Beartornado

Go have fun OP, I hope Anthem isn't just another soulless cash grab from EA. Sounds like you've had your time and then some in Warframe, everyone moves on from a game eventually.

You're talking about min maxing. If you're just starting the game you aren't: -Going to have enough mods or ranks in those mods to justify a reactor/forma -Going to acquire and level up weapons/frames fast enough to need those upgrades on demand -Going to need to min-max your build to roll face for the first 80% of content in the game Even by the time they get to the point they want those things you can farm for prime parts and trade those for plat if you haven't already stockpiled some reactors/catalysts from event alerts. Formas are easily farmed from relics. It's also unlikely that a new player will start hoarding items around say midgame because they'll need inventory space and it will be very difficult to make progress in the solar system with new gear that isn't leveled/modded. So they'll want to invest everything into a single loadout or at least a single frame and switch weapons as needed while they push through the increasingly difficult content to progress. And by the time they get to a place remotely close to endgame they still don't have to spend their own money. They can trade Rivens, Primes or even Sydnicate mods/weapons for plat from other players. They wont' like every weapon they try so they'll slowly expand their inventory as they try to sell weapons they don't like after maxing them out, inventory isn't expensive enough to be impossible to farm plat for. And all of this is still irrelevant to the fact that you aren't locked out of content. You aren't prevented from playing Fortuna, or PoE, or doing all the major story quests by a paywall. Every weapon and frame can be acquired and leveled up without using any plat, it's just inconvenient. But you are not paying to play, the game is FREE TO PLAY. And on a final note, the model "Free to play" is literally described on Wikipedia as "Free to start playing." At no point has that term ever been taken literally since the conception of the genre. Everybody knows that a cash shop or some other means of making a profit will be involved when you hear "Free to play." But as far as how they implement that model, Warframe is easily a beacon of quality in an industry of mediocrity. Stop this nonsensical tirade.

I'm well aware that Free to Play is not free. My statement only concerns the isolated relationship between any individual and the product that is Warframe, and the lack of a payment which is required from any individual who wants to play Warframe.

In the context of my post I was saying that the content was free for players to experience on release, monetary purchases have not been required to play new warframe content. I'm not discounting what it costs DE to do any of these things. And on that note I do think OP has grossly oversimplified the cost/effort of implementing and maintaining dedicated servers, nevermind the fact that they won't magically fix everything and could create new issues to add to the existing ones.

And? This isn't COD or FIFA. Despite its content droughts Warframe has effectively become a new game several times over in the 5 years since its initial release. All for free along the way. Yearly would be breakneck even for a AAA dev charging for every expansion. I'm not sure someone who thinks Inaros is an indication of poor PvE balance has any business telling me I have no idea what I'm talking about. What is this handwaving garbage? None of the changes were noteworthy and I'm still the one who has no idea what I'm talking about? I might as well just tell you that none of the P2P issues are noteworthy since so many players replying to this thread play the game just fine as is.

That once again assumes the Overwatch devs actually care about balance, as far as I can tell "balance" is whatever sells OWL. At the cost of only 100 employees your golden example of Overwatch manages to go through content droughts that make Warframe look like a content flood by comparison. This isn't a good example and never will be, pick a AAA dev that's actually putting in a AAA effort instead of one whose soul is being devoured by one of the scumblishers in the industry. This also ignores the very existence of the Riven system and the fact that PvE still has to be balanced with a roster of enemies, weapons, frames etc that dwarfs Overwatch by a long mile. In both PvP and PvE balance is important for making a good experience.

You seem to be under the impression Overwatch is appropriately staffed and runs smoothly with a team of that size.

I mark an F on your post and scribble in small text "see me after class" for this abhorrent excuse of a comparison. When the test is literally 'use your keyboard for 5 minutes each day' to claim a free reward that requires no additional effort I don't think the teacher cares if you've managed to do it for 50 days or 500 days. The task you've been given is inane and minimal effort, and if your ability to do it more than others is the only thing defining you from those that come after you then the teacher would be thoroughly disappointed at how much you've wasted the bastion of opportunity the school represents. The fact that you upped the ante by going from test to Ph.D. and claiming that someone who logged in for 800 days in a video game is equivalent to someone who went through the spectacularly brutal effort required to specialize yourself in a specific field to the point that you can have the title "Doctor" before your name is more insulting than calling them elitist snobs would've been. Push off with this garbage.

Maybe they want that to be the surprise. With this last trailer's release and the "Umbra Cosmetics" coming out I've started to wonder if DE has instead converted Umbra to an NPC rather than being a playable frame. Or even crazier if Umbra becomes an NPC and a playable frame, or if that means warframes themselves will be acknowledged as independent, aware and conscious entities that are player controlled like the Operator. But that's all my wild speculation, that's where your complaint falls apart. I like the surprise, I think a lot of players do, but you can't simultaneously criticize players for overhyping themselves while also criticizing DE for failing to effectively spoil what they want to be a surprise just to calm the hype.

I still don't understand what DE is at fault for. You seem to say the players are, or rather will be, at fault for overhyping themselves once The Sacrifice comes out. However DE is at fault for.. not showing off The Sacrifice before it releases?

Mutual Radio silence was my first signal to stop caring about it pretty quickly after last years teaser. I never forgot about it but PoE was the starchild they pushed for fall so my attention directed to that. Apostasy Prologue was the reminder that Sacrifice is still on the way, and I appreciated that they dropped that little surprise right before the Christmas break. But I've never felt the need to labor about Umbra and The Sacrifice endlessly. Maybe it helps that as much as I adore this game I play other games too. What I described was intentionally ridiculous. Hype management itself suggests DE was forcing any kind of Hype for The Sacrifice outside of reminding us it's the next exciting entry in the story but it's still a work in progress. Seriously, compare what they've done to "Hype" The Sacrifice vs what they did for Plains of Eidolon. One of them was clearly DE driven, the other was player driven. If you can't tell the difference there then there is indeed a different problem.

I would think it's the players with self control who have all the power. So much for taking responsibility for our actions. Sure can't wait for the advertising campaigns that add another drag to the budget just to repeatedly tell you at every possible turn "You stop that, stop being excited, it's not coming out anytime soon" or "it's gonna be another cool entry but it's not that great, maybe a 6/10 at best." Should we also start auto-locking threads discussing unreleased content? Can't risk the hype after all.

The first trailer has Ballas talking about what you would give to trade places with someone (implied you're going to lose that someone) and miracles require a sacrifice. So perhaps Umbra creation has to do with the base material (person) giving themselves up save someone else, and despite their sacrifice they still lost that person. *edit* on further reflection this would make a lot of sense if Umbra was a personal project by Ballas. The Orokin are definitely not too keen on purely artificial intelligence (sentients), but they also have difficulty controlling infestation-driven frames if certain prime codex entries are any indicator. Ballas refers to both Operator and Frame with distaste "Golems controlled by Devil minds." So perhaps Umbra was his attempt to create something that required neither of the things he disliked in the mainline Warframes. A frame that was created from a biological "pure" intelligence and is driven by that person without relying on the control of infestation or a remote operator. At the very least he would transfer a pure biological intelligence into it not unlike how Cephalons are created from people. And to get someone to commit to such a life willingly would definitely require they be desperate for something in return, like saving someone else.

We have yet to speculate on why Ballas would favor the curves of some feminine warframes over others when designing them. Is he just petty or was he inspired by someone else's figure.