u/One_ill_KevinJ

S2 saw player counts go from low to within the statistical margin of error of no one playing. We lost a Game Director. The economy broke in 72 hours. Marathon doomers were monetizing YouTube content beyond anything we've seen (truly a feat given S1).

I played the hell of out of Season 2. I loved it. In week 1 I didn't think Night Marsh was it - little did I know I'd almost exclusively play Night Marsh for most of the season. Greenhouse is the new Algae Ponds and I'm here for it.

Shout out to the D54, which made the Green CyAc kit the best zero-to-hero kit in the game. Green Shields are a minor inconvenience when you mow down everyone with an OP Gun.

Shout out to the Mall Ninja assassins. Your skin looks ridiculous, and it's telling that every assassin player I ran into had it on. Ya'll aren't the real ones, but you're really something.

Shout out to Sponsored Night Marsh. It showed us what the game could be like if the PvE were actually worth doing. The matches are active, the time pressure to find gear and engage PvE is real, and there are PvP counterplay incentives. It's almost like a real game.

Shout out to the 10 players still playing with me. You know it's a small community when your crewfil says "Oh hey u/one_ill_kevinj! What's up man?" It'd be really cool if there were more players playing and every match wasn't the Superbowl of extraction shooters but dying to someone you play against 8-12 times a week is fun and funny.

Shout out to the Cryo no-lifers who took everything from me every week. I am missing 3 subroutines because ya'll are much better gamers than me.

Shout out to Vault Breaker so I could see what I was missing.

I look forward to seeing the same 10 people Tuesday + hopefully at least 10 new players. Cheers and enjoy.

After 12 unsuccessful attempts, I got a Compiler clear in VB. The unsuccessful attempts were not fun, and here's what I wish people told me about doing VB when trying to do Compiler:

1. The vault sequences matter a lot. We were never successful getting to Compiler with more than 2-3m if we got a Vault 6. We pushed through and wiped in the boss room to get more experience in that fight.
2. Time spent killing bots is mostly time wasted. Kill what you need to kill to get to level 3 clearance, and move on. Farming monitors is really efficient.
3. Spend your T1/T2 runs memorizing the vault pathing and screens. Opening a vault, having one person speed run it while the others players farm batteries is efficient.
4. When you sequence DNA, find the AGCT Podiums before you start the sequencing. Once you start it, it will infinitely start purple bots.
5. Luck plays a big factor - Which vaults you get, how many EMPs you find, whether you got a lucky chip drop like a Purple Common Enemy, etc. We had at least two runs where everything went perfectly, but RNG left us too short on time for a meaningful Compiler attempt.
6. We didn't know the Compiler fight very well before VB, and spoiled 3 runs where we had ample time in the boss room because of rookie mistakes. If you haven't done Compiler before, prepare to F this up a few times.
7. Our successful run felt like every other run - except we got to Compiler with 6 minutes and nearly got a 1-phase. I can't explain it.
8. You will hate most bot attacks with the fury of 1,000 suns. Fuck Snipers immediately overheating you. Fuck Purple bots on heelys fucking you from 80 meters. Truly, fuck the bots.

This was all new to me, and it was hard and fun.

Recon feels mandatory in endgame play where CQC and hunting teams is unavoidable. Recon's ping detection ability means if one team has a Recon, the logical decision is for every team to have a recon - so the recon can tell when the other recons are recon'ing. Current state it Recon's ult is largely invisible to non-Recons and provides perfect information. If Recon gets a finish, Interrogation gives additional time-limited perfect information.

I propose a minimal change which I think could have a big impact: making Recon's Ping Alert ability universal for all shells when the ping come from a Recon Ults or a TAD (individual player pings should remain as is). This change the game theory where people select Recon defensively when you know other teams are loading into Cryo with 2 Recons and 50 Energy Amps.

Other changes could include a rework of the Cooldown of the Recon Ult, a rework of Energy Amp generally (between Insomniac + how cheap and available energy amps are, 100% Amp uptime and 1m ping cooldowns are achievable).

As problematic as the Ping Ult is as a concept, it's the identity they chose and transforming it fundamentally changes recon into a different shell. I think we have to work within its confines and give a team a better path for not having to run a Recon in Cryo.