Firstly, I’m super grateful that co-op was added to the game. I know a lot of the co-op gameplay has gotten different reactions regarding friendly fire, exploration and loot sharing, but I think it’s an overall boon for the game.
However, I think Crucible in particular really needs a revive mechanic of some kind. It feels extremely bad to be the person on the team who dies first, whether through mistakes or just some bad luck. The team either has to continue on without you, or they have to stop the run just to get you back in. If they decide to continue on, then the dead player(s) have to sit there left out. I get that a run should end on death solo, but if it’s a Crucible team effort, the run should stop on a team wipe.
Reviving could come in any number of forms, possibly with any combination.
- Resource-based
- Sacrifice health (per normal revive mechanics in the open world)
- Spend Crucible currency
- Start runs with a limited number of team revives, aka lives
- Time-based
- At the end of the stage after all enemies are dead
- After X stages have been completed
- After X minutes have passed
- When reaching the Seneschal
- Objective-based
- After killing X number of enemies (so no reviving at bosses)
- After XX damage has been dealt
I do think something beyond just losing health may be needed to reinforce the punishment of dying during a crucible run. That is, making mistakes and dying should still be costly but not run-ending.
Anyway, these are just some ideas. I think it would create a greater sense of comraderie, maintain the need for skill from each player, and mitigate “feel-bad” moments. Keep up the great work, and looking forward to more updates!