Map Re-Balancing to it's Core

[Khotgor]

After spending about 160 hours (or almost), I must say that I find the novelty of the game 'cute' but requires a lot more than what actually offers, mostly due to the fact that the maps at their core are kinda 'bad'.

What I mean by bad is a few things (or a lot of things) that mechanically can cause some novelties of certain maps to be generally eh, and others to be way stronger than they have any right to be.

When it comes to maps, I generally categorise them into three spaces, based on the 'value' that they generally can offer. Experimentation being Low Value; Assurance, Vow, Offence , and March being Medium Value; Dine, Rend, and Titan being High Value. Due to the RNG and how it is set up, these maps all generally share the same 'pool' of items in terms of value that makes them similar... even though Experimentation, Assurance, and Vow technically are considered the 'easy' maps.

And that is one of the core problems right off the bat. Usually the weakest map that a player can play should be the one with 'lowest' value, which that reward goes to Experimentation... the problem is that all of the other 'easy moons' often share the same value amount as the intermediates... which, in actuality, leaves Offence to be far worse than Experimentation. For multiple reasons.

One is that Offence can have the same value as Assurance, but not only is the map bigger (and the fire exit the hardest without extended or a jump from ship), but it doesn't offer anything 'good' for the player, only bad. In comparison to Assurance, which is relatively easier and can often have the same (if not more) than what Offence offers, Offence has far more lethal enemies alongside a larger map pool. Whilst so many maps I played has people clear Assurance almost consistently (almost, we'll get to that problem), Offence often has people get scraps or pieces before giving up.

It is not a coincidence that Offence is often put below the other medium-valued maps in most people's rankings/tier lists. Usually considered 2nd worse by many, IMO I think it is actually WORSE than Experimentation... because not only does Experimentation promise the player both a generally 'safer' map at the cost of having the least currency value... but there are times that it can have MORE than Offence... because Gold Bars and Bee Hives exist. Due to the existence of both, I have seen Experimentation change from usually 200-400 value up to almost 700 thanks to RNG.

[Khotgor]

And that is the 2nd main core problem with the game, and that's where I want to talk about March; March is the 'other' intermediate map that, unlike Offence, is often considered either the best or 2nd best free moon. Unlike Assurance however, the way that March 'can' be the best is entirely reliant on RNG. I don't know about anyone else, but the 3 Fire Exit gimmick of March is very 'nice' when it works... and there are a lot of times, after playing hundreds of March Maps, where the Fire Exits have been absolute Garbage. What is the point of 3 Fire Exits if they can all spawn not only near each other, but near the main entrance? Which, when considering the fact that March has the 2nd largest map (aside from Titan), that can mean that its entire gimmick of grabbing lot near different fire exits becomes mute, even worse if all the items are spawned on the FAR side of the map... even Bee Hives may not show up at all, no matter how many hardcore March players just sprint across the surface and don't enter the building.

This isn't so much of a 'March' problem, as it is a 'game' problem. The RNG element of item placement, entrance ways, enemy spawns, and worse of all turret spawns can often make a map change from pretty great to pretty terrible real fast. Whether it be turrets facing the exit doors, or Jester/Jack-in-the-Box spawning IMMEDIATELY as soon as you enter the building at 9am, or the difference between there being 1-3 turrets to about a dozen or so turrets on a map (even worse when a map decides to turn off the lights or put mist everywhere to hide them), or the difference between a map like assurance having a value of 300-700 currency based solely on what it decides to randomly spawn on a map at once.

I think what people often forget is even worse is when one of the free maps (or even Titan) finds their map changing from a Facility to a Mansion... because a 1x Size Multiplier that is Assurance getting Mansion is technically larger than some of the larger maps (like Vow or Offence) getting Facility. Getting Mansion on one of the free maps can also have a huge impact on if you can find items or not, because Mansion is far larger even if it shares the same number multipier as the Facility... which although 'most' of you may question why it matters when there is like a roughly 1% chance for maps like Assurance to get it... but for the Free Moons, I have gotten Mansion about 10 times on them.

