Tyreaus

This is why I've pushed for things like kill cams and easy access to weapons for mirroring (checking if a weapon behaves how it's supposed to e.g. Mios). Taking a gander at OP's video showcasing the cheating-in-progress, I've run into players I'm pretty sure aren't cheating, but who can hit me at that same rate with that same Braton. I'm experienced enough to recognize names, at least, so I can give them the benefit of the doubt in those cases. A new player doesn't have that. But one look at a kill cam, like that video, and you don't need to be a Conclave wizard to see something's awful sus—or looks natural.

To add: There's certain unspoken "rules" Conclave has to follow when it's tied to Warframe proper. For example, the roster has to pull from items in PvE, not all of which are suitable for a PvP environment—and vice versa for PvP weapons that could exist but, because they aren't in PvE, don't. Same goes for many animations. Crazy flips and such are just style points in PvE, but introduce a level of utter insanity in PvP that even old arena shooters never touch. But because it's part of Warframe, that can't be changed, even if it could be for the better. Plus, like you allude to: advertising and marketing. Warframe is largely intellectual. You win via builds, not crazy shooter skills. Conclave is the precise inverse. And the thing is, if you'd like Conclave gameplay, you'll be dissuaded by mandatory PvE. It filters in both directions. That's why I've said, so often, that PvP equipment should not require PvE engagement at all. It's not just a "no bleedover" principle: that you need to engage in PvE means you're filtering players who could enjoy PvP, but simply won't get to that point via the PvE slog they dislike.

I think a core problem is that there's no ending. If I boot up The Binding of Isaac, I know I can win. How difficult it is might vary based on items provided, but the game is so designed that, with sufficient skill, I can win with anything. If I boot up the Circuit, I can't say I can win, because there is no "winning." It's endless. There's no victory condition, other than the one I arbitrarily set. In the former, items don't determine victory, but difficulty. In the latter, there is no definition of "victory" other than what we set for ourselves—a certain round number, for example. Chances are, however, some setups aren't going to make the cut. And that means items do determine victory. It becomes "losing by RNG", a notion heavily disliked since before Liches, despite the fact "losing" in this case is arbitrary. Of course, that arbitrary notion of "victory" also explains why tolerance of randomness is varied. If your win condition is one round, most everything can cut the mustard. The RNG is just determining difficulty, as with TBoI. Make that ten rounds in Steel Path and it's a different story. That also changes how much one can tolerate "bad" setups. It's one thing to have a bothersome self-knockdown explosive setup, another for that to end the run in a loss.

This is half of it. But it misses the other half: guns and gun arcanes / stacking mods. This suggestion fixes that half, though. It allows us to go from guns to melee without suffering damage loss, as we no longer lose combo counter stacks. However, the same doesn't apply to the inverse. If we muck around with melee, even if we use Dexterity, we may lose out on galvanized mod stacks. The result ends up maintaining a focus on ranged weapons. Using ranged weapons means we can maintain combo counter and weapon arcanes / galvanized mods. If we use melee weapons, we only get half the deal. So it ends up being better to primarily use ranged options. That on top of what's mentioned regarding ranged weapons being good anywhere and melee having more limited niches. Open worlds will seldom be kind to a sword. So if we want to really mix gameplay together, we'd best look at all those "focused stacking" elements, not just the combo counter. E.g., changing out the likes of Merciless or Galvanized Diffusion to be on any kill, not just a kill with that particular weapon. The more those are unified, the more painless swapping weapons becomes. Not just ranged and melee, mind; it also bolsters swapping off an empty (AoE) primary weapon by maintaining damage stacks on the secondary.

I believe some fighting games have tried this, enacting abandonment penalties for people who quit but not those who disconnect. The result was people unplugging their ethernet cable to force disconnections and avoid penalties. As stated, the smart idea—really, the only sure-fire solution—is to fix host migrations so abandonment simply isn't as much of an issue. Even punishing players won't keep them from leaving when they have to. And, penalty or not, if host migrations are still buggered, you're still losing your stuff. Retribution does nothing to stop that.

