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

[Endrian]

UPDATE CHANGES

Spoiler

UPDATE 11/17/2018:

• Added Warframe Strategy Layer/Syndicate Expansion concept. See CONCEPT ART, VISUAL AIDS, & OTHER IDEAS section below.

UPDATE 11/14/2018:

• Added Chroma Umbra backstory. See CONCEPT ART, VISUAL AIDS, & OTHER IDEAS section below.

UPDATE 11/5/2018:

• Added balancing addendum to Tier III Elemental Ward mechanics: Specifically, that multiple different Elemental Wards cannot be combined with repeated castings; each new casting overwrites the last.

UPDATE 11/4/2018:

• Added Ruinous Effigy concept art. See CONCEPT ART, VISUAL AIDS, & OTHER IDEAS section below.

UPDATE 11/1/2018:

• Specified details for Tier I Furious Roar augment mod effects.

UPDATE 10/31/2018:

• Added Proud Roar concept art. See CONCEPT ART, VISUAL AIDS, & OTHER IDEAS section below.

UPDATE 10/24/2018: 

• Updated Tier II Elemental Ward changes, including multiplier changes to be multiplicative instead of additive, so Chroma can keep up with current scaling.
• Also updated Tier I and Tier II Effigy changes on the specific benefits Effigy would derive from Elemental Ward, including the new Tier II Elemental Ward changes.
• Added additional alternate camouflage mechanic to Tier II Elemental Ward based on a percentage detection chance regardless of alert status.
• Specified rank stats for Tier II Heat Elemental Ward's Health regeneration and Cold Elemental Ward's slowing effect.

Update details can be found by searching for the *. For other Warframe rework concepts, scroll to the bottom of the post, under BROADER WARFRAME REWORK THEORY.

TIER I: BANDAID
The most basic changes necessary to assuage the concerns of a large part of the Chroma player base. PRIMARY CONCERNS ADDRESSED: 1) Chroma's Spectral Scream and Effigy are both weak, which leave Chroma as just a "passive ability" warframe. 2) The nerfs to Vex Armor hurt Chroma's survivability too drastically.

REVISED SPECTRAL SCREAM v1: Make Spectral Scream function similar to the "Afterburn" augmented variation by default: For 25 energy, exhale a single-shot 150/275/400/525-damage explosive elemental projectile rather than a weak continuous breath attack. Casting animation doesn't interrupt mobility. It would benefit from Vex Armor's Fury multiplier (multiplicative, calculated after factoring in any power strength boost to the base damage). High status chance, affected by power strength.

• 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.

REVISED "AFTERBURN" ABILITY AUGMENT: Rebuilt as "FURIOUS ROAR." No visual change from Spectral Scream/Proud Roar* (* see Tier III: The Dragon King), but adds a guaranteed secondary effect and secondary damage type (the damage will be divided into 50% original element, 50% secondary damage types) to all Spectral Scream variations. *High status chance for secondary damage types, affected by power strength: 

• Heat Furious Roar deals Heat + Blast damage and ragdolls enemies with tremendous explosive knockback *(15/25/35/50m knockback, affected by power strength; possible additional Impact damage dealt by long falls and high-speed collision with level geometry, perhaps a level-based set amount of additional Impact damage dealt upon landing).
• Cold Furious Roar deals Cold + Puncture/Slash damage and freezes enemies solid *(3/5/6/8 seconds, duration affected by power duration).
• Toxin Furious Roar deals Toxin + Corrosive damage and slows enemies and reduces their damage *(40/50/60/70% slowdown, -40/50/60/70% damage, 5/7/10/12 seconds, duration affected by power duration).
• Electric Furious Roar deals Electric + Magnetic damage and ragdolls enemies with paralysis *(vulnerable to Ground Finishers, 3/5/6/8 seconds, duration affected by power duration).
• *Thoughts: The initial durations for secondary effects may be overlong and need to be adjusted. Won't know unless tested in-engine. Keep in mind that even getting these secondary effects requires sacrificing a vital mod slot, so there should be a reasonable benefit.

REVISED VEX ARMOR: Two-part revision.

