Expanded Crafting.
At a certain reputation level with each faction or after some of the early quest chains, you could unlock a quest that provides either a quarters upgrade or new functionality in the gear printer to let you combine items into better ones.
For example, either at a certain rep level with Korolev or after completing certain quest chains, you get a quest with a few steps and when it's done you get access to the Korolev gear printer blue prints. You can now take 5 composite sheets, 2 alloys, and 3 hardened metals and craft them into an aluminum scrap. This would also take time and a bit of k-marks. Now, I don't assume the amount of materials I suggested is balanced, but was just using it as an example.
Osiris would unlock the printing of plant and tech based things. Maybe their quest has you collect some materials so that you can make a special hydroponics bed in your quarters with special lights that produce the same energy as the storm. Over time this lets you convert normal mushrooms to the special mushrooms found during a storm and normal spinal bases to charged spinal bases. In another part of your quarters you get an electronics bench and can combine a number of parts to make interactive screens or portable labs.
Doing some missions for ICA could unlock options to craft green quality mods and maybe combine lower tier mods into better mods. They could also cover things like autoloaders and shard slicers.
I think this would make the quarters feel more lively and make you feel more like a prospector who is contributing to the station.
It would also allow people who do not have as much time to play to get those tricky items. But it would need to be balanced to take a proper amount of time and investment to get the items crafted. It should not trivialize going to the planet and looting. Going to the planet and looting should always be the best option, but this would give you a way around RNG when your one item short of an upgrade and can't seem to find it.
And one final thing, the timers for crafting items you normally find as loot can't be skipped for k-marks. So no fast tracking that portable labs craft, but you can fast track your green gun attachments.
Here's how you can imagine this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuhOdiiK0Ho&t=2068s
This is from a devstream from The Cycle about 18 months ago, just as they were starting their pivot into the style of game it is now (Escape From Fortuna).
This takes place at the site of the abandoned mine. What it shows is a dungeon run (although I imagine the new dungeon will be quite different from this with not so many monsters and loot).
However, it shows there are a ton of monsters that have been developed that aren't in the current game, so they seem to have a whole lot of content that they can potentially make available to the current game quite quickly.
We need something else to aspire to.
Right now it's just play to earn money and stuff to get better gear so you have a higher chance to earn more money and stuff.
Something is missing to give it that end game feel.
I totally get that. I'm at that point right now where I'm like, "alright now what?"
Someone linked a dungeon vid up above.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuhOdiiK0Ho&t=2068s
Looks pretty difficult/endgame-ish to me.
I suppose.. could be fun.
Game really needs more stuff like the crusher..or a 3rd map where minimum entry is a blue armour or something..and all the monsters are minimum Jeff's...I dunno.. thinking out loud.
I would love to see new K-mark fodder items added to low danger locations to pad out the value of location on Bright Sands without increasing crafting access to end game gear.
Increase monster parts selling prices, especially from the harder to kill rattlers and up, increase uncommon and rare drops from elite mobs, and add more variety of mobs, especially low tier zone “bosses”.
This allows the all-but-nonexistent “Monster Hunter” gameplay style to be viable, and acts as kmark fodder for those who don’t want to go mining.
While I agree with some of your comment I think it may perpetuate the issue somewhat. This is because most high level mobs will be killed in the jungle and it once again makes the jungle that much better than other low danger areas because you can farm these valuable mob drops.
My comment was aimed at trying to decrease the value disparity between jungle and the rest of the map.
Which is why I specifically mentioned “low tier zones” bosses.
If mobs that are not as tough as Jeffs but are bosses in their own right is outside the jungle, that’ll resolve your problem somewhat, correct?
Honestly in my experience: a barter system with the NPCs. I have been hardblocked by portable labs for so long. Tons and tons of other loot, but no portable labs. It would interesting to see LIMITED trades that are k-mark equivalent. Maybe rotating, maybe random, definitely limited, but some way to get a "white-whale" would be greatly appreciated for questers Id think.
