R.E.P.O. Game Ideas - After Final Extraction

[ChampionKevin44]

I doubt any new players would read this, heck I doubt anybody will read this entire discussion but SPOILERS if you don’t want to know how the game works and find out for yourself, do not read. This discussion is just ideas that came to mind about the game.


SPOILERS! START NOW!





This game is a great game! I love playing this game with friends, but there are a few things that bug me about this nearly perfect game and one of them is after the final extraction. I do not claim to know all the facts, just a general idea on how the enemies supposedly work. To those who don’t know, after doing the final extraction, all enemies will respawn and head towards the transport vehicle at the beginning. After doing so, they will start heading towards the players with an unknown sixth sense that is being updated about every three seconds to know what room the player is in. Also, any enemies killed on the way back to the transport vehicle will respawn immediately (not entirely sure if this is true but I know they respawn in quick.) and continue to use said sixth sense to get to your room once more.
I wrote all these ideas that came through my head and wrote it down to share and discuss while hopefully the developers could use some of these ideas. If there was something that I would change, it would be to at least give players forty seconds to encounter respawned enemies that you just took down on the way to the transport vehicle after the final extraction. I'm not saying give the enemies a respawn timer with forty seconds, I'm saying make the enemy have a spawn and timer distance of around forty seconds. For example, if the furthest spawn point of where the enemy can spawn is two rooms away from a player and it would take that enemy say ten seconds to potentially encounter the player, then give that enemy thirty seconds to respawn. If the furthest room is like fourteen rooms away (this is just an example) and it takes forty seconds to potentially reach the player, make that enemy instant respawn. If the furthest room is sixty seconds for the enemy to potentially reach the player, then have a different spawn so it can reach the player in forty seconds. I'm happy that this game doesn't spawn enemies in my face, because that would also kill my mood and immersion, but having them respawn very quickly and reappear very quickly is just the same to me.
Another thing I would change would be to stop the enemy from having this unknown homing beacon on players as it seems out of nowhere in my opinion. Instead, how about this idea? After final extraction, have the enemies go towards the room near the transport vehicle then have them work their way there to clear room by room for players. Since many of the enemies don't truly attack each other, (I know the Huntsman can shoot other monsters, but it's not like he's looking for other monsters and it's not like the other monsters are purposefully attacking him.), they start strategizing more. (Maybe not all monsters should do what I'm going to write down next as some of them would unlikely work together or think to use this.) Once the monsters meet up, (or at least the ones that would cooperate with each other) one would start clearing one room while the others would clear their own respected rooms. (Note, I am saying to clear their room, but it doesn't mean they will check every little hiding spot. Just leave how they check rooms like in the base game.) For example, a Reaper would check the room on the left while a Gnome would check the room on the right. Maybe make it as the players progress through each level, it randomizes the priority which monster would patrol the main entries and hallways after final extraction. For example, at level 1, there's a high chance level 1 monsters will patrol the main hallway and a low chance a level 2 monster will patrol the main hallway and a lower chance for a level 3 to patrol the main hallway. Once players reach higher levels, there's a very high chance for level 3s and level 2s to patrol the main hallways while level 1s have a low chance. (This will lead to a lot of oh crap moments.)
Maybe make it where some monsters start to move slower to listen more carefully for footsteps while becoming more silent. Making it harder for the player to figure out where the monsters are. (Obviously the Clown isn't doing that.) This allows them to start focusing on sound, then start going back to regular speed when one investigates the noise. (Could be a player running around, could be a player dropping an object to distract the monsters. This allows more player options on how to handle the trip back to the transport vehicle.)
Now for the pièce de résistance. If having the monsters enter the same room where the player is every three seconds has to be a must, then let's give the monsters a better, understandable way for the monsters to know where the player is at. Communication. I know, they don't have Discord so they won’t be able to directly tell their teammates where the enemy is, but allow me to give an example of what I mean something that we the players love to use, proximity voice chat. Let's give an easy example first, let's say the Apex Predator (duck) spots a player. It will go up to the player, then starts hopping around on the spot in a circle (The player is free to move around as the duck will not follow once it starts to hop in a circle) and giving a different quack noise than usual being loud enough for the echoes to reach far into other rooms. All the other monsters, starting from closest to farthest, start using their own scream or sound to let the others know they heard the duck and they're on their way. Now for a harder example. Let's say the Gnomes spotted the players, well what would they do? I say they start using their weapons and start hitting their arm multiple times enough to cause a sound to start but not enough for them to take damage. This sound wouldn't be as loud even if they're a group and started making that sound compared to the duck's but they still try and get the other monsters into the area. Maybe, since it's not loud enough, after say three to eight seconds pass (I don't know, what's a good amount of time?) and there's no other scream from the other monsters, a single Gnome would try to keep playing the sound while running back to the transport vehicle to alert the other monsters while the other gnomes try to buy time and fight the player. This would give the player options to stop the patrolling enemy from alerting the other monsters. Should they run past the fighting Gnomes to stop the loud Gnome? Destroy the fighting Gnomes then chase the loud Gnome or hide? I could go on and on if you like about all kinds of monsters and their ways of who could, couldn't and shouldn't play sounds to alert the other monsters.
