Madotsuki
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Posts posted by Madotsuki
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Pretty sure DE has no plan whatsoever other than whatever whimsy blows through their mind. From the looks of things they're doing nothing but pumping out shovel-ware weapons and even warframes (looking at you Oberon) for short-term monetization from die-hard fans with too much disposable income. They haven't fixed the market prices, they haven't fixed the RNG, they haven't re-fixed Damage 2.0, they haven't fixed power-creep, they haven't fixed drop table dilution, they haven't fixed ANYTHING important that players keep asking for, and aren't GOING to from the looks of things because all they're doing is pumping out weapon after weapon every week, and the only major thing that they've declared they're working on is Melee 2.0, which OF COURSE they released no info on so players can't give feedback, so when they do release Melee 2.0 it can be a mess again that makes everyone scream in rage just like they did when Mods 2.0 or Damage 2.0 came out. Bloody hell.
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Would've made far more sense to have divided all health types into 4 groups.
Flesh - Health of organic enemies, including Grineers, Corpus Crewmen, and Infested.
Robotics - Health of robotic structures, such as Corpus proxies, Grineer support drones etc.
Armor - Non-regenerating "shield". Equipped on all Grineers, as well as elite units of Corpus and Infested.
Shield - Regenerating shield. Equipped on all Corpus, as well as elite units of Grineer. NEVER found on Infested.
And then assign elemental weaknesses/resistances to each health type, and call that a day. Complexity in simplicity.
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Have you ever considered that making the alternate stats toggle-able would solve this problem for everyone? Instead of asking for them to be removed for everyone, including those who like the stat change, just because you don't like them?
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Don't nerf the Stalker. OVERHAUL HIM.
Stalker is pathetically executed right now. Yeah, he's not supposed to be easy to kill, but the way he works he's not a skillcheck in any way, he's a gear check. Do you have Soma Leadrain/Brakk equipped? If so, insta-destroy Stalker (like they destroy all other things), no problem whatsoever. Don't have gear with high enough stats equipped? Get one-shot pretty much, spend a revive and continue.
Stalker doesn't need a "nerf", nor does he need a "buff", and he's not fine the way he is neither. He needs a COMPLETE OVERHAUL.
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On the subject of the Events themselves, there's really no point to allowing future players to play through them again. The vast majority of them are farm-fests that simply aim at getting more players back into the game or testing new content (such as the release of the Survival gamemode as well as Invasions), with little to no replay value. The "lore" tacked on to these events are often attempts at in-canon explanations of adding new content, such as the addition of new tilesets (Phobos and Gas City). None of these are important in any way, and quite frankly it's pretty unnecessary. All significant lore ought to be implemented WITHIN the normal gameplay itself, revealed as a player progresses through each planet, and NEVER kept to any timed event that future players may not have access to. As such, it's pointless to allow replaying of old events.
As for the exclusives, I think I hold a rather unpopular (or at least uncommon) view on them. Exclusives can be divided into two categories: Ones that affect gameplay, and ones that don't. The former would be things like weapons with completely different stats from what is normally available or a mod of some sort. The later would be a skin or other cosmetic. The later is acceptable as an exclusive, the former is not.
Right now, unfortunately, most of the event exclusives belong to the former category. Vandals and Wraiths are their own weapons and they ALWAYS have outright better stats than the non-exclusive counterparts, and there's also mods such as Primed Chamber that also allows veterans to gain access to more power than new players can ever achieve regardless of their future playtime and effort. These are not acceptable, as it is unfair to new players in terms of gameplay. To resolve this, I am of the idea of removing ALL Vandals and Wraiths as individual weapons, and turning them all into permanently unlocked skins for their normal counterparts, which players who have played the event can toggle on their weapon. Event Mods should be available as drops like all normal mods, even if it's after some delay to allow event players a period of time where they can show off their exclusivity.
As for such things as Event Emblems and skins, those are purely cosmetic and are perfectly fine to keep as an exclusive for veterans who were there to experience it, as it does not affect actual gameplay and is simply there to look cool and show that you were a participant at that time.
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Not sure if the size is practically implementable (3 Lephantis is rediculously huge). Also what would its attacks even be? Not enough details here, though the picture is pretty nice.
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On the Towers vs Infantry thing, I do agree that infantry is annoying (I generally despise having to fight bosses/enemies that summon large amounts of goons to help), but it does follow the Grineer philosophy and design better, and just because i personally hate fighting them doesn't mean it's not a fair design choice (long as the number of enemies are reasonable). What i really had in mind was having about 6-7 enemies come in over the span of each 30 seconds, with basic and advanced units like Lancers and Ballistas, and starting from phase 2 an occasional elite as well, like a heavy. About a maximum of 15 goons on the field at a time. Considering it's an endgame boss, the enemies would also be a high level, so despite small numbers they still pose a threat.
