Flag Raise strategy

[Postman Pat]

Frens. The flag raises trigger infinite bot drops.
I believe this to be Joel making the mission type harder for the sake of lore, if it ISN'T a bug.
That said - have we done any testing on these?

Has anyone do a map clear BEFORE doing the flag raises? Does this affect the bot drops at all? Rocket turrets help with the bot drops maybe?

[Sotanaht]

This is the first time I've played high-diff Flag missions on Bots. But on Bugs flags triggering infinite bug breaches has been normal behavior for a while, so this is just the standard and nothing to do with Joel.

Turrets are definitely VERY useful. Rocket turrets, Autocannon Turrets, and HMG Emplacements are some of the best strategems to use on this mission type on bots. If you bring Sentries, place them AWAY from the objective however. If you put the turrets right next to the flag they will get blown up in seconds. Put them 50-100m away from the flag (preferably on a hill with a good sight line) instead and they should be able to cover you for their entire lifespan.

[Postman Pat]

Thanks! I have done these missions before, but I don't remember infinite drops at all from these, whether it be bugs or bots. I remember it would spawn some patrols in, for sure, but not just endlessly chain drop on you.

So the best option probably is to take things like turrets and maybe shield generator, hunker down as a 4man eh?

[IsolatedAbyss]

It's hilarious that every thing players dislike is being attributed to Joel. He is the omnipresent voyeur who is constantly spying on the 20k+ players and gains pleasure from trolling us and destroying our fun.

[MagikarpMagi]

The enemies are part of the event. Just kill them lol

[Postman Pat]

Originally posted by IsolatedAbyss:

It's hilarious that every thing players dislike is being attributed to Joel. He is the omnipresent voyeur who is constantly spying on the 20k+ players and gains pleasure from trolling us and destroying our fun.

You misunderstand. My idea is that the objective "hold one planet" as a major order would be extremely easy. So, knowing this, I presume there will be some shenanigans going on. Whether they force a defeat or two for the story, or make the missions harder. I genuinely don't remember flag raising spawning infinite waves. I vividly recall being able to sit at a flag, clear some enemies, and just wait for it to finish. So I was wondering if there was any additional strategy required with these, like doing a full map clear resulting in a spawn rate decrease when you raise the flag.

My bad for thinking they changed the mission type to make the event more engaging, I guess.

[Sotanaht]

Originally posted by Postman Pat:

Originally posted by IsolatedAbyss:

It's hilarious that every thing players dislike is being attributed to Joel. He is the omnipresent voyeur who is constantly spying on the 20k+ players and gains pleasure from trolling us and destroying our fun.

You misunderstand. My idea is that the objective "hold one planet" as a major order would be extremely easy. So, knowing this, I presume there will be some shenanigans going on. Whether they force a defeat or two for the story, or make the missions harder. I genuinely don't remember flag raising spawning infinite waves. I vividly recall being able to sit at a flag, clear some enemies, and just wait for it to finish. So I was wondering if there was any additional strategy required with these, like doing a full map clear resulting in a spawn rate decrease when you raise the flag.

My bad for thinking they changed the mission type to make the event more engaging, I guess.

There are shenanigans. This particular Planet Defense requires twice as many players to be in mission as are online at any given time. The number of points required to win in the given time frame is actually impossible through normal play.

Quick lesson on planet points: Every set of missions grants a certain amount of Squad Impact depending on a large number of factors. That final amount of squad impact is then scaled based on the number of players actively playing the game at the time. If you double the playercount, you would half the Squad Impact for the same mission. We would need 2 million squad impact within 24 hours to win this defense. Defenses usually require much MUCH less.

Players generally average around 10-15 Squad Impact per TEAM of 4 players per hour during peak playercount hours. If you doubled the playercount somehow, you'd half that to 5-7 impact per hour so the total impact for the entire playerbase remained the same. In order to win this current defense, we'd somehow need to double the impact for the entire playerbase (at the beginning of the defense, it's even worse now).

It's not TECHNICALLY impossible. There are multiple ways to increase your impact per-player-per-hour. Soloing is the most direct way. If 4 players were to complete their own solo missions in the time it would normally take a group of 4 players to complete a mission, with the same objectives cleared (obj clear is only a minor part of the formula, so even skipping some won't make that much difference), then the contribution per-player would be 4x. Soloing Trivial missions can actually get you 20x per-player-per-hour if you speedrun them. Realistically though, you'd never get a large enough percentage of the playerbase to change their habits in order for this to work.

[sweng]

I remember the raise flag doesnt trigger bug breach at first. Then they made it trigger multiple breach/dropship a few patch ago. It will trigger the breach/dropship when the flag raised 25%, if you get push out, the flag progress will reduce, once it is below 25% mark and then you get back it to raise it past the mark again, the breach/dropship will trigger again and repeat, thus infinite bug breach/dropship

[Yukito For Ever]

Today I tried at least 5 times the flag missions... all failed. Even with sentries. The only one we were close was when discovered a SEAF missile turret nearby, it took care of all the dropships on one of the flags. We raised it, but unfortunately only one teammate had a brain and tried to accomplish secondary objectives first. The other two were dumbs and died over and over.

The dropships keep coming and coming, even five dropships at a time. Destroy one and other 2 came right away. And not all the maps have SEAF turrets, it´s just a matter of luck.

Impossible that way.

[Mosey]

The stationary shield emplacement is a lot better than it was, too. It's basically double the size, although the duration leaves something to be desired. Not sure I'd actually suggest it or not, but it is better.

Most teams are pretty bad at the flag raising, I'll admit. I'm not sure why, but there are a lot of players that straight up kill half their team and their emplacements on this particular objective. I've seen multiple people drop orbital napalm on the flag in just the last day. You can't really stand close enough to actually capture or you die from all the friendly fire.

On Helldive you need your team, and yet you still see people raise the flag with one or two people and get absolutely curb stomped. I know two really good players can handle that with a little luck, but that kind of duo seems rare.

My advice? Turrets (with good placement on the spawn zones), AR guard dogs, and emplacements. If you don't like turrets, the MG-43 and ammo backpack work well for me. I'd suggest the handling armor as well.

If your team is smart and don't blow each other away, it's not that bad.

[[Asgard] Thor]

If you can manage to shoot down the dropships before they release the troops that will go a very long way in making that objective easier.. I used to bring a rocket turret along for those, that sucker is really good these days too.

[Postman Pat]

Originally posted by Asgard Thor:

If you can manage to shoot down the dropships before they release the troops that will go a very long way in making that objective easier.. I used to bring a rocket turret along for those, that sucker is really good these days too.

planet was lost so it doesn't matter, but it seems like 4x recoilless could've won them easily, but anything else and it ain't happening. the pace was way too frantic.

[Aestrea]

It's only infinite if someone doesn't stand close to the flag which raises the meter and once it goes all the way up, it stops the reinforcements and tells you to clear the remaining enemies near the flag.

[Brother Belial]

bugs you can stealth it, bots you can too, but with the drops, it can make it impossible depending on where the drops are.

[Crystal Sky]

tips for taking the flag, get an orbital bombardment, preferably napalm. wait to see where the bots are dropping. drop the bombardment. then take your aAT weapons out and kill anything left standing. also have someone cover the flanks just in case. also exosuits are great. extreme firepower for a short duration, perfect for flags.

[Postman Pat]

Originally posted by Crystal Sky:

tips for taking the flag, get an orbital bombardment, preferably napalm. wait to see where the bots are dropping. drop the bombardment. then take your aAT weapons out and kill anything left standing. also have someone cover the flanks just in case. also exosuits are great. extreme firepower for a short duration, perfect for flags.

good idea