Dead of Night is the only mission where you can complete the mission faster than the bonus objective appears for you to complete. I’ve had many games where I clear most of the infested structures and my partner finishes the mission before I can remind them of the bonus, or they just flat our ignore me. The solution to this is to have the virophage spawn on the first night instead of the third. I understand that currently it spawns where no infested structures are and would have nowhere to spawn on the first night, but lets be honest brutal is too easy anyway and I’d like the challenge.
1 Like
I also have a problem with bonus objectives not becoming active quickly enough, especially the multi-part bonuses.
SoA - Can be fully cleared before bonus even starts for the 2nd area. Make the bonuses start faster.
RtK - 2nd bonus can be force-spawned by clearing 3rd set of shards, but first bonus is gated at 11:40, by which the map can be wiped clean.
P&P - Can clear before 2nd bonus train.
ME - If Eradicators are the first bonus, sometimes the Blightbringer doesn’t trigger early even if you move units into the area. 2nd bonus is set to trigger at 15 minutes, but the map can be wiped long before that.
CoA - Map can be wiped long before 2nd Elemental spawns at around 15:40.
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Can we just change the shuttle path so it doesn’t fly over a group of Missile Turrets, Bunkers, Photon Cannons, Spore Crawlers, and their community of ranged, AA units instead?
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They should probably make them both spawn if 3rd set is cleared. But, then again, they’d probably make a second first ship spawn if you cleared it first, allowing you to get 150% bonus completion.
Train should come immediately if second boss dies.
This one I’m confident saying many commanders aren’t capable of that.
3 Likes
Just ignore the OP and its ridiculous humble bragging.
No one can complete those maps in 11 minutes.
And SoA is literally a mission where you have to choose between getting your expansion or losing the bonus because it spawns to early and then promptly flies into an area infested with AA - and then as an extra aggravation actually SLOWS down when it gets attacked.
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A competent player will clear both shards long, LONG before the bonus spawns the first time.
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Yah play as Kerri. She can solo both shards and the bonus before it spawns.
Honestly, just make the bonus objectives spawn when you kill the area they’re in. Would fix some of the annoying SoA attack waves lining up perfectly to snipe bonus, and would make the speedrunner community happier (I guess? I dunno). DoN is the worst offender here, because it’s not like an escort mission, where more waiting = more time to clear path. Mist opportunities and void thrashing do this, I don’t see why other maps can’t follow suit.
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There are several more I think, but indeed it is the most noticeable on DoN.
I believe the Virophage appears at the beginning of the 3rd night.
I’ve seen it appear within not even touched bases several times.
If you mean LilArrin, he’s currently the holder of many speedrun records - including for RtK (11.15 full clear, 7.48 objectives only).
From my own experience: I generally go for air units/transports to do RtK, so when the 2nd bonus spawns I’m generally hammering away at the 4th shard set and didn’t want to go all the way back just to do the second bonus.
Either make bonus spawns earlier or let it count if you clear the bonus before it spawns.
I usually have this problem of completing the map too quickly SoA as well
I thought it spawns where your army was arou d the time the night started.
Yeaahh I’m good but not exactly great and I have times where bonuses come late on map.
Ever play DoN with one of the players a super strong defence CO and the other super offensive? You can clear during the night, makes short work of the map.
Bonus points if the offence CO can get reinforments on site.
Please no, Mr. Speedrunner. Playing certain commanders on this map (especially those with lacking mobility) would turn full objective clearing on SoA a damn near impossibility. It’s already annoying enough at times.
This one is fine. You can even cheese the second ship if you have the ability to make decent air units. Don’t even need to punch through that base to get to it.
A lot of the points you bring up seem to relate to either super high end players, or speedrunners in general. For the casual player, these timings aren’t actually all that feasible. The only bonus objective changes I can agree on out of the list so far is Rifts to Korhal, Miner Evacuation, and Dead of Night.
Certain bonus objectives should be trigger-able by a player(s) unit(s) being within the bonus’ area, rather than being time based. Other ones can have their initial timing made a bit earlier.
Area spawn objectives:
- Rifts to Korhal’s 2nd ship (this already does this.)
- Cradle of Death’s bonuses
- Miner Evacuation’s Blightbringer and Eradicators. (Thus far, only the Eradicators actually obey this. Blightbringer does not.)
- Chain of Ascension’s Elementals.
- Void Thrashing’s Archangel (This already happens)
- Lock & Load (Already happens)
- Malwarfare (Make it more consistent to be able to be double defended while also tackling the towers.)
- Mist Opportunities (Already happens)
- Temple of the Past (already happens)
Timer spawn objectives:
- Rifts to Korhal’s first ship (can spawn earlier.)
- Part and Parcel’s 2nd train (can spawn earlier.)
- Scythe of Amon (Fine where it is for the casual players. Don’t change it.)
- Void Launch (This one is also fine.)
- Vermillion Problem (Might be fine? Might want it a wave earlier.)
- Dead of Night (Spawn on Night 2 instead of Night 3.)
- Oblivion Express (Fine as it is.)
That’s my two cents on this.
3 Likes
Yes, late bonus is the most annoying on DoN. I literally have to wait for it half of the games.
Also sometimes on SoA when I get fast and strong commander and competent ally.
On other maps never had any problems.
Starcraft2Coop has a map of possible virophage locations. If the area directly to the south of the map is cleared, then the virophage will always spawn there.
The solutions are
- make bonus spawn/move when X amount of main objective reached
OR - area trggerable (only for bonuses always in a certain area)
Or:
- Just take your time and enjoy the mission. That’s the easiest one
Except you can’t force an ally to do that
If the mission gets harder as time progresses, that mentality is a dangerous one to have. Especially on mutations…
An upcoming mutation is Knock Knock - you want to deal with possibly Avenger-stacked propagators just because you want to “take your time and enjoy the mission”?
Edit: When you have played all the missions several hundreds to thousand times over, they lose all “fun”. At that time you mostly play for the win, and not the fun.