Lorengorm
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Posts posted by Lorengorm
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"Ahh I see you have returned to the archives! Do make yourself comfortable, as today's exhibit is all about war! Though the conflict still exists in our world, here in the archives, those battles have ceased. Fascinating, no? Well, do enjoy our tales." -Drusus
The Leverian Archives are a series of posts where I talk about how I'd adjust different aspects of Warframe. It could be mechanics, systems, or even frames. This is not to be an example of the best way to improve something, just my thoughts on the subject. I'd like to treat these as a place for others to discuss the topic as well. What you agree with, what you don't, and your own ideas. So, without any further ado...
Introduction:
Syndicates have been a system for a long time now in Warframe. Originally introduced as a re-brand of what was called 'Focus' at the time, Syndicates were meant to be a way to keep earning affinity after you had maxed all your equipment. It was meant to be an end-game sort of grind. They didn't really pan out that way though, even with other parts of the game trying to take advantage of the Syndicate system, and have remained largely unchanged since introduction. Personally, I'd like that to change!
Pledge loyalty:
In truth, this change is purely Quality of Life and has been requested for years by the community. Rather than have Syndicate loyalty determined by equipping a faction's sigil on our Warframe, it should instead be selected on the Syndicate screen.
Three daily missions total to run
Currently, you can be actively running missions for as many Syndicates as you have positive (or neutral I guess) standing with. This change would instead make it focus on just one.
The idea here would be to have three total Syndicate missions to run every day (easy, medium, hard). Whatever Syndicate you are pledged to when you run one of these missions will have the standing applied to it. You are free to change your Syndicate pledge at any time, but there will only be three total missions to run across all Syndicates.
To offset this a little since it would be a lot less standing overall, the missions should give a little bit more standing for being run.
Remove negative standing:
From a lore-standpoint, being in bad favor with one of these factions makes no sense. We have helped almost all of them on quests and still they get angry at us? Furthermore, from a gameplay perspective, it just isn't very fun.
The main reason this can be frustrating is due to the standing cap. Technically, you are free to focus on different Syndicates if you want, but to work yourself out of the negative standing debt is just slow. You can only do so much in a day before you literally can't earn any more.
No more Syndicate relationships to each other
Removing negative standing with Syndicates should also remove positive standing with some. You should only earn for the one faction you are pledged to rather than also earning a little bit of standing with their friend.
Loyalty should be based around faction not rewards
By removing this negative standing, thus allowing these syndicates to function closer to other ones throughout the game, players are more free to build them all up. Since it is such a hassle to rank up ones when that hurts others, many players just focus on three and ignore the rest.
These three are likely chosen based on what rewards they offer players. If all are open, players can rank up syndicates based on rewards, but then go back to the ones that they actually want to support based on ideology.
Rework hit-squads:
As established earlier, Syndicates hating you don't really make a whole lot of sense lore-wise. Along those lines, New Loka sending a kill-squad the mission after I help them out with Silver Grove shouldn't be a thing either. Removing negative standing could justify turning off this feature completely. Instead of completely removing hit-squads though, they should be changed to suit the new system
Syndicate challenges
An alternative would be to re-introduce hit-squads as challenges being presented by your chosen faction. Similar idea to before but now are made to be a test given by your group. This would allow the rewards dropped by these squads to still exist without too much re-tooling from DE. Would need voice lines to be changed out though to suit the new context.
New Syndicate event:
To take advantage of players choosing factions based on actual loyalty instead of purely rewards, there could be a new semi-regular event where you fight for your faction. This would require the most work to implement of these suggestions.
Syndicate pledge-a-thon
Okay, maybe not the best name. But the idea still stands! This event would work similar to other operations that have appeared in Warframe before. When it starts, you choose which Syndicate you want to represent for the duration of the event (can still change out loyalty for regular missions but only build up chosen group for event). Then there are missions to run for your faction. At the end, points are tallied, and a victor is crowned!