"What happens if a player gets past the monster patrol?" There could be a system where one or two of the monsters gets irritated and doesn't spot any players after a certain amount of time so they start heading back to the transport vehicle to check. (I think only the monster checking the hallways should not go all the way back as this would allow the player to easily slip by. That's what I think at least.) If they don't find anybody, they head back to where they last left their patrol. Or there could be a single monster being a goalie to stop players or alert other monsters to notify someone is close at the beginning. (This one might be too hard for players to be honest. What do you think?) I honestly think that monster would or should be programmed to get impatient and leave its post to look for the player itself after a certain period of time. "What happens if a monster spots a player who is one to two rooms away from the transport vehicle?" If there's only one player in the server (this does not apply to if there's only one survivor with other players down as the monsters would have a hard time keeping track of all players), the monster alerts all the other monsters. If there are players who are one to two rooms from the transport vehicle, the monster tries to fight the players itself without alerting but can attract noise. "What if all the players are there?" Then I guess either the monster has a really good memory to keep track of multiple players, especially if it didn't see or know how many there were. Or, if the monster spots three players or more near the transport vehicle, then it would alert the other monsters. "Wouldn't all monsters chase that one player?" There could be a system where a monster has a feeling (rng) that another player is nearby, especially if it heard a noise in an opposite direction to investigate. It would give all the monsters even more character while also keeping it fair and reasonable with how they locate the players.
Of course, while thinking about the monster side. I'm thinking about us players as well. We need options too. There's a few to name, so how about this. If a monster spots a player and is about to alert the other monsters, the player could quickly close the doors to stop the monster from alerting its fellow monsters with its sound. Either sound is completely negated or depending on the level of alert, still gets through a little (If there's still a door there.) The alerts and the order of alerts the monsters respond from a distance can help the player determine how close or far a monster is. (Can you just imagine a monster responding to the alert right behind you. lol) Some monsters take a while to start their alert sound, maybe a simple animation before their alert starts. Maybe some have quick sounds but it's not loud enough like the Gnomes. Players can still pick up monsters if they have enough strength to stop them from alerting the other monsters, however, throwing the enemy around can still cause the enemies who are focusing on sound to hear the fight (or I guess the one sided beatdown). The zero gravity orb can be used on a monster or between a doorway to stop sound from entering through. The tranquilizer gun can be used to stop the alert enemy before they start being loud. Tossing enemies in pits will stop them from alerting their fellow monsters, even cancelling the Robe from alerting as it's floating back up. Maybe some monsters don't even care about alerting their fellow monsters and just want to attack the player themselves. (I imagine the Chef would do that. This will still attract sound.) Maybe instead of what I said earlier about enemies who are searching start hearing a noise would continue their regular speed to investigate, they stay their slow search speed towards sound, (like a monster attacking or getting beaten up, dropping an item or a player hopping or running, etc) and only regain regular speed once they spot a player or hear a monster calling out to alert the others. Maybe monsters can patrol on any level, but only use the alert sounds on higher levels. (That way it doesn't make it too hard for learning players.) Maybe some monsters that can alert or go patrol, with what I stated, are randomly given a chance to do patrol and alert based on the level. There's a chance a monster will work with the other monsters and alert, or only work with the other monsters but no alert or vice versa, or will not join them at all. The higher the level, the higher the monsters will work together. The options are endless. I could probably keep going, but you get the idea.
Keep in mind, all these ideas are exclusively for AFTER the final extraction. I don’t believe any of these ideas will be used. These ideas add more pressure to not only the player but also shows the monsters being pressured too by working together while remaining fair. If the monsters did this all the time, it would make the entire game feel like the monsters are just working together 100% of the time and stuff after the final extraction no longer feels like desperation for all sides and more of desperation for the player all the time. It would also make stuff happening after the final extraction not unique anymore if this was used all the time, as using these suggestions for after the final extraction can really give off a different feeling to the players. Again, I strongly believe all these ideas should be EXCLUSIVE AFTER the final extraction. If R.E.P.O. were to try this one day, the game should get some test servers first on trying this and getting player feedback as much as possible, it would be great as I’m sure there’s plenty of people who still love being bombarded by constantly respawning enemies and the enemy knowing which room you’re in after final extraction, and they wouldn't want that to change.