Severe lack of enemies ruining gameplay

[Marcuspolomintus]

I'm currently going for Octavia's neuroptics, by TRYING to farm Terrorem on Deimos. It's a survival mission, but because of the SERIOUS lack of enemies, in solo player mode, it's simply not possible to complete it. I get to around 9 mins before the air is saturated. Now that wouldn't be a problem because you can bypass health depletion with various skills and equipment, but the fact that the timer ALSO stops, it means that once you hit 0 saturation, it's game over.

Of course, I'm waiting for the usual trolls to come on, whinging about "you should be looking for groups to play this mission...blah...blah...blah...", but they fail to see that not only are there not ALWAYS groups to play missions with, but people ACTUALLY want to play this game, most of the time ON THEIR OWN!

It's not just Survival mode that has a serious lack of enemies, but Excavation missions drastically reduce energy carriers who are needed to keep the excavators powered up.

The bottom line is that people are unable to finish missions and objectives, not through lack of skill, but because of bad game mechanics that only allow for multiplayer. I can say that most of my time in WF is playing solo. I simply don't like playing with others, because I find many to be utterly obnoxious and exceptionally selfish - case in point one player yesterday, in a relic run got all his reactants and went straight to extraction and stayed there, completely ignoring the rest of the team who still had reactant to collect.

DE please cater for your solo players on Warframe. Certainly on the higher level missions we need more enemies and more importantly, if anything it should be the other way around. It should be harder to solo because of being overwhelmed by enemies, not a walk in the park from start to finish because there aren't any.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

Get a Nekros. Build for Desecrate. Problem solved.

[Bakaguya-sama]

"Nooooo we have to cater to that one guy who still prefer doing missions with the Boltor Prime and chip away at mobs one by one. If we add too many mobs he won't be able to play the game HIS WAY and he will be sad."

In all seriousness: single target weapons are relics of the past, of a different version of Warframe. Most people have already adapted to the AoE meta. We would prefer to get hordes of enemies to cut down, instead of sitting around waiting them to pop up one by one.   

Solution: Steel Path level mob spawn on all contents.  

[FiveN9ne]

20 minutes ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

Get a Nekros. Build for Desecrate. Problem solved.

So your fix for the overall bad design of having too few enemies making missions hard to finish is to play one specific frame with one specific build in a game that has hundreds of variations? That make sense... 

[Marcuspolomintus]

38 minutes ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

Get a Nekros. Build for Desecrate. Problem solved.

You're specifically talking about the 'extra' drop from enemies? Sure, I have Nekros. I also have Hydroid Prime with necessary mod (Pilfering Swarm). The thing is you are NOT guaranteed an 'extra time' drop with both frames.
I'm specifically talking about having, on average 2 or so enemies every five seconds showing up, if you're lucky. Sometimes you can wait for 10 seconds and get none. So Nekros and Hydroid are going to do diddly with this current situation.
Even with an extra player, the amount of enemies that spawn is FAR, FAR, FAR greater than going solo.

[Marcuspolomintus]

43 minutes ago, Bakaguya-sama said:

"Nooooo we have to cater to that one guy who still prefer doing missions with the Boltor Prime and chip away at mobs one by one. If we add too many mobs he won't be able to play the game HIS WAY and he will be sad."

In all seriousness: single target weapons are relics of the past, of a different version of Warframe. Most people have already adapted to the AoE meta. We would prefer to get hordes of enemies to cut down, instead of sitting around waiting them to pop up one by one.   

Solution: Steel Path level mob spawn on all contents.  

Really haven't a clue what you're on about in the first part of your post. This has nothing to do with my OP.
Yes, on Steel Path, although I've not played it, I can imagine there are more mobs, but that's not the point. These mobs will of course be at a higher level to accommodate the player's level. I'm asking for DE to have the same amount of mobs but at the level of the planet, pre Steel path. Look, what you're essentially implying is that people who want to get Octavia are really going to have to wait until they've cleared all the nodes on all the planets until they can get a chance to go on the Steel Path. Yes, I know, there's multiplayer, but it's not the point. THERE ISN'T ALWAYS multiplayer available and that's my point. 

Survival and Excavation longevity should be about player capability, not restricting game mechanics. 

