When you're adding a character for diversity and letting people play stuff they identify with making that the only character you charge for seems kinda scummy.
Calling OVERKILL scum for charging for content that costs money to develop is really, really goosey.
John Wick was free (the fifth male character) while Clover (the first female character) isn't.
Then again, Clover isn't a walking advertisement so they didn't get any money for her...
Yeah, to be clear I get the business realities around it and don't think Overkill are trying to be intentionally shitty about it (it's the cheapest DLC and comes with quite a few neat bonuses). It just still comes across a bit rough.
Also new stuffs out. Though Christmas has broken my ability to slave to Overkill. So someone else needs to host.
The diamond may be bugged on DW stealth... people on reddit are talking about it and we just experienced it aswell... so just a heads up.
Edit: The "diamond in the rough" appears to be bugged also... We went loud before taking the diamond, completed the puzzle successfully (on the way in and out) and finished the heist and it didn't trigger...
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BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
You can do Tabula Rasa solo with bots if that's your thing by the way.
...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
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DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
The diamond may be bugged on DW stealth... people on reddit are talking about it and we just experienced it aswell... so just a heads up.
Edit: The "diamond in the rough" appears to be bugged also... We went loud before taking the diamond, completed the puzzle successfully (on the way in and out) and finished the heist and it didn't trigger...
Overkill is like the nicest company about DLC there is, how many other games do you have where you get to play every level regardless if you buy the DLC or not? A lot of weapon packs are kinda useless, but who cares? Just don't get them if you don't want them, Overkill showers content at you for free anyway.
To be fair, if they locked new heists entirely behind DLCs they would kill their own game pretty fast, since it would split the community.
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
Overkill is like the nicest company about DLC there is, how many other games do you have where you get to play every level regardless if you buy the DLC or not? A lot of weapon packs are kinda useless, but who cares? Just don't get them if you don't want them, Overkill showers content at you for free anyway.
To be fair, if they locked new heists entirely behind DLCs they would kill their own game pretty fast, since it would split the community.
That hasn't stopped other companies before.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Overkill is like the nicest company about DLC there is, how many other games do you have where you get to play every level regardless if you buy the DLC or not? A lot of weapon packs are kinda useless, but who cares? Just don't get them if you don't want them, Overkill showers content at you for free anyway.
To be fair, if they locked new heists entirely behind DLCs they would kill their own game pretty fast, since it would split the community.
That hasn't stopped other companies before.
And a lot of those other companies don't care if the game is dead or not.
Well, it doesn't matter, not going to buy them at day 1. To be fair, it seems like they splitted content, since there is only heist in 7$ DLC. And new perk deck is pretty disappointing.
It's a somewhat smaller 1-day heist. It's probably more of a solo-stealth job than anything else.
Basically this... its not *bad* but i wouldn't say its good either... Big bank is alot more fun/varied...
Just not enough to do, honestly... the stealth side is pretty sparse as in not many objectives to do (compared to big bank) and loud has nothing unique to set it apart, fairly bland over-all...
It also doesn't help that it has quite a few bugs to do with the achievements, I'd honestly wait for a sale if i could do it over again.
It's a somewhat smaller 1-day heist. It's probably more of a solo-stealth job than anything else.
Basically this... its not *bad* but i wouldn't say its good either... Big bank is alot more fun/varied...
Just not enough to do, honestly... the stealth side is pretty sparse as in not many objectives to do (compared to big bank) and loud has nothing unique to set it apart, fairly bland over-all...
It also doesn't help that it has quite a few bugs to do with the achievements, I'd honestly wait for a sale if i could do it over again.
The stealth is quite nice. I actually like it that having more than one player doing it does help. And I like that there are several safe areas where you can hide.
Ohh well... i'd actually forgot they said they'd all be released this year... it would've been nice but i think they probably delayed it because 'the diamond' got sub-par reviews.
Do we know if 'the diamond' was that new studios first foray into maps?
My game has been 'patching' for half an hour and turning Steam into a slideshow. I really hope there is more to this patch than some silly gloves I'll never use.
My game has been 'patching' for half an hour and turning Steam into a slideshow. I really hope there is more to this patch than some silly gloves I'll never use.
