THE DRAGON KING: A Chroma Rework Concept [UPDATE 11/17/2018: Warframe Strategy Layer/Syndicate Expansion concept]

[(PSN)Absoluteboxer]

This is the best post I've seen on this site period.  It needs to be stickied.

[(PSN)Absoluteboxer]

5 hours ago, ZetaGallade said:

This looks amazing and I want it to happen! One question though, Would the landscape made by ruinous effigy be stationary if the augment for it was equipped?

That would be cool if it followed the effigy around like a storm.

God I want this.  I want few things in life. This is one of them.

[Endrian]

12 hours ago, ZetaGallade said:

This looks amazing and I want it to happen! One question though, Would the landscape made by ruinous effigy be stationary if the augment for it was equipped?

The augment can be a bit finicky, but I'd see the landscape as disappearing and reappearing with the Ruinous Effigy's new position.

[Endrian]

Finally giving Ruinous Effigy the same treatment as I gave Proud Roar and working on concept art for all four elemental variants. Here's a preview.

[Endrian]

I think the Heat version is just about done.

[Endrian]

Alright, this one's definitely going to be more time-consuming to do concept art for than Proud Roar was.

[Endrian]

Done. Added to OP.

[Verusan]

I love all of this, but I want to give a particular shoutout to the section about the Operator. Holy damn, that is some amazing work! The sketches of the operator suits remind me so much of Ryu from the Breath of Fire series! Also, you have no idea how badly I want an Operator melee weapon and getting a light sabre... YES! Plus, I'm just glad that you've made such a fantastic breakdown of the Umbra path that would help players go through missions with Operator alone. I've been eager to play high level missions with nothing but my space kid! Basically... is there any way to give this whole concept one of those "Yes, I want this in game, please!"? 

[Darkvramp]

On 2018-09-27 at 5:42 PM, Endrian said:

Reasoning: If a warframe's primary ability is weaker, shorter-ranged, and less useful than a single firearm shot and also prevents you from using melee or ranged weapons, players simply aren't going to use it.

PREACH!

[Darkvramp]

On 2018-09-27 at 5:42 PM, Endrian said:

PROUD ROAR Final Damage Value = (base damage x ([1 + Pride stacks] x power strength)) x [Fury multiplier x power strength] (if Vex Armor is active)

is this pride stacks or pride stack modifier?

[Endrian]

1 minute ago, Darkvramp said:

is this pride stacks or pride stack modifier?

Pride stacks, so it would be a very large number, but on concentrated groups.

I'm iffy on the actual math for the damage precisely because it would be so high, but then again, there are Warframes that slaughter whole levels worth of enemies with ease, and Chroma would never be able to affect mass-crowds at once. He'd be a small-group annihilator.

But ability damage is something that really needs to be reworked across the board, to make all Warframes viable for ability-based fighting again even at high levels, rather than... what, just Saryn, Nidus, maybe Volt? New "power up" passives for all the caster frames so they could scale over time, new math on damaging abilities so they could spend their missions going wild with their abilities rather than just pea-shooter fireballs and mostly focusing on weapons combat.

[NineThePuma]

I like this a lot! However, I think there is a further tweak or two that could, potentially, do amazing things for Chroma, especially in conjunction with a variation on the Greed/Pride passive.

Back before the "Aurification" of Vex Armor, I had a standing note that Chroma needed changes, particularly to Element Ward and Vex Armor: namely, I felt that they should be Energy Drains/Channels, rather than being recast. With all of Chroma's abilities requiring a (small) energy cost to activate, and then an energy drain over time to sustain them. This meant that Chroma could fight without end, provided he was getting energy intake (either from Rage or from pick ups) and also meant that your Vex Armor timing out didn't reset you from "unkillable god" to "just got downed in one shot" ; this also meant that you could optimize all four of the abilities with a single load out, instead of having to pick and choose which ability you want (which I am firmly in favor of; picking and choosing singular abilities to optimize at the cost of others doesn't work out well from a gameplay perspective). 

From there, Pride/Greed offering some form of energy regen (slight energy regen on kill or energy gain on credit pick up, respectively) would help make his kit more cohesive: so long as he is in the midst of battle, his power cannot fall away, but should he be starved for combat, he will need to disable abilities and sacrifice power in order to sustain other chunks of his power. Done this way, Proud Roar's cost would be very significant, since it would also mean sacrificing potential "active" duration of your current abilities as well as power strength. If you use the Spectral Scream math as a guideline (40% cost to activate, ~12% cost per second), keeping Vex and Ward active is ~15 energy a second baseline which can be reduced down to 3 energy a second with good efficiency and duration. Sacrificing some pride stacks for a massive nuke would increase the energy drain (by reducing duration) and make the abilities weaker, in an organic manner (since, iirc, duration/strength/etc is determined at cast time rather than dynamically) while allowing drain to decrease and abilities get stronger in a similarly organic manner.

