In this game the concept of the antagonists makes for a very interesting change of dynamic and rhythm to the action of the missions. But in the practice it draws way too much stress on the players. It's a common issue for both raiders and antagonists; depending on the occasion, they may suffer fairly intense feelings of tension and anger.
Therefore I propose to implement a more flexible system for antagonists matches based on quick invasions; where the antagonists won't join the match from the beginning of the mission and won't stay until the end of it.
Instead; antags' queue would insert them in already ongoing missions, and they would have a limited pool of lives that will pull them off the match when it's depleted. They won't have to win or lose the match anymore; but rather their success will be gauged by the amount of kills/delayed objectives they gather during their life span; which will determine their score and rewards accordingly.
Of course if they wear out the entire pool of the raiders' lives or complete a critical objective (like helping Schneider finish his hacks in In Media Res) that can count as an exceptional victory.
Pros of the quick invasions modality:
> unbalanced matches will be a lot less painful to deal with. Killing strong antagonists quick enough will be rewarding for the raiders objectives' progress. And non-properly armed antagonists won't be forced to stick to an uneven match from start to end.
> antagonist players can cycle a lot faster through matches which allows them to experiment different builds in quick successions to find out what works best. And also this will bring a refreshing flow of progression for antags.
> people who are avid PvP players can stick to the antagonist mode in an more convenient manner; getting a higher rate of matches and rewards cycles. While players who are not big fans of PvP won't have to bear with it for the entirety of the missions.
> the matchmaking times of the antagonists will be greatly reduced.
PS: The regular antag mode is liked by a fairly big niche of players; so maybe we can keep doing regular antagonist invasions through special sporadic events in specific missions and in custom parties of five players. It's been argued that in the case of parties of 5; the rewards system could be exploited, I propose making gold and faction points split between the five players.
