Defense Mission Rework.

[Burnthesteak87]

 - Work In Progress -

 

Introduction:

Are you enough of the always boring, static, tedious Defense Missions?

Give a try to this concept: It aims to force the player using the brain, understanding enemy offensive’s direction, get defences ready by gathering Supplies, be careful about the strategy to take down dangerous units.

 

All this came out inspired by other missions, you’ll see different features from Escavation, Interception, Survival, Hijack, Archwing.

 

How should it work:

..as the old Defense Mission, the difference is enemy forces attack on different sides among different waves, must pass through defenses to attempt destroing the objective and meanwhile Tennos must reinforce defenses, gathering Energy Cells for barriers, automatic turrets, Supplies and paying attention to enemy siege units or infiltrators.

 

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STRUCTURE:

I took as an example the Earth or Phobos Grineer defense tileset.
The defense area is an octagonal structure, with 4 perpendicular main entrances, 2 rear entrances, the objective in the middle.
No ziplines at the start, in the actual concept they would be counterproductive.
Barriers protecting the perimeter.
Automatic turrets as the last resource.
A main cannon in the middle.

 

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DEFENSE SYSTEMS:

First Line Defenses:

 

Barriers:

Barriers are inspired by  Volt’s Electric Shield. They’re basically energy barriers which stop enemy units and let friendly units pass through (for a matter of comfort).

They take damage and if destroyed can be repaired with Energy Cells during the end of the wave.

Barriers should be able to resist more damage with every wave, since there's enemy scaling.
 

Second Line Defenses

 

Automatic Turrets:

They’re usually the last resort or a backup resource when you’ve to stay far from the Objective to concentrate on another point of the map.

They need to be energized to function with Energy Cells dropped by enemies.

They’re enough to stop light offensives, but hopeless to heavy offensives.

 

Central Turret:

Something ala Grineer’s Rampart, a Turret which can turn 360° and which is meant to shoot through Barriers to stop heavy units and air assaults.

To function it drains the user’s Shield, but offer 180° protection.

 

Energy Cells:

The energy source needed to “repair” barriers and activate Auto Turrets.
Didn't decide it, but they should drop as Life Support in Survivals or Energy Cells in Excavation.

Supplies:

Supplies are Alternative Objectives; they spawn randomly like Life Support Capsules or Excavators landing in the Defense surrounding Area.

Tennos should keep an eye for and try getting them as Excavators in Excavation Missions.

Once obtained they can give different combinations of profitable buffs.
Energy to every defense structure, damage increase for tot waves... whatever could act as a good reward allowing the team a better performance during waves.

This feature aims to create an alternative objective players should go for in prevision of hard moments or when the situation is light enough to let them abandon the hot place of the fight.

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ENEMY FORCES STRATEGY:

Special Units:

 

I won’t be pretending  too much here (no need for new models), there are 4 classes of Eximus units with different functions:

 

1) Siege Tank. Heavy units. Their objective is to charge through barriers, dealing huge damages to them.

They’re extremely slow, immune to crowd controls (maybe having an aura to benefit other units as well), Extremely armored, they can take damage only from the back or on weakspots, from Sniper Weapons or the Central Turret.

They stay in the main Offensive.

2) Stealther Saboteur. Light Unit, Stealth Offensive. Immune to Crowd Control, Invisible to the player and turrets, it can pass through barriers to reach the inner console and disactivate barriers. Similar to Interception base capping.

3) Zipliners Boarders. Inspired By Ivara’s Zipline. They set on Ziplines (back to their actual places) to allow light offensives to enter the Defense area. These Ziplines can now be destroyed or cut. These units are meant to do heavy damages to the Objective.

4) Air Menace. Inspired by the Raptor boss. Heavy air unit attacking every fifth wave, bombarding and raining fire. Can be used Archwing units.

 

Waves Rotation:

I thought that would be an interesting factor if enemy offensives would be organized in 2 ways:

1) Main Offensive, the bigger part of the wave with heavy units trying to siege through 1 main entrance.

2) Stealth Offensive, a light units force made of saboteurs, attacking late, after the main offense started engaging the defense installation (drawing Tennos attention), from the opposite side of it.

 

Also each wave should have its own rotation pattern, thus forcing the Player on understanding it and getting defense ready on the right side.

The fifth wave there should happen something uncommon, to make the mission harder and dynamic, for example, more than 2 offensives coming from different sides, air units attacking suddenly, changes in the pattern rotation, 2 Siege Tanks coming from opposing directions, etc.

 

 

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DISCARDED IDEAS:

In an older more abitious concept, the Defense would have been the ending part of an Hijack mission, starting with the confiscation of the Objective, the escort through the enemy tileset and a final defense in a fortified structure to wait for backup and extraction.

 

Edited January 25, 2016 by Burnthesteak87

[-Amaterasu-]

Like the Idea of actually building up defenses although I'm not too sure the AI is good enough to handle some of the enemy tactics they'd probably run around in circles thinking they were being sneaky

[TheVeiledScion]

I think this could work as a new mission type rather than as a rework of defense. Current defense is simply "holdout", or a proper survival. Now, I think Defense tiles could use a massive update that makes the gameplay more enjoyable, but I don't think it should take away from the current idea.

 

Now I'm all for your concept, but I just think it could work better as, say, a new "Siege" mission rather than Defense.

[Burnthesteak87]

Can't say, looking at how enemy units look for Excavators in excavation mission, maybe there's a chance of giving priority to targets, so first Barriers in a determined area, then the Main Objective.

I've never seen units blocked after an Atlas' Wall looking for other pathways, so I'd exclude enemies coming from a direction would turn around the base looking for other entrances. Even less if the obstacle is something which can be attacked.

It's not a concept far from the actual Defense. It's a more proper defense.
Instead than having the Objective tanking damage, there are barricades doing it.

The only thing I'm a bit uncertain with are turrets and jumping units. All the rest is something that you can yet find ingame.
Remember also the old Solar Rail fights.