember just racking up three and four hundred kills by pushing a single button , no aim is even involved. Just push the button and walk away a 4 times over winner every time. It takes the trade value of any of the rewards in it strait to crapper as it's now the  easiest farm in the game. If that  kind of play wasn't permitted in there as they made it sound the score would be tight , like tight tight, and if you were able to keep going you would probably want to as it would be a rare thing and something to feel good about. I took my xoris and nothing else, including abilities(went as Inaros)  and was stoked as hell when I made it to 143 solo.  I tried it twice with Non exploiting teams and failed. Due to exactly the first three points you made but had more fun and felt decent about my self compared to the next two matches where first a mesa did it all, I joined in the void and should have left but was still wondering what just happened as I ran to exit.  And second one when an ember started doing it I did leave.  that's not a game, talent, or skill. It's just stupid!! 

Edited June 13, 2020 by icodious

[zuraja]

10 hours ago, Steel_Rook said:

Enemy spawns: In roughly one out of every four Granum Void runs, we had issues getting enemies to spawn. We'd sit around with nothing to shoot at for 10-15 seconds, and eventually fail to reach our quota. We never figured out what was causing it, whether it's enemies failing to spawn, or enemies spawning elsewhere on the map and failing to path to us. This only seemed to happen with larger squads, and usually when players spawned far apart. My guess is that players spawning across the map cause Spectres to spawn near that location, then get stuck on terrain or fail to follow.

Same.  Been trying to farm them with a 3 nuker+EV Trinity ESO setup and we're consistently not getting enough spawns to even get the first reward.  Staying grouped up hasn't really helped.

[Benhammer1313]

I've had the rescue of Solaris not add to the timer in three of the granum void missions in a row now. Alone that would have been annoying, but with the other issues it makes it downright unbeatable, and unpalatable to play. There was a Mesa in two of those losses, and it was on the easiest void type. I'd love to be able to play the new mode, but I think I'll have to wait and play it after the bugs are ironed out.

[Steel_Rook]

13 hours ago, zuraja said:

Same.  Been trying to farm them with a 3 nuker+EV Trinity ESO setup and we're consistently not getting enough spawns to even get the first reward.  Staying grouped up hasn't really helped.

I've run a few more Granum Void missions (by which I mean about 4 solid hours of grinding, so probably dozens of 'em...), and I've been noticing a pattern. When I run those missions solo, the spawn issues don't present themselves. I spawn, enemies spawn around me and they keep spawning in large enough numbers to meet quota usually without picking up Triangles or freeing Hostages. I AM using a Mesa which may be skewing the results somewhat, but solo gives me enough spawns. With two players who spawn side-by-side, there are also rarely spawn issues, though there are sometimes. It's when we add a third player and the game spawns all three of us in different parts of the map that I've been noticing that. In fact, we ended up having to drastically change tactics to survive. With three people, we ended up with someone hanging back and hunting for Triangles, and eventually with me charging up my Xoris and camping a hostage in case we needed more time.

My current running theory is that the issue with Granum Void spawns is similar to the issue with Excavation spawns. Enemies do spawn, but they fail to path to us while still counting against the spawn cap. Enemies very clearly have discrete spawn points - they don't appear just anywhere on the map. They appear in certain places over and over again. I suspect that whatever algorithm the game is using to try and spawn enemies on top of players is failing, because I'm seeing a lot of spawn point oddities. Sometimes a spawn point will just continually dispense enemies. With the above-mentioned Mesa, I've been able to fire at the same point in space for 20-30 seconds, with enemies spawning CONSTANTLY in the same spot and insta-dying. In other situations, however, enemies will spawn once and then never again. This leads me to believe that the game is having issues spawning enemies close to us, and that enemies are getting stuck along the way.

I honestly feel that DE need to stop designing "Sanctuary Onslaught by another name" game modes. All of them have this issue. When "kill enemies as fast as possible" is the objective, then "technical limitations" become the primary point of failure. I've failed plenty of Sanctuary Onslaught runs, "take over the camp" Plains Bounties, Survival missions and such simply because the game fails to give me enough things to kill as fast as I'm actually able to kill it. It's also why Excavation, Defection, Defence and such missions can turn into such a boring drag, when the enemies you need to kill just don't turn up and you have to go running around looking for them. And now, the Granum Void has the same issue - the game's mechanics simply don't work well enough to support the game mode. We really do need to focus less on "killing enemies quickly" and more on actual proactive objectives.

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And honestly, I'm now more convinced than ever that the Granum Void needs to auto-kick us once we've met our quota. After so many runs of it yesterday, and after quarrelling with friends over and over again about trying to micromanage me picking up triangles, this needs to stop. Standard player behaviour is to grab pick-ups as they appear. Creating a game mode where a player doing that can screw his team and keep them inside the void for a minute or two after there's no longer any point to stay is not good design. Either let us leave voluntarily or kick us automatically. I simply no longer have the patience to deal with it.