The thought of having double team finishers in this game sounds super fun. The only technical thing that needs to be address as far as I can think is the Aleph collecting. I think this can be resolved like this, Grapples can kill as normally would but if another player or elite enters melee range they can participate in the kill but only the one initiating the attack gets the Aleph and both get half the amount of the enemies ammunition would give to one person. If there are 3 other allies in melee range the tag team can be done randomly or who attacks first.
I thought of at least 3 ideas of fun examples.

Video Games/Comics


Movies/Comics


Anime


Now this is a bit off topic but if you could add this to Rak Mayura it would be hilarious.

Quick question, what does it mean when the card says more Reaction, is that  the same as Push?

Hey Mercury,
Remember the training tutorial way back when with Harec, I think a more in depth version of this is the best way to go for up and coming players and for veterans alike who want to brush up on some basic & advanced Techniques/Mechanics. I know making a video on the basics is quicker and cheaper to do than creating a short series of missions but few games do this right and the ones that do help transition new players into badass players. And I want Spacelords to be like that too.

Now just like anywhere else, you can cram a lot of informational videos, images, and texts into our head in order to learn something new, but I think we  (Mainly new players) also need them to be put into practical, in-game use all while being guided Step-by-Step more so than the original Harec tutorial once did.


Anyway, Valeria. The one woman killing machine who gains most of her skills through simulations is a great outlet for doing what I just mentioned. With this we can use an open ended set of short missions that don't need to be connected to the story at all and can be revisited at any time.

What you can do with the current "Training Solo" mode is rename it into something simple like "Mission Practice". When a new player loads up, you can have the character model of Cortez be there ready to greet the player and direct them to a scenario that can teach them (The player) a thing or two about the game that he can't himself (Being that he’s a pilot who has never actually been on the field in the same capacity as any other Raider). In this series of Tutorials Valeria herself will not be playable but will instead be the one asking question a new player themselves would want to know and Sarah the simulation A.I. will give the solution.



Valeria will be at a point of her life where combat and information on the broken planet is somewhat new to her and Sarah will introduce herself to the Valeria (the player) and show her what to expect as the player follows the steps laid out. Any other function other than basic free movement will be disabled and or hidden until you reach the steps needed to learn about them.


Sarah introduces herself to Valeria and guides her in the form of a familiar Council member.

Basics - Konstantin (Mandatory Mission)
Faction Deck
Character Deck
Forge Skill
HUD
General weapon description
Ammunition
Grunts
The Dangers of allowing too many grunts to spawn.


Sarah scans Council database for a combat oriented unit.

Combat - Reborn Alicia (Mandatory Mission)
Grapple
Dodge
Strike
Combat prediction
Regaining Ammunition
Aleph -Informs Valeria/Player of Aleph from records in Database.
Aleph Boost
Character Ability
Learn strengths and weaknesses of a certain faction


Sarah emulates the most prominent species on the broken planet and there ability to survive.

Survival - Harec (Optional)
Sprinting
Sliding
Taking Cover
Stress-Hiding/running/combat
Enemy Awareness
Looking out for team mates in need of help.
Learn what to do when deciding to stray from the team and what to look out for.
Taking Damage
Wounded
Warnings
Lives
Beluga’s Aleph
Respawn Time
Lives Reset with gold


Sarah warns Valeria of a Legendary outlaw who’s last known coordinates were on the broken planet and what to expect of him.

Advanced - Lycus Dion
Mission Objective
Mechanisms - Overload,Charge,destroy 
Mission timer
Protecting - Bomb,Protector,Schnieder
Status Types - Fire, Electricity, Push, Pull, Immune, Healing, Etc
Enemy weak points -Beholder,Bosses,Head-shots
Elites
Bosses
Boss Health
Boss abilities
Anatgonist
Antagonist infinite lives
Antagonist speed up revive when Raider chooses lives reset.
Gold
Faction points
Blueprints
XP boosts
Affinity Cards
Equilibrium

So, What do you think?

This dawned on me as I was reading the description to all the Skins in the game. Harec's Red Death suit was Augmented for defensive combat with its stone like physical form. Ginebra's "Sabertooth" Heavy Armor similarly was made for higher risk missions. For those who could be thinking Skins are hard enough to get, adding skin specific bonus' to them is unfair." The bonus' I'm going to recommend to Mercury are subtle enough where they likely wont matter too much anyway you look at it but all the same are beneficial.

