Angrados
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Posts posted by Angrados
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Well, I just passed my 500 log-in day mark so I guess that technically qualifies me to answer. I recently hit that roadblock of "Well crap, now what do I do?" as well after I hit MR 23, and now it's just a matter of collecting the new stuff as it comes out and farming and perfecting my builds. I don't quite have every item in the game like Percy does, but for a long time my goal was to collect every single prime available to the public (so everything but Founder primes). I finally managed that too, so now I'm working on maxing out my affinity with the Ostrons and the Quills so that I can actually build the stuff that they offer. There's quite a bit of grinding on the Plains to do, so if you haven't already finished out there I would recommend giving it another go.
The TL;DR is: Try farming mastery, then once you're done with that try to collect every single prime, maybe. Then after that move onto trying to totally max out everything available in the Plains. That should keep you busy for a while. -
3 minutes ago, (Xbox One)alchemPyro said:
That's obscene, and really good research on your part. Kinda feel bad for those 55 people though. Ankyros are so easy to get. Either these are fools or people that just blow platinum for the fun of it.
More likely than either of those options is that the buyers are people who don't necessarily have time to spend grinding for resources for weapons and the Catalyst and just wanted them both cheap and quick, and they're very likely what you'd call casual gamers. Darvo's deals are yet another example of Warframe's pay-for-convenience business model, and clearly since 55 people bought Ankyros it's working as intended. Not that the changes you suggested wouldn't be welcome, as I can tell you having a place to buy discounted potatoes would be nice, but at the same time the way he is now has always been Darvo's appeal.
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Lot of thought went into this post, I can tell. It really shines through.
I'll try and find time to write a more in-depth response to it all, but I really like this. +1 to you and thank you for your thoughts. -
7 minutes ago, TaylorsContraction said:
As a joke I'll respond with, what if everyone is playing a priest and stays close to each other. Then they can't be downed :P. Just a prank. Interesting idea, would need a cool-down. I'd rather he revived faster or soemthing along those lines than revive upon death. Also the Orokin were very religious in some sense of the word. Vor always talks in a manner like he's worshipping something and so does Lotus.
What if he worships the Void? Voidframe confirmed?
OH! I can't imagine Nef Anyo will be pleased by this turn of events. -
12 hours ago, JalakBali said:
Which is what I meant. We don't know if the human form is a proxy or the actual body. Or they don't have any real body like Cephalons. My current theory is that they're the original colonists that merged with the adaptable tech to better live there (like Cephalons inhabiting super advanced machines), though Lotus was not one of them and was a later offspring.
Wait, we do know that they're mechanical in origin. In the Detron Crewman synthesis the Archimedean pitches the idea of the Sentients to the Executors as terraforming drones for the Tau system, so that much really isn't a question in terms of physical forms. The question is, however, where did the humanoid form of the Lotus come from, and do all Sentients have the capacity to use the, or is Natah the exception to the rule?
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1 hour ago, JalakBali said:
Those rigid things are only Sentient Fragments. The only Sentient we saw is Hunhow. And his appearance is that of a giant spaceship. We don't know if he's a guy inside it (unlikely, since the pieces are called his dead body) or if he is indeed a giant spaceship (likely especially since the ship has a pseudo face). So the Sentients we fought are just his drones. Hunhow is probably an AI or something similar to Cephalons.
But he can take on human form, as can the Lotus. We see both in the Lotus's quest. There's so much we don't understand about Sentient biology/technology (since they're basically Von Neumann machines, but scarier) that it's hard to say that they're simply AIs or something similar. For the moment it remains a question.
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Just thought I'd leave this here.
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1 hour ago, Fallowsthorn said:
Uh, are we remembering the same quest? The one where you literally pick yourself up because the Operator has almost no gross motor control? Idk what your Operator does but mine only ever moves their head a bit when I go to play with the focus. It's not like we ever see them doing PT.
There isn't a "disability threshold," unless you're trying to convince the government to help you not starve to death. There are different kinds and degrees of disability, but no one has to be "disabled enough" to count. The only requirement is "can't do any given basic task that the average human can do." Because that standard is different within the game for the Operators, I don't think of them as disabled per se, but within our society they definitely would be.
