Arc Raiders

Cinge said:

yeah I had a big one, ran behind a wall and stood in the smoke. Next thing I hear is the zap and downed. Lesson learned though. Stupid rocket guys are brutal if aggrod.

Getting these 12 mushrooms is a fun time. Most I've gotten is 2 in one game, usually none because either didnt spawn, I missed it, or someone just went through for them.

Next thing I have to work on is getting some of the bigger arc drops, like rocket one(supposedly not too bad if I am willing to spend a wolf grenade), bombadier, surveyor, bastion for bench upgrades.

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Wreck South of Dam, a free fallen log spawns, at least one on legs of wreck, and during bloom a basket under a leg coming down from the high hill side. Near the car salvage yard kinda.

I prowl buried city with a sticther with 30 round mag...beware!

and I have a theory, when you start pvp for the day they throw with the pvp ers in subsequent matches. I say this because I noticed all the 'dont shoot!' is gone and maps dead quiet with just killers around.

Did the harvester puzzle with a friend. Went in solo to work on getting what the idea is and its pretty simple but solo there is zero margin for error. We went back as a duo and completed in in trash gear and got 3x gold blueprints. Jupiterx2 and Equalizer. They both require a Queen Core to build though so gonna have to go back and try and kill the queen. So far the Hull Breaker takes stuff down pretty easily, but if you screw up and take a direct hit from the bombardier or bastion cause you snagged on terrain it can go bad quickly.

On that note, has anyone found any of the purple augment BPs for tactical or combat? I have tonnes of BPs for blue stuff and a few purple guns, but no luck getting the purple gear ones. We did forget to loot the compartments in the harvester that you pry open when searching for the cylinders. My understanding from solo is they have lower loot tables, but that might be where we get our purple gear BPs. Honestly, having been ambushed a couple times already and barely surviving once we got the Yellow BPs we didn't even think to search. Just GTFO'd with our stuff before we attracted attention.

just like any solo day in good old Buried city, lots of action from Santa Marie taking out a Bastion. It finally fell to its knees and looters appeared from everywhere, prolly 5 yelling 'dont shoot' and started picking off the crab legs, myself included.

Then it happened, multiple kinds of grenade dropped and fried us all. Proximity chat was ugly. welp...

Blueweed said:

just like any solo day in good old Buried city, lots of action from Santa Marie taking out a Bastion. It finally fell to its knees and looters appeared from everywhere, prolly 5 yelling 'dont shoot' and started picking off the crab legs, myself included.

Then it happened, multiple kinds of grenade dropped and fried us all. Proximity chat was ugly. welp...

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That is one of the dangers of this game and shows a little of the Looter shooter nature in its bones. When all you have are 3 man teams and you start fighting off bosses that make noise and draw a lot of attention, its not going to be long before you have people staking out the boss fights looking to gank and troll the pve'rs. At best they just come in to steal the loot. Worst case, they start sabotaging fights and trying to kill the winners once they start looting. Which isn't too hard since looting on most bosses requires you to open a menu on multiple parts of the boss's remains and that makes you sitting duck to get shot. Synduality I mentioned before had to just make a pure PvE map for boss fights. Its pure coop and pvp damage is turned off. Looting is still a first come first serve, but it at least stops the bloodbath that would happen normally.

The other issue is people are starting to have 'finished' the game. Some are grinding out the Expedition stuff, but as people finish their quests, fully expanded their stash, and gotten most the readily available blueprints the 'Well, what else is there to do?" question starts to arise. And for more than a few its pvp and trolling other players. Solo sorties for the last few days has been refreshing, lots of cooperation. Big groups of people fighting the leapers and using defibs to try and save people. However, since the weekend ended I am seeing more and more solo sortie pvp ambushes. I hope it doesn't become too prevalent because the organic nature of just shooting the shit with randos while gunning down robots has been fun, but Embark is going to need to keep pve content flowing or people will start making content of each other and the game will become significantly less friendly which would be a shame.

Mao said:

That is one of the dangers of this game and shows a little of the Looter shooter nature in its bones. When all you have are 3 man teams and you start fighting off bosses that make noise and draw a lot of attention, its not going to be long before you have people staking out the boss fights looking to gank and troll the pve'rs. At best they just come in to steal the loot. Worst case, they start sabotaging fights and trying to kill the winners once they start looting. Which isn't too hard since looting on most bosses requires you to open a menu on multiple parts of the boss's remains and that makes you sitting duck to get shot. Synduality I mentioned before had to just make a pure PvE map for boss fights. Its pure coop and pvp damage is turned off. Looting is still a first come first serve, but it at least stops the bloodbath that would happen normally.

