One of Arc Raiders’ most contentious systems is the Expedition. This is an opt-in seasonal wipe that enables players to effectively delete their accounts and restart the game every two months or so. In return, you get a few semi-permanent boosts, such as extra stash space and perk points, plus unique cosmetics to show off the fact that you nuked all your own stuff.
It’s a masochistic-but-fun loop. To take part you actually have to collect and ‘donate’ a long shopping list of additional items, so it’s little surprise that the community remains torn on whether it’s even worth it. In addition to losing your stockpile of gear, the Expedition also resets all quest progress and deletes your collection of craftable blueprints, which are already frustrating to find. In short: it’s a helluva grind.
Virgil Watkins
Watkins joined Embark Studios as a senior technical designer in October 2021, going on to serve as Arc Raiders’ design director since February 2022.
Speaking with Virgil Watkins, design director on Arc Raiders, Embark acknowledges these issues remain unresolved and is looking into how it can improve the system. First off, “it is a bit of an experiment,” Watkins explains, “because we didn’t want to force resets on everyone, then now we’re on this road of ‘how do we make it interesting enough for the largest amount of people to participate in this?”
One issue raised by Watkins is the role of currency in the Expedition Project. It’s expensive to participate in (even after the requirement was reduced from 5 million down to 3 million coins) and your wealth ultimately dictates how well you’ll be rewarded: “The currency system we have today was just what we had time to develop.”
“Because of other things that were actively in development, we didn’t have time to shift the system to what we intend to do next, and we want to tie more game loops into it, and not just make it about currency value.”
Embark is focusing on adjustments to ease the pressure on the system and ensure that the incentives for wiping your account match the effort. One aspect Watkins specifically points to is the skill points you’ll earn from Expeditions: “Skill points probably won’t hold forever. Of course, we don’t want people to be able to max out the entire skill tree. That’s not the way it’s designed… At some point, we’re very likely going to revamp parts of the skill tree. So then what other elements do we make part of the Expedition system to keep it enticing?”
Embark is also weighing up the drawbacks for players completing Expeditions, the largest being the loss of all your blueprints, which take a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (plenty of tears) to acquire. While saving blueprints isn’t “off the table”, Watkins seems to favour other alternatives: “I wonder if we can address that particular pain point by additional changes or systemic changes to how blueprints are found, acquired, or learned, rather than needing to feel like they have to come along with the Expedition system.”
Watkins’ suggestions give me hope that Embark has the right priorities in mind. Roping in more mechanics to diversify the Expedition Project and make it more engaging while reducing pressure on your stash and wallet sounds like a positive direction, alongside more interesting rewards and less frustrating ‘punishments’.
Importantly, these changes won’t happen overnight. Watkins notes that Embark will talk more about the Expedition system “fairly soon”, but warns not to expect “major changes in one giant drop”.
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