If that's how the Dark Attractor works i have no problems with it.
And yes, traditional games, especially RPGs, do tend to have some difficult gimmick somewhere along the line. And while it may have nostalgic value for some such as yourself, that doesn't mean they were completely fair design choices. It's like that Fire Armadillo boss in Ninja Gaiden that suddenly explodes in the end and kills you if you don't block it. It's more a test on whether the players knew what would happen beforehand and had time to plan and prepare instead of an actual skill test, which i don't really appreciate.
Man, reading and discussing this boss concept with you almost motivates me to write boss concepts again. Unfortunately so far no one ever reads (or at least replies to) my concept posts and they just get buried and lost within a day or so, which is pretty discouraging considering i spend hours writing them.
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Replying to your feedback on my feedback:
Deadly Spike: The thing is, while the spike supposedly defers from the cannon in that it has a "delayed" explosion as well which means players need to keep situational awareness and stay away from the spike, the addition of temporary lava traps caused by explosions due to the change from a forest to a volcanic environment makes up for that, as the rocket cannon leaves behind these environmental hazards with each blast. Considering that the typical player will simply choose to stay away from the spikes instead of waiting for that split second before it detonates to dodge, a lava trap is good enough.
Dispel/Energy Siphon: You make a fair point, but this has more to do with how spammable certain abilities are, a fundamental flaw in the game design that you are now compensating for in designing your boss. Also I did not quite take the Energy Siphon Aura into account when considering the Destroyer's version, so I thought that energy would be relatively scarce during the fight anyway. I've always said that giving certain abilities a cooldown timer (such as ults or defensive abilities) in addition to the energy cost would go miles towards frame balancing, but that's for a different topic.
Towers: I still think having additional goons spawn in would be more fitting as back-up than having the Destroyer deploy towers. Afterall, the Grineers are supposed to have strength in numbers, relying on human units over technology, so having infantry to assist the Destroyer would make more sense. And to be honest, another reason I oppose the towers is due to the Shock and Ice ones. This is more a personal philosophy, but I think certain elements should be restricted to certain factions, give them more of a consistent theme. For example, fire and blast would be fitting of the Grineer, while Shock, Ice, Magnetic etc. would be fitting of the Corpus. Plus, when you think about it, frequent goons that spawn in from the surroundings at random would actually require more situational awareness than single towers that you can clearly see coming, gang up on and destroy quickly.
Decimate: There's this attack that Ruk has starting from Phase 2, where he slams his cannon into the ground and envelopes himself in an expanding dome of fire. Huge range, heavy damage and knocks back. However due to the choice of arena the move is actually pretty cheap.
Dark Attractor: The reason I suggest having a delay AFTER firing instead of having the cannon charge up as the tell is because i'm under the assumption that the Attractor shot can still aim while charging. Having the shot activate after being deployed allows players to see the location of the Attractor, and run away accordingly.
Ultimate: I see your point on the Destroyer being supposedly this "raid boss" that's not going to go well with pubbing, but I still think requiring this level of coordination for an event that could wipe all the effort put into fighting the boss instantly is a little beyond Warframe's level. You did say the panels have to be activated in about the same time, which may even need voice-chat level of communication to guarantee it working right. I think the rest of the fight already emphasizes teamwork pretty well, no need to put a communication hurdle at the end.
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Okay, Phase 2:
Cutscene: Instead of this weird "oh my god i'm so damaged, better POWER UP again because I actually had so much reserved" thing, it would be more fitting to have the Destroyer go into a form of Fortress mode, disabling general mobility and routing power to its offensive systems. During the cutscene, it will "root" its legs into the ground, sucking up magma from its legs both as an energy source and for new offensive capabilities. From this point on the Destroyer itself cannot move from its rooted spot, becoming a massive stationary battle station.
Centrifugal Blast/Stomp: Instead of stomping with its legs (since they're rooted), it instead applies pressure to the ground near its leg, causing a stream of lava to rupture from the ground as a close quarters attack to replace Stomping. MUCH higher damage that's fire-oriented. There will be a different tell animation with about the same timespan.
Dumbfire Rockets: Can now destroy the ground and create temporary lava hazards like the other explosive attacks.
Decimate: Seems like a re-hash of Ruk's Hellstorm attack. Unnecessary, and also highly unfair to frames with slower movement speed. I say Destroyer shouldn't get this attack, just leave it with Ruk (who himself needs a minor overhaul anyway).