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

2 hours ago, FiveN9ne said:

So your fix for the overall bad design of having too few enemies making missions hard to finish is to play one specific frame with one specific build in a game that has hundreds of variations? That make sense... 

no, my fix is pick the frame who’s best designed for solo survivals.

I’ve done solo survivals without Nekros in the past. He’s just the frame that does it the easiest.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

2 hours ago, Marcuspolomintus said:

You're specifically talking about the 'extra' drop from enemies? Sure, I have Nekros. I also have Hydroid Prime with necessary mod (Pilfering Swarm). The thing is you are NOT guaranteed an 'extra time' drop with both frames.
I'm specifically talking about having, on average 2 or so enemies every five seconds showing up, if you're lucky. Sometimes you can wait for 10 seconds and get none. So Nekros and Hydroid are going to do diddly with this current situation.
Even with an extra player, the amount of enemies that spawn is FAR, FAR, FAR greater than going solo.

Have you tried not running from room to room constantly?

[(PSN)thegarada]

I agree, about the excavation (The battery spawn rate is always terrible), but I never seen mobs not spawn fast enough in survival. Are you killing mobs fast enough? Also, if you keep running all over the place, mobs will have to catchup. 
 

going back to excavation, it is the worst mission to play solo. Its entire design does not allow for solo play. You can still solo it with specific frames, but excavation and interception should be avoided solo. These missions suck anyway, there is limited reason to play them. 

[Marcuspolomintus]

On 2020-09-03 at 6:25 PM, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

Have you tried not running from room to room constantly?

Yes, I've tried everything. The point is that regardless whether you have Hydroid with Augment mod equipped or Nekros, there simply aren't enough enemies to get the time drops from. If I'm getting, on average, 3 enemies every 10 seconds and I'm getting a time drop from one of them, that's only giving me back 5 seconds. I'm losing time traveling to life supplies dropped by the locust that recover 30 seconds. 
The point I'm trying to say is, just like solo Excavation with a lack of energy carriers to power up the excavators, survival has a lack of enemies that don't drop enough time bonuses to keep the clock going.

This is a game mechanic flaw and it doesn't matter what WF you equip. If you're not getting enough enemies, you're not getting the time drops to continue playing.

[(PSN)thegarada]

1 hour ago, Marcuspolomintus said:

Yes, I've tried everything. The point is that regardless whether you have Hydroid with Augment mod equipped or Nekros, there simply aren't enough enemies to get the time drops from. If I'm getting, on average, 3 enemies every 10 seconds and I'm getting a time drop from one of them, that's only giving me back 5 seconds. I'm losing time traveling to life supplies dropped by the locust that recover 30 seconds. 
The point I'm trying to say is, just like solo Excavation with a lack of energy carriers to power up the excavators, survival has a lack of enemies that don't drop enough time bonuses to keep the clock going.

This is a game mechanic flaw and it doesn't matter what WF you equip. If you're not getting enough enemies, you're not getting the time drops to continue playing.

Btw, for survival, you need to use the support capsules smartly. Killing mobs alone does not always cut-it. It is very hard to sustain without using the capsules, especially in arbitrations. It does require some strategizing, not just killing efficiency. Some things that can help out:

1. Never use a capsule unless you are below 70%, since it adds 30%.
2. Fight where capsules spawn.
3. You need to allocate your position slowly. Cuz if you move quickly mobs will spawn away, and you will have to wait for them.
4. Keep an eye to where mobs spawn. You can start pulling to the next spawn area if you know where it is. Again, allocate your position slowly.
5. capsules spawn on three different locations on the map. Make sure that you never use all capsules in the middle location. Always leave 1. This ensures you do not have to move 350-400 meters if you need a capsule.
6. I usually I have a preferred location on each map, where I know spawns come mostly from one direction. It increases your efficiency and cuts on damage received. If mobs are coming from 360, you know you are in a wrong position.
7. While moving, boxes usually contain support modules. Do hit them. You can also elect not to hit them and save them for later if you are above 90%.

As for excavation.. do not do it solo. It does not work solo. It can.. but getting power batteries is a pain, even if you can keep the excavators protected. 

[TheGrimCorsair]

Yeah, gotta say, this really didn't give me any trouble. I ran it solo without too much trouble this afternoon and enemies were more than plentiful.

Stay to the end for a bonus, OP.
 

