Time to Get Rid of Reactant

[nslay]

On 2021-04-21 at 9:46 AM, Nickalonte said:

Ok so I didn't really all post on the 2nd page but to me it kinda seems like all these new players just want easier ways to make plat or just to be given handouts?? The reactant to me has never really been a problem why complain about 2 seconds? What's your hurry bro? These are prime parts, they should be harder to get than they are considering this is an easy way to make free platinum. 

If they were to make void missions easier than it would pretty much reduce the price of the prime parts you are farming which in my opinion is not a good idea because that's how some people make their Platinum.

Here is an idea. I would like for the void fissure missions to be alot more difficult let's say you have maybe 2-3 special objectives similar to Riven objective and  "elite mobs" similar to a mini boss that drop reactant maybe 2-3 per mission that would increase the void trace amount.

As for relic rewards if I spend 100 traces to make a relic radiant and the silver reward bar is 100% full I expect to a silver reward as my prize. With that being said I don't want it easier to get these so maybe increase the cost to upgrade them too 200 traces? I usually run rad relics and still get bronze rewards about 70% of the time which seems really bad to be spending all those traces on.

Anyways this is just my opinion. Devs you are doing a fine job jeep it up! Hopefully 1 of you read this and if you do send me a message letting me know it's been seen. Just that would be satisfaction for me. As for all you others stop complaining so much and get back to the grind!

The problem isn't the difficulty of the mission... this is not what players are complaining about. Making reactant drop in a more expected way w.r.t. mission design/progress is not the same as making the mission easier.

The problem is you have to game the corruption mechanics to get enough reactant... and you have to do in a way that is counter to how the game is intended to be played. It's seriously dumb. It's only a problem in very specific types of missions... I list three below.

Examples:

• Solo interception fissure - Hold 4 towers and don't crack open the relic by the end of the round.
  • It's easy to hold 4 towers solo... but you won't crack open the relic because you almost certainly won't get 10 reactant by 100% control.
  • Hey, you played the game skillfully and very efficiently here's your reward: Nothing! Enjoy!
  • This is NOT a mission difficulty problem.
• Excavation - Get 200 Cryotic too fast and don't crack open the relic by the end of the round.
  • You get a beginner in your Excavation fissure mission and they're playing the game properly... get 200 Cryotic as fast as you can to finish the round... right?
  • Wrong... Intentionally don't get 200 Cryotic fast and just wait 5 minutes to collect 10 reactant.
  • This is NOT a mission difficulty problem.
• Skirmish Railjack - Wait to be boarded and have corrupted enemies or board a Crewship and wait for enemies to be corrupted ... or don't crack open the relic by the end of the mission.
  • First of all, you generally blow up Crewships with the Forward Artillery right? Isn't that how you normally play Railjack?
  • No! Not in fissures! You need to do the most inefficient strategy and board the Crewship and then... not do that efficiently either! Just wait for enemies to be corrupted.
  • Alternatively you could wait to be boarded and for those enemies to become corrupted... are you supposed to wait for this in normal game play? No!
  • I haven't personally experienced this! You probably shouldn't play Skirmish Fissures (and DE should just not have Skirmish fissures... it makes no sense).

What do all 3 of these scenarios have in common?

Answer: Play the game as poorly and inefficiently as you can and you will be rewarded! Good job! You're good at being terrible and slow at the game... here's a relic reward for you!

 

[sitfesz]

On 2021-04-22 at 4:38 PM, Steel_Rook said:

Say that to Survival. I routinely have trouble gathering enough Reactant in that, and do you know why? Because I'm not killing fast enough before the mission automatically times me out every 5 minutes.

If you are in public that's because player proximity and extraction proximity counts. The inferior rule is extraction proximity, so if there are 2-2 grouped players, the fissure will spawn at the 2 closer to extraction. The first rule is player proximity, so if there are 1-1-2 grouped players, the fissure will spawn at the 2 even though they are further from the extraction, but they are close to each other. The problem with survival is that you have no idea where the extraction is (if you don't find the room itself) until the first 5 minutes.

If you are solo in any endless fissure mission, you are #*!%ed anyway, because while the timers and reactant drop rates are similar, the enemy spawn rates are heavily nerfed based on player count (thankfully DE removed the squad number based enemy spawn count for steel path and they only spawn for a 4-man), when the enemy count is heavily effecting the number of reactants dropping.

[Uhkretor]

I still think they should never have moved away from "Close the actual fissure by having your Relic close the fissure while absorbing its energy" that existed when fissures were released... Reactants didn't really make sense to me...

[Steel_Rook]

10 hours ago, sitfesz said:

If you are solo in any endless fissure mission, you are #*!%ed anyway, because while the timers and reactant drop rates are similar, the enemy spawn rates are heavily nerfed based on player count (thankfully DE removed the squad number based enemy spawn count for steel path and they only spawn for a 4-man), when the enemy count is heavily effecting the number of reactants dropping.

Ayup! Solo in a Survival Fissure. Barely enough enemies to keep Life Support, barely enough enemies to give me Reactant. If I had "more meta" gear and was able to kill enemies through walls as soon as they spawn then maybe that wouldn't be an issue, but the reduced spawn count for solo really fundamentally undermines that whole game mode.

Hell - Survival, Fissures and Sanctuary Onslaught all share the same DNA and the same fundamental underlying issues. They're not about "surviving," but ultimately about efficiency - the player's and the games. The faster the player kills, the smoother the mission progresses, up to the cap of how fast enemies can spawn and find the player. Sanctuary Onslaught abstracts all of this by locking players in one tile and spawning enemies on top of them. Survival and Fissures don't work like that, so the player's efficiency is upeer-bound by enemy availability. Because most mission types converted into fissures have very low enemy spawns, that hard-binds people's efficiencies on meta-game, back-end mechanics, and it becomes frustrating.

Being delayed and sitting on one's hands because the game just isn't working is not fun. It exposes the inherent artifice of the experience. I'm sure there are better ways to implement Reactant, but simply getting rid of it would instantly improve the "flow" of the game.