I empathise, having been through the exact same scenario on and off for a few days now (carrying a team of randoms as well). That said, I did eventually start winning some blueprints. R. N. Jesus will smile upon you soon.

Making friends and forming a squad is a good way to maximise the chances of winning the blueprint you want. It's more frustrating when the same blueprint drops over and over (or none at all), and when the one you want does eventually drop, a random player wins it, repeatedly. Prologue is the worst in this regard because it has the highest number of fresh players who wouldn't have the blueprints. Alien Myths is a bit better.

Try adding some friends though, it improves most aspects of the game, loot included. That said, I play mostly solo as well, so I hope my suggestion doesn't invalidate my advice for you. It costs nothing to add some friends.

But you can still do all of those things without cheapening the economy of the game? That said, I still think you should earn gold for repeated single player runs, as I said above.

There's definitely a legitimate problem with the way Antagonist mode is handled right now. There will always be a matchmaking discrepancy as long as it's 4 raiders and 1 antagonist - and to make matters worse, antagonists aren't always issued to a group of raiders, so the queues are even longer because of it. I would suggest making antagonist mode mandatory, but there seems to be quite a few people who don't like having an invader in their game. I think the only solution there would be to allow people to queue without an antagonist for a quicker, easier match and a lower reward. High risk; high reward. Having an antagonist always makes matches far more interesting, but I can see players getting frustrated when they don't know how to counter them. It's a shame, because that's where the real meat of the game is.

Sorry about the ping - it's strange that it's so bad for you. I usually end up as host, and I'm situated in the Middle East at the moment. You need to get into my games, fam. If you're playing on PS4, I could add you.

I can't agree with the map design topic, as I really do love the frantic flow of each encounter. That's fine, to each his own. If they were to add a different type of PvE-centric map that was a bit larger though, I wouldn't complain, but I do really appreciate how games play out in their current format and wouldn't want that focus to change.

As for the lack of HQ in the first campaign, the locals don't have an HQ to speak of, they're very much scattered and fighting a guerilla war with the other factions. I do expect to see us traveling to the Fifth Council outpost and visiting the Wardogs on their turf in their respective campaigns, but I fully get what you mean. At face value, the levels are quite visually uninteresting and similar (if you happen to not enjoy sand or rocks), though I do think Prologue has some nice set pieces, as do In Shock and The Enemy Within.

I'm happy with the level of quality of the content they delivered, there just needed to be a bit more, I think. Hopefully the upcoming campaigns have some interesting design elements to them, and we get a few more options for modes.

no,there needs to be a melee rework
it doesn't work as intended and it just not fun at all.

The CQC system is actually very satisfying to master, and fair, though you will always have issues with poor latency getting in the way of a "grapple-off," but that's unavoidable. I understand your frustration, as the average player definitely doesn't know how the system works and they aren't inclined to go searching through menus to figure it out if they keep getting destroyed.

I have put forward a suggestion for a melee tutorial in another topic. Something optional and easy to introduce into the game.

The mission areas are way too small, turning the whole experience into a cartoon-ish runaround. I understand the game's format implies playing in limited areas, but that doesn't mean they all have to be small and cramped arenas.

I have to disagree here, if the maps were more open it would be impossible to balance Antagonist mode. The cramped spaces and frantic races to move from A to B create a lot of tension and opportunities to exploit or account for. The maps are excellent in this regard as both Raider and Antagonist, and I wouldn't change them.

Additionally, each setting of the game highlights very different parts of the world-building in this game. You get a great preview of what each faction is about just from the 5 levels currently available. Considering this particular campaign is based on the locals of the Broken Planet, and is set there, there is a great deal of variety, and a strong introduction to what each subsequent faction-themed campaign will offer. I think your issue roots from the fact that there isn't enough of it though, and I can't really disagree with you there. I can't see myself playing the same stuff for much longer. Something more is needed, even if it's just the announcement of the next campaign's release date.

I do agree that content seems light at the moment, and that the microtransactions seem a bit heavy. Particularly for certain characters like Shae whose costumes and weapons are more expensive. I think a legitimate concern, and the core of your post is that there isn't enough there for you to continue playing, and I agree with you even if I personally have been playing the game non-stop (not to detract from what I just said). The fact of the matter is, this is a small studio, and they've managed to put out a great deal of expensive content for a low price, they just need to be smart about how they operate going forward.

We do need some supplemental content between each campaign and a lower cost for some of the cosmetic items. Offering a few more rewards that are obtainable in-game without real money would be nice as well, but this needn't be skins, though that would be nice. There just needs to be an extra layer for the player to focus on.

Edit: Please, just don't introduce loot boxes or similar gambling mechanics requiring actual currency. I would quit cold turkey. It's the only reason I didn't buy Overwatch, and there are plenty of games that exploit their users using this cheap tactic.

Let me preface this by saying I'm loving the game so far, but I foresee an issue with a lack of content in the interim between campaign releases. Additionally, there have been requests on the forum for some kind of melee tutorial as many seem to be struggling to understand the flow of CQC in the game and the rock-paper-scissors nature of it.

With this in mind, I would like to suggest a small-scale, low-cost addition to the game that can be cobbled together with mostly re-used assets.

It would be easy enough to create a one-on-one arena using the map where players are teleported to during the final phase of The Enemy Within in the Alien Myths campaign. Only a basic backstory would be required: that you are playing mirrored shadow versions of a chosen raider, much like the actual encounter in the final boss fight of the campaign. The set up is that you are fighting "mano a mano" to decide the most ferocious antagonist to go out there and defeat some raiders in the name of the almighty Uras-Beherit, A few lines of dialogue from the man himself is all you'd require to provide some context.

This concept would be simple enough to use as an introduction to melee. That said, it could also be stretched into an additional source of content for antagonist players, considering the queue times are currently far too long. You could either keep the above scenario, and turn it into a ladder or tournament system where multiple antags are pitted against one another to duke it out, and the last man standing is awarded stigmas. Alternatively, a larger arena could be created and players could have a free-for-all with as many characters as the engine can smoothly handle in one map. I would assume 8 would be a safe number in a simple map without much detail. Obviously there are issues here where certain raiders, such as Lycus, are better in melee combat, but having everyone play the same character would even things out. This would still fit within the established lore.

I do definitely feel that antagonist mode needs some kind of supplemental content, particularly because the queue times are so heavily weighted in the raiders' favour. However, there's a consensus that many people don't enjoy the mode for varying reasons, but it's  a strict requirement for weapon and lore unlocks. Instead of removing the requirements, padding out the options available for ranking up would greatly improve the situation. Having an extra "mode" to queue for and earn stigmas with as an antagonist would greatly reduce frustration and queue times, I would hope.

TL;DR Use existing assets to create a melee tutorial for beginners, and adapt this into a full scale additional mode for antagonists to queue for and gain ranks with.