There are a lot of directions this could be taken in. A reward given based on which faction wins. Team loyal gets it for free already built, and other teams get a blueprint for it. Increased affinity gains for a short time after the event ends. Relays change color or banners to match most recent victor. There really are a lot of options with this event.
How this would affect the player:
Veterans have a reason to max Syndicates
Currently, many players only pledge to three Syndicates and ignore the rest. More hardcore players might try to build them all up a couple at a time so that they can get all the rewards. But once that is done, they generally ignore them and just focus on three or so again. This overhaul would give players a reason to go back and max the factions they have ignored. For those who were just ignoring negative standing Syndicates, it has now added new things that they can grind for increasing things to do!
More opportunities to get gear
Warframe is, let's face it, a hoarding game. This idea for many is to max out your inventory with every Frame, weapon, mods, etc. This change would allow more players those chances to get things locked behind these six Syndicates. Rather than me choosing my loyalty based around the fact that only a couple factions give me the Ivara Augments, I can pledge to one without worry that this is going to make it harder for me to get items now.
New events to participate in
Sometimes, this game can go through what players refer to as 'Content Droughts'. When big updates are being worked on, the releases in the meantime can be few are far between. Though that is fine sometimes, some players want to have more things to do. Nightwave helps this a little, but having the new semi-regular Syndicate events can also be a good way to supplement these periods with more things to do.
How this would affect DE:
Get players back into a feature already developed
DE put a lot of time into creating the Syndicate feature. And while players have definitely used it a bit, many kind of treat it in a very passive way. I think that is a shame! With this overhaul, it would be a good way to bring players back into content that is already in the game.
Relatively easy to implement
Though the event would definitely take a bit of work, most of these changes are smaller QoL passes. These are a bit easier to do and would be very well-received on their own I believe. That is always a nice thing to see for developers!
Conclusion:
Removing the negative effects from Syndicates, will simply increase how much players engage with the system. Though the idea was to give players a choice, that choosing one Syndicate means something, because most of the purpose of Syndicates is to give rewards, it really wasn't much of a choice for players. You weren't actually committing to a Syndicate for a lore reason, just wanting some cool Augment or weapon. These changes allow players to both get the rewards they want, while also pledging to the Syndicate whose ideology they actually want to support.
Tldr: Choose Syndicates without Sigil, one pledge at a time, no negative standing, and new event system based around Syndicates. Increases desire to actually grind Syndicates, and gives reason to pledge to one faction over another.
Thanks for reading my second post in this series! I know there is a lot more that could have been added to this but, let's be honest, this post was long enough already. Let me know what you think of these changes and what you would do instead! Let me know what other topics you want me to do a write up for, I'll be coming out with more every now and then. If you want to read the last one I did on polarity here is the post: The Leverian Archives 001: Polarity
Reddit Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/d0kowh/the_leverian_archives_002_syndicates/
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"Welcome to the collection's archives. Here you will find records detailing things which you might be familiar with. Hmm... It appears that records on polarity aren't historically accurate. I wonder why that is? A portent of things to come perhaps? But no matter! Do enjoy your stay." -Drusus
The Leverian Archives are a series of posts where I talk about how I'd adjust different aspects of Warframe. It could be mechanics, systems, or even frames. This is not to be an example of the best way to improve something, just my thoughts on the subject. I'd like to treat these as a place for others to discuss the topic as well. What you agree with, what you don't, and your own ideas. So, without any further ado...
Introduction:
Modding is something Warframe offers that not many other games can really compete with. The potential for creating crazy and outlandish builds is one of the community's favorite aspects of this game. Polarity is just one sub-section of the modding system, but I think an overhaul of how it works is due. The goal of my redesign is to give players more freedom in creating builds, create more goals for players, and give DE more space in creating and adjusting mods.