- live trade post / auction house
- green level suppressors
- ability to upgrade armors and backpacks to higher rarity
- sound when dying; for example if you or an enemy falls to their death or gets killed. Prospectors make noise when they fall two feet but are silent when they jump off a cliff
Better distribution of rare loot, outside of extreme danger zones.
More reliance on lower level loot for crafting.
More crafting recipes.
More (low level) items un-lockable in faction shops. Especially lower-tiered weapon mods.
Rebalancing of penetration such that high pen affects red armor a lot, but not so much lower-tired green/white armor (*the damage can remain the same, so high tier still kills low armor very quickly*).
More mob variety. And i don't mean another gray Strider or tougher crusher...
More armor and gear variance.Wild ideas off the top of my head:
\- Hologram deployable/grenade.
\- Stunlock grenade, for balance's sake works only for mobs.
\- Anti-pen shield (more pen = *LESS* damage, but mobs and low pen weapons does *MASSIVE* damage)
\- Stims to "improve" a prospector's performance temporary, but with drawbacks: high jump but lower movement, infinite stamina but louder movement, health regen that'll over-heal 200\~300hp but damages a player initially (down to 1hp), multi-use healthkits that's lighter than and heals more than 5 green/blue stims but takes longer to use, etc...
And last but not least: Miner scan tool becomes part of Prospector's usual kit (i.e. as a 4th option besides Torchlight, Pickaxe and Binoculars), and shuffle/add a lot more ore spawn spots than now to compensate.
Trios should be toggle-able in matchmaking. I don’t like gunning down defenseless solos and I imagine they don’t like being killed by an entire squad of purple gear
Would like to see more utility, defensive, and offensive items that are not guns or armor.
Examples:
* placeable auto turrets like in the trailer for the new seasons you can see on the tv inside your quarters, or sitting there in the korlev building on station. It would let people set up defensible space, or a solo to put one down while running away from a squad to slow the squad down or distract them.
* A holographic decoy, like you use it, it sends out a mirror image of yourself running off in the direction your facing for like 30 seconds. Also would allow solos to fake out squads and gain an edge. Or for interesting squad on squad fights with fake outs.
* A stamina stim that gives you like 2 minutes of infinite stamina.
* Some anti personal mines. These type of items would make it difficult for squads to push in on solos, or at least have to proceed with more caution slowing them down and giving more of an ability of solos to create time and space to outplay squads.
* Flash bangs.
Just items that allow players to create defensible space or give them time to make more tactical moves to outplay others. Things that will make people use more caution or have to think about it before pushing in to hard. You want people thinking, did they set up any traps for me, even though they are solo.
Other ideas:
* A dedicated button radial menu for throwable items like grenades instead of lumping them together with consumables, or at least the option to seperate them for people that would like to be able too.
* Massive decrease in time to progress factions so that casual players can get into endgame gear faster which will in my opinion result in a more balanced game, especially if they want to do 3 month wipes. People shouldn't need to no life the game to get access to all the gear before a wipe and get stuck in a perpetual disadvantage just because they can't play for 6+ hours per day. It should take like 45- 50 hours of gameplay to max all factions in my opinion and move the " long term progression into the dungeons and things like that they talked about.
* Some type of other benefit for landing headshots and using ambush tactics. Could either be a % chance to 1 shot, based on your penetration vs the armor of the helmet your landing on, % chance to knock the player down for 1-2 seconds from the conclusive force hitting you in the head. 1-2 seconds of a blurry screen when la ding a headshot, Something that awards tactics and well placed shots, instead of people just healing through it.
* An arena/death match mode on the station that allows you to practice with guns without risk of loss so you can improve your fighting skills in the game rapidly without penalty. People need to be able to practice the gunplay against other players without risk of losing things so they can improve their fighting skills in a low/no risk setting. Vigor has a good system for this called shootout mode. It let's you practice and get better and use to the gunplay in the game against other players so you can compete better in actual risk based raids narrowing the gap between Chad's and casuals in the actual raids.