I would also argue that the Operator is nonverbal, lacks fine motor control, and very likely has PTSD and all those other fun trauma-related goodies, so, y'know.
And outside of the fictional lore - I get the impulse to gatekeep, I really do, because how can you not be defensive after years of being told you're faking it and just need to suck it up? And then some bozo comes in and looks perfectly healthy and clearly can function normally and they want to call themselves disabled!? But the only thing that ever produces, and ever has produced, is a lot of exhausted disabled people who quietly wish they were "really disabled" so they wouldn't be expected to do things they can't. I want to stay away from both playing Dr. Internet and Who Has It Worse? because neither of those will ever go anywhere good, but there is no One True Disability.
(Also, "extremely sedentary lifestyle"? I mean I know those are the correct actual words but they were in a coma, not lying on the couch watching TV.)
Allow me to start by saying I understand your outrage. In your position, I'd probably feel something similar.
Now, let me ask the question: Have you played through The War Within yet? There's some pretty radical shakeups with that quest that may challenge what you're asserting about the Operator.
Also, did you know you can toggle on Operator speech and voice in the options? I'd recommend trying it for a little bit before you get tired of the same lines repeated ad nauseum.
As for severe psychological trauma, well, that's also touched on in The War Within. If you haven't reached that point yet, I highly, highly recommend making that a priority. Maybe after doing Octavia's Anthem, which is probably my favorite quest at the moment just due to the end of it.
The rest of it I have no right to address, so I'm not going to. Hopefully this helps you look at it in a slightly different light--not a correct or incorrect one, per se, but different. -
3 hours ago, xXDeadsinxX said:
Or how bout just get rid of vaulting items and put them all back in the game instead of taking them out for money?
The entire reason that they vault them in the first place is to prevent drop table dilution. If they could find a different way of reimplementing them rather than having 15+ prime packs all dumped into the drop table I'd be more in favor of this, but as it stands, the Vault system works for the moment. Yes, it's annoying to wait, but it is functional and working as intended.
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1 hour ago, Spectolder said:
Are they real military now? As i see it, the crewmen are supposed to have very rudimental combat training, it`s just not their job - the proxies are supposed to be the bulk of their actual forces, while a crewman will only rush to fight off the Tenno if they really, really want a promotion. On the other hand, the robotic enemies could use some more coordination for sure, with one group distracting the enemy while another moves to flank, for example.
I dropped an idea about a Corpus Overseer earlier in the thread. Do you think that could work sort of toward what you're talking about?
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4 minutes ago, Loswaith said:
The problem being is the AI can be hugely clever and adaptive as it likes (they actually do have a few clever tricks already, they are just rarely ever seen), but it is pointless because Warframes have powers that incapacitate, overwrite that AI or kill the enemies in moments, never letting the enemies actually make use of any advanced AI they may otherwise be given.
The example of the formation the OP gives, is instantly countered by many powers (presuming the enemy gets a chance to even set it up before being countered). So short of everything being covered in nulifier fields (turning warframe into another generic shooter) any AI upgrades wont really ever be noticed.
As a player pointed out a while back, the game needs better dumb AI, and Ai fitting to the enemies role rather than just a blanket AI for all units.
So, if that's the issue how would you suggest getting past the issue of Warframes basically blasting the AI into oblivion before it can act? I know I suggested a segmented progression for the Corpus where they'd shut down entire tiles so the Warframes couldn't just clean house, and the OP suggested something similar for the Grineer, but in terms of effectiveness I agree, we're currently too godlike to do anything substantial.
Either way, I think that the variation would at least help with the tedium that can set in, or at least be more effective than spamming Napalms all over the damn place, like is currently done.
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39 minutes ago, (PS4)GustavTesla said:
Any of the Grineer ones are fine. As for the Corpus.... No thank you. Reason why, Nullifiers are enough for me to deal with. The enemy AI being smarter and using tactics seems like a nice idea. I like that. Would make the game more interesting.
