Sorties: Overall Feedback

[SethAlvory]

Firstly, other than the gripes that I will outline below, this is a fun addition to Warframe, so kudos to DE. The daily set of three random mission types with random variables is a very refreshing change of pace from the grind.

Having said that, there are a couple items that I think could have been handled better.
@Why is the Karak Wraith and its components in the drop tables? I have no problem with it being put back in the game, but I feel like putting it somewhere else would have been a better choice than in a mission type aimed at veteran players(who have likely been playing long enough to have already received it). Especially if it's only gonna be in the drop tables for the next 15 days.

@I've heard that DE intended to make it so that you couldn't get duplicate drops from the sorties. If they do intend to implement this, then rewards need to be different for everyone in the group. Otherwise, the mechanic will fail in the latter part of the 15-day season when you're partying w/ players who've all received different rewards and between you all have received everything already. Furthermore, this has been pointed out elsewhere on the forums, but having received a dera barrel, a karak bp and a dera bp, it was a little bit insulting receiving another dera barrel today. Currently, the only use I have from my sortie rewards is to attempt to trade or sell them or hold onto them and hope that rng will get me a complete set of something at some point.

 

@Some of the mission variables are a bit restrictive. As an example, one of the mission variables was "sniper weapons only". There are currently 7 sniper rifles in the game, one of which is a hard-to-get prime weapon, another of which is a currently-impossible-to-get vandal weapon and your ability to play the sortie is reliant on whether or not you've built and kept one of these weapons. Perhaps rather than preventing you from playing the mission if you don't have the correct weapon type equipped, the mission should just disable use of weapons that aren't from the right weapon type, allowing you to go to the mission, unarmed if necessary, but still able to help out the team w/ your warframe powers. Or make the restrictions a bit more generic like "melee only", "secondary only" or even with a little bit more variety like "melee only, no heavy blades" or "primary only, no launchers".

@Sortie Defense missions are more tedious than difficult. It's not that hard for a group of 4 competent players to sit in one spot and defend a mission objective for 20 waves, even against high level enemies. It just takes a really long time and gets monotonous, fast. If we're going to be staying for awhile, atleast throw us a curve-ball or two to keep things interesting. Perhaps introduce a new enemy type that only shows up during sortie defense missions that is a legitimate threat to the objective. Maybe it can kill the pod in a couple hits or it can neutralize any defensive abilities(like Frost's globe) that it interacts w/. Make it show up only once every few waves, maybe even at random, but have it announce its presence in an obvious way(like one of the assassin enemies or corrupted vor). In order to protect the mission objective, players need to keep this enemy unit distracted and away from the pod(something other than just throwing a quick bastille on it and/or gunning it down with all the other units).

Edited December 7, 2015 by SethAlvory

[CrazyCatLad]

Sortie Defenses and Excavations need to be lowered to 10 and 3 to compare to the other game mode lengths.

 

The definition of a sortie is a sudden attack or rush by the defenders.  Not sit around a pod for 20 boring and slow waves.

 

Drop tables are meh....I'd rather a token system.  Each of the individual sortie mission gives 1 token. 1 Additional token for completing all three that day.  Then you trade them in via the UI for what you want (reward prices balanced accordingly).  Enough RNG in this game.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Lanieu

[arielessar]

 

I approve of all of it