Some of these would be okay card ideas, but the mech is a stationary area denial thing.  It shouldn't be persistent.  It is there to act as a detour and to draw aggro.  If something is shooting at it, it's a life that's not at risk. 

That's all.  You kill one or two adds after it's gone....BOOM you got another. 

So yeah...It shouldn't be able to get kills and do objectives by itself. 

I disagree:

• The mech is hardly a detour, it doesn't negate enemy movement, I don't think it's much of roadblock as enemies could just go around it if they wanted, even in small environments the mech wouldn't be much of a roadblock, and it's close-quarter combat functions aren't dangerous enough to be a repellent in antagonists decision making when approaching it
• Secondly, when drawing aggro, it becomes exponentially less effective when match difficulty increases and it's swarmed with NPCs. And when a raider is separated from the rest of their team and their either under fire by closely-pursuing enemies, surrounded by a swarm or their in a situation where they have to be constantly moving, then they won't be able to call back the mech and either the mech will die first or the raider will die first, either way the mech's enemies will eventually just spill over.
  
• Maybe if Aneska could summon the mech on-the-fly, had a talent like Konstantin's 'Emergence,' summoning the mech instead of the repulsion sphere or if the mech activated additional attack features while overwhelmed. Then she could be more balanced

Perhaps Adding:
1. A Delayed summon feature, Holding the summoning trigger on the specified location places a beacon or an unseen marker that can be held for 5 seconds before the Mech arrives. This will give players time to relocate and potentially flank your enemy.

2. Buffer Shield: Like certain bosses Aneska's Mech should have a shield that negates too much damage being received from a single shot or over the course of a few seconds.

3. Give Aneska a limited range where she can summon her Mech a distance away as opposed to only in her immediate location.

4. Give the Mech a passive feature where shot from Grunts exclusively deal reduced damage.

That's all I got.

I like most of those ideas:

• I thought of an alternative to the delayed summon feature, instead of appearing after a delay, the mech could be cloaked and have two attack reaction ranges, one for close-proximity and one for mid-proximity that picks up aleph signatures: the first reaction applies a slow effect to enemies the first time they hit them, since the mech's last summon; and the second reaction pulls enemies into close proximity. Also the closer enemies are to the mech, the more damage they can recieve
• A buffer shield would be nice against cheap shots like sniper fire. Maybe as a retaliation, when players attack the mech or when they give off their aleph signature, the mech could fire heat seeking missiles that track their positions or maybe just land at the last location enemies fired from. I think the aleph signature tracking may be overkill actually, because Wardogs always have their aleph signature on, but they do move fast, so if the missiles don't move too fast then they could be balanced. Ohh! Maybe to combat snipers, missiles could accelerate the further they travel, however missile steering would decrease
• The ranged summoning is also a great idea: Alternative, Aneska can instantly summon her mech, but if she charges her summoning, then she can command her mech to either appear from her location and charge forward 5-10 meters, pushing away enemies it comes into contact with or appear 5-10 meters away and charge to her position, pushing enemies towards her direction. Maybe for the second command to be more viable, when Aneska and the mech are in close proximity, they buff eachother. Side Note: I think Aneska should be able to summon and charge-summon her mech from corners and behind cover
• I don't think the mech should have a passive resistance to grunt damage, because then it would be raider oriented and all characters should be relatively viable to play as both raiders and antagonists. Maybe instead of grunt damage resistance the mech could have crowd suppression abilities e.g. kuzmans blitzfaust or the bubble projectiles the mech uses when refueled on 'Destroyer of Worlds,' but to a less powerful degree

Thanks for the input ( :

XP only really matters for lower level players, so they can raise their forge skill, what about MAX forge skill and MAX level players? Shouldn't XP have something to offer us more than a few gold? Couldn't we gain something else for XP thats worth the time invested into getting it?

I feel Aneska is unviable and personally I believe her mech prevents her from being versatile and mobile. Her mech is the source of her character ability and most of her character talents, but the mech is quite impractical: when summoning her mech, she can't be on-the-fly and it makes a loud roar when summoned that can give away Aneska's position, it's very noticeable bright red hue (which is uncommon throughout the entire game) and huge size makes it easy to target and hit with low accuracy firing; it has no self preservation features besides an occasional melee attack that doesn't deal enough damage to kill even the weakest of enemies in a single blow; Aneska can't move while she summons or extracts the mech; and the only way it's health can be restored while active is by being shot at by Aneska, which means she has to stay by it's side while active or risk it getting attacked and killed.