Really, the Corpus do have "tactics", kind of, at least one of them. It's called "Huddle inside of the Nullifier's bubble until it's gone and/or the Tenno are dead". That's more happenstance, though.
To expand the Corpus idea:
{Example}: Corpus deploy two Nullifiers. Within the nullification fields are several Corpus Techs as well as a single shield Osprey.
{Example}:Alarms go off, the doors lock and a swarm of Moa show up. If the player fails to deal with them in an appropriate amount of time a Corpus Dropship flies overhead and drops off a Raptor variant (as the pathing on something like the Jackal or Razorback would get wonky) that would begin going to town. Once all of the robots are dead, the people hack the doors and the Corpus Overseer (I'm calling them that, they don't exactly exist but I think it'd make sense if they were some sort of Comba base with Cestra or something) would try to flee until they could find another thing to lock down.
{Example}: Implementing some sort of mountable turret for the Corpus that a Sniper Crewman could set up at while a bunch of regular Corpus troops would form up around in order to suppress.Of course, the real question is, would this fit in a game that's evolved into a horde shooter? The tactics would be cool in a more tactical shooter, but I find myself wondering out loud whether or not this would really fit the flow of gameplay.
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8 hours ago, Speer-Head said:
I would've preferred a co-op quest too, but I honestly think it's best with keeping it solo. Having a Nezha with maglev sliding through missions while leaving the party behind is also a non-beneficial factor. Also keeping to solo play with a quest that relies that heavily on music (as they repeatably try to rub into your face) must be quite essential, so you don't have a 4 man warcry competition that completely ruins the sound design of the levels.
I don't mind more solo quests in the future, but actually having a quest where more tenno appear would be awesome, because so far, all I've seen are my tenno, warframes, non-controlled warframes and enemies. Having a quest that actually confirm the existence of other tenno, instead of only the queens referring to more of you, but never meeting one, would be absolutely awesome and something I will look forward to.
Technically speaking, you have.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
SpoilerThe Stalker, from what Hunhow has alluded to in The Second Dream, was once an Operator. We don't know what changed for him or how that happened, but there's evidence to suggest that he was once a Tenno.
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Greetings, Tenno. I am Angrados, and my character is Orpheus of the Orokin Remnant.
Character Form:
Operator Name: Orpheus
Race: Orokin
Warframe: Nidus w/ Prion Helmet
Weapons: Hema, Twin Grakata, Galatine Prime
Focus School: Zenurik
Bio:Unlike many of those part of the Orokin Remnant, Orpheus awoke not on Lua but on the operating table of a Corpus medical lab. Apparently they had pried his cryopod from an Orokin Derelict that had lain centuries without having been opened, and now that they had finally worked it open they were shocked to find a child inside. Orpheus's awakening sent the lab into lockdown, as in a telekinetic rage he sliced through his captors with pure psychic energy, splattering the halls of the facility with blood and hydraulic fluid from the MOAs they sent to quell him. It wasn't long before the entire facility was slaughtered and the alarms fell silent. Orpheus was now in control.
Not long into his rampage Orpheus broke into a lab where a certain Infested specimen--vaguely humanoid in nature--was also being kept on lockdown. A quick look through the files on the Corpus computers revealed that this sample had been obtained from the same derelicted Orokin Tower that the Tenno had been found in. Orpheus couldn't really understand what it was until the systems suddenly catastrophically failed and the creature--the Warframe--blew its way out of its containment chamber. Orpheus tried to flee, but Nidus, basically just an infested beast, overcame and enveloped him. However, as Orpheus sank into unconsciousness he found himself awake in Nidus's body, having just completed Transference for the first time. Orpheus now not only was awake, but now had a Warframe at his disposal.
After stealing a cargo ship (via Nidus infesting and taking it over) and crashing it into a Grineer galleon, Orpheus raided their armory, acquiring the Twin Grakata that he still uses today as well as another Infested sample that the Grineer had dubbed the "Hema", which apparently was an experimental biological weapon. He quickly familiarized himself with these weapons as he slaughtered the entire Galleon's crew.
