Permament progression ideas

Seeing as the developers are already aware that there’s a demand for permanent progression and giving us hints at what it could be like:

I thought up a few concepts of what I would personally like to see in game and what I hope could be avoided.

Starting off with what I’d heavily discourage from being added as permanent progression and reasons as to why it wouldn’t be a great idea:

• Weapon Damage increases

I like to think that weapons are designed with specific numbers in mind and serve a set purpose during gameplay such as shotguns being good at close quatres combat and rifles excelling at longer ranges and accuracy. Increasing such fundamental value as damage can quickly shift the balance towards one option being better than the other for all cases.

• Changing equipment behavior/use count

Having extra charges on a medkit or having additional grenades would require a very delicate approach as to not make it mandatory upgrades for the sake of making players stronger in general or creating expectancy of other players to use those specific upgrades by default.

Having outlined what I personally wouldn’t want to see, I’ll follow through with ideas that could be enjoyable permanent upgrade additions with a short justification following each one.

• Specific weapon category discount

Making a certain weapon category more affordable would give players the option to specialize in what they enjoy. Imagine being able to get a discount on pistols significant enough to give you more choice in the first mission or being more redly able to afford the more expensive primary guns earlier during the run.

• Faster objective interactions

I’m not sure how set in stone the current objective related mini-games are but being able to for example: defuse bombs faster or lessen the movement speed penalty when carrying hostages and perhaps increase the speed at which you hack laptops could make for a good addition that improves the gameplay pace whilst not overtly affecting how the game actually plays.

• Faster gear switch speed

Super simple statistical increase

• Extended killstreak timer window

I enjoy the rampage play-style of going room to room whilst clearing enemies in as high killstreak as possible, extending the killstreak window would make that more attainable whilst also buffing the money earned by doing so.

• Faster tactical equipment use time (planting breaching charges, pick-locking and setting up ladders)

The tactical gear is plenty but it’s very slow to use and get good value from, if one could preform the basic interactions faster then I’d imagine that at least some would see use increase across the broad.

• Cheaper dead drops

I enjoy the game of odds and being able to do it more often would be nice, I’d personally like to be able to spin since the very begging of the run so a 200$ discount towards the base price of 1200 would make that possible.

• Longer effect duration of grenades

Throwing more powerful flash nades or longer lasting smokes sounds like a good excuse to start using them more often.

• Quieter walk/sprint

Putting aside that current stealth system is completely busted broken overpowered, this upgrade would make going through the missions covert-style less of a hassle.

• Increased effectiveness of non lethal weapons

Incapacitating the targets faster with things such as tasers, bean bag ammo or pepper gun is a good way to promote alternative play-style that doesn’t see the merx slaughtered nearly as much whilst also making for a profitable alternative to just killing them as fast as possible.

• Cosmetic idea: player titles(only visible in the lobby and not during missions)

A tasteful way to show off dedication to a specific play-style, weapon type or particular achievement whilst not affecting gameplay could be a great way for players to flex their presence in a lobby.

• More resistance to flash grenades

Straightforward upgrade that lessens the duration that the player is visually impaired by flash grenades.

• Benefits to wearing a specific armor type

Faster movement speed for people that only wear a simple ballistic vest or more explosive resistance for those that rock an ironman suit.

• Increased player defense

Things such as Harder to hit (% bullet dodge chance) or Harder to kill(% bullet damage resistance) Nothing excessive but a simple and small buff to player survivability.

That about wraps up my suggestions, to close off I’d like to see those upgrades be customizable similar to how one might spend attribute or skill points in RPG’s, also limiting the amount of upgrades one can pick simultaneously could help players specialize in what they find enjoyable rather than just increasing the player power level for the sake of doing so.