 

Just my two hundred credits.

[Endrian]

1 hour ago, NineThePuma said:

Back before the "Aurification" of Vex Armor, I had a standing note that Chroma needed changes, particularly to Element Ward and Vex Armor: namely, I felt that they should be Energy Drains/Channels, rather than being recast. With all of Chroma's abilities requiring a (small) energy cost to activate, and then an energy drain over time to sustain them. This meant that Chroma could fight without end, provided he was getting energy intake (either from Rage or from pick ups) and also meant that your Vex Armor timing out didn't reset you from "unkillable god" to "just got downed in one shot" ; this also meant that you could optimize all four of the abilities with a single load out, instead of having to pick and choose which ability you want (which I am firmly in favor of; picking and choosing singular abilities to optimize at the cost of others doesn't work out well from a gameplay perspective). 

From there, Pride/Greed offering some form of energy regen (slight energy regen on kill or energy gain on credit pick up, respectively) would help make his kit more cohesive: so long as he is in the midst of battle, his power cannot fall away, but should he be starved for combat, he will need to disable abilities and sacrifice power in order to sustain other chunks of his power. Done this way, Proud Roar's cost would be very significant, since it would also mean sacrificing potential "active" duration of your current abilities as well as power strength. If you use the Spectral Scream math as a guideline (40% cost to activate, ~12% cost per second), keeping Vex and Ward active is ~15 energy a second baseline which can be reduced down to 3 energy a second with good efficiency and duration. Sacrificing some pride stacks for a massive nuke would increase the energy drain (by reducing duration) and make the abilities weaker, in an organic manner (since, iirc, duration/strength/etc is determined at cast time rather than dynamically) while allowing drain to decrease and abilities get stronger in a similarly organic manner.

Would Effigy still be a channeled ability as well? Because that's a lot of channeled abilities; not even sure there's precedent for having so many on one Warframe. The energy drain would be enormous and it'd completely cut out the benefit of Zenurik's Energizing Dash, because Chroma wouldn't be able to regain energy from it. That'd be a shame, given the popularity of Zenurik (God knows I use it all the time on Chroma).

Edited November 5, 2018 by Endrian

[Endrian]

Just needed to make a quick post so I could gather some rough thoughts on Warframe reworks for further fleshing out in between work on the Chroma rework concept.

REWORK VISION: Passives shouldn't just be minor bonuses for some Warframes (like Zephyr's moderately enhanced air control) and major, core mechanics for others (like Nidus's Mutation, granting: self-resurrection, rank-up stat bonuses, rapidly increasing ability damage, and aesthetic evolution). My goal in examining each Warframe in need of review would be in giving them a beefed-up passive that could stand alongside other such "core" passives, along with retuning underwhelming abilities.

EMBER

• PASSIVE: Melting Point/Fire-Eater/Overheat/Fired Up—Ember's passive is a decent idea in theory, but relying on self-damage in order to get the power gain is a bit absurd. Needs a way to gain scaling power over time another way, if you choose to be more evasive of enemy damage. Maybe the more enemies that die by Heat damage or that panic/catch fire as a result of Heat Status Chance gradually increases her overall Heat damage/power strength and power range. Alternatively, maybe some sort of relationship between repeated ability use, and enemy Armor melts away when within a certain radius of her, or perhaps she ignores a climbing amount of enemy Armor with her abilities. Or maybe both. Maybe some sort of "increasing temperature" gauge to represent Ember's growing power. Possibly she regenerates health while standing in patches of fire she's created (as well as in exploding ship fire patches).
• ABILITY 1: Detonate—Rebuilt/renamed from "Fireball." Instead of a projectile, Ember snaps the fingers of one hand, and wherever she's currently pointing her reticle, that specific enemy/location explodes in a spherical conflagration. Initial major Heat/Blast damage for primary target, surrounding enemies suffer lesser Heat/Blast damage, and the ability leaves behind a large patch of continuous roiling flame. Charged: In exchange for double energy cost and a longer cast time, Ember snaps the fingers of both hands and sets off a rapid chain of explosions, chain-exploding any enemies within the radius of initial target (the more enemies there are, the more stacking explosions, the more the damage). A patch of flame is left by each exploding enemy. Affected by: Power strength, power range.
• ABILITY 2: Ignition—Rebuilt/renamed from "Accelerant." Not changed too heavily: Still stuns surrounding enemies, but rather than increasing damage versus the stunned enemies, Ember becomes Ignited, wreathed in flame; gains a Heat damage aura with short fixed radius but very high Status Chance (very easily sets nearby enemies on fire/panicking); any Heat/Blast damage she deals, whether from abilities or weapons, is multiplied significantly. Possibly takes on a "heat haze" appearance alongside the fire aura that grants her a native "dodge chance" for incoming attacks. Possibly absorbs Heat and Heat-derived damage (such as Blast) as Health while Ignited? Affected by: Power strength, power duration, power range (for stun radius).
• ABILITY 3: Fire Blast—No thoughts just yet.
• ABILITY 4: World on Fire—No thoughts just yet.

