u/meatmachine1001

Sure, Scout's #1 priority is to fetch minerals etc
But if you're on engineer and you sit there repeatedly pinging a nitra vein that's 6 foot above your head while I'm in some far corner of the cave mining the nitra, collecting the blooms, everything your slow ass has yet to even realise exists - fuck you
You have a pickaxe, you have a platform gun; do something useful

I just joined a game and left because of some serial-pinging pansy.

The next game I join, the engineer is asking in chat 'no nitra?'
I had late-joined 1 cave before this, and the engie is literally stood next to a nitra vein btw (I find this out later while exiting the cave, because no surprise, it didn't get mined).
I remind engineer that nitra has to be mined - I had to go back to the start of the escort map to collect the 3-4 nitra veins that had been skipped. Nobody on that team had even pressed RMB that game before I joined.
And the engineer replies "thanks Karl, good advice", has a little temper tantrum in a corner for a couple of minutes and then leaves. Abominable. Terrible example for the new players on the team.

It is everyone's responsibility to gather resources, quickly and efficiently. You are not ntitled to the scout carrying your bum ass.

Personally I've been playing at Depth 4 only, but I have always had this feeling that simply not enough enemies spawned for it to be really fun, you know?
Like how nearing the end of many players journeys with DRG, they will tend towards modded games with like 4x mobs - more mobs isnt even necessarily harder but it feels way more rewarding to blast a huge hoard away. But I digress.
Past couple of days in RC, I've been playing mostly Depth 4, Double Expenite Double enemy HP event, with modded 2x spawns and let me say - Wow! This is how I want everyone to have the opportunity of experiencing the game.

The corespawn feel so much more threatening - the way they feel in the events in DRG - when you can barely take one out with your starting weapon; banking your upgrades for luck isn't always an option because you stand a very strong chance of being overwhelmed when the elevator is called, so you might need them early just to survive!
Speaking of which, waiting for the elevator actually becomes super tense and exhilarating when you are in the process of being overwhelmed, balancing on the knifes edge of death and glory.
You actually have to manage your ammo and choose when to fight, and when to run - I do actually recommend a spotter on the team always when playing like this, although its quite possible to manage without. unless someone mods in a way to add like, one more ammo crate per stage or something.
Even with all the upgrades you can accrue over a 6 floor run, the increased number and HP of enemies means creepers and especially larger enemies have a much higher resistance to camping portals with AOE attacks, so the difficulty increase remain relevant all the way to the boss fight, rather than mobs quickly being trivialised by swathes of reflecting crit or PGL fire bathing their spawn area.

Disclaimer, I know not everyone likes DRG for the challenging combat part of it, and thats totally fine, this post isn't for you guys:
I just wanted to make this post because after making the aforementioned changes the game just felt like such a more solid and tight experience. That's what Rogue core has leant towards in relation to DRG, and I think it's worth mentioning that it can be REALLY fun if it leans harder.

Hi,

Tagging /u/Mike_GSG in case he wants to throw this on the pile

I'll try to focus my feedback on places I think some easy wins can be had, or stuff I've not seen as many people screaming about. (this statement will seem very ironic in about 4 seconds)

Classes, abilities - Awesome, keep them coming.
Would really like to see customisation / loadouts for class abilities or modifiers for them.

Ramrod
Guns in the rig! Guns in the rig! It was a stable mod in DRG for years!
Also because I really want to blow up that ****** floor sweeper robot when it makes annoying noises while im tabbed out waiting for players.

Or EVEN BETTER than guns in the rig - Pickaxe in the rig!
I really REALLY want to be able to at least melee or show my pickaxe off for cosmetic purposes. Surely this has to be an easy win for a feature addition.
In fact, since we can no longer customise our guns visually, more focus on the pickaxe would be welcome Especially thematic with the kind of heavier, hardened, perhaps more melee-combat-skilled Reclaimers.
Spitballing ideas - more pickaxe melee damage options / animations/ alternative power attacks with utility etc?

OMEGA Sorry, dont like it. Robot superintelligences with personality disorders rarely make interesting characters. I feel like this was a missed opportunity to expand or indulge upon the world of DRG somewhat.

SPAWNS / encounters in general
Not enough enemies on higher team strengths
Rifts spawn all enemies at once and reward camping / AOE
Enemies should trickle rapidly from rifts IN ADDITION TO large spawn waves
Rifts should open/close in different locations creating variability in ongoing fight
Could just detect if the enemies are getting instagibbed and spawn more. And more. Until they're not. (actually this could be fun for a special mechanic)
Cant wait to see some more enemy types, particularly displacers

IN MISSION OBJECTIVES Its crazy (in a good way) to me that like 90% of teams in RC will throw the toolboxes etc to each other to get the workbench going ASAP, but 0% of dwarves I encountered in DRG were able to do anything with the Tritilite barrels than grab, walk and pray to get close enough before dying. Maybe it helps the toolboxes are not explosive. It's very nice though, things like this allow players to more easily play tightly together in RC than in DRG.
I like objectives like the expanite chunk digging thing where multiple dwarves can take different roles (digging chunks, transport to machine, putting chunk into machine, taking chunk out of machine and depositing exp into ellis) to get it done much faster.

