This seems like an interesting, friendly discussion!
1. Difficulty: You have created a system that punishes good players.
Hey I'd disagree on that point! The game has stayed consistently hard. The better you get at the game, the easier to becomes. I am aware that there are difficulty %s, it's all the same to me! However there comes a respect for the game where you can't run and gun. Some mobs have shotguns, it's not all assault rifles. Run at an AI with a shotgun, you win stupid prizes. The game has a cover system. Use it.
Each character has their own motive and way to be played. You can't expect to run around as a Shae and CQC everything with 60 hp. Some characters do better on certain maps. Example. Bringing Ginebra to fight Dr Kuzmann is a mistake as you only do your flat 70ish damage since you can't knock him back for example. Or bringing her to fight the guardian balls in the third mission on Alien Myths. Same thing! Hopefully you and your friends can better adapt to the roles each character brings.
2. Rewards: Whoever programmed the calculation for rewards, is an idiot. I have not had any consistency with overall score and the reward outcome.
Not sure if you've played enough matches then and paid attention. Each map you select has bars towards the bottom right of the screen showcasing how much of a currency you get regarding what mission you play. Playing a match on
Hanging By a Thread without an Antag will almost certainly give you the same amount or in the general ball park, depending on how well you did. I'll do some more testing for you later!
Instead of demanding gold with every roll and making it a useless roll, maybe a better solution would be allowing each resource available (Faction and Character) to have more meaning. Maybe to lock a skill in your character tree, have it require 25k Character pts instead of 25k gold. Add Faction and Character points to the requirement for building the weapon and lowering the gold required amount for balance.
3.Antagonist: Allow antagonists to join games at any time, just pop into an active game and mess stuff up for Raiders,
That doesn't sound like a bad idea, but what happens if I dc and am currently trying to reconnect? I've had times where for some reason the game will completely close on me and I have to wait for steam to reverify so I could get back into the game and THEN reconnect.
I disagree on lowering the difficulty when an Antag comes into play because at the end of the day. It's 4 players vs 1 and exploitable AI. Sure when you have 3 random players, a Kuzmann is OP.
YOU know to break LOS with your teammates so you don't get zapped. But then NoobOwner69 sees you're in a good spot and runs over to you to join you in cover, he dies, you're wounded and the antag kills you with a melee. Players will get better. Or they will learn. Hopefully. I doubt it. I hate randoms most times but I digress.
I'm totally on board for certain Antag bonuses! Like you said, getting a certain amount of stigmas (would have to be a decent requirement) would give a dark/morphed or like you said, evil, skin that you get to buy using Gold and or Character Points and Faction Points. Maybe Stigmas become a currency and you have to use them? Rewards are important I get it. This is an ongoing topic that needs a lot of feedback on.
I'm totally down to keep chatting with you about how to make the game be in a better spot. Lets just keep our salt out of it so it doesn't scare away any Devs from looking in here.