Suggestion - Extremely under performing Boosters should be worth taking

[Coel]

First of all, this discussion is to be kept polite. Avoid giving in into toxic comments or engaging in such.

Second, these are proposals from my experience with the game and what they offer (I mostly face Automatons since I dislike how bugs play out and I enjoy the harder aspect of fighting bots). Every other booster has their uses, and they should all feel viable and a fair pick to take on the field, not a gamble as to the amount of casualties we're going to get. Having a pre-made squad and knowing each one of hour capabillities eliminates most of the headaches that could be felt by picking the "wrong" booster.

Flexible Reinforcement Budget

Currently:

Reduces time until new reinforcements are granted once they've been depleted by 12 seconds

Proposal:

Reduce the time for a new reinforcement to be available to at least 1 minute or less
OR
Provide a buff that reduces damage by 25% for 30 seconds after being reinforced.

Reason for the proposed change: By far, one of the most circunstantial boosters and least useful out there. This booster expects you to fail. This booster expects you to die a lot. This booster invests on your death.

While it is understandable to provide something to help players that are struggling in a mission, by taking something that would've helped them be kept alive instead of something that is investing on the Helldiver's death, this booster makes itself counter-intuitive. Specially given the uncommon (in my experience solely playing Helldive at this point) scenario of the Team's reinforcement being completely drained. Taking this booster is a gamble where you take off the ability to provide some substantial assistance to the team with any other active active booster.

From what I've seen, a lot of times the team ends up leaving the mission with something between 4 or so reinforcements, and if by any chance it goes lower than that and into the waiting time to receive new reinforcements then it's either too late into the run and everyone is extracting or the game is most likely already doomed.

There are few scenarios here and there where the team is just getting steam rolled because of circunstances, be them teammates or even myself having a bad day at the game, but these case scenarios are far and between, making this booster close to irrelevant.

This is supposed to be a clutch booster, but it's still a gamble whether it'll be used or not, while any other booster (other than the ones mentioned in this suggestion) is a guaranteed use.

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Increased Reinforcement Budget

Currently:

Increases the number of available Reinforcements per player in the squad from 5 to 6. This means a full four-player team gets 24 reinforcements.

Proposal:

Increase the number of available Reinforcements per player in the squad from 5 to 7. So a full team would get 28 reinforcements
OR
Before a Hellpod touches down, it launches an EMS strike down below covering 10 meters, lasting 5 seconds

Reason for the proposed change: This is the 3rd "We expect you to die" booster, that in on itself is also circunstantial. It lacks any sort of utility like the booster above if the team just doesn't die, making it yet another gamble as to if it'll be useful or not.

While I could do the same assumptions as the booster above, I believe this one is overral better than the Flexible Reinforcement Budget in general due to it not having to wait an unreliable amount of time to get some last itch effort reinforcements.

It still feels somewhat weak in comparisson to other boosters and I do get to see someone take this one from time to time.

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Expert Extraction Pilot

Currently:

Reduces the time taken for the shuttle to reach extraction by 15% (Which translates to a 1:42 minute extraction if you have a 2 minute extraction time by default or a 2:33 minute extraction time if the extraction time is taking longer

Proposal:

Reduce the extraction timer to at least 50%
OR
Reduce the extraction timer to at least 75%, but have it's weapons disabled as an excuse to how they got so fast in here to provide us a quicker extraction.
OR
Have the extraction shuttle come instantly to the extraction zone, but have it's weapons disabled as an excuse to how they got so fast in here to provide us a quicker extraction.

Reason for the proposed change: This, inspite of the other boosters mentioned is the only "always usable booster", since 8 out of 10 missions, you're going to be able to call in an extraction, however, it is also a very awkward booster to have, since it is something that will only have IF you are able to call in extraction. IF you are not able to call in extraction, this booster is useless during your liberation campaign, while you could've taken something else to make your life easier on the front easier.

