[Warframe Concept] Vis, The Kinetic Warframe

[AntariaNova]

Heya fellow forum-browsing Tenno!

 

I've had this little idea kicking around for some time, just today decided to actually decide to settle on how the abilities work and write them down, and decided to also post my idea thus far over here for feedback and else.

Vis is a latin word meaning strength, force, power, might (and violence), and it's nice and short and has a ring to it, so I decided to go with it. Also, it happens to mean "wise" in Swedish, and hey, this warframe is somewhat of an utility and defense warframe, so that fits, too. 

 

Right, so thus far I don't have concept art yet, I guess I'll get to work on that eventually (if the Lord High Procrastinator that I am ever gets to that "eventually"), but I DO have some rather thought-through abilities and their details to give you along with some description on the general design idea for the looks of the warframe. If anyone reading this wants to toss up their vision of how the warframe could look, that'd be awesome, too.

 

Appearance:

 

Key design elements include fairly round shapes and floating armor plates and other parts that oscillate in and out, and the left hand (from where abilities are cast), from the elbow down, is a swirling mass of metallic shards that make up a forearm and hand, with energy shifting in the midst of the shards, and the mass bulging out a and swirling, the energy intensifying for the moment you cast an ability. Head is round with generally organic feel but with tech-details like some heatsink-like parts at the back, and a glowing strip going from just above where the nose would be up over the head and continues onto a "tail" from the back of the head, it being segmented into floating and oscillating parts over which the glowing stripe continues, the "tail" bending downwards a bit like a techy ponytail. Shoulders, back and torso have various armor parts that float a little above the rest of the warframe, shoulders having rather large, round 2-part pauldrons. Oh and it's a male warframe. That might be good to mention, too.

That's that for now.

 

Origin story:

 

Had to come up with something like that. Just had to.

 

Lost in the Void for longer than memory can keep track of, conflict suddenly released him.

Erupting from the Void on a small ship - locked in a stasis chamber -  right into the Balor Fomorian conflict, brought out by some reaction caused by the reactors of the Fomorians. And flung right in front of a Fomorian ship.

The Fomorian soon opened fire and tore the ship apart. Thankfully, the stasis chamber initiated an emergency reawakening in time for the occupant to evade destruction - at least mostly. His left arm was blasted off below the elbow in the narrow escape. Disoriented by the sudden awakening and the tumultuous reintroduction to this plane, he drifted for some time, undetected in the cramped and cloaked escape pod, until The Lotus found some indication of his existence in reports from Tenno taking part in the battle against the Fomorians. The pod was tracked down and he was rescued, and with his powers he constructed an imitation of his lost arm. After some time to recover, and catching-up on the events that have taken place in his absence, he now joins the fight to keep the balance in the system.

 

Stats:

 

Health: 130 (390 max)

Power: 130 (195 max)

Armor: 140

Shield Capacity: 170 (510 max)

Stamina: 110

Sprint Speed: 1,20

Polarities: 1xD  1xV  (And I'd love to have a - polarity as well but that might be a tad much. What do you guys think?)

Aura Polarity: - Good for Energy Siphon, to keep on using abilities.  (Also considering D polarity for Rejuvenation, since there's the Synoid Gammacor and others that allow for good energy regen. Tell me you opinions on the matter.)

 

Abilities:

 

The abilities of this warframe revolve around kinetic energy, harnessing or draining it to change the momentum of battles. (Pun intended)

Ability ranges are diameter (unless otherwise mentioned. At times it just feels easier to think in radius around something). Since it's a bit unclear at times in the Warframe wiki what range is radius and what not, I've had some guessing and pondering to do when trying to come up with ranges that seem suitable.

 

 

1. Concussive Charge - 25 energy

"Vis empowers his weapons with additional momentum, making ordinary rifle rounds impact with the force of a cannonball, and shotgun salvos feel like being hit by a metal avalanche."

 

Applies percentage of weapon damage as AoE damage to your attacks (melee or ranged) for 10/15/20/30 seconds, and additionally staggers enemies affected either by the AoE or by the direct attack.

AoE damage is 60% of damage in a 3 m range around attack target (meaning 6 m diamater). Weapons already with AoE deal the 60% AoE damage in an extra area outside the blast area of the weapon.