LOCALS
Harec:
Default Skin - The time it takes to run into a sprint is reduced.
Red Dead - Increase Armor by 15%
Head Hunter - When Stalking your first round is instantly loaded with Aleph.
Elite Corp. Hunter - Ability cooldown reduced by 20%

Shae:
Default skin - Slide Distance increased
Nun Custodia - The sound of your strikes and footsteps are muffled, enemy grunts further than 10 meters take longer to spot you.
Emnu Dagan - Bewitched targets stress levels gradually rises for the duration of the ability.

Doldren:
Default Skin - Gain reduced stress build-up from taking shot damage.
Prisoner of the Pit of Repudiation - Doldren can materialize 5 meters further away from his enemies.

Iune:
Default Skin - Allies that are 10 meters away from Iune have there Stress cool down rate drop quicker.
Vaasi Suit - Ability cools down 8% quicker for every wounded ally within 10 meters.

Umbra Wardogs

Alicia:
Default skin - When entering a sprint while under maximum health, move 20% faster.
Elite Corp. Aviator - Double Jumping launches Alicia 20% higher.
Reborn - Greatly reduce running speeds at the cost of 25% increase Armor.
Umbra Wardog - When targeted by 3 or more grunts, increase fire rate by 20% for 3 seconds.

H.I.V.E.
Default Skin - Regain some ammo if taking shot damaging while draining an enemies essence.
Destiny's Bride - While wounded, H.I.V.E is able to trigger her ability at 60% reduced healing of the amount of Life Essence currently stored.

Loath:
Default Skin - When out of Ammunition gain increased strike damage towards Grunts.
Grendel - Increase Resistance by 20%. After spending 9 seconds in Beast Form any remaining Elite or enemy Player within 15 meters increases your Rage by 25% each.

Rak Mayura:
Default Skin: Kills from a running strike retrieve additional ammunition.

Hades Division

Lycus Dion:
Default Skin - Your strikes regenerate your shields.
Prussion Mercenary - When taking fatal damage and at 60% of your shield capacity you instead heal for 25% your maximum health.


I was going to continue to do one for each character but I got tired of it so yeah I think you know what your thinking....am I right?

More and more I keep asking myself at the end of the mission "man i wonder how good I did compared to my fellow Raiders." I mean not in those exact words but you know what I mean.
I believe what Mercury should do in Spacelords is at the end of the Match you get a Panel showing a scoreboard show player stats in that mission.
Example:
* Deaths
* Elites killed
* Grunts Killed
* Antagonist Killed
* Time spent with 5 Aleph
* Headshots
* Melee Kills
* Grapple kills
* Revenge Kills
* Accuracy (How many shots you missed)
* Damage Dealt
* Damage Taken
* Total Kills
* Ammo Received
* Time Spent under Cover
* Time Dodged
* Times killed by an Antagonist
I mean the possibilities in regards to this are Endless.
As it stands the only evaluation we get is only  the Amount of Deaths, Time Taken, Difficulty level and something else. And same goes for an Antagonist just in reverse.

This could simply be for the pleasure of knowing how well you did and nothing else, Or it could determine not only how well the group did but how great of a reward the Individual receives. This encourages the player to put real effort into cementing there skills on the field and hopefully see where they were weakest and focusing on that next time.
Its all too often when I see the match result for any given mission I think, how Accurate is this?

What do you Think?

So  I spent most of this morning doing straight Antagonist mode. I'm doing well after just unlocking Doldren but thats not saying to much cause at first all I was killing was new players with some Veterans sprinkled in there. I only lost 2 or 3 time out of the dozen or so  matches but it got to the point where the Raider players -Actually- started killing themselves repeatedly the moment they saw they had an Antag,  that specific thing happend in 3 seperate matches and I even had to message one of them asking to why.

In 3 other matches, 1 player in each team quit immediately after either I first killed them or directly at the start of the game. This actually shocked my roomate who was watching me play.

After a while i started to feel genuinely bad whenever I see level 1s through 20's because there in the wonderment phase of learning a new game and here I am smashing Doldrens foot in there face....repeatedly....alot. I'm not sure if its a good idea to have anyone under level 20 be Antagged by anyone over level 30.

Mercury , please for the love of all things make mentor match-making optional. It's so agitating to hand hold new players in difficult or moderate difficulty missions.
In addition, there were countless time where I experienced players  who prefer to botch the mission by committing suicide repeatedly  than surrender the mission, even to go as far as to send mail towards me for even bring it up in the mission.

Mentor mode is a great opportunity for both sides if there willing. But to save unwanted frustration from veterans, please allow an option to be pairs Raiders of a closer level range.

Finally, for the surrender option, it would be great to have a clear description pop-up of a potential benefit that could come from accepting a surrender when choosing to continue against impending failure such a not being penalized as hard when being scored, or gaining bit more Gold/Faction points than you would with completely losing the match.