Multi-Forma Slots:
The core change I'd implement in this overhaul is being able to add additional polarities to slots. This is not a new suggestion by any means, but I'd like to flesh it out a bit here. As it currently stands, when you use Forma to add a polarity to a slot, it is singular. You either add one polarity to a slot without one, or you change one that is already there. This system comes with some issues:
Every time you invest this resource, the potential power gain is offset by the limitation you are forcing on your builds
Adding a polarity to your Warframes, weapons, etc. is great for allowing you to increase the strength of your builds as well as giving you more space to include more mods. However, this also ends up limiting you on which mods you can install. You become more locked in to certain builds as you invest more.
There is potential for the invested time and resource to not actual benefit you
Installing forma in a slot currently makes mods worse off when they don't match the polarity you made. If you installed without knowing ahead of time what mod you were wanting to put there, you could make your build actively harder to mod for. Even if you don't make it worse, that polarity might not be a useful one for any of your builds. To fix that, you will need to invest again simply to undo your polarity change.
Benefits from multi-forma
Being able to have polarity simply be additive would alleviate both of these issues a bit. You wouldn't have to invest purely for the meta-build. You would have room to experiment and make build that are more creative and fun, without hampering your ability to build those really strong end-game builds.
You also wouldn't run into the issue of wasting a forma. Even if you put on a polarity that doesn't really benefit you, it wouldn't be a complete waste. Installing a new forma on that slot wouldn't be you wanting to undo previous mistakes, it is simply making you stronger.
It is also important to note that this system would work best if it used regular forma to increase polarity options. With Umbral and Aura formas both making their appearance, I'd rather that not be the standard for this kind of system. Those are fine to work for the way they currently do, but it would be best if regular forma was additive for all the other slots.
Example of what this could look like
This is a mockup of what the symbol for what mod slots could look like. It uses the same universal polarity from the Aura Forma. For slots that just have multiple, they could potentially stack the symbols or have a pull out menu showing all of the ones applied. Ignore the sloppy editing work.
Remove increased drain:
In addition to multi-forma, it would be good to remove the increased drain from installing a mod that isn't the same polarity as the slot. I touched on earlier how this system makes formaing a slot potentially worse off since you become more locked in to only using mods that match. Though multi-forma does minimize this problem, removing that negative attribute in the first place would help immensely.
The benefit from lining up the same polarity as a slot would still be there and entice players to build towards that, but you would feel less locked in if the detriment of installing an unmatched polarity was no longer present.
How this would affect the player:
Increased freedom in builds
There are so many specific mods out there that could make some very interesting builds, but they are ignored because you should only really be investing in the most universally-strong builds. Having the ability to have more viable mods to install without hurting your meta-builds, allows way more room for experimentation. You will be able increase diversity between your three different configurations rather than only really having one or two mods different.
More goals for players
By having the ability to essentially "max out" a weapon or frame, players will have more goals to set. For your favorites, you'll want to invest more forma in them rather than just stopping once you have hit a pretty strong build. This also benefits DE since Warframe is such a player goal-driven game.
Less hesitation about investing
With having fewer negative elements behind polarity, you'll feel a little more okay with investing forma in one of your items. You won't need to resort to finding whatever other people use or testing builds on third-party websites just to see if the polarity you want to add will actually help you.
New players and veterans alike benefit
Since there are now more reasons to continually invest in the same weapons and frames, long-time players will have more to do. In addition to this, new players won't be so intimidated by the forma system since there is less room for them to make a mistake.
Affinity farming will increase
With the need to continually rank up your gear more often, farming for affinity will be happening more often too. This is a bit of a downside to these changes being implemented. As long as the affinity system remains the way it is right now, places like Hydron and Sanctuary Onslaught are going to become more busy.
u/Forma_Addict will be sad
Sorry about this one. Since forma would be purely additive, people who like to have their numbers in the hundreds for the MK1-Bratton will not really be able to with this new system. It is a tough blow but I think the overall benefit is worth it.
How this would affect DE:
More room for balancing
Currently, DE doesn't do balance passes on mods very often. I'm not privy to why they don't, but I think this system might contribute a little to it. Since people have invested time and, potentially, real-life money into making their builds match certain mods, there is less of a desire to change stats on mods, potentially messing that up. However, if the system was more flexible for players, there would be more room to make stat changes without messing up very specific builds. Players can pivot their builds more easily.
