Make Operations Less Punishing

Hi all,

Before I begin, a disclaimer- I actually think the game's difficulty is in a pretty good spot overall- that is to say, missions feel appropriately challenging to complete.

 My complaint is that the way the game is balanced is frustrating and discouraging for new players. As my title suggests, it is too punishing of mistakes, especially at low levels. I have three primary criticisms;

 1. Healing is so scarce, a bad hit will often force a player to play through multiple encounters, if not the rest of the mission, on low health. Doubly so if the rest of the party is struggling. This is why healing perks like the Bulwark's Invigorating Icon are valued so highly. Of course, this option isn't available to low level players until they level up first.

 2. Compounding the previous issue, most of the game's difficulty is concentrated in major encounters- usually massive waves with extremis enemies and/or bosses. In theory, this allows you to restock between encounters, and judiciously not waste your resources for when things get really tough. In practice, you may go straight from a massive wave, to a wave with Extremis enemies, to a boss with no chance to heal or resupply in between. Doubly frustrating if multiple of those encounters feature flying enemies and ammunition runs out (going from Spore Mines to Zoanthropes to a Neurothrope then more Zoanthropes is a bad time).

 3. Operations are essentially all-or-nothing in terms of rewards; you lose, you get a pathetic amount of XP, and no other progression. Getting all the way through a 30 minute mission where you've struggled and rallied, only to wipe on the boss, is devastating.

 To fix these issues and make the game more welcoming to struggling players, I'd make three suggestions (alternative fixes are welcome in the comments!)

 1. Add more healing options, especially at lower difficulties. More kits, different healing options (maybe weapon swap stations heal you at low levels?), or some built-in system like very slow health regen.

 2. Tweak the settings of the game's procedural encounter generator to space difficult encounters out. Make sure to flag flying enemies.

 3. Give requisition rewards for completing sections of a mission- requisition is used for everything, and at least players will be meaningfully progressing towards unlocking whatever they want, be it perks, weapons, or cosmetics.

 Thanks!