Updated Kubrow Feedback (Improve-Expand-Add)

[DVAted]

I love Kubrows

the way they act and sound is amazing.

I love their design, textures, fur and shapes.

Their behavior in combat is generally stellar!

 

Ever since I wrapped my mind around what Sentinels are for (back in 2013),

I imagined one day having a quadruped war-machine by my side and this is not only IT, but far more than I imagined!

 

And because I feel so grateful for them, I thought I'd report the shortcomings (which aren't many at all)

or rather, suggest a bit of improvement or, if you will, variety to the available setup.

I will list bug reports (or other issues) with underline and then in Bold a solution, suggestion or improvement.

 

 

1. Kubrow froze still after revival for the remainder of the mission.

 

I was in a solo run of a Venus Corpus Syndicate Spy Alert

Halfway towards extraction, DAW (my black sahasha male)

gets caught between 2 MOAs and an engineer and gets downed.

The mod for bleedout link was all but maxed,

so I had like 28 seconds to get to him, which I did in less than 10.

Killed the offenders, revived him and then... he just stood there:

and stood there:

and stood there some more:

 

I left as far as possible and he wouldn't budge:

I came back to him, shot at him, nothing worked.

I had to leave him behind and reach extraction alone.

He wouldn't move, make an idle animation or respawn at all...

 

I figure it doesn't happen often, but just thought you should know, and I have a solution for it.

Maybe Kubrows (and spectres) could go to the waypoint that a player sets by using the G key (on PC)

Essentially, the Waypoints (or "tags") could become a summon button!

You could tag an enemy and the Kubrow would attack on order.

You could tag a squad-mate (maybe the weakest of the group) and the Kubrow would follow him.

You could tag a cryopod or rescued hostage and the Kubrow would defend them,

or tag a mod for the dog to pick it up, regardless of wherever else you run off to.

And if he gets stuck, you tag twice or 3 times in the same spot and he respawns/teleports.

Instant fix!

 

If anyone disagrees with this functionality feature, please put together an argument against it.

I think it would revolutionize (for the better) the use of Kubrows and really set them apart from Sentinels.

 

2. Kubrow stood in fire until he died.

I enjoy taking a bit of care for him, but this was quite annoying.

I was in a Grineer Extermination, the ship was damaged so there were piles of burning debris everywhere.

We got near extraction where the pipes (of the Grineer ship) start crossing around 2 treasure rooms (basically walk-in closets of lockers and containers) before exiting at the extraction platform which is right across a great fall you can traverse either by zip-lining (in one of two edges) or wall-running... or jumping really far or fast. You know the type.

Anyway, while I was looting the lockers and crawling through the vents, DAW was trying to run toward me, but was a foot shy of the entrance of the vent itself, so he just kept charging at the wall. Unfortunately, there was also a pile of burning debris there too, so after a few seconds he fell down, bleeding out. I made it in time to revive him, and after that he did recover well and started following me, but I feel it was stupid of him to keep running into that wall, in that fire for so long.

 

Normally, my previous suggestion would also help, but alternatively they could have an AI feature to avoid the fire, somehow. If Kubrows were programmed to go around fires instead of in them, not only would DAW not have cooked himself to death, but he would've eventually found the vent exit and caught up with me.

You'll probably say that if I ran further, he would've respawned automatically, but that would've also meant I would've been further away from him if he didn't respawn in time, keeled over and had to wait for me to reach him and revive him.

 

3. Very limited Kubrow colors in the shop.

I love that you made them customizable, that's great and it worked out on so many levels for me.

However, the colors available in the shop for credits are way too limited, 3 of them being even very very similar to eachother: But hey, at least you threw in Black!

I'm most unnerved by the extremely bright gray, beige and green (the extremely bright part making them very similar). 

If you could darken the beige and green it would be swell.

I'd also suggest a second color pack for 100 000 credits including some nuances of mid-tan, brown, mid-grey, desaturated ocean blue (like blue sharks) and maybe a nice yellow.

 

As for the platinum color packs, pre-packaged with fur patterns, that's commendable.

I applaud them. But I think it's about time you introduced another.

We have the Blue pack (which is more purple) with the horizontal lines pattern

and the Red pack (which is more of a saturated brick red) with the hyena spots.

I'd suggest a proper orange/yellow pack with tiger stripes for the standard 50p and ...

Why not a lotus head pattern for 100 plat? I know I'd buy it. Especially the tiger stripes!!!

 

4. Kubrows have a confined personality

I love the playful little buggers, jumping around, barking, howling in the ship.

It's very tiny, though, I feel like he's in a zoo cage :( makes me sad for him, for his limits.

