Feature request - improving rivals

Feedback/Feature Requests
1

I think many of us like, that there are machines that are stronger than others, but limited in their amount. I talk about the rivals.

What some of us don’t like as much is that these rivals aren’t very special. Well, they are stronger, have an own leveling/experience system and have own names that show where they come from. But that’s all.

They look the same as the other machines of the same class, have the same weapons, the same behaviour, the same weak points.

What if they would be more than just that?

Summary:

  • change them optically by
  • more armor,
  • other or additional weapons and
  • additional components and features.
  • change their their behaviour by changing how they react on nearby players
  • change their presentation (on the map)

In detail:

Optical changes

Imagine rivals getting some more armor or other upgrades you can see instead of just making them stronger.

Or what about additional components?
I just imagined a hunter which gets a reaper-like shield generator at its back.
There could also be experimental stealth generators at their back which just aren’t active if they start an attack (you would need IR-view to see them). Or smoke, gas or shock generators. Or seeker-like sound modules.

You would be able to destroy these components, but as they would be on their back, it wouldn’t be too easy.

The same could count for runner rivals.

Tank rivals could get some more armor at critical points or additional weapons. Maybe there could also be one shield generator at highest level.

Harvesters could get more armor and also smoke generators or a defensive weapon like a mine layer.

The reaper should be updated, too. Well, it already is very strong and deadly, but if you know how to beat him, it’s just time consuming, not much harder. It’s just difficult to destroy him before he starts his suizide. Why should he do that?

So the reapers health or armor could be a bit less, the suizide should be removed (it’s the Boss, he should fight 'til the end) and he could also get a smoke generator for making it harder to target specific components without using IR-view. He could also get another weapon under his head. The only tank with 3 weapons. Maybe an additional flamethrower?

The soviet rivals would need to get an update, too, of course. In my eyes the wolf rivals could get armor plates like a turtle.
Their weapons (the launchers) are very easy to destroy while the gattling isn’t. They should get secured by the armore, maybe add another weapon on top.
A smoke generator would be awesome for them.

Maybe they could get a trophy system to intercept incoming rockets with a chance of maybe 75% (destroy the component to destroy this ability).

So what about lynx rivals? I haven’t seen one yet, but maybe they are possible like runners may become rivals.
They could get an instant rotating saw blade around their ball surrounding frame as well as some more armor plates.

Behaviour

For all rivals it would also be cool if they wouldn’t just roam around, but would try to hunt the players. They could have a radius of maybe 1km within their region where they would automatically start chasing the players instead of waiting to get attacked by us.

Presentation

Rivals shouldn’t be seen on the map all the time. By this it could be more exciting. But instead there could be a message if you get within the radius of a rivals like “RIVALS NAME has detected you and is on the hunt. Be careful.”
If you spot the rival, it will be shown for about half an hour (or more, or less) on the map, not earlier. I imagine there could be some surprises when just walking around.

7 Likes
2

They should be more tactical, meaning not just fire at a single player but the one that is the most threat. Instead of a shock wave a EMP blast that disables ALL exp weapons and ammo for a short time. And is deployed like the mines, get to close to one and it goes off and your KVM 59 doesn’t shoot for a short time or any weapon you have that is using exp ammo.

I don’t like the idea of the rivals not showing up on the map. When hosting, a new guest joins and stumbles on a rival. Destroys it before you can stop them…or damage it beyond defending itself.

I like the additionally armor idea. Harvesters are just to easy to take down after they can’t spawn any more hunters or runners. They need a lot more defense abilities.

3

There are pros and cons.
Random joining players wouldn’t be able just to hunt your rivals and leave after looting.

And I suggested that a rival just is shown on the map, if it has been spotted by a player. There could also be a message like “rival spotted”.

4

I’m all for this for a long while now , rivals would disrupt any of your plans and missions !

5

Could be like a “Fog Of War” setting where you don’t see rivals on the map if you can’t see them in line of sight (LOS). But you can “see” the LOS of all the other players too. Then the optics can be used to see further than standard LOS. And it only lasts long enough to view the map once after using optics. Can still see landmarks and safe houses on the map and can still use “track” and place way points via the map.

