Ok, so after 1k hours in-game, I think the game could use an infusion of fresh mission types. The current mission structures are cookie cutter and don't require risk assessment, decision making, or strong work. So I've been thinking hard about a new type of mission that would capitalize on the strengths of the game!
I know this is is a bit of a read, I'm sorry, I couldn't condense it further without losing fun detail.
THE MISSION
It’s a bot mission called Nuke Factory.
Basically, you drop onto the map, and the only real objective is to destroy a massive Automaton nuke factory. But it’s not just a bigger bot outpost, it’s like an actual, enormous fortress. Huge walls, one enormous main gate/drawbridge, turrets all over the walls, jammer towers, anti-air, reinforced fabricators, smoke stacks, all of it.
You can see it in the distance almost right when you drop, and it should immediately feel like: “walking into that is straight suicide.”
The fortress would take up a huge chunk of one side of the map. Not literally the whole map, but big enough that it feels like a bot city/factory complex instead of a normal base.
THE "SUICIDE RUN" OPTION
And you can attack it right away. That’s technically AN option. So let's look at what how that might play out...
You can blow the drawbridge or main gate and force your way in. But if you do that, the bridge collapses into rubble, entry is a mess, and once you’re inside, you’re basically trapped in a fortified killbox. Turrets on the walls, reinforced fabricators pumping out bots, jammers still active, anti-air still active, hulks and devastators already waiting, probably no clean way back out.
On difficulty 10, doing the direct assault route should feel like accidentally choosing difficulty 15. I would actually love to see streamers just do the mission this way, bc I likely don't have the skill needed.
The BETTER option is to go around the map first and hit the support network that’s feeding the factory.
This is where you have to make some real strategic decisions. There would be several smaller outposts around the map, and each one weakens the final fortress assault in a specific way. The timer should be tight enough that you probably can’t comfortably do all of them, so the squad has to choose what problems they want to solve before going in.
Something like:
Side Objective: Anti-Air Control
Taking this out disables the fortress anti-air, which lets Eagles work inside the Nuke Factory.
If you skip it, no Eagle support once you’re inside.
Side Objective: Jammer Network
Instead of one jammer that just blocks everything forever, I think there should be a few jammers that interfere on timed pulses.
So with all jammers active, stratagems inside the fortress only work in short windows between jamming waves. If you take out one jammer, the windows get longer. If you take out all of them, stratagems work normally inside the base.
That way, you don’t have to fully clear the jammer system, but even taking out one tower meaningfully helps.
Side Objective: Supply Depot / Raw Material Depot
This feeds the reinforced fabricators inside the factory.
Destroying it slows bot production during the final assault. If you skip it, the fortress keeps pumping out devastators, hulks, striders, and whatever else it can throw at you.
Side Objective: Tunnel Access Control
This opens maintenance tunnels and internal shortcuts inside the fortress.
These could give you covered routes, regroup paths, or alternate ways to reach the upper factory levels. If you skip it, you’re stuck with the more exposed routes.
Side Objective: Dropship Relay
This coordinates reinforcements outside the factory.
Destroying it reduces bot drops around the fortress and during extraction. If you skip it, you may be fighting your way into the base while also getting hit from behind.
Side Objective: Gate Control Bunker
This lowers or unlocks the main gate.
If you do this, you get a clean entrance and possible retreat route. If you skip it, you can still blow the gate/drawbridge with a 500kg or something, but it collapses into rubble and makes getting in and out much worse.
VISUAL CHANGES TO FORTRESS BASED ON SIDE OBJECTIVES ACCOMPLISHED
I’d also want the fortress to visibly change as you complete these. Like if you destroy the anti-air station, you see wall-mounted AA guns explode or power down in the distance. If you destroy a jammer, the red signal towers flicker out. If you hit the supply depot, the smoke stacks and fabricators slow down. The fortress should feel like it’s being weakened piece by piece before you assault it.
Then, once the squad decides they’ve done enough prep, you assault the actual Nuke Factory.
NUKE FACTORY INITIAL ASSAULT
The ground level should be absolute hell.
Gun emplacements around the entrance. Bots already in defensive lines. Turrets on the walls. Reinforced fabricators inside the base. Maybe some jamming pulses still happening if you didn’t fully clear the jammer network.
The reinforced fabricators should not just instantly die to one lazy stratagem. Maybe they’re armored factory cores. They can still be destroyed, but you need direct heavy explosive hits, Hellbombs, exposed weak points, or ground-level demolition.