Need sleep, will continue later.

Edited November 5, 2018 by Endrian

[Fallen_Echo]

Well goddamm, this is a mighty fine rework here.

[ELECTRONICSZ_]

DE pls hire this talented individual already, the amount of work he did is impressive nuff said.

[Kranagin]

I've said it before on Reddit, but Chroma is the reason I got into Warframe. I gave it a shot at an earlier date and wasn't interested, but a friend talked me back into it with a Dragon-Themed Warframe and enough updates to the game had passed that I now find it fun and I have been consistently playing since. He's the only frame I've ever truly considered paying for, just to support, and I did purchase the Chroma Prime access because I so strongly care about Chroma. That said, he's not very fun most of the time. He's not even fun(for me) when I take him to an Eidolon hunt, because what he does is very basic and unengaging.

This rework(and finding out that you are at least partially responsible for Chroma's concept) is the coolest thing I've ever seen related to DE/Warframe. Thank you for, in part, giving me a reason to play this game. And thank you for your efforts to give that reason some real wings-the warframes are characters in and of themselves, and you're giving Chroma some much NEEDED character with these concepts. I hope the devs are paying attention and taking notice, because this is amazing.

[Endvale]

I actually hate Chroma. I find him incredibly dull with basically nothing but a bunch of passive powers and a boring / useless breath attack. Which is a massive disappointment for the DRAGON WARFRAME. He really just makes good damage numbers bigger and bad damage numbers smaller... wow, how thrilling.

But this? Mother of god, THIS... I would drop my main in a heartbeat to play THIS dragon frame. I wouldn't even care how endgame viable it is... it looks SO COOL AND SO FUN. Amazing job and I am actually SO MAD that in all likelihood I'll never see this in the actual game (I'm a pessimist that believes I can't have nice things). Gonna go weep and dream of this being real now. ;_;

[Darkvramp]

I think you need to put the differing tiers into spoiler drop downs to reduce the scrolling fatigue. Just a suggestion.

[Endrian]

1 hour ago, Darkvramp said:

I think you need to put the differing tiers into spoiler drop downs to reduce the scrolling fatigue. Just a suggestion.

If the complaint becomes more widespread, I will certainly do so! Right now, I'm fairly happy with how it's formatted.

[Mirki]

By now (after reading the whole post) I'm certainly sure this is a Chroma i want to play, not just because is strongher but very well represents the Warframe i love (and actually main) since it's release, however yes i think some of the suggestions are wildly overpowered (1st Ability augment and Tier III Elemental Ward), i would love to see ANY of this post implented in-game , thanks for your amazing work and hope for DE to watch out this post.

[RogerYork]

Not only do I need this Chroma rework in my life, I need your proposed Operator changes.

[Endrian]

NEW MISSION TYPES CONCEPT

Perhaps a number of new Nightmare-style mission types in order to give different kinds of challenges.

• KUVA DISRUPTION: The moment you arrive in this daily mission type, your Warframe malfunctions, and the Operator is forcibly pulled through the Warframe and into the area as if through a portal, the link interrupted by Kuva clouds that have saturated the area, amplified by a makeshift/emulated Control Scepter. It could potentially be on any faction type. The goal of the mission would be to find the source of the disruption, destroy it, and get out. Enemy level would be 50+, maybe 80+. If the Operator dies even once, the mission is failed. The mission would reward high credit, Kuva and Endo rewards, along with one random Operator/Amp/Arc arcane if you complete special circumstances. There are four versions:
  • INFESTED: An Orokin-era Ancient is partially merged with a Control Scepter (part of its "head"). Destroy the Scepter (Void Dash to stun Ancient and strip its eldritch barrier, then Void Blast to destroy the Scepter) and you can extract, Warframe returning to the Operator at extraction. An Operator arcane would be awarded if you actually slay the Ancient, which would have boss-level Health/defenses, damage, and unusual abilities, like being able to force any surrounding Operators out of Void Mode by disrupting localized Void.
  • CORPUS: A particularly elaborate Bursa has a modified Control Scepter mounted into its frame. Destroy the Scepter (same as with Ancient), then you can extract. As with Infested type, if you destroy the Bursa, you'd get the Operator arcane at extraction.
  • GRINEER: An oversized, almost-completely-cybernetic and heavy-armored Kuva Guardian wields a Control Scepter simulacrum. Destroy the Scepter (as usual) and you can extract. Kill the Guardian, and you get the Operator arcane at extraction. 
  • ANY: Control Scepter has actually been broken down and implemented into part of a larger reactor core ("Control Core") that any of the factions are testing out as defense against Warframes (in Infested's case, it's because they took over one of the Grineer/Corpus test ships). The Operator needs to break through the ship defenses, expose the core, then destroy it. Operator can immediately head for extraction after destroying Control Core, but... two (maybe three?) dormant backups exist on the ship. New defenses (lasers, radiation traps, mines, machines/robots) activate with each backup Control Core's destruction. Destroying all of them grants the Operator arcane at extraction.
  • KUVA DISRUPTION EXTREME—In this version, the mission can only be done solo. However, it would be repeatable for high credits, Kuva, and Endo.