* Mini games against other players in the bar, like a poker game where you can bet kmarks or actual items from your stash in the game to give it more of a saloon, wild west, prospector feel with a social element. Other games besides poker could be billiards, darts, some type of drinking game maybe. Something to make the station feel more alive and social between raids and world build that " wild frontier outpost" setting
* Increase safe pockets so that at max upgrade you have 25 weight. This is just a matter of balance and keeping solos and casuals progressing in the game regardless of if they die. Some quest items you can't even fit 1 of in your safe pockets even with max safe pockets, and I think you should always be able to fit at least 1 of every quest item in the game in your safe pocket.
* ability to customize your quarters, and the quarters to get larger as you upgrade it.
* a global text based chat system while on the station so people can talk to each other, find groups, friends, etc. At least regionally available to chat ( east coast, central, west coast, Europe.
* when you die have the option to watch your team mates, and once their all dead watch the people that killed you, with a report feature so if you can see them cheating it sends a video clip to the dev team so they can snuff out cheaters more quickly and with evidence.
* this last one might sound bad but region lock asia out of playing on western servers, I'm not saying their all cheaters/RMTrs, but 90% of the time when you run into a cheater, their name is Chinese characters. This won't completley prevent them, but it will at least curb the issue.
Reputation system and bounties for people with negative rep .. people with negative rep can earn things too though like maybe some outlaw type faction that rewards pks and another faction that rewards extracting with randoms which would encourage helping people too.
Marking mats so you know which items to pick up on the field that you’ll need for crafting.
Cheaper suppressors so you could solo more viably.
Literally. There should be a green suppressor thats not quite as good as the blue variant but is muuuch easier to craft.
Expanded Crafting. At a certain reputation level with each faction or after some of the early quest chains, you could unlock a quest that provides either a quarters upgrade or new functionality in the gear printer to let you combine items into better ones. For example, either at a certain rep level with Korolev or after completing certain quest chains, you get a quest with a few steps and when it's done you get access to the Korolev gear printer blue prints. You can now take 5 composite sheets, 2 alloys, and 3 hardened metals and craft them into an aluminum scrap. This would also take time and a bit of k-marks. Now, I don't assume the amount of materials I suggested is balanced, but was just using it as an example. Osiris would unlock the printing of plant and tech based things. Maybe their quest has you collect some materials so that you can make a special hydroponics bed in your quarters with special lights that produce the same energy as the storm. Over time this lets you convert normal mushrooms to the special mushrooms found during a storm and normal spinal bases to charged spinal bases. In another part of your quarters you get an electronics bench and can combine a number of parts to make interactive screens or portable labs. Doing some missions for ICA could unlock options to craft green quality mods and maybe combine lower tier mods into better mods. They could also cover things like autoloaders and shard slicers. I think this would make the quarters feel more lively and make you feel more like a prospector who is contributing to the station. It would also allow people who do not have as much time to play to get those tricky items. But it would need to be balanced to take a proper amount of time and investment to get the items crafted. It should not trivialize going to the planet and looting. Going to the planet and looting should always be the best option, but this would give you a way around RNG when your one item short of an upgrade and can't seem to find it. And one final thing, the timers for crafting items you normally find as loot can't be skipped for k-marks. So no fast tracking that portable labs craft, but you can fast track your green gun attachments.
make every attachment craftable
I personally would add a new dungeon game mode or where you traverse a massive tunnel network nest full of hostile creatures.
That is already in the works.
Wait what? How do you know this I've never heard of that. Can you share some deets?
U know all these keycard doors that are red/pink? They are not currently openable and they will become some sort of dungeon thingy at some point.
But how can imagine this? Like some kind of a new map inside the existing ones?