And it's far... far worse, for Titan. Although some often say 'yippee' if Titan gets to be a Mansion, in reality it is far, far worse. Titan is often looked down upon in comparison to Rend already because, like March, Titan is a HUGE RNG gamble between if the items will be by the main/fire exit... or all, all the way buried in the far back on the dungeon, where the player will more than likely NEVER get, especially if the game decides "Yeah, let's spawn a few jesters, coils, ghosts, and bracken real early"... and that is a problem with Facility alone. As Titan has, what, above a 10% chance to get Mansion in comparison to the Free Maps, the issues with Titan become even more apparent since the 3x Size Multiplier or so of the map is going to be far, far, far worse with a Mansion than with a Facility. It doesn't even have the RNG chance of multiple Fire Exits like March, and STILL has the possible issue of Fire Exit being far too close to the Main Entrance than it has any right to be.


In theory, I do like the concept of some of the RNG elements... mostly the idea that, when you go to the same moon, it will often have something 'different' so that replaying it over and over again can be a unique experience, more or less... but the problem I find is that it isn't balanced correctly. People go to March and Assurance when given a chance for a reason, because the other free maps are considered subpar; People often go to Rend, even preferring to go their over Dine or Titan, because it is considered more 'reliable' due to the RNG element. People see Dine being the 'least' of the Priced Moons due to the Turret RNG factor and how much that can be a pain (and with Coils and Jester being a primary enemy in that map, it doesn't help player's taste for it), and Titan is a mixed bag... honestly, the liking of Titan over Rend is the same as those liking March over Assurance, since Titan and March 'can' be one of the best maps IF the gamble goes well, whilst Assurance and Rend are a lot more consistent and reliable... and those 4 are generally considered the most popular of the maps by far, with even Dine generally being ignored over the other priced maps due to having Offence's problem.

I think that, overall, the RNG element of not only the individual maps, but also the map system as a whole, should change. And there are a number of things that IMO should be changed:

• Have the Map Multiplier be changed so that Mansion isn't overly 'inferior' to Facility. Not only does Mansion make a Primary Facility Map generally worse due to it being 'larger', but it can make Dine and Rend be a godsend if the RNG instead chooses Facility over Mansion due to being much smaller and more compressed/tight with item spawns. The change of the multiplier would make Mansion less of a pain when it happens
  
• Re-Balance the Item Pool. Vow, March, and Offence are technically 'harder' than Assurance, but due to how the Item Pool works Assurance often surpasses these in terms of quality (even March) at times, and there is a reason why it is so overtly popular. Generally, a 'dangerous' map should have 'better loot', but that isn't always the case. At the very least, Offence should be given a proper reason as to why people 'want' to go there other than having no other choice or sheer ignorance. Due to the fact that Offence offers nothing (even no Bee Hives, unlike every other free map) makes this IMO inferior than Experimentation
  
• Change Jesters. Although there are few enemies that I think need general change (despite the game often 'breaking', two enemies need to have something change. For Jesters, I think that it spawning immediately at the start of the map is garbage. Especially if you just bought a hard map and it just spawns immediately, a lot of the times the Jester just causes an entire day to be a waste. Although I don't hate the concept of a ticking time bomb that is innocently following you before it starts to charge and then chase after the players, there are too many times where the existence of a Jester leads someone on the Hard Maps taking some/most of the items on a map... to nearly nothing. It's kinda terrible how many times a simple run can be absolutely ruined by their existence
  
• Change Coilheads. Yup, I said 2 enemies, and this is different than Jester: Whilst the Jack-and-the-Box is not a terrible idea, the Coilhead is WAY too strong... and broken. Despite its gimmick being that of freezing when looked at, it has become apparent to me and many other players how many times it will MOVE randomly even when looked at... and sometimes it will freeze immediately when looked at.... and sometimes it just keeps coming, even when you are both sharing the same long hallway, looking at each other. The Coilhead right now is a 'broken' enemy that me and others have found to be moving EVEN when looked at... and even if it wasn't broken, the fact that a map can have so many coil heads active at once and it is only a power level of 1 is stupid. It should be, at least, a power level of 2, because a Coilhead is just a time waster... and, in many ways like the Jester, the existence of a Coilhead is enough to end a map early... because not only is the coilhead a pain, but a LOT of enemies become way too powerful with its existence alone (hello ghost girl and bracken, amongst every other enemy type). There is a door gimmick I understand where they take about 12-15 seconds to open a door... but I found, like everything else broken with this enemy, that they can open/go through doors that are closed on them far too immediate to be 10 seconds or more. This enemy is a broken mess that needs heavy patching, and even if patched needs to be nerfed significantly to at least Power Level 2. It being Power Level 1 despite being as game ending as a Jester is mind-boggling. The fact that it spawns on Vow, a map that favours HEAVILY on the Bracken spawning there, is one of the reasons why Vow is considered far lower than March or Assurance.
  