The other issue is people are starting to have 'finished' the game. Some are grinding out the Expedition stuff, but as people finish their quests, fully expanded their stash, and gotten most the readily available blueprints the 'Well, what else is there to do?" question starts to arise. And for more than a few its pvp and trolling other players. Solo sorties for the last few days has been refreshing, lots of cooperation. Big groups of people fighting the leapers and using defibs to try and save people. However, since the weekend ended I am seeing more and more solo sortie pvp ambushes. I hope it doesn't become too prevalent because the organic nature of just shooting the shit with randos while gunning down robots has been fun, but Embark is going to need to keep pve content flowing or people will start making content of each other and the game will become significantly less friendly which would be a shame.

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Watched the end of Shrouds last stream. Exactly what you said. He has all items, stash is loaded with all the best gear, full of purple shields, all quests done (only like 60ish, most give "useless" rewards as he states). The last two raids were queen which I think is the "hardest" Arc boss in the game currently.

First raid - They pulled, killed queen fairly easily. Team of 3, all had wolf grenades and the gun that does massive damage to Arcs. Once killed, they were swarmed by 3, perhaps 4 teams of 3. Fought and killed all of them. They even waited until past 18 minutes to do the final pull and kill.

Second raid - "Lets go in and kill people fighting the boss" was the plan. They found the queen, waited until it was nearly dead while others fought it. "Helped" in the last minute as it exploded, killed team who went to loot it, looted the queen and left.

Though he said the parts are useless because the legendary guns it creates are not good. They're just filling up my inventory! (they don't stack either).

So game is finished for the people who have no lifed it, they kill for fun and the ones they fight are (unless geared) fodder compared to the best/purple loadouts. Itemization is not in place for keeping up grinding either. And while you can do that quest to "end" your character, why? For some cosmetics? You get no new skills or items, so it's basically just doing a new run towards the end game where Arcs drop items to craft weapons worse than the ones you used to kill them (weapons are "better" but not in terms of power compared to investment).
Just do runs with worse gear, and it'll be the same as if you did the event to end your character. It's not like a wipe where everyone is on the same level, you're only "gimping" yourself, so no real difference than having your own challenges like "oh I am going to start runs with no gear and see what I can do!"

Game is already a massive success, but I think they'll need to add more stuff, and quick, to get longevity. Which Shroud at least was somewhat skeptical about since he said that while playing the Tech test 2 (test around 5 months ago) it was said (not by devs but community) that it was around 35-40% of the game. So there would be "much" more. Now it was apparent that it featured like 80+% of the full game. So not much content at all has been added since then. So dev speed doesn't seem fast.

Mao said:

That is one of the dangers of this game and shows a little of the Looter shooter nature in its bones. When all you have are 3 man teams and you start fighting off bosses that make noise and draw a lot of attention, its not going to be long before you have people staking out the boss fights looking to gank and troll the pve'rs. At best they just come in to steal the loot. Worst case, they start sabotaging fights and trying to kill the winners once they start looting. Which isn't too hard since looting on most bosses requires you to open a menu on multiple parts of the boss's remains and that makes you sitting duck to get shot. Synduality I mentioned before had to just make a pure PvE map for boss fights. Its pure coop and pvp damage is turned off. Looting is still a first come first serve, but it at least stops the bloodbath that would happen normally.

The other issue is people are starting to have 'finished' the game. Some are grinding out the Expedition stuff, but as people finish their quests, fully expanded their stash, and gotten most the readily available blueprints the 'Well, what else is there to do?" question starts to arise. And for more than a few its pvp and trolling other players. Solo sorties for the last few days has been refreshing, lots of cooperation. Big groups of people fighting the leapers and using defibs to try and save people. However, since the weekend ended I am seeing more and more solo sortie pvp ambushes. I hope it doesn't become too prevalent because the organic nature of just shooting the shit with randos while gunning down robots has been fun, but Embark is going to need to keep pve content flowing or people will start making content of each other and the game will become significantly less friendly which would be a shame.

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I wish they would add a separate safe container for just like keys and defibs or something, I never bring them because it's just free loot for someone vs the rate chance id get to use it on arando.

Droigan said:

Watched the end of Shrouds last stream. Exactly what you said. He has all items, stash is loaded with all the best gear, full of purple shields, all quests done (only like 60ish, most give "useless" rewards as he states). The last two raids were queen which I think is the "hardest" Arc boss in the game currently.

First raid - They pulled, killed queen fairly easily. Team of 3, all had wolf grenades and the gun that does massive damage to Arcs. Once killed, they were swarmed by 3, perhaps 4 teams of 3. Fought and killed all of them. They even waited until past 18 minutes to do the final pull and kill.

Second raid - "Lets go in and kill people fighting the boss" was the plan. They found the queen, waited until it was nearly dead while others fought it. "Helped" in the last minute as it exploded, killed team who went to loot it, looted the queen and left.

