[Alex2199]

Frist off Imma rant about my experience. So without an antagonist it is a pretty fun mission (or was). It is a bit long especially the trying to find the protector himself but after that it is  pretty fun mission in my eyes. However, with an antagonist it is a instant regret and overall the worse possibly experience in the game. I have had countless encounters where I am forced to play as Mikah with her rare gun Barrier just to keep a Harec from just stalking to the highest part of the map (Which is actually insanely high for those who don't know) and just sniping the hell out of the protector. I know most people will just say "Just pick a character that can counter him duuuuh" which I would agree with if I knew we had an antagonist from the start. I shouldn't be forced to play one certain character just to gamble especially on missions that are insanely easy to win like Fistful of sand.

Now here is my suggest on how they can make this mission more fun for the raiders. Make the antagonist not be able to kill the protector but instead just down him. The antagonist can only damage the shield causing him to need Aleph. The adds still being able to kill the protector causing at least one raider to still protect him. The amount or antag Harec's I have on that mission is insane. Also I am not saying I don't kill the protector, I have (the rare times I actually antag) mostly because if I have to go through that hell from complete strangers and getting the reply "They put it in the game for a reason!" I feel bad afterwards but I am not about to get punished over and over again and not do the same. This mission is absolute hell and needs to be reworked.

Adding onto that even more, The adds themselves have been going insane as well. Now I don't know if they did this before and I just never realized it or usually killed them before they could do this but at the last part the balcony hanging between the two bridges have had a butt load of adds camp up there and shoot at the protector with no mercy. Its annoying but not game breaking like playing against an antagonist.

[Level9Drow]

Yea, I just never queue for this mission anymore. This has been a problem for a LONG time.

[Engelsgaard]

I like the antag gameplay, but I like your suggestion as well. The antag shouldn't be able to finish the job. We had an Alicia that nailed the old guy against a wall and just jumped and dropped bombs.

Perhaps the higher the difficulty, the lower the antag can bring the old man. For example on 50 difficulty, the antag can destroy the shield and 50% of the old mans hp, everything after that, needs to come from grunts.