Ghouls Purge Bounties and Ghouls, The future of Ghouls? Thoughts and Suggestions for making Ghouls better.

[SprinKah]

Ghouls were probably my most anticipated asset when DE introduced them in Tennocon 2017, I really looked forward to them because I'm one big fan of Grineer and their aesthetics, and the Ghouls are just so cool.

The idea of Shock Troopers capable to overwhelming their opponents with number is quite nice.

But despite that, after we actually got them though, I do have some problems regarding them, now I know these nitpicks may only be because of my personal preferences but I'd like express them nonetheless.

I THINK THERE JUST ISN'T ENOUGH GHOULS.  Hear me out

1) I think we can ALL agree that...the most that we can get out of the Ghouls are from the occasional Ghouls Purge Bounties that pop up from time to time. And if you're REALLY lucky, you get to encounter missions that give you ghouls...2/4 times. 

I really imagined that we would be able to encounter them a lot and fight them but in the end, not so much.

 

2) You know, back in devstream 101 when they first showed off gameplay of Ghouls, I really imagined that we'd get that LEVEL OF INTENSITY, that wasn't even a Ghouls Bounty, just some random encounter and already there were so many ghouls that we can fight! There were a lot of aspects in there too that DE, unfortunately, got rid off in the official build.

Like how Augers can close the distance between them and you, popping up in front of your face, occasionally knocking you down (which is really interesting, 37:41 mark in Devstream 101).

 

3) Right now, the biggest number of Ghouls that we can get out of NORMAL encounter (which in itself, is quite rare, at least for me) is around 4-5 ghouls.  Which really, comparing to how it was in devstream 101, that's a bit...underwhelming. Honestly, you don't even notice them at all. I really don't like to wait for Ghouls Purge Bounties in order to get the most out of the Ghouls, and that's only around 20-40 ghouls average at a time, not to mention the really tedious missions that don't involve Ghouls at all (Finding Cache, defend vault, etc...). Personally, I'd like to see and fight even more Ghouls, a lot more Ghouls...like 40+ Ghouls per normal encounter on the Plains, I'd like to fight way more than 20 ghouls per Ghouls Bounty Burial Ground. 

And the fact that when you go full squad of 4, you get only 35 ghouls per burial ground, I kinda expected to fight against way more than 35, it ends so fast, sometimes I don't even notice a single one of them before everything is done. 

 

Changes that I'd love to see made to the Ghouls:

Spoiler

- Increase the number of Ghouls spawned per encounter on the Plains. Something like in Devstream 101, Increase in chances of Encounter or BOTH.

- Maybe when you roam around doing stuff, Ghouls will emerge from certain spots on the Plains and Lotus will call you to it? Like they just automatically rise up on their own and roam around, don't need you to step foot in their vicinity, acting like normal patrolling grineer and such.

- Drop Pods? DE did state that Ghouls Diapause Bags are planted into the ground via. Orbitally, I'd like to see how it is done, maybe when you're on a certain spot in the plains, you can see some orbital drop pods from afar, dropping down from orbit. 

Just something more to them would be nice, I'd really like to see them more often and not just in Ghouls Purge Missions, and honestly, I'd like to fight against more than 20 ghouls per Burial Ground, that's just me though. Would also be kinda nice if that amount of ghouls multiplies by 4 if you go with a full squad, that'd be fun because 35 really is quite little for a full party. 

 

I'd also like to see some changes and buffs to the Ghouls that DE took away from the earlier showoffs, maybe some of these suggestions may sound a bit unreasonable but I'd like DE to further expand on the concept of these Ghouls, I feel like the way they are now? Don't really live up to their supposed concept.

1) Ghoul Expired:

- Maybe drop some mines when they die (1-2), right now when they die, the bombs explode but deal no damage whatsoever, that kinda loses the wihole purpose of kamikaze enemy. 

- I'd really like to see some sorta tackle like how they did in the Ghouls #1 Comic but maybe that's a bit much? It is interesting though. 