The AoE damage dealt is impact damage. Damage % can be increased up to 80% with power strength, and duration of ability can be improved with power duration. Power range has no effect. Casting is very quick, interrupts reload and attacking, but movement is still possible.

 

(Cast animation idea: And orb of energy is channeled into the broken hand, and is held against the weapon currently held and channeled into it. Similar visual effect as Energy Channel.)

 

 

2. Momentum - 50 energy

"Vis changes the momentum of any battle on a moments notice, since momentum is his to command."

 

Create an expanding wave of force centered on the warframe, which returns to the warframe (still able to move, reload and fire weapons while casting, but unable to cast other abilities for the duration of the cast animation, which lasts until the wave returns) that damages for 150/250/350/500 and slows enemies caught in its 10/12/16/18 m range by 50% for 6 seconds both ways (meaning enemies are damaged and slowed for the mentioned amount TWICE if they get hit by the wave both going out and coming in), and upon the wave returning, grants the warframe a shield for some portion (modifier to be determined) damage dealt, working much like iron skin, giving knockback immunity but NOT making you immune to poison or other auras, but absorbing all other damage same as iron skin before shields and health are affected.

Damage dealt is 50% radiation and 50% impact. (So the 500 damage dealt is 250 impact and 250 radiation. Twice.)

Affected by power duration and power strength mods. Duration increases wave traversal range and slow duration, power strength improves damage/shield gain and slow amount up to 80%. Power range has no effect.

 

(Cast animation idea:The parts from the "broken" arm could go out with the blast-wave and swirl around with the force of it and then return to the arm, only the hand remaining at the end of some intense energy.)

 

 

3. Kinetic Shell - 75 energy

"Make a sanctuary in the midst of a battle from the very motion of the battle around it."

 

Creates a protective dome 12 m in diameter comprising of interlocked hexagonal plates around the warframe (the warframe is the cast point, shell stays where it was cast). One shell can be active at a time, no duration limit.

Absorbs damage up to 3000/6000/8000/10 000, and upon reaching the limit or a new dome being cast, bursts and sends out a shock-wave damaging enemies in a 5 m area (radius) around it (and any enemies inside the dome area, total diameter of affected area becoming 22 m) for 50% of damage currently absorbed and knocking them down. Allies can walk in and out of dome freely, and upon firing from inside the dome, the hexagon where you are aiming trough disappears to let you fire trough, and reappears once you shift position and

another disappears where you fire next. Enemy fire can come trough the "window" created, but not blast damage from various AoE attacks from outside the dome. 

"Windows" created disappear after 1 second if you do not fire. Melee attacks don't create "windows" and do not go trough the dome. Enemies attempting to enter the dome will be staggered once, but after that can enter.

Damage dealt upon expiry is impact damage.

Additionally, if Concussive Charge is active when casting Kinetic Shell, allies will gain its effect for the remaining duration when inside the shell. Exiting removes the effect. Vis does not have to be inside the shell for the effect to apply to allies.

The size of the dome is fixed as is the blast radius upon expiry, power range has no effect, power strength increases absorption cap, power duration has no effect.

Cast animation is quick and interrupts/disables other actions for its duration.

 

(Cast animation idea: The broken arm bulges with channeled energy and you slam it into the ground at your feet, the arm briefly breaking apart and energy being released from it as the dome quickly takes shape around you.)

 

 

4. Kinetic Void - 100 energy

"Let your enemies rain hell, and smirk as their own assault is what annihilates them."

 

Creates a 10/14/20/28 m area lasting for 12/16/20/24 seconds where all enemies caught (allies can move freely inside and exit/enter the area) are frozen in place, unable to act, and all damage dealt to enemies within the area and all damage directed into the area from outside is stored up and is applied once the ability expires. When the ability expires a blast-wave is also created from the outer edge of the area up to 7 m outward (blast wave dealing 40% of the damage absorbed). Aura-effects from enemies (including poison aura) will still apply inside the area, however, and allies can not fire from inside the area to the outside, and vice versa. The outer edge of the area will absorb damage from shots fired both from inside and outside the area, as will hitting enemies with melee or ranged weapons. Ability damage also contributes to the stored damage, and point-target (where ability spawns at point or enemy target) abilities can be cast out of the area but projectile abilities (and for instance Mesa's Peacemaker) will be absorbed by the outer barrier.

