Searching For Caches : Comprehensively Unfun, Awkward, Unrewarding

[Coo_DA]

There are lots of way to give Extra Rewards, but I should say that 'Searching for Cache that has absolutely nothing to do with the Objective' is just poor design and grind-wall.

 

Spy Mission is the great example of Fun, Exciting, and Rewarding. You have two options : 1. Do it stealthy. 2. Just kill everything and spam Ciphers for Speed Run. Generally, the First Option needs more skills and gives you more reward(XP, Items, doesn't Increase the next Data Vault Room's Security Level).

 

But those Hive or Sabotage missions are just irritating and it feels like you're grinding at Korean MMO.

You want a 'Chance' to get Salad V Coordinates? You 'must' find all 3 Caches which are located totally random all around those messy Map.

You want a 'Chance' to get Nitanin, Prime or Xiphos Parts? Find all 3 Caches, since they only drop from that Final Cache(oh, and not always!), and I'm sure those have nothing to do with sabotaging Enemy Facility.

 

There's not a Single Skill Factor in here. You just recruit 3 more people with Loot Radar, Thief's Wit, and Animal Instinct. One Person rushes the objective while the others stares at their mini-map with their auto-kill abilities or perma-invisibility abilities on and run around the map like mindless Zombies.

And what do you get? One Uncommon Core? Credit Caches? Another Forma BP? Congrats, you just wasted your time, giving you frustration instead of joy for completing the mission in more tedious way.

 

Those 'Cache System' must be erased entirely and Loots must be given by more fun and appropriate ways.

For Hive Missions, it could be :

• 1) Destroy all Tumors within Time Limit after you enter the Hive Room, then you get additional rewards.
• 2) Add Mini-bosses allocated for Each Hive, giving rewards if you defeat them.
• 3) Start with the Time Limit and map starts to get covered with Toxin Gas, similar to Reactor Sabotage missions, but gets more Reward.

For Planet Sabotage Missions, it could be :

• 1) Be stealthy during the mission.
• 2) Don't trigger the Alarm at the Target's Room.
• 3) Also, add Mini-bosses guarding Injectors, Laboratory, Cell Rooms and Blast Door Control Room. You must hunt them before they manually trigger the alert.

For Void Portal Sabotage Missions, it could be :

• 1) Portal Control Systems can be covered with Nullifying Field, similar to Sortie Hijack Targets, but give you more reward if you successfully overcome this added risk.
• 2) You can provoke the Enemy Forces(like Control Panels at Survival Missions) to stop you more fiercely from using the Portal Control System. They could send Enemy Waves similar to Defense Missions, or it could take more time to hack the console.
• 3) You can decide to hunt those Grineer or Corpus Elite Eximus Squads that have already successfully infiltrated inside the tower before you destroyed their Void Portal. They are marked in the map after you destroy your Primary Objective.

 

There's a lot better Fun, Challenging way to give Random Three Rewards rather than just running around maps like mindless maniacs.

I really want to hit Lotus in her face when she says, "Search for caches if you want to shoulder the added Risk." There's nothing about 'Risk' in Searching Caches, Space Mom! It's just a Grind!

 

Replies and Feedback always welcomed.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Coo_DA

[Necrius]

I like cache finding, but it does feel not rewarding enough.

P.S. Your suggestions are bad.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Necrius

[VentiGlondi]

That's not what grinding means.

[notlamprey]

Caches are not currently rewarding enough in most circumstances.

Every iteration of "hidden caches" after their first appearance in the Void has been progressively worse, with Void sabotage being the only place where I consider it worth bothering.

Beyond that, I can't really agree with anything you posted here. I find a kind of zen state in Void cache hunting, and it's silly to say that there isn't any element of skill to it. Knowing the tilesets, and how to make your way through them swiftly, is absolutely a skill. You may not think so, but it is. A lot of players are going to take umbrage with the suggestion that finding caches is a "no-skill" activity. Running 40-odd T3/T4 sabotage missions last night in ~270 minutes doesn't happen without some practice. Heck, it could probably be done way faster with coordinated squad loadouts and voice comms.

Again, caches absolutely do need to have better stuff in them, across the board. Some of these suggestions could be worth digging into and refining.

[Loswaith]

Caches are more fun than just extending the mission with needless busywork that makes next to no sense (unless you are a completely anti-explorer type).  Even with the extras you suggest you do them 50+ times and they will be even more boring than the caches, because it will simply be a matter of run to x and do y repeat with zero variety or variance.

The caches are also optional, if you personally don't like them you can avoid them (something your suggestions just wont allow you to do as they will become integral to completing the missions).

I will agree that cache loot needs to be looked at (especially outside the void) but lets face it all loot in Warframe needs to be looked at and reworked to match the game-play required to obtain them and defiantly be a bit more intuitive on where you can gain things.

 

[(PSN)JaviOnTheRocks]

Considering that mission objectives are always marked on the map, to the point were (wasn't it for enemies) you could navigate through almost the entire mission just by looking at that map alone (or blindly following the navigation points like a cat after a laser pointer), having something optional to do which requires a bit of free unguided exploration is nice.

[xiaodenden]

Well, if you think it's a time waster looking for caches, that's fine.  Be glad that at least it's optional and you don't need to bother with it.

I do enjoy hunting for caches during sabotage missions because I love the exploring the various tiles and have found a great deal of secret rooms and hiding places.  I like that we are are rewarded for patience and extra effort.  With that said, I agree that for many of the sabotages the rewards are rather lackluster.  The drop rate of some of the rare items (looking at you, Xiphos parts) should be upped a bit at least so people are not burning out doing 40+ runs of the same mission and I would love to see better cache loots.

[Asidraoah]

Caches aside, adding 'mini bosses' would likely just be buffed eximus units that would likely be one shot by anyone seriously farming. I do like the idea of bonus rewards for destroying hive tumors within a tome limit though.