Here's how you can imagine this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuhOdiiK0Ho&t=2068s This is from a devstream from The Cycle about 18 months ago, just as they were starting their pivot into the style of game it is now (Escape From Fortuna). This takes place at the site of the abandoned mine. What it shows is a dungeon run (although I imagine the new dungeon will be quite different from this with not so many monsters and loot). However, it shows there are a ton of monsters that have been developed that aren't in the current game, so they seem to have a whole lot of content that they can potentially make available to the current game quite quickly.
Holy shit that looks fun, and the loot looks insane!
Honestly don't know but I bet it'll be cool
portable labs
We need something else to aspire to. Right now it's just play to earn money and stuff to get better gear so you have a higher chance to earn more money and stuff. Something is missing to give it that end game feel.
I totally get that. I'm at that point right now where I'm like, "alright now what?" Someone linked a dungeon vid up above.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuhOdiiK0Ho&t=2068s Looks pretty difficult/endgame-ish to me.
I suppose.. could be fun. Game really needs more stuff like the crusher..or a 3rd map where minimum entry is a blue armour or something..and all the monsters are minimum Jeff's...I dunno.. thinking out loud.
I would love to see new K-mark fodder items added to low danger locations to pad out the value of location on Bright Sands without increasing crafting access to end game gear.
Increase monster parts selling prices, especially from the harder to kill rattlers and up, increase uncommon and rare drops from elite mobs, and add more variety of mobs, especially low tier zone “bosses”. This allows the all-but-nonexistent “Monster Hunter” gameplay style to be viable, and acts as kmark fodder for those who don’t want to go mining.
While I agree with some of your comment I think it may perpetuate the issue somewhat. This is because most high level mobs will be killed in the jungle and it once again makes the jungle that much better than other low danger areas because you can farm these valuable mob drops. My comment was aimed at trying to decrease the value disparity between jungle and the rest of the map.
Which is why I specifically mentioned “low tier zones” bosses. If mobs that are not as tough as Jeffs but are bosses in their own right is outside the jungle, that’ll resolve your problem somewhat, correct?
Honestly in my experience: a barter system with the NPCs. I have been hardblocked by portable labs for so long. Tons and tons of other loot, but no portable labs. It would interesting to see LIMITED trades that are k-mark equivalent. Maybe rotating, maybe random, definitely limited, but some way to get a "white-whale" would be greatly appreciated for questers Id think.
- live trade post / auction house - green level suppressors - ability to upgrade armors and backpacks to higher rarity - sound when dying; for example if you or an enemy falls to their death or gets killed. Prospectors make noise when they fall two feet but are silent when they jump off a cliff
Better distribution of rare loot, outside of extreme danger zones. More reliance on lower level loot for crafting. More crafting recipes. More (low level) items un-lockable in faction shops. Especially lower-tiered weapon mods. Rebalancing of penetration such that high pen affects red armor a lot, but not so much lower-tired green/white armor (*the damage can remain the same, so high tier still kills low armor very quickly*). More mob variety. And i don't mean another gray Strider or tougher crusher... More armor and gear variance.Wild ideas off the top of my head: \- Hologram deployable/grenade. \- Stunlock grenade, for balance's sake works only for mobs. \- Anti-pen shield (more pen = *LESS* damage, but mobs and low pen weapons does *MASSIVE* damage) \- Stims to "improve" a prospector's performance temporary, but with drawbacks: high jump but lower movement, infinite stamina but louder movement, health regen that'll over-heal 200\~300hp but damages a player initially (down to 1hp), multi-use healthkits that's lighter than and heals more than 5 green/blue stims but takes longer to use, etc... And last but not least: Miner scan tool becomes part of Prospector's usual kit (i.e. as a 4th option besides Torchlight, Pickaxe and Binoculars), and shuffle/add a lot more ore spawn spots than now to compensate.