Energy Shield/Bastion: Energy abilities don't fit the Grineer. Instead, the Destroyer should apply pressure to the ground, causing a wall of volcanic rock to erupt on one side. The walls can be on its front, back or two sides, so there are 4 possible wall locations, based on where players are when the ability triggers. Up to two walls can be maintained at once, and the Destroyer will raise another wall almost immediately after one has collapsed over time. Basically, dynamic cover for the Destroyer, forcing players to re-locate. The walls don't quite reach the turrets on top of the Destroyer though, meaning turrets can shoot through and be shot through a walled side, while the Destroyer can not be damaged but also cannot attack through a walled side (excluding some attacks like Missile Barrage).
Energy Siphon: Unnecessary and unfitting, remove it.
Dark Attractor: Can probably be used to suck players to an unwalled side to attack them. The "black hole" should have a small delay after deploying before activating, giving players time to run. Similar to Vauban Vortex, there is a limited range to the attack, and while within range, the closer you are to the Attractor, the harder you get pulled, so if you're on the outskirts, you can still sprint away. The lifetime of the Attractor should not exceed 5 seconds after activation.
Ultimate Attack: This is infinitely unfair, particularly due to the ever present possibility of lag (also communication mechanics are pretty horrendous in Warframe anyway). Imagine if you managed to fight the boss THIS far, and then out of nowhere it insta-gib-game-overs you before you even know what to do, or because of ping delay, or because of one single griefer. Yeah, NOT going to be a welcome mechanic.
You want a final finisher? Have the Destroyer become destablized from all the damage when its hp hits zero. However, instead of just flopping like the Corpus robots, the Grineers inside attempt to overload the Destroyer's own reactor, creating an explosion that will wipe out the area to take you out with them. Akin to Sabotage missions, you have to run your &#! to extraction quickly, while lava spouts start erupting from random locations of the arena (akin to Ruk's Volcanic Pillars attack, but on a much larger scale). Once a player reaches extraction, everyone is extracted by the escape craft and flies off just as the Destroyer detonates. There you go, tension and a cool cinematic without unfairly $&*^ing over players.
In conclusion, this is a pretty well thought-out boss concept that certainly exceeds all the existing "boss" fights by a large margin, but many of the boss' abilities seem to be thrown in for the sake of overkill without considering fairness to general players. The sheer amount of attacks originally planned here by the OP would make for a TON of unnecessary work for the devs, particularly since some of these attacks can be easily combined into a single one (for example the Rocket Cannon is enough to replace the Sniper, Railgun+Detector AND the deadly spike thing) for simplicity.
Very good food for thought though, and it's clear the OP has put a lot of effort into creating this concept (as he does with many of his other threads). It's a nice refreshing read from all the generic Warframe concepts or all the dumb "rogue Tenno" boss concepts that make up 90% of the Fan concepts section. Keep it up!
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Alright, this is a long read, i'm going to write feedback as I go along. For a long thread comes long feedback, so be prepared to read >:D
First off, I would think a boss like this would probably work best on something like a Volcanic planet (forest should go to Sedna, since Kela has the potential to follow an Amazon theme). Instead of trees, you get giant rock and obsidian structures. This will also enhance some of the Destroyer's attacks, as explosions that hit the ground will temporarily destroy the rock surface, revealing fiery lava pools that act as temporary hazards for players to watch out for.
Phase 1:
Machine Gun Turret: Due to the hitscan nature of Grineer guns, this turret needs to have a limited turning speed (at least while shooting), allowing players to evade through mobility. Remember, one of Warframe's unique points is its mobility-based combat, this is NOT a cover-based shooter. Cover-enforcing attacks need to be kept to a minimum. I would expect the gun to have about Gorgon accuracy. Players can keep at range to reduce damage, but give the turret an easier time to follow them, or stay closer to help outrun it, but risk heavy damage if caught up.
Sniper Turret: Again with the damn cover-enforcing. Instead of having it as a sniper turret, make it a ROCKET cannon. It locks onto one player and LEADS the target. A split second before firing, the cannon has to lock in place (cannot turn) and fire at the targeted spot (rocket is 2.5x the speed of Ogris shots). Since it's a rocket, it will have an explosive radius upon impacting the ground (it's reasonably small though). When the cannon locks, it releases a loud "clank" sound, giving players a brief notification so they get the chance to dodge. In turn, the laser sight is removed, so you'll have to actually keep an eye on the tank to know if that cannon is pointing at you. Also, the rockets can destroy rock/obsidian structures that players use as cover. To prevent all cover from being destroyed, new structures will erupt from the ground at a different location due to volcanic activity to replace destroyed ones after a delay.