Apparently they also patched in some early casino assets hence the 160ish mb file size for some punching gloves and a mask.
So we're bound to get "The Bomb" and the "Golden Grin" heists in the near future, with the former probably releasing earlier. Not too bad, at least one of them should be good - wasn't too thrilled by the "Diamond" to be honest.
Split DLC again... looks like its one loud and one stealth day (some guy on reddit pointed out the pictures of the two days are named 'loud'/'stealth')... i wonder what dragan's perkdeck is going to be? also the gun is supposedly the 'Croatian VHS2' looks alot like a FAMAS, wonder if its going to be sub-par or actually worth using?
This is probably going to be the first DLC (minus clover) i haven't brought day one... my interest in payday has waned so much since i hit V-100, 600ish hours, partly because nothing i do really means anything anymore although the perkdecks where a temporary distraction, i.e i was gaining experience again but now i've got those pretty much maxed out (minus rogue/clovers deck) my friends and i have once again gone back to not playing much at all.
Heroth on
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
I picked this game up during the winter sale, tried a few bot matches on the easiest difficulty to get started, and got my ass handed to me.
Unlike the original Payday, I got thoroughly wasted all three attempts before I gave it up. Feels like the cover is on the order of Mercy, where no matter what you are either boxed into a corner (like a rat!) or there's passageways to your flanks where jerks will shoot at your back.
I picked this game up during the winter sale, tried a few bot matches on the easiest difficulty to get started, and got my ass handed to me.
Unlike the original Payday, I got thoroughly wasted all three attempts before I gave it up. Feels like the cover is on the order of Mercy, where no matter what you are either boxed into a corner (like a rat!) or there's passageways to your flanks where jerks will shoot at your back.
Any advice for someone just starting out?
Play with PA people mostly.
Also cover can be a bitch on some maps. On other's it's more solid. Plus honestly I swear the lower amount of specials can actually make normal and stuff harder for people using low armours because there's more goons with just guns.
I picked this game up during the winter sale, tried a few bot matches on the easiest difficulty to get started, and got my ass handed to me.
Unlike the original Payday, I got thoroughly wasted all three attempts before I gave it up. Feels like the cover is on the order of Mercy, where no matter what you are either boxed into a corner (like a rat!) or there's passageways to your flanks where jerks will shoot at your back.
Any advice for someone just starting out?
I also just started playing in the last month or so, but I've never played the first game. I've sunk a lot of hours into this one in the past month or so though.
I really only play offline with bots or online with friends (I gave up on playing public matches in most online games long ago), so this may not apply when playing with randoms and such. I found the the loud-only heists (the ones without the little Pac-Man Ghost) can be brutal when you're just starting out and don't have any skills or equipment. The multi-day heists can also be a bit rough.
Here's my advice (spoiler'd for long)
Vlad and Bain typically have the easier contracts. Looking back, I'd probably say that Four Stores is one of the better ones to start out on. The objective is simple (collect $15,000, which can actually be completed instantly with an ECM Jammer used on an ATM, which only requires 1 point in the Ghost skilltree), and it seems like cops are slow to get there (especially if you take a hostage or two, which will delay the assault wave). It is pretty common to trigger an Escape mission on it if you go loud, but you'll usually get the convenience store one which is fairly easy (just pick the lock in the back of the store, and then the one in the back room and wait for the helicopter while staying in that back room).
From there, Jewelry Store (not Diamond Store) is probably the next easiest. Ukranian Job is actually the Pro version of Jewelry Store and is also pretty easy (just have to steal a tiara from a safe in the back, anything else is bonus), but Pro Jobs are only available on Hard difficulty and up, so cops will hit harder and you can't retry Pro Jobs if you fail. If you go loud, you escape van will leave for a few minutes, but it's not too hard to survive on Normal unless you get overly greedy about loot. Basically just pull back to the back rooms and when the van comes back break a window and go down whichever alley is closest to where it parked (on higher difficulties, fences can block one or both alleys, but I don't think they appear on Normal?).