 

I imagine that, to increase player's predispositions to visit the Dojos,

you could program Kubrows to interact freely with Garden rooms.

The minute a player, with his Kubrow, enters a Garden,

the pet would just start running around like a loose maniac,

sniffing everything, digging with his little paws (though not unearthing anything)

even splashing in water would be great to see! I had a dalmatian for 10 years

and the moment I'd take her off the leash, she'd run around a football field in 30 seconds flat.

On the same principle, once in the Observatory, he would rush to the windows and howl AUUUU!!

I think that would be an amazing improvement strictly for Dojo lollygagging purposes,

but also as a way to boost its health by 5% once a day,

thus reducing DNA stabilizer usage, but not eliminating its necessity.

 

I feel sad he doesn't leave my side when I'm in great open spaces like a big garden.

Also, since we talk about dojos, if we could place a Forge OR Arsenal lockers IN dojos it would be marvelous!

And eventually a mission-launch console (or alert queuing system) in the Observatory (to give it a use)

we would have less reasons to leave the Dojo and more reasons to spend more time together, in them.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the Cephalon ship, but it feels claustrophobic sometimes

and I don't know how far off the "community" hub ships are where we'll socialize :P

These improvements would make the game more Open World than it currently is.

 

5. If you want to introduce new Kubrow races/functionality:

 

>>> A Pointer-Retriever - a Kubrow who uses his big nose for more than digging out stuff.

- Specifically, who would retrieve mods to you in the field. Dogs are famous for playing fetch.

Or they could point at it somehow... mark it on the radar... or something pointedly  xD

I think Kubrows could at least pick up some mods, even if they ignore the credits and material drops.

Also, if you enter a room with containers, it would break every one of them and collect
OR instead of breaking containers for stuff they sniff out, they'd increase the chance for enemies to drop loot

cause the game is big on farming, a lot of games have drop-chance modifiers

and I see a lot of Nekroses plowing the battlefields with their farming-oriented powers.

 

>>> A Search & Rescue Dog  - A Kubrow who saves lives, not only takes them.

- Simple: barking/pointing at the door of the cell in which the hostage is held during rescue missions

I mean, the Sunika grabs the Capture target pretty efficiently...

would it be that far-fetched to see a new Kubrow race locate the hostage quicker?

Of course, only once you're in the same room with the holding cells,

not from the start of the rescue mission xD you don't want your Kubrow to be the rusher!

And I know part of the thrill of the rescue mission is to go through the cells,

like a game of chance (Aaaand what do we have behind Door No.2, Johnny?!)

but the "enemy radar" mod already ruins that if need be. This is the search part

and I think it would be a good, natural specialization of a dog-like companion.

 

Onto the Rescue part:

Remember the cartoon Saint-Bernards with barrels of medicine around their necks?

Something like that! Not in shape but functionality

For reviving downed players or hostages (at a slightly slower pace than other players do)

OR for adding 2 bleed-out seconds every 3 seconds that pass until someone comes to revive the player.

OR for speeding up revival when other players do it to the master (or to other players)

OR for speeding up players running velocity to reach the downed team-mates

OR for guarding the area while a player is being revived,

barking loudly for other players to hear and for enemies to cower until the downed player is revived.

Either one of those would be a great specialty for a Search & Rescue Dog

 

>>> A Sheep-Dog - to manipulate the movement/position of the enemies.

- Continuously Barking, flanking an enemy to distract him, lead him out of cover or, at higher levels,

to flock enemies together like sheep herds, in one handful group of distracted targets you can eliminate easier.

This would make at least one enemy break cover and be ripe for reaping

or prevent you getting shot from all directions for longer than necessary.

The sheepdog could also attract hostile wildlife attention away from the player,

or infested attention away from the defense objective (cryopod or hostage).

It wouldn't be overpowered because it's just one dog and you usually face more than one enemy at a time

and also, the lower rank the Kubrow or his specific ability mod is, the less enemies he can distract (or for lesser time)

 

___________________________________________________________________

 

@Players: Thank you for reading!

If you have any counter-arguments, please detail them here.

Otherwise, give this post an upwards vote  ^_^

comment on your favorite parts of my wall of text

and add your own, or improve upon them!

The more feedback I get to this,

the more likely it will be that DE will notice it!

 

@Forum Staff: Feel free to move this to Fan Concepts https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/forum/89-fan-concepts/ 

if you think it fits there better. I consider this constructive criticism, but wherever you think it gets Dev attention is fine!

 

@DE game-devs: Thank you for the incredible game,

for surpassing our expectations and for considering fan concepts!

