(PSN)PheonixFontaine

Honestly, was confused why we have an event that lasts 23.5 hours. Not even a full day. The only social post mentioning them I've gotten for the rewards happened literally 3 hours after the first one expired too, so I wasn't even aware. Also locked behind a PvP mode in a game that has actively stopped PvP development and balancing. In a game that recently enabled crossplay so there is disparity between the interactions of platforms in that PvP mode. Nothing the like the spirit of the holidays being celebrated by high stress, limited-time exclusivity. Right up there with Tennobaum's gifting segment. The spirit of kindness and giving, yadda-yadda. Cool. But also we just were told we're getting cross-save linking/merging and also you can't cross-platform gift. This means any gifts given are locked to the platform they're given on. So what happens if I on Playstation am gifted something and then merge to PC. Doesn't this just seem counter-intuitive. I mean, this is an event we see most years, but there had to have been some thought about it. Every element of all of this is just so disconnected.

Saw this happening in a stream, only the host was affected at the time. Seems to be tied to Duplex Bond outwardly. It was a void survival relic mission. They also had a high rendering quantity as they had 3 Nekros with enemy clones, it would sometimes hitch when the orange void rifts would open in the mission, but also randomly hitch. Seemed to be when an random ally would spawn clones with their Helminth charger, but might've been something else.

Mechanically, they have as much impact if not more than other eximus. An entire buildup of whatever just being canceled immediately for time invested is not healthy. (I dunno, drain or damper it.) Eximus with nullifier shields is excessive mechanically. (No matter your level of cheese.) That's it. End of thought.

To anyone who thinks refunds are easy, they're not here. Anything done through the DE site should be pretty smooth, but any purchases done through 3rd party services (Steam for example) and console stores tend to have their own refund policy. Usually since the content is "in addition to" the core game, a refund through those stores is not usually allowed for reasons of exploitation. (Steam for example only allows you to refund DLC if the base game meets the refund policy rules and is also refunded.)

So, you bought it because of hype, no shame in that. People get what they want and do things they want to do. So long as you don't tout the exclusivity of something virtual over another person, then the message is heard. Enjoy it since you have it. A boycott isn't strictly necessary here, though it helps drive the message, the message is known. No player is at fault for buying this. No player is wrong for buying this. DE just needs to do better with this.

This still isn't it. The Aya and Platinum being in there is the issue, so the increase the amount of that isn't a genuine fix. There's also no cleancut refund option, so to rollback is equally a problem I imagine, legally and otherwise. Honestly it's a stalemate of a problem and this bandage fix feels like ignoring the problem. It feels like some people don't understand the issues the community has with it and the rest feels like an echochamber. First off, players who are buying it for it's exclusivity. This is about ownership if that's the case and holding that over other players for some sense of prestige? In a game like Warframe, the skins, packs, etc and everything you buy are not owned by you. They are owned by DE and you are paying for the privilege to use them. If DE was to close the servers tomorrow, your "ownership" would evaporate. (Same if you get banned as many have learned.) Moreso, any digital content can be replicated and cloned. Even with copyright laws, your ownership can be infringed upon by pirating. The logic here is just flawed in multiple ways. That being said. In essence, a supporter pack like this should be about players wanting to support the company they have come to appreciate. The company in turn designs a pack like this to reward the players as thanks for that monetary supportive action. There's so much wrong here. Starting with the limited-time nature of these packs, the limited-time clause of marketing is really just a red flag, because it only improves immediate purchases. It speaks of short-sighted goals and not long-term engagement. If you promised that these and other limited content would stay exclusive for a period of time (let's say, at least 2 years?) wouldn't that be enough without really detracting from the faith your community has in you? Especially with content considered core like skins? Glyphs are a dime a dozen, but for a player who really enjoys Frost? What's that say to them? The limited-nature also toes that Excalibur Prime line that's been established. The promise the community understands is that they'd avoid doing it again, but retain that promise for those things. I do want to add that the real money cost. Not the issue it seems. The fact that this charges real money is just how a lot of things like Supporter packs and Tennogen have operated. The issue is not with this pack, but how erosion of the virtual currency (platinum) has made the need for the direct transactional value. Otherwise, if Platinum was genuinely worth it's transactional value, then it would be fine for purchasing all things including these packs. Since it's not, then a direct money cost is the translation of that immediately. This brings me directly to regal aya. Regal aya is another virtual currency and continues to lack the value they've tried to garner for it. It's a way to consistently push for more money-based purchases, but presents no genuine change from the platinum system. Regal aya is an improvement, but it's not a great one in terms of value for a player. It allows a player to pick and choose specific items from previous offerings and by extension, allows them to buy only what they want. However the purchasable offerings with it are varied in regal cost, ranging from 1 noggle for 1 regal to 6 regal for a prime pack. One could easily argue that 6 noggles are not worth 1 prime pack. That leaves it at just "fine". It's not good, but it's "fine". In this case though, it's added to these packs and bloats the price by operations. Then comes the breakdown of "Supporter Pack" as it's naming nomenclature. Support packs before have been a decent cost. They aren't cheap starter packs, but they've been in a couple reasonable brackets, affordable to many players. This is triple that. This isn't about support, this is about raw profit. This went full Nef Anyo on us. Really here though, the supporter nature of this is flawed from both sides. Supporter packs have not been leaning towards that. They are marketed as a product and purchased as one. I sincerely doubt most people buy them purely for the supportive nature. This pack having that "Supporter" built-in just brushes away that illusion for all these packs and anyone genuine about this purchase as support wouldn't care about the limited-time nature of the content. A little tag on your profile that was just "accolades" and said "supported Warframe" and a list of which mainline patches would be fine. Acknowledgement and gratitude without really making a stink of it. There's so many ways to go about this all that would improve it. To speak to a "boycott". Ultimately, it would be about wanting the company to do better. DE is usually listening, so a boycott isn't probably the play except on this specific pack. There's not much wrong with buying these packs, except infringing on that boycott. If you have the money, good on you, better if you did so because you just like supporting DE. However what is "wrong" is specifically the deterioration of the message. A company has to listen to what continues to profit them or what will profit them. If every dollar spent is worth a "vote", then every pack purchased is supporting this sort of action. I think in this case, DE does hear us, so it's hard to say for everyone, but I don't think the message will be any more or less clear if you decide as a player to buy this pack. I think individuals need to decide if they feel it's worth having the product or not. So don't feel bad about it, but do so responsibly to your finances and hopefully DE will communicate better ways of fixing these packs. I do think there's another note here. It's Mag and Frost. When's the last time your team had them in it? (sorry to people who like those frames, both are situationally good) That's specifically to speak to value of on-screen time. It looks pretty, but suppose you bought it and never played those frames. I dunno, that feels off to me. Frost and Frost Prime have a collective 1.13% playtime in 2022's recap. Mag and Mag Prime have a collective 1.54% playtime. While I don't think value should be weighed against that playtime, it seems weird almost that such a high pricetag would be expected to sell well in junction with that.