1. Weapon modification (Serration, High Caliber, Split Chamber, &c.) takes effect first before Vex Armor's Fury weapon multiplier is calculated (Vex Armor changed back to being multiplicative rather than additive), but correct the multi-weapon-element multiplication (the so-called "double/triple-dipping") that was skewing the Fury multiplier into absurd numbers, which is what led to the drastic nerf that adversely affected both his survivability and damage.
2. Armor modification (Steel Fiber, Cold Elemental Ward, &c.) takes effect first before Vex Armor's Scorn Armor multiplier is calculated; first Armor and mod multipliers, then multiplied by Cold Elemental Ward as applicable, and finally multiplied by Scorn.

• Suggested Armor Calculation: VEX ARMOR Final Armor Value = ([base Armor x mod multipliers] x [Cold Elemental Ward multiplier x power strength]) x [Scorn multiplier x power strength]
• Reasoning: A necessary step to address survivability and damage concerns ever since the massive Vex Armor nerf. The damage nerf was bad enough; losing so much tankiness was just a kick in the teeth. *If needed, reduce the base multiplier slightly for balance purposes if the results are too excessive, but change all of Chroma's attribute boosts to be multiplicative. Additive bonuses just don't scale in Warframe's current state, not the way they need to in order to keep Chroma up to date.

REVISED EFFIGY v1: Whenever Chroma uses Elemental Ward or Vex Armor, the Effigy becomes a source and beneficiary of the aura as well, allowing those who remain near the Effigy to gain the benefit of the abilities without needing to stay near a mobile Chroma.

• Effigy's Armor is increased by Vex Armor's Scorn multiplier—the Effigy and Chroma work symbiotically, it only makes sense that the Effigy would be able to benefit just as much from Vex Armor as Chroma himself.
• Effigy's breath damage is increased by Vex Armor's Fury multiplier—just as Chroma's Spectral Scream currently benefits from Fury, the Effigy's own breath should similarly benefit.
• Scorn and Fury multipliers are determined by Chroma's active Vex Armor—the Effigy acts as a "remote conduit" for Chroma's Elemental Ward and Vex Armor auras, and so the multipliers of Chroma's active auras should similarly function on the Effigy, rather than it having to build up its own Vex Armor multipliers; after all, the Effigy has no shields* (see Elemental Ward benefits below), so it couldn't build Scorn multiplier itself.
• *Effigy would derive its own benefits from Elemental Ward, in addition to the normal elemental AOE effect:
• *Heat Elemental Ward grants Effigy proportionately increased Health, just as Chroma receives.
• *Cold Elemental Ward grants Effigy bullet reflection and increased Armor (ultimately giving it Armor equal to Chroma).
• *Toxin Elemental Ward grants Effigy faster breath fire rate and attack animations (knockback slam, stunning roar).
• *Electric Elemental Ward grants Effigy Shields equal to a portion of Effigy's total Health (modified by power strength), which allow it to counter attacks with arc discharge.
• *All these derived benefits are exclusive to Effigy. Effigy's Elemental Ward bestows on allies the same benefits Chroma's normal Elemental Ward does.
• Effigy's 50% Armor reduction should be removed entirely—See below for a lore justification that would allow Chroma to keep all his Armor.
• *EFFIGY LORE CONTEXT: To explain Chroma not losing Armor when activating Effigy—In terms of Chroma's backstory and lore, one could argue Chroma himself was always at his full Armor value, while the "pelt" seemingly obtained later was a source of power (that is, the conduit for Chroma's otherwise-sealed Effigy ability), not a source of protection/armor. Valkyr has a higher base Armor, and that's after being stripped by Corpus experimentation. Both Chroma and Chroma Prime could be said to have their full Armor before and after the ritual bonding/assimilation of their "pelt"; the "pelt" merely acts as a conduit for their ultimate ability. View it this way: Chroma himself (sans pelt) is simultaneously armored dragonslayer and dragon, donning the skin of a slain foe of similar draconic nature; he receives his protection not from the Sentient cloak, but from his own armor and his own nature. The weight of it still burdens him when worn (thus his Speed attribute increasing when Effigy is active and separate), but the "pelt" isn't actually related to his own Armor.
• Reasoning: Effigy has long been lamented as too punishing and too weak to justify its exorbitant energy-drain cost. What other Warframe suffers so much loss of survivability for using their ultimate ability as Chroma, who loses half his total Armor when Effigy is active? This would simultaneously increase its woefully low damage in higher-level play, its personal survivability, and it would increase its utility for other players—in particular, it would actually make the ability description that it "strengthens nearby allies" true. As far as the Effigy Armor reduction removal/adjustment, Chroma players should not be unduly punished for actually wanting to use what should become Chroma's capstone ability.