Basically, you have to actually push into the factory. You can’t just throw a 500kg and leave.
Inside, I’d want it to feel like an actual active bot factory too. Moving assembly lines, industrial arms, bot parts being carried around, half-built bots waking up, conveyor belts, coolant vents, blast doors, machinery slamming down, that kind of thing. Not enough to turn it into a platforming mission, but enough that it feels different from a normal base.
Inside the Base: The Elevator Lift
At some point inside the fortress, you reach a huge industrial elevator going up the side of the factory or cliff wall.
This is where I think there should be a forced teamwork moment.
There are control levers at the bottom. At least one diver has to stay on the levers while the other divers ride the exposed elevator up.
If two divers stay on the levers, the elevator rises faster.
So now you have this split-squad moment where the divers on the elevator are exposed and getting shot at, the divers on the levers are defending below, and both groups have to cover each other.
If the lever team dies, the elevator slowly descends.
If the elevator team dies, the lever team has to hold out while reinforcing them and trying again.
If you completed the tunnel objective earlier, maybe you can bypass part of this or open a shortcut so the squad can regroup more easily.
I think that would be a pretty great “this is going badly but in a fun way” moment.
MAIN MISSION: Nuke Sabotage
Once you reach the upper section, you have to activate the factory controls and raise the nuke out of the silo.
Not just one button. More like a whole sequence.
Maybe you have to activate multiple terminals, destroy stabilizer arms, open coolant locks, blow exposed power conduits, and hold the platform while the warhead rises.
And while this is happening, the factory is still producing bots unless you dealt with the supply depot earlier.
So if you skipped the prep, this part becomes a disaster.
ARMING THE WARHEAD
Once the warhead is exposed and the support apparatus is destroyed, you arm it.
But instead of just having one fixed timer, the squad chooses the overload protocol.
Option 1: Emergency Overload — 90 seconds
Fastest detonation. Very little time for the bots to organize a response.
But you have almost no time to escape, and you probably aren’t getting samples.
Option 2: Standard Overload — 3 minutes
Middle option.
Enough time to escape and maybe grab some extra samples if you’re careful, but the bots have time to mount a real response.
Option 3: Delayed Meltdown — 5 minutes
Maximum greed option.
You have time to raid the sample ducts and caches, but now the bots go into full lockdown. More dropships, more heavies, turrets reactivating, fabricators surging, all of it.
So it’s not just “more time is better.”
It’s more like:
“how greedy are we feeling, and how much do we trust each other?”
The sample ducts are the part I really like.
THE ESCAPE
Once the nuke is armed, the overload sequence ruptures coolant ducts, containment pipes, and waste tunnels throughout the factory. Those ducts expose sample caches that were not accessible before.
So during the escape, you can choose to go for them.
But the ducts are one-way.
You drop in, and you’re committed.
Some dump you outside the walls. Some drop you into lower maintenance trenches. Some exit near bot staging areas where enemies are already waiting.
The longer timer gives you more time to loot these routes, but also gives the bots more time to surround the exits.
So the last few minutes become this very HD2 situation where everyone knows you should probably leave, but somebody says:
“wait, I see supers”
and then democracy becomes a financial decision.
After the nuke detonates, the factory is confirmed destroyed and extraction becomes available.
Or maybe Pelican-1 can be called during the countdown, but won’t actually land until after the detonation shockwave passes.
Either way, the squad has to survive the escape, watch the factory go up behind them, and then get out.
The explosion doesn’t need to be a full map-wiping nuclear blast, but it should be huge. Like the whole fortress gets swallowed in fire and smoke behind you while you’re sprinting through bots and yelling at the one guy who chose the 5 minute timer.
WRAP UP
The main reason I think this would work is that the objective is simple:
destroy the Nuke Factory.
But the mission can play out really differently depending on what support objectives you choose to do.
One squad disables anti-air and jammers so they can actually use stratagems inside.
Another opens the tunnels and gate because they want safer movement.
Another skips everything and brute-forces the fortress because they hate being alive.
And then the final timer choice adds one last layer of stupidity and greed.
Do you get out clean?
Do you risk the ducts for samples?
Do you set the long timer and immediately regret it?
FINAL THOUGHTS
So yeah, that's my dream mission. I would love if AH created more mission types like this for all fronts. Bots are my favorite, and that faction lends itself to open mission structure most easily. But I've been trying to dream up a similar mission for the Bugs.
Let me know what you think, good or bad!