And then, in a similar mission for Warframes only:

• VOID DISRUPTION: This daily mission requires you to have a melee weapon, in addition to any other weapons you choose to bring. The moment you arrive in this mission type, your Warframe malfunctions again... but this time, you can't transfer out of it. You're stuck in it. You hear "Hey, Kiddo. Let's play a game." And it only gets worse from there.
  • NO MODS—All your mods and arcanes have stopped functioning. Warframe is unmodded, weapons are unmodded.
  • NO DROPS—There are no health, ammo, or energy drops. Resources (Endo, affinity, crafting resources) drop, but nothing that actually helps you in combat.
  • NO TRANSFERENCE—The Operator can't transfer out of the Warframe and help out.
  • NO WARFRAME POWER—No Warframe powers function.
  • LIMITED DEFENSE—Your Warframe only has 100 Shields and 100 Health. Its default Armor, Sprint Speed, and other mobility traits are unaffected. (Possibly Armor would be reduced too to prevent some sort of "Valkyr-only" meta.)
  • ONLY ONE MAGAZINE—Your firearms only have the amount of ammo they could carry in one unmodded magazine's worth. (Remember, no ammo drops.)
  • ONLY ONE LIFE TO LIVE—If your Warframe dies even once, the mission fails. However, you can be revived from dying state by your squadmates.
    • VOID DISRUPTION EXTREME—In this version, the mission can only be done solo, so if you go down, you die. Mission failed. However, it would be repeatable, for high credits/Endo.
  • DIFFERENT GOALS—Spy, Rescue, Capture, Deception, Exterminate (smaller-scale).
  • MISSION REWARDS—High credits, Endo, one of a new list of nightmare mods.
  • Basically, you have to play the mission like a true ninja: avoid attention, kill from stealth or with silent weapons like bows or throwing knives (or risk loud gunfire and alerting the area). Avoiding damage is the priority, because you'd go down so easily.

Alternatively to Void Disruption:

• COVERT OPERATION: This mission would operate much like Void Disruption, except you can't bring any weapons. Instead, Metal Gear Solid-style, you have to either find weapons (single magazine only included) in weapons lockers and armories, or pick up enemy's dropped weapons, which would have a limited number of rounds. While unarmed, you can use basic hand-to-hand fighting in order to perform neck-snap actions from stealth (it's not recommended to try to fight an enemy unarmed if they're aware of you).
• Weapon swapping would be possible by context-sensitive interaction with dropped weapons, letting you exchange your current weapon (empty or otherwise) with the dropped weapon.
• Stealth finisher damage and headshots would be lethal by default, but fighting alert enemies would be extraordinarily risky and they'd have much higher body defenses compared to their head.

Edited November 5, 2018 by Endrian

[Darkvramp]

18 minutes ago, Endrian said:

KUVA DISRUPTION EXTREME—In this version, the mission can only be done solo. However, you would have no it would be repeatable for high credits, Kuva, and Endo.

 

18 minutes ago, Endrian said:

VOID DISRUPTION EXTREME—In this version, the mission can only be done solo, so if you go down, you die. Mission failed. However, it would be repeatable, for high credits/Endo.

Warframe is an MMO, forcing people to play solo is AGAINST the spirit of an MMO. These specific parameters are terrible ideas. I play solo, when I play solo, because I want to, not because I HAVE to.

[Endrian]

10 minutes ago, Darkvramp said:

Warframe is an MMO, forcing people to play solo is AGAINST the spirit of an MMO. These specific parameters are terrible ideas. I play solo, when I play solo, because I want to, not because I HAVE to.

You wouldn't be forced to play solo for the main version where you get the actual major reward. The whole point of the "Extreme" version is for the extra challenge you get from not being able to be revived or aided by others, because neither could you rely on others to do the whole mission for you. You have to earn it yourself.

EDIT: Also, just curious, but do you have the same gripe when a quest or the main story has you fight solo?

Edited November 5, 2018 by Endrian