Re-Examine Spawn Makeup in Anton Sampson's arcs

[srmalloy]

I'm currently running through Anton Sampson's "Mass Duplicity" arc (34-39), and once more running into the situation I refer to as "Tirailleurs and targets" missions -- in the entirety of the later missions (the ones that actually say "defeat all" rather than having it as a hidden mission objective), every single lieutenant-rank mob that appears in a spawn with a minion is a Tirailleur -- including two missions that had a Tirailleur in aggro range of the door. The spawn makeup issue appears to be exclusively with the "lieutenant and minion" spawns, because I did find two standalone Sgt. Majors across three missions. Can the spawn makeup code be looked at for this arc? There are enough lieutenant-rank mobs in the Nemesis group that having three missions where every single lieutenant-and-minion spawn (more than 40 and counting, including one room with six) has a Tirailleur for the lieutenant seems to strain any concept of the RNG being functional.

 

If, however, the missions are supposed to be spawning nothing but Tirailleurs for the lieutenants, that's different, but if they're supposed to be random lieutenant-and-minion spawns, the spawn code should be looked at.

 

[Uun]

I believe the snipers are intentional, although the mix also depends on your notoriety settings. I think you start getting other types of lieutenants if you increase the team size.

[srmalloy]

I was getting the Lance Sergeants in the spawns in the first couple of missions in the arc (the "check out Nemesis base" stealth defeat all missions that seems to be Anton Sampson's stock-in-trade), then when the missions began being "defeat all soldiers in lab" missions, they turned to Tirrailleur-exclusive.

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Uun said:

I believe the snipers are intentional, although the mix also depends on your notoriety settings. I think you start getting other types of lieutenants if you increase the team size.

I don't know about that, but my experience is your AT seems to have a role in the likelihood of Nemesis snipers being the lieutenants that spawn. For instance, on Nemesis arcs with my main (Ninja/Dark), I encounter a LOT of snipers. Almost always positioned so they cover each other's locations and my approach. And I have to withdraw and re-summon periodically to survive and clear the room. Same mission on one of my Brutes? I tend to not see many snipers, and more regular lieutenants.

[Snarky]

Have you considered the possibility that RNG despises your very existence?

[RikOz]

I've been bitching about this for a couple of years now. It started after one particular patch/Issue/Page, though at this point I cannot recall which, or precisely when. The first thing I actually noticed was that, all of a sudden, the snipers were suddenly spawning nearly 100% of the time with a Werfer Jaeger companion. You know, the other Nemesis mob that shoots poison gas bombs at you. Which event effectively wrecked the tactics I had come up with for dealing with snipers and their gas. (Stop advancing toward the sniper, wait for the gas attack, then move out of the cloud and continue advancing on the sniper. No longer effective when now the Werfer Jaeger just hits me with more gas as soon as I move.)

 

The maps full of snipers are more recent; I just encountered that a few days ago. One map was all snipers until the last spawn before the named boss. The Werfer companions had decreased in frequency, though; I saw many more human minions.

 

But this behavior isn't just confined to Anton Sampson's arc. I saw the same thing in Maxwell Cristopher's Nemesis arcs, and basically any Nemesis mission.

 

On 8/3/2025 at 10:20 AM, Rudra said:

I don't know about that, but my experience is your AT seems to have a role in the likelihood of Nemesis snipers being the lieutenants that spawn

 

I've seen that kind of thing elsewhere, but with damage types. For example, there is at least one Devouring Earth mission where, if I enter the mission on a character that does primarily lethal damage, 95% of the spawns are rock monsters, and if I enter the mission with a smashing character, it's 95% plant monsters. In both cases, the spawned mobs are particularly resistant to my damage type. Actually, I did encounter one mission that seemed to be modified by my AT. I did a DE mission on a stalker, and the map was 100% populated by those rooted plant monsters that don't move, and you can't attack them, until they see you. Brilliant! It seems to have been a recurring pattern with the original devs: almost entirely stop presenting the player with certain effects about the level they obtain a way to counter them. Like the way low-level CoT missions are just stuffed full of those demons with the -ToHit debuffs, but once you're a bit higher-level and can overcome those debuffs, the game stops bothering you with them, aside from the occasional BP Death Shaman or Tsoo Sorcerer. And notice that most of the toxic and psionic damage enemies appear at high levels, because most high-level characters are still quite vulnerable to those damage types.

 

But I haven't played any stalkers recently, and am still seeing the overabundance of snipers.

[Ukase]

And suddenly, my ignorance is bliss. It's been a year or so since I've done the Anton Sampson or Christopher Maxwell arcs. Might have to see if I can squeeze one in through ouro. 

I don't recall ever having any real problems with Nemesis, other than the 2nd mission of that Jaeger's SSA in steel. Those ambushes are awesome! (if you've got good AoE, fast recharge and a lot of luck) Mind you, many of my characters run through this stuff at 0/1 because I want the badge and/or merits, not the XP. But I am playing newer character at +2/8 for the XP, so I'll have to see if I notice any of this.