Warframe Needs Side Objectives

[ZyloWolfzan]

Side objectives would be an excellent way to add many things to Warframe, first it would add variance, by having a random set of side objectives appear in each mission, it would make playing similar missions(or even the exact same missions) over again far more varied, and more enjoyable. Secondly, it would give the players something to look out for and actually accomplish aside from just rushing straight to the objective, and straight to the exit, meaning the players could actually show some initiative to complete the objectives for a bonus, they could make it all the way to extraction only to realize that they want to complete the side objectives, and make their way back through the stage! Thirdly, it would help discourage rushing, as that would involve skipping a lot of side objectives, and therefore miss out on the rewards given out for them, this would encourage players to be a bit slower, to actually look around and explore the map instead of just taking the fastest most direct route to the objective, and leaving all the enemies(and often other players) in the dust. Finally, I think this would make the game far more enjoyable, as it would be an optional thing, that would be interesting, a change from the usual, and could actually be rewarding. It would encourage players to explore more of the map, fight more of the enemies, and just all around do more than just follow the big yellow exclamation point. But, this would only work if this extra work was given additional extra rewards! And the rewards have to be worth it, otherwise there's no POINT in actually doing these optional side objectives.

 

To fix the reward portion of this, I think that a reward in either mods, or materials would be the best, and most appropriate option. If every side objective got you 6 drops worth of mats, three common, two uncommon, and one rare, it would go far to making players actually care about them, and encourage them to do anything other than killing the same boss over and over and over again to get that last Neurode they need for their Vasto, or a bunch of Morphics for their Despair, or whatever it might be. Another option would be to give a guaranteed set of three mods, a common, an uncommon, then a 50/50 chance at an Uncommon or Rare mod. These rewards would not only allow players to do something other than Boss Runs and Defense Missions to get what they want, it would also add a rewarding, and varying new twist to the game, which would encourage far more player participation.

 

A few ideas for Side Objectives could actually be some of the to-be cycled-out mission types, allowing you to still make use of the rooms and programming currently in the game! There could be a Rescue target somewhere on the map that you can break out and escort out of the mission, there could be an Orokin Artifact hidden somewhere on the ship, guarded by a squad of enemies that you could go and retrieve, there could be some terminals to hack and datamasses to collect, there could be a Capture target somewhere with a squad of soldiers around them, there are many possibilites already in the game that would make for excellent, optional side objectives to go and get! And there's other new ones you could add, such as the following:

 

-Hunt

 

"This ship has a number of highly dangerous enemy units on it Tenno, it would be in our best interests to be rid of them."

 

This would be a side objective to kill a certain number of heavy or special units, Grineer Commanders, Eviscerators, Heavy Gunners, Napalms, or Bombards. Corpus Fusion Moas and Corpus Techs. Infested Ancients, etc. Kill a certain number of them and you get your bonus, you might have to explore more of the ship than just between you and the main objective, and may need to even 'incite' reinforcements to complete it!

 

Shouldn't Appear In Exterminate, because the set number of enemies spawned, there's no guarantee it could be completed.

 

-Elite Squad

 

"A squad of elite soldiers are on this ship, Tenno. If you can destroy them now, we won't have to worry about them later."

 

This would spawn a squad of 5-15 units of a higher than normal level, with a higher chance of more powerful spawns (Heavy Gunners, Ancients, Fusion Moas etc.) that stay in a certain area of the ship(Away from the main objective) that you can track down and eliminate, if you have the proper equipment to do so. Keeping them spawned away from the objective path helps keep lower level players not prepared for them stay out of their way.

 

-Collect Samples For Study

 

"Collecting samples from your enemies here could lead to important revelations and developments for us Tenno, try to track down rare samples to bring back for testing."

 

This would require you to collect a specific number of Clan Tech Resources (AKA the Blue resource drops) to complete, encouraging players to hunt down lockers and containers, and kill enemies more often to get the resources to drop. In addition to the usual reward of course, you would get said dropped resources.

 

Final Notes: First of all, these would NOT BE MANDATORY! THEY ARE OPTIONAL AND CAN BE IGNORED! Second of all, there would probably need to be a small menu added to the game that you can open during a mission to see your side objectives, so that players joining after the start of the mission know what they can do for a few extra rewards. I know button space is at a premium, but this could easily be mapped to the current Z key, which shows the Health and Shields of your teammates, allowing you to open or close it on the fly, on a controller this could be put on the 'Select' button for PS controllers, or the 'Back' button for 360 controllers.