TIER II: THE GREEDY DRAGON
Further functionality tweaks to deepen the satisfaction one receives from playing Chroma and answer the remaining concerns of the Chroma player base. SECONDARY CONCERNS ADDRESSED: 1) Chroma needs a "real" passive, 2) Elemental Ward is too much of a one-trick pony: everyone uses Heat or Cold; "fun" is currently viewed as secondary to survivability because the other element types are too weak in comparison.

REVISED PASSIVE: "GREED"

• CURRENT PASSIVE: "Chosen Energy color dictates the type of Elemental damage dealt by abilities."
• SECONDARY PASSIVE (GREED): "Credit stacks reward an amount of health and energy to Chroma relative to their size." Minimum of 5 health/energy for the single credit drops, maximum of 50 health/energy for the larger bundles.
• "GREED" ALTERNATIVE MECHANIC: "Chroma temporarily grows more powerful with every credit stack he picks up." Temporary power strength increase after picking up credits, 5% per credit stack and accumulating to a maximum of 25%, but the buff resets after 30 seconds without a credit pickup.
• Reasoning: Dragons are legendarily greedy and love to hoard treasure. Effigy already increases the chance and size of credit drops; now, Chroma can actually benefit mechanically from such increased drops rather than just increasing his credit pool.

SPECTRAL SCREAM: No additional changes from Tier I.

REVISED ELEMENTAL WARD v1: Elemental Ward keeps its primary effects (aura radius, continuous elemental AOE damage, Heat's Health increase; Cold's Armor increase and damage reflection; Toxin's reload speed increase; Electric's Shields increase and arc discharge), but also:

• Heat Elemental Ward additionally confers regeneration of *1.0/1.5/2.0/2.5% of total Health per second, modified by power strength, to allies within the aura. *Health increase changed to be multiplicative of total modified Health.
• Cold Elemental Ward additionally slows enemies by *40/50/60/70%, modified by power strength (cap of 90%), while within the aura. *Armor increase changed to be multiplicative of total modified Armor* (* before Vex Armor; Vex Armor multiplies the post-Cold Elemental Ward total).
• Toxin Elemental Ward reduces Chroma and allies' visibility to enemies (not invisibility; camouflage), silences firearms, and increases melee attack speed instead of holster rate (especially important with the coming Melee 3.0 changes where holster rate is effectively nonexistent). In theory, the camouflage would make Chroma and allies within the aura undetectable to unalerted enemies. However, if enemies are alerted, the camouflage is less effective (not hidden from alerted enemies within a certain radius, maybe 5m).
  • Alternate Camouflage Mechanic v1: Always undetectable when stationary regardless of alert status (firing silenced weapon would not break camouflage), but always detectable while moving within a short range of enemy line of sight.
  • *Alternate Camouflage Mechanic v2: Within each enemy's line of sight, detection chance for that enemy is 50/40/30/20% regardless of alert status, with detection chance being modified by power strength; each additional point of power strength above 100% reduces detection chance by 0.5% of the base detection chance (at power strength 200%, detection chance would be 25/20/15/10%; at power strength 300%, it would hit the minimum detection chance cap of 0.5%). Being detected by that enemy does not reveal Chroma or ally's presence to other enemies, only to the detecting enemy (though that enemy's attacks/weapons fire may draw enemy attention to where Chroma or ally is, risking further detection).
• Electric Elemental Ward has a default arc discharge range of 50m, unaffected by power range; arc discharge confers a portion of the dealt damage (*10/15/20/25%) as overshields. *Shield increase changed to be multiplicative of total modified Shields.
• Reasoning: Thematic dragon archetypes that also boost the usefulness of otherwise underwhelming element types. Heat as the purifying fire dragon, burning away weakness; Cold as the freezing ice dragon, guardian of its arctic demesne; Toxin as the stealthy swamp dragon, hunting prey as it moves unseen amongst the green; Electric as the vengeful storm dragon, imperiously smiting its enemies with lightning strikes. *As far as changing the relevant attribute multipliers to multiplicative rather than additive, Chroma needs the buff in order to keep up with current scaling. The base multiplier itself may be slightly lowered if necessary for balance purposes, but it should ultimately give more benefit than currently received by multiplying the total modified attribute.

