Matt256

Not really, if you were breezing through it you likely wouldn't be complaining. And merely completing it is not the same as not finding it too hard. I suspect that this will become a mode that people fairly quickly learn how to run relatively easily. Nope just build one good frame and enough new weapons each week to have an RNG blessed pick in your three slots and they don't even need to be formaed, potatoed or built, just there. With over 500 weapons in the game it'd be years before you'd need to build them all. By LR3 you probably won't have many weeks where you need to add a new weapon, unless you've been mastering and discarding things. Especially when you can choose any frame or alternatively any weapon you personally like just for dropping one largely useless reward.

Given that the meta (once people understand the mode a bit more) is likely to become "drop the vosfer reward and pick a warframe that gets the job done on it's own without weapons' this makes sense from a difficulty perspective. But given it's a free to play game DE does have some interest in you spending plat to acquire things, playing more game hours to acquire stuff you don't have and/or at minimum buying slots.

Suck it up, for that one mission a week and/or build the missing stuff, it's clear that is one goal of the mode to encourage you to do that. Or opt out of the RNG scheme totally, drop the one vosfor reward and play with the frame of your choice. Nope, it's only vosfor on the table for the final reward that stops you picking any frame you like and going on an elite archemedia murder spree. It's resource almost passively obtainable through any steel path run of any mission in the game, plus any other mission or method by which you can earn arcanes. It's also a resource you stop needing any more of after a while.

Lacking Empathy? Golly gosh next you'll be talking about your operator's lived experience. You're welcome to take on the harder goal of getting all rewards for the sake of it. And realising there was a hidden reward of course I went back and did a full points run. But if you're struggling with Elite Deep Archimedia there's much easier ways to grind vosfor than adding that one more self imposed restriction to deep archimedia. That's assuming of course when vosfor came out you didn't already just have enough spare arcanes to dissolve and max all your other arcanes as most veteran players likely did and that you aren't now passively earning it faster than you could ever use it. The only reason to do the full run is you're finding the mode to be too easy and want more self imposed challenge, which would mean you wouldn't be moaning about how hard or not that choice is.

Circuit also had a trivial workaround to the RNG. And in this mode you can still get all the rewards you need with "one good frame", investment in your arsenal remains optional.

Not really, it's a nice out by DE that will blunt criticism of people feeling like RNG stuffed them over that week. If you don't already have all the arcanes fully maxed I could see vosfor being somewhat useful. But it's hardly essential and can be passively farmed in so many other ways. So a 37 point run is more for bragging rights. And then it's not much in the way of bragging rights if what RNG delivers to you in frame or weapons is what determines whether doing that is easy mode or more difficult.

Yes and No. Given you can already squad up to carry people, what you have now is more of a personal challenge to just get it done for everyone in one run vs 2. The meta is likely going to be: once you have the eyeball for your ship, just take a frame that can survive and kill without regard to the weapons you rolled that week or at least choose a solid support. If you get lucky and one of those frames is on your list, congratulations you can take all negatives or drop one other modifier. If you get a decent weapon through RNG all the better. Once everyone starts doing that the mode will be a walk in the park (This week for example as teammates I rolled a support who couldn't stay alive and and the other frame must have been chosen just for survival not DPS and a fourth who left early). But we got there in one run. I doubt carry runs for friends will be much of a consideration when today basically any one correct frame pick can carry the squad. If the vosfor turned into another tauforged, I could see the pressure to pick all restrictions and modifiers being much stronger. But even then the way out if RNG was not with you would be carry runs, not more difficult, just more time consuming. In that situation I actually see little downside to the rewards being cumulative since you'd do two somewhat fun runs and be more tempted to give other options a go since the downside risk is less vs one carry run and one carried run where the mode actually pushes you strongly into choosing from a small subset of frames and largely ignoring weapons. For a mode that outwardly seems to encourage you to use more random stuff the real world effect is actually the reverse.

