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[Dark Sectors Pvp] Early Feedback - Updated 26/07/2014


PsychedelicSnake
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NOTE: This is very early feedback being given about the Dark Sectors PvP, and on both the Defenders & Attacks sides of the Solar Rails Conflicts. Now that feedback is really coming in and conflicts are fairly common, the feedback here should now be considered a compilation of community ideas, suggestions, and feedback, and as such some things may be different from another. This feedback is also a WORK-IN-PROGRESS and will be updated as more suggestions/ideas are made and I play more of the Dark Sectors PvP. Check back every so often if you can, as more input is welcome.

 

Summary

I'd like to start off by saying that, thus far, I've been having a blast with Dark Sectors PvP. While certainly not perfectly balanced, it feels a HEK of a lot better (and smoother) than its Conclaves and Dojo counterparts. While one definitely a fun and very intense experience (at least in my opinion), there are still some major and minor tweaks, changes, and fixes that need to be made. I'm not going to pretend I am a MASTER OF PVP BALANCE, so I welcome any and all additions, feedback, and suggestions from anyone that has played the Dark Sectors PvP gamemode. If I happen to disagree with what you have suggested or said, I will discuss it civilly until some sort of middleground can be found, and I respectfully ask that those submitting said feedback do the same. Now, I move on to the Feedback itself.

 

Warframe & Abilities Feedback - Feedback on Individual Warframes & Their Abilities

NOTE: While the knockdown recovery has been sped up, the fact that there is guaranteed knockdown remaining from many sources is still a problem.

Ash

Shuriken: Suffers a similar problem to Mag's Pull ability. It deals high damage (not to mention its slash and bleed damage) and, being the 1st ability most Ash players will unlock, is easily spammable very early into the game.

Smokescreen: Should be self-explanatory. If not, please refer to Loki - Invisibility above.

Bladestorm: When cast, an Ash player can utterly decimate an entire enemy force. The number of clones dealing damage combined with the power strength itself and the temporary invulnerability while in this state makes the player untouchable while also (obviously) dealing gargantuan levels of damage.

Banshee

Sonic Boom: Currently buggy, but when it DOES hit it functions in a similar yet reverse manner to Mag's Pull, acting as a guaranteed knockdown.

Excalibur

Radial Blind: When cast, the enemy player is blinded by a pure white screen, and is unable to see anything for several seconds. While living up to its name and extremely useful, it also feels a bit overpowered. Perhaps tone down the duration of the ability, or bring down the "blinding" effect a tad.

Frost

Snowglobe: Functions as a giant slow field, in addition to acting as an impenetrable wall. The slow field, however, is the area of concern, and a Snowglobe modded for range can easily lockdown an entire area, which is problematic considering the lack of alternate paths and routes.

Hydroid

Tempest Barrage: If modded for range and duration, can potentially lock down a very large area with projectiles that not only knockdown players, but also have the potential to damage them an obscene amount (due to the large number of shots).

Riptide: Knockdown against players. Like many other knockdown abilities, should maybe be changed to either displacement or stagger.

Undertow: Can sink turrets entirely, although players seem to be unaffected.

Loki

Decoy: Not much of an issue regarding being overpowered this time. By contrast, Decoy is largely useless against players, as it is blatantly obvious that it is a Decoy that has been cast. A simply fix would be to have the Decoy take on the model of the casting player. If possible, perhaps make it move in a straight path from the casting point to mimic basic player movement.

Invisibility: I admit I have not experienced this too often, but players sporting darker energy colors and casting Invisibility are true to the namesake. While a player using this should not be easily visible, they shouldn't be impossible to see either. I suggest a slight shimmering effect when the invisible player is using environmental items or attacking.

Mag

Pull: I have firsthand experience with this one after playing Mag. When cast, any enemy player caught within its range will be guaranteed to be knocked down, and as well all know Warframes are often slow to their feet. This being the 1st ability most players that play Mag will unlock, the ability is readily spammable very early into the game.

