Thoughts on the phone system.

I really like the idea in concept! I think it fits the theme perfectly, but I’m not sure it accomplishes the gameplay goals it’s supposed to. If it’s just supposed to be a time gate for resources, then I think it works quite well as it is. However, if it’s supposed to be a side objective that you have to make a tactical choice to complete, I think it fails in its current state.

Why? The phones are often on enemies that are already in your way, and you’re likely going to be walking over them anyway. This means that, at least in my experience, there’s no decision being made, and you will effectively always get them all. This works very well for restocking players mid mission, if that was the intent I don’t think it’s entirely necessary. I personally think the resources you find in the map is enough.

If you think this is a problem, I can see 3 approaches to “fix” it. A (relatively) easy option, a more in depth rework, or a middle ground.

1: ‘easy’ solution, make it so only long range enemies, or enemies that will likely not be in the players path, drop phones. Like snipers. This way the player has to choose to go to the body and pick it up.

2: A rework. Make the phones carried by a new enemy type that runs away. Exactly what they do and why, could be anything. Maybe an enemy that buffs allies nearby and runs away when damaged? As long as they are ignorable, this makes it more of a tactical decision to follow/engage them and collect the phones.

3: A compromise. Make it a 2 stage process, require the players to bring the phones somewhere, like back to spawn. This means the players have to make a decision, take more of a risk to travel, costs more time, but still offers the reward.

You could even combine some of these together. I’m sure there are other ways to make collecting phones more interesting. But I don’t think that they should just be hidden on the map, because that overlaps a lot with finding intel. Unless there’s some other mechanic to locate them. Like a compass or something that points to the hidden phones? Dunno how that would work, and I think it would cost more dev time, and be worse than the other options.