Hey folks
I alluded to this in another thread I started, basically complaining that with a merc pool of 3 per match, having to fill a valuable slot with a random specific merc for the sake of a mission, was a waste of a slot, and often feels detrimental.
So I got thinking.
I can understand why these missions exist, they are there for the sake of variety. After all, if the missions available were just Combat, Support and Game XP, they would be really boring. At the same time, having to bring a specific merc is not so good either. Let me explain why I feel this way.
At this point in time, I have about 15 mercs unlocked. The 7 I don’t have unlocked, are mercs I am not interested in playing (with the exception of Javelin who is probably going to be my next choice). Mercs such as Rhino, Aimee, Arty etc are not ones I will ever play (having used them in free rotation). Some of the missions I have gotten recently are actually making me regret unlocking some of the mercs I have (such as Vasilli, a merc I never like using), due to the missions being based on which available mercs you have in your pool.
As such, I am contemplating not unlocking any further mercs in future, because I don’t want to be hampered by the mission quests forcing me to take along a merc I wont use. For example, I don’t ever want to be forced to bring along Rhino. Therefore I have no intention of unlocking him in future, just to be on the safe side.
So here is a suggestion; why not remove the specific merc part, and change it to the merc class instead. For example, I get a new mission based on sniping, but instead of forcing me to take along Vasilli specifically, open it up to any merc from the sniper pool. If that was the case, I would always go with RedEye, as I tend to play snipers as aggressive midfielders rather than as a REMF, and RedEye is well suited to that.
In each of the class pools, I have my personal favourites. Nader for aggressive pushing, Sawbonez for support, RedEye for Recon, Turtle for Engineer, and possibly Stoker for ammo/artillery (I haven’t decided yet, I am still a big fan of Skyhammer). And I imagine every other player has their own favourites too.
Bear in mind, with the system as it currently is, I am not the only person on my team bringing along a merc they have no intention of playing (as playing them isn’t required, we just need to have them in our squad, which is a waste of a slot). I am not saying this will reduce the cancer of people making bad picks, but it might at least alleviate one bad pick per player on your team, for something more useful.
Anyway, this is just a thought. Despite my low post count, I used to play DB when it was first released in Early Access on Steam, and have recently come back to it. I also used to be active on the forums, but my login seems to have changed due to the move away from Nexon. I am aware that the game is coming up to the 1.0 release, so I am trying to highlight the most obvious issues from my perspective as a returning player.
Thanks for reading, and sorry it became such a wall of text, I tend to like the sound of my own voice (and I love using brackets too).