Thoughts on adding more replayability and diversity to gameplay

[FreshJB2]

After playing this game for a while, i've noticed some things: 1. alerts have lost much of their appeal as when i don't see a ? as a reward, i am much less inclined to play 2. i only play Earth missions because rubedo is needed for everything 3. replaying a lower level area to find rare resources is too lackluster as the enemies are so weak.

My suggestion for making alerts more alluring is to add more of a chance to find rare items during the mission (and by rare items, i mean mostly blue-level mods). Wouldn't it be nice if when you saw a VIP alert, you knew you'd get at least one rare mod from him, or if infested alerts were that an infestation broke out on a cargo ship, meaning an increased chance of rare resources. Alerts would also be more fun if they had more variance, like "you have 4 minutes to search a crashing ship for its cargo" or "we found a Grineer/Corpus/Infested stronghold (really large area) nuetralize it" or "Grineer/Corpus are researching new tech. Find out what it is." (This last one would be a great way to introduce new enemy types into the overall game.) Granted, DE already does a good job diversifiying the missions especially after update 6. More diversity is always better, and the chance of getting a new mission type would probably help increase the appeal of doing alerts.

As for normal gameplay, i was thinking that after beating every mission in a zone, like Saturn, all of the missions in that zone would scale to your Tenno's level. Mecury and Venus could remain as they are so that you could level up new weapons, but every other zone would become adaptive. The trade-off for more difficult enemies would be an increased spawn chance of higher-level mods (green) and rare resources. Another idea, i was thinking about was introducing a challenge mode where you could replay a mission with certain restictions like no powers, only melee, or pistols and melee only. Again success would grant the player(s) with better loot.

Mods and Resources

Currently, the foundry is used for crafting, frmaes, weapons and orikin artifacts. Since each has a particular materials requirement, there are many resources that are not used, especially easy to farm resources. Thinking about how to better make use of those resources, and the foundry, in general, icame up with an idea about how to use the more abundant resources to build better mods for the warframes. Basically, with this system, you can combine any mod of the same type to generate an "enhanced" mod as follows: (mod1 + mod2)/2 + mod1*0.1 + mod2*0.1. Lets say i have two armor mods, one at 58.9% and another at 63.5%. Using the algorithm, i'd combine them to get (58.9 + 63.5)/2 + 5.9 + 6.4 = 73.5. Your new "enhanced" mod would yield a 73.5% increase in armor. By taking the average first, trying to create "enhanced" mods by using a good one and a generic one would hurt you rather than help. Another good way to limit abuse would be for DE to say that "enhanced" mods that you build cannot be recombined.

To make multi-tiered mods, like some of the blue ones, you would need to buy a blueprint from the market. Let's say you wanted to make a crit damage + crit chance mod. The algorithm for this would be mod1 - 20% + mod2 - 20% = dual mod. So, if i had a 13.5% crit chance mod and a +40% crit damage mod, i'd do 13.5 - 2.7 = 10.8 and 40 - 8 = 32 to get a dual mod that had a 10.8% crit chance and did 32% crit damage. Again DE would decide whether to allow the use of foundry made mods in this process.

Mod levels would be decided by taking the lower level and adding half of the difference between the higher and lower level mod. For instance, combining a level 12 and 14 mod woulod yield a level 13 mod. If there was a decimal, you would round up making a 7 and 13 level mod combination give you a level 10 mod.

Right now, circuits, ferrite, morphics, nano spores, plastids, polymer bundles, salvage, and to some degree, orikin cells all are easy to gather materials. Morphics, circuits, ferrite, salvage, and polymer bundles would all make sense in the contruction of "enhanced" mods. The dual mods would require one orikin cell and either nano spores or plastids in addition to some of the other resources. Build times could vary from four hours (for basic mods) to one day and the price could range from 2,000 to 15,000 credits.

Obviously, this is a rough draft, but i sincerely believe that adding a system like this would help those less fortunate (in terms of finding good mods) work to get better mods, and eliminate some of the credit glut that some players currently have. It is also implied that the blueprints for mulit-tiered mods would be purchaseable using platinum.