(Edit 2: Video processing complete)

[Tegiminis]

4 hours ago, Marcuspolomintus said:

If I'm getting, on average, 3 enemies every 10 seconds and I'm getting a time drop from one of them, that's only giving me back 5 seconds. I'm losing time traveling to life supplies dropped by the locust that recover 30 seconds. 

If this is happening to you, then you're playing the mission wrong. I've been grinding Terrorem solo to get Octavia Neuroptics myself, as Pilfering Swarm Hydroid (obviously), and I can just camp a single small room with Tentacle Swarm and get more than enough capsule drops to reach 20m, even without the life support Lotus gives you.

Quote

This is a game mechanic flaw

It's not. I'm primarily a solo player and I can do every single C rotation on every single node of the original star chart without issue. Your rage against DE for "not catering to solo players" is misdirected; you just don't understand how to play solo yet.

[BasKy]

The fact that you can't make it to 10 minutes tells me the problem is on you. You should really check any mistakes you might be doing because 10 minutes is really easy. I haven't played Derrelict (now Deimos?) in a while, maybe the spawns are bugged but I doubt it.

That being said, I find it ridiculous that we are so strong and mobile, that we are able to not only breeze through an army of enemies, we can also just sit on unreachable places and be unkillabe. This is why Life Support is needed, but it also brings many other problems, like grind or wait times. If this game had any sort of skill check (not gear check like now) grind would not be so necessary, as well as Life Support.

It's just my opinion of course.

[Tegiminis]

12 hours ago, (XB1)TyeGoo said:

Me and thousands of others begged de for half a decade to increase enemy spawns for solo, duo and trio play.

Why? The spawn rates are fine.

[Hobie-wan]

On 2020-09-03 at 9:34 AM, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

Get a Nekros. Build for Desecrate. Problem solved.

Indeed. Evaluate the tools available and choose one that's better suited to the job if you're running solo. Just like you're likely to choose Khora/Frost/Limbo for defense or a nuke frame for SO/ESO and a stealth frame for spy if you haven't learned them well enough to know them like the back of your hand.

[(PSN)Shieldmaiden83]

Sounds like you have terrible luck with the spawn rate

If you are jumping all over the place it might be it cause the enimes are comming to you. Stay in one area prefer near a life suppurt module and pop it only when you need it, then move on to the next slowly but surely making sure the enemies are following you

But yeah it was a pain for me to get the neuroptics too, did it eventually with a Valkyr cause she is fun to play. Even a Titania is useful before her rework. Her 3 is a lot better now having the lantern stuck in one place while I dangling from the ceiling taking shots at the infested.

[Chroia]

On 2020-09-05 at 5:06 AM, Tegiminis said:

If this is happening to you, then you're playing the mission wrong.

The mission is 'kill S#&$, use towers as needed'.
The issue is (often) that the person is playing the mission, when they should be playing the spawn and pathing logic.

This is a problem.

Even with that, though, solo Excavation and solo Fissure Interception are awful.

[DrakeWurrum]

Yeah, enemy spawn rate has been waaaay too low for a long time now.

On 2020-09-04 at 9:06 PM, Tegiminis said:

It's not. I'm primarily a solo player and I can do every single C rotation on every single node of the original star chart without issue. Your rage against DE for "not catering to solo players" is misdirected; you just don't understand how to play solo yet.

  "Not enough enemy spawns" is absolutely a game mechanic flaw. This doesn't even have anything to do with solo or not. Even in groups, there's just never enough enemies.

I remember when the Zeloid Prelate came out and I tried to do the "hardest" mission of it for the final reward, I couldn't do it. Not because I couldn't kill. Not because I couldn't survive. But because the lantern just runs out because there weren't enough enemies spawning fast enough to keep it charged, no matter what strategy or method I used. I got pretty close to doing it, but just got tired of failing simply because I had nothing to kill.

I've been playing since 2013. I know "how to play solo." This wasn't an issue of playing wrong. Enemies just don't spawn often enough.

 

[Tegiminis]

17 hours ago, DrakeWurrum said:

"Not enough enemy spawns" is absolutely a game mechanic flaw.

If I had a penny for every person who said something in a game was a "mechanical flaw" when they have no idea what they're talking about, I'd be a trillionaire.

Before blaming the developer, perhaps try doing things differently.