With 4 player multi-crew coming I think a lot of people will play it and it could be a lot of fun, but it's missing a vital part of the experience - The feeling of being in a team, succeeding and failing, learning and achieving things together.
To help to make this better can I make couple of small suggestions?
1. Please consider the ship the team fly in to be the mothership.
Do not dismiss it to space, even if the owning commander dies.
Instead leave it where it was parked and if anyone dies, respawn them inside the mothership where it was parked, not at the nearest station or in orbit.
The mothership was landed deliberately at a location - it should stay where it is until manually dismissed.
The reason for this is simple. If a member of the crew dies while on a mission with their friends, they appear at the nearest station (or last station) this kills the multicrew experience as they have to make their way back to the team by their own means instead of getting right back into the action with their friends, this can take an extremely long time and ruins the experience. It makes multi-crew foot missions pointless, everyone may as well bring their own ship. The team went on a mission to do a thing, not wait for their friends to re-join after a long trip back to the team.
If the mothership has been dismissed to space, the crewmate can't land the ship themselves if they do not own it.
The best thing is to just leave it on planet & respawn there as a kind of operating base.
If a commander does dismiss the mothership and a crewmate dies, then the commander should recall the ship once the party member has respawned on it. But this should be an edge case, not the normal behaviour. It should be the commanders choice to perhaps go to a location where the violence is less and recall the ship there so they can regroup and try again.
Here's a Use Case for this:
As a team mate,
I appreciate that space is dangerous and my team rely on me. I joined the team to enjoy gameplay together, My team and the mission we are undertaking together may be far from where my own ship is parked, or the last station that I stood on, I would like the option to respawn on the mothership, thus keeping the team together on mission when things go bad, allowing for more gameplay opportunities.
As the owner of the mothership,
I would like to choose where to land the ship so myself and the rest of the team can depart, safe knowing that should we fall, we can be revived on the mothership and that it's exactly where it was left should we need to make a hasty retreat. I would still like the option of dismissing the ship to orbit if I feel that it is in danger, but I would expect that to be my choice, not an automatic feature. If the mothership is destroyed, then there will be no place to respawn... we'll all have to be revived back on the station unless one of the team takes an Apex shuttle and fetches another ship we can have as our mothership.
The ship we join as multi-crew should be deemed to be the Mothership.
2. Can we please revive our friends with a med-kit.
In the description it's stated that they're not dead. So like in other games, give the player a chance to be revived.
Let a crewmate help them and continue the mission instead of them having no choice but to respawn.
Make this an option for the team member, have it so they can choose to wait to be revived - while the rest of the team apply a med-kit (or scramble to find one) or they can choose to respawn in the mothership. Or they can choose to respawn at the nearest station. Make it their choice so they can be tactical about it with their play session.
Here's a Use Case for this:
As a player with a med-kit,
I want to revive my friends and get on with the mission.
As a player without a med-kit
I want to revive my friends, but first I must find a med-kit... where's the bloomin' medkit?.. Hang on there Barry, I'm coming!
As a fallen player,
I don't want to respawn and then walk back to my friends who parked the ship over 2km away from the mission if they have a med-kit handy or could get hold of one. I would like the choice to wait, to respawn at the ship or to respawn at the last station I stood on. Then I can get back into it and continue the mission.
In closing
I believe these changes would make the multi-crew foot based gameplay a very compelling addition to the game. It would give a sense of being in a team, much in the same way that other 4 player co-op games do. We're in this together and can someone please revive Scorb.. again!
To help to make this better can I make couple of small suggestions?
1. Please consider the ship the team fly in to be the mothership.
Do not dismiss it to space, even if the owning commander dies.
Instead leave it where it was parked and if anyone dies, respawn them inside the mothership where it was parked, not at the nearest station or in orbit.
The mothership was landed deliberately at a location - it should stay where it is until manually dismissed.
The reason for this is simple. If a member of the crew dies while on a mission with their friends, they appear at the nearest station (or last station) this kills the multicrew experience as they have to make their way back to the team by their own means instead of getting right back into the action with their friends, this can take an extremely long time and ruins the experience. It makes multi-crew foot missions pointless, everyone may as well bring their own ship. The team went on a mission to do a thing, not wait for their friends to re-join after a long trip back to the team.
If the mothership has been dismissed to space, the crewmate can't land the ship themselves if they do not own it.
The best thing is to just leave it on planet & respawn there as a kind of operating base.
If a commander does dismiss the mothership and a crewmate dies, then the commander should recall the ship once the party member has respawned on it. But this should be an edge case, not the normal behaviour. It should be the commanders choice to perhaps go to a location where the violence is less and recall the ship there so they can regroup and try again.
Here's a Use Case for this:
As a team mate,
I appreciate that space is dangerous and my team rely on me. I joined the team to enjoy gameplay together, My team and the mission we are undertaking together may be far from where my own ship is parked, or the last station that I stood on, I would like the option to respawn on the mothership, thus keeping the team together on mission when things go bad, allowing for more gameplay opportunities.
As the owner of the mothership,
I would like to choose where to land the ship so myself and the rest of the team can depart, safe knowing that should we fall, we can be revived on the mothership and that it's exactly where it was left should we need to make a hasty retreat. I would still like the option of dismissing the ship to orbit if I feel that it is in danger, but I would expect that to be my choice, not an automatic feature. If the mothership is destroyed, then there will be no place to respawn... we'll all have to be revived back on the station unless one of the team takes an Apex shuttle and fetches another ship we can have as our mothership.
The ship we join as multi-crew should be deemed to be the Mothership.
2. Can we please revive our friends with a med-kit.
In the description it's stated that they're not dead. So like in other games, give the player a chance to be revived.
Let a crewmate help them and continue the mission instead of them having no choice but to respawn.
Make this an option for the team member, have it so they can choose to wait to be revived - while the rest of the team apply a med-kit (or scramble to find one) or they can choose to respawn in the mothership. Or they can choose to respawn at the nearest station. Make it their choice so they can be tactical about it with their play session.
Here's a Use Case for this:
As a player with a med-kit,
I want to revive my friends and get on with the mission.
As a player without a med-kit
I want to revive my friends, but first I must find a med-kit... where's the bloomin' medkit?.. Hang on there Barry, I'm coming!
As a fallen player,
I don't want to respawn and then walk back to my friends who parked the ship over 2km away from the mission if they have a med-kit handy or could get hold of one. I would like the choice to wait, to respawn at the ship or to respawn at the last station I stood on. Then I can get back into it and continue the mission.
In closing
I believe these changes would make the multi-crew foot based gameplay a very compelling addition to the game. It would give a sense of being in a team, much in the same way that other 4 player co-op games do. We're in this together and can someone please revive Scorb.. again!
would seem more appropriate than changing the current respawn mechanic