if someone doesnt participate in the war because the game doesnt have automatic aoe swarm deleter and invincible ship on their ass to repair and rearm on site, i dont think thats the games fault...
It might not always be the game’s fault, but consider that even if players
do have the necessary skill(or persistence) to do the space AXCZs, they might not want to throw lots and lots of materials at ammo synths in order to complete them(and good luck getting all the way through a high when you end up dealing with 2 or more Medusas - even in a low CZ that is likely to have you end up with the need to throw more ammo at your weapons on the fly).
You might say, “Not an issue”. I say, it is an unnecessary gameplay disruption because it sends you off to some brain tree or shard and (if you intend to use Guardian weapons) the Guardian sites for all the respective synth materials. The only one you might get covered “Just by playing” is picking up G5 material mission rewards in a nearby alert system.
I don’t consider that very exciting or “engaging game design”. Stop your fun gameplay to do something that is a chore which you have no other reason to do (like visit the Guardian sites for blueprints, that I currently do not need) so you can have fun again. Woohoo.
So yes, I fight in space AXCZs and am capable of completing them to the Hydra stage even if they throw two Medusas or three Basilisks at me(which doesn’t appear to be that uncommon), but I have my reasons to think why [I believe] having the rearm/repair option available in at least some of the counterstrikes, like the populated ones, would be a good thing. Just throw it into the Very High intensity zones or stop making port conflicts a mind numbing spam of 50 Cyclops and maybe once or twice a Basilisk.
I’ve seen more Medusas and Basis fighting in open space CZs in a few days than in a few months fighting port conflicts. Or so it feels like, anyway.
And I’m totally fine with that, because it gives me a challenge more adequate to my level than slaughtering hapless Cyclops that I care so little about I don’t even drop heatsinks to shoot them up, in the dozens. Most of the time, anyway. Not something I’d do while I’m getting shot by one of the tougher ones…
… but the origin of that behavior is not burning excessively through material reserves even though heatsink synths are about the cheapest and easiest synth to commit/replace.
Also, in the event of a Glaive spawn, do you enjoy just sitting there twiddling your thumbs if you decided to not run a hybrid or full AXMC build, while you wait for your AFMU to get all four from 0 back to 80 or 100? Or would you prefer having the option to not be a sitting duck by doing the same at a port/the equivalent of a dockable megaship and not have a bunch of time wasted by something completely unavoidable (that is also RNG based)?
Also, yes, I
am aware the high end CZs are more likely to be a group activity, or intended as one, and so while I’m fighting solo I’ve been sticking to low intensity. Still seen my fair share of Basilisks and Medusas in the last few days. And also brought all of them down so far.
So, again, not an issue of skill but simple convenience to the player. Certainly in my case. Frankly, I see little difference in the “self-sufficient ship” repair game or doing it at a resupply zone(whatever form that would take), except for the time required with your hands mostly idle or boosting away from a pursuing Thargoid, because repair limpets are destroyed even if you’re hit on the complete opposite side of the hull by something as weak as a single Thargon projectile.
(But they’re totally fine if your ship gets zapped by Interceptor lightning.)
And the flak launcher… it’s a joke. Period. Either it needs a buff or some other player-guided means (
not automated) of killing the Thargons. Because, frankly, with 32 shots… you might kill 2 or 3, maybe 4, Cyclops swarms. Or 2 for a Basilisk? Been a while since I’ve used it, and for the simple reason that it’s almost completely
useless. There’s a very large abundance of Thargon swarms in CZs that will also be thrown out upon destruction of each heart of an Interceptor, and you can guess what it leads back to. Lots and lots of ammo synths for the flak launcher which are not easily replaceable. And it takes a few well-placed shots of it to even start denting the swarms noticeably. Providing it as a C3 hardpoint with more ammo would be a start.
Then, there’s the matter of swarms being extremely erratic and just switching targets on the fly at complete random, sometimes even in the middle of a kamikaze missile strike. Good luck trying to consistently making the flak work with that, as opposed to the “old style” AX where it would be 100% predictable and only follows you.
… also that its aim indicator is completely broken with trailing sights so you just have to hard guess where you might need to lead(doesn’t really work well in my opinion). And trailing is quite often used with modshards and plasmas. I use shards.
Might as well be an almost obsolete module. As is I see so little reasons to even think of bothering with the flak I just run a vent beam laser(which couples quite neatly with AX multicannons) and ignore the swarms beyond attempting to avoid their missiles as best as possible. Or just taking them and fixing the damage later if I really need to.
Thanks for coming to the TED
talk wall of text.
