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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0007505Valley 1Suggestion - Mission IdeasJun 3, 2012 12:50 am
Reporterkhadgar Assigned To 
Status resolvedResolutionopen 
Product Version1.008 
Summary0007505: Possible changes for "Defend Supply Depot" mission type
DescriptionI have recently played this mission type extensively, trying to figure out what would make it more fun than it is currently. I read somewhere that you guys may be looking to change this mission in the next update, so I came up with the following list of potential changes.

Things I would definitely like to see:
* No longer than 5 minutes (currently takes approx. 10 minutes for all meteors to fall)
* Less focus on monsters, more focus on meteors. (no monsters if possible)
* If monsters are still in the mission, don't have them fall from the sky, it's too hard to avoid being crushed by a falling skelebot
* Many more meteors fall at a time, but they do not ALL necessarily aim at crates. The player has to determine which ones are heading for crates.
* 3 or 4 pre-placed towers (i.e. background platforms) the player can stand on to get a better vantage point.


Things I think would be a good idea, but I'm not entirely sure:
* All spells have knockback
* Spell range limitation removed
* (If spell range is uncapped) Ability to see your spells on the minimap
* Each pile of crates heals you slowly, like an ally mission base in battlegrounds
TagsNo tags attached.
Internal WeightNew

Activities

khadgar

May 4, 2012 12:37 pm

reporter   ~0023428

**OR** I could wait and see what you've got in store for this mission type. I thought now would be a good time to throw in some ideas, if you haven't already finalized this mission's changes.

tigersfan

May 5, 2012 10:54 pm

reporter   ~0023594

Have you tried them now? Let us know what you think of the new ones.

LintMan

May 5, 2012 11:40 pm

reporter   ~0023600

Last edited: May 5, 2012 11:41 pm

I just tried the revamped meteor mission in MP, and IMHO it's less playable than it was before, and that was with enemies and occasionally me falling through the crates.

Problems:
- I deflected the very first meteor I saw out of the way and preparing for the second, the first supply stack suddenly exploded for no apparent reason, failure. Time elapsed: approx. 15-20 seconds.
- Restarted the mission, just uncovering the map to find the stacks, a purple landspeeder shot hits me and explodes, catching the edge of the nearby stack. Boom, failure. Time elapsed: <10 seconds.
- Restarted the mission again, stacks are spread very widely across the area, no two stacks can fit on my widescreen at once. One meteor hits a stack. Boom, failure. Time elapsed: approx. 30 seconds.

So I guess you can certainly say the missions are way shorter now. :D

MouldyK

May 6, 2012 8:06 am

reporter   ~0023618

You said in the forums it was in the Junkyard, so maybe it was caused by the barrels?

Toll

May 6, 2012 8:32 am

reporter   ~0023619

I just played through a couple in the grasslands, and they're actually very easy now (at least there). The depots have 900 health to start, and each meteor knocks 81 health off of them. That means 12 meteors have to hit for one to go down. In general, this means I can basically focus on one (or perhaps two) depots once they start dropping in health and completely ignore the rest of them.

LintMan

May 6, 2012 12:19 pm

reporter   ~0023629

@MouldyK - it was possibly the barrels, but:

1 - On the first attempt NOTHING hit the ground or the stack when it exploded. The nearest meteor was still in the air. This to me looks like the same issue as previously where meteors striking in distant locations occasionally damaging stacks.

2 - According to the patch change list, monsters are now not supposed to damage the supply at all; just be a threat to the player. But the single landspeeder shot explosion destroyed a stack. Maybe the shot explosion blew up a barrel which then blew up the stack? Possibly, but it didn't really look like that to me, and it's a problem either way.

Toll

May 6, 2012 12:28 pm

reporter   ~0023630

AoE attacks (possibly only secondary) from monsters certainly damage the stacks. For instance, I blew up an explosive esper, and the explosion definitely hurt the stack it was near.

khadgar

May 6, 2012 6:35 pm

reporter   ~0023641

After playing through the revamped version of this mission a few times, I think that most of the concerns are resolved. There may still be some lingering technical issues, as stated in the notes above, but the core gameplay concept is a lot more solid.

The mission takes a good amount of time, and since there is only a single HP pool per base (instead of a stack of crates), you actually have to pay attention to the meteors a bit more. Since the monsters can't damage the crates, you can ignore any of them that aren't directly bothering you.

The only change I think from a fun standpoint that I would like to see is a clearer representation of how much life each supply depot has left. The current system displays the remaining hitpoints in numerical format, but this is not ideal. It can be difficult to look at the string of 4 numbers, identify which one is in need of attention, and then move to its location. It would be a lot nicer if the numbers were replaced with bars, but I don't think that is happening.

Instead, why not just color code the HP numbers? So, full HP is green, and as the HP falls, it becomes yellow, and then red. That is simple to see at a glance. Yellow Green Green Green means supply depot 1 has been hit and needs help.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
May 4, 2012 12:36 pm khadgar New Issue
May 4, 2012 12:37 pm khadgar Note Added: 0023428
May 4, 2012 12:37 pm khadgar Description Updated
May 5, 2012 10:54 pm tigersfan Note Added: 0023594
May 5, 2012 10:54 pm tigersfan Internal Weight => New
May 5, 2012 10:54 pm tigersfan Status new => feedback
May 5, 2012 11:40 pm LintMan Note Added: 0023600
May 5, 2012 11:41 pm LintMan Note Edited: 0023600
May 6, 2012 8:06 am MouldyK Note Added: 0023618
May 6, 2012 8:32 am Toll Note Added: 0023619
May 6, 2012 12:19 pm LintMan Note Added: 0023629
May 6, 2012 12:28 pm Toll Note Added: 0023630
May 6, 2012 6:35 pm khadgar Note Added: 0023641
May 6, 2012 6:35 pm khadgar Status feedback => new
May 23, 2012 1:32 pm tigersfan Status new => resolved