After that, probably Mallcrasher (tie up the clerk in the wine store on the top floor when nobody is looking and you can usually melee nearly every bottle in there before getting discovered, which can cover over half the damage you need to do in order to complete the mission) and then Bank Heist: Cash (Bank Heist: Deposit is basically the same thing, except there is no loot laying around in the vault so you actually have to open deposit boxes inside the vault to find loot).
Then maybe Diamond Store, Nightclub, and Art Gallery.
When you're ready to try a loud-only heist, White XMas is probably the best to start with because it only has a few objectives, you get a decently defensive position for most of it, and there are ziplines to take you near most of the possible escape points (just know that the first time the helicopter comes it's just picking up the guy you're escorting, the second time it comes is for you and whatever loot you may have grabbed). You're free to stay as long as you want getting loot though, the helicopter will keep coming back.
Shadow Raid is currently the only heist that requires stealth (if the alarm is raised you have one minute to escape or you fail, and if you don't have the required amount of lootbags you can't escape). Any other map with the Pac-Man ghost icon just means that it's possible to complete it in stealth (though some--like GO Bank--are extremely difficult to complete in stealth, and basically require certain skills/equipment).
When playing offline, the bots will not help you with objectives (they actually don't do anything during stealth), but can take a ridiculous amount of hits and deal pretty good damage in combat (on lower difficulties at least). As such, it's usually best to let them handle the combat while you handle the objectives until you've leveled up some. They will help you up if you get downed, but they can be a bit dumb about it sometimes (look at them and press Shout to call them over will help get them over to you quicker sometimes, and try to shoot down anyone shooting at them or else they may stop reviving you and attempt to get into cover or something).
Also, make sure you are visiting the Perk Deck screen often, as it only gives you Perk Points when you visit it, and the conversion rate gets worse every 10 levels. So for example, if you visited it when you were level 19 it would give you the currently available points at a ratio of 200:1, but if you didn't visit until after you hit level 20 then the ratio would be 300:1 which would have caused you to miss a bunch of potential points. It's a silly system.
Lastly, if you have the Gage Courier Pack DLC, it's easy to get a bunch of decent weapon mods that are free to attach, that way you aren't at the mercy of the Payday Cards random drops.
I picked this game up during the winter sale, tried a few bot matches on the easiest difficulty to get started, and got my ass handed to me.
Unlike the original Payday, I got thoroughly wasted all three attempts before I gave it up. Feels like the cover is on the order of Mercy, where no matter what you are either boxed into a corner (like a rat!) or there's passageways to your flanks where jerks will shoot at your back.
Any advice for someone just starting out?
Play with PA people mostly.
Also cover can be a bitch on some maps. On other's it's more solid. Plus honestly I swear the lower amount of specials can actually make normal and stuff harder for people using low armours because there's more goons with just guns.
I've found its the combo of lower armour and more blue SWAT cops running around with there 'high damage' guns to make them 'stand out'... the can quickly eat through even a techforcers ICTV armour...
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
So, I heard this game started awesome.
Then it sucked.
Then it became awesome again.
Can someone clarify?
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
I wasn't around for the early times, but as I understand it it used to be possible to do things like yell guards into cuffing themselves without triggering a pager, so you could stealth absolutely everything stealthable by just yelling down all the guards. Then that got removed and everybody hated it.
Not sure if that's what made it suck, or what would have made it awesome again.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Yeah the stealth used to be a lot more fun. Now you have crap like new guards spawning when you control one or the pager thing. Not that stealth isn't still a fun option, there are just a lot more obvious gimmicks to it now.
Also for starting out, join the community group and grab yourself that Interceptor .45 AKA H&K USP you get from doing so. It is a very good pistol!
The game was all around easier at launch, basically. I liked that because it suited the messing around my friends and I like to do (a lot of molotovs get thrown at each other in L4D). Then Overkill got a hard on for making the game way more difficult and removing any possible way to level up quickly. The game got better after Goldfarb left and the grind was lessened considerably.
Just get real good at headshotting 7 people in the span of .45 seconds; after you can do that the game is easy
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
I picked this game up during the winter sale, tried a few bot matches on the easiest difficulty to get started, and got my ass handed to me.