VEX ARMOR: No additional changes from Tier I.

REVISED EFFIGY v2: In addition to Tier I changes:

• Effigy mimics Chroma's Spectral Scream/Proud Roar immediately after Chroma casts it, aiming for the same enemy or impact point that he struck with the ability. The damage would be equal to Chroma's own Spectral Scream/Proud Roar (including Tier III charged effects, see below).
• *Effigy derives additional benefits from Elemental Ward in keeping with Tier II changes to Elemental Ward:
• *Heat Elemental Ward grants Effigy Health regeneration.
• *Cold Elemental Ward grants Effigy slowing effect on enemies within its aura.
• *Toxin Elemental Ward grants Effigy modified camouflage—undetectable while passive, but fully visible to all enemies during its breath attacks.
• *Electric Elemental Ward grants Effigy increased arc discharge range and overshields as a result.
• Reasoning: Chroma and his "pelt" function symbiotically. It's the entire reason the pelt can separate and become a powerful stationary turret: Chroma and the Effigy work together, in harmony. What finer example of this than to have them simultaneously blast the same target with their deadly breath?

TIER III: THE DRAGON KING
This final tier of rework requires a great deal more time and effort investment, as there would be a significant visual overhaul to Spectral Scream and Effigy in addition to new coding and functionality. This tier is less necessary than the changes in the Tier II rework, and is more a list of "Wouldn't it be cool if..." ideas for Chroma's abilities, to make each one more worthwhile and enjoyable to use.

REVISED PASSIVE: "PRIDE" 

My personal favorite passive concept, and which I'm basing the rebuilt Spectral Scream (Proud Roar) around. Pride would replace Greed; Chroma would not have both passive mechanics.

• PRIDE PASSIVE: "Every kill Chroma makes bolsters his pride and power." Whenever Chroma kills an enemy, he adds one stack to his Pride gauge (+0.25% multiplicative power strength and power duration per kill, to a maximum of +25% (at 100 Pride)).
• At 50+ Pride, Chroma's wings flare out to full visibility when jumping, wall-latching, dive kicking, aim-gliding, or bullet jumping. The wings are rendered invisible or selectively-transparent to the player when attempting to zoom in/aim so as not to obscure vision, but other players see the wings during all these maneuvers. (The wings may increase jump height, bullet jump velocity, or aim glide air time, but it's not strictly necessary. This is more for the eye candy, maintaining consistency with his winged-but-not-separate appearance in the Chroma Prime Codex entry. The actual beneficial mechanics of Pride are found in the ability augmentation, the self-resurrection, and the Proud Roar damage multiplier mechanic to keep up with high-level enemies.)
• Upon entering a dying state with more than 50 Pride stacks, Chroma immediately resurrects at full health after a radial elemental explosion/knockback AOE; Chroma's current Pride stacks are reduced by half, and he receives a 15-second Wounded Pride status effect that treats his Pride stacks as if they're at zero; until the Wounded Pride debuff goes away, he cannot build more Pride stacks.
• ALTERNATE PRIDE STACK SOURCES: Instead of kills—Credit pickups (for Effigy synergy), amount of (ability?) damage dealt, amount of damage received/absorbed, amount of Warframe energy used, number of abilities used. Note: Important to keep in mind that it should be possible to build Pride stacks even as an unranked Chroma, so it can't be locked into higher-level ability usage such as Vex Armor, Elemental Ward, or Effigy. It needs to be something Chroma can immediately start building so that Proud Roar can spend and benefit from Pride. Kills seem the most obvious, as displays of power are something a dragon would be proud of, alongside its treasure hoard.
• Thoughts: "Pride" passive too similar to Nidus? Or should more Warframes have a similar passive mechanic boosting their abilities to make them endgame-viable? Nidus is the finest proof of just what a passive can be capable of, compared to the extremely simple passives other Warframes use. *The self-resurrection mechanic isn't strictly necessary, not as much as the visible wings (to justify the Codex appearance), the power strength/duration buff, or the Proud Roar mechanic enhancement.
• Further Thoughts: Also, Pride stack calculation may need to be adjusted. 100 kills may be too "easy" to achieve for such a significant passive boost. Might need anywhere from two to five kills per Pride stack (still a maximum of 100 Pride). At the higher end of that possibility, 250 kills (five per stack) seems awfully high in order to unlock the visual effect of Chroma's wings, and 500 might be unreasonable for getting the maximum power strength/duration bonus in a normal mission, but it may simultaneously be more reasonable in order to justify Proud Roar's damage. If it is a high number of kills per Pride stack, Chroma's wings would need to be adjusted to be available lower, perhaps as soon as 15-25 Pride stacks, in order to provide the player a decent chance to see Chroma in his full (visual) glory in any normal mission (excepting perhaps Spy missions, where players are generally not expected to kill loads of enemies).

