Eximus Swarms

[jaspercayne]

Not certain this is the right place to put this, but I'm more looking for input at the moment before I consider going down the "potential bug" road.

Twice now, once on Earth and once on Mars, I have had the "privilege" of around a dozen different types of eximus units spawn in a large group. Now I'm no slouch, and my partner in crime is pretty tanked out too, but when it happened to us on Mars, there was about 15 ancients, all eximus, with mixed types (leech, guardian, etc) that downed my buddy in literally two seconds flat. With his iron skin on. We run missions of a much higher level normally, so this was kind of a punch in the mouth that he went down so fast. I revived him and we ran outta there faster than we've most rushers try to get to a boss.

The second occurrence was me playing solo, and within 5 seconds (I'm not exaggerating, I really wish I was) of starting the mission I was surrounded by like 10 eximus rollers (? Not certain what there actual name is. Grineer roller ball things, you know what I mean) that were taking turns on me, keeping me stunlocked like no tomorrow. The only reason I managed to get out of that mess was because I used a revive and took advantage of the knockback to get up on a zip line so I could take them out. I've only just started playing again after about an 18 month break.

My questions are as follows: is this supposed to be a thing? Is there a particular mission type that causes this? What is the proper way to document such incidents that I can provide to DE in the event if a bug report?

 

TLDR; Why are there large groups composed purely of eximus enemies (exemies?) spawning on low level missions?

Edited May 8, 2017 by jaspercayne
Formatting

[Evultis]

 Syndicate death squads. Ancients are from New Loka, Rollers are from Steel Meridian. This is functioning as normal.

[PsiWarp]

These are called Syndicate Death Squads. Each Syndicate uses a type of enemy unit and all are Eximus. If you see a red tinted screen flash while playing in a mission, one of your squadmates or yourself are being targeted by a Death Squad.

The leader of the Syndicate will contact the targeted player via transmission, then after a second red flash the Eximus will spawn near that player. Be prepared to fight or flight when that happens.

You can read more about them here: Click Me!

Edited May 8, 2017 by PsiWarp

[SurrealEdge]

So you're on bad terms with Steel Meridian. The leaders for the syndicates announce their displeasure before sending them after you.

They don't relay a message to you if it's someone else they're targeting.

Welcome to the fun world of syndicates.

[(PSN)abbacephas]

On a related note: Have the up'ed the frequency of these thing spawning or has it just been my luck? Pretty much every time I've played, they will spawn in at least 1 mission (sometimes 2).

[SurrealEdge]

1 minute ago, (PS4)abbacephas said:

On a related note: Have the up'ed the frequency of these thing spawning or has it just been my luck? Pretty much every time I've played, they will spawn in at least 1 mission (sometimes 2).

Sounds like it's probably just you, I have them pop in from time to time.

[(PSN)abbacephas]

2 minutes ago, SurrealEdge said:

Sounds like it's probably just you, I have them pop in from time to time.

Unfortunate. Red Veil, in particular, seem to have a rather nasty grudge against me.

[jaspercayne]

Alright, so I can go with the Death Squad thing, but I really don't recall a transmission while I was on Earth. I assume it was supposed to play but due to how soon the squad jumped on me maybe the message was trying to play during the opening cinematic for the level? Because seriously, 5 seconds in and I am surrounded by a bunch of stunlock-happy rollers? If I wasn't a Valkyr, I probably wouldn't have made it out of that period. Based on what I know about syndicates, there isn't really a way to stop this from happening, but how likely is it to balance everything back out to be closer to zero? I was about to polarize my main weapon, but I don't really feel comfortable with a new frame and a zeroed out weapon knowing that there is another death squad around every corner.. RNG hates me and I don't expect to be able to go more than 4 hours without a hit squad. I was one of those players that couldn't get a Kubrow egg no matter what back in the day. I ran that stupid mission 123 times before I got a single one...

[Tesseract7777]

29 minutes ago, jaspercayne said:

Alright, so I can go with the Death Squad thing, but I really don't recall a transmission while I was on Earth. I assume it was supposed to play but due to how soon the squad jumped on me maybe the message was trying to play during the opening cinematic for the level? Because seriously, 5 seconds in and I am surrounded by a bunch of stunlock-happy rollers? If I wasn't a Valkyr, I probably wouldn't have made it out of that period. Based on what I know about syndicates, there isn't really a way to stop this from happening, but how likely is it to balance everything back out to be closer to zero? I was about to polarize my main weapon, but I don't really feel comfortable with a new frame and a zeroed out weapon knowing that there is another death squad around every corner.. RNG hates me and I don't expect to be able to go more than 4 hours without a hit squad. I was one of those players that couldn't get a Kubrow egg no matter what back in the day. I ran that stupid mission 123 times before I got a single one...