Targeting+Railgun turrets: Bad idea, the targeting turret becomes a DPS check to see if you can take it down fast enough, and insta-gibbing needs to be VERY carefully implemented to avoid player frustration. Remove them, the Rocket Cannon is good enough as a long range weapon.
Missile Barrage: A good attack. The combination with the lava pool hazards generated makes it a formidable yet fair attack.
Centrifugal Blast: Bad idea, considering it's essentially an unavoidable stun if players get close. Also renders melee an impossibility, which is a bad design choice for a game where melee is supposed to play a significant role in combat. Instead, simply have its legs perform stomps if a player is too close, similar to how Jackal's stomp works but the wind up is faster and the shockwave is MUCH MUCH shorter range. UNLIKE the Jackal, each leg can stomp independently, with up to two legs being able to stomp at once. Of course, while stomping, the Destroyer itself cannot move, not like it needs to move much as it's basically a mobile fortress.
Dumbfire Rockets: Seems a tad overkill when combined with all the other attacks. If the rocket spray had a limited aiming area restricted to a 90 degree arc in front of the Destroyer, that seems fair though. Also this attack's explosion won't be strong enough to break the ground.
Blasting Zone: Seems fair enough.
EMP Blast: NOPE. Having an unavoidable attack that also outright DESTROYS player Sentinels is just bad design. Remove this. Plus, having EMP technology doesn't fit the Grineer, it fits the Corpus.
Deadly Spike: First off that's a horrible name. Secondly, the Rocket Cannon can take its role. Remove it.
Dispel: NOPE. This is like the Stalker's auto-dispel all over again. It would be better to have the Destroyer react to certain "high threat" warframe powers with its own attacks. For example, it will take Snowglobes as a priority target for its Rocket Cannon, and one shot from that will shatter the Globe (without harming the players inside). Be more creative dammit.
Towers: Okay what the hell were you thinking. Practically all of these Towers are for stunlocking players, and they're also just immense overkill when combined with the other attacks. Remove them.
To make up for the Towers which you probably implemented as support units for the Destroyer, Grineer troops will regularly charge into the fray from outside the arena as back-up, and also to replace slain turret pilots. The Destroyer can hold a small amount of Grineers within as back-up pilots, and members of the troops coming in from surroundings will attempt to climb on board if there are vacancies inside. Try to kill them before they reach the Destroyer to delay re-manning of turrets.
I'll add Phase 2 feedback in the next comment. Also i am never posting from Chrome on these forums again, goddamn formatting errors -_-
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Can we get a mod to lock this thread? I can confirm that the OP has already taken this as the last straw and quit the game, and the thread is getting pretty derailed anyway. Let's just put this flame-fest away for good so that it may HOPEFULLY be replaced with a thread that has some serious constructive discussion (which i highly doubt will happen).
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You. I like you. Happy new year, mate.that it does.
But hey, that's why the game is in Open Beta.
I will happily support any effort to keep the game free, and to give Digital Extremes more reason to add more people to the laughly small Dev Team assigned to Warframe.
Fortunately, the game is free... so you don't have to continue playing it to justify money spent buying the game.
You should take a break, relax. Go have a few shots, its new years after all. There is a whole section of the community that leaves for a month and returns for a week or so to try out the new content. It keeps the whole experience fresh for them. And it saves them the trouble of trudging through some of the worse aspects of the game before they get fixed.
Not all ninjas are ment to Farm non stop all day every day
And Mephiste, he has a point. We've seen, I've seen, and most importantly you've seen, that DE is just going to keep doing their own thing, following their own whimsy and making poor decisions. As much potential as Warframe once had, it's all but gone now. And while we can get mad and pity this loss all we want, that won't bring it back. Maybe it's just time to move on. This is coming from a Warlord of a Moon Clan who's been here since closed beta, who spent literally hundreds of hours playing this game, and even more discussing and writing feedback for it because I had hopes and dreams for Warframe, only to have these hopes and dreams shattered time and time again until all that was left was anger and frustration, and after that, apathy and cynicism.
There are other games out there, free or otherwise. The Steam winter sale is still going, take this chance and buy some cheap games that you'll actually enjoy! I HIGHLY recommend Risk of Rain btw, or Saints Row 4 if you can afford it. Some of the best times i've ever had.
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I'm sorry (to myself, because I should be working on my drawing, not arguing on the forums which does nothing because DE doesn't read the feedback section anyway), but I just have to argue this.No, we don't.
I put in 100 missions for the losing side. Its how wars work, one side losing, and losing everything.
