Things the Scarlet Spear Operation Probably Needs
Operation Scarlet Spear has left an awful taste in people’s mouths. Despite being a long-wanted event, the amount of grind, the bugs and the all-round confusion have made the operation a pain in the butt. People aren’t enjoying the missions at all. But while bugs and the like will be fixed eventually, here are a few… quality of life features I think this operation needs.
Better Reward Scaling on Ground Missions
No matter how you look at it, it’s better to do Murex if you want credits. While Murex are slower missions, they are somewhat easier to cheese and give nearly double the credits Condrix missions do. But at the same time, you need to kill 3 Condrixes to chase off one Murex. So the Ground Mission people end up doing way more work… and get rewarded less.
At the same time, you can’t often even play space missions, because there’s not enough kill codes being sent. So you have to deal with lower rewards on ground missions. Why can’t the amounts be roughly the same, to encourage players to do both missions?
Less Ramsled Spam on Murex Missions
While invaders are the best way to earn Intrinsics, the fact that the only threatening things in Murex missions are Ramsleds is pretty shitty. Sure, they’re the only real way to cause problems for a railjack crew but they’re boring. I’d much rather stop and take the time to kill some infinitely-spawning Crew Ships than have to hear the various “ramsled” voice lines from Cy.
More Sense in Infinite Missions
The weird thing is that neither Murex or Condrix missions are infinite. You can only destroy 17 Condrix before they stop spawning and Little Duck forces you to self-extract. The number of Murex you can do seems to vary between 3 and 4, but I’m not really sure. One mission, I did 2 Murex before the Satellite blew up… with no enemies around.
But why so few? Why not 20 Condrix? Or 21? You know, a number divisible by 3? Why not have 5 Murex in a mission, to match the 15-17 Condrix you have with a ground squad?
Or why not just make them infinite until the flotilla hits 100/100? Don’t you fucking dare say “so people don’t grind it to death” because people do that anyway! You just do 17, return to the flotilla then go back and do another 17! Just make the missions infinite already.
Knowing What Flotillas You Have Visited
There are multiple flotillas that you can visit. All of which are at different levels of “Murex driven away”. But there’s NO indication as to what flotilla you are on, except for a REALLY BRIEF thing at the top of the screen as you enter the relay for the first time! We NEED something to tell us what flotilla we’re in! We also need something that tells us what Flotillas we have visited, so we know to either go back to them after leaving them (e.g. to take a break), or to avoid them because they’ve already been completed.
This should apply to full flotillas you have visited as well. Even if the instance is full, this is useful information. You might want to go back and try and improve your score, or you might decide to do another flotilla.
Currently though, unless you check every flotilla, you probably won’t find out what flotilla you were on with that nice squad with that nice Nova. Or whatever.
Rewards No Matter What
Sometimes though, you end up in a place where not all Murex are driven away. Or maybe you got in late and managed to only destroy 5 Condrix or 2 Murex before the flotilla hit 100/100. Or maybe you ended up in a bugged flotilla where no kill codes are being sent, despite all the ground teams’ work.
So you end up missing out on rewards. You get nothing. Maybe a few credit scraps. But you should still get something. Sure, not as much as a successful mission, but still. Maybe 25% of the reward for 25 Murex and 50% for 50 Murex driven away?
More Voice Lines and Lore Stuff
Finally, we need more voice lines. Little Duck has a lot but even she gets grating after a while. Where the fuck are people like Teshin or New Loka in all of this? In fact, most of the lore is… somewhat skipped over. Little Duck just gets a relay. Teshin is written off. The Murex as well could do with more explaining too.
There’s a lot more things that Operation Scarlet Spear needs, but these at least would make the missions more bearable.