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Some Suggestions To Improve The Normal Enemies (Heavy Units Improvements)


Renegade343
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Hello all, 

 

This thread will detail a few normal enemy reworks so that it could make the game more fun and challenging when players are up against the enemies. The content is below: 

 

Corpus Tech (and Corpus Suppressor [New enemy]) (Updated as of 2014-07-29 08:43 GMT +08:00): 

 

The current Corpus Tech enemy is just a large Corpus Crewman with a Supra. Before, it had the ability to spawn a shield drone when its shields are gone, which would slightly justify its role as a Tech (using gadgets/robots to its advantage), but with that ability now gone, it is just a Corpus version of a Heavy Gunner (actually, more of a Glass Heavy Gunner, given its average health pool [which almost half of it can be bypassed by Toxic damage anyways]). Thus, to bring it back to fit its name, as well as making the game slightly more challenging, I have the following rework: 

 

The Corpus Tech will now be scaled down to a normal Crewman size (with a grey suit) (Health: 400; Proto Shield: 300), and will now wield a Spectra to attack (at level 30, will deal 15 damage per second). However, it has now a radial aura (radius = 12.5m) (allies within aura will have a grey circle swirling around their feet) where it will heal all robotic enemies (i.e. enemies with Robotic Health) within aura range based on level (at level 30, will heal 45 Robotic per second). The aura will also improve the combat abilities of the robots within aura range (robots which can move will attempt to stay somewhat close to the aura, unless other functions override it), as it follows (robots will still have these improvements 3 seconds after leaving the aura [or when the aura is deactivated]): 

 

MOAs: Can now fire when walking and have more aggressive attacks [will swarm more frequently].

Shockwave MOAs: Downtime between stomps is halved, wind-up time for a stomp is three-quarters the original time.

Railgun MOAs: Cause 100% Impact status effect on railgun hit. 

Fusion MOAs: Self-regenerating shields.

Anti-MOAs: Fire three Laser Discs at once (with spread).

Drone: Longer burst, faster turning rate.

Leech Osprey: Prevents further use of powers as well as draining shields when it fires its Leech while within the aura and the Leech attaches to a player (the Leech can still be removed through using melee/rolling).

Mine Ospreys: Will have the ability to shoot mines at players (affected by gravity [somewhat], with mine projectile velocity = 50 m/s) instead of laying down mines. Players can shoot down the projectile mines before they hit the ground, and it will explode and deal Blast damage to all allies and enemies within a 1.0m radius.

Oxium Ospreys: Will have a slightly homing mechanism when attempting to kamikaze towards its target. 

Scavenger Drone: Will have a weak laser attack from its Laser Repeater when player is within 5m of the Scavenger Drone.

Shield Ospreys: Give more shielding to allies (50% of maximum shields added to linked allies, at a minimum of +400 shields), as well as converting all Shield health to Proto Shield health.

Turrets: Faster firing rate.

Security Cameras: None. 

 

The new Corpus Tech will try to hide behind robots or behind cover when there are little to no robotics, as though trying to survive. It will also have a metallic backpack projecting the aura, in which the players can destroy it (at level 30, will have 3,500 pure hitpoints) to permanently disable the aura. 

 

Now, the Corpus Suppressor will take on the role of the current Corpus Tech (i.e. just a name change), but will regain the ability to deploy a Shield Osprey once its shields are down. Also, allies will attempt to walk behind the Suppressor when the Suppressor is within range of said allies (say 2.5m radius?), as though being supported by a Heavy Gunner (i.e. hidden morale boost), making players potentially have to prioritise to avoid getting swarmed by projectiles.

 

With the Corpus Tech change and the Corpus Suppressor name change/additions, I hope to make the Corpus enemies a bit more challenging to fight against.

 

Prosecutors: 

 

As of U14.0.9, Prosecutors have the damage resistance aura. Now, that is not too bad, except for the fact that it means all other weapon damage types are essentially useless except specified (Fire, Cold, Electric, Toxin). Thus, my first suggestion is that this aura damage weakness will be kept, but combined damage types that have the base element of the aura damage weakness will make the Prosecutor take 7.5% of the combined damage type (e.g.: A Fire Prosecutor will take 7.5% of the Radiation damage value of a weapon). For all others, it will be 2.5% (e.g.: A Fire Prosecutor will take 2.5% of the Puncture damage value of a weapon).