My Solution:

• Aneska Buffs (Mech)
• Visibility: Reduce it's loudness, make it smaller or give it some camouflage or cloaking features
• Combat Self-Preservation: give it better offensive or defensive abilities: additional attack moves, increased melee damage, range or attack speed; low-damage rapid fire, durational, AOE debuffs; barriers that rotate around the mech with openings between them; a force field mode that activates when the mech is low on health that deactivates it's combat features and sends out a short distance pulse with a push effect
• Mech Recharging: while the mech is active, batteries can still be appear and if she continues to overload her mech's health bar, it can temporarily use additional attack features, like when Aneska refuels her mech in 'Destroyer of Worlds'

• Aneska Buffs (Summoner)
• Summoning: Aneska could have a firing mode that expends the rest of her weapon's clip and when activated, immediately teleports the mech to her location

In conclusion, I think Aneska shouldn't have to safeguard the mech or the mech be a burden that prevents players from effectively using it for different playstyles, it should be more capable at protecting itself and in certain situations be capable of protecting Aneska[/li]

The best way I can classify mission mechanics is by their impact on mission progression and their relatedness to aleph:


• The first system mainly divides mission mechanics by their impact on mission progression
• Progressive Mission Mechanics: Necessary to progress through the mission e.g. at the start of 'The Mouse and the Snake' raiders have to pull all the levers down in order to enter to the next stage of the mission
• Linear mission progression mechanics: mission objectives can only be accomplished by a single means e.g. in ‘A Weapon From The Past,’ raiders need aleph to progress through all stages
• Non-linear mission progression mechanics: can be accomplished by more than one means. For example, in 'The Beast's Lair,' players can choose between shooting at some of General Marmalade's Eyes or using the pig to shoot at his primary weak spot, and in 'Mind Over Matter,' when the fifth council is invulnerable, raiders can choose between either overloading the antenna and pulling the levers at the moment the Fifth Council walks in front of the electrocution or by defeating designated target enemies. Based on the mission or mission stage, antagonists can win matches through other means besides killing raiders e.g. in the final stage of ‘No Reservations,’ the antagonist can win by preventing aleph refuels to the engine until it runs out
• Non-Progressive Mission Mechanics: don’t progress the mission further, but based on the mission or mission stage and whether you're playing as a raider or an antagonist can either obstruct or help players progress through objectives e.g. turrets on ‘A Low Blow’


• The second system divides mechanics by their relatedness to aleph
• Aleph-based mechanics
• Aleph: how far it can be thrown, how fast it explodes, where it spawns, how much of an impact it has on characters, etc.
• Aleph Storages: what can contain aleph, but also where it can be extracted from e.g. elites, wardog looters, etc.
• Aleph-based Systems: can be fueled with aleph e.g. elite abilities, engines, roots (Double Agent), antennas (Mind Over Matter), the pig (The Beast's Lair), extractors (Short Fuse), etc.
• Non-Aleph mechanics include anything that doesn't require aleph to function or exist: turrets, canisters and artillery tanks (Short Fuse), barriers (A low Blow), flowers (Double Agent, first stage), terminals, etc.

*In some cases aleph can be either necessary or unnecessary to progress through missions based on the mission and it's stages e.g. in the first stage of 'Enemy Within,' aleph randomly spawns around the map, though it has no direct impact on the objective at that stage; In the next stage it can be used to overload the creature, which gives it additional importance to obtaining in the first stage of the mission

I have played only one match on 'Short Fuse' today since the new update, but there already seems to be some significant bugs: When I was playing Shae, her KAA7 couldn't fire rapidly, instead it had 3 second delays and I had to re-press the fire button; and my friend had much worse issues in the match: at the mission character selection screen he couldn't see anything or select anything, I couldn't see his profile tab either; then when the cutscene started, he still couldn't see anything, including most audio, except for sound effects. He was able to see and control his character after a few minutes, but not consistently, I'm certain he was experiencing many more bugs than I was, because when I proposed a mission surrender, the notification didn't appear on his screen.

Cool outline! :-)
Thanks for taking the time to analyze and share your knowledge about the Advanced Features! It's really useful and it could help others!

NO PROBLEM! 0u0