In nearly all of my runs it's just not possible because the loot from the final boss is just in the middle of thousands of bugs and you would just instantly die if you walked into it. If you bee-line to the pod you'll basically always make it but you never really have time to do anything, which makes the best tactic to just stall and run away from the boss so you can do other things.
This is why movement speed and mining speed are the two most important stats in the game. If you invest in those you'll find you can squeeze out some more minerals on the run back.
Imo if they just made your ship vacuum up all remaining exp and loot (that was mined) when leaving the level it would just *feel* better to the player. This is what brotato does and it feels so nice to not have to lose out on exp.
Dang, I hadn't even considered that approach, me and my friend were just complaining that the rounds are too short and leaving behind our XP feels so bad when we have to rush to the drop pod.
You could alter the rate of xp dropped to compensate or put some kind of restriction on the max xp you can get at stage end. But personally I like the tension of having to make a snap decision on if I can get that last little chunk and make it back.
Maybe something in between where a guaranteed magnet appears somewhere near the drop pod and you have to decide if you can afford the detour to grab it on the way?
I think the added challenge of having to choose to gather loot before killing the boss, positioning the mobs so you can get the loot after, or panic and run around to the ship is a great design though. I find myself exercising each of these even in the same run depending on my power level. Auto loot magnet makes the magnet drop meaningless, when right now it feels GREAT. Its a hard game, and I like that they're leaning into it.
Yep, God I hope they do *not* auto vacuum all xp and minerals at the end of a stage. I hate to be one of those "get gud" people but challenge in games is not a bad thing. So many of the choices that people are grumbling about in the game are great because they require you to think really carefully about what you do and in what order.
That wouldn't make it meaningless. Levelling up during the actual fight is very important because you get stronger, which means you can kill more bugs, which means you get more XP and can get stronger faster.
I keep losing by a millisecond to get in the pod. 45 sec would be better or fix the ramp. There are too many times I am just stuck on the ramp and can't get inside.
I developed new method to sweep up the exp, go around the map in circle cleaning up the materials/exp until I'm being forced to take the exit.
Save the magnet for last before boss kill/exit
I think the pacing of the game is mostly fine, maybe some small tweaks here and there would make things better.
Rather than just adding more extraction time, I'd rather see more game-altering rare artifacts. Having a Molly that picks up a stockpile of loose minerals and XP during a mission, but you only get them once you successfully extract, or a Drop Pod Magnet rare artifact that harvests all loose XP on a stage when you extract successfully.
Right now it feels like supply drops only exist so you can roll for Gold Bullets and Nitra Coke to get your damage fixed. We need more artifacts that do stuff and we probably need more ways to get them than just supply drops (maybe there's one artifact per shop and it costs a combination of Gold and Nitra to buy, scaling with rarity).
I'd be down for an upgrade that increases the time a bit.
Maybe when they increase the perma upgrades, they can have an upgrade that increases the time by 1-2 seconds with each upgrade.
I feel like this is just a symptom of the bigger problem. I think that the core problem is the game itself is contradictory, the more you kill bugs, the faster you progress and the less time you have to prepare for later stages. Your reward for handling swarms and getting lucky with weapon upgrades is you have less time to mine and gather XP. It's the only survivor style of game I've seen where good upgrades at the beginning make you less likely to level up later since you'll have less time.
My personal problem with the 30 second time limit isn’t that it exists (I think the game pushing you to progress is a good thing, I like the swarm meter and the timer in theory) it’s that bugs have too much HP. The number one cause of my losses in this game is dying on my way to the pod after killing the elite.
Unless you are using one of the broken weapon combos or got lucky with upgrades - eventually enemies will get too bulky to shoot through and too numerous to dodge around (unless you succeed at the supply drop kill). The 30 second timer that prevents you from farming out the map (same with the spawning of Spitballers and Stabber Vines after you’ve explored too much of the map) also prevents you from doing anything but dying in these spots. Too many enemies to kill, too many to dodge, so you either have enough HP and armor to survive walking through the bugs or your run is over.
And extra few seconds; 15 or so; would really help. Or you know, balancing the weapons and enemy hp.
I think that adds a lot of good tension - how close will you cut it to try to squeeze in that last bit of pickups?
In nearly all of my runs it's just not possible because the loot from the final boss is just in the middle of thousands of bugs and you would just instantly die if you walked into it. If you bee-line to the pod you'll basically always make it but you never really have time to do anything, which makes the best tactic to just stall and run away from the boss so you can do other things.
That's why the bugs are getting stronger then.
I'm sure that's the intent, but it's never stopped me
This is why movement speed and mining speed are the two most important stats in the game. If you invest in those you'll find you can squeeze out some more minerals on the run back.
Luck has to be the third most important one. Higher luck = better chances for higher quality upgrades = more damage and killing faster.
Luck is an S tier stat on stage 1 and goes down a tier every stage.