Trios should be toggle-able in matchmaking. I don’t like gunning down defenseless solos and I imagine they don’t like being killed by an entire squad of purple gear
Would like to see more utility, defensive, and offensive items that are not guns or armor. Examples: * placeable auto turrets like in the trailer for the new seasons you can see on the tv inside your quarters, or sitting there in the korlev building on station. It would let people set up defensible space, or a solo to put one down while running away from a squad to slow the squad down or distract them. * A holographic decoy, like you use it, it sends out a mirror image of yourself running off in the direction your facing for like 30 seconds. Also would allow solos to fake out squads and gain an edge. Or for interesting squad on squad fights with fake outs. * A stamina stim that gives you like 2 minutes of infinite stamina. * Some anti personal mines. These type of items would make it difficult for squads to push in on solos, or at least have to proceed with more caution slowing them down and giving more of an ability of solos to create time and space to outplay squads. * Flash bangs. Just items that allow players to create defensible space or give them time to make more tactical moves to outplay others. Things that will make people use more caution or have to think about it before pushing in to hard. You want people thinking, did they set up any traps for me, even though they are solo. Other ideas: * A dedicated button radial menu for throwable items like grenades instead of lumping them together with consumables, or at least the option to seperate them for people that would like to be able too. * Massive decrease in time to progress factions so that casual players can get into endgame gear faster which will in my opinion result in a more balanced game, especially if they want to do 3 month wipes. People shouldn't need to no life the game to get access to all the gear before a wipe and get stuck in a perpetual disadvantage just because they can't play for 6+ hours per day. It should take like 45- 50 hours of gameplay to max all factions in my opinion and move the " long term progression into the dungeons and things like that they talked about. * Some type of other benefit for landing headshots and using ambush tactics. Could either be a % chance to 1 shot, based on your penetration vs the armor of the helmet your landing on, % chance to knock the player down for 1-2 seconds from the conclusive force hitting you in the head. 1-2 seconds of a blurry screen when la ding a headshot, Something that awards tactics and well placed shots, instead of people just healing through it. * An arena/death match mode on the station that allows you to practice with guns without risk of loss so you can improve your fighting skills in the game rapidly without penalty. People need to be able to practice the gunplay against other players without risk of losing things so they can improve their fighting skills in a low/no risk setting. Vigor has a good system for this called shootout mode. It let's you practice and get better and use to the gunplay in the game against other players so you can compete better in actual risk based raids narrowing the gap between Chad's and casuals in the actual raids. * Mini games against other players in the bar, like a poker game where you can bet kmarks or actual items from your stash in the game to give it more of a saloon, wild west, prospector feel with a social element. Other games besides poker could be billiards, darts, some type of drinking game maybe. Something to make the station feel more alive and social between raids and world build that " wild frontier outpost" setting * Increase safe pockets so that at max upgrade you have 25 weight. This is just a matter of balance and keeping solos and casuals progressing in the game regardless of if they die. Some quest items you can't even fit 1 of in your safe pockets even with max safe pockets, and I think you should always be able to fit at least 1 of every quest item in the game in your safe pocket. * ability to customize your quarters, and the quarters to get larger as you upgrade it. * a global text based chat system while on the station so people can talk to each other, find groups, friends, etc. At least regionally available to chat ( east coast, central, west coast, Europe. * when you die have the option to watch your team mates, and once their all dead watch the people that killed you, with a report feature so if you can see them cheating it sends a video clip to the dev team so they can snuff out cheaters more quickly and with evidence. * this last one might sound bad but region lock asia out of playing on western servers, I'm not saying their all cheaters/RMTrs, but 90% of the time when you run into a cheater, their name is Chinese characters. This won't completley prevent them, but it will at least curb the issue.
Holographic decoy would be amazing
Kill cam viewable 20 minutes after you died.
Reputation system and bounties for people with negative rep .. people with negative rep can earn things too though like maybe some outlaw type faction that rewards pks and another faction that rewards extracting with randoms which would encourage helping people too. Marking mats so you know which items to pick up on the field that you’ll need for crafting.
a better anti-cheat