I'd say the opposite. The main problem with incentivizing Steel Path is that it comes with expectations. Rewards have to be achievable by a really good portion of the playerbase and all that sort of jazz. You have to balance for it, because there's an expectation a vague percent of weapons can handle it. Remember the whole melee dominance fiasco that led to weapon arcanes? That came only after Steel Path. It was always there, endurance players would encounter that regularly. But Steel Path popularized it. That led to changes in the entire balance landscape. All that balance skewing makes Steel Path equivalent to—or at least tend towards—the starchart. And at that point, what's special about it? The main purpose of Steel Path as a hard mode efficacy notwithstanding and a stress test for weapons got erased. For the most part, we're back where we started. Barring, of course, the resultant power creep and all the issues that causes. Wasn't that long ago that reaching level cap was a feat reserved for old Covert Lethality. Now it's becoming a regular occurrence. That keeps up and the game won't have the upward mobility for a hard mode, or anything resembling "more difficulty".

Yeah some skins are sometimes bugged in Conclave. Sometimes not. Unfortunately, there's not much you yourself can do. Best bet is to change out what helmet you're using and see if that helps matters. But, sometimes, it won't.

Personally, I'd take the inverse approach and shrink the TTK and respawn times. Something like 1 second respawn times and OHKO sniper body shots (scaling everything else proportionally). Keeps more of the Warframe feel while also curtailing the "chase after a target for five years" problem. Also means silly OHKO melees aren't quite as egregious. For weapons, the shop skins seem like a solid arsenal set. Gives a clear guideline for allowed / banned weapons, rather than the current, weirdly arbitrary line in the sand. There's also the option to leverage those skins a little more and make Conclave-specific variants of those weapons. That would both make it clear to players they are different from their regular counterparts and allow more "consistency breaking." For example, Lex might have a 2.3 second reload, but Conclave Lex could have a longer or shorter reload. Or higher or lower recoil. Warframes are a bit more iffy, but I wouldn't be against following the same principle as weapons and giving players access to Conclave variants of starter Warframes. Follows all the same reasons, after all. Minus the skins. (Could be a good opportunity to Tronify Excalibur and the like, though...)

You say no, yet earlier say: And even admit, in the same breath as "nope", that "there are a couple douchebags who make alts to ruin new players experience in recruit conditioning." (Small addendum: there are also those who don't understand ranking up in the mode, being stuck in RC, but not maliciously so.) Which is it?

Oh boy... In other news, blue is the colour blue. Every single ability not requiring aim, like Mag's Crush, would like to say hello. Melee, like the Lecta, too. Also, some apples are fruits. Of course aim is the most important factor. It's a shooter. It is, however, far from the only factor. DPS comparisons and combinations like holster mods + recoil reduction mods (which are really stupid with weapons balanced by high recoil e.g. Grakata) have a whole toolbox to throw into the gears. And other players will happily observe key elements that aren't aim. Which happens to establish that loadouts and weapon selections matter quite a bit, contingent somewhat on situations. But it's more than that, and you really ought to know better. People play COD all the time. They even say the game sucks. But they keep at it. Conclave? People talk about it sucking, but quit playing it. There's more to it than just "people suck at the game / mode." Congratulations: you have successfully spoken for yourself. Now, why should we value what you like over the experiences of others? Again: see COD and the like. This is not the entire story and you should know better. Get your fingers out of your ears; you look ridiculous.

It's not really about the capital. The point of a business is to generate profits. How worthwhile a business venture is—the profits it can generate—can be calculated via (expected revenues) / (projected risk) - (expenses). The riskier a venture, the less likely it'll generate profit, and so the less worthwhile it is to do. With that said, there's an alternative "shotgun" approach, where you just chuck cheap ideas out into the public and see what sticks. This isn't done often because starting up any venture is a lot of work. But in the context of a video game mode, it's a lot easier to do. Flappy Zephyr, Wyrmius, Shawzin, Lunaro—they're all random start-up ideas that can be done on the cheap. Some of them have stuck and have been expanded, dropping almost all the risk and boosting revenues. Others haven't, but they're so low-cost it's hardly worth a footnote in a ledger. That's why much of my feedback on ideas like this thread focus on the costs. PvP doesn't have a great reputation in Warframe, so any idea is going to come with high risk. But that's not as big of a deal if it costs pennies to try. See, also, why I've advocated for bringing back variant modes, and other goofy-ish, low-cost PvP takes. They probably won't work, but they're low-cost, and if one of them happens to land, hey hey hey.

For saying you refuted their position, you never did reply to the part about the Circuit forcing semi-auto weapons on the player. That nullifies the idea of just using different weapons to compensate. Moreover, the response of "then don't play Warframe" is against the developer's interests: more players = more popularity = more players cyclically = more revenue. Of course, you don't want to break the game in the process of accommodating players; however, auto weapons and macro usage (for this particular case) are both allowed and acknowledged by the developer. The only new ground this idea treads is solidifying that as an intentional design feature. Finally, for what this proposes: you can keep it turned off. It asks for an accessibility feature, not that it must be the default. And, after all, isn't that the same sort of advice you're bequeathing?

