The thing about the current enemies.

[DSpite]

TL;DR

I'm pretty sure DE could make enemies harder then just giving them what I think most people just look at as say "that's just an annoying ability". I think we all know which ones those are. Personally, I'm looking at you, Sapping #$@^&* Osprey.

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Now, I have been playing this game a fairly long time, and when you play something regularly, any changes you see are just thin layers that happen over time, and you don't really notice an issue until those thin layers form a large brick, and then hit you in the face (excuse the crude metaphor).

I have been now running a mate through the game for a couple weeks. He really likes it, and that's a good thing as he generally hates shooters.

I helped him with quests, got him a dog - even infected him so he could breed a charger as his first pet - and he already has a couple of Reactors, Catalysts and even Forma to use because we timed Alerts pretty well.

The "enemy issue" started to be noticeable when you have two jobs, one being running the mission, and one trying to keep a new player alive who does not have "max everything".

From different factions, we have things like Sapping Osprey spamming "the floor is lava", knockdown from Moa's and Shield Lancers, all the way to "the sky is now lava as well" from infested ospreys, to the constant pull-knockdown-grab of Ancients, now intermixed with Cold proc barrels spread around levels that seem to just explode if we are just bullet-jumping within a 5 meter radius. The list goes on.

It feels less and less like we are in a gunfight and more and more like we are playing a platform game where the staying alive part involves dodging circles rather then shooting. and not in an MMO "overhead view" where you can actually see around you, but in third person over the shoulder view, where you have no idea what's behind you because everything is the same "generic red arrow", that can spawn randomly from behind ANY object on the level.

They don't even obey "normal" game mechanics. I've been pull-grabbed from enemies inside Vauban vortexes, ones sitting inside Nidus tentacle ball, ones that were knocked down at the time, even from Ancients sitting above me on a platform with no LOS to me. I've been hit with enough green puff clouds that visibility was zero, even blinded multiple times in a row by Bursa's, and been taken out by Osprey mines even though I was bullet jumping through them at what I though was a fairly high distance off the ground. Also, how much Tar is inside a Tar Moa? Apparently enough to re-wallpaper a small castle it seems.

 

Look, I fully understand that the enemies are trying to kill us. I'm all for the enemies getting as many tools as they need in order to do so, and I welcome DE to make up as much new things as they like ... but ... constantly messing with our ability to simply stay upright, removing our ability to move properly with knock downs and slow downs, we are not "playing" anymore as much as we starting to be pushed to play overkill builds just so that nothing can get near us in the first place. It's became a game of avoidance, not a game of fast paced combats.

My mate is currently assembling a Rhino ONLY because Iron Skin stops most of those annoying things. Heck, I usually play Rhino ONLY to stop those annoying things, as constant screen shenanigans end up giving me headaches and force me to stop playing.

I'm not saying "make the enemies easier to kill", I'm saying make them HARDER to kill by giving them more mechanics that help them do so, and forces us to attack in more different ways then just "aim and hold down the fire button" and THEN remove attacks that seem to be designed simply to control how long in any given combat we can ACTUALLY hold down the fire button because we are too busy avoiding lava or trying to get back up.

If anything, bad things should happen when players shoot without paying attention, heck, I'm surprised already that when we shoot out windows on ships we are not instantly sucked into space and into Archwing mode and have to get back in, rather then just get some annoying screen shake and a weak shield drain effect.

Shoot a Mutalist Osprey near a player? Instant poison cloud. Shoot a Shield Lancer in the shield? Shots rebounding everywhere. Shoot into some barrels with nuclear waste? Radiation Procs. Shoot an Ancient that currently has a hook into a player? Damage transfer. (Also, one could unhook by moving further away).

Are these ideas of mine any good? Probably not, but at least I'd be dead because the team caused it, not because RNG spawned too many Ancients in one batch and they are using me as a football. I'd willingly put up by being "trolled" by other players every once in a while over the constant "trolling" by enemy units, personally.

 

 

 

 

[Tricky5hift]

Yeah for a game that emphasizes stealth on certain missions, the AI is pretty whack.

They are either stupidly over-perceptive or just dumb as bricks.

Like if you alert an enemy and then run across the map to hide hide they'll still track your butt down like Liam Neeson with a vengeance.

That just doesn't make sense, you're supposed to be able to evade enemies in a stealth game.

[KirukaChan]

I bet if DE learns anything from this thread, it will be "Iron Skin needs another nerf".

[Koldraxon-732]

Excalibur's radial blind, Atlas' petrify, Inaros' 1, 2 and 3, Nidus' 2 and 1, Nekros' 2 (and 4 if you want meatshields), Loki's invis, and Limbo's rift and timestopping powers, are also viable alternatives to just using Rhino's 2 and 4.

I understand though about how enemies appear to only have one type of special attack. In my opinion, enemies like Naplams, Bombards, Heavy Gunners and even the snipers of Corpus/Grineer factions ought to have a secondary weapon. Another issue is their damage and resistance scaling rendering 75% of all weapons, and 100% of all weapons - without mods - downright useless, and only effective as Mastery Fodder.
Examples:

Spoiler

 

Grineer: Bombards get two Grakata; Naplams get Atomos, Ballistas get Viper.

Corpus: Tech crewmen get Sonicor, Sniper Crewmen get Cycron, and other specialized Crewmen get a Cestra.

 

 

[DatDarkOne]

3 hours ago, DSpite said:

If anything, bad things should happen when players shoot without paying attention, heck, I'm surprised already that when we shoot out windows on ships we are not instantly sucked into space and into Archwing mode and have to get back in, rather then just get some annoying screen shake and a weak shield drain effect.

Shoot a Mutalist Osprey near a player? Instant poison cloud. Shoot a Shield Lancer in the shield? Shots rebounding everywhere. Shoot into some barrels with nuclear waste? Radiation Procs. Shoot an Ancient that currently has a hook into a player? Damage transfer. (Also, one could unhook by moving further away).

I don't think these are bad ideas at all.  They actually make sense.  I especially like the window breaking to AW idea.  That one is just too cool for words.