This is my updated input on Kubrows. I hope my English was fine.
I don't think any of it is too far-fetched in terms of programming or lore-friendliness.

I'll leave the lore-friendly denominations to your linguistics department :P

Edited November 6, 2014 by DVAted

[Kid_Psychotic]

As responsible guild-leader for the speaking teeno; I approve of the suggesetions. ^_^

[Semideos]

I would like a Reviver Kubrow.... that would be great

Maybe this will be too fu*ked up but wat if kubrows had sigils according to their breed.... that would be great

Also kubrow armour.... do not forget kubrow armour

[HunRii]

We really don't need more kubrow breeds.

 

Many colors are not going to be made available for purchase.  They are meant to be exclusive to those that breed their own kubrows.

 

You may be able to purchase some of the kubrow hide patterns down the road, but NEVER the lotus pattern.  DE has made that clear, so you should just forget that idea for now.

 

I don't understand your need for the extra personality in the dojo.  Then again, I'm either in the liset, or in a mission most of the time.

 

 

 

What we can agree on, is that the kubrows have some weird pathing behaviors that need addressing.  They also have odd following issues.  It would be nice if they could fix those issues.

[DVAted]

>>>We really don't need more kubrow breeds.<<<

- Yes, we do. I have one of each race. There's no reason for me to get a 5th Kubrow now. A new race would change that.

 

>>>Many colors are not going to be made available for purchase.  They are meant to be exclusive to those that breed their own kubrows.<<<

- I don't agree with this. If it was so, then who chooses which colors are sell-able and which aren't? How is that decided upon?

And let's say you breed a kubrow with a bad-&amp;#&#33; looking blue, just like you wanted for your Huras, but you can't apply it on the Huras because you only have it on your new Raksa which is the wrong body-build and wrong specialization for what you wanted it for. I think your suggestion or deduction or whatever that was, is unproductive.

 

>>>You may be able to purchase some of the kubrow hide patterns down the road, but NEVER the lotus pattern.  DE has made that clear, so you should just forget that idea for now.<<<

- alright, mind linking me to the devstream where they made this clear? I'm unaware of it. Also, take note I did suggest a double platinum cost for the lotus, and it could be made available only for one kubrow per sale. Think of all the bling bling C.M.C. they could make from it, because so many people would consider it worth the plat, including myself

 

>>>I don't understand your need for the extra personality in the dojo.  Then again, I'm either in the liset, or in a mission most of the time.<<<

- Extra personality - as I mentioned, because I'm sad that the Kubrow are so confined,

either to their incubator or to your side all the time, it seems unhealthy.

in the Dojo - exactly because most of the gameplay is in the liset or in missions,

and this would give people reason to visit the dojos more, spend some time in it

consider the functionality of increasing the Kubrow's health bonus by 5% / day.

Their health already goes down 10%/day, so it wouldn't eliminate the need for gene stabilizers,

but it would slightly extend the rate at which you need to apply it to them

 

Thank you for replying :)

[Senuska]

One thing I would like them to change is to take the Kubrow ability mods out of the drop table (ones specific to each breed) and have them gain their abilities how the Warframes do post U15.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Senuska

[HunRii]

Kubrow breeding, or imprint trading, allow for getting different colors and patterns now.  It encourages community collaboration to an extent.  I finally bred my elusive red, blue, and gold lotus sunika.  I have many nice looking sahasas and sunikas, and some not so nice ones too that have come with the breeding.

 

Patience, luck, and effort come with their own rewards.

Edited November 7, 2014 by LeighWong

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

Also it would be great if we could have all our Kubrows abiable at all times. Whats the point of having 10 different Kubrows if i have to wait for 3 Hours in order to change to another one more fitting to the mission. And for Lotus sake could we stop with the DNA degeneration? it makes me feel like my Kubrow is a mistake and not a real animal i created myself. Let us feed our Kurbrows normally already...

[HunRii]

I don't think many people like the odd 3 hour CD on kubrows.  Their counterparts, (yes, small robots) are immediately changeable to better suit the mission/frame you are using.  A much shorter CD would be in-line with the lore, and make it much more enjoyable to use various kubrows.

 

The DNA regeneration thing is odd too.  However, in the big scheme, that bothers me the least about the kubrow system.

[DVAted]

Honestly, relabeling  DNA degradation to "hunger" and DNA stabilizers to "food" would be a bit mundane

what do the Tenno eat? what does anybody eat in this universe? Food is impractical. DNA manipulation is more futuristic

 

Thank you all for your feedback and keep them coming

Only YOU can steer the Kubrow in the right direction :)