Protomorph

I'm glad to see Hydroid finally get his overdue rework, sad to see Undertow removed instead of fixed. But we always knew D.E. would never fix Undertow. It would take some effort and programming to fix, and D.E isn't willing to do that for Undertow. It was really disappointing to see how disingenuous some of the discussion around Hydroid was to justify putting in some bland, run-of-the-mill ability to replace Undertow instead of fixing it. "Enemies won't walk into the puddle, so we had to get rid of it..." Hmm, I guess somehow D.E. FORGOT that the reason enemies don't walk into Undertow is because D.E. programmed them not to. When Hydroid came out enemies would walk into it with no problem. D.E. decided that Hydroid was too powerful, so the deliberately nerfed enemy A.I. to avoid walking into undertow. You know, the way they don't avoid things like Strangledome, or Thermal Sunder, or anything else in the game. "Being stationary doesn't work with the game, so we had to remove it..." You mean like Strangledome? Which is functionally almost identical to Undertow, except that it's better, on a character who is stronger than Hydroid? And Khora can have TWO of them, while keeping the ability to move and use weapons? So we can expect Strangledome to be removed, right? After all, it doesn't "fit into the game." "We tried having Hydroid cast the puddle, but that didn't work..." Really? It didn't work? Giving Hydroid one Strangledome instead of the two that Khora has somehow doesn't work? Because reasons? Because if you let Hydroid cast Undertow on the ground, what you have is a worse Strangeldome, that's limited to one cast instead of two. Suffice it to say, the reasons for removing Undertow instead of fixing it don't hold water. D.E. just didn't want to do it, and since they didn't want to do it they weren't willing to put in the effort to do so. Undertow could have been kept, and fixed, if you're willing to spend a little effort on it. They weren't, and that's the whole story. So, as far as the rework itself: it's debatable how good the Hydroid rework is, because Hydroid is now the most binary, one-note Warframe in the game. Passive: Corrosive Ability 1: Corrosive Ability 2: Corrosive Ability 3: Corrosive Ability 4: Corrosive Somewhere in there you can get some extra armor, and tentacles aren't flopping enemies around everywhere so that's better, but that's about it. From a design perspective, Hydroid should now be the A-#1 go-to frame for every mission where you fight Grineer and/or need to strip armor. If the rework is valid, every time any player needs to strip armor, Hydroid should be the first frame they reach for. IF the rework was successfull. In practice, I don't think that's the case. I think Hildryn and other will still be better at it because not only are they easier to use, they're not one-note frames (like Hydroid is now), and they are better rounded and have depth, and multiple applications. I mean, we have Ember, who is the fire frame, and Frost is the cold frame, and Volt is electricity, and now Hydroid is corrosive-frame, but those other frames have some utility and depth. Volt has shield, and speed. Frost has snow globe. The other elemental frames aren't just "proc status". Grouping enemies is powerful and shouldn't be underrated, so maybe that's enough to save him. Tidal Surge enemies to group them up, cast tentacle swarm, strip armor, strip armor, and strip armor. All very binary. In the words of Baylan Skoll, "How inevitable..." To sum it up, I'm peeved they removed Undertow instead of finally fixing it, and were disingenuous about it being necessary. We're left with what seems to be a limited, binary, one-note corrosion elemental frame, that appears to have less utility and agency than comparable elemental based frames like Volt & Frost. If Hydroid need more work, hopefully it won't take 5+ years. Again...

So I watched the whole devstream yesterday with a linked account (started 10 minutes before stream). I got one Tau-forged shard, some people got two. So I'm just trying to figure out how the drop system works, I guess. After the stream there were a lot of "fixes" being discussed in chat, and it's basically all rumors and superstition. Some guy says you have to claim your reward after the first hour of the stream, and again after the 2nd hour or you don't get both rewards. Some people say you have to refresh the page. Some guy says you have to get the 1st reward, then unlink your account, then link it again. Nobody knows. I know what I got was one bag, and it had one shard. So did everybody just get one bag, and it would randomly have one OR two shards in it? Did people get two bags, with one shard each, and I just missed one somehow? It's just kind of frustrating that the process is opaque, and still unreliable. Yes, I know a lot of it is a Twitch problem, but I'm asking other people who got the rewards because it's the best & only resource. You can't message support about Twitch rewards, they can't or won't address it. A long time ago the Twitch drop system was simpler & more reliable: you watched it, you got it. Now it seems like it's more complicated & less reliable. So I'm trying to figure out if did something wrong so I can fix it, because I consider things like Umbra Forma & Archon shards to be endgame content (especially tau-forged shards) and don't want to miss out next time. Edit: So reading through the replies, the consensus seems to be that 1. You have to claim the 1st reward before you start accruing the 2nd one. and 2. That the time to watch for each reward was 30 minutes. IF this is true, I just want to say how terrible it is that this was never explained by anyone involved. We were told "Watch the whole stream, get 2 Tau-forged Archon shards." Which I did. I watch the whole stream, with a linked account, and got half the rewards other people did. In my opinion, D.E. frequently does a bad job of explaining things to players: game modes, mechanics, mission objectives, etc. If this is how the system works, it should have been explained before the stream, and during the stream. If you reach a mark where you're eligible for the first reward, and you need to claim it to get the second, then say so on the stream. "Hey everyone, if you've been watching since the start of the stream don't forget to claim your archon shard, or else you'll only get one instead of two!" This is, again, IF this is how it actually works. If this is how it works, it's pretty stupid. I understand that the way that it works is up to Twitch and that is not D.E.s fault. If the way it works is confusing & counterintuitive, then I think D.E. should explain it instead of a bunch of people missing out on endgame rewards. R.I.P. tau-forged archon shard, I was really looking forward to it. :(