Unlike the original Payday, I got thoroughly wasted all three attempts before I gave it up. Feels like the cover is on the order of Mercy, where no matter what you are either boxed into a corner (like a rat!) or there's passageways to your flanks where jerks will shoot at your back.
Any advice for someone just starting out?
I also just started playing in the last month or so, but I've never played the first game. I've sunk a lot of hours into this one in the past month or so though.
I really only play offline with bots or online with friends (I gave up on playing public matches in most online games long ago), so this may not apply when playing with randoms and such. I found the the loud-only heists (the ones without the little Pac-Man Ghost) can be brutal when you're just starting out and don't have any skills or equipment. The multi-day heists can also be a bit rough.
Here's my advice (spoiler'd for long)
Vlad and Bain typically have the easier contracts. Looking back, I'd probably say that Four Stores is one of the better ones to start out on. The objective is simple (collect $15,000, which can actually be completed instantly with an ECM Jammer used on an ATM, which only requires 1 point in the Ghost skilltree), and it seems like cops are slow to get there (especially if you take a hostage or two, which will delay the assault wave). It is pretty common to trigger an Escape mission on it if you go loud, but you'll usually get the convenience store one which is fairly easy (just pick the lock in the back of the store, and then the one in the back room and wait for the helicopter while staying in that back room).
From there, Jewelry Store (not Diamond Store) is probably the next easiest. Ukranian Job is actually the Pro version of Jewelry Store and is also pretty easy (just have to steal a tiara from a safe in the back, anything else is bonus), but Pro Jobs are only available on Hard difficulty and up, so cops will hit harder and you can't retry Pro Jobs if you fail. If you go loud, you escape van will leave for a few minutes, but it's not too hard to survive on Normal unless you get overly greedy about loot. Basically just pull back to the back rooms and when the van comes back break a window and go down whichever alley is closest to where it parked (on higher difficulties, fences can block one or both alleys, but I don't think they appear on Normal?).
After that, probably Mallcrasher (tie up the clerk in the wine store on the top floor when nobody is looking and you can usually melee nearly every bottle in there before getting discovered, which can cover over half the damage you need to do in order to complete the mission) and then Bank Heist: Cash (Bank Heist: Deposit is basically the same thing, except there is no loot laying around in the vault so you actually have to open deposit boxes inside the vault to find loot).
Then maybe Diamond Store, Nightclub, and Art Gallery.
When you're ready to try a loud-only heist, White XMas is probably the best to start with because it only has a few objectives, you get a decently defensive position for most of it, and there are ziplines to take you near most of the possible escape points (just know that the first time the helicopter comes it's just picking up the guy you're escorting, the second time it comes is for you and whatever loot you may have grabbed). You're free to stay as long as you want getting loot though, the helicopter will keep coming back.
Shadow Raid is currently the only heist that requires stealth (if the alarm is raised you have one minute to escape or you fail, and if you don't have the required amount of lootbags you can't escape). Any other map with the Pac-Man ghost icon just means that it's possible to complete it in stealth (though some--like GO Bank--are extremely difficult to complete in stealth, and basically require certain skills/equipment).
When playing offline, the bots will not help you with objectives (they actually don't do anything during stealth), but can take a ridiculous amount of hits and deal pretty good damage in combat (on lower difficulties at least). As such, it's usually best to let them handle the combat while you handle the objectives until you've leveled up some. They will help you up if you get downed, but they can be a bit dumb about it sometimes (look at them and press Shout to call them over will help get them over to you quicker sometimes, and try to shoot down anyone shooting at them or else they may stop reviving you and attempt to get into cover or something).
Also, make sure you are visiting the Perk Deck screen often, as it only gives you Perk Points when you visit it, and the conversion rate gets worse every 10 levels. So for example, if you visited it when you were level 19 it would give you the currently available points at a ratio of 200:1, but if you didn't visit until after you hit level 20 then the ratio would be 300:1 which would have caused you to miss a bunch of potential points. It's a silly system.
Lastly, if you have the Gage Courier Pack DLC, it's easy to get a bunch of decent weapon mods that are free to attach, that way you aren't at the mercy of the Payday Cards random drops.
