In-depth Feedback about DLC (outposts)

[ubertpendragon]

The DLC has problems.

I will make a detailed list and explain point by point why I believe the DLC, if it keeps its current trajectory, will not be fun to play.
Note that this mostly concerns outposts, the main selling point of the DLC. All of the new "regular" content (prosthetics, new turrets, new guns, new enemies) is enjoyable and always welcome as extra content for the main campaign.

1. The DLC campaign tugs in two different directions
Fundamentally, the DLC campaign creates a conflict between going from left to the right end of the map, and constantly going back to your outpost. The first and most obvious case of tugging in two directions is that the entire DLC relies on Portal shortucts. You are CONSTANTLY TELEPORTING backwards to manage your outpost, and then forward to continue the campaign. It gets worse when you have to IGNORE THE FIRST OUTPOST to move forward in the campaign to UNLOCK PORTALS. New players will make the mistake of traveling back and forth between their first outpost and a nearby stations for hours. The only outposts worth visiting are the ones that have portals, because they allow you to go back to fiddle with your outpost.
I was told there would be a different ending that would eventually be reached by playing the outpost game, but again this means two conflicting endings.

2. Outposts are not worth it
You need to invest a considerable amount of time and resources in your outpost, most of which are dedicated to upgrading the outpost so it can very slowly reach the same services as any regular NPC outpost. You are investing time money and resources, getting fewer missions and XP along the way, and until you reach the LAST RESEARCH TIERS where all of the fun exclusive toys are unlocked, the outpost acts as a drag on campaign progression. The resources they generate only serve to be spent in upgrading the outpost for the first few hours, and the global net of resources is negative compared to just doing missions. Worse, you have to babysit your outpost against enemy attack waves.

3. The global economy/outpost simulation is currently pointless
The world map has a simulated economy that is entirely pointless for two reasons. Reason n°1 is that it's almost impossible to manage more than one outpost, you only want to focus on a single outpost. Why would I care about "Wealth" or "Produced Goods" in another outpost? Reason n°2 is the lack of commodification of resources. If there's a goal to simulate an economy, with outpost having supply and demand, and transporting goods between outposts, we need simple, commodified items, instead of hundreds of individual small items. "Produced Goods" does not even influence store inventories. Finally, neutral submarines are a nuisance, degrade performance and there are too many of them.

4. Outpost progression is a mess
I've come to the conclusion that the research tree could just be removed entirely and it would be an improvement. It slows down outpost progression to a crawl for the most basic features. For example, Nuclear reactors, which are EVERYWHERE, need to be researched in tier 4, which takes several shifts. Then you have to build the reactor room, which takes 2 more shifts, and only then you can build your reactor. The best way progress shifts, currently is to portal to another location then portal back in your outpost. Another way outpost progression is broken is that you want to rush the Store/Merchant, and then buy the resources that spawned out of thin air from said merchant to build the rest of the outpost. You can also get attacked before you unlock turrets and defenses?

5. Outpost activites are nonexistent
Simply put, most outpost minute to minute gameplay is just NPCs being AFK at a station. Even if someone wanted to open an outpost RP server for the DLC, they would have nothing to do. The only two fleshed out systems are Farming, which got a rework, and possibly Ranching which is WIP. Fishing looks like a NPC is doing something but there is no actual fish outside. To feed outposts, you bring food until you build the fisher/chef stations and then it becomes self sufficient and then ignore it. I would not pick station gameplay over submarine gameplay as station gameplay is simply boring in comparison.

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What to do?

I personally think the DLC needs to pivot considerably, the biggest problem being how conflicting the vanilla campaign and DLC outposts are. Vanilla wants you to stick to a single submarine and push forward, DLC wants you to manage outposts and a simulated economy.

Here's a list of general suggestions, without being too specific:

• It would be best to create a separate campaign structure for the DLC, with a more circular/looping map instead of relying on portals as band-aid, that allows management of multiple, weaker outposts that leaves room for developping them. Unfortunately this might backfire as we've seen how non-campaign game modes are deserted by the players.

• Put heavy focus on outpost activities themselves. Even if the economy/management part of outposts isn't fun, at least having a fleshed out job simulator with fishing, ranching, gardening, maintenance, medical... would be fun enough in the spirit of SS13 and also improve vanilla barotrauma (like how prosthetics improve medical)

• Allow managing friendly stations, not just the player owned one. Possibly in the form of missions, where you are tasked with building new modules, installing new workstations or providing missing resources either through delivery or accomplishing tasks like fishing on site. This way you can actually enjoy some station gameplay anywhere without constantly teleporting back to your player outpost.

• Research tree should only exist for "luxury" items, such as stronger weapons (HMG), genetics, hydroponics, large turrets... It is too tedious to grind and wait for basic functions such as oxygen and fabricators

• A "Pass Shift" button, instead of portal spamming to pass time.

I will update with more specific points once I scramble my brain hard enough