While on the deck of the navigation deck Orpheus discovered a distress signal coming from Lua on an old, disused Orokin channel that he ran across while flipping through frequencies. The errant Dark Tenno immediately set a course for Lua, aiming the Galleon at earth with the intention of jumping off of it while passing by Lua. This worked somewhat--Orpheus managed to get close enough to the moon to launch, but the escape pods had all been jettisoned already, which meant that there wasn't going to be much launching occurring and that he was on a capital ship that was in the midst of sailing at high speed towards its own obliteration.
Thinking quickly, Orpheus jerryrigged an Ogma and launched himself from the ship, heading towards Lua in the Grineer ship without knowing exactly which was supposed to do what. Eventually he made it, albeit in a spectacular crash-landing that threw him several miles across the moon's landscape. After a long trek, Orpheus met up with Mataeru, and the rest in that regard is history.
Orpheus’s view on how to bring about the Orokin Empire flies in contrast to Mataeru’s more peaceful, vigilante-esque viewpoint. In his opinion, those who stand against the Remnant’s goals in any form--be they foes or civilians--have a choice to make: submit to the Remnant and the Orokin Empire, or die. Naturally, with such an extreme viewpoint Mataeru and Orpheus have come into plenty of conflict over the subject, but they still work together for the moment.
Other: Also dislikes non-existent raisin cookies as much as he dislikes existent ones. How about that?
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8 minutes ago, Sannidor said:
Time to nerf Immortal Valkyr, invisible=invincible Loki, easy mode Ember.
Time to buff enemies to Dark Souls level of dangerous.
Time to make Warframe a game about space ninjas, not gods of destruction.
That bolded bit would actually be really cool. This isn't the game for it, or at least, the version of the game for it, but if they were to do that I'd be totally down to give it a try. That sounds awesome
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1 hour ago, Dr.Sturgeon said:
We need monthly updates of story content and other things not just crap MR fodder. I hate leveling stuff.
Generally speaking, how would you feel about the continued implementation of Synthesis Targets for lore? I know we have like 6 atm, but the system was sort of left out in the cold and I think that would be a good way to fulfill what you're talking about.
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1 hour ago, Raqyia said:
@Angrados Personally, I wouldn't argue with that. I mean, I'd take chip damage over doing nil damage half of the time, like say, trying to aim at Vay Kek's wrinkled face when he finally takes off his mask, while he's twirling around the arena like some majestic f*cking eagle.Though at this point, I suppose I should probably take my gripes and vent them somewhere else.
The issue with Vay Hek, in particular, is there's no rhyme or reason to his patterns and weak points.Also, his singular weakpoint is kinda buggy anyway, so that's frustrating anyway. You do make a point, though--things having multiple weakpoints would be good, so long as it doesn't devolve into a glorified game of peek-a-boo (Lephantis).
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Well, firstly:
On 3/16/2017 at 9:01 AM, DrBorris said:They let their "gladiators" out for the same reason they let out Eximus, to kill Warframes. I don't follow how it does not make sense, these are the Grineer's/Corpus' best warriors, makes sense to me to have their best warriors on the hunt for Tenno.
In the case of the Rathuum, we get from Kela De Thaym that these gladiators are the literal rejects of Grineer society, which is saying something. As a point of "encouragement" she tells them to do better because this is the only thing they've ever been good at: one on one combat against enemies far less capable. The arena format is what works so well for these enemies, as they are both unique and have specific gimmicks to them. Take that away, and, while they are somewhat different, they lose their charm or interesting quirk, especially when you consider the fact that they're supposed to be exclusive to Rathuum. Maybe as a very rare spawn it might conceivably make sense for them to appear, but otherwise they don't fit the general mosh-pit that we call survival gameplay.
On 3/16/2017 at 9:01 AM, DrBorris said:And your OP lists three enemies, I am pretty sure the roster of Rathuum is greater than 3, aka less diversity. Maybe add Rathuum enemies, then add the enemies in the OP to the "arena" class of enemies. Now you have more diversity in both Rathuum and general missions. And adding arena enemies into common spawn is just a hell of a lot easier, I am sure DE could get it done in a week if they decided it was a good idea to do.