Thanks! That's exactly the sort of advice that'll help me get my head out of my ass on those maps.
If you're getting shot up by cops the answer is always to shoot more cops. Your cover isn't working? Shoot more cops.
And like people have brought up, at release you leveled extremely slow in this game. The only really fast way was to abuse certain speed runs over and over where you willfully lost certain days of multi day jobs. Then the developers caught onto this and made those speed runs as slow as if you actually make the objectives, this is the "suck" part. Later they added a bunch of difficulty, especially to stealth (it was easy), but also added a lot more rewards for heists.
Compared to release you gain less offshore money for heists, but way more xp. The prominence of DLC also makes things way easier on new players since power was locked behind a lot of hard to get weapon attachments when the game came out.
Posts
Yeah, to be clear I get the business realities around it and don't think Overkill are trying to be intentionally shitty about it (it's the cheapest DLC and comes with quite a few neat bonuses). It just still comes across a bit rough.
Also new stuffs out. Though Christmas has broken my ability to slave to Overkill. So someone else needs to host.
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
ABH
always be hostin
Edit: The "diamond in the rough" appears to be bugged also... We went loud before taking the diamond, completed the puzzle successfully (on the way in and out) and finished the heist and it didn't trigger...
Same. Was pretty bummed about it.
To be fair, if they locked new heists entirely behind DLCs they would kill their own game pretty fast, since it would split the community.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Well, it doesn't matter, not going to buy them at day 1. To be fair, it seems like they splitted content, since there is only heist in 7$ DLC. And new perk deck is pretty disappointing.
I got a little chuckle out of this...
Basically this... its not *bad* but i wouldn't say its good either... Big bank is alot more fun/varied...
Just not enough to do, honestly... the stealth side is pretty sparse as in not many objectives to do (compared to big bank) and loud has nothing unique to set it apart, fairly bland over-all...
It also doesn't help that it has quite a few bugs to do with the achievements, I'd honestly wait for a sale if i could do it over again.
Ohh well... i'd actually forgot they said they'd all be released this year... it would've been nice but i think they probably delayed it because 'the diamond' got sub-par reviews.
Do we know if 'the diamond' was that new studios first foray into maps?
New... something coming over the next couple of days.
hooray steam sale.
Shiashi shot a guard and he made me answer the page. Dude.... dont look at me like that, he's the one that killed you.
http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/545265666742141998/B57307A833D54C9183F7940BE559EBC8D1AB6879/
Apparently they also patched in some early casino assets hence the 160ish mb file size for some punching gloves and a mask.
So guesses:
Loud perk deck
Super loud heist
PKM with it.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
Split DLC again... looks like its one loud and one stealth day (some guy on reddit pointed out the pictures of the two days are named 'loud'/'stealth')... i wonder what dragan's perkdeck is going to be? also the gun is supposedly the 'Croatian VHS2' looks alot like a FAMAS, wonder if its going to be sub-par or actually worth using?
This is probably going to be the first DLC (minus clover) i haven't brought day one... my interest in payday has waned so much since i hit V-100, 600ish hours, partly because nothing i do really means anything anymore although the perkdecks where a temporary distraction, i.e i was gaining experience again but now i've got those pretty much maxed out (minus rogue/clovers deck) my friends and i have once again gone back to not playing much at all.
Unlike the original Payday, I got thoroughly wasted all three attempts before I gave it up. Feels like the cover is on the order of Mercy, where no matter what you are either boxed into a corner (like a rat!) or there's passageways to your flanks where jerks will shoot at your back.
Any advice for someone just starting out?
Play with PA people mostly.
Also cover can be a bitch on some maps. On other's it's more solid. Plus honestly I swear the lower amount of specials can actually make normal and stuff harder for people using low armours because there's more goons with just guns.
I also just started playing in the last month or so, but I've never played the first game. I've sunk a lot of hours into this one in the past month or so though.
I really only play offline with bots or online with friends (I gave up on playing public matches in most online games long ago), so this may not apply when playing with randoms and such. I found the the loud-only heists (the ones without the little Pac-Man Ghost) can be brutal when you're just starting out and don't have any skills or equipment. The multi-day heists can also be a bit rough.
