Swarm Survival?

[AdunSaveMe]

I was thinking of a different kind of survival mode, with the infested. Hear me out.

 

It goes like this; no life support, but HUNDREDS of infested. Like, constant enemies. Not a bunch of them floating around, like in survival, but an endless swarm.

Right now in infested survival, you have lots of enemies, but they come in groups, maybe clumps of a couple of dozen, or often by themselves.

 

You go till you die, or until a timer runs out, like maybe ten minute survival, five at lower levels, twenty at higher levels.

 

I thought of this because I reckon the infested should be more of a swarm than an army, y'know? Overwhelming numbers. 

 

No life support to deal with, or perhaps having life support would be a good thing? But you want it to differ from normal survival.

 

There are a few problems with the idea though. I'm open to ideas.

 

-Balance. Nobody wants hundreds of Ancients and Mutalist Ospreys, but you don't want it to be too easy.

Perhaps a new type of infested? Similar to the chargers, but maybe smaller, less damage, but a LOT more of them.

Similar to zerglings, y'know.

 

-AFK deathzones. Basically drop a vortex or some bastilles or World on Fire and sit there, free roll to the end of the mission.

You'd need the occasional enemy to keep you moving, keep you on your toes. Things like the upcoming Juggernaut, for example. Maybe a dynamic map?

Idea edit: What if one of the maps took place on, say, a mining complex, where as you fight, and as the timer ticks down, the map crumbles? Ground falls away, walls fall down, ceilings become platforms and safe zones become dust?

 

-FUN. How do you make something like this fun? Surely I can't be the only one who just enjoys tearing through hordes of Infested?

 

-Lag. I forgot about this bit. It already gets chuggy on invasion missions for some. What can we do about this?

Though, ODD missions with lots of infested don't lag as much... but that could be entirely different. Thoughts?

 

If you think it's a rubbish idea, feel free to say so. With a bit of brainstorming, it could be cool.

Edited June 30, 2014 by AdunSaveMe

[Guest]

Great idea! +1. Pick a polearm/scythe and a tanky warframe and enjoy the massacre! :D

[Valfunde]

Fun idea, that's what I firt expected of survival missions.
The main issue in the idea is in fact that it would kill computers, I guess

[AdunSaveMe]

Fun idea, that's what I firt expected of survival missions.

The main issue in the idea is in fact that it would kill computers, I guess

Yeah, that would be a huge issue.

It already gets a bit chuggy in Invasion missions.

[Valfunde]

Yes, even with a very good set up, a crowd + complex environment + Vortex + tentacle swarm harms my fps

[Grimfrost]

Nice idea, m8. Would be nice to try it, see if it works

[DoomsDayDan]

Hell yes, this is exactly what I wanted out of Survival without all that annoying life support gunk that limits your run and makes Nekros vital

[AdunSaveMe]

Hell yes, this is exactly what I wanted out of Survival without all that annoying life support gunk that limits your run and makes Nekros vital

This is one of my points. Without it, you could sit there and kill stuff with world on fire or a vortex indefinitely.

 

needs a bit of balance. I'm pretty sure that's why life support is a thing.

[Valfunde]

Has anyone here participated to event that led to the survival mode ?

It was just like the current survival mission but in a defense arena. And there were only 3 life supports for the whole mission.
I made it to a high rank in the leaderboard with a vauban + nova team

[0zryel]

I like the idea survival should not always be the same...specially in open air planets... It could be like an endless defense the only difference that you can't die if all players die the mission is lost...leave or stay like when the G3 show up... 1++ we need more mix ideas for mission like the breeding grounds...wow that was so epic!

[AdunSaveMe]

I like the idea survival should not always be the same...specially in open air planets... It could be like an endless defense the only difference that you can't die if all players die the mission is lost...leave or stay like when the G3 show up... 1++ we need more mix ideas for mission like the breeding grounds...wow that was so epic!

More mission variants would definitely be nice. We have the ship core defense, interception, and now, hive sabotage.

[DSpite]

Maybe its just me but I don't really see it. The only real enemy in this system is ammunition and energy pools, both of which can be fixed by having players bunch up and constantly deploy in order to get to exactly to X minutes to get the desired reward, by mass spamming their most effective abilities.

 

Let me sidestep for a second. Now, Borderlands 2, the enemies there, rather then just be mass cannon fodder, tended to be small groups, but possessed specific traits that made them very dangerous. I never felt safe in BL2 no matter what guns I was carrying because of armored head plates, or swooping attacks, or elemental AoE, etc etc, some light reading if people want : http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Enemies.

 

Yes, as a team we knew that the odds of being taken down were low, but in WarFrame, we have waaaay too high comfort level as far as I am concerned. Just look at how much our combat awareness level shifts up gears when we know the Stalker is coming. Boss encounters should be causing that same shift, and yet, we farm bosses like we farm carrots.

 

We don't take the enemy as is very seriously, so just throwing more at me is simply going to make me optimize for more ammo, lower reload speeds, and more ability spam, not more overall strategy.

[AdunSaveMe]

-snip dogg-

I see your point, which is why I kinda pointed it out. It's a problem.

 

You don't want it to be so hard as to not be fun, but you don't want it to be so easy to the point where you can stand there and relax and spam abilities. You can already kinda do that in Survival, but that's why you have life support.