The reliability of the booster as it stands right now is questionable to say the least. Pelican-1 can be of great help if you use it as coverage to yourself and your teammates or to just, y'know, finish the mission. But at the end of the day, it's a booster that only works if you manage to call in an extraction, and even so when you do, the time that was shaved off which you spent waiting for it doesn't feel worth it while you could've taken something else.

Final Notes

Personally and from the picks that I've seen people using, these boosters are on the bottom of the bucket on the pick list, and the reason is clear as to why. A good example of a booster that invests on your death but pays off is Hellpod Space Optimization, maxing you out with every consumable / ammo / throwable you could get whenever you or a teammate dies, lessening the chances they'll die once more or have to call in a ressuply / scavenge in order to get the remaining resources they might need. In my humblest of opinions, Death Requiring boosters should encourage living more once you die and respawn, instead of expecting you to keep dying over and over.

Every other booster rather than these 3 has an universal usage or is able to carry their own weight due to what they provide on the table.

Please, share your ideas if you have any, and remember, keep things friendly!

[dake]

I agree that the reinforcement boosters are kinda pointless, Instead of helping the player by boosting their stats it just gives them a crutch for being bad and only helps when they are bad. Which is basically the opposite of the other boosters.

The Extraction booster is actually kind of nice but I agree that the time should be reduced a little bit more, maybe 30 or 40%.

Overall its not a big issue as the Stamina, vitality and ammo boosters are basically must haves, and the 4th player can pick whichever booster the team would like on top. I'd prefer they focus on bug fixes before balancing the boosters just yet.

[Mitzuriki]

make UAV booster exposes the location of POIs or samples *eyes*

[Coel]

Originally posted by dake:

I agree that the reinforcement boosters are kinda pointless, Instead of helping the player by boosting their stats it just gives them a crutch for being bad and only helps when they are bad. Which is basically the opposite of the other boosters.

The Extraction booster is actually kind of nice but I agree that the time should be reduced a little bit more, maybe 30 or 40%.

Overall its not a big issue as the Stamina, vitality and ammo boosters are basically must haves, and the 4th player can pick whichever booster the team would like on top. I'd prefer they focus on bug fixes before balancing the boosters just yet.

I don't think it's the devs intention to have "a must" on players loadouts, but then again, it's a continuous endeavour to balance things, specially when new things come out. Being a game dev myself I somewhat get the pain they must be going through lol.

I think 30% or even 40% wouldn't cut it for something that depends to be basically the end of the mission type of booster, should give more since of its sparse usage time.

Originally posted by Mitzuriki:

make UAV booster exposes the location of POIs or samples *eyes*

Actually a fancy idea, I quite like it, specially since it's something more commonly used in Stealth scenarios, could help a lot with that too.

[Khanwolf]

The Localisation Confusion Booster is not working anymore after the latest Patch. Arrowhead should please take a closer Look into this. The Timer between Breaches/Drops is the same with or without, this was not the case before last Update.

+1 for the rest of the topic and all comments so far.

[Coel]

Originally posted by Khanwolf:

The Localisation Confusion Booster is not working anymore after the latest Patch. Arrowhead should please take a closer Look into this. The Timer between Breaches/Drops is the same with or without, this was not the case before last Update.

+1 for the rest of the topic and all comments so far.

Darn, my favorite booster to take

[GoodComrade]

Originally posted by Mitzuriki:

make UAV booster exposes the location of POIs or samples *eyes*

is this still not a thing? have I been using UAV booster like a dummy whole this time? lol

[Coel]

Originally posted by GoodComrade:

Originally posted by Mitzuriki:

make UAV booster exposes the location of POIs or samples *eyes*

is this still not a thing? have I been using UAV booster like a dummy whole this time? lol

Well, it TECHNICALLY can do that depending on how you see it. If you ping a location, it will show enemies guarding it, so you know there is a POI there, but if you want a direct point of where they are, you're out of luck.