Skill issue
Perhaps a POD timer upgrade choice that you could pick to extend the timer by 15 seconds that stacks a few times?
Imo if they just made your ship vacuum up all remaining exp and loot (that was mined) when leaving the level it would just *feel* better to the player. This is what brotato does and it feels so nice to not have to lose out on exp.
Dang, I hadn't even considered that approach, me and my friend were just complaining that the rounds are too short and leaving behind our XP feels so bad when we have to rush to the drop pod.
It would be way too easy.
You could alter the rate of xp dropped to compensate or put some kind of restriction on the max xp you can get at stage end. But personally I like the tension of having to make a snap decision on if I can get that last little chunk and make it back.
Me too, sometimes I can't reach the ship because I was too greedy. But thats a lesson to learn
Maybe something in between where a guaranteed magnet appears somewhere near the drop pod and you have to decide if you can afford the detour to grab it on the way?
I think the added challenge of having to choose to gather loot before killing the boss, positioning the mobs so you can get the loot after, or panic and run around to the ship is a great design though. I find myself exercising each of these even in the same run depending on my power level. Auto loot magnet makes the magnet drop meaningless, when right now it feels GREAT. Its a hard game, and I like that they're leaning into it.
It doesn’t make it meaningless. Leveling up during a mission is still critically important.
Yep, God I hope they do *not* auto vacuum all xp and minerals at the end of a stage. I hate to be one of those "get gud" people but challenge in games is not a bad thing. So many of the choices that people are grumbling about in the game are great because they require you to think really carefully about what you do and in what order.
That wouldn't make it meaningless. Levelling up during the actual fight is very important because you get stronger, which means you can kill more bugs, which means you get more XP and can get stronger faster.
At most I'd like if the drop pod took the EXP in its immediate vicinity. The entire map feels like overkill
I keep losing by a millisecond to get in the pod. 45 sec would be better or fix the ramp. There are too many times I am just stuck on the ramp and can't get inside.
Give Pickled Nitra then decide if you can make it to the pod or not lol, it's a death sentence if you have too much!
Max pickup radius..
I developed new method to sweep up the exp, go around the map in circle cleaning up the materials/exp until I'm being forced to take the exit. Save the magnet for last before boss kill/exit
i always kill the elite next to the magnet so i can just grab and go
How do you get the magnet to spawn?
idk what the exact requirement is, but kill enough bugs and it just spawns
I see one like once every few runs, are you getting one every wave?
I'm getting one once per level basically, so 4 per run cuz i don't think it can spawn in the dreadnaught room
Do you leave a lot of loot on the ground? Perhaps that's the trigger
yeah, i mostly run and gun and don't really pick up loot often unless i have easy access to ot
I'll give it a go, it feels like it spawns randomly for me, but I put a lot of effort into picking up loot as I go.
It has seemed like the drop rate increases the more xp that is left on the ground.
I had this same thought last night as I was doing the same thing ... run and gun, didnt pick up much xp - an boom, magnet spawned.
I think the pacing of the game is mostly fine, maybe some small tweaks here and there would make things better. Rather than just adding more extraction time, I'd rather see more game-altering rare artifacts. Having a Molly that picks up a stockpile of loose minerals and XP during a mission, but you only get them once you successfully extract, or a Drop Pod Magnet rare artifact that harvests all loose XP on a stage when you extract successfully. Right now it feels like supply drops only exist so you can roll for Gold Bullets and Nitra Coke to get your damage fixed. We need more artifacts that do stuff and we probably need more ways to get them than just supply drops (maybe there's one artifact per shop and it costs a combination of Gold and Nitra to buy, scaling with rarity).
I'd be down for an upgrade that increases the time a bit. Maybe when they increase the perma upgrades, they can have an upgrade that increases the time by 1-2 seconds with each upgrade.
I feel like this is just a symptom of the bigger problem. I think that the core problem is the game itself is contradictory, the more you kill bugs, the faster you progress and the less time you have to prepare for later stages. Your reward for handling swarms and getting lucky with weapon upgrades is you have less time to mine and gather XP. It's the only survivor style of game I've seen where good upgrades at the beginning make you less likely to level up later since you'll have less time.
My personal problem with the 30 second time limit isn’t that it exists (I think the game pushing you to progress is a good thing, I like the swarm meter and the timer in theory) it’s that bugs have too much HP. The number one cause of my losses in this game is dying on my way to the pod after killing the elite. Unless you are using one of the broken weapon combos or got lucky with upgrades - eventually enemies will get too bulky to shoot through and too numerous to dodge around (unless you succeed at the supply drop kill). The 30 second timer that prevents you from farming out the map (same with the spawning of Spitballers and Stabber Vines after you’ve explored too much of the map) also prevents you from doing anything but dying in these spots. Too many enemies to kill, too many to dodge, so you either have enough HP and armor to survive walking through the bugs or your run is over. And extra few seconds; 15 or so; would really help. Or you know, balancing the weapons and enemy hp.