Dear devs,
the current implementation of the most of the triggered machine spawns need improvements.
Good implementations
I really like how ticks are spawned from hunters, harvesters and tanks. A case is being dropped from which a tick emerges.
Although I dread the hotel defense mission the spawn mechanic here is pretty good. The machines appear in the distance and run towards the hotel. From a wave-based defense point of view this is pretty good.
Harvester calling for hunters
Cases are being dropped from mid-air from which hunters emerge. This is only the visual representation. In reality the hunters are being placed where the case will land with full transparency. You can shoot at them at that point right away without waiting for them to have zero transparency. This is very obvious if you use the exp. AG4.
I don’t know when this mechanic was implemented but for some reason the hunters shift around the moment they loose their transparency. This can be observed when they are being shot with bullets from the exp. AG4. The flames floating in the air move somewhere else.
This mechanic always seems a bit lackluster and like a WIP. But for some reason this mechanic is still as it is.
My suggestion is to have a larger container mounted on the harvesters from which the cases of the harvesters are being dropped like the cases containing the ticks. This way the spawn feels more true. I wouldn’t care if the container from which the hunters would be dropped can’t be destroyed.
FNIX bases
It feels like the locations from which the machines are spawned is as random as the total structure of those bases. Some machines need to run to the player and others spawn right in front of the char.
My suggestion: let the machines spawn inside rooms only (those rooms need at least one door essentially). If the player is inside of one of those rooms or looking in a room let the machines spawn in the other rooms. Alternatively the machines can be spawned just out of sight in a certain distance or add some form of spawn container from which the machines move towards the player.
I know that this might get complicated in multiplayer but immersion is essential imho.
Home bases
Here the machines appear similarly to the hotel defense mission but they are too close and the spawn of the machines can be observed.
My suggestion: since there are already 17 possible locations for home bases (the initial home base in the forest, the 4 FNIX bases in the forest which can be transformed to home bases and the 12 FNIX bases in the farmlands), this might be some work. The area around the home bases need some roughness to have spawn points outside the players field of view so the machines are able to spawn hidden and run towards the home base.
Other spawn variations
Some missions and locations have machines to be spawned at a certain time. Those spawns are usually very rough having the machines just appear out of thin air (this happenes also in the FNIX research lab west of Ă–verby lufthavn).
My suggestion: as said before machines need to spawn outside the field of view and not just stand in the middle of nowhere.
There might be additional spawn mechanics which can be optimized but I think the list above covers most of them.
Solving all of them is truly a massive undertaking so I would love to start with the hunter spawns from harvesters and then go to the FNIX base machine spawns.
If you plan to add additional FNIX bases (please no) make the area spawn friendly and update the already existing locations as it was already done.