If they are targeting another Tenno in mission with you, you won't get the transmission. Were there others in the squad? Was it a public game? 

[Chipputer]

If it was a death squad you will get a red haze over the room before they attack. You get that and you also get a transmission. The red shows up for everyone. If you didn't see that and it happened as you were loading in then either someone else already triggered one, somehow, or they really did just jump you as you got out of your ship (which I have, personally, never seen).

[jaspercayne]

On Mars it was a two player match, and it was Ancients, so I am pretty sure that one is on my buddy. On Earth, I was playing solo, definitely not a public match. I got no red haze, no flickering lights, no transmission, nothing. I spawned in, ran up the stairs, and was greeted with a group of eximus rollers ready for blood. I cannot stress enough, I am NOT exaggerating when I say I was about 5 seconds into the mission. I hadn't even seen a grineer yet, and the Lotus was actually still talking (the "what mission type is this?" thing at the beginning where she prompts you to exterminate, sabotage, etc) to me when they spawned. It was about 3 feet in front of me, I actually watched them materialize out of thin air and immediately go to town on me.

Let me be clear here: I am not trying to complain about anything, nor trying to start any garbage where people make ludicrous claims about things that didn't actually happen. I actually laughed pretty hard once it was over at how awful the whole mess was. I was looking for an answer as to why I just got used as a floor scrubber before I even popped off my first bullet. That being said, WHY IN THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING WAS THAT ALLOWED?

Edited May 9, 2017 by jaspercayne
Clarification

[SurrealEdge]

Might be a bug with how the death squads spawn. I can't say I've had this problem as I've always had flickering lights to indicate that they're coming.

As for why it's a thing, it's one of the risks for having a syndicate hate you.

[jaspercayne]

I assume that there really isn't a way around having at least one syndicate after your head if you choose to advance with another? Is doing missions for both even a viable option? The only reason I joined a syndicate was for their offerings, but once I get what I want, could I just start working the other side to balance things back out again, or will there always be a shift in the standings now that I started doing their missions? I have absolutely seen the flickering before on the rare occasions that I do play public matches, but never noticed anything out of the ordinary other than that, so I guess the hit squad either gets thinned out before I spot them, making me think it was just a couple eximus units in a larger mixed group, or they are simply getting lost in the crowd. Either way, I always welcome a new challenge!

[(XBOX)Graysmog]

I still feel Eximus Squads, along with Assassins, should scale via our Mastery Rank and become an actual threat.

The only one I'm truly scared of are Perrin's Ospreys and Loka's Ancients, due to one's insane damage output and another's instant-death Aura's at higher levels.

[jaspercayne]

Loka produces the ancients? Definitely not my fault then, that is the one syndicate I actually put time into. But instant death? That would certainly explain the Rhino going down like that with his iron skin on... I am NEVER okay with instant death, that can very quickly suck the fun out of a game. Especially given how often I play solo, if I was on Loka's hit list I would be spending my daily revives simply because I choose to play solo? There has to be something to stop that from being a thing. Isn't there?

I assume that the issue really boils down to things like "Play public instead of private" or "Use a different frame", but that really kills things too. I shouldn't be forced to play a certain way just because I prefer to play in private squads.

[SurrealEdge]

Revives are tied to frames, if you run out of revives on one, just switch over to another.

That said, you can get positive standing with four syndicates at maxed standing provided you go another syndicate that does will not gain any negative standing. New Loka and Perrin Sequence are allies, but Red Veil is neutral to them, if you start raising Red Veil, you'll gain small amounts of standing with Steel Meridian, lowering their negative standing. For the opposite end of the spectrum it's Steel Meridian and Cephalon Suda that do the balancing with Perrin Sequence and New Loka hating you instead.

 

[jaspercayne]

I had no idea that revives were not account based. That is a fantastic bit of information! As for breaking down the balances, that is exactly what I needed to try to get things in a workable state, and I thank you greatly.

Is instant death really a thing, or is it just that the ancients do such massive amounts of damage that it might as well be instant death?

[SurrealEdge]

Ancients just tend to be damage sponges because of the ancient healers that reduces damage to all other enemies in a small area, as well as venomous eximus that just output large amounts of toxin damage.