 

The Prosecutor will now be immune to all status effects except for its aura damage weakness and combined damage types that have the base element of the aura damage weakness (e.g.: A Fire Prosecutor can be affected by the Fire, Radiation, Gas and Blast status effects). 

 

Now, since Prosecutors are elite Guardsmen that are tasked to keep the beacons safe (and as to why, search me), they would need to act as though they are actually elite. The first thing to do is allow the Prosecutors to jump over players' and enemies' heads, allowing them to attack from behind for a bit without retaliation if the targeted player/enemy is confused and trying to find the Prosecutor (of course, this would be linked to the Prosecutor's normal movement [i.e.: He can run for a bit towards someone, then suddenly jump] to make the fight more dynamic). For a small telegraph, the feet of the Prosecutor will puff out a bit of a steam before executing it (animation time = 0.75s). 

 

Another attack that the Prosecutor will have is the slam attack, where he will jump up into the air (at a lower maximum height than the previous jump) and do the slam attack animation (will be seen at the start of this attack), dealing knock-down to players/enemies within knock-down range and dealing Electric damage, unless the player blocks with the melee weapon or jumps up in the air as the Prosecutor slams down. When the player/enemy is on the ground, the Prosecutor may execute a finisher on the knocked-down player/enemy, dealing heavy damage (of course, this change can be coupled with a skill-based recovery system ala Jedi Academy 1). 

 

The Prosecutor will also have dodge rolling to save himself every now and then when he takes damage, and will have a slightly increased movement speed and a new sprinting mechanism for it (will be like the player sprinting mechanism, with hidden stamina and such). Prosecutors will now have 600 Cloned Flesh and 15 Ferrite Armour. 

 

With these changes, I hope to make the Prosecutor more fun to fight against while allowing different loadouts to be used to fight against it, giving back choice diversity.

 

Ballista and Sniper Crewmen (Updated as of 2014-07-29 08:43 GMT +08:00): 

 

The current Ballista and Sniper Crewmen do pose a small threat every now and then, but most of the time, they are quite inaccurate and quite weak to be sent in along with the normal troops, as they sport less health/armour/shields. Thus, my suggestion is to first tweak the two enemies so that their damage output will increase (to actually make them dangerous and require more attention to finding and fighting them). Then, make them more accurate (being able to track the player at a more successful rate, especially the Sniper Crewmen), raising the threat of them while fighting. Also, give them a laser sight (ala Scout Troopers in Force Unleashed 2) (red for Ballista, green for Sniper Crewmen) (will track the targeted player to a degree) so that players could spot it and dodge the shots if they can.

 

Finally, we can allow them to cling onto walls and walk around on the walls (i.e. like incests and such). The Ballista will have augmented leg implants to grip herself onto the wall, and walk around the surface of the walls. The speed of movement while clinging to a wall will be slower than the speed of movement while on the floor (justification: Grineer technology improvements). 

 

For Sniper Crewmen, the backpack will allow them to cling to walls by creating a suction field underneath their feet, an also allow them to cloak for around three seconds when activated (in which he can still move around) (will have a silhouette for players to spot), and when he shoots, the cloak will be deactivated. Once the cloak is deactivated, it will need to wait for six seconds in order to allow the Sniper Crewmen to cloak again (justification: Innovations and inspiration with Warframe movement in Warframe R&D created this backpack module for Sniper Crewmen to test-use on the field). The speed of movement while clinging to a wall will be slower than the speed of movement while on the floor.

 

They will try to stay away from the main combat, and instead provide sniper support from a high distance or a more protective area using the wall-clinging technology they have. They will also attempt to flank the targeted player to make it a bit more challenging and making players more aware of their surroundings.

 

However, the player can shoot the augmented leg implants of the Ballista to make her drop to the floor and damage her leg implants, forcing her to be on the ground (and in more danger) and disabling her ability to walk on walls for five seconds. For Sniper Crewmen, the player can destroy the backpack (at level 30, will be 2,000 pure hitpoints), which will permanently disable both the suction field and the cloaking ability (meaning he is forced to the ground), as well as deducting 50% of his shields. They will still have the gravity rag-doll mechanism when they die while clinging to a wall. 