I'd rather see DE's take on something that isn't widely popular, see what they can pull off. Guilty Gear 2: Overture comes to mind. Taking something that works elsewhere is more likely to draw negative comparisons than anything else.

A more solid design structure that's actually adhered to. It doesn't make a lot of sense for a primary element to bypass shields, but a physical element to bypass armour. And the former does so innately while the latter requires procs. And Gas, the sole DPS secondary element, is just...there. Likewise, what's up with Hornet Strike and Serration having different values? Or secondary weapons having entirely different arcanes to primary weapons? And what's the purpose of AoE abilities if AoE weapons are doing the same thing but better? Should they not have their own lanes? And what's with random, massive boosts to power output with things like the Phenmor? Enemies are supposed to scale linearly, so why aren't weapon releases following suit? Speaking of enemy scaling, why is armour made to be combined with health, leading to exponential EHP growth that other health combinations lack? And why is armour functionally immune to raw damage, while you can burn down shields with literally anything? It's not really about specific changes, but having an actual structure that's followed, rather than a chaotic mish-mash resembling the game design equivalent of a Jackson Pollock. You'd probably have a much better time balancing things if you can point to an element and say, "this is what it's meant to do, and this is what it's actually doing."

Depending on the machine, you might not be seeing benefits until you hit the $500-$1,000 price range for new machines. The refurbs I listed just about match the specs on my current machine, minus the graphics card and plus a slightly newer CPU (shockingly close specs, though) and an SSD in place of a HDD. And the SSD I can snag for $50 which I should, the HDD on my current machine is kicking the bucket. Barring the SSD, I wouldn't see any benefits until I'm hitting $500+. Anything below that would just let me play Warframe and that's all.

While I rag on the rewards as a whole, the main problem isn't in evergreen stuff like Kuva or Relics—which are solidly earnable elsewhere—or cosmetic items. Conclave has the same structure and enough people consider that optional that I feel safe saying it is. I'd say similar for the Representation feature in Focus. I'd probably call both of those endgame activities. It's the things like weapon arcane adapters and mods and now Incarnon geneses that break that "optional" label. Plus—colour me controversial for this—I think those break the idea of Steel Path as endgame. To me, "endgame" implies a final challenge of some sort. A culmination of capability. It's not something that gives further power, as if in preparation for the next big thing, or as if to make the challenge easier. It's the end of the game. So I'd certainly say it has the potential to be endgame, and showcases that when you start the Steel Path, but isn't being treated as such.

FWIW I've been poking around larger brand name shops (Best Buy) and can get a refurbished Intel i5 6500 / 32gb RAM / 1TB SSD desktop for ~$250 CAD. Or one with about half the RAM and SSD size for half the price. Granted, those aren't with independent graphics cards—which I've spotted a few for well under $100. Probably could find better at local shops, or Amazon, if one wanted to poke around further. I'd wager the issue often isn't price, or even finding the hardware, but whether someone finds it worthwhile. Like Findless says, it's just for Warframe. $175 isn't much, but when it's just for one game, it's a different story. I'm happy to help others out, though, if they're wanting. Might as well put my curiosity to some use, after all.

I will say, it is not like other Guilty Gear games. It is the pink sheep of the group. I still have no idea what Arcsys was thinking. Given how much talk Komi generated when the Sacrifice popped, I'm not sure the tactics would be that much of a roadblock, TBH. There would be a bit of a learning curve, like anything else, but one I think people wouldn't mind. Besides, if all else fails: Zerg rush. Who needs tactics when you can click faster? Plus, here's something else to think about: that, but against an AI for invasion missions. It's not something necessarily limited to PvP. That could provide a good "training ground".

I'm reminded of Guilty Gear 2: Overture, to be honest. Kind of a non-team-based League of Legends mixed with a fighting game setup. That could get a good mix of direct PvP with hordes if the numbers and equipment are done right.