Orikin Catalysts

While thinking about what this DE rep said here and about how much i like what i believe to be tier two weapons, i came up with an idea that would appease players whose favorite/ most-used guns are not the gorgon and hek. What if you could bring your favorite weapon up a tier (or two) by using an orikin catalyst? Now i don't mean an orikin catalyst on top of the ones already needed but instead of them.

How would this work? Let me tell you. As we all know DE plans on rolling out a lot more weapons in the future and each weapon, according to Grineer, will be associated with a certain tier. My idea was that instead of needing an orikin reactor to unlock all thirty nodes, you would have the ability to level any weapon to its full potential. The catch would be that as you progressed in difficulty they would become less and less effective (which kinda already happens now). To bring your weapon up a tier, you would install an orikin catalyst after leveling it up to thirty and be able to level up a new "supercharged" version of that weapon.

For example, the braton is a tier-2 rifle that does 16 damage and has ok accuracy. Once leveled to thirty, i could either keep it and use it for low level raids, sell it, or bring it up a tier by using an orikin catalyst. If i chose to level it up, some base stats would increase - damage from 16 to 19, accuracy from 25 (seems lower than how it actually handles) to 50 - and it would reset to level zero. By implementing a system such as this, i wouldn't feel forced to use weapons i have no interest in (gorgon) and i would be able to use the braton on higher level mobs without gorgon users stealing my kills. This would also work on pistols and melee weapons.

Another idea i had, that could be tied in to the orikin catalysts, was the ability to create custom melee configurations. For instance, ever wanted to use a sword and a dagger together? Now you can with this blueprint and an orikin catalyst. Want to pair a pistol with a sword or dagger so you can slice and fire quicker? Sure, no problem just buy this blueprint and use an orikin catalyst.

Note: When i came up with these ideas, they had nothing to do with orikin anything, but then i thought, what a perfect, non-controversial use for them. No longer would you need them to get the most out of a weapon. Instead they would give you the opportunity to keep using your favorite weapon and create custom melee configurations.

Challenges, Artifacts, Reactors (Oh my!)

So i was thinking about how now that i have a health regen artifact, i never use any of my other artifacts (like steel charge). This is mainly because i do a lot of solo runs and get ambushed a lot (enemies spawn behind you like there's no tomorrow). With orb drop rates as they are now, there are either too many dropping or too few. Rarely is a good balance achieved. I came up with this section not only to address this, but to try to come up with a non-controversial way to utlilize orikin reactors.

It would be great if artifacts were tied to weapons and armor like mods, with two big exceptions: 1. artifact attributes would be global for whatever item it was tied to, meaning a firerate mod for melee would increase normal and charged swings. 2. once added, it could not be removed. Basically, every weapon would start off with the ability to add one artifact with the second requiring an orikin reactor to install. If implemented, this would allow the devs to come up with and put out even more artifacts, while allowing us to make better use of them. For instance, imagine if you found a heat artifact that added heat damage to all melee attacks or an accuracy (recoil reduction?) artifact that could make the burston's burst-fire more accurate (or any other gun). The possibilities are endless. To counter this increase in artifact use, the health and energy regen and ammo scavenger artifacts would need to be changed. Health and energy regen artifacts would now double the health and energy recieved from pickups while ammo scaveger would do the same for ammo, therefore the actual drop rates would not be affected.

What about the poor consistency with item drop rates? That's where challenges would come in. Instead of, or in addtion to, the challenges you recieve at the beginning of missions, there would be a continuous set of feats that, if performed, would grant certain benefits. The easiest of these benefits would be item drops. Style and quick kills as well as headshots could spawn health orbs while doing x amount of each would give a temporary health regen. Melee could cause power orb drops or something along those lines. Other rewards could be stamina boosts for repeated successful wall runs and decreased enemy awareness for stealth kills.