More very specific mods
This is something I'm personally really excited about the prospect of. With players being more able to experiment on their builds, DE would be more encouraged to make really specific mods. Many of the more specific mods in the game right now just don't see much use. If players had that build variety freedom, DE could make some really interesting mods to match. This would just be fun for both devs and players.
Increased player spending
This one is a bit of an odd one, but since players will be able to invest more in their builds, forma will be more in demand. As a result, I would guess that purchases of the forma bundles in the market would also go up. Likely more plat would be bought and circulated in trades.
Conclusion:
The forma system has remained unchanged for a long time and I think it should be brought up to where the rest of the game now is. Making these changes increases player freedom in a game all about that and simply would be so much fun. There are many benefits to these kind of changes being implemented with only a couple downsides. New players and veterans have things to gain out of this overhaul and, lets be honest, isn't that the best 2.0 you could ask for?
Tldr: Make investing forma purely increase polarity and remove increased drain when polarity doesn't match. Player build diversity increases and DE has more room to play with mods.
Thanks for reading my (long) first post of this series! I hope you enjoyed reading! I've been meaning to write up these kinds of posts for a while now and with the Leverian having just launched, felt like I had a cool lore thing to tie it in with. Let me know if there are any issues formatting, grammar, or things of the sort so that I can make fixes. And feel free to use this post as a launching point for discussing your ideas on the system as well or other things you want me to do a write up on! I have many more of these planned (there is not going to be a consistent time-frame of them releasing though), so look forward to them.
Reddit Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/cxlu2l/the_leverian_archives_001_polarity/
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In my opinion, the best way to improve Nightwaves would be to be able to get both standing and Wolf Credits outside of their current systems.
As it currently is, they are really limited both. If you could get a small amount of standing just by playing what you normally do, that'd really help. The Act challenges can continue to be varying difficulty and be specific. That way, they are more a bonus than the sole source. Same idea with Wolf Creds. Ranking up would give a nice boost but you can get them outside of it.
All in all, I think the core of the system is good! Just needs tweaks on progression to make it not feel like a second job and, as a result, be draining when playing!
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The Saryn Napellus Tennogen skin still has really low textures. The textures, which are much higher on the workshop, appear to be even lower than default Saryn Prime.
In addition to this, the skin has no physics applied to the helmet, something the creator says was supposed to be done.
Could these two issues please be fixed as this is a skin that people pay real money for. It kind of needs to be working correctly.
Thanks DE!
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I'm going to add to this that this would be a nice fix to have! Would definitely buy the skin immediately if it wasn't just static for the helmet! Looks better with physics!
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216 Woohoo! Thanks all for this!
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It'd probably be good to keep it random but allow it to be done with credits in some way. Something in the foundry maybe. This would alleviate the pain of being forced to use real-world money.
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I don't fight for battle pay anymore. I used to but then I realized that, in the long run, keeping better taxes around is much better. Both for me, as well as the overall economy of dark sectors. If groups aren't winning purely because of a higher battle pay anymore, they will likely lower to more reasonable taxes and be a little less greedy.
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If you don't want the Kubrows just don't pursue that element of the game when they release. I get that it still takes up development time but most people really want them and I think it fits into the lore fine. Fleshes out the Tenno a little bit more. They are just stone cold. They have a little bit more of an ecosystem. I don't know. I'm in favor of them personally.
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This would be really great. The way to make it handle larger crowds would likely be the same solution they have applied to dojos: remove as many gameplay elements at possible. So no weapons or sentinels. That would probably really increase the threshold of players it could handle. I like the idea!
Please consider it DE! :)
Why Do We UI Like We UI?
in Developer Workshops
Posted
I like most of the changes the new UI is making. Much nicer to look at and I like that it allows more details than before when hovered. I will say that Item Labels are a must to have on by default. It doesn't look any messier with them on and should only be opt-out. Otherwise, I like what I'm seeing! Keep it up, and keep making changes if players need them!