Outpost building is lacking on value
Jumping into the game on the 4th, I got to outpost building as quickly as I could as that’s what I was most interested in. Initially the replay playback value was its own reward—seeing the various ways raiders died to my unique mechanisms and how to improve upon them. Then the Synthite wall hit and I decided I needed to start raiding more to upkeep my outposts. This was fine, to a point, but it wasn’t long before I realized that there wasn’t a lot of value in outpost building compared to raiding and I found this to be a for a few reasons (some of these likely controversial opinions):
• Rewards for killing players (Synthite and Parts) is ridiculously low. I’d almost rather have Synthite earned exclusively for killing players since outpost builders don’t need parts, but that’s not the main point. Rewards for building outposts are lack luster.
• The cost of upkeep (Prestiging) is pretty high, which is healthy for keeping people raiding, but since there is no value to maintaining an outpost outside of cackling at replays (above point), why should I bother? It’s far faster to advance your character through raiding anyway and outposts don’t offer enough GenMat/Synth/Parts to make it worth it.
• The outpost prestige system shelf-life is far too short. Once the outpost is built, assuming you get enough kills/accolades, you’ll have that outpost in the active rotation only 10 days before it has to collect dust or go into social. Given how long it takes to build and improve upon the outposts, this could be increased to P20 or P30 if the prestige points could be earned. This promotes investing more time into building quality outposts over 4,500+ capacity kill boxes and endless mazes that shouldn’t get accolades. People will hopefully also want to invest more time into and improve upon something that’ll last a month.
• There is no ranking for people who want to really focus on outpost building more. It’s safe to say that outpost building without raiding at all shouldn’t be possible, as it promotes the longevity of the game, but at least give those that excel at the outpost building a reward comparable to those who excel at raiding (or if they’re good at both, reward both). This would be similar to being able to earn the same amount of blood points as a Survivor main to a Killer main (or doing both for 2 mil) in DBD’s monthly bronze-iridescent Grades. I maybe jumping the gun on this one though as the cosmetic rewards for ranks haven’t been released yet. Fear of missing out, I guess?
• The current raider ranking system promotes only wanting to play Normal/Dangerous outposts versus Brutal (which often cost the most in Synth and Prestige points for the builder). It’s kind of funny as coming in, my Brutal outposts were out performing Normal/Dangerous and I’d exclusively run Brutal outposts myself (as they tend to be more fun); however, after rank rewards was announced, most seem to be running Dangerous outposts followed by newer players running Normal. Like many, I’ve started running Dangerous exclusively as it has the best risk/reward value in my opinion (less likely to die and able to run through outposts much faster). Brutal outposts tend to be more fun to build in my opinion, but it can be fun to challenge yourself within the confines of Normal/Dangerous.
• Accolades should have some value outside of the outpost prestige system. Maybe have cosmetics or something that could be unlocked for getting 100, 300, 500 Artistic/Brutal/Fun/Ingenious accolades. Perhaps, if there is a ranking system added for builders, it could be tied to the number of accolades earned. This would promote people investing more time into their outposts versus 4500+ capacity kill boxes, endless mazes or other trolling mechanics over the lifetime of the game. Heck, maybe even make the prestige system based purely on accolades and let the raiders decide whether or not the outpost was worth having in the rotation.
After tomorrow or so, I should hit Master Raider rank, at which point I might start to work in some Brutal outposts into the rotation again, but until there is more value added to outpost building in itself, I’m not sure I’ll be investing the time unless it’s to build and activate when the values there, which stinks as it was initially what captivated by interest.
Edit: After re-reading the post, I realized it read a little pessimistically. It should be noted that I genuinely am having fun with the game (more so the raiding side right now), but provided the feedback in hopes of seeing more value added to the builder side of the house. Either way, thank you to those that read it as it’s certainly a lot to read. 😅