Speaking of ELLIS It doesn't follow reclaimers cave-to-cave automatically? Unless you remember to constantly call it, it can leave you waiting longer than molly even would sometimes.
Isn't it time the MULE got a queue for visiting reclaimers?
Rogue core has added friction points to a game that is well known, in a sense, for being extremely well balanced in terms of friction. Wouldn't it be nice to remove some friction in ways that make sense for the player?

PERFORMANCE Significantly poorer performance in RC compared to DRG, both locally and also seemingly for network activity To the player, it is graphically and gameplaywise very similar if not identical.
Performance absolutely needs to be looked at, and while it may not seem like something that is a crucial priority, it will subconsciously turn many players off. So the later a hard performance pass is left, the worse the playerbase will fare for it.

Gauntlets - why nobody play?
My impression is players players often join one from the browser without realising it's a gauntlet mission, fail because it's not visually or mechanically distinct enough from main missions other than the timer, which is easily forgotten about in fights etc.
If there is an explanatory screen, i think its only when the mode is unlocked?
server browser depth should correspond to equivalent standard mission - 2 / 4
need explanatory screen when joining from server browser
Make gauntlet terminal more accessible/visible - I actually forgot about it for a while after unlocking it, until accidentally joining gauntlet from the server browser
Here's a genius idea too for fun - Lean into the whole Omega running a simulation angle, make the expenite blue. That's probably the most overt way you can tell the player something is different.

Pre-floor voting
should be better - see Overwatch map voting - e.g. grace period of a couple of seconds if people want to change vote based on how others have voted
Why is this the only screen in the inter-floor process that I can view my teammates builds?

I will say, the fun thing about RC for me, as compared against base DRG, is making OP builds and a higher requirement of cave and objective resolving/ clearing ability from the player. So my ideas will be biased towards that kind of game. I.e. probably what some would call a sweat-a-thon.

What's the pickaxe for in RC? Only getting XP and emergency damage, i.e. not as central to the gameplay as DRG (lots of different minerals and destroying terrain)
But we love the pickaxe!
Therefore -
I would like to see more upgrades that encourage & reward the overall faster-paced cave clearing required of the reclaimers - Upgrades like '+50% Mining speed for +2secs after dealing damage' or the inverse 'deal +15% damage for 2secs after mining expenite'
Particularly since mining fast feels very satisfying. Melee speed too. It would be nice for this buff not be limited to one ability of the Retcon

Furthermore on the subject of making use of existing mechanics - Mantling from ledges
Upgrades/ perks like +mantle height, +number of times player can mantle before regaining footing, +refresh double jumps on mantle etc etc

~(One of) The fun thing(s) about RC is having OP builds but not just that, players like to actually use OP builds.
Even more than that, players like to kill lots and lots and lots of bubble wrap bubbles - sorry i mean enemies - with their OP builds.
Even a 6 layer mission feels like it ends not long after things have really got going for all players on the team. After the boss dies, Omega should remark about how the greyout zone has been lifted and a drop pod has been sent. The mission should not end until players are in the drop pod -
The players have the option to DAMAGE THE PLUG
The plug re-forms itself at XXXXXXXX HP/S acting as a damage / ammo gate for an extended final delve into the hole
What's in the hole? I would posit a new biome truly transformed by whatever is in the rifts.
some kind of rare resource guarded by some exceptionally numerous and strong enemies. Maybe some kind of giant corespawn-dreadnought hybrid or mimic, that'd be cool.

Thoughts on upgrades and equipment
Wasn't the point of this game supposed to be having all the different effects from, for example, the overclocks, modularly compatible with all the other weapons? I thought getting all the original guns and OC effects in was priority number 1. Not sure why I thought that but hey ho.
Current upgrades are fun, but need way more variety
Also the shock striker is cool even if its not that great a gun, but can we have a heavy electric gun? Like the Arc thrower in HD2, that thing was baaad-aaaassss

Also please for the love of god remove Salvo Module from the hurricane unless it can be made less janky to use. Or just better. My personal opinion is that its naff anyway and was much more usable when the salvo would still track your aim (this was a bug in DRG for a little while).
Or an easy win could be to just decrease the spread. It's fun but does not feel responsive to use, on top of being niche

Also also - The breach cutter simply isn't recognisable to me as the breach cutter without the Triple Split beam. I am sure it'll be added soon, but I just wanted to say that.

EDIT: Scoreboard Bring back mining stats, only having damage and kills is bleh. Could even display # of other objectives done

Peace

PS SINCE I have your attention - This has been weighing on me for a long time actually.
The team ammo counter. In BASE DRG. It's borked. Probably in RC too. But this isn't a recent issue. I'm talking since like, around the time of, or probably before, DRG update 23. At a guess to the cause, I think grenade count being added to the ammo counter a long time ago made it often show like 3 out of 4 pips when you have basically no bullets left but still a couple of nades. Either way it always feels like it shows a pip more than it should.

I can't do walk the cat because I dont own a cat