You only really have to roll one out of nine that can be built adequately. And let's say you're really unlucky and you can't see how to make one of the nine work. You're never really locked out in Archemedia because the workaround is to drop the Vosfor reward, take a frame of your choice and profit. And given how easy the workaround is, it does call into question why even have the other restrictions since you can just be taking along three weapons that have no build and do nothing and still get the rewards.

Dunno about that. yes I did the fragmented one, but I don't feel it had a lot of replayability. Ironically not due to the boss fight but due to the time spent on a relatively slow activity getting there. For sure EDA has more in common with sorties which I also gave up a while back due to lack of relevant rewards. I'd (currently) much rather play Archemedia than Kahl or Netracells. Netracells at this point have become something of an 'are we done yet' farm. But I can't help wondering if DE would be better to create another endgame currency farmable from the hardest missions in each type and cashed in for rewards that were limited in how many you could acquire in a week and let us pick that up from whatever modes we like most. It could be a lot like steel essence with better rewards and maybe a cap on how much of the currency you could bank. And I don't play Warfare for it to be 'hard'. Warframe is more a game of creating builds that solve in game problems then picking the right build for the job at hand. RNG loadouts go against that. Maybe just Maybe Archimedia is about 'how can I put a fun enough build on this trash frame or weapon'. But TBH when for little penalty I can just give up Vosfor and pick a frame for the job there's not so much incentive to do that other than you're looking for something to do to fill in time or taking on a challenge you could have personally chosen in the absence of RNG.

I don't know if it was a design goal of circuit but the outcome was certainly that the 'lucky' frame would carry people. I think DE is struggling with how to make the vast majority of weapons and frames relevant or to encourage people to play them. After all I did my 37pt run for the Sumdai with Titania who was the best choice I already had a decent build on among a set of bad options. And knew she'd get there. But she's far from the frame I'd normally choose for that mission. But current design thinking very much encourages the 'lucky' carrying the 'unlucky' and 'unprepared' both in Archimedia and circuit. Almost every normal pub mission carrying happens too, but usually then it's a split between 'prepared' and 'not prepared' vs being unable to contribute much due to not being 'lucky' enough.

True but if you're returning the carry you're still at 2 runs and have to coordinate. Alternatively you'd take the punt at a single run, then if a 2nd run is needed, back off by what the points you earned allow you to. Finally you'd go for a 3rd if that didn't finish it. So the mix would be anything from people with the full set of debuffs right through to those with almost their favourite load out but just needing a few more points. Also you'd have people bailing after mission 1 or 2 once they had maxed their rewards.

If EDA was progressive I think many people would just do two runs with favourite gear and a few benign downside modifiers. Which would also make it zero challenge for anyone toughing it out on random gear with everything selected since they'd be carried quite easily.

Actually I feel by them not refreshing, you have the choice to say Ok, this week it's finally time for me to acquire and put a proper build on one of those trash tier frames and weapons (assuming RNG didn't deliver you something workable out of the box). This is a bug, it'll be weekly going forward. Correct, To get all the rewards you need to do a single run with all modifiers (which eventually for most people should be one run and done). Assuming you don't care about Vosfor you can drop one restriction which basically means you get to pick either any weapon or any frame you like.

Get carried through to elite, it is a one time unlock. Then ignore the Vosfor reward and take any frame you want.

Since you have all week, my bet is many would use this as a 'project' for the week to acquire gear and make viable builds out of what RNG gave them. You don't need 3 good weapons, only one in the 9 rolls needs to be usable. And probably any frame can make it through if just focusing on survivability so one of your three RNG choices modded appropriately is likely up to the job. That said I'm not that much of a fan of making builds on bad frames and weapons just for the sake of one unsatisfying run every few months when you can avoid it totally by forgoing one fairly useless reward and pick a frame of your choice and kill with abilities. It seems like a bit of a workaround to the problem of making some frames fun enough that people actually want to play them. OTOH maybe it kicks some people out of a rut.