We Are The Only True Ninjas(Fixing Syndicate "helpers")

[Llyssa]

Something bothering me, that has an obvious solution:

 

On the syndicate missions, we get the syndicate helper dudes. These pose a few problems:

1. Some of us find them unhelpful.

2. They're not tenno, so it makes ZERO sense that they can use our entrance method. If they had our skills and technology, they wouldn't need us.

 

Currently, they work like invasion teams, and spawn in our starting room. On invasions, that makes sense--if we start on a grineer ship, a grineer escort is assigned to us, people who were already on the ship, and they walk to the designated pickup point. If we start on a corpus ship, then a corpus escort is assigned to us, people who were already on the ship, and they walk to the designated pickup point.

 

The syndicates would NOT have their costumed crusaders sitting on a ship waiting for us. That makes no sense. The syndicates would not be able to defeat the defenses with magical ancient stealth tech--ordis is a fussbucket, there's no way he(or his counterparts) would accept a syndicate operator, and the liset are so tiny that even the kubrows and sentinels have to wait in the orbiter until it's time to go. There is NO way syndicates could be in that starting room with us.

 

And they shouldn't be.

 

However, the idea of reinforcements from a syndicate makes sense, particularly as they REALLY need whatever the heck it is we're doing now. It makes sense that we can get backup on our super secret mission to do whatever.

 

What I propose, then, is that we have a new room(which could really just re-use parts of old rooms), the docking station. Have a room near the insertion point that has a traditional dock, and a defense system access panel. If we decide we want to let the syndicate troops in on our fun, we can scramble the long-range sensors((or broadcast the proper IFF code, the exact action is of minor consequence)) from the defense panel, so that a conventional ship like theirs can approach undetected, and then open the docking bay doors, allowing them to land.

 

A bonus to this methodology is that on harder/longer missions, additional docking bays could be available if the syndicate simply did not send enough or well-qualified individuals(say, for example, they all die horribly).

 

If they need us at all(or we need them at all, whatever the perspective), it should be such a relationship--we are "the inside guy" who unlocks the front door so they can derp on through it. They can't do the super cool "slip through all the sensors and make the radio chatter light up 5 minutes after we're gone". If they could, they could just send more troops and avoid paying us weird artifacts(by the given deployment numbers, we're very expensive compared to their regulars).

 

This fixes the lore(WE are the ninjas, and we serve a purpose they cannot fulfill without us), and it fixes the technical(dear grief they derp hard, let's just leave them orbiting for this mission, we'll tell them when it's over). Plus it gives a better sense to "how is this different from a regular mission?"--we're actually working with an organization to reach a common goal.

 

EDIT: Grammar and title clarity.

Edited February 21, 2015 by Llyssa

[Azure_Kytia]

Agreed wholeheartedly. It also fixes the issue where they are completely allergic to stealth gameplay.

While I was considering presenting a concept where they remain cloaked until stealth is broken, this idea fixes multiple problems rather well. 

[Acos]

Fixes some of the problems players have with syndicate "helpers" in an immersive way that gives us agency about their inclusion. I like it. 

[Llyssa]

Updated the OP.

[DoomFruit]

Yes. Give me a choice of when (or if) to call them in.

[GhostSwordsman]

Yes, I too would like to be able to ditch the Ak-dolt-o bros.(or bro & sis in some instances). Though, I am glad that DE has saved my ears from their rapid fire twin bolto machine guns(aka, the fact that they would unload all 30 bolto rounds into an enemy upon sight, reload and continue firing if said enemy was not dead).

 

I mean they quite literally hinder me while in mission. I'm the type that likes to try and build up stealth multipliers(since we now have them) in exterminate missions, but the Ak-dolt-o bros. think it's a good idea to 'save' me if I get too close to an enemy. It's frustrating. I just ran an exterminate mission for the AoH, and I literally only had one small streak of stealth kills, and I believe it was due to a bug where when enemies take cover, for some reason even if I'm standing right next to one, they allied AI can't see them so they don't shoot, allowing me to initiate a stealth finisher.

 

With that, I love your idea. It makes a lot of sense from a lore stand point, and just in general. On some missions, like survival or interception, where you want to be able to kill as many enemies a quickly as possible, the dead weights known as syndicate helpers are actually helpful. But on 80% of the other missions in game, they are indeed complete dead weights, and provide no benefit whatsoever. +1

[Xenoraptor]

An excellent and immersive way to fix the at times problematic addition of Syndicate 'Helpers', I'd love to see this in the game.

[(XBOX)ShygalSadie]

This sounds awesome i say yes

[gnat6]

I was in favor of just adding a toggle switch for syndicate helpers but this sounds so much better since it not only makes the helpers completely optional but it also makes it much more immersive.

[anamethisis]

Are these  syndicate helpers ever gonna have a option to disable ? They have  such very bad AI, funney that Grineer, Corpus, Infested, Orokin have better ai then these useless Syndicate helpers. Theykeep using me as a meat shield, they are  really getting annoying.

Edited March 25, 2015 by anamethisis

[DoomFruit]

Update 16 came and went, and this is still a problem for syndicate missions.

[BlitzkriegBob]

Totally agree with OP idea. Lore-wise and gameplay-wise, this would be a great addition.

 

What about this: the maximum number of "docking stations" (or the maximum times you can call-in reinforcements) would depend on your syndicate ranking?

[NobleHawk]

Just want to point out that going off of Mag Prime's codex entry, us monsters Tenno would drag those humans through space to toss them into the meat grinder just for an extra finger to pull a trigger.

 

But I totally agree that that idea is pretty cool. Especially if there's verbal cues from Lotus and the AI gets a much needed update. What would be even better would be if they added in a 'squad control' mechanic like in Mass Effect or Ghost Recon so we could use them to take out targets in stealth missions and whatnot.