Shooting at the floor, allies or just swinging your melee weapon in the air will not contribute damage.

Damage dealt at the end of the duration is 50% radiation and 50% impact, with guaranteed impact proc. No max cap for damage absorbed, no base damage, no cap for targets affected. Only one can be active at a time (cooldown equal to ability duration).

Affected by power duration and power strength mods, power range is fixed and does not change. Power strength only affects the blast-wave going out from the voided area, increasing it to up to 60%.

 

(Cast animation idea: The broken arm briefly explodes with energy and lets out an intense bolt of energy to the target location where the center of the kinetic void is to be formed.)

 

 

Feedback (preferably constructive) and tweak suggestions are appreciated. Not like it's "finished" yet, and I've just been trying to figure it out in my head to be fairly balanced, tho I suppose only testing would really reveal exactly how it all works out in the end.

I'm not terribly much of a forum lurker but I'll be checking in on this thing fairly often.

 

*Latest edit: Added ranges for Momentum, Kinetic Shell and Kinetic Void, which I had oddly enough forgotten. Also added details on if cast animation interrupts/disables actions and added a share effect to Kinetic Shell if Concussive Charge is active when Shell is cast and a bit of clarification details to Kinetic Void.

 

Cheerio! And hope you like the idea. :)

Edited August 8, 2015 by AntariaNova

[DrajakVakarian]

Pretty cool idea, 10/10, damages are a bit high but still

Edited February 12, 2015 by DrajakVakarian

[Bizzaro21]

sounds nice, but I think that there is a lore issue with the ability animations, you can still shoot when the arm is shattered....  that should be tweaked a little, also, I don`t know, it seems a bit imbalanced, maybe? radiation+impact is unfair for alloy armored guys and also shield based enemies basically corpus/Tenno, the element mess needs tweaks a bit ;)

 

Other than that, I think I support this idea.. so far...

[AntariaNova]

sounds nice, but I think that there is a lore issue with the ability animations, you can still shoot when the arm is shattered....  that should be tweaked a little, also, I don`t know, it seems a bit imbalanced, maybe? radiation+impact is unfair for alloy armored guys and also shield based enemies basically corpus/Tenno, the element mess needs tweaks a bit ;)

 

Other than that, I think I support this idea.. so far...

As said in the cast animation idea for Momentum which I guess is what you're referring to with the shooting while arm is shattered: "-only the hand remaining at the end of some intense energy."  The energy is what holds the hand and arm together, the hand is still working though the forearm is swirling around with the wave.

 

As for impact damage being OP, it really doesn't do too much damage to much else than corpus, and that's precisely why I wanted to go with a mix of radiation and impact for at least Momentum and Kinetic Void, to make the damage be more useful rather than grineer just being staggered for a moment and going like "Huh? Who farted?"

I suppose the real balancing would have to be done once it's possible to test the abilities. Hard to tell before that.

 

Glad you like the idea. :)

[Bizzaro21]

As said in the cast animation idea for Momentum which I guess is what you're referring to with the shooting while arm is shattered: "-only the hand remaining at the end of some intense energy."  The energy is what holds the hand and arm together, the hand is still working though the forearm is swirling around with the wave.

Well, actually I meant them all, he funnels his arm to cast the ability in all of them from how I understood the description (which is a bit freaky), but that should make sense if we disregard the visual bug mountain that could happen

 

As for impact damage being OP, it really doesn't do too much damage to much else than corpus, and that's precisely why I wanted to go with a mix of radiation and impact for at least Momentum and Kinetic Void, to make the damage be more useful rather than grineer just being staggered for a moment and going like "Huh? Who farted?"

So, that should be a bit fair, but impact whacks the Grineer hard to the ground as it has no damage reduction against either of the armor types they use and impact naturally has brutal damage numbers, but on second thoughts they need to be whacked, they hit like trucks...

