What is the purpose of the missions' threat level?

[Ydiss]

They did make quick work of my SRV tbf.

Edit: Shields and 1/2 hull while waiting for the cockpit to load. Didn’t stick around to see what weapons they were using.

I was doing a restore mission at the gauntlet agri base the other night.

I was making my way back out and looting as I went when I saw "your ship is under attack". The settlement has its small pad about 400m away. There was no chance I was getting there in time. Soon enough, "your ship has been destroyed".

I emerged from the building and jumped into my SRV to count the scavs...

14. 7 nearby and 7 by my destroyed ship. I destroyed them systematically (3 by landing my srv on their heads) but they definitely won that fight (had to take an Apex, pay 450k rebuy for my ship and wait for it to be delivered - that last part, I think is OTT - we never need to wait if we were in the ship).

I don't know what threat that mission was. I hope it was 5. But from now on, I'm booking it back out from that settlement every time I do a restore mission there. Not that this ever happened before. It did feel needlessly punitive and a bit excessive. But I should have expected it from this hellish variant of settlement.

Again, I'd be expecting this sort of event to be tagged as threat 7 or 8.

 

[Athlon-uk]

Watched a few of Ydiss’s videos on stealth, and they are quite educational. Only had scavs at 1 restore mission, I nuked them from the air in a sindwinder (cheap rebuy if it all goes horribly wrong) Would you say it’s probably wise to dismiss the ship on any mission regardless of threat lvl?

 

[metatheurgist]

Coming out of a particularly delicious building that gave 3 Ionised and 3 Compressed gas I saw 2 ships dropping reinforcements at the same time. Can't remember the threat level.

 

[Guyperson]

I don't know what threat that mission was. I hope it was 5. But from now on, I'm booking it back out from that settlement every time I do a restore mission there. Not that this ever happened before. It did feel needlessly punitive and a bit excessive. But I should have expected it from this hellish variant of settlement.

I usually park my ship behind a ridge or something because of AI behaviour like this, rather than at the settlement's pad. Plus it avoids post-reactivation fire if you've managed to anger a settlement before turning the power on. The SRV I like to leave behind a rock or wall, or on a sufficiently wide roof.

Also I can confirm that if you steal another player's regulator while they're off looting other buildings it resets the objective on them, even if you have nothing to do with them or their mission whatsoever.

 

[Screemonster]

The concept of "1v1" just doesn't really exist in EDO. Not unless you know how to force it. Even when you do, it's only a matter of time before you're swarmed.

Honestly, this is true of the base game as well. Once you've got a few upgrades under your belt, a cmdr is nearly always the most dangerous individual on the battlefield. Nothing you'll encounter in PvE short of a thargoid interceptor can really stand up to a G5'd ship in a 1v1, and the same is true in odyssey - a lone commando going up against a commander with G3-4 gear might as well just run directly into a propeller for all the good it'll do.

The problem is, there never is just one, and they're smart enough to flank you and use grenades to flush you out of cover.

 

[Ydiss]

Honestly, this is true of the base game as well. Once you've got a few upgrades under your belt, a cmdr is nearly always the most dangerous individual on the battlefield. Nothing you'll encounter in PvE short of a thargoid interceptor can really stand up to a G5'd ship in a 1v1, and the same is true in odyssey - a lone commando going up against a commander with G3-4 gear might as well just run directly into a propeller for all the good it'll do.

The problem is, there never is just one, and they're smart enough to flank you and use grenades to flush you out of cover.

Yeh, the main difference is EDH allows you to pick and choose easier or harder content quite freely. EDO does nothing of the sort when it comes to combat. I'm saying this from the suggested perspective of a new player; I'm quite happy for it to throw challenging scenarios at me. I'm actually quite pleased that there still are the odd somewhat challenging moments. Even though I'm now fully G5, if I am lazy and don't focus then it's pretty easy to end up getting battered quickly. So not bad at that end, just very difficult to gauge as a new player.

 

[Screemonster]

Yeh, the main difference is EDH allows you to pick and choose easier or harder content quite freely. EDO does nothing of the sort when it comes to combat. I'm saying this from the suggested perspective of a new player; I'm quite happy for it to throw challenging scenarios at me. I'm actually quite pleased that there still are the odd somewhat challenging moments. Even though I'm now fully G5, if I am lazy and don't focus then it's pretty easy to end up getting battered quickly. So not bad at that end, just very difficult to gauge as a new player.

Now if you could figure out whether the threat level indicated the odds of some mission wrinkle spawning that'd be great, haha.

The biggest ones are when a massacre mission gets tipped off so they know you're coming (fun when it's the settlement near me has only one anti-ship gun and no point defence, less fun when it's the military installation that has a CAP full of anacondas and a goliath on standby) or assassination missions where the target flees and gets redirected to a nearby crash site PoI (frankly makes the entire mission trivial since it's one of the few cases where it is just a 1v1 fight)

 

[mdsilva]

I think the whole thing is broken at the moment though. As I said in another thread, I've done heaps of power on the settlement missions and have NEVER had baddies drop in. The only time was in the tutorial.

That's exactly what I think. Is not working so far

 

[Rooster Podunk]

I'll say it right up front. If YOU know how to get my finger memory (with all the new keybinds) able to tackle the challenge of 10 skimmers is gonna take a lot of dying on my part.