Event stated at the beginning that we would get the reward If That Side Won the Event. I noticed too late I should have been fighting for the otherside,
DE doesn't sell prime gear (outside of Founder/Prime Access) to encourage people to actually play through game content to get the big cool shiney things that are out in the Void. If you could buy all content from the start, why would you play warframe? you would have everything, then try using all of your weapons, and then enjoy this wonderful moment of "Now what?" coupled with the fact that you are now out a non-refundable ~$500ish.
On your first point about the event, this has been the common argument supporting DE's decisions. Yes, in real life, the losing side of a war loses everything. But, this ISN'T real life. This is a GAME. We play games for ENJOYMENT, not REALISM. If we wanted realism we'd go out there, enlist as soldiers and fight in a REAL war with real guns, kills and deaths. Sure there should be a penalty for the losing team, so why don't DE just give the losing team the BP of their chosen faction's weapon, while the winning team get their own faction's weapon pre-built, potatoed, and with a free slot? You know, actually recognizing the effort put in by the supporters of the losing team, giving them a pat on the back, instead of stomping all over them laughing at how stupid they were for not going the profit way and joining the mainstream? Actually making the losing team not feel like unwanted pieces of trash that should leave the game because the developers don't care? I KNOW, IT'S MADNESS ISN'T IT, NOT MAKING YOUR PLAYERS FEEL LIKE SH*T WHO WASTED ALL THEIR TIME BY PLAYING YOUR PRODUCT?
I could go on and on about how this reward distribution also screwed up the rest of the event, how it caused mass bandwagoning and set the event results in stone from the first node, but that's for another time.
As for your second point, this actually emphasizes the most major problem of Warframe. THE MECHANICS SUCK. Players aren't playing because the mechanics are interesting and fun, NO, they're playing because of the Skinner's Box effect! Players play for no other reason other than to grind, and when there's no more new items to grind, they don't know what to do anymore, because the rest of the game SUCKS! THIS IS BAD BUSINESS! DE is supposed to make us WANT to spend money on their items! That's how they make money as a BUSINESS! AND YET, they've created this Skinner's Box where grinding for items is the only source of entertainment anyone can get out of this, thus DISCOURAGING players from paying real money for items, thus REDUCING both profit AND enjoyment from players, and you call this a GOOD thing? WHAT?
Okay, i'm done for tonight. If i keep this up i'll be tempted to travel to DE headquarters with a crowbar. Peace.
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Glaive? Weak? PFFFT.see, this is what bothers me a lot.
compare warframe to most free to play games.
in other games, it takes forever to grind for a weapon or a new character.
warframe? it takes maybe 1 hour to grind the componets. then wait 12 or 24 hours for it to be done.
it´s still less that almost all free-to-play games.
and you don´t need the detron to enjoy the game. itñs the same as the glaive crisis. people whine until they get it, and when they do, everyone forgets about it because it was weak.
But more importantly, YES there are other f2p games that are filled with relentless amounts of grind. Some did it well and succeeded, others did it wrong and failed (looking at you, Tribes Ascend). When it comes to f2p MMO, there's bound to be grind involved, especially if it's an RPG (which WF isn't, it's a TPS).
HOWEVER, there is one VERY distinct difference between grind in those games, and grind in WF. Because in those other games, even in something like T:A, the rewards for grinding was RELIABLY CONSISTENT. You play a round, you get points, sometimes based on your performance. Even if an item would take a hundred rounds to get, you KNOW you're progressing with each round you play.
With WF, that's not the case with many things, because WF heavily infuses its grind with RNG. Mods, Prime gear, Alert items, warframe parts, and now weapon parts, all of them are based entirely on getting lucky. You could get the item in 3 runs, or you could run 100, 200, 300 times without ever getting it. Progression isn't based on skill, it isn't even based on effort, it's based on LUCK, a property that the player does not have any control over. And THAT is why grinding in WF feels particularly horrible. Because you don't even get a say in when you achieve your goal.
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Because they like to troll their players far more than they actually want to do business.Ok, no need to be hostile they are just people slightly different.
I want to know why they did not put thing in game so you can buy it for Platinum.
Look at those market prices. Even PLAYERS has been giving constructive criticism over those rediculous prices for ages. We've been trying to HELP DE TAKE MONEY FROM US! And yet they STILL don't listen! It's like they don't even WANT our money!
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Welcome, my friend to the wonderful world of RNG. Who cares if you supported Grineer? Who cares if you fulfilled the criteria required to spawn the Harvester 10 times over? If the dice doesn't roll in your favor, WELL THAT'S TOO BAD, INSERT A FEW MORE HOURS OF YOUR LIFE AND ROLL AGAIN!So only grineer supports find him huh? then why havent i? im a grineer support too. :P. btw BTW again as DE said: No one is safe!