REVISED SPECTRAL SCREAM v2: Rebuilt as "PROUD ROAR," Chroma's singular attack ability now has more unique mechanics dependent on the active elemental alignment. Vex Armor's Fury multiplies Proud Roar damage, as with Spectral Scream. Each variant is instant or charged cast (see below in Tap/Hold Functionality), doesn't affect mobility when cast, and has a high status chance, affected by power strength. See CONCEPT ART, VISUAL AIDS, & OTHER IDEAS section below for Proud Roar concept art.

• Heat Proud Roar exhales a massive Heat damage fireball; explosion radius affected by power range, infinite projectile distance.
• Cold Proud Roar spews a freezing cone of Cold damage air and ice shards; angle of cone width affected by power range, 30m cone length unaffected by power range.
• Toxin Proud Roar spits a spherical glob of Toxic damage acid that leaves a temporary damaging puddle where it impacts; glob is affected by gravity as if shooting a mortar; puddle and splash radius affected by power range, 50m projectile distance unaffected by power range (longer projectile distance possible by aiming higher to increase length of projectile arc).
• Electric Proud Roar fires a wide, straight infinite-range Electric damage bolt; electric arcs travel from target/impact to nearby enemies, length of secondary arcs affected by power range (number of secondary arcs increased with each level).
• PRIDE MULTIPLIER: Pride stacks from the "Pride" Tier III passive greatly amplify Proud Roar, but Proud Roar would also reduce Pride stacks by 3 with each casting (it doesn't require Pride stacks to activate, just 25 energy, but will still reduce Pride stacks to a minimum of 0). Base damage on the ability would need to be lowered from the Tier I damage amount (by around half). Proud Roar damage would be calculated as...
  • 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)
• TAP/HOLD FUNCTIONALITY: If Proud Roar is taken further to allow for more flexibility—Proud Roar, when tapped, will not consume Pride Stacks, but will also not use the Pride multiplier. However, if you hold the ability key to charge up for half a second or more (which will also briefly reveal Chroma's wings), it will double energy cost and lower base damage by half, but it will also use the Pride multiplier, double the attack's visual size/particle intensity and affectable radius (explosion radius for Heat, cone angle for Cold, splash/puddle size for Toxin, secondary arc length for Electric) and consume the aforementioned Pride stacks. Think of Godzilla charging his nuclear ray breath.
• Reasoning: Proud Roar is what I see as needed to bring Chroma to the next level, to make his singular attack ability truly endgame-viable. The damage calculation is modest, even humble, at a mission's start, but truly epic late into endgame/endless missions when combined with the Pride passive and an excess of power strength and full-strength Vex Armor. Appropriate for an ancient lord of ruin.