Quick history lesson: Steel Path came about as a response to players pushing starchart endless missions for hours upon hours to stress-test their builds. It was meant to be an optional way to fast-track that process. It didn't come out exactly how players wanted—the common ask was a level selector, straight-up scaling enemies without modifiers—but what we got was, generally, close enough. As time has gone on, more rewards have been shoved behind Steel Path. It's gone from "optional" in the sense of "you really don't have to do this but it's a toy at your disposal" to "optional" in the sense of "you don't have to play this like you don't have to play any part of the game." Technically optional, but missing the point behind calling anything "optional" in Warframe. And that's causing one particularly large problem. Many weapons aren't "SP viable": they don't decimate Steel Path level enemies. On one hand, that makes sense: it's a stress test, and you expect some things to fail the test. If everything passes, it's not a stress test, and Steel Path ends up failing its initial purpose wholesale. However, all those rewards shoved into it have made it a new standard. It's now a problem when weapons don't meet that standard, particularly by large degrees. (The divide is a bit "fuzzy": not everything has to one-shot, but it also shouldn't take five thousand years to off a Lancer.) Ordinarily, this is manageable, as players can simply ignore the non-viable weapons. But Duviri's Circuit completely eliminates that strategy. It lays bare the error: DE has created a new standard that many weapons don't meet. There are two major solutions I see to this, and both are problematic. The first option is to get everything up to the new standard. Recall, however, that it's meant as a stress-test. If everything meets the new standard, there is no stress. We end up back where we started: pushing hours upon hours of endless missions to stress-test builds. Steel Path fails in its mission. In fact, checking on the Youtube scene, that's exactly what's happening for some weapons. The second option is to stop conceding to the new standard. Let some weapons falter. However, note above that I said, "this is manageable." Even in the best case, it is far from ideal: besides pigeonholing players into select setups regardless of personal playstyle preference, it means many releases—including many recent Prime releases—fail to meet the new standard. Zakti Prime releasing as MR fodder, anyone? How many even remember Zakti got primed? Naturally, Duviri's Circuit means that this isn't even manageable: the only thing making it manageable was the ability to ignore suboptimal picks, and that's not doable if the RNG machine offers only suboptimal choices. This is why feedback threads in that subforum are, with surprising frequency, asking for the RNG to be removed, at least on the SP Circuit. If you asked me, I think this misses the forest for the trees. Do I have a different solution? Yeah: get a time machine, ignore grandfather paradoxes, and tell your past selves to stick to the original plan of optional. Don't stuff thirteen billion rewards, especially gameplay-affecting rewards like Incarnon geneses and weapon arcanes, in the mode that's supposed to be an optional stress-test mechanic. Barring a Tardis, you could possibly work on that, slowly, with some adjustments to reward tables. But I also wouldn't hold my breath. TL;DR: DE mismanaged the Steel Path into the new standard when it's supposed to be a stress-tester and it's made a huge mess that the Duviri Circuit is really showcasing.

What does the warning state? Need to know the exact issue to start diagnosing it.

No time like the present!

For a passive, I'd say 50% cost reduction for Helminth tasks with that Warframe. Makes sense given the idea is so tied to the Helminth. Stats would probably be a clean 300/300/300 health/shields/armour at rank 30 methinks. I'm not sure if anything else would need to be adjusted: the system already has to account for 2-ability combinations, and I can't think of any 3-ability or 4-ability combinations that do a ton better than those 2-ability ones.

Screen shake actually removing screen shaking (locking the screen), so firing weapons doesn't give the impression of the gun smacking the player in the face. Personally, I want to make a custom Warframe with Helminth abilities. I don't think there are any particularly broken combinations in there, but there's some setups I would find fun. (Nourish / Xata, Rest, Gloom, and Silence.) Also, being able to use Archwing ability sets in ground missions. Because I want the absurd support that is Amesha everywhere.

Disable the weapon in question for a period of time, based on the weapon and damage fall-off, as if you broke it. My main issue with self-stagger or self-damage is that it fails to focus on the weapon. Instead, it tries to threaten the player's survival. That's always going to have issues: what's just right for one Warframe is too strong or too weak for another. If it's good self-damage for Mag, it's a breeze for Inaros. If it's good for Inaros, Mag evaporates. Even %-based damage is paltry to an invis frame (or anything with solid healing like Wisp) but a death sentence for any Warframe relying on shield gates to stay upright. EDIT: and that doesn't even get into enemy levels and how those change how much of a drawback self-damage/stagger is. If you focus the balance on the weapon, none of that's an issue, because it stops mattering whose finger is on the trigger. That also means you can adjust the drawback based on the weapon's power, popularity, mechanics, and so on. Bramma, Kuva Zarr, and Staticor deal self-stagger all the same. Outside of stagger, though, one of those things is not like the other. And between the Bramma, Kuva Zarr, and a Tombfinger kitgun, one of those has decent AoE without any ammo problems. You can smooth those outliers with a weapon-focused approach that the current broad approach glosses over.