P.S: the "who farted part" made me LOL

[(XBOX)TheLegend 64312]

3 and 4 sound just like nyx's absorb. 2 is a permanent invulnerability on any defense. That would hit a minimum of 20 enemies on high waves and hit them twice so that's a 20,000 damage sponge unmodded. Some serious ability nerfs are needed before this concept is usable. But I do like the idea. Look up Impetus in the forums for more inspiration with momentum abilities.

[AntariaNova]

Well, actually I meant them all, he funnels his arm to cast the ability in all of them from how I understood the description (which is a bit freaky), but that should make sense if we disregard the visual bug mountain that could happen

 

So, that should be a bit fair, but impact whacks the Grineer hard to the ground as it has no damage reduction against either of the armor types they use and impact naturally has brutal damage numbers, but on second thoughts they need to be whacked, they hit like trucks...

P.S: the "who farted part" made me LOL

 

In the abilities where being able to act while casting isn't mentioned, the cast animation is quick and you ARE NOT able to do anything else while casting. Momentum which has a cast animation lasting trough the ability would be quite terrible if you were stuck doing some rain-dance and couldn't move, shoot or even reload while doing it since it applies a SLOW and not a stagger/knockdown.

Concussive Charge, for instance, takes barely a second to cast and due to it's nature it doesn't interrupt movement, though. I will add that, to clarify.

Impact damage in itself doesn't really do that much to grineer but the impact proc still does something, and unless mentioned (as is in Kinetic Void) impact procs are not applied with the damage. Concussive Charge applies knockdown without impact procs.

 

:P

Simple fart jokes, they work 90% of the time.

 

 

3 and 4 sound just like nyx's absorb. 2 is a permanent invulnerability on any defense. That would hit a minimum of 20 enemies on high waves and hit them twice so that's a 20,000 damage sponge unmodded. Some serious ability nerfs are needed before this concept is usable. But I do like the idea. Look up Impetus in the forums for more inspiration with momentum abilities.

 

"Just like". Well, nope. Absorb puts Nyx out of action for the channel and makes her entirely invulnerable while absorbing any and all damage directed at her or AoE damage close enough to her. While I like how it used to be, it's been nerfed to near uselessness compared to how it was. Kinetic Shell AoE I forgot to determine, and it really isn't too large so it wouldn't be asshat-OP. It's more like Snow Globe, but with some nice damage potential to add utility and actual damage output to a frame that otherwise would be lacking in that department. It's not stackable, tho, so that besides the "windows" that allow enemy projectiles to come into the dome (if lucky/unlucky, depending on your point of view) helps balance the ability. 

Kinetic Void also has the difference in comparison to Absorb of not making anyone inside immune to enemy auras from outside or inside the field, and doesn't put the caster out of the fight for channeling it, since it's a point-target cast much like Vauban's Bastille. The idea was to provide interesting hybrid abilities, combining crowd control/defense and damage output.

 

As for Momentum being permanent invulnerability, I suppose it can be balanced out by making it have a modifier for the number of enemies affected to make it provide SOME protection from a few enemies hit but not silly-OP godmode shielding from a crowd, or you have a shield-gain amount not equal to the damage dealt, or even make it return less shielding to you if you already have some. Tho, keeping in mind it DOES NOT make you immune to auras and damage from them like Iron Skin (besides energy drain aura that goes trough even Iron Skin), I suppose it doesn't need to be nerfed that much. Consider that Zephyr has an ability that grants her (and potentially nearby allies with some range mods) ranged damage immunity by deflecting all projectiles.

I also want the abilities to be useful even at "end-game" level.

 

As I mention in the post, only way to really KNOW what's balanced and what's not, it would need to be tested, more or less.

Also, just saying "that's OP it needs to be nerfed" when it's still mainly just a concept, that doesn't help me. If you have genuinely constructive feedback to give, that is appreciated.

 

I did also look up Impetus before I even made my concept post, and it's a very different style/idea than what I had in mind.

Instead of relying on momentum for making your abilities do much anything in the first place, Vis' abilities are good right out of the box, but do even more after they "absorb the momentum of the battle", so to say. Similar in some ways, yes, but an entirely different role and playstyle.

 

Glad you like the idea, despite it seeming a bit OP to you at the moment. :)