Mirage:

Hall of Mirrors: More of a bug than a balancing problem, Nevertheless, when acting as the client and not the host, the Mirage clones take into account all damage mods, which bypasses the recent fix and deals insane damage. When used against the Power Core, can potentially quickly destroy or one-shot entirely.

Prism: Although the casting time is not much of a problem, when it is cast, the damage output is very large. While not too much of a problem against the Enemy AI, it can be a death sentence to players, who are unlikely to have gotten completely ranked by the time the ability is available. There is also the problem of its detonation, which functions similarly to Excalibur's Radial Blind.

Oberon

Hallowed Ground: Problematic as an area-of-denial skill. While Area-of-Denial skills are welcome, this is currently overpowered in the Dark Sectors PvP if modded the right way. If done so, it can put out so much damage that any frame without an invincibility stage will either take heavy damage or be downed completely. Especially an issue of spammed over objectives.

Rhino

Iron Skin: While not much of a problem in the late stages of the Gamemode, Iron Skin is insanely overpowered up until that point, and is essentially godmode that can only be solved by either avoiding the Rhino player altogether or focusing all damage until said Rhino player is downed.

Stomp: The only real problem with the Stomp ability that I have personally encountered is the inability for a player to avoid it when within its radius. This should be changed to where a well-timed jump can either dodge its guaranteed knockdown or simply slow the player until the duration wears off or the casting Rhino is downed.

Trinity

Well of Life: Currently only tested on Specters; will need to test on live players - Well of Life lifts the target, eventually keeping them locked in place.

Link: Should be fairly self-explanatory. It can redirect enormous amounts of damage onto other players. Despite this, it is not nearly as problematic as some other skills.

Valkyr

Hysteria: Similar feedback to Rhino's Iron Skin. In this case, her invulnerability is simply blatantly overpowered. With a maxed duration build, a Valkyr can remain untouchable for a ridiculous amount of time. This combined with some potentially insane damage while in Hysteria is unbalanced. Perhaps trade the seeming invulnerability for damage resistance, or buffed defensive traits.

Vauban

Tesla: Like many 1st abilities right now, Vauban's Tesla is easily spammed and easily obtained. Mass amounts of these can be placed in and around key locations, and this can be exploited around spawn areas, which is a major problem.

Bounce: Like Tesla, Bastille, and even Snowglobe, this can be spammed around objectives to prevent access for long periods of time.

Bastille: Acts as a field that slows enemy players, to a rather absurd degree, might I add. Modding for range, duration, or potentially both can result in locking down an entire area. With so little additional or secret paths to choose from, this lockdown is currently overpowered.

Zephyr

Turbulence: Can occasionally trivialize incoming damage. However, this is not in as problematic a spot as some other abilities.

Tornado: Large amounts of stunlock if cast in tighter areas. Like other abilities, the lack of alternate paths makes this a very strong if not overpowered ability. The inability to truly be able to tell the range in which a player is affected is also an issue.

 

Weapons Feedback - Feedback on Player Weapons & Their Interactions

This will be a small one. For the most part, the idea of having mods unlock over time solved the majority of the problems I thought would arise. So great job on that DE! 

 

Explosive Weaponry

However, there is still the problem of explosive weaponry such as the Ogris, Castanas, and Penta. While not much of a problem early into the game, even by halfway through they can demolish a group of unsuspecting players. While these can be dodged with a few skillful dodges, jumps, and maneuvering, there does tend to be a bit too much luck involved to really call it skill.

AOE (Melee) Weaponry

NOTE: While the knockdown recovery has been sped up, the fact that there is guaranteed knockdown remaining from many sources is still a problem.

 

Certain melee weapons, prime example being the Jat Kittag, can be ground-slammed very frequently. This can cause either stagger or total knockdown against an enemy player, in which case the player doing the attack can easily finish them off. Simply put, it trivializes melee combat if done correctly. Considering how easily it is done, the chances of this happening are high.