My OP lists three enemies because I ran out of ideas at three, not because it needed to be limited to just three. There's other people suggesting their designs as well, which was kind of what I was aiming for. Were I not quite as braindead as I am now I'd edit my OP to include more, but, is the way it goes.
On 3/16/2017 at 0:09 PM, FireSegment said:that's Bursa, Manic and may i say, juggernaut. They did forced us to change our play style for a while, but with tenno power creep and they sake of balancing across all level of player, they become much weaker.
My point is that any method to increase gameplay diversity during one mission would failed if we dont deal with our weapon power creep first, or else everything would get hammered down at the balancing period. (which is weird on why DE skip the mod rework and go for enemy rework)
In my mind, once you address unit design, you then address enemy scaling, as otherwise things get too out of hand against players. Once you address enemy scaling, the OP nature of weapons and frames becomes painfully apparent and nerfs go everywhere, and thus everything sorta evens out. One domino knocks into the next tipping over the third, if that makes any sense. You're not wrong, though, the situation with weapons and Tenno power in general is not exactly exemplary.
On 3/16/2017 at 0:09 PM, OmniXVII said:We could use the same units from the Arena and just call them "Lancer Overlord" or "Hyekka Punisher." That way they're distinguished from the named version in the Arena and are just generic enemies that you can distinguish as special enemies.
So, you're suggesting that we reskin the gladiators, give them special names and then call that good, if I'm understanding correctly. While tacitly it "works", it also doesn't, as the only difference is mechanically is that we're replacing a reskinned Bombard model with a reskinned Rathuum mob, or a reskinned Index mob, or whatever you want to call it. Basically, that's not really fixing the problem so much as it is putting a shiny new band-aid on the issue. I'll have to respectfully disagree with you and Borris on this count, I don't like the idea of it. Opinions are opinions for a reason though, and you are entitled to yours.
8 hours ago, Volinus7 said:A unit that have the same movements as tenno but faster can keep up with you and focus on melee you to death in a few hits, force players to melee parry if they're too late to intercept it. CC immune of cause also its attacks ignore def abilities and deal max hp% dmg.
So... Stalker Acolytes? :P Seriously, though, I kinda think the Hyenas were supposed to be like this, and they sorta worked if they weren't so CC-affected. Doing more with the Acolytes would be cool, though... maybe as alternate mid-level bosses that show up randomly? Idk, just kinda throwing stuff on the ground and hoping it sticks.
On 3/16/2017 at 3:36 PM, EmptyDevil said:I have a suggestion for Arson Eximus Infested though, because i do not believe they should be excluded due to their weakness to fire. Instead, the Infested should have a specialized unit that creates fire or extremely hot substances that is capable of combustion. Visually and mechanically, it could be like a huge Infested Bombardier Beetle.
Okay, the only issue I have with this idea is that, at the moment, the only flying units the Infested have are the Mutalist Ospreys (which happen to irritate me to no end). Functionally speaking I could see this being basically a Mutalist Osprey that shoots those goopy things the Tar-Mutalist Moas do, except for inflicting toxin procs they inflict heat procs, while maybe looking a bit shinier. Perhaps it could have some sort of dive-bombing ability? That might be cool.
On 3/16/2017 at 11:35 AM, Raqyia said:Now, as far as weak points on these new eximii units, perhaps it could be that their abilities root them in place? While they're attacking, or charging an attack, it gives us time to go reposition ourselves and shoot softball sized chunks out of them. Of course, I could be a Garbo Tier Skrüb for wanting these enemies to stay still for long enough to get a shot in, it's an ungodly struggle trying to get enemies like the manic, bursa, and juggernaut to stay still for long enough to get a good shot in.
My experience with games involving mini-bosses with weakpoints is that the charge time and the windows of opportunity are necessary to make any good use of the weak points that appear. You look at Dark Souls, for example (IMMEDIATE DISCLAIMER: I am not saying that Warframe needs to be like Dark Souls. I'm merely attempting to draw a comparison) and even their bosses, despite being an incredibly difficult game, have points where they just basically stop and sit there charging an attack, rather than having weird invincibility states during the middle of fights to keep the cheese to a minimum (*cough cough VOR cough*). Perhaps it's the nature of the game, but rather than having enemies that leave points where they can be attacked during their attack patterns in Warframe DE hard-codes in points where their bosses can't be hit, which just makes the fight aggravating to deal with. My suggestion with weak points are a step towards the pattern-based gameplay that's normally seen in action games (at least, with mini-bosses and bosses in general) rather than what we have now.
