Encountered Inadvertently Tough Level For Newer Players

[DeadEyeDeale]

(TLDR: See bottom)

I bumped into a (probably) overly tough scenario for new players. I was showing a few friends the game and we had just finished the first few Corpus levels.

It was an ice mission. These are normally tough because of the 1/2 shields you have. This particular level had the intense low-visibility ice-fog effect which limited vision. I believe it was an alert (which I know are tougher anyway). The enemies were not the major danger, however.

In some rooms, the limited vision range meant that when we opened a door, there was a Camera we couldn't quite see. When the green-laser door bars activated, it basically killed anyone without shield or health upgrades.

It seems like the green-laser security door bars do not scale damage to the level - they always do ~150 or so. Well, with lowered shields, this frequently killed any injured party members since they were not very far along.

While my stronger frame could take the hits and I could revive everyone, I feel like a low-level party would have been devestated on their own. It was hard enough fighting enemies we couldn't often see with 1/2 shields.

The fog made it very hard to spot the cameras. I had the advantage of knowing where they might be in any given room configuration - they didn't. And when the green light of a camera turned red and became distinct in all that fog - it was too late for anyone behind you.

So

Is this just one of those "Some missions are really hard" scenarios that sometimes comes up, or would it be worth preventing the intense fog for lower level areas? Was this only possible because the mission was an Alert?

Also, while the Cameras and Turrets and things always seem to be level 1 -> the danger of the Green Lasers is very serious as it does lots of damage and does not scale. While their threat should be real - it was often instant death to anyone without Shield and/or Health upgrades.

We had the good fortune to be a group of friends - and started letting 1 person through to deal with cameras before following. When I'm playing with random people, someone is always getting hit with lasers coming up right in their face.

Should the Security Green Laser Doors perhaps be scaled with the level difficulty? I'd imagine tougher foes would bring superior security upgrades, and weaker targets wouldn't warrent higher cost equipment.

Also, since we had limited visibility in the Ice-Fog, should the cameras or enemies also have had this disadvantage? I could see how they might have time to adapt, but those camera's had a view slightly further than our own (it seemed).

TLDR: Alert Ice mission in Venus (1/2 shields) against Corpus with Intense Ice-Fog meant we were spotted by cameras we couldn't see. Was playing with 3 fairly new players.

Lower-level frames were being insta-killed by Green-Laser Door Security. Seemed like Lasers needed to scale with Level or Cameras should have had reduced vision like we did.

I felt it was too tough for a lower level area. Maybe that's just how Alert missions go? Maybe Alerts need a more clearly stated difficulty?

Wondering what others think.

Edited March 21, 2013 by DeadEyeDeale

[Dreamwalk3r]

You can spot the camera with enemy radar or by it's sound. And don't ever, ever run through doors in corpus missions if you are new.

[Karagera]

You can spot the camera with enemy radar or by it's sound. And don't ever, ever run through doors in corpus missions if you are new.

1) New players

How are they going to have Enemy Radar that early on?

2) Dense fog

How are they going to see the cameras

And yeah, that's not a fair combination in any way. Ice environments should be reserved for harder missions past the first 3 planets that you can do, chances are by then you'll have actual shields to protect you from accidental lasers.

[__Kanade__]

I'm still having some trouble soloing anything even with 125 shields and 300 health, Mercury should not be insta-killing me, as far as the lasers for corpus missions are concerned, some of the level designs are bugged, even when soloing and I have taken out all the cameras and backtrack to make sure I haven't missed any lockers or canisters, I open up a door and outta nowhere, the lasers activate, and I don't even hear the camera's distinct sound it makes when it's spotted you.

Edited March 22, 2013 by __Kanade__

[G3rman]

You should know by now the game builds this stuff randomly. It was just a bad combination, nothing more.

[Khodos]

though it may be a bad combination, i personally love the challenge it throws a massive curve ball and makes the game alot more fun, i know most people abort ice missons but i love to stay and finish them

but i can see how it is a little unfair, i join venus missions from time to time and i see newer players ignoring the cameras so i refrain from destroying them like i normally would and stand directly in the cameras line of sight so they cant continue untill they destroy it.

a possible solution to this though is to make a frist encounter mission breifing that explains known technology of the race's and the dangers, Cameras and osprey and laser doors for the corpus ect ect