 

Map & Design Feedback - Feedback on the Map & Level Design of the Dark Sector PvP

Overall, the layout and design of the Dark Sectors PvP tileset is well done. There is abundant cover (especially in the later areas) while still remaining open enough to allow for faster movement mechanics such as coptering and wallrunning to get around quickly. However, I do have some suggestions that may or may not improve the design and gameplay.

 

Alternate Paths: Adding smaller, alternate routes and paths throughout the map such as vents, tunnels, maybe even indoor and outdoor platforms/trams that move throughout their respective areas. These can provide potential areas for players to use a minor form of stealth (such as surprise attacks) and offer additional venues for approach and escape for both sides of the conflict.

 

Additional Verticality: A problem the current map design suffers from is from a lack of verticality, especially in the opening areas, although this occurs throughout the entirety of the map itself. There is little beyond one or two level for players to ascend or descend, and this can make things difficult for long-range players that need that height to get their perfect shot, as well as for players that can use additional levels to navigate the map more effectively.

 

Turrets: Currently, turrets are too easily placed. For starters, there should be a limit to where these can be placed, as players are currently able to place them very close to objectives, and essentially cut off access entirely.In addition, they seem to have an obscene amount of damage resistance from all angles. They should be difficult to damage from the front, yet weak in the unarmored back.

 

Mission Feedback - Feedback on the PvP Gamemode in General

The objective-based gameplay of the mission itself is simple yet effective, and because of its simplicity it is very easy to pick up and play while there is a definite challenge involved in the form of resistance from both the gameplay itself, enemy AI, and enemy players. Despite this, I do have a couple gripes and suggestions for improvements, as follows.

 

Tier 2: Destroying the generators. I feel these are spaced too closely together within the area provided, and should be spread throughout said area a bit more that way enemy AI and enemy players don't simply cluster in that one small area. This would force them to spread themselves out a bit and allocate their forces a bit more tactically.

 

Tier 3: Destroying the power core. Simply put, I feel this thing has way too much health. I don't think it is even possible to destroy it (if it is, major props to you for you are a God amongst Tenno). While it should definitely be difficult to destroy, I don't think it should be as difficult as it is now. I suggest perhaps either lessening the health/resistances of the objective itself and/or creating additional (and optional) secondary objectives that the attacking team can focus on to potentially speed up the destruction process.

EDIT: Power core seems to be taking a respectable amount of damage now. However, alternate objectives to potentially speed up destruction (for attackers) or to slow destruction (for defenders; would also give something to do other than simply defend) can go a long way to adding additional replayability.

 

Enemy AI Health & Durability: Like most things on this list, this does not become too much of a problem until the second-half of Tier 2 and the entirety of Tier 3. At these points, enemies can potentially be very difficult to kill, made even more so by the fact that many players will almost definitely have not unlocked the full power of their loadouts. I suggest simply toning down the enemy AI levels and/or their resistances, but obviously not too much as to trivialize gameplay.

 

Defense Side Limitations: I agree with the concept that the Defender Side of the Solar Rail Conflict should have a home-field advantage. However, this does not mean there should be no downside to defending; there has to be some sort of balancing factor to even out (but not necessarily completely level) the playing field. I have limited information at this time, so for the moment I simply suggest having slightly longer loading times for Defenders whereas Attackers have access to greater Reinforcements (as stated below). 

 

Attacker's Reinforcements: I feel that 20 is too low to start off with. While obviously not a problem early on, once enemy AI levels begin to reach into 35+ and everyone is clustered in the final Tier 3 area, it can be difficult to keep everyone alive while at the same time multitasking between damaging the power core and keeping the enemy team at bay.

 

UI Feedback - Feedback for Dark Sectors PvP User Interface

As of right now, the current Dark Sectors PvP UI simply gets the job done. However, myself (and apparently many others) believe that it can do an even better job if worked with a bit more.