Now, granted, in a horde-based shooter, this falls apart against the large crowd of mooks that we have to deal with in regular gameplay. With bosses that changes somewhat due to the fact that most of the time the bosses don't have an entourage (or if they do it's pretty quickly wiped out by our CC/DPS-spamming frames), which would allow for more pattern based gameplay (with weakpoints and memorizable combos and the whole shebang, it'd be good stuff). Not sure if it'd work for minibosses... but it's something to kick around.
TL;DR: Not just could, but should. The rest of the bosses could take notes from that idea.
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34 minutes ago, DrBorris said:
Or, just hear me out here, Eximus spawns are replaced with Rathuum and Index enemies.
Pretty much no dev-time and I would say a pretty massive pay off. DE has already put the dev-time into creating these (generally quite well designed) enemies, and they fit pretty much the exact niche Eximus and the enemies you propose are supposed to fill.
While I think this would be interesting, canonically it wouldn't make much sense. Why would the Grineer have gladiators running around their ships? Moreover, why would the Corpus? It just doesn't make sense.
I would rather have actual, different units serving as Eximi rather than just another carbon-copied enemy, even if it's a well-designed one. The game needs the diversity imo.
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5 minutes ago, Dawn11715 said:
That sounds really nice, and I think with enemy's like the juggernaut, manic and bursa DE is on a great way to that already. Id actually like to have boss-sized enemy's from time to time, like a jackal, scaled up juggernaut or toned down terra frame. They could have different weakspots/subsystems so could for example destroy their weapons or slow their movement by damaging their legs. They wanted to include some larger tiles anyway.
This would be cool, having our choices directly affect the functionality of the boss. We get that a little bit with Lephantis and the Jackal already, but doing that with regular Eximus units could be fun too.
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8 minutes ago, Genoscythe said:
The basic design flaw of all the units you suggested is, and that's how I understand it, that they can only be killed by weapons fire, which is a huge problem with the general weakpoint design of most bosses too. Most abilities are made so that they hit multiple enemies in a row or around the warframe, and while I think that a radial 50 meter shockwave that undoes all life is not really a constructive way to design abilities, I also think that all kinds of damage abilites should be able to damage enemies as long as they are able to hit them, and I do not only mean CC.
What you woudl change is only the fact that eximus units would be invincible except for a weak point which:
- cuts the game flow of the normal gameplay
- punishes solo players just like bursas did back when they were able to turn faster than the player was able to get around them
- does the same thing DE is trying to do for eximus units (but in a more creative way)
Concluding I would like to say that the idea of a mini-boss eximus that is not just a less frequntly spawning cannon fodder is a good one and I really would like to see some ingame, but it should not include:
- 100% immunities to anything, every way of gameplay should be a ble to beat them, gunfire, melee and abilities
- game-flow crushers
- mechanics that require you to play a special setup (to a certain extent)
This is fair. I freely admit that my idea isn't perfect, and that it quite obviously needs some work. Hopefully I can help clarify a bit further here.
I realize that the way that this is currently phrased it makes everything sound like it's invincible to everything until the weakpoint is hit. That wasn't my aim--rather, Eximus units in this idea would be resistant to most damage except for when hit in a certain spot. Like, for example, let's pick Volt as a frame and pit him up against his Grineer power counterpart, the proposed Shock Eximus. While his kit may not be as effective initially, it would make sense if the Shock Eximus was resistant to damage up until his special powers had been disabled, which would then leave him open to attack normally. The only time they would nullify anything, in a sense, is while both their aura is active and if the damage type in question fell within their range of affinity (Arson Eximi absorbing fire attacks, Arctic Eximi absorbing cold, etc).
Does that help justify the suggestion a little bit? Or is there something I'm still missing?
