Troopers! This transmission comes directly from Sky Marshal Ramsey! Listen closely and take notes if you have to, as this will only be sent out once!
Please Note: What you’re about to hear is Work-In-Progress and Subject to Change.
Reinforcements
“Troopers, these mounting battlefield losses have been unacceptable! I will not have the security of the Federation jeopardized by sloppy fieldwork. Effective immediately, I am coordinating with the rest of Terran Command to mitigate the loss of materiel in the Deep Space Vanguard… as well as to reduce casualties. We will expect better of you down on the field in the future.”
- Sky Marshal Catherine Ramsey
Introducing Reinforcements
With the next update we are introducing the reinforcements mechanic. Vanguard Teams will now have a limited number of respawns available during each mission. This means each death carries more weight with it, and it will be up to each trooper, especially those valiant medics, to keep other troopers alive. Remember teamwork is essential when you’re fighting Archie!
How Does the Reinforcement System Work?
Troopers will be deployed to each mission with a predetermined amount of reinforcement respawns for their team. The quantity of respawns available varies based on the mission's designated mode and its corresponding difficulty level. Generally, missions categorized as less challenging will afford a greater number of reinforcements compared to higher-difficulty missions. During a mission, when a trooper dies and is not just incapacitated, the team's total reinforcements will go down by 1 and then the deceased trooper can respawn. When reinforcements hit 0, the mission is called off and immediate extraction will be called in.
Troopers will be able to gain extra reinforcements from activities in the field. This can be done by successfully completing designated side objectives or by achieving significant progress within the ongoing mission.
The Design Intent:
The implementation of the Reinforcement feature has a few goals that we’d like to share.
Make Death Meaningful.
The Reinforcement system should make reviving incapacitated troopers much more important and it should make the updated medic a much more active player in the field.
Want to stay standing? Protect your medics!
Make the Game Harder!
Reinforcements make it so you have another thing to manage out in the field. It should make side objectives more meaningful as well, as they can help earn more reinforcements.
- For Recruit difficulty, it should exist as a way to introduce players to the system but shouldn’t affect the win rate too aggressively.
- On Trooper difficulty we should see some more mission failures but it shouldn’t feel like you are fighting against all odds all the time!
- On Veteran difficulty though, that’s where we hope to push our Troopers to the limit. Also, this is just one of the areas we are looking at to spice up difficulty.
Get ready to arm up, Troopers. Archie can smell weakness, so make sure it doesn’t smell like you.
Future Plans
- Having the Reinforcement system gives us the ability to run weekend events in the future in which we can change the amount of respawns in a mode or even disable them entirely. It also opens the door for some mutators in the future. (“...M.I. does the dying”)
───
You heard the Sky Marshall, Troopers! We can’t afford unnecessary losses in these upcoming fights so make sure you have each other's back out there! That's all for this transmission! We expect more to come, so stay on your feet.
If you want to find fellow troopers to chat with to be part of your team to ensure the future of the Federation or provide feedback to us, the devs come join the ST:E Community Discord!