Introducing more side objectives into missions?

[SnuggleBuckets]

In a game like Warframe, multitasking feels very rewarding, and as I was doing a sabotage fissure mission earlier with my friend, it felt more compelling than many other missions
-Hunted down the hidden caches
-Inserted antitoxin into the mixer for some minor reward
-Looked around for the Silver Grove shrine
-Cracking relics for prime parts
-And then the usual of levelling up some gear you brought with you, and not minding picking up any neurodes or kubrow eggs you find.

Having all of these different activities and exploration hunting going on at the same time made it more compelling to do a sabotage on earth, than say a spy mission, or a capture mission, or an exterminate mission. So why not consider implementing more optional different objectives into the old missions to breathe new life into them? They can't really compete with Endless Dark Sectors when it comes to getting XP, Credits, Resources and some rewards every few minutes or waves or so, so why not give the other mission types some secret caches or other minor missions like scan some documents, or something more engaging, with maybe stance mods or some other unique rewards as possibilities?

Edited January 28, 2017 by SnuggleBuckets

[xXDeadsinxX]

Fantastic idea!

[SpectreXenon]

I'm surprised i never thought of this, but before this ever get's implemented - the devs need to go back and expand every tileset as well as revamp the environment (for example - the upcoming Earth rework)

 

[SnuggleBuckets]

I think this could be implemented before any huge revamps and expansions, many of the tilesets and algorithms for building them in missions like Mobile Defense, Spy, Extermination, Rescue & especially Capture missions, have plenty of large areas you can explore and cleverly place different side missions or hiding some of them if the mission needs that.

[SnuggleBuckets]

Just watched a NoClip documentary about secrets and the sense of discovery in many old games, and it made me think of how they would fit right at home in a game like Warframe, having rooms/tilesets that spawn randomly with low frequency with not obvious little secrets and maybe parkour-accessible hidden rooms, or destroyable walls etc.
Expand it beyond the few parkour rooms in the Void, add secrets outside the void rooms, and they don't need to be "rewards" per se, they could just be little attentions to detail, something you find, like the documentary talks of finding a npc that is mad at you for destroying their door.

Another thing I've been thinking about, related to all of this, is connected to many of the rogue-like or roguelite games, their random rooms, shops, altars, hidden bosses etc. Though I don't feel that taking too much inspiration from these kinds of games is advised, since this is a free-to-play game, and hard arbitrary brutal surprises in a random room can feed into bitterness that highlights the business model in your mind, whenever bad luck faces you, but you could still successfully incorporate some of these elements of discovery and changes of pace for tilesets on many different planets.

For instance, what if some planets had a low probability of spawning a little seller, sort of like the iconic Merchant in Resident Evil 4, a shady figure willing to trade with you some select items that only he sells around. I imagine a memorable character would fit right in here, and you'd only encounter this seller on missions, certain tilesets could have a chance of having this trader lurking in some shadows behind some corner if you stop to look around a bit.