 

Well, that's all I got, I hope people like the idea! I personally would love to see it implemented, as it would definitely make running missions far more interesting, and completing the objectives would still be rewarding! If you have any ideas about it, balance issues with the rewards, ideas for new objectives, thoughts on it at all, feel free to post them!

 

signed can't wait to hear some feedback!

Zylo the Wolfbane

[Aigloblam]

If it can be ignored, Rushes will ignore it. They want to get the end of mission reward as fast as possible, and ignore everything else. Essentially you would just be giving the slower players more reason to slow down, while the rushers ignore it, like they do everything else.

 

I mean, id love to see this implemented, id certainly do the side missions, but i can only speak for myself.

[NoeleVeerod]

I'm already one who likes to turn every stone to find cool things and lots of loot, so if there's a side objective to do I'll happily spend some time on it. I hope the devs take it into consideration.

[ZyloWolfzan]

If it can be ignored, Rushes will ignore it. They want to get the end of mission reward as fast as possible, and ignore everything else. Essentially you would just be giving the slower players more reason to slow down, while the rushers ignore it, like they do everything else.

 

I mean, id love to see this implemented, id certainly do the side missions, but i can only speak for myself.

The thing is, most Rushers currently rush to do very specific things, in most cases, it's to try and get a rare mat from a boss, if side objectives gave a decent chance to actually give rare mats, or decent mods, then they'd actually have a good reason to slow down a bit and take the time to do the objectives, because it would be another way to get what they're actually trying to get. It wouldn't stop people rushing bosses for frame parts/weapon parts, and it wouldn't stop rushers in Alert missions or those just trying to unlock the missions, but it would help with some of the rushers, though I do agree it won't get rid of the problem entirely, it might at least help.

 

signed which would still be a step in the right direction.

Zylo the Wolfbane

[Shiroiro]

Is there a problem to set default "online" to "rush" and add additional "explore" option? It could work.

[11.11.11]

This reminds me of the little ahceivement / sub-missions that pop up now and again. You know, like "Style Kill" - Kill 15 enemies while sliding. I think the same issues that apply to them could possibly crop up here. Things like, objectives not being marked well enough, so they're missed - their rewards being too lackluster to justify the effort - attempts to try and earn them detracting from the main focus of the mission.

 

But, there's some good ideas here, and I would love to see more side objectives in-game. 

[DavidSPD]

they'd actually have a good reason to slow down a bit 

 

They're called rushers for a reason. They have an objective (complete the mission as quickly as possible) anything that gets in the way will simply be ignored. 

 

Mini-missions? How many times have you seen a rusher kill ten enemies with melee? They don't, because they don't care. If you add enough "incentive" to do side-missions then the rushers will post saying they need to be chopped out of the other missions and given their own place on the map (so they can rush that instead). 

 

They'll complain they "miss out" on things because they want to farm five hundred morphics on a boss run. Not be given an "opportunity" to get something else that makes their "boss runs" more time consuming.

 

Don't misunderstand though, I think other missions inside of missions is worthwhile and should be in the game. Just don't expect it to change rush mentality - it won't happen.

Edited August 15, 2013 by DavidSPD

[gorg_graggel]

how about not just having seperate lower tier rewards for those side missions that drop independently from the accomplishment of the main objective, but them rather significantly increasing the drop chance of (certain) rare mods (depending on what mission type or enemy type) as end reward and/or additional ending drops of lower tier, which get only awarded when those side missions have been accomplished?

 

leaving in a chance of getting an additional rare item could also incentivise less rushing...

 

and also depending how you perform (how many head shots, general accuracy, if melee or ranged etc.) could also factor in the decision of what gets a higher drop rate and how much higher it gets...

Edited August 15, 2013 by gorg_graggel

[ZyloWolfzan]

They're called rushers for a reason. They have an objective (complete the mission as quickly as possible) anything that gets in the way will simply be ignored. 

 

Mini-missions? How many times have you seen a rusher kill ten enemies with melee? They don't, because they don't care. If you add enough "incentive" to do side-missions then the rushers will post saying they need to be chopped out of the other missions and given their own place on the map (so they can rush that instead). 

 

They'll complain they "miss out" on things because they want to farm five hundred morphics on a boss run. Not be given an "opportunity" to get something else that makes their "boss runs" more time consuming.

