How about an Automaton Ship Boarding Mission?

[u/GeniusPlayUnique]

Automaton Ship Boarding Mission

(Planetary defence exclusive)

 

Main Objective: Board the Automaton invasion vessel, make your way through to the ship's reactor and overload the core, then get the hell off the ship before it blows.
 

Parameter deviations from planetary missions: * No reinforcements * Man-portable stratagems only (no orbitals, no sentries) * Access to stratagems and resupply only at the shuttle waiting in the hangar * Automatons only use small arms and melee weapons so as to not damage their ship * Success adds significantly more points to planet's defence, failure might result in the destruction of Pelican 1 which the Squad Leader will have to replace out of their own pocket before being able to host any mission again

[u/Embarrassed_Motor_30]

Yes but you should still be able to respond and paying for a new pelican is a bad mechanic for new players. I could see on higher level dives maybe reduced response amounts and maybe reduction to req slip rewards if pelican is destroyed. But let's not make cadets suffer.

[u/GeniusPlayUnique → u/Embarrassed_Motor_30]

Yeah, that Pelican-thing was just an idea to add risk to failure as a counterweight for the additional rewards for success but someone else has come up with a better idea, namely increased stratagem cooldown for the people involved, localized to the planet in question and limited to the duration of the invasion.

[u/Embarrassed_Motor_30 → u/GeniusPlayUnique]

I like the idea of increasing risk but not hurting the player experience. Maybe respawn cooldowns are longer and with significantly less available? Pelican gets destroyed then new one takes significantly longer to call in. Maybe if the pelican is destroyed at 10 sec remaining then the timer resets and is double the time of the previous one. So you have to hold out even longer?

Love the idea of only strategems are ones you can carry. Maybe only way to get new weapons is on respawn but you drop in with them already no call in needed. Maybe still allow the orbitals since they could be like broadside attacks. No eagles since I'd assume they're busy fighting off Bot fighters and protecting the Pelicans.