Edit: Noticed the bit about the Radial Shockwave o'Death you brought up. I acknowledge what you're saying as fair with that, but honestly I'm not sure how else to make them disrupt the flow of the game other than being basically huge focal points that demand attention. Do you have any ideas on how to circumnavigate that?
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44 minutes ago, Volinus7 said:
It's the room used to connect between players so you can brag your decorating talent.
Eventually, anyway. Steve did mention in a Devstream (I don't remember which one) that eventually moving from Orbiter to Orbiter was going to be a thing.
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Now, I will preface this by saying I don't want to remove them from the game.
Seriously. Please note that before you go any further. I don't want to have to bother with white knights getting up in my grille because of the title without reading the rest of the post. That gets unbelievably frustrating and shuts down discussion.
Now, then, to the body of the discussion:
Something that in my opinion Warframe suffers from is ineffective enemy design. Ultimately, outside of bosses it's carbon-copies of enemies with slightly different loadouts that only barely change the flow of gameplay beyond the normal slice and dice. This doesn't address the issue that scaling presents, but I think that the two are tied to each other inextricably. Once enemy design reaches a point where scaling makes no sense, then it'll change, likely, to something slightly more reasonable.
With that in mind, we come to Eximus units, which at the moment are the most obvious and egregious placeholder units in the game as we speak. Now, allow me to pose the question: What do Eximus do to change the flow of gameplay? Yes, they have special powers and huge AoE attacks (Arson Eximus, I'm looking at you) and the like, but really, what does that force? A three second diversion to cut them down like another generic mob until you go back to spamming your spin-dash with the Telos Boltace? Maybe? Or in the case of the Arctic Nullifier Eximus, it actively punishes you for leaving them alive no matter what you do, which is even more problematic.
What I'm trying to get at is the fact that Eximus, in their current state, do not force any sort of serious change in gameplay. With the way that the game has evolved, they've taken on the form of a slightly rarer and more powerful but still easily mitigated creep. DE's acknowledged this, and their thoughts with the Infested Eximus are an attempt to address that. I don't think that their approach is appropriate to fixing the problem--if anything, it's another bandaid solution to an issue of this size.
I suggest, instead, that DE does what they've intended with Eximus units all this time, and actually design miniboss eximus units as intended. What I mean by this is creating unique, special mobs that spawn according to faction rather than recolored, slightly larger models of the exact same sort of creeps that continue to spawn. This sounds like a lot of work, and I acknowledge that. But in order for the game to achieve greatness, DE is no stranger to hard work; that much is evident and I think that this could be an extension of that.
As such, I have a few suggestions for specific Eximus that could be replaced, in a faction-specific sense:
Arson Eximus: This name could remain relatively similar, as it would apply pretty well. What I have in mind for the Grineer faction is a Manic-esque enemy that is armed with a Ruk-esque body-mounted flamethrower and maybe a really large backpack with tubes running to the flamethrower a-la-Lech Kril. He'd still be able to do the long range fire blast, but he'd have a decent move speed, and it would be interesting if he had friendly-fire on so he'd be setting his allies on fire too, as would be appropriate a true arsonist. His weak point could be his backpack, as a few well-placed shot in his back would blow it up and do heavy damage and also shut down his flame-blast attack.
For the Corpus, it could take the form of a Moa-esque mob that uses a flamethrower, but also has a thruster pack much like in Halo, so that it could charge across short distances very quickly. It would have a very large, bulky tank mounted just behind the thruster so that if that was hit it would disable his thrusting and the AoE as well.
The Infested should not have an Arson Eximus. Canonically it makes no sense, especially concerning their aversion to fire. Not much else to say to that.
Anywho, on to the next one!
Arctic Eximus: For the Grineer, this could be a heavy unit with a Orokin artifact on as a backpack that would generate a cold aura, but also give them the ability to create a huge ice slick that saps shields when frames touch it (like in a Corpus Ice Planet Biome). The artifact could as well as power a Glaxion Prime or some other such weapon that would act a bit like Mei's ice sprayer from Overwatch. The weakpoint would, reasonably, be their backpack, and they would be resistant to cold.
