Please fix solo Excavation

[RobWasHere]

For the love of the Lotus, please do something with solo Excavation, it is borderline unplayable especially the Corpus variant. Not only there are only handful of enemies, the energy carriers are simply not spawning or spawn 2 tiles away and permanently hide behind corners instead of running towards excavator. It all drags Excavation missions or even makes them impossible because carriers do not spawn at all. It is mostly a solo issue, multiplayer scalling or Steel Path modifiers spawns enough enemies but sometimes this also fails to spawn enough cells to keep the excavs without downtime.

Proposed fixes:

1. Increase enemy density on all modes. Easiest fix, but not foolproof as Cell Carriers spawning/pathing issues still remain.

2. Give all enemies chance to drop a cell, like Survival. Also easy fix, but removes the uniqueness of this mission type.

3. Increase excavation time to 3 mins, each excav starts at 100% energy, each cell reduces the time by 20s. This fix would make you immune to carrier spawn issues, but will turn the mission into mobile defence with extra steps.

4. Add ability to spend shields to charge excavators, 100 shields per 1%. Probably a compromise between all proposals.

 

Please DE, I beg of you. Energy spawn problem is as old as this gamemode was first changed to not charge the Scanner.

[LostImbecile]

I'd be fine with it using our energy, maybe 200 or 400 per cell if you click X on the excavator, or make it so any enemy could drop an empty cell that slowly charges up while you hold it, depending on the cost it could be taking our means to defend and survive temporarily, although they should just fix the spawns and enemy pathing, the less headaches the better

[trst]

Increasing density makes low levels harder to new players. Everything having a chance to drop cells could work but just enforces another loot frame meta. Making excavators count down makes it 100% afkable. And expending our resources for them again opens it for afk exploits and possibly makes it harder to new players.

IMO I think it'd be best to reduce the overall map sizes, at least for low level missions, and/or increase the energy gain per cell in low level runs. Either deals with the spawn mechanic issues that cause the entire problem while not fundamentally changing the mode.

[Pizzarugi]

I think making it so all enemies have a chance to drop cells is a good solution. Loot frame meta be damned, solo players shouldn't feel punished for not doing excavation in steel path.

[Lilybun]

Increased enemy density + chance to drop cells on all enemies would be the most fun variant to me but only if they make the excavators substantially tankier and able to be further healed through inserting cells even beyond maximum capacity.

[Felsagger]

17 hours ago, RobWasHere said:

For the love of the Lotus, please do something with solo Excavation, it is borderline unplayable especially the Corpus variant. Not only there are only handful of enemies, the energy carriers are simply not spawning or spawn 2 tiles away and permanently hide behind corners instead of running towards excavator. It all drags Excavation missions or even makes them impossible because carriers do not spawn at all. It is mostly a solo issue, multiplayer scalling or Steel Path modifiers spawns enough enemies but sometimes this also fails to spawn enough cells to keep the excavs without downtime.

Proposed fixes:

1. Increase enemy density on all modes. Easiest fix, but not foolproof as Cell Carriers spawning/pathing issues still remain.

2. Give all enemies chance to drop a cell, like Survival. Also easy fix, but removes the uniqueness of this mission type.

3. Increase excavation time to 3 mins, each excav starts at 100% energy, each cell reduces the time by 20s. This fix would make you immune to carrier spawn issues, but will turn the mission into mobile defence with extra steps.

4. Add ability to spend shields to charge excavators, 100 shields per 1%. Probably a compromise between all proposals.

 

Please DE, I beg of you. Energy spawn problem is as old as this gamemode was first changed to not charge the Scanner.

 

I do love Solo excavations but I think this type of grinding deserves more love. At least you can work as a tenno while your warframe automatically defeat the enemies. This type of duo gameplay should be more available instead of working with an Excalibur Umbra or a Wukong. There should be a set of spectres or at least a callout of friendly grineers helping you get through a solo excavation. At least that could add more fun and drama to the activity. 

 

:D

 

 

 

[(PSN)Unlucky1307]

I think the best thing they could do is keep a steady spawn rate for the energy carriers and just have them replace normal enemy spawns to keep the overall density the same. That would address the issue in all group sizes without overwhelming new players or encouraging an afk playstyle. As it is though, bringing a looter frame can get you enough extra energy cells that you're able to keep things moving without as much issue.

[Mieo_Mio]

I like the cell charging idea. Dumping ability energy into a cell via like the old channeling mechanic would be helpful.

[(XBOX)K1jker]

They should fix solo anything. Just yesterday I had to abort a survival because there were barely any enemies, boring as .. Should scale with MR or something, ..

[gamingchair1121]

16 hours ago, Felsagger said:

I do love Solo excavations but I think this type of grinding deserves more love. At least you can work as a tenno while your warframe automatically defeat the enemies. This type of duo gameplay should be more available instead of working with an Excalibur Umbra or a Wukong. There should be a set of spectres or at least a callout of friendly grineers helping you get through a solo excavation. At least that could add more fun and drama to the activity.

why do we need more afk style things

that's just being lazy

[Felsagger]

1 hour ago, gamingchair1121 said:

why do we need more afk style things

that's just being lazy

 

This post shows reading skills issues. 

 

[SneakyErvin]

9 hours ago, gamingchair1121 said:

why do we need more afk style things

that's just being lazy

Agreed, it already got a bit too much with the addition of a permanent Kahl squad at our disposal. Completely bonkers with frames like Citrine and Saryn that can more or less sustain 90-100% life support in SP survival by just using specters and Kahl and the occasional ability to help spread damage. With Panzer and possibly Noursih on Citrine it gets even more crazy.

[Felsagger]

 

The objective of this game is NOT TO BE AFK. The objective is to distribute, micro manage and alternate the roles in a classical activity that is repeated thousand of times. Two companions or a set of troops in your squad requires watching. They can get hurt, killed and must be replaced during these waves. 

 

There is no purpose being AFK in a game that requires preparation of defences in certain waves. In Titanfall 2 the titan can protect and assist the pilot in the frontier mode. In excavation THIS IS EXACTLY what is happening. There is a central core that is placed drilling resources while a team defends. 

 

IT IS EXACTLY THIS:

This is Identically to Warframe except that there are more than one central core. In here the player defends against 5 rounds a fixed core. In here players can have their TITANS or their NECRAMECH doing part of such action. The game Warframe has the troops, the mechs and the warframe to make excavation feel like a battlefield while the PLAYER MICRO MANAGES. 

 

There. 

See? 

[MagPrime]

On 2023-03-18 at 2:42 PM, trst said:

Increasing density makes low levels harder to new players. Everything having a chance to drop cells could work but just enforces another loot frame meta. Making excavators count down makes it 100% afkable. And expending our resources for them again opens it for afk exploits and possibly makes it harder to new players.

IMO I think it'd be best to reduce the overall map sizes, at least for low level missions, and/or increase the energy gain per cell in low level runs. Either deals with the spawn mechanic issues that cause the entire problem while not fundamentally changing the mode.

Scaling the energy per cell off the number of players would be a great work around, I think.  They've already implemented something like this with Interception capture speed - fewer teammates means faster captures.