Someone brought it to my attention on this one. The entry rules are sketchy anyways This is part of the rules of entry.

It's weird isn't it to make it a "US-only" giveaway when it's a Canadian game company located in Canada? I'm not crazy in thinking that's particularly the weirdest thing about this am I? Like, I get regionality because of how the company is situated and food laws everywhere, but... huh? It sucks for those people who want to try it though.

After looking at it. It's not the price of the packs that's particularly concerning I think. It's the precedent set before it. First and foremost, considering it's about the value, if not more than what would be considered a triple-a game. An entire new game full of content or 2 pretty skins (with extras). To sort of frame it: That's a $90 and $70 pack. So each pack comes with 6 Regal Aya. Whether you want it or not. For comparison, it's $40 for 7 Regal. Each Prime Access pack from resurgence costs 6 Regal. Equally the Wisp Prime Access is $80. So in the bigger picture, you are in fact paying for the regal. That being said, it's very off-putting when packs aren't consistent. Take a look at the Lich pack with all the shaders and it's over 800 plat, for the only way to get 7 color palettes. Something with a price bloated by what's in it, which is Requiem relics, requiem mods and lich armor. So a real breakdown of concerns: Packs are being bloated in cost by excessive content contained. Packs containing exclusive items only would be acceptable, provided they removed excess to create a cost-efficient purchase option of just those exclusives. Regal Aya is still an imbalanced system, it adds a disproportionate value to things. 1 Prime Noggle for 1 Regal Aya? The cost of things in Warframe should feel equitable to other content. While Warframe is a free game with much of it's content quite accessible and they are equally a business, I want to feel good about supporting them and doing business with them. This sort of pricing just feels predatory in terms of marketing. I do wonder if they've done tests in terms of the market for this sort of thing to settle on this. I wonder if market studies would show a higher profit on selling just the Heirloom skins without the extras or if this bulked pack gets more profit and sales really. I would think not, since microtransactions seem like they'd get more net profits from a higher bulk of purchases. EDIT: Didn't even see the limited-time nature of it. That's always been a sour note for DE. Excalibur Prime? Narmar palette? There's too much bad in that restriction.

Might be a compounded issue where this is the cause in some cases, but it doesn't explain times when I've loaded all assets fully and the game boots me as another player loads in (potentially their model loading is the kick state trigger). It could be another issue entirely there.

Noticing a weird trend. When some players join a party, I'm booted. Just joined a PC friend from PS4 account Tyanna Pass. Open party. The 3rd person joins in, everyone is loaded fine, connection reads fine. The 4th person joins in and it immediately boots me when they finish loading. I can't help but think that something with the crossplay enabled/disabled setting maybe? This is a consistent issue, I play with various people and the parties hold and stay stable until some people join. Specifically after testing it, the same person in one squad always causes me or them to be booted when the other joins. A stable lobby is suddenly unstable when specific players join and there's something to it really off.

If you need it to hide UI, just have it do that, the screen distort agitates computer vision syndrome in the worst way. (eye strain) Also instead of just draining all your energy, have it cause stacks that cause all enemy hits against you to drain energy equal to the stacks. (Like the Disruptor Ancients almost.) So you just start getting those piled on you and it builds up a magnetic charge with more damage and energy drain per hit. The whole energy bar just vanishing is just problematic if you get tapped by it. While I'm at it. Thrax beams are trash design and should have an actual counterplay mechanic. "They're balanced because you can dodge them" as per a recent devstream. Let me shoot the red specters with my operator before they fire, the counterplay mechanic that was implemented with angels. Let enemies not be able to target stealthed players, but rather where they were last seen. Let operator mode actually avoid those hits instead of the warframe itself still getting hit while you're in operator mode and still taking damage, energy drain and stacks.