Acolyte spawns in Steel Path

[Wyrmius_Prime]

Whatever the current spawn logic is, it makes no sense. They should be guaranteed to spawn during missions without having to wait and afk several minutes before doing so. Acolytes in regular non-endless missions should be forced to spawn when the main mission objective is done, e.g. capturing a target or defending the last terminal in mobile defense. In endless missions they should be forced to spawn near the end of each reward cycle, e.g. every 5 waves, 4 conduits, 1 interception cycle and so on. Steel Path is the exact opposite of challenging and fast pace gameplay when like half of the time is spent afking.

[PhiThagRaid]

6 hours ago, Wyrmius_Prime said:

In endless missions they should be forced to spawn near the end of each reward cycle

Coincidentally this is very similar to the spawns of defences, in them bursas and scrambi already act like this, spawning only on the last wave of a cycle.

Based on the streams they were supposed to be mini bosses while running your mission. I've yet to be in a group where the people had any difficulty killing it. 

Personally I am slightly against making them 100% consistent, since sure they give a reward that you would like consistently, but they are still trying to kill you and don't have to follow a strict schedule for that.

In my opinion they are just rarer eximus units currently. Eximus units are basically slightly stronger enemies with special abilities. These are slightly stronger enemies with special abilities. 

Personally not too sure how you would get them to that miniboss ranking, but stalker mode has been an idea floating around and SP is one of the best places to add it IMO. You can have the default spawns, but also from time to time a player controlled stalker. The limited ability sets of the acolytes will be given as powers and parkour would most likely be a bit more limited for the stalker, with the ability to teleport a player to them.

Success for the stalker would obviously need some reward, perhaps SE or Kuva(given that it is what major SE farms existed for). The balance of what is a success would have to be decided, host takedown makes the most sense, though team takedown could be a possible if the stalker gets a good amount of health boost.

[taiiat]

3 hours ago, PhiThagRaid said:

Personally I am slightly against making them 100% consistent, since sure they give a reward that you would like consistently, but they are still trying to kill you and don't have to follow a strict schedule for that.

whynotboth?

a limited amount of forced Spawns based on Mission conditions, plus random.

[PhiThagRaid]

56 minutes ago, taiiat said:

whynotboth?

a limited amount of forced Spawns based on Mission conditions, plus random.

It depends on what the expected way of farming them should be. If you allow them to spawn as soon as the mission objective completes Captures would become the fastest way of killing them. 

Perhaps different drops could be done for different missions, then. 1 SE in a capture, but 2 per rotation of Defense or Survival. Since spawn times are currently (as far as I know) 4-11 mins. Forcing spawns in Captures makes that max 2-3 and makes defence 4-7 and survival 5. This would be a direct increase in drops, so the shop might need to be balanced around that.

[taiiat]

4 hours ago, PhiThagRaid said:

This would be a direct increase in drops, so the shop might need to be balanced around that.

when so much of the stuff now has a like two month cooldown, i don't think there's anything that could really be done wrong.

[DebrisFlow]

What about acolytes guarding extraction of non-endless missions, and you have to defeat them to unlock extract?