Reactor Sabotage 2.0

[Burnthesteak87]

Feedback:

Sabotage 2.0 feels a step in the right direction. Offers the player to choose how to conclude the missions through specific mechanics.

But at the same time there's plenty of features which can be emproved.

The objective isn't as different as Deception Missions: take the 'Datamass' from X to Y, eventually shoot the reactor then extract.
Then maybe some twist like go to Z, hack the console to deactivate Blast Doors, get to extraction. 
Not exactly funny, nothing new, it adds no stress to the escape.

Little Puzzles inside Cell Pickup Rooms are easy and sometime don't work as intended (Laser barriers effectively not stopping Tennos from hacking consoles, etc.).

Unlike Spy2.0 and Rescue the stealth factor is non-existent, nor relevant, nor rewarded. Secondary routes aren't useful since Reactor Area isn't filled with big enemies (check Rescue) and more elaborated areas to pass through.

Caches seems to be there just to add some more depth to a mission which isn't deep enough. You can compare with Spy 2.0, Rescue, Hive Missions.

Also can't really understand the Defense Phase. It should be more like Interception, with enemy technicians trying desperately to hack or revert the core reaction, instead than.... trying destroying the reactor?
The defense objectives self-heal themselves, I even tryied leaving them on their own and in some missions the enemy output won't even represent any danger.

I really appreciate the structure of the map, with a central area (the Reactor) and different branches of the installation requiring to do something in every one of them. Like Spy 2.0. (It really resembles one of my concepts on my profile)
The only thing which imo ruins it is the use of classic tileset corridors and rooms, which are nice for the atmosphere, but don't involve any strategy to cross them.
(And that's the critique which I'd make to most tilesets, they're there for a narrative and aesthetic factor, not involving strategy and ability in the transition, which is fundamental in Video Games).

I also appreciate the fact that failing (even if it's almost impossible to do) will result in harsh consequences and less options for the player.
Failing to get a Coolant Cell means that in the end you'll have just the Fuel Cell resulting in the Meltdown, the longer and dangerous escape challenge.

To spot on this point. The escape isn't thrilling or hard. Couldn't manage to find the Magnetic Hazard, but the Freezing Hazard is easy after all and the Meltdown Hazard results just in another objective before extraction while sustaining costant fire damage.

Suggestions:

As I wrote on a concept of mine, I'd have expected something ala Moon Spy, with crumbling areas forcing a Parkour escape through it, or maybe an Archwing escape route through wreckage of the burning ship. 
Since the new Time Travel mechanic, why can't there be a "switch to crumbling base section" after the sabotage?

Or what about barriers, frozen or wreckage walls obstructing whole doorways? Taking time to get destroyed thus forcing Tennos to break through before the core detonation? Or Forcing Tennos to pass through another way... Adding more tension to the escape.

Low Gravity, Vaacum sucking out Tennos and Enemies making hard passing through some corridors...

Why Power Cells are so easy to be carried around? What about adding some debuff to the holder? Ala Dragon Key for example.
"Handling the Cell drains your energy/strenght". "Its heavy mass forces to proceed slowly". "Freezes the carrier draining empty the shields".
Sure, some of these listed may be frustrating or slowing the mission, but done in a correct manner, I think it can add more emphasis to the game.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Burnthesteak87
Graammar, Details.

[unknow99]

DE, please read the 2 previous posts : they got absolutely valid points.

Enemies not taking the cell is very strange indeed... And who wouldn't like trying to escape a ship with lots of destroyed environment?

That's a GREAT start, but it can get some more love in a few aspects ( I also did them the stealthy way & didn't feel more rewarded than before, even if I liked doing it)

[Playford]

I enjoy the new sabotage, only major complaint regarding the mission itself is the difficulty of picking up the fuel cell in front of the reactor, but that's already been noted by several people.

But I do have a problem with mission rewards. They all seem to draw from the same reward pool regardless of level. Did a few runs on Pluto, got the same rewards as Mercury.

