They could do it as a character based 4 wave, 25 Set, tiered Horde…hear me out.
All depending on the amount of players on your team with a MAX 5 players, the system will scale up and down during rounds in case someone leaves. The AI will automatically populate a new AI character to help maintain the 5 character Max and will NOT allow for new people to join in after a spot is left. Why? Because they would be at a disadvantage to the rest of the team as far as Helix Skills being obtained. SO, 5 start the match if 1 leaves an auto populated AI of the same character joins in on the next wave to continue the fluidity. This new AI will be smart enough to role play and level themselves up by staying on par with the team of real players. There are turrets to purchase just like in the PvP and PvE modes and maybe introducing some “booby traps” of sorts. After defeating a “Battleborn Boss” we get a small glimpse into their past and how they arrived where they did. These waves are randomized and scaled depending on when we get them, meaning if we got Montana on, say round 4, he is easier to defeat (because we are still not level 10 on the Helix) than if we encountered him on say wave 16.
How the match is played 25 sets of 4 waves (100 Waves total) and a final Boss for wave 101!!!
Waves 1-3 are minions and super minions and other strong type characters progressively getting stronger but the AI knows the level of the players so it won’t just jump leap and bounds
Waves 4 is a Battleborn Character with a strong group of minions
Repeat steps 1-4 each time having a different Battleborn “Boss” and only the “BOSS” wave gets you a PACK.
Now comes the loot and gear (common, unique, rare & legendary gear) and Gear packs:
Waves 1-3 of the set drop loot like Geoff…random spreads of random stuff
Wave 4 of the set drops the same but better AND everyone gets a Gear Pack
The first 5 BattleBorn “Bosses” get you Common Gear Drop Packs.
The next 7 (6-12) get you Unique Gear Drops with the last of those rounds giving each player a PACK.
The next 10 (13-22) get you Rare Gear Drops with the last of those rounds giving each player a PACK.
The last 3 (23-25) get you Legendary Gear Drops with the last of those rounds giving each player a PACK.
The Boss (obviously it’s Battleborn’s flat-headed big bad guy, Lothar Rendain!!) and IF you beat him in 1 try you get stepped amount of loot type drops determined by the Devs. With the levels of gear being lowered the more you try and fail…not to exceed AT LEAST a Legendary Pack per player.
I’d also like to see this “auto populate” character used in the PvP side so people aren’t getting stuck with no help against teams of 5. But with a slight twist seen HERE…
I think it might even more fun if they built a castle/fort map or two the huge an allowed 10 players to defend. Think of how massive you could make that battle!
If it’s 5vHorde I also think there should be some sort of extra bonus if you all play as the same faction. Maybe guarantee a couple of faction loot packs or something. Since there are factions I would really like to see the devs encourage groups to play as a single faction.
Special dialogue about the faction (i.e. Peacekeepers talking about old missions) would also be great. That would allow the devs to develop the story a little more while still building it around the characters and team play.
This actually does sound like a lot of fun. I work at a call center with multiple clients, one of them is 2K so I got to play the third and fourth story mission with them. The fourth mission has an ongoing fight segment that could resemble a horde mode; like a bunch of those red portal sticks (don’t know what to call them lol) and Varelsi walkers with Jennerit troops are continuously spawning.
I love the idea of a horde mode, i really do… but why not just rip off Mass effect 3 and have horde mode plus objectives till extraction. That combination may have been one of the best coop games I’ve played.