Though he said the parts are useless because the legendary guns it creates are not good. They're just filling up my inventory! (they don't stack either).

So game is finished for the people who have no lifed it, they kill for fun and the ones they fight are (unless geared) fodder compared to the best/purple loadouts. Itemization is not in place for keeping up grinding either. And while you can do that quest to "end" your character, why? For some cosmetics? You get no new skills or items, so it's basically just doing a new run towards the end game where Arcs drop items to craft weapons worse than the ones you used to kill them (weapons are "better" but not in terms of power compared to investment).
Just do runs with worse gear, and it'll be the same as if you did the event to end your character. It's not like a wipe where everyone is on the same level, you're only "gimping" yourself, so no real difference than having your own challenges like "oh I am going to start runs with no gear and see what I can do!"

Game is already a massive success, but I think they'll need to add more stuff, and quick, to get longevity. Which Shroud at least was somewhat skeptical about since he said that while playing the Tech test 2 (test around 5 months ago) it was said (not by devs but community) that it was around 35-40% of the game. So there would be "much" more. Now it was apparent that it featured like 80+% of the full game. So not much content at all has been added since then. So dev speed doesn't seem fast.

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At least watching the PVP from Shroud's point of view is really entertaining. Sucks for everyone else though.

I saw that clip. It was funny, but he had the position and they kept pushing as he backed into cover more and more. He barely survived too, his squadmate took a few shots from the front pusher that probably saved him. Against anyone else, they probably win. Crazy watching his reticle barely move from the head area, he plays on pretty low DPI mouse settings iirc, since you see him make big mouse movements just to make large turns.

The 3 of them were in the open vs someone lean peeking from cover. They weren't even in standard two-by-two cover formation trying to take Nakotomi Tower.

Mother fuck, been selling a couple of these

I think I figured out why there seemed to be two completely different vibes when I would do raids in free loadouts vs. being pimped out.

Apparently, there's gear-based matchmaking and most players have been made aware of this by watching streamers. In retrospect, I should have assumed the gear aspect, but I just didn't consider it and I don't watch streamers.

Anyway, when you load in with free kit, you get paired with a lot of other people that have low-value kits and the people know that so the incentive to kill others is very low -- hence the chill teamwork you often see. That's not to say that there aren't assholes that will kill you, but it's rare.

On the flipside of that, if you go in with a pimped kit, the players know that most of the other players are loot piñatas and are far more likely to attack you.

Droigan said:

So dev speed doesn't seem fast.

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Not that it matters, really it's only been a week. Dev's had said they have a 10 year plan for it. So i'm interested enough to see how the AI encounters evolve with the use of Machine Learning from day 1 to year 1 to year 5.



I think the trials is kinda the sorta "end game" prog as of now... and it doesn't always directly point to "kill players." The Expedition Project is the other sorta thing but you can't reset til December, and it's a soft reset; almost "seasonal." It supposedly gives you bonus skill points(dont think its more), bonus xp gain, extra scrappy, and more stash.. It doesn't reset your workshop upgrades.. The guns aren't insanely different in the sense that using a Ferro or Stitcher still puts in a lot of leg work to get you through shit no problem. The benefit of the reset system, is there are a lot of people who are casual in nature.. and don't want to reset.. they'll be the ones who log in a every couple content drops and have fun. Theres also map events that you can actively participate in, or avoid depending on its rulesets.. like the loot tower is probably something you don't wanna do without a decent amount of gear because increased pvp.

Ultimately, while streamers are really the only thing to point towards from a data set standpoint; I think you underestimate what they'll do for content. Tarkov released voluntary wipes(3 within a single wipe) which unanimously was jumped on and before that, people were doing their own challenges; some of which are achievements in the game now. It's a sandbox for content generation. I'll be surprised if you don't see a ton of them wipe in December. I mean shit, there is a percentage of the content that is a call to arms to not shoot your fellow players and to rally against the clankers together.. while you have other people that sit and say fuck that, im gonna rob your shit.

The sorta content pump that is happening with Arc Raiders have been quite wide for a pvpve game. A lot of it hilarious, and the dictomy of Solo and Duo/Trio is crazy. Duo/Trio is PvP//Battle Royale and more often than not, Solo's is Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Couple of my friends just play only solo's because duo/trio is "too hard"

As far as PvE goes.. its really not incredibly hard, in my experience, to deal with. I've ran multiple runs killing a couple of the bosses with minimal pvp interaction. The one thing I haven't done though, is sit there trying to kill it with JUST bullets. A wolfpack, couple nades and/or showstopper and some gunfire.. loot scoot on to the next. As you said with the Shroud thing, looting everything is pretty moot, stash stays full. I'm over here selling renegades and belletina's because I just want to use a Ferro + Burletta with Tactical aug; feels way cooler. Also, a couple mollies or burners onto a Leaper takes em down quickly with minimal noise.

the two kinds of players

gauze said:

The Expedition Project is the other sorta thing but you can't reset til December, and it's a soft reset; almost "seasonal." It supposedly gives you bonus skill points(dont think its more), bonus xp gain, extra scrappy, and more stash.. It doesn't reset your workshop upgrades..