If anyone has any comments or would like to add, feel free. Remember to be constructive with any critisicisms, though. No trolling please.

Edited February 18, 2013 by FreshJB2

[Kyuzo]

well from looking at pluto seems levels will increase to up to 60?

[FreshJB2]

I'm thinking the same thing, so imagine playing with a level 49 frame on Earth.

Edited January 22, 2013 by FreshJB2

[FreshJB2]

Mods and Resources

Currently, the foundry is used for crafting, frmaes, weapons and orikin artifacts. Since each has a particular materials requirement, there are many resources that are not used, especially easy to farm resources. Thinking about how to better make use of those resources, and the foundry, in general, i came up with an idea about how to use the more abundant resources to build better mods for the warframes. Basically, with this system, you can combine any mod of the same type to generate an "enhanced" mod as follows: (mod1 + mod2)/2 + mod1*0.1 + mod2*0.1. Lets say i have two armor mods, one at 58.9% and another at 63.5%. Using the algorithm, i'd combine them to get (58.9 + 63.5)/2 + 5.9 + 6.4 = 73.5. Your new "enhanced" mod would yield a 73.5% increase in armor. By taking the average first, trying to create "enhanced" mods by using a good one and a generic one would hurt you rather than help. Another good way to limit abuse would be for DE to say that "enhanced" mods that you build cannot be recombined.

To make multi-tiered mods, like some of the blue ones, you would need to buy a blueprint from the market. Let's say you wanted to make a crit damage + crit chance mod. The algorithm for this would be mod1 - 20% + mod2 - 20% = dual mod. So, if i had a 13.5% crit chance mod and a +40% crit damage mod, i'd do 13.5 - 2.7 = 10.8 and 40 - 8 = 32 to get a dual mod that had a 10.8% crit chance and did 32% crit damage. Again DE would decide whether to allow the use of foundry made mods in this process.

Mod levels would be decided by taking the lower level and adding half of the difference between the higher and lower level mod. For instance, combining a level 12 and 14 mod woulod yield a level 13 mod. If there was a decimal, you would round up making a 7 and 13 level mod combination give you a level 10 mod.

Right now, circuits, ferrite, morphics, nano spores, plastids, polymer bundles, salvage, and to some degree, orikin cells all are easy to gather materials. Morphics, circuits, ferrite, salvage, and polymer bundles would all make sense in the contruction of "enhanced" mods. The dual mods would require one orikin cell and either nano spores or plastids in addition to some of the other resources. Build times could vary from four hours (for basic mods) to one day and the price could range from 2,000 to 15,000 credits.

Obviously, this is a rough draft, but i sincerely believe that adding a system like this would help those less fortunate (in terms of finding good mods) work to get better mods, and eliminate some of the credit glut that some players currently have. It is also implied that the blueprints for mulit-tiered mods would be purchaseable using platinum.

Edited February 18, 2013 by FreshJB2

[FreshJB2]

bump

[Neozgred]

I don't like idea about easy way to get mods, or be sure that i get blue mod for something. In my opinion blue mods drop in perfect way now. But i like your ideas for new alerts, time missions with greater chance to get resources is cool.

For now searching for better mods keep me playing this game, if i get everything too soon then it starts to get boring. I like this game, but killing same boss over and over is not so fun. We need more type of missions, maybe short stealth missions when you fail if someone sees you and turn on alarm in base.

[GratuitousLurking]

Mother of god yes. yes. YES. This would also have the added bonus of encouraging others to play in early sectors more and maybe slower, so they can get the good loot, instead of zerg rushing and adveraging 2 missions a half-hour of the boss or specific grinding mission. Add in that'd be a way to make it easier for early players to get through the star map.

Perhaps a modifier one can set up before they go into the mission, a 'Honor Mission' or something like that? A boost to the loot gain if one or more players set up a specific rule they must follow. For example, one player can select them to 'No Melee', and increase the percentage by a flat rate of the loot drop's quality that run.

