Stress system is pointless and frustrating

[crazyjaydon]

Honestly, all this does is just take out the option to do a fast restart on singleplayer missions and makes the whole process of retrying a mission for better grades all the more tedious and slow.

It also makes no sense that the timer for incapacitated or in therapy officers doesn't progress on mission failure/restart but stress levels still do, which at times forces you to keep trying the same mission with gradually worsening officers - that doesn't seem fair and is unnecessarily punishing on the replay value of the game (Especially infuriating when the game bugs out and you're forced to quit, taking a forced toll on the stress levels).

However no matter how many you lose, the game still boots you into missions with a full squad anyways like nothing happened which essentially makes this feature pointless. Of course there's unique officer traits, but the stakes drop when game essentially punishes you into losing them and to keep playing with fresh batches anyways.

[8myers8]

Wat about my stress level ...

[casual0]

it is

[irate_citizen]

I probably have about 140 swat officer's killed under my command I would be stressed as hell if I was in this unit
Basically just forget about it the whole system can just be completely bypassed

[Haraldo]

Originally posted by irate_citizen:

I probably have about 140 swat officer's killed under my command I would be stressed as hell if I was in this unit
Basically just forget about it the whole system can just be completely bypassed

Haha that is actually a solid point. My unit like yours would be like the gulag to swat units

[Engicop]

Stress system and character traits are there to encourage the players to prioritise non-lethal means, otherwise everyone would be playing the game like it's Rainbow Six. Sometimes, the stress reduction by non-lethal approach is even op.

[Haraldo]

Originally posted by Engi:

Stress system and character traits are there to encourage the players to prioritise non-lethal means, otherwise everyone would be playing the game like it's Rainbow Six. Sometimes, the stress reduction by non-lethal approach is even op.

I wish they made the system a bit deeper, i think it is pretty shallow right now. They maybe have plans for it, i dont know, i'm very new to this game.. and i love it for what it is, i was a huge swat 3 and 4 fan back in the day.

[Honnes G.]

As far as I can tell even if I have less than 4 "operational" officers, the game just gives me free ones when I load into the level.

On the Elephant map, when the bombs go off, my officers don't actually die, and in some cases failing the mission and blowing up improved the mental health of my team members. This I find funny because usually even if I succeed in a mission some of my officers (including my irl self) have crippling mental breakdowns over what they just experienced.

One more thing, why is it that I have to unlock my officer's perks by completing missions, when they have been on the force for a varying amount of years?

[crazyjaydon]

Originally posted by Engi:

Stress system and character traits are there to encourage the players to prioritise non-lethal means, otherwise everyone would be playing the game like it's Rainbow Six. Sometimes, the stress reduction by non-lethal approach is even op.

What already encourages non-lethal playthroughs is getting S ranks and generally better grades, which is what I've been trying to go for during my replays.

I feel like the better way to of encouraged this would've been a sort of economy system which rewarded the player with more funds to buy more equipment the higher grades they got.
In other words, this would be much more thematically appropriate for the narrative rather than the stress system - it feels weird having details point towards to underfunded police department but already having all the equipment and weapons available to you from the get go. The stress system is easily cheese-able and its meaning quickly diminishes once you bypass it.

[Fatal Insomnia]

I literally just alt+f4 when I die, because that keeps it from counting and i just restart the game and try the level again

[Crimson]

I have no problem with the stress system . I actually think it is a cool mechanic . Who wouldn't have a crisis if one officer dies in frond of you and fail to rescue hostages and what not . I think it is balanced if not a bit forgiving .
Now if someone does not like this mechanic , there are mods that disables it .
So everyone gets what they want .

[Cmdr. Lumpus]

Exactly correct. Wish they would remove the Mental Health mechanic from the game - we never asked for it.

[adam.e.marsh.1984]

i find this new stress system rather crap, these are meant to be highly trained swat officers i know they can get stressed but after only 1 mission where the only officer injured was me, they are highly stressed and need to be relieved its to excessive have the stress but not as crazzy as it is now tweak it so over a long period 4 or 5 missions or after injury or a team mate getting killed

[SkebbZ]

I have three variants of stress system mods up here if you are sick of it :)
https://www.nexusmods.com/readyornot/mods/3278

[A Lamp]

Conversational opinion. I actually like the stress system.... I think the implementation was terrible though. With RoN trying to be grounded in reality and force you and your team to witness some evil human behaviors it makes sense that your team would take a mental health hit. However, a system trying to replicate mental health of an officer witnessing some dark ♥♥♥♥ needs more nuance than just, "stressed" -> send to therapy. I thought I would see some ♥♥♥♥ like, "Officer X has developed an alcohol addiction after not being able to save a student," or, "Officer Y hasn't been able to sleep and is unavailable for the next mission and he needs to go the therapist to get sleep medication" or "officer Z killed themselves last night"

I'm just spit balling ideas, just something that explored the nuances related to irl mental health struggles of officers. The current system just feels so hollow, and more like an after thought than anything else. Hell, even the therapist notes aren't even fully completed. The current system feels like its only designed to prevent the player from leveling up all his officers too fast. It only servers to punish the player as the therapy cool down doesnt even count down on failed missions, but the the stress levels do.

[crazyjaydon]

Originally posted by A Lamp:

Conversational opinion. I actually like the stress system.... I think the implementation was terrible though. With RoN trying to be grounded in reality and force you and your team to witness some evil human behaviors it makes sense that your team would take a mental health hit. However, a system trying to replicate mental health of an officer witnessing some dark ♥♥♥♥ needs more nuance than just, "stressed" -> send to therapy. I thought I would see some ♥♥♥♥ like, "Officer X has developed an alcohol addiction after not being able to save a student," or, "Officer Y hasn't been able to sleep and is unavailable for the next mission and he needs to go the therapist to get sleep medication" or "officer Z killed themselves last night"

I'm just spit balling ideas, just something that explored the nuances related to irl mental health struggles of officers. The current system just feels so hollow, and more like an after thought than anything else. Hell, even the therapist notes aren't even fully completed. The current system feels like its only designed to prevent the player from leveling up all his officers too fast. It only servers to punish the player as the therapy cool down doesnt even count down on failed missions, but the the stress levels do.

Agreed, its a potentially interesting idea spoiled from a poor execution.