I've been playing for a little bit(I'm level 55 right now), and I can safely I do really enjoy it. That being said, I do think there's some room for improvement, so I wanted to share a few ideas and see what you folks thought.
1. The cost of recruiting new raiders and building rare blueprints is a huge barrier to more casual players, especially since the rework. I receive, on average, 2000 gold for a successful mission. I've been saving up to recruit Ginebra and I've still got a ways to go. On top of that, there's still the cost of recruiting Rak, Valeria, and Schneider. I think unlocking new Raiders based on story progression and reducing the recruitment fee by half or two-thirds would be more engaging and maintain a better pace.
I do think common blueprints are actually priced at a good rate for standard progression, but the jump from 21k for a common to 70k or more for a rare is just too much at the current drop rate for gold. Scaling it back so rare blueprints are twice as expensive as a common(42k) would make it feel much less grind-intensive, while still encouraging players to put in the time.
Also worth mentioning while we're talking about gold, the levelup reward of 2000 gold feels incredibly token. It's an average game reward which is okay, but still too little to do anything with. It would be nice if those rewards were increased so it felt more impactful.
2. Buying gold is obviously encouraged in the current build. This is a free to play game, I know. However, the amounts you can purchase seem designed to make you feel like you've wasted money. The largest amount of mercury points you can buy on PS4 at once is 2500mp for $20. The largest amount of gold you can buy with that amount is 150k for 1890, leaving you with 610mp. Not enough for the middle bundle, and not enough for more than one skin or the small gold bundle. You can either leave the remainder, as there's nothing you can buy with it, or keep buying mp til you get to an even amount you can spend. Not a great system, I feel. I think there should be an even exchange, where every one mp is equal to a small amount of gold, and you can freely choose how much to convert. You could keep the bundles around, offering a slightly better exchange rate for buying in bulk. This way, players can feel like they got the full value of the money they put in.
3. I feel like the Antagonist system could use an overhaul. I don't think it should be removed, but I think people playing as Raiders should be able to choose whether or not they want to deal with an Antagonist in their mission. Some evenings, I'd just prefer to play a vanilla mission, get my rewards and call it a night. Other times, I do really have fun testing my mettle against a really impressive Antagonist.
As an alternative to fighting against a human, Uras-Beherit should step in and interfere with players more actively. I just don't feel like it has much presence in the campaign and I'd love to see more done with it.
Just some ideas off the top of my head, it could create area hazards forcing players to adjust routes to the objective or give all elites on the field one level of aleph charge. On higher difficulties, it could interfere more dramatically, like reducing all players hp by a percentage or extending the respawn timer making it more difficult for remaining Raiders. Giving Uras-Beherit a presence on missions where there's no Antagonist could also make the aequilibrium balance more dynamic. As it is now, it can feel a bit lop-sided.