[FreshJB2]

Perhaps a modifier one can set up before they go into the mission, a 'Honor Mission' or something like that? A boost to the loot gain if one or more players set up a specific rule they must follow. For example, one player can select them to 'No Melee', and increase the percentage by a flat rate of the loot drop's quality that run.

A modifier would add even more possibilities - i like it. It would probably have to be limited to private only though, not sure what kind of havoc that would cause if it were on public and the server was trying to drop you in a regular game-in-progress. Then again, i'm not really sure how such things work :D

[FreshJB2]

Orikin Catalysts

While thinking about what this DE rep said here and about how much i like what i believe to be tier two weapons, i came up with an idea that would appease players whose favorite/ most-used guns are not the gorgon and hek. What if you could bring your favorite weapon up a tier (or two) by using an orikin catalyst? Now i don't mean an orikin catalyst on top of the ones already needed but instead of them.

How would this work? Let me tell you. As we all know DE plans on rolling out a lot more weapons in the future and each weapon, according to Grineer, will be associated with a certain tier. My idea was that instead of needing an orikin reactor to unlock all thirty nodes, you would have the ability to level any weapon to its full potential. The catch would be that as you progressed in difficulty they would become less and less effective (which kinda already happens now). To bring your weapon up a tier, you would install an orikin catalyst after leveling it up to thirty and be able to level up a new "supercharged" version of that weapon.

For example, the braton is a tier-2 rifle that does 16 damage and has ok accuracy. Once leveled to thirty, i could either keep it and use it for low level raids, sell it, or bring it up a tier by using an orikin catalyst. If i chose to level it up, some base stats would increase - damage from 16 to 19, accuracy from 25 (seems lower than how it actually handles) to 50 - and it would reset to level zero. By implementing a system such as this, i wouldn't feel forced to use weapons i have no interest in (gorgon) and i would be able to use the braton on higher level mobs without gorgon users stealing my kills. This would also work on pistols and melee weapons.

Another idea i had, that could be tied in to the orikin catalysts, was the ability to create custom melee configurations. For instance, ever wanted to use a sword and a dagger together? Now you can with this blueprint and an orikin catalyst. Want to pair a pistol with a sword or dagger so you can slice and fire quicker? Sure, no problem just buy this blueprint and use an orikin catalyst.

Note: When i came up with these ideas, they had nothing to do with orikin anything, but then i thought, what a perfect, non-controversial use for them. No longer would you need them to get the most out of a weapon. Instead they would give you the opportunity to keep using your favorite weapon and create custom melee configurations.

Edited February 18, 2013 by FreshJB2

[djjdiss]

I like the sound of that 2nd tier idea Fresh. I would only endorse it so long as the second tier boosted the raw stats of the weapon up. Stuff like base damage and the like should boost a tad with each new rank the weapon attains till it hits max. This would be a good thing as it would not make the player so reliant on using crap like multishot to boost their base damage up to where things die at an acceptable rate.

Edited February 12, 2013 by djjdiss

[gell]

Not to directly steal things, but Firefall has resources with quality ratings. e.g. You might need 200 iron to make a gun, but the quality determines extra stats. Common 100-quality iron will make a fine weapon, but 120-quality iron will make a weapon with slightly better stats (maybe 5% better). You could use 200 higher quality iron, but since it's rarer you might not have that much, so let's say you just use 20% 120-q iron and 80% 100-q iron. That can make you a gun with 1% better stats. You might even find a little 150-q iron at some point, which can help increase stats more if you save up.

Rather than making people slowly find resources, you let people find resources often, and instead just limit the quality of their finds. Beyond that, you can even allow people to refine their resources, compressing 100 units of common iron into 20 units of finer iron. It allows people to use what they have, to the best of their own ability.

Just tossing that out there. It makes resource finding a bit more active and engaging.

[FreshJB2]

I like the sound of that 2nd tier idea Fresh. I would only endorse it so long as the second tier boosted the raw stats of the weapon up. Stuff like base damage and the like should boost a tad with each new rank the weapon attains till it hits max. This would be a good thing as it would not make the player so reliant on using crap like multishot to boost their base damage up to where things die at an acceptable rate.