Seriously? 3x Uncommon 3 cores, 400 circuits and credit caches from the highest level planet available? That doesn't make me feel like my time doing that mission was worth it :/

[taiiat]

9 hours ago, Playford said:

Seriously? 3x Uncommon 3 cores, 400 circuits and credit caches from the highest level planet available? That doesn't make me feel like my time doing that mission was worth it :/

interesting, i haven't gotten rewards that low yet myself. xD

[-InV-igo95862]

I once got 5 R3 fusion cores. Yes, rank 3 not 5.

[ograzzt]

9 hours ago, -cS-igo95862-ICE- said:

I once got 5 R3 fusion cores. Yes, rank 3 not 5.

Yes, it's the same for me. Is this intended? I can understand it for Mercury or Venus sabotages, but on Ceres or Neptune? Looks like rewards not scale with mission difficulty at all.

Some other suggestions.

Magnetic Anomalies outcome is weird. You need to defend the console, then run to another console on the other end of the map and then again you need to run to extraction (again on the other end of the map). Oh, and you get magnetic bubbles that drain your energy and shields on yhe way. Who in the world will choose this option? In Coolant Leak outcome you only need to defend the reactor and leave, in Speading Fire outcome you only need to find one console and leave (faster, but you have a limited time for escape). Why we need to do both these tasks in Magnetic Anomalies outcome?

Also, why we only see the timer till explosion only when there is just about 1 minute left? 

Maybe it's just me, but grineer sabotage takes too long. I didn't actually counted number of rooms, but it feels there are much more tiles compared to corpus sabotage per one mission.

Chances for landing craft are so small, that even after dozens of runs I didn't saw single ship part. I understand DE needs to sell this ship for plat, but this is too much.

[Emolition]

This sabotage starting to go on my nervs. Spending 1 hour in a mission to never find more then 2 caches don't seem worth the time as you need all 3.  Not sure why the 3rd in this sabotage is so hard to find when in the void tower there is not even near this hard to find them.  

For that sound I gonna try to listen next time but so far haven't heard a thing tho as my sound settings are pretty low so I can hear skype better when on that. But I been going from start to extraction like 3 or 4 times back and forth covering every room using loot radar and don't have a single dot left on the map.

[CriticalFumble]

On 3/7/2016 at 4:29 AM, Playford said:

Seriously? 3x Uncommon 3 cores, 400 circuits and credit caches from the highest level planet available? That doesn't make me feel like my time doing that mission was worth it :/

I have to agree.  Its worth doing caches in Void Sabotage because they offer respectable rewards most of the time.  The limited opportunity from keys also plays a role there. 

But with Reactor Sabotage the chance of getting anything significant is so abysmally low that its actually a disincentive to go hunt for them.  I understand that doling out things deflates their value; but in terms of opportunity cost relative to gain, those caches are terrible. 

What was done with Rescue and Spy 2.0's reward schemes is far better than this.  You have clearly stated objectives to do, and you're rewarded based on how well you complete them.  Increasing the base difficulty of the mission for starters, and then having tiered rewards based on safe cell extraction and/or extra objectives related to destroying the ship. 

With a three tier reward setup you would look like this:

• One point for succeeding in any sabotage choice and extracting. 
• One point for completing a secondary objective either related to the choice you made (ex: set the ship on fire, then defend a console the Lotus is hacking to override the fire prevention system, completely immolating the ship) or a random one (ex: survive X minutes before extracting, get X many kills, fight a bear miniboss).
• One point for removing, rather than destroying, both coolant cells.  (or exchange for another secondary objective like above)

Edited March 23, 2016 by CriticalFumble

[TheJagji]

On 2/5/2016 at 8:12 AM, Phatose said:

More caches?

 

I absolutely hate these scavenger hunts.  If they're gonna keep popping up everywhere, we need something to make it less aggravating then "Wander around tileset aimlessly and hope."

Its called exportation, and players need to do it more...

[Phatose]

9 minutes ago, TheJagji said:

Its called exportation, and players need to do it more...

It's only exploration the first time.  After that, it's wandering.

[taiiat]

On 3/23/2016 at 6:21 PM, CriticalFumble said:

With a three tier reward setup you would look like this:

i think i like that. though secondary Objectives could be a bit more interesting(and more relevant to the Gamemode) than Kill Quest and such.