 

Objective Reminders: There should be occasional pop-ups or reminders that flash on screen to, well, remind players of their current objective. Many players seem to focus too much on the PvP and not enough on the objectives therein. If something like this is added, it should not be centered on the screen, but instead be set off to the side (yet still remain noticeable).

 

Team Info: The Team status and info set to the side should be expanded upon. This could possibly include in-mission rank (to help show how far along they are) as well as other status details.

 

More Clear Team Status: Separate from the Team Info suggestion. This could include greater visibility for when players are downed (such as possibly seeing player occlusion through walls, highlighted in orange to stand out against the red tint of enemy players and blue occlusion of friendly players).

 

Player Feedback - Feedback on Player Interaction

Oh boy. There is obviously little the Developers can do about this one, but I feel this should be added just as much as everything else here. While definitely not nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be (in solemn admittance, it was actually very tolerable. Not a hint of rage, demeaning, or anything really negative I personally encountered. Even the teabagging was playful and in good spirits).

 

However, there is the problem of team interaction. Most of the time players are too busy trying to go off and do their own thing instead of working as a team, and as a result the Team Reinforcements get drained fairly fast, and depending on a variety of factors the match can end very early. More often than not I found myself forcing myself into either a supportive or background role, going around reviving teammates or acting as a distraction for the enemy team in the hopes that my own will take the hint and focus on the objectives.

 

That is it for now. I will be adding more of what I experience and find the more I play the Dark Sectors PvP, as well as taking suggestions and ideas from any potential discussions had within this thread and others. All in all, I am enjoying this new gamemode quite a bit, and I genuinely believe that with as much love and work that was put into simply implementing it into the game now being put into balancing and smoothing out the kinks, DE has a potential goldmine of fun and replay-ability on their hands. 

 

Dark Sector PvP Hotfixes/Update Patch Notes

- Hotfix 14.0.9 https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/273702-hotfix-1409/

Edited by PsychedelicSnake
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I'll start!

 

Do you thin that the enemy AI have way too much HP?

 

I know you're not supposed to 1 shot them but they take a ridiculous amount of time to kill , the damage they deal is fine , it's jsut that they're walking ammo drains

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I'll start!

 

Do you thin that the enemy AI have way too much HP?

 

I know you're not supposed to 1 shot them but they take a ridiculous amount of time to kill , the damage they deal is fine , it's jsut that they're walking ammo drains

After playing through a sixth and seventh time while typing this all up, yes I do think they can be rather bullet spongey, but mostly in the latter half of the gamemode; that is, second half of the second tier and the entirety of the third tier. I'll add this in.

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I think that I say good bye to warframe... or create other account, a clan with one member (me) and deploy a solar rail. I am an invencible challenger, I have 12 hours to win 100 challenges and conquer all the Solar System.

 

-- Rodator, Black Sun Administrator

Edited by Rodator
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I think that I say good bye to warframe... or create other account, a clan with one member (me) and deploy a solar rail. I am an invencible challenger, I have 12 hours to win 100 challenges and conquer all the Solar System.

 

-- Rodator, Black Sun Administrator

 

GG wp :D

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Probably the reason the power core has so much health is because if you destroy it, it is a one shot for the Solar Rail and the conflict is finished?

 

If it isn't, then this needs to be fixed, literally impossible to take it down.

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Probably the reason the power core has so much health is because if you destroy it, it is a one shot for the Solar Rail and the conflict is finished?

 

If it isn't, then this needs to be fixed, literally impossible to take it down.

It doesn't one shot the rail, I've destroyed it before. That being said, it does have way too much health.

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I think that I say good bye to warframe... or create other account, a clan with one member (me) and deploy a solar rail. I am an invencible challenger, I have 12 hours to win 100 challenges and conquer all the Solar System.

 

-- Rodator, Black Sun Administrator

I agree with the fact that 100 runs is far too low for rail health to be destroyed.

I actually felt that the health of the core in the third stage was very well done, I was able to destroy it several times by strategizing with my clan mates.