AFTERBURN/FURIOUS ROAR ABILITY AUGMENT: No additional changes from tier I. The additional damage type and secondary effects would just be added to the new Spectral Scream/Proud Roar instead. (Proud Roar changes into Furious Roar with the augment.)

REVISED ELEMENTAL WARD v2: In addition to Tier II changes, Chroma can now alter his elemental alignment at will. Hold the ability button to rotate elemental choice, tap to activate Elemental Ward and complete the switch. With the addition of the Pride passive, the original "energy color as elemental alignment" passive will instead be folded into Elemental Ward's mechanics. By default, when Elemental Ward is locked or Unranked, Chroma can only use Heat, as that is his core element—it was the focus of his initial reveal trailer, and it's the element used by his Prime Access banner. As Elemental Ward increases in level, so too do Chroma's options. Like Vex Armor, Elemental Ward is now recastable at any time (otherwise Chroma would be stuck in each elemental alignment until Elemental Ward's duration was spent, even if he needed to change in a hurry). *ADDENDUM: Whenever Elemental Ward is activated, the new buff overwrites the old Elemental Ward buff—multiple Elemental Ward auras (such as Heat's Health multiplier and Cold's Armor multiplier) cannot be combined. It would simply be too unbalanced and too visually chaotic.

• Unranked: Chroma can activate Elemental Ward. Heat remains default elemental alignment.
• Level 1: Chroma can shift between Heat and Cold when activating Elemental Ward.
• Level 2: Chroma can shift between Heat, Cold, and Toxin when activating Elemental Ward.
• Level 3: Chroma can shift between Heat, Cold, Toxin, and Electric when activating Elemental Ward.
• *Scaling Thoughts: Because Cold, Toxin, and Electric elemental alignments would not be available from the start, the leveled benefits would obviously have to be higher for them when they're unlocked. Cold elemental alignment would receive level 1 Elemental Ward benefits upon unlocking, Toxin would receive level 2 Elemental Ward benefits upon unlocking, and Electric would only have level 3 Elemental Ward benefits upon unlocking, because it wouldn't be possible to use the Electric elemental alignment before the final level of Elemental Ward.
• Mechanical Thoughts: These mechanical alterations will streamline Chroma's elemental functions for the rework. He will still be able to determine his initial elemental alignment with his elemental loadout, he'll just need to unlock the desired elements by ranking up Elemental Ward first. See CONCEPT ART, VISUAL AIDS, & OTHER IDEAS section below for Multi-Element Energy Mockup and Elemental Loadout Mockup concepts.

REVISED VEX ARMOR v2: Additional effects granted to those within the aura when maximum Scorn and Fury multipliers are achieved.

• MAXIMUM SCORN: Knockdown and stagger immunity.
• MAXIMUM FURY: Gain +1.0 punchthrough on firearms and +50% melee weapon range, augmented by power strength.
• MAXIMUM FURY ALTERNATIVE: Instead of punchthrough on the firearms, gain an AOE effect on all weapon fire, causing bullets to act like miniature explosive rockets or a beam to continuously radiate damage at the impact point. Explosive radius augmented by power strength, but would still be significantly lower than traditional explosive weapons like rocket and grenade launchers, for balance purposes.
• Reasoning: Dragons shouldn't be so easily knocked over, and Fury doesn't pass on any benefit to allies' abilities, only raw damage to their weapons, so why not make their weapons a little mechanically better as well? Make Fury something enemies fear.
• Thoughts: Giving all firearms AOE damage may be far too strong, such as on traditionally very-high-damage single-target weapons, like sniper rifles. Punchthrough bonus may be the best-balanced option, but turning any weapon into explosive ordnance at maximum Fury does suit Chroma's "maximum overkill" style. Perhaps the explosive damage could be balanced by adding a divisor relative to the weapon's fire rate.

REVISED EFFIGY v3: Renamed and rebuilt as "RUINOUS EFFIGY" in keeping with Chroma's "lord of ruin" theme. Time to make Lotus's statement about "when all the land is in ruins, only Chroma will remain" thematically appropriate. See CONCEPT ART, VISUAL AIDS, & OTHER IDEAS section below for Ruinous Effigy concept art. It retains the changes from Tier I and Tier II, but additionally...