6

first thing if they have to be more smarter its takes kinda long time for developers to add it and second thing. reapers suizide has to stay because it knows that you gonna loot him the reaper was proggramed to do specific orders if low status suizide. third of most important rivals HELL YEAH they need to be different. more components is to much because it just give to much work for them and alot bugs. they should just have more armor and durabilty on theyre weapons.

but @Madchaser why only harvesters and tanks? theres wolf, lynx, runner and hunter. its like you specificily want bigger robots being different. the runner can have an alarm as rival with weapons like slap that nearby the fuel tank.

7

I mentioned every machine, except ticks and seekers. This idea isn’t final of course. Just suffestions which I of course may edit by your ideas :wink:

I don’t see the sense. I didn’t get much better loot when I destroyed it, instead of looting him after suizide yet. May be bad luck, but that many times?

I agree. That’s why I didn’t mention that.

8

First, I agree with revamping the rivals and beefing them up. The higher the player level, the more challenging rivals to show up.

Farmlands is the largest area in the game. It’s huge compared to every other region, especially in landmass. I would like to see the rival count max raise to 10 or possibly 12 for farmlands. It’s convenient to be able to avoid rivals. One of the rp aspects I imagine they are for is that the player has shown great resistance, so these machines are becoming present to stop them. With such a vast amount of landmass present in the farmlands, I think FNIX would “deploy” more rivals in that area to better search it.

Maybe have rivals also destroy other machines to repair themselves, like their components to replace their broken ones. Maybe they can retreat and disappear off the map for a short time while the regain full health/armor and reappear when that’s finished.

I think raising the max levels would be nice. Go to 8 at player level 25, and then 12 by player level 35. Possibly higher, dependant on schematics unlocked.

1 Like
9

I think that it’s stupid that you have to let rivals live in order to spawn a Reaper. I think that needs a change. The Big bad Boss should only spawn when he need to take care of business. And to be honest if all rivals roam around cluttering up the map. Why would they send in the heavy artillery since the rivals are there. If we kill a bunch of them then Fnix could se the need for sending a Reaper in and take care of the threat.

3 Likes
10

Yes.
I think it should be something like a boss rival, which it technically already is, but just with a chance to spawn if do not lower the region score by killing rivals.

It’s a bit weird, like you said.

Currently I have no good idea how to improve the region level/score system in a perfect way…

11

It’s not optimal but maybe that you need to kill a certain amount of rivals in order for it to spawn. Or give rivals points based on lvl and you need to destroy a certain amount of points before it can spawn.

Because as it is now it is super annoying when I’m in a fight and suddenly one of the machines become a rival and now I can’t kill it if I want the Reaper to appear.

3 Likes
12

I shall mention it :joy:

They need learning AI that gets better over time, something that updates itself until destroyed. Learns from its mistakes and hunts its target more effectively.

As for the Reaper: it should also learn but it shouldn’t reset after death instead, every time you kill the Reaper, it comes back smarter.

If it can be done, I would like to see it regardless of time.

1 Like
13

I also have a crazy suggestion.
Imagine an event! where 6 to 24 players can go on an island… And together you would have to fight a walking fortress. And depending on your ability and how often you want to participate, there are some special ranks and rewards. However, it would have to be fair and newcomers shouldn’t fight alongside veterans, of course. Since there are many character levels, it should be balanced. it would certainly be interesting if there were a kind of local and global ranking system.
Of course I was just thinking about it here.

1 Like
14

This should be an own topic.
There is much I could imagine… Like something like Warzone DMZ on Östertörn with machines everywhere, different factions and missions to do before extraction.
But that’s not the topic.

15

That’s probably true. I just wanted to bring in the idea. In general, it will not be easy if you change the entire structure of the machines from the current state to super smart. Therefore, the island would be over
himfjäll optimal for this kind of completely complex machines.

16

the robot designs i realised was weird. prototype class no extra armor. military and fnix extra armor, apocolypse class completely redesigned.

The prototype class design is reasonable and fair. but military and fnix uses the same design but just different colors and thats it? ( of course fnix is more durable but it doesnt look like more durable! )
apocolypse class actually has something! it looks durable. it has chemicals and very looking like apocolypse. ( soviets should be ignored because its reasonable to use the same designs just because humans made those robots. from my guess. )

and i know its off topic but its something to know about. ( pretty much more info about robots how they look like. )

17

You’re right.
It’s basically the same, just with another skin.
It didn’t disturb me yet. I always thought, it’s basically a specialized military force. A more aggressive “black ops” version, you could say. Different armament is all they need in general. But I agree, some small additions wouldn’t be bad.

Some more armor in front of their faces and for protecting their energy cells could be enough.