- Maybe make them throw the mines more often and not exclusively when the players are out of reach?

2) Ghoul Auger:

- Able to dig and rise up from the ground behind the players or to other random areas, actually ambushing and flanking them, instead of just dig straight forward into our face...

- Maybe dig and rise up from time to time right from underneath us, knocking us back like how they did in the earlier in Devstream 101 at 37:41?

- Make the drills have the same damage hitbox like other Ghouls? right now, the hitbox of their drills are really odd and random, don't have a very consistent pattern, sometimes they deal 1-2 dmg per hit, sometimes more. 

 

I think Ghouls Rictus and Devourer right now are fine on their own.

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I'd really appreciate it if you guys can browse through my proposed changes real quick and give me your thoughts on them, I really just hope that DE hasn't abandoned them like they did on the Executioners (which are quite buggy rn and with some changes said that still haven't made it in), I'd really like DE to expadn more on the Ghouls, maybe add something more to them in the future. Do tell me if anything sounds unreasonable and we'll elborate on them. 

 

 

[peterc3]

This would destroy game performance. Notice how in "musou" games like Dynasty Warriors, the graphics are... downgraded. The more things going on, the more that needs to be culled from somewhere else.

The pods aren't being dropped right before you encounter them, they've been there for a while. You wouldn't be able to see them drop and fight the same ones in any reasonable game session length.

[TaurusDeRoma]

They need time to develop and grow. Even though they are not very developed, cognitively, they are left in the ground to germinate. In my opinion, since we are poisoning the grounds where they are buried, there should be more Expired than the other ghouls (not sure if that is the case). The Ghouls are my favorite Grineer units too, I'm just hoping that the Infested find someway to assimilate them, they really need more units. Maybe there can be a hybrid Ghoul-Infested developed by Dr. Tengus.

[SprinKah]

6 hours ago, peterc3 said:

This would destroy game performance. Notice how in "musou" games like Dynasty Warriors, the graphics are... downgraded. The more things going on, the more that needs to be culled from somewhere else.

The pods aren't being dropped right before you encounter them, they've been there for a while. You wouldn't be able to see them drop and fight the same ones in any reasonable game session length.

yeah I suppose I get that...but despite that, how it was in Devstream 101, didn't look like everything was crap, the performance I mean. I think things were quite well, and that was just the dev build, Maybe a bit more than that wouldn't hurt. 

And yeah, about the pods, I sorta get that, but maybe if it's for something like....indications and such, would be nice, would feel a lot more immersive I'd say. I really want to see them being automatic on their own though, that doesn't need us to step into their vicinity to trigger their burst. 

[SprinKah]

6 hours ago, TaurusDeRoma said:

They need time to develop and grow. Even though they are not very developed, cognitively, they are left in the ground to germinate. In my opinion, since we are poisoning the grounds where they are buried, there should be more Expired than the other ghouls (not sure if that is the case). The Ghouls are my favorite Grineer units too, I'm just hoping that the Infested find someway to assimilate them, they really need more units. Maybe there can be a hybrid Ghoul-Infested developed by Dr. Tengus.

I'm glad you feel the same, I bet the infested will probably be able to find some ways around them naturally, but that's for DE to decide, it would be a pretty nice twist.

I feel like DE rushed it a bit maybe, because it was right before Christmas, but idunno

[TaurusDeRoma]

Maybe they will add more to Grineer Ghouls after they add in the bigger Teralysts and Grand Theft Grineer (hijacking Dargyns).

[SprinKah]

18 hours ago, TaurusDeRoma said:

Maybe they will add more to Grineer Ghouls after they add in the bigger Teralysts and Grand Theft Grineer (hijacking Dargyns).

Perhaps! I did see a Ghoul in the Ghouls Comic issue 1, when they were charging at Excalibur from the distance, I saw one holding a sorta...polearm, so that's interesting.