• Fix Item Pool Table. Have it so that the Intermediate Moons are actually of greater value than the easier ones. Have there be an element that ensures that a set amount of items are spawned close to main, a good distance from main, and at the far end of the facility/mansion opposite of Main. Have the item pool be designed around items being near vs items being far away (such as adding more items in some/all of the maps for this). Have it so that the set value of each map is generally more consistent and not over-lapping each other in terms of often sharing the same value, the problem that stems as to why Assurance is considered one of (if not) the best free map in the entire game
  
• Fix Fire Exit. I tire of how many times that Fire Exit, consistently, spawns far too close to the Main Entrance... and is the reason why I often get tired of March due to how close the Fires are often to not only each other, but to Main. Having Fire Exit have a minimum distance length from the Main on each map (maybe not always the shared same distance, but still a minimum) should help make splitting up between Fire and Main far more valuable than it often ends up being. Fire and Main being close to each other happens far too often. Fire Exit should, at least, be half-way into a dungeon in terms of distance away from the Main Entrance, giving actual value for those to use it both to enter the Dungeon and also to help players that are entering through larger maps be able to 'exit' when they are deep into it... the timer of the game makes maps like Titans far too 'impossible' to clear if certain items are spawned at the furthest reaches of both Fire and Main right now that honestly is the reason why so many are wanting to play Rend over it. As for March and its multiple Fire Exits, having there be a minimum distance between the Fire Exits would also help give value to March as well, rather than have an occurrence where all three fire exits are connected to the same item room or catwalk/grate room.
  
• Gimmick/Identity Map Overhaul (Enemies). What do I mean by this, is that certain maps 'clearly' have a specific design around having certain enemies be generally consistent on each map more than others. For Assurance, it is very common to find Hoarders, Fleas, and the Spider spawn on it. For Vow, it is very common for Bracken to be there. For Offence, Thumpers. Etc. Although I don't mind the idea of different enemies being able to spawn on a map, I do think that some maps are better off having more of an 'identity' to them that IMO often lacks in most of them due to the RNG factor. If Assurance is meant to have spiders and the 2 bugs, and Vow is meant to have the Bracken, then just let them have it. Having some maps have consistent enemies/obstacles/hazards/etc would be nice. Just change the RNG factor to have such enemies generally be consistent of said maps, but also have an RNG table that can spawn a set of different enemies that can be a part of it as well. Have the Enemy RNG table altered to allow certain consistent enemies to spawn in their assigned maps, with there being a chance of certain 'other' enemies to spawn in.
  
• Gimmick/Identity Map Overhaul (Items/Exploration). There are also other 'unspoken' elements, such as the Gold Bars of Experimentation/March and the Chemical Bottles in Vow existing. Having there being generally specific/unique valued items that spawn in certain maps and giving. Along with this, having certain 'unique' rooms or unique elements such as certain Terminal Interactive (such as a Bridge that can be turned 90 Degrees in a Facility, or having hazardous gas that can be moved from one side of the complex to another, or whatever) would make the identity of certain maps be interesting. Right now, most of the maps right now generally are far too 'similar' to one another, and that is kinda a bummer at times. Some maps such as Offence really do need 'something' to make it worthwhile, because it really has the issue of being 'harder with same/less rewards' than its contemporaries to even see it as a place to go to other than Weather reasons. For Vow and the Chemical Jars for example, giving Vow the gimmick of having more two-handed items that are far more valued than the V-Eng/Axel/Bottles could be a reason as to why someone would want to choose Vow (which is generally a more dangerous and larger map) over Assurance. If March has a chance of a Gold Bar and has the largest map of the free maps, then have there be a general chance of it spawning at the far ends of the map, and if not then medium distance. Even gimmicks such as Offence perhaps always offering 'weapon items' inside the facility as its Gimmick of being a far more aggressive map would actually give value to going there, perhaps having its own unique flash grenades that can be thrown like stuns instead of exploding in your hands like the current DIY Flash Bottles that exist in-game.

That's just my two cents on the game. Whilst I can complain about things 'outside' of the maps, I think this is one of the more important ones (that and an option to alter/add a means of maximum render distance and weather options since certain foggy maps and so forth is one of the reasons why the game can often crash so much) that should be altered into the game. This game is early access and isn't a final product (hopefully), so I do have hope that certain elements can be changed and altered at the end product to give a bit more 'variety yet consistency/reliability' than what is right now offered, Ironically.