 

With these changes, I hope to make the enemy sniper class a bit more deadly in a mission, providing some challenge.

 

Heavy Grineer units (Bombards, Napalms and Heavy Gunners) (2014-07-29 13:03 GMT +08:00): 

 

Before, heavy Grineer units were actually a bit challenging to take down. Now, not so much.

 

One change to make them have the old feel of heavy units is adding a mechanism where it will reduce 90% damage from any sources on a side (front, back, left side, right side). What this mechanism will do is when a player shoots at the Heavy unit from one particular side for a few rounds, the mechanism will react to it and move the damage reduction to the side that the player was shooting at (meaning the damage reduction mechanism will only protect one side at a time), like reactive armour. An example is thus: 

 

A Bombard has the reactive armour damage reduction mechanism on the front (meaning if he takes any damage on the front, he will take only 10% of the damage). 

A player runs around it and shoots its left side for a few rounds (or the mechanism could react based on damage taken by the Heavy Unit). 

The damage reduction mechanism will react and move to protect the left side, while leaving the front now taking full damage when shot, and so on for different parts being shot and such. 

 

If players Jump Kick the Heavy unit on the side where the reactive armour mechanism is active, then the player will still kick it, but will do a back-flip instead of continuing on (unlike the current Jump Kick after kicking an enemy), and the Heavy unit will be staggered for 1.00s from the kick. For Slam attacks and Blast status effects, the Heavy unit will be staggered for 1.00s only if the direction of the Slam attack is in front of the reactive armour mechanism (e.g.: If player does a Slam attack on the left of the Heavy unit and the reactive armour mechanism is active on the left side, then the Heavy unit will only be staggered for 1.00s instead of being knocked down). 

 

The side where the reactive armour mechanism can be seen via a reddish sheen on the side that has the reactive armour mechanism. When the Heavy unit first spawns, the reactive armour mechanism will be active on the front of the Heavy unit. 

 

Also, as a general improvement, allow players to escape the effects of the Seismic Slam when they are in the air just as the Heavy unit slams onto the ground, giving a better counter-measure and rewarding skill of timing. 

 

With this small change, I hope to make Heavy units be a bit more tougher to fight against.

 

With these normal enemy reworks, I hope to make Warframe missions a bit more challenging, engaging and fun to play.

 

Please take the time to read this thread, and give constructive feedback and criticism for improvements. 

 

Renegade343

 

To see my other threads, please go to my profile.

Edited by Renegade343
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Stop bumping yourself. If you didn't get any upvotes and no comments, most likely, no one liked your ideas. Sorry.

Most of your "engaging" fixes are just buffs. How does doubling the mine osprey's mines help anything when the mines don't do any damage and go off 5 minutes after everyone has left the area? People are sick to death of energy drain, so it would just make leech ospreys even more annoying.

The main factor that is missing is skill based buffs. For example, if the sniper crewman had a laser sight, you could buff damage x5 and it would still be balanced because a skilled player could dodge it. Buffing shield ospreys would be fine if shooting them caused an overload which reduced the buffed shields to below their original levels. Etc. Otherwise, you are just increasing numbers which doesn't improve game play. Undodgeable attacks suck. Enemies which are simple cannon fodder suck. Enemies need to change player behavior to be interesting.

Edit: I do agree that in general enemies should do more damage. Suspicious shipments was fun because it caused players to think about how they attacked enemies. An across the board increase in damage scaling (more damage at higher levels) would be entirely justified.

Edited by azmyth1
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Stop bumping yourself. If you didn't get any upvotes and no comments, most likely, no one liked your ideas. Sorry.

Maybe because there were quite a lot of Kubrow threads, no?

 

Most of your "engaging" fixes are just buffs. How does doubling the mine osprey's mines help anything when the mines don't do any damage and go off 5 minutes after everyone has left the area? People are sick to death of energy drain, so it would just make leech ospreys even more annoying.

For one, it would create a small minefield for players to be aware of for a bit. 

 

And energy drain is alright as long as there is a strong counter-measure to it. 

 

Or we can just disable the further use of powers until the leech is removed. 