One thing I have noticed is the fact that the defenders have a major advantage in the second stage, with each of the generators being so close together, and it taking so long for the generators to actually become vulnerable. The animation for that is a bit too slow, making it extremely difficult to survive long enough to inflict damage.

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I like how you completely ignored the blatant brokeness of Ash's Bladestorm... It can destroy an entire reactor in one cast and can easily grant you an instant quadra kill. Hardly balanced...

Like I said, this is very early. If it wasn't obvious, I had not gotten to the point as of yet to where I am able to unlock and test Bladestorm for myself, so I must argue that I haven't ignored anything. I just haven't gotten to it yet. 

 

However, I thank you for bringing this to my attention, and will attempt to test it for myself as soon as possible.

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This being my first foray into the PVPs I may be ignorant of a few things but it appears to me that aura mods do jack-diddly.

 

That is to say, nothing 'extra' unlocked at the Unranked stage and no effect gained from them what so ever... Which is particularly annoying when one see's the specters gallivanting about and using powers more liberally than us players are able to due to their inherent energy regen.

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This being my first foray into the PVPs I may be ignorant of a few things but it appears to me that aura mods do jack-diddly.

 

That is to say, nothing 'extra' unlocked at the Unranked stage and no effect gained from them what so ever... Which is particularly annoying when one see's the specters gallivanting about and using powers more liberally than us players are able to due to their inherent energy regen.

Players actually regen energy by standing near the ally spawn points, those pillars that look like the life support capsules from survival.
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Things On My List to Test

- Vauban, specifically his Tesla, Bastille, and Vortex Abilities

- Ash, specifically his Bladestorm Ability

- Saryn, specfically her Miasma Ability

- Additional testing to Ogris, Penta, Castanas, and Angstrum

- Testing to Melee Weapons with a high ground-slam radius

- And a slew of other things

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Things On My List to Test

- Vauban, specifically his Tesla, Bastille, and Vortex Abilities

- Ash, specifically his Bladestorm Ability

- Saryn, specfically her Miasma Ability

- Additional testing to Ogris, Penta, Castanas, and Angstrum

- Testing to Melee Weapons with a high ground-slam radius

- And a slew of other things

 

Vauban tesla can be spammed to death with long range pretty much an instant kill in that area, can be trouble around spawn or locations with only one entry way. Bastille is a giant slow field, basically frosts shield effect. Can be set on spawned and spawn camp people, you are basically dead unless your valkyr or rhino maybe. 

 

Bladestorm cant directly target players or objectives but if cast on npcs it kills everything by it including all objections if they are up and open. Very strong and one sided if used properly.

 

only saw one sayrn and didnt get hit with her ult.

 

Banshees push is very buggy and often dont works but if that get fixed its free stunlock and finsher

 

Zephyr turbulence is strong and tornado is free stunlock.

 

Maybe angstrum is strong in later game but only match i tried it in was one with an ash spammer and i joined late. Safe to say i got destroyed. Ill test tomorrow(today)

 

Havent used my penta yet

 

Jat Kittang big knockdown radius and is mostly strong but its impact damage.

 

Havent gotten to try my Bo or Orthos Primes yet.

 

Slash damage is king

 

Posion and knockbacks is king.

 

Valkyrs ripline is an knockback like pull but of course you actually have to land it.

 

Haven't gotten to try volt yet, wondering if shock will be like Shuriken or just useless. Also waiting to test the rest of his powers they seem like they could be useful. Another thing to do tomorrow.

 

You already listed loki but switch teleport is kinda useful can invis switch enemy into a group of your friends. 

 

Slash damage makes bleedout only last like 3 seconds

 

Mirage Disco ball thingy with the blind and damage can be spammed and can pretty much mess everything up for your whole team. Definite strong move.

 

Frost can spam ice shield on objectives which makes it all but impossible to complete them unless you manage to kill him and his whole team camping inside it. Same with teslas. Like a lot of other things pretty much uncounterable. Im sure i missed a good amount of things and made errors but its 4:40 am

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is from first hand experience fighting an annoying group comprised of the most annoying and op frames they can find

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Overall I agree that PvP has a lot of potential...and isn't as horribly balanced as I'd feared it would be, mostly bc of the fact that most weapons/frames can't take advantage of their full capacity.