PFFFT, classic white knight material.To be able to hate on a GAME and the people who are making it (by themselves without a major publisher) and working hard everyday is beyond belief.
Just because it's a game, just because there are people working on it without "major backing", DOESN'T mean you're not allowed to have EXPECTATIONS in it. This is an industry, we are consumers as well as players, and as consumers we have a right to have EXPECTATIONS in product quality. When these expectations are not met, we have the right to be DISSATISFIED.
The fact that a dissatisfied customer would take the time to even give criticism and tell the producer what they think is wrong, instead of just silently leaving without saying a word so that the producers will never get the chance to improve, proves that said customer actually CARES about said product, regardless how well said criticism was phrased.
Not everyone has the ability to weave words into beautiful poetry. Some people are more crude, yet that doesn't mean their criticism is automatically invalid because of it. Just because someone can't make criticism sound soft and pleasing doesn't mean they should STFU, as you apparently imply.
Fact is, just because someone made a product, in this case a game, doesn't mean everyone is obligated to love and respect it. Just because criticism is crude doesn't mean it's invalid.
"Good day" to you too.
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Sadly this appears to be the case. Taking this whole Detron thing as an example. You wanna know what two of the biggest complaints on the forums have been?Mephiste, on 31 Dec 2013 - 9:02 PM, said:
If this is DE's choice for Warframe's future...(loving e-card)
1. No more loot based entirely on RNG
2. We hate farming for Orokin Cells
And what does DE do? Put the Detron behind two layers of RNG (getting Harvester to spawn, getting Harvester to drop the right items) and ALSO make the bp cost 10 orokin cells. MEANWHILE, the Detron turns out to be nothing more than a Brakk with travel time, just another piece of shovel-ware with no unique features. How quaint.
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Oh it CAN be unacceptable. Players just have to show that by quitting the game. I suppose DE wants THAT to happen don't they?Seeing as your choice is to accept it or never try for it and pretend it doesn't exist(silently accept it).. it is far from 'unacceptable', even if you don't want to accept it
Or perhaps maybe DE actually DOES want that to happen. Just frustrate all the people with expectations away so they don't have to see any more criticism on the forums, and just keep their bunch of loyal fanboys who will stroke their egos with loving praise for every half-assed piece of repetitive content they chuck out and pay loads of dosh for it. Considering DE's latest moves, I'm starting to believe the later, not even being sarcastic here.
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I think there are two options DE can take when it comes to Dispel:
1) Remove Dispel.
2) Remove all of the Stalker's abilities except Dispel.
Thing is, Dispels have their place in the game, as it's a countermeasure against some of the abilities like Iron Skin that are designed for use against large amounts of disposable mobs that deal a high total DPS, and thus are relatively OP against elite enemies/bosses that tend to be on their own. It's a way of discerning a strong opponent that's supposed to be taken seriously from a regular run-of-the-mill mook. The problem is that Dispelling has to be done RIGHT as abilities are supposed to be a core mechanic of the game and combat, instead of this lazy auto-dispel that subtracts from the gameplay instead of adding to it.
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Seems like an interesting concept. Still, in practice it would still get awfully grindy doing the same mission repeatedly.
While little can be done to ease the grind of Phase 1's defense farm, and Phase 3 is basically a special boss fight, PHASE 2 has a lot of potential.
For one, I think in Phase 2, the "Salvation" path should be the mandatory one (otherwise the vast majority would choose Destruction as it's a lot simpler to farm) and instead of having EVERY mission have three challenges, each mission should have ONE of these three challenges randomly chosen, with some additional variety within each challenge such as trap placement, like how there are multiple different layouts for the void parkour rooms. That would make the phase stay fresh for longer by utilizing RNG done RIGHT.
For the Parkour challenge, it could just be some altered versions of the Void parkour vaults, without the time limit but a bit longer.
For the Endurance challenge, it could be something like Deathrun (Death's side) except the triggers are on the track itself and the runners are chasing death. Imagine REALLY high level Infested chasing the players along the map, only spawning from a room near the start so the Infested only come from behind. There are inactive traps laid throughout the map, such as spike traps, lasers, shock barriers, flamethrowers etc., and players can activate panels near the traps to activate the trap, stalling the Infested horde until the trap runs out of juice. Clever timing can insta-gib any Infested caught within for added effect, such as wiping out the enemy front lines.
Timing challenge is like the Runner's end of Deathrun, except the traps are automatic and continuous. It's like the Parkour vaults with less parkour and more traps.
Either way, a concept with some good potential, though I highly doubt DE will ever make an event that actually requires significant effort to make.