 

The main factor that is missing is skill based buffs. For example, if the sniper crewman had a laser sight, you could buff damage x5 and it would still be balanced because a skilled player could dodge it. Buffing shield ospreys would be fine if shooting them caused an overload which reduced the buffed shields to below their original levels. Etc. Otherwise, you are just increasing numbers which doesn't improve game play. Undodgeable attacks suck. Enemies which are simple cannon fodder suck. Enemies need to change player behavior to be interesting.

I agree with the snipers, but not so much on the shield ospreys. Maybe something else. 

 

And I am not just increasing numbers and such. For instance, MOAs can fire while walking (not running) when within the Corpus Tech's aura, meaning it actually increases their threat level and would change player behaviour when hiding or running around. Prosecutors can jump up and land from behind to attack players, which would make players be more aware of the enemy. 

 

And nowhere did I mention anything about non-dodgeable attacks. And cannon fodder is useful at times. 

Edited by Renegade343
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  • 1 month later...

I'm surprised this didn't get more attention. I like it for the most part, especially the Heavy reactive armor idea.

 

 

Prosecutors: 

 

As of U14.0.9, Prosecutors have the damage resistance aura. Now, that is not too bad, except for the fact that it means all other weapon damage types are essentially useless except specified (Fire, Cold, Electric, Toxin). Thus, my first suggestion is that this aura damage weakness will be kept, but combined damage types that have the base element of the aura damage weakness will make the Prosecutor take 7.5% of the combined damage type (e.g.: A Fire Prosecutor will take 7.5% of the Radiation damage value of a weapon). For all others, it will be 2.5% (e.g.: A Fire Prosecutor will take 2.5% of the Puncture damage value of a weapon).

 

The Prosecutor will now be immune to all status effects except for its aura damage weakness and combined damage types that have the base element of the aura damage weakness (e.g.: A Fire Prosecutor can be affected by the Fire, Radiation, Gas and Blast status effects). 

 

Now, since Prosecutors are elite Guardsmen that are tasked to keep the beacons safe (and as to why, search me), they would need to act as though they are actually elite. The first thing to do is allow the Prosecutors to jump over players' and enemies' heads, allowing them to attack from behind for a bit without retaliation if the targeted player/enemy is confused and trying to find the Prosecutor (of course, this would be linked to the Prosecutor's normal movement [i.e.: He can run for a bit towards someone, then suddenly jump] to make the fight more dynamic). For a small telegraph, the feet of the Prosecutor will puff out a bit of a steam before executing it (animation time = 0.75s). 

 

Another attack that the Prosecutor will have is the slam attack, where he will jump up into the air (at a lower maximum height than the previous jump) and do the slam attack animation (will be seen at the start of this attack), dealing knock-down to players/enemies within knock-down range and dealing Electric damage, unless the player blocks with the melee weapon or jumps up in the air as the Prosecutor slams down. When the player/enemy is on the ground, the Prosecutor may execute a finisher on the knocked-down player/enemy, dealing heavy damage (of course, this change can be coupled with a skill-based recovery system ala Jedi Academy 1). 

 

The Prosecutor will also have dodge rolling to save himself every now and then when he takes damage, and will have a slightly increased movement speed and a new sprinting mechanism for it (will be like the player sprinting mechanism, with hidden stamina and such). Prosecutors will now have 600 Cloned Flesh and 15 Ferrite Armour. 

 

With these changes, I hope to make the Prosecutor more fun to fight against while allowing different loadouts to be used to fight against it, giving back choice diversity.

 

 

I think Prosecutor's were a mistake in the first place, but I think they were created with the misguided belief that making them immune to all but one type of damage would force cells to plan together to make sure everyone had at least one element equipped. Or, it was to try to get players to use all their weapon types with different builds. The problem is that Prosecutors don't feel like a real challenge, but instead just a cheap way to buff surrounding enemies. With this redesign, all you're doing is making our builds even more homogeneous (serration, split chamber, radiaton, and viral damage would definitely be the optimal build), while keeping Prosecutors as feeling like a false challenge.

 

What I would do is make the Prosecutor's a miniboss type enemy midway through Ceres. They would work together, kind of like the Hyena Pack. I don't really know how the battle would play out, but they would need to feel Stalker-like and have a few different move sets, like the ones you stated.

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