 

Don't misunderstand though, I think other missions inside of missions is worthwhile and should be in the game. Just don't expect it to change rush mentality - it won't happen.

The thing is, that is the sacrifice they make for Rushing, they miss out on the rewards, it's no different from how they miss out on mod and resource drops from enemies that they run right past. If that's the choice they make, then it's their fault for making it. If you want to rush, you're going to rush past things, that's how rushing works.

 

 

how about not just having seperate lower tier rewards for those side missions that drop independently from the accomplishment of the main objective, but them rather significantly increasing the drop chance of (certain) rare mods (depending on what mission type or enemy type) as end reward and/or additional ending drops of lower tier, which get only awarded when those side missions have been accomplished?

 

leaving in a chance of getting an additional rare item could also incentivise less rushing...

 

and also depending how you perform (how many head shots, general accuracy, if melee or ranged etc.) could also factor in the decision of what gets a higher drop rate and how much higher it gets...

The issue is that if the side objectives aren't rewarding enough, there will be absolutely no point in doing them. Having the side objectives give you a solid, meaningful reward at the end of the mission for completing them encourages people to actually do them instead of just ignoring them. If all side objectives have a set, specific reward, then people will just do one of each until they have the rewards, then immediately stop doing them. Just like many people and the Nightmare missions currently.

 

signed I like seeing more discussion on this though.

Zylo the Wolfbane

[Qb3rt]

"Warframe needs side objectives"

 

FTFY

[taiiat]

the Void already has side areas with lots of storage containers with high mod drops. something like that for all missions would be a great start.

 

as well as more side quest objectives in the matches - but make them more worth doing, 500XP is a pointless reward.

while i'm on that topic, actually @(*()$ show me those sidequests at the start, and let me check what it is, rather than HOPING the game tells me what it is before i'm like 99% done with the match.

 

 

i think that'd work. optional, but worthwhile content. 

[ZyloWolfzan]

"Warframe needs side objectives"

 

FTFY

Thanks for giving nothing to the thread! :D I appreciate your input.

the Void already has side areas with lots of storage containers with high mod drops. something like that for all missions would be a great start.

 

as well as more side quest objectives in the matches - but make them more worth doing, 500XP is a pointless reward.

while i'm on that topic, actually @(*()$ show me those sidequests at the start, and let me check what it is, rather than HOPING the game tells me what it is before i'm like 99% done with the match.

 

 

i think that'd work. optional, but worthwhile content. 

The issue is that those aren't even really mini-objectives, they're just small challenges that can get you a tiny bonus, for doing something simple(Except stealth kills, that one sucks), these would be more in-depth things, an actual additional objective, that would actually give a solid, decent reward for the effort, instead of a bit of extra EXP.

 

signed though allowing you to see your challenges would be useful, I agree.

Zylo the Wolfbane

[taiiat]

the thought was to expand those little challenges into side objectives ^.^

 

i tell a clannie constantly to not bother doing challenges if you need to put any effort into doing it, but he continues to insist min/maxing the hell out of that pointless 500xp when he's levelling gear. >.>

people want to complete them, but only a few people bother doing it on purpose since it's so worthless to do. 

Edited August 15, 2013 by taiiat

[ZyloWolfzan]

the thought was to expand those little challenges into side objectives ^.^

 

i tell a clannie constantly to not bother doing challenges if you need to put any effort into doing it, but he continues to insist min/maxing the hell out of that pointless 500xp when he's levelling gear. >.>

people want to complete them, but only a few people bother doing it on purpose since it's so worthless to do. 

I dunno, I like the little challenges, I think making them larger into full objectives would be a bit silly, "Get 50 melee kills" or something ridiculous? Might be a bit much, and really doesn't seem all that fun, an additional objective would give you something to explore the map for and discover before you can go about completing it.

 

signed I will agree that the rewards for the challenges could do with a buff, something actually useful would be nice.

Zylo the Wolfbane

[gorg_graggel]

The issue is that if the side objectives aren't rewarding enough, there will be absolutely no point in doing them. Having the side objectives give you a solid, meaningful reward at the end of the mission for completing them encourages people to actually do them instead of just ignoring them. If all side objectives have a set, specific reward, then people will just do one of each until they have the rewards, then immediately stop doing them. Just like many people and the Nightmare missions currently.

 

i think you might have misunderstood me...or i worded it poorly (sry, non-native english speaker).

if i'll find the time, i'll try harder later this day or duing the weekend (at work right now).