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The only thing I see wrong with this is that he would become far too common once within 5 regular missions of EVERY boss killed of humanoid design, effectively he would lose his random element and just be easily avoided or quickly farmed, his appearing system now works fine in my opinion, but the rest of your changes look fine other than maybe making him a bit too easy to kill, maybe have multiple different responses to each power so there is still something he could surprise people with.
Well there's only a CHANCE of getting a hit marker placed on you after killing a human boss, it's not guaranteed, so there IS still a random element to it. But for hardcore farmers, at least they'll know they haven't been marked if they go 5 runs without a stalker after killing one such boss, and can then try again.
I like these ideas, but I think the AI team has enough work.
My own suggestion: Weapon variety. I know that the three weapons he has now are made specifically for him and making more could be problematic, but more variety would make the Stalker both more challenging and more enjoyable. I'd like to see him use weapons like Braton Vandal (ahh, nostalgia), Bronco, Lex and
Penta lolKestrel, for example.I'm pretty sure the reason they swapped out his Braton Vandal (he actually used that when first released) for a bow was because hitscan took a lot of potential strategy out of the fight. A Stalker Glaive as a potential replacement weapon could work though, though it probably wouldn't work with the melee attacks listed in here. Of course, AI is indeed very hard to code, but a good product comes from hard work, so expecting the devs to put some real effort into overhauling important things seems pretty reasonable :/
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If there’s anything I’ve learnt while frequenting these forums, it’s that there’s only one kind of enemy/boss that the community will give the tiniest of nanof*cks around, and that’s rogue Tenno/the Stalker. So y’know what, let’s talk Stalker.
As most of you know, Stalker currently is a gearcheck. It cannot be defeated by skill, as it can auto-dispel or outright ignore pretty much any significant Warframe ability, it has aimbot accuracy combined with heavy damage, can freely teleport to the player or teleport them to it, and basically gib the target instantly. The only way to beat it is with high-end gear, OP weapons like Soma or Brakk that can insta-gib it before it insta-gibs the player. Not to mention it is basically programmed to appear most often when the target is trying to level new gear, just for that extra “challenge”.
The Stalker went from this unpredictable encounter that’s supposed to get the player’s adrenaline running to a horrible random gearcheck that is a nuisance at best and a revive toll gate at worst. It should not be this way. And while the odds of DE ever fixing the Stalker is as low as the odds of them switching Void rewards to a token system, I still thought it’d be fun to put this idea on the forums, if just to see what the community thinks (if this even gets read anyway).
So here we go, Stalker 2.0. Note that NOTHING from the current Stalker’s moveset is kept unless stated otherwise, we’re starting fresh.
Trigger Requirements
Similar to currently, upon killing a human boss (i.e. not a corpus robot, not Infested), there’s a chance a “hit marker” will be placed on the player, and the Stalker will appear within the next 5 non-boss missions played. One additional requirement is that the player’s Conclave rating must be above a certain amount, so the chance of a player encountering the Stalker while poorly equipped will be minimized.
Attacks
Dread Bow (Impact)
Precision shot: Draws the bow back and fires a single arrow at the target. Leads target. Notable sounds while charging bow and firing, giving players time to react and dodge roll/parry. Has to slow down to walking pace while bow is drawn, slow fire rate, about 0.5 sec charge speed.
Salvo: Notches 4 arrows at once and fires simultaneously. Does not lead target, so sprint horizontally to avoid. 0.5 sec charge speed, must stand still while bow is drawn.
Despair Kunai (Pierce)
Arc toss: Grabs 5 kunais and throws in a horizontal arc at target. No charging, just a quick grab and throw animation. Roll under arc, parry, or just dodge with speed/skill.
Hate Scythe (Slash)
Dispelling touch: The scythe is imbued with dispelling properties, getting struck by any of the scythe attacks will dispel all active buffs on the target, such as iron skin. Field-deployed abilities like Snow Globe etc. are not affected.
Tri-slash: Normal 3-hit combo attack. Horizontal, twirl, overhead.
Slash Dash: Excal’s slash dash. Whispers a unique taunt before using, so players get a chance to dodge.
Whirlwind: Upgraded charge attack. Does the scythe charge animation (0.75 sec), and spins with the scythe outstretched in a continuous whirlwind attack for 2 seconds, during which it is invulnerable. Can move at original crawler speed while spinning.
Ability Counters
Instead of an all-powerful auto-dispel that makes next to all abilities pointless, it instead has specific counters to different abilities that allows them to affect the battle without curb-stomping the Stalker. Below are some examples, though not all abilities are included for the sake of simplicity.