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The skill points are above the 75 cap, but they are temporary for the next season. It doesn't remove your work stations but they will be reset back to level 1. On top of that you lose all your blueprints.

With the current speed of progression, the only people that will benefit from resets are 100+ hour goblins. If blueprints were on a knockout system I might consider it but being able to get dupes (and frequently) just makes me not even want to touch it.

Lenas said:

The skill points are above the 75 cap, but they are temporary for the next season. It doesn't remove your work stations but they will be reset back to level 1. On top of that you lose all your blueprints.

With the current speed of progression, the only people that will benefit from resets are 100+ hour goblins. If blueprints were on a knockout system I might consider it but being able to get dupes (and frequently) just makes me not even want to touch it.

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I didn't mean to put upgrade haha, but yeah.

As far as blueprint dupes, they're 5k credits.. which I guess isn't much when you can't stack it but I frequently have em on me to sell via security container // key room runs for selling.

I am one of those 100hrs (88 actually) goblins. I have a fucking weakness for extraction shooters and I don't think Arc Raiders is the best on its gun mechanics and audio, but I at this point believe a lot of it is on purpose and I think it makes the skill cap less of a gulf. Good shooter players will still dominate but the instagib from no where of a lot of previous extraction shooters isn't there. Gives us more human people with sub instant reaction times a chance to escape and counter play.

The game is 'fun' to play with friends and I am neurotic enough that I want to finish grinding the skill tree to unlock the 'Breach Security Lockers' talent but I definitely worry about the future of the game. If there is a gear based match making, its pretty squishy. I've seen people with Osprey/Renegade combo's just straight up murdering free loadout kits on solo maps but this is at non peak gaming hours.

Anyway. The game does a really good job of being a 'casual' extraction shooter. I don't want that to be taken as an insult either. Its just easy to get loot. The free loadout system that you can then sell your free augment to get a green augment lets you just zero to hero easily and often with no substantial risk at all.. As you learn the maps and where things are you can do the upgrade treadmill easily until you get blasted, lose it all and do it again. Once you have all your inventory stash upgraded money is pointless in game, so you just buy whatever weapon or kit you want that is for sale. The only thing that seems to have significant value is blueprints. The 'mini boss' mods are not that difficult to get, though you have to worry about dying while looting but after you upgrade your stations they don't really seem to have any crafting use I have found. So at the end of the day any 'losses' really feel rather insignificant unless its a super rare item you can't craft.

My concern is once the game gets 'stale' for streamers and they move on to other games how much of a population will remain and who that population will be. Streamers and the streamer hangers on will just bounce from new game to new game as they release and their streamer of choice gets paid to sponsor it. The game can survive with a smaller playerbase, so that wouldn't cause too much issue. Its just going to be 'what people are left behind'? If they are gankers and pvp'rs the game will enter the cycle of extraction shooter death where the winners will keep winning to the point the losers leave for other games and no one is left, which would be a shame. If the more chill bros stay I think the game could be a small gem that can keep going for quite some time.

Their content and release schedule for special events and the like will play a big role in its longevity as well. I just feel for modern devs. There is no way they can create content as fast as the modern gamer consumes it and the current short attention spans make keeping a game fresh and current extemely difficult.

Fake edit to add that I've met a lot of people that are multiple steps into their expedition already. I myself am not cause I ignored it not wanting to trigger starting a reset but if I have an interaction with people who aren't shooting me, they are almost always asking for fans, light bulbs, or offering to give them to me cause they've completed that step. Its not hard to speed run the quests especially if using a guide or have a friend who has done them before that can show you the spots.

And lastly to add on. The 'soft reset' mechanic is going to be fairly insignificat and abused. If I read it correctly the option to reset is open for a week? So you can stagger resets with your friends. Yes, there will be some rare BPs and such lost, but your basic bitch stuff like the anvil etc will just be traded to your buddy before you do the reset so he can give it back once you complete it. If they make everyone reset at the exact same time (the smart thing) you will still just trade to your non resetting friend so when you get back from reset you start the game with the Anvil, Torrente, etc. If they don't change maps layouts and loot locations it will be even less of an issue. People will have their farming runs on lock and that shit will be back to end game within a week.