Look, developers, your player base didn't all grow up living in a Doom dungeon. Some of us (shocker), are just regular folks who have no goal in life to become Rambo 3305. I'd love to actually succeed in one of these missions but when you put a 70 yo's FPS skills in a room full of skimmers I can tell you right now who's my bet will go on.

 

[Bromopar]

Just did a crash site mission with a threat level of 2 for the POI. I flew overhead and spotted 8 scavs on the ground that started firing heavy plasma launchers at me, downed my Eagle's shields in seconds. Decided to try and face them on foot hoping I could do a "divide and conquer" by running around the rocks. I was expecting the scavs to take cover and send in the occasional flanker that I could pick off. 20-30 seconds later all eight scavs were in my face chucking grenades at my feet and blasting me with every weapon known to the game. Needless to say my strategy failed and I was very quickly made a part of the dirt with nothing to show for it but an Eagle that lost nearly 25% of it's hull.

My guess for these missions is that Frontier expect you to attack initially using your ship and then mop up any stragglers with your SRV/FPS weapons. How you would setup a ship for ground pounding I'm not 100% sure but my initial impressions are explosive weapons like dumbfire rockets and cannons should do nicely. Miniguns should also wreck a fair amount of havoc.

WHY Frontier would insist on this is anyone's guess. I'd be shocked if even THEY knew. I've run several on foot missions with various threat levels and the enemies are always severely O.P. for someone with a level one or level two suit. You may as well not even bother half the time. It's nothing short of infuriating.

 

[Bromopar]

Just did a crash site mission with a threat level of 2 for the POI. I flew overhead and spotted 8 scavs on the ground that started firing heavy plasma launchers at me, downed my Eagle's shields in seconds. Decided to try and face them on foot hoping I could do a "divide and conquer" by running around the rocks. I was expecting the scavs to take cover and send in the occasional flanker that I could pick off. 20-30 seconds later all eight scavs were in my face chucking grenades at my feet and blasting me with every weapon known to the game. Needless to say my strategy failed and I was very quickly made a part of the dirt with nothing to show for it but an Eagle that lost nearly 25% of it's hull.

My guess for these missions is that Frontier expect you to attack initially using your ship and then mop up any stragglers with your SRV/FPS weapons. How you would setup a ship for ground pounding I'm not 100% sure but my initial impressions are explosive weapons like dumbfire rockets and cannons should do nicely. Miniguns should also wreck a fair amount of havoc.

WHY Frontier would insist on this is anyone's guess. I'd be shocked if even THEY knew. I've run several on foot missions with various threat levels and the enemies are always severely O.P. for someone with a level one or level two suit. You may as well not even bother half the time. It's nothing short of infuriating.

And ship missions aren't any better. A threat 1 mission had four ships jump my Adder, one of them was big because I couldn't frame jump out due to mass interference. Boosted like crazy but couldn't make it out.

I can't help but feel like all threat levels, ship or on foot are balanced around a four person group which is ridiculous because a large number of players play this solo or with one friend. Maybe I'm out of line but I feel like a threat one or two mission should have one or two enemies. Maybe three if they're small ships. Not a four NPC wing lead by a Python.

 

[krupps]

 

[Morbad]

Just realized this was a major necro.

Anyway, those threat 8 missions aren't new and tend to just indicate large numbers of high-rank/Engineered opposition.

 

[lysan]

They should just remove the threat level and if there is a chance of combat just write bring a gun, everything else is pointless, they actually state if it's a team mission aka more stuff to shoot.

 

[Frankymole]

Why all these threat levels? Threat levels for missions, for Signal sources, for thargoids, none of them are thematic or consistent. It's so disorganized-there's no consistency to any part of this game.

Just ignore them.

Unless Threat 0, there is a random chance of enemies.

 

[HappySpaceInvdr]

I had just 2 drop at a lvl 3 the other day. Just to contribute to the knowledge base.

I had 6 drop at a Threat Level 1 mission... roll the dice! But how many sides does it have, eh? Who knows?

I've been doing back to back restoration missions in anarchy systems that are always listed "Threat Level 4"... but after 6 such missions, I've yet to encounter any hostiles. I can stay at each one, pick it clean... and then set up a deck chair and stair at the scenery until I get bored and head back home.

 

[Aris Tarkus]

Completely random to my mind. Took a threat level 8 passenger mission a while back and never was approached by another ship. For passenger missions, I think the threat level goes up related to the distance/number of stops on the mission, unless the passenger is wanted or has a bounty or something.

 

[Frankymole]

Completely random to my mind. Took a threat level 8 passenger mission a while back and never was approached by another ship. For passenger missions, I think the threat level goes up related to the distance/number of stops on the mission, unless the passenger is wanted or has a bounty or something.

When in need of a cash boost, I load up with VIP passengers (usually crime lords) for sightseeing a jump away (Jaques station beacons). Never been interdicted once. All high threat, all completely danger-free.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

I have taken threat 5 missions and not seen a anything moving,I've also had threat level 0 smuggling missions to a guard standing slap bang in the centre of a high security military base crossed by three other guards and an Interpol officer...

 

[Frankymole]

I have taken threat 5 missions and not seen a anything moving,I've also had threat level 0 smuggling missions to a guard standing slap bang in the centre of a high security military base crossed by three other guards and an Interpol officer...

I've had Threat 1 collect-an-item-from-crash-site which have had wave after wave (3 or 4 waves in total) of heavily armed scavengers from drop ships instantly show up... and threat 3 ones where nothing happens after many relogs.... it's so random.