Projectile damage attacks (i.e. fireball, null star, shuriken etc.): Parries with Hate, blocking damage. Has to stop moving to block though, and cannot block when certain attacks are charging, like the Dread attacks.
Snow Globe: Projectiles cannot pierce it, but is not slowed while within. Will cause Stalker to go on the offensive and rush into the Globe for close-quarters combat, which may favor the player.
Bastille: Stalker is slowed while within. Will take escaping the Bastille as a priority and resort to ranged attacks while outside against players within.
Decoy/Moult: Will attack the Decoy, but upon a single strike will realize it’s a decoy and be unaffected by that particular Decoy from then.
Cloaking: Upon the target cloaking, will take out a smoke bomb and throw at the spot where the player cloaked. If caught within the smoke explosion, cloak will be disrupted. If player manages to escape the smoke bomb, it will instead either go after another target or go on the defensive, shooting/slashing whenever it is attacked until cloak expires with non-leading attacks.
Molecular Prime: Immediately use Whirlwind to shake off the antimatter, potentially giving players a little breathing room.
Stomp: Super Jumps to dodge the Stomp, and counters with a melee crash-down. This predictable behavior may be used to the player’s advantage.
And there you have it, Stalker 2.0. So, thoughts and comments, anyone? Think anything else can be improved, or are there any oversights? Don’t just thumbs the post, please leave a comment, even a short “+1” post is good support and bumping.
Thanks for reading this far.
~Madotsuki
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I'm pretty sure if the Harvester did take your Warframe, there'd already be mentions on the forums. No way would no one have been beaten by it so far, and if there's actually something that can steal your Warframe, there's no way people won't rage about it on the forums (and rightfully so too).
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Y'know, the very notion of the Derelict keys was stupid to begin with. I mean, we just break these random grineer and corpus storage containers, and suddenly out pops this...ORB OF DATA, that apparently holds the co-ordinates of long abandoned Orokin Derelicts that are so hard to find even the Lotus can't find them for us? That ALONE was $&*&*#(%&, and then DE just constantly puts more exclusive content behind this new key wall to force players there.
There are SO many reasons that the Derelicts are horrible to play on that are completely DE's fault. The optimization there is completely horrid, I've never had my framerate die as often on any other tileset; it needs a key for every visit, and even while actually gathering the data orbs during other missions isn't that hard, having to craft a key for every visit in itself is irritatingly inconvenient; cannot pub, have to manually find and invite a group to do co-op runs every time; the list goes on and on and on, but does DE fix THAT stuff? OF COURSE NOT.
And legitimately "incentivizing" the Derelicts isn't even THAT hard. Fix the performance problems, GET RID OF THE DAMN KEY GATE and just make the Derelicts its own sector on the star map. Want to add something special to it? Make LEPHANTIS require co-ordinates to access, which you get from playing the normal Derelict missions. No keys, just have the node expend co-ordinates to play. And suddenly, BOOM, the Derelicts are actually CONVENIENT to play, and so players will play it whenever they fancy, which is probably a lot considering how well the Eris nodes fared.
The solutions are so simple even a 5 year old could figure it out, and SOMEHOW DE just manages to make the problem worse and worse. But seeing how they still refuse to change Void to a token system despite already recognizing the problem of dilution, I guess this shouldn't be a surprise.
De, Where Are You Heading With Warframe?
in General Discussion
Posted
I'm sorry but I just have to argue with you on the Gradivus Event (the Corpus vs Grineer event). You call that PoS a success? The Invasion gamemode it introduced was interesting for no more than 5 rounds before it turned into yet another monotone grind. The reward system was an ABSOLUTE horrendous mess that upset a large amount of players, the lore of it didn't even make sense (why the hell is GENERAL Sargas Ruk, who is supposed to be a relic hunter, suddenly in charge of diplomacy instead of COUNCILOR Vay Hek, who's supposed to be a diplomat? there's also the fact that the Grineer at least would never fight with the Tenno, especially Sargas Ruk who hates all who is non-Grineer.), almost every aspect of the event was terri-bad. And now it's left behind the stupid Invasion events that mess up faction consistency on planets and is nothing more than a stupid grind for items, AND another lore breaker because now the Tenno are more mercenaries for hire than ancient warriors fighting for the survival of their "few" remaining brethren.
I do agree with you on the whole weapons thing though. SO many reskins that are just blatant power-ups over existing content, just to rake in some short-term cash. People often give the excuse that the shovelware weapons are what the art team does because they have nothing better to do, they don't know how to code stuff or fix bugs, but then why not just release these weapons as cosmetic skins? Why not spend their time working on tilesets?
And yeah, Warframe still has massive potential, but my hopes are dropping lower and lower. Oh well, there's better games to play.