Agreed. Each new tier would incrementally boost base stats

[FreshJB2]

Not to directly steal things, but Firefall has resources with quality ratings. e.g. You might need 200 iron to make a gun, but the quality determines extra stats. Common 100-quality iron will make a fine weapon, but 120-quality iron will make a weapon with slightly better stats (maybe 5% better). You could use 200 higher quality iron, but since it's rarer you might not have that much, so let's say you just use 20% 120-q iron and 80% 100-q iron. That can make you a gun with 1% better stats. You might even find a little 150-q iron at some point, which can help increase stats more if you save up.

Rather than making people slowly find resources, you let people find resources often, and instead just limit the quality of their finds. Beyond that, you can even allow people to refine their resources, compressing 100 units of common iron into 20 units of finer iron. It allows people to use what they have, to the best of their own ability.

Just tossing that out there. It makes resource finding a bit more active and engaging.

Gathering resources is already a chore and there are plenty of barely used resources that need to have more uses (imo). I'm not really seeing how this wouldn't complicate things more.

[FreshJB2]

Challenges, Artifacts, Reactors (Oh my!)

So i was thinking about how now that i have a health regen artifact, i never use any of my other artifacts (like steel charge or rifle amp). This is mainly because i do a lot of solo runs and get ambushed a lot (enemies spawn behind you like there's no tomorrow). With orb drop rates as they are now, there are either too many dropping or too few. Rarely is a good balance achieved. I came up with this section not only to address this, but to try to come up with a non-controversial way to utlilize orikin reactors.

It would be great if artifacts were tied to weapons and armor like mods, with two big exceptions: 1. artifact attributes would be global for whatever item it was tied to, meaning a firerate mod for melee would increase normal and charged swings. 2. once added, it could not be removed. Basically, every weapon would start off with the ability to add one artifact with the second requiring an orikin reactor to install. If implemented, this would allow the devs to come up with and put out even more artifacts, while allowing us to make better use of them. For instance, imagine if you found a heat artifact that added heat damage to all melee attacks or an accuracy (recoil reduction?) artifact that could make the burston's burst-fire more accurate (or any other gun). The possibilities are endless. To counter this increase in artifact use, the health and energy regen and ammo scavenger artifacts would need to be changed. Health and energy regen artifacts would now double the health and energy recieved from pickups while ammo scaveger would do the same for ammo, therefore the actual drop rates would not be affected.

What about the poor consistency with item drop rates? That's where challenges would come in. Instead of, or in addtion to, the challenges you recieve at the beginning of missions, there would be a continuous set of feats that, if performed, would grant certain benefits. The easiest of these benefits would be item drops. Style and quick kills as well as headshots could spawn health orbs while doing x amount of each would give a temporary health regen. Melee could cause power orb drops or something along those lines. Other rewards could be stamina boosts for repeated successful wall runs and decreased enemy awareness for stealth kills.

As with all of my other ideas, this is a work in progress and constructive feedback is welcomed. See you around Tenno.

Edited February 18, 2013 by FreshJB2

[FreshJB2]

Please read and provide (constructive) feedback

[FreshJB2]

bump

[Andaer]

Nice idea, what about "dificulty" choices for replaying areas? Like "harder = best looting " and like that you can replay earth with badass enemys and a best looting chance?

[FreshJB2]

That would be nice. If they implemented the mod upgrade thing. you could even prepare for harder difficulties by building better mods.

[Spiffmeister]

On Rubedo - I believe Pluto has an increased drop rate of the stuff, so you're better off farming there.

IMO to increase replayability they need to add more tilesets as well as more tiles to the existing tile sets. I like the expansion of the mines (my favorite tile set, lots of space to run around and be a sped), this needs to happen with the ships as well.

Something also needs to be done to emphasise loot drops. Such as hidden boxes with possible blueprints or blue mods or even cosmetics.

[FreshJB2]

bump