"Spec-Ops" An endless game mode of non-endless modes

[Gandergear]

The inspiration of this mode is from PAYDAY 2's crime spree mode. Which is an 'endless' mode that consists of completing missions in succession to build up your score. Once you lose a mission your spree ends, and you get a special bonus for reaching specific scores. So what this entails is...

1. A player starts their Spec-Op. They're given a random mission and a score of 0 to start with. They start a lobby and can invite people from recruiting but no PUG option, similar to key missions.

2. If the player completes their mission, (starting at level 80 would be a good start), they're rewarded 1 point. The starting level of the next random mission they play is 5 levels higher.*

3. If a player with a higher score joins the game with someone of a lower score, they do not get points for completing missions. This is to prevent players from grinding points by joining fresh players squads, letting them rack up points without fear or losing their Spec-Op. A player with a lower score joining a host with a higher score will not be penalized nor rewarded for doing a harder mission.

4. Once the spree is over (either by losing or by forcibly ending it), the player is rewarded a rotation for each point, following the standard AABC format. Rewards would be similar to that of onslaught in terms of quality, and wouldn't be a bad place to put some peculiar mods or a new warframe.

5. Every 4th mission is a nightmare or has some similar sortie debuff applied to it and every subsequent game. This means after you complete the 4th mission all missions after it will have that debuff, and after the 8th, we're talking about two, and so on.

TL:DR

I'm proposing what basically boils down to an endless sortie mode with random missions that gets ludicrously crazy with stacking modifiers, the rewards are on par (if not maybe a bit worse) than Onslaught. People who want to grind content in it won't need to expect the mission to become harder than sortie level (4th mission enemies will only be base level 95).

 

*Missions are comprised on EVERY game mode on every planet in the game, similar to sorties but includes archwing, salvage, and jordas golem as potential missions (A long run CAN be screwed over by mission-RNG if you're not prepared for every situation, BUT you  can always leave your spec-ops for a while and come back to it later). They're also the shortest possible form of the mission, survival is 5 minutes, salvage is one hack, interception is one decode, etc. Spy still needs 3 hacks but rescue would play like normal.

 

EDIT: Without a server browser there's probably no way to make matchmaking viable with this game mode. That's why removing the pug option was something I deemed necessary.

Edited April 25, 2018 by Gandergear

[Xaero]

Sounds interesting but I don't see why matchmaking should differ from the rest of the game.

[Gandergear]

42 minutes ago, Ksaero said:

Sounds interesting but I don't see why matchmaking should differ from the rest of the game.

If there's a way to make it work I don't see why not, but since joining a host with less points than you means you don't get rewards, and joining a host who has MANY more points than you will just mean you're playing a harder mission, I don't know if matchmaking would be able to accurately put people in matches that they'd be ABLE to succeed in.

That being said if DE had a solution so that it wouldn't be a problem, than that section can be ignored as it was just a forecasting statement for problems I predict would happen.

[Xaero]

4 minutes ago, Gandergear said:

If there's a way to make it work I don't see why not, but since joining a host with less points than you means you don't get rewards, and joining a host who has MANY more points than you will just mean you're playing a harder mission, I don't know if matchmaking would be able to accurately put people in matches that they'd be ABLE to succeed in.

That being said if DE had a solution so that it wouldn't be a problem, than that section can be ignored as it was just a forecasting statement for problems I predict would happen.

But the current matchmaking doesn't allow anyone to join you after you complete the task, and the first task you complete is at round 1.

[Gandergear]

Just now, Ksaero said:

But the current matchmaking doesn't allow anyone to join you after you complete the task, and the first task you complete is at round 1.

Oh, I must not have explained how that aspect of the game mode works very well.

You can take a break with your combo at any time and continue it at a later point, say you do your 3 randomly assigned missions and now have 3 points, you can disband that lobby and go do something else, come back tomorrow, and start where you left off onto your 4th mission. The matchmaker would have to try and find people with 3 points or less to put into your lobby, but it wouldn't want to put higher point players in.

Also your randomly assigned mission is known to you once it becomes available and will not change until completed or the spec-op is turned in.

[Xaero]

1 minute ago, Gandergear said:

Oh, I must not have explained how that aspect of the game mode works very well.

You can take a break with your combo at any time and continue it at a later point, say you do your 3 randomly assigned missions and now have 3 points, you can disband that lobby and go do something else, come back tomorrow, and start where you left off onto your 4th mission. The matchmaker would have to try and find people with 3 points or less to put into your lobby, but it wouldn't want to put higher point players in.

Also your randomly assigned mission is known to you once it becomes available and will not change until completed or the spec-op is turned in.

Oh. Sounds nice.

[Gandergear]

Just now, Ksaero said:

Oh. Sounds nice.

Hope is you get a nice semi-casual way to get high level content with wacky modifiers. I always wanted to do a level 130 interception, or a level 120 spy, or imagine a low gravity infested salvage!

Though now that I think about it... Getting stuck with a level 140 jordas golem with a no shield modifier sounds like the worst experience of my life, but at the same time I don't want to just abandon archwing content like that, it'd be interesting to find out what a group has to do to defeat a super-jordas with the current archwing gear.

[Ham_Grenabe]

This would be a lot of fun. 

I can see an application of this where these missions are chained together as part of a persistent event (as in, maybe there's a month-long invasion of an open-world area on a planet) -- victories tilt the odds in your favor, but failures (or just partial victories) tilt them back to the enemy. So a total failure means the next mission has a debuff / nightmare mode, which...if you win...goes away and you continue on at the normal rate. 

The problem there would really be DE needing to balance developing new gear for players to have and/or buy, and new mission content. Your idea is easier, since it sounds like most of the infrastructure is in place. Scoring and what not would need to be adapted, and it wouldn't be "simple" because nothing is simple, but it sounds like a lot of fun. 

TL;DR: 10 out of 10, would play until fingers bled. 

[Gandergear]

4 minutes ago, Ham_Grenabe said:

-snip-

Glad you like the idea!

Edited April 25, 2018 by Gandergear

[Gandergear]

Bump due to onslaught spam