The Corpus would have a similar backpack affair, but rather than create an ice slick it would create the ice shield we're so acquainted with. As for a weapon, I'm not sure what would be appropriate. Perhaps you folks could give some feedback on that?
The Infested might conceivably have some sort of grasp on the Arctic Eximus technology, but I don't know what that would look like. I'll take this moment and say that I don't have this idea fully fleshed out and I quite willingly would love expansion and feedback on this as a concept.
Shock Eximus: The Grineer's Shock Eximus could be a buffer version of the Powerfist, channeling the whole Frankenstein vibe with electric Tesla nodes running down its back and super-powerful punches and an AoE that visibly arcs, not unlike what Volt does. It'd be interesting if Volt could take synergy with that as well, but that's kind of an idle thought. They'd have an AoE burst attack(much like Volt's capacitance, but not quite as strong) that is dodgable by rolling, and would have decent range as well. Their weakpoint would likely be the little volt coils on their back, as that would shut down their ability to use the charge burst and make their physical attacks much weaker, as well as shut down their electric aura.
The Corpus would have a quadruped charger, for lack of a better word, with four volt coils on each of its shoulder joints (if that makes any sense) and a battery pack on its back not unlike the power cells encountered in Corpus settlement sabotage missions. Shooting the battery pack on its back would basically incapacitate the eximus for a few moments, which would trigger a second attack phase where it'd start charging people physically. The battery pack would have a seperate bubble shield not unlike a Nullifier's bubble shield, but with the ability to be cut through with a melee strike or a weapon with sufficient punchthrough.
The Infested would probably have Shock Eximus technology, but again, I'm not sure how that would look. If you haven't quite caught onto it yet, I haven't given the Infested faction much thought in terms of Eximus yet... But they'd conceivably would have incorporated things from the Corpus and Grineer technologies that would give them that sort of capability. I just don't know what that would look like.
Thoughts? Comments? Please, tell me what you think. And just to reiterate, I'm not advocating the removal of Eximus units from the game.
EDIT: I should also mention that this list is woefully incomplete, and I'm aware of that. Any sort of contributions you could make to it would be greatly appreciated.
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3 hours ago, --Q--Voltage said:
Real challenge needs to be added with higher scaling enemies, and not exponential scaling, and not ideas like invulnerable eximus with weak points.
3 hours ago, Elvangreen said:I agree.
Absurd hp/armor values, invulnerability stages, napalm fire radius, corrupted bombard rocket agility, mag-proc effects on tenno, nullifier bubbles effects on low ROF weapons
Gentlepeople, as much as I respect your opinions on this subject in particular, I must disagree with this sentiment. What I believe the game needs is not just gimmicks (which, as Elvangreen pointed out, are quite normal atm) but actual design for enemies. Things like the Guardian from the Cunning Trial on Lua, for example, where you have to use your brains, and not just your brawn, in order to beat it. Perhaps I'm misreading the usage of the word "scaling" here, but at this point I would put forth the opinion that the issue with Eximus specifically and with enemy design in general is that we're getting carbon-copied enemies with slightly different loadouts and gimmicky abilities. What about, for example, a Corpus unit that functions a bit like a bull with batteries sticking out all over its back that you have to shoot in order to incapacitate it? Or maybe a rework on the Grineer Commander so that they confer better buffs onto their troops and don't teleport you for some strange reason that's never fully explained? Hell, even bringing Tenno Specters into the Void would be interesting, nevermind the opportunities that come with having the Void set up as a concrete zone in terms of both unit and boss design.
TL;DR, The issue lies not in the need for more scaling (because dear god, please no) but in poor design choices. I would even encourage DE to start hiring more intensely for the AI programming team so that we can make these unique designs a reality at a much quicker rate.
Unable to Join group in Orb Vallis [Investigating]
in General
Posted
Oh thank goodness, I was wondering if it was just me. Yeah, having the same issue as well--I load in with the squad about 60% of the way complete, then it kicks me to a personalized instance without either orb spawning, as well as a complete lack of Thermia vents. Very frustrating for me, as I'd like to get Opticor Vandal sooner rather than later.