Consider changes to how excavation works.

[TheMostFrench]

Excavation can be a pretty fun game mode, but I feel that right now it is very awkward to play due to the way enemy spawns work. If anyone moves away from the active extractor they will take enemy spawns away and reduce the chance for getting power cells. This can be an issue if someone is slow or gets lost moving between extractors, or just don't understand the game mode yet, it makes things take much longer than they should.

The main issue though is that power cells are applied automatically, and it is worse in excavation fissures, which are frustrating due to the way the relic is opened every 200 cryotic. When there is not much team coordination, e.g in public mode, there needs to be some adjustment made to the system which can ensure everyone gets their reactant before getting 200 cryotic. Right now people are getting unfairly left out of relic rolls because someone didn't wait until everyone had reactant, or someone accidentally powered the drill because they got too close causing the cryotic to tick over and roll opened relics.

Suggestions: Here are several options I've thought of which might improve the game mode.

1. Players have to interact with a drill while holding a powercell to use the cell on the drill, instead of power being automatically applied. This way players can gather up the required number of cells and drop them next to the reactor and can use them when they are ready, it also means they can stand next to the reactor while holding a power cell and defend it without accidentally powering the drill.

2. Remove power cells and make the drills operate in stages. The drill starts fully powered, but at every 20% the drill stops and needs to be manually re-activated by a player to move to the next stage. Now we don't need to wait for a specific enemy spawn, and have more control over how long a drill takes to finish. This also adds a strategy element where teams could potentially manage 1 drill each, and try to coordinate completion of drill stages to maximise rewards. The benefit of this is that players are not punished for spreading out like they are now.

3. Instead of rolling for relics at 200 cryotic, you must complete two FULL excavations, meaning that a drill that was destroyed early does not contribute to activating the next relic roll. This doesn't solve the problem of people not waiting until everyone has reactant, but might encourage people to stay together more.