Here's my advice (spoiler'd for long)
From there, Jewelry Store (not Diamond Store) is probably the next easiest. Ukranian Job is actually the Pro version of Jewelry Store and is also pretty easy (just have to steal a tiara from a safe in the back, anything else is bonus), but Pro Jobs are only available on Hard difficulty and up, so cops will hit harder and you can't retry Pro Jobs if you fail. If you go loud, you escape van will leave for a few minutes, but it's not too hard to survive on Normal unless you get overly greedy about loot. Basically just pull back to the back rooms and when the van comes back break a window and go down whichever alley is closest to where it parked (on higher difficulties, fences can block one or both alleys, but I don't think they appear on Normal?).
After that, probably Mallcrasher (tie up the clerk in the wine store on the top floor when nobody is looking and you can usually melee nearly every bottle in there before getting discovered, which can cover over half the damage you need to do in order to complete the mission) and then Bank Heist: Cash (Bank Heist: Deposit is basically the same thing, except there is no loot laying around in the vault so you actually have to open deposit boxes inside the vault to find loot).
Then maybe Diamond Store, Nightclub, and Art Gallery.
When you're ready to try a loud-only heist, White XMas is probably the best to start with because it only has a few objectives, you get a decently defensive position for most of it, and there are ziplines to take you near most of the possible escape points (just know that the first time the helicopter comes it's just picking up the guy you're escorting, the second time it comes is for you and whatever loot you may have grabbed). You're free to stay as long as you want getting loot though, the helicopter will keep coming back.
Shadow Raid is currently the only heist that requires stealth (if the alarm is raised you have one minute to escape or you fail, and if you don't have the required amount of lootbags you can't escape). Any other map with the Pac-Man ghost icon just means that it's possible to complete it in stealth (though some--like GO Bank--are extremely difficult to complete in stealth, and basically require certain skills/equipment).
When playing offline, the bots will not help you with objectives (they actually don't do anything during stealth), but can take a ridiculous amount of hits and deal pretty good damage in combat (on lower difficulties at least). As such, it's usually best to let them handle the combat while you handle the objectives until you've leveled up some. They will help you up if you get downed, but they can be a bit dumb about it sometimes (look at them and press Shout to call them over will help get them over to you quicker sometimes, and try to shoot down anyone shooting at them or else they may stop reviving you and attempt to get into cover or something).
Also, make sure you are visiting the Perk Deck screen often, as it only gives you Perk Points when you visit it, and the conversion rate gets worse every 10 levels. So for example, if you visited it when you were level 19 it would give you the currently available points at a ratio of 200:1, but if you didn't visit until after you hit level 20 then the ratio would be 300:1 which would have caused you to miss a bunch of potential points. It's a silly system.
Lastly, if you have the Gage Courier Pack DLC, it's easy to get a bunch of decent weapon mods that are free to attach, that way you aren't at the mercy of the Payday Cards random drops.
I've found its the combo of lower armour and more blue SWAT cops running around with there 'high damage' guns to make them 'stand out'... the can quickly eat through even a techforcers ICTV armour...
Then it sucked.
Then it became awesome again.
Can someone clarify?
Not sure if that's what made it suck, or what would have made it awesome again.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Also for starting out, join the community group and grab yourself that Interceptor .45 AKA H&K USP you get from doing so. It is a very good pistol!
Also, Big Bank is really good. That helped.
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Thanks! That's exactly the sort of advice that'll help me get my head out of my ass on those maps.
And like people have brought up, at release you leveled extremely slow in this game. The only really fast way was to abuse certain speed runs over and over where you willfully lost certain days of multi day jobs. Then the developers caught onto this and made those speed runs as slow as if you actually make the objectives, this is the "suck" part. Later they added a bunch of difficulty, especially to stealth (it was easy), but also added a lot more rewards for heists.
Compared to release you gain less offshore money for heists, but way more xp. The prominence of DLC also makes things way easier on new players since power was locked behind a lot of hard to get weapon attachments when the game came out.
On the plus side the head hit boxes are super generous.