 

That isn't a fix so much as a "we haven't gotten good enough at PvP to see the problems yet".

 

I'd love to see weapons with higher base DPS, and frames with, frankly better PvP abilities taking longer to level. AKA: Rhino/Penta have a -50% XP modifier. Volt/Braton has a +50% xp modifier. When I get more PvP experience I'll probably create a thread to that effect.

 

More on-topic. AoE currently dominates PvP. This includes jump attacks, slide attacks, pentas, ults. Tenno need faster damage falloff when not in the center of an AoE blast.

Edited by notionphil
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I saw this on Coba. While I kinda had fun, and gave props to the badass Tenno that got me down... this is just unfair. An awesome strategy, but unfair.

 

P41dE5k.png

 

This should not be allowed. There should be a minimum distance limit from your console that your turrets should be able to be set.

 

EDIT: Edited due to my grasp of the English language slipping from too much gaming.

Edited by Kashiki
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I had a nice long comment typed up, then my browser crashed. *sigh* I will probably miss something, but I can try to redo it all.

 

To start, you did a great job with this post. Well organized and thought out. (Small thing on the organization: maybe you should alphabetize the Warframes so it is easier for people to find each one, instead of being in the (seemingly) random order you have them. Not complaining, just saiyan)

 

So, you said Penta and their ilk aren't much trouble early game. Penta unranked deals 350 blast on the explosion. Every 4 ranks, you can put a maxed Serration (up to 900 damage), Heavy Caliber (up to 1,500 damage), and Split Chamber (2,900 damage). Angstrum and Castanas can hit 3,800 and 900 damage respectively at rank 10. Useful if downed.

 

Put the Penta on any of the 'Frames you mentioned (and some you didn't) and you become a demigod: Ash and Loki can't be seen, Rhino is hard to drop early on so he can get levels easy, Excal blinds, and Mag drops. Valkyr, possibly the hardest to do it with, can get massive armor, along with invulnerability. Put Warcry, Steel Fiber, Hysteria (if you want it earlier than 19), Blind Rage, Intensify, and Vitality and she has massive effective health (8,609 at rank 30), buffs her allies (imagine a Maximized Warcry on a Maximized Hysteria, especially when combined with a Volt with Maximized Speed... why am I giving people these ideas?), and she can become invulnerable if things get hairy.

 

Also, another 'Frame that has good potential is Oberon (for Defense). Maximize the duration (followed by damage) of his Hallowed Ground and drop it in front of the terminals. 100-229 damage (increased by Rhino's Roar and Nova's Molecular Prime) per half-second for 20-51 seconds, drop two or three of these bad boys and the only Warframe not dying is Valkyr (and probably Rhino). If nothing more, it will deter the other players... after a few deaths. I guess it could also be used on the Attacking side if you drop them after activating the terminal.

 

The mode is fun and I can't wait for a little more balancing. So long as the community helps find the issues as you are, they should hopefully be able to make some good changes soon.

 

PS - I wonder if Nyx's Chaos makes everybody see all people as Nyx (as the hologram implies). That would be... cruel. Same with Mind Control swapping the names and 'Frames you see.

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Overall I agree that PvP has a lot of potential...and isn't as horribly balanced as I'd feared it would be, mostly bc of the fact that most weapons/frames can't take advantage of their full capacity.

It's not "that" horribly balanced but i'd like to know when we can get our powers, we ran tests attacking a rail 15 times and i've received one (and just one) of my frame's powers during only two of these games, while the defenders seemed to have these way more often than us.

We won some games despite not having any power, we lost some too, but that plus the awful lag plus the guys who try to perpetually connect and disconnect from the game in order to keep us frozen in the loading screen make it a bad overall experience, it is not unplayable, it's just not bearable for long

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