Keep your distance and spray.

[jaspercayne]

Precisely what I wanted to hear! I'm not scared of a bunch of ancients, no matter how tough they think they are. So long as they can't kill me just for being near them...

So if I continue seeing them spawning in literally at the start of the mission, and without the indicators, that is absolutely a bug report then?

[SurrealEdge]

Likely to be the case, the game is still in development after all.

[Zaisha]

2 hours ago, jaspercayne said:

I had no idea that revives were not account based. That is a fantastic bit of information! As for breaking down the balances, that is exactly what I needed to try to get things in a workable state, and I thank you greatly.

Is instant death really a thing, or is it just that the ancients do such massive amounts of damage that it might as well be instant death?

Actually revives used to be frame based, currently they are mission based. Meaning: you get a full allocation of revives for each mission. Try the same mission again with the same frame immediately after failing/abandoning and you will have all your revives again.

It's not an actual instant death. The venom auras just do a scaling amount of damage (based on enemy level) directly to health, ignoring shields. So if you take a frame with under 300 health into a lvl 100 or so mission, the auras will kill you pdq. Take a frame with high basic health and mod for health however, and you will last much longer against even high level toxic procs.

[(PSN)robotwars7]

6 hours ago, jaspercayne said:

eximus rollers ready for blood.

lol, you make them sound as though they can actually hurt you. meatball invasions are just a stagger-fest/Free Affinity.

new Loka's ancients can be problematic though, especially in tight areas where you can't get distance. if you can though, get far away and take pot-shots, worst you have to worry about is lack of Ammo afterwards.

[Last_Hope2299]

The drones, when spawned, are pretty annoying. I got killed instantly even with rhino and iron skin on. Idk y. Normally I m able to kill them and absorb a lot of dmg. But one time they spawned, I was literally taken down in 5 seconds.

[Lokidus_Prime]

14 hours ago, (Xbox One)Graysmog said:

I still feel Eximus Squads, along with Assassins, should scale via our Mastery Rank and become an actual threat.

The only one I'm truly scared of are Perrin's Ospreys and Loka's Ancients, due to one's insane damage output and another's instant-death Aura's at higher levels.

Suda has Ospreys, not Perrin - Perrin sends Moa Squads.  Loki laughs at Suda's Ospreys - disarm them and they can do nothing but float around and angrily stare at you lol.

[Tesseract7777]

15 hours ago, jaspercayne said:

On Mars it was a two player match, and it was Ancients, so I am pretty sure that one is on my buddy. On Earth, I was playing solo, definitely not a public match. I got no red haze, no flickering lights, no transmission, nothing. I spawned in, ran up the stairs, and was greeted with a group of eximus rollers ready for blood. I cannot stress enough, I am NOT exaggerating when I say I was about 5 seconds into the mission. I hadn't even seen a grineer yet, and the Lotus was actually still talking (the "what mission type is this?" thing at the beginning where she prompts you to exterminate, sabotage, etc) to me when they spawned. It was about 3 feet in front of me, I actually watched them materialize out of thin air and immediately go to town on me.

Let me be clear here: I am not trying to complain about anything, nor trying to start any garbage where people make ludicrous claims about things that didn't actually happen. I actually laughed pretty hard once it was over at how awful the whole mess was. I was looking for an answer as to why I just got used as a floor scrubber before I even popped off my first bullet. That being said, WHY IN THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING WAS THAT ALLOWED?

Hmm... it is possible it could bug out sometimes and not give you the transmission, especially if they were trying to come in as you were loading into the mission -- you might have missed the transmission that way. It's pretty rare that that can happen, to be honest, but I think it can happen. I have also had situations where I am pretty sure a death squad came for me, but I didn't actually see a transmission, Warframe can be buggy at times. 

There might also be the possibility, that even if that game was just you, if it was set to public and not solo, maybe you actually loaded into a game someone else was just quiting somehow? And you had to fight the remains of their death squad? Who knows? 

Either way, death squads don't really show up all that often, so this problem shouldn't occur very much, and as you make yourself more overpowered over time, these syndicate death squads will eventually be as much of a joke to you as the lowest level grineer lancer/butcher on earth. 

 

But yeah, the grouped auras can sometimes be annoying even for veteran players if the syndicates hit them when they are leveling up new gear. Best to stay at a distance so the auras can't effect you, and whittle them down with your guns as long as you can before you go melee at all. 

Edited May 9, 2017 by Tesseract7777