The Effigy becomes a modifiable weapon entity like Ivara's Artemis Bow [primary], Mesa's Regulators [secondary], Wukong's Iron Staff [melee] or Khora's Venari [kavat companion].

• Effigy Modification: Effigy is modified as if applying weapon mods to an Ignis or similar limited-range elemental primary firearm. Roughly 30m elemental breath length, 5m impact radius/cone width at far edge, unaffected by power range, but affected by mods like Sinister Reach and Firestorm. Very high status chance. Unlimited "ammo," no reload time; elemental breath is only interrupted to execute knockback slam or stunning roar. Base damage is modified by weapon mods first, then amplified by power strength (as augmented by Pride), and finally multiplied by Vex Armor's Fury multiplier.
• Resolving Mixed Elemental Damage: When applying elemental damage mods, Effigy always deals base elemental alignment damage type first, then the elemental mod damage types after—i.e. if your elemental alignment is Toxin and you mod it with Electric damage mods, the Effigy's breath would deal Toxin + Electric damage without affecting base Toxin damage amount; if you mod it with Electric and Toxin damage mods, it would deal boosted Toxin + Corrosive damage. Damage-boosting mods like Serration would increase overall power of any and all damage types, including base element damage, as normal.
• Movement Immunity: The Effigy should either be immune to pulls, knockbacks, and staggers that would jostle it out of position, or it should perform a special elemental AOE explosion and teleport back to its original position at the center of the ruined landscape after being so moved. Obviously, the former would be the easiest to code.

When activated, Ruinous Effigy generates a "ruined landscape" around itself that reflects its elemental alignment, which deals continuous elemental damage to enemies within its domain. *The ruined landscape has a 10m initial radius (unaffected by power range), expanding out from the Effigy, which grows to 20m over 50/40/30/20 seconds; continuous elemental damage is affected by power strength. When Chroma activates Elemental Ward while Ruinous Effigy is active, the Effigy performs a stunning roar and instantly changes its own elemental alignment and ruined landscape to match Chroma's current elemental alignment (if it changed). *The ruined landscape elemental damage would have no Status Chance associated with it, only raw elemental damage. To have Status Chance associated with its elemental damage, Elemental Ward would need to be active, which would add further elemental damage and an actual Status Chance alongside the Special Effect chance.

Instead of normal elemental status effects, there would be Special Effect mechanics limited to the range of the landscape, which would have a chance of occurring every tick on individual enemies (special effect chance determined on a per-enemy basis, not all enemies at once):

• Heat Ruinous Effigy summons volcanic terrain that deals continuous Heat damage. *SPECIAL EFFECT: Eruption, deals large burst of Heat/Blast damage and knocks down enemy temporarily.
• Cold Ruinous Effigy summons arctic terrain that deals continuous Cold damage. *SPECIAL EFFECT: Frostbite, deals moderate burst of Cold damage and freezes enemy temporarily (independent of slowing effect from Cold Elemental Ward).
• Toxin Ruinous Effigy summons swampy/poisonous terrain that deals continuous Toxin damage. *SPECIAL EFFECT: Dissolution, deals large burst of Toxin/Corrosive damage and strips enemy of 20/30/40/50% of their current Ferrite/Alloy Armor (diminishing returns on subsequent Dissolutions).
• Electric Ruinous Effigy summons lightning-blasted black sand terrain that deals continuous Electric damage. *SPECIAL EFFECT: Thunderstruck, deals moderate burst of Electric damage and blinds enemy temporarily.
• Thoughts: While the Effigy is producing the Elemental Ward or Vex Armor auras per Tier I rework, its aura radius should be tied to the ruined landscape radius, so that other players aren't confused about where its aura "reach" ends. All they have to do is stand on the ruined landscape to be under its aural influence. Chroma's personal Elemental Ward/Vex Armor aura radius should still be affected by power range.

Alternate names for the revised fourth ability—Lord of Ruin, Master of Ruin, Ruinous Power, Ruinous Domain. I just see it as important to have "Ruin" in the name to reflect the repeated taglines that make up his theme: "when all the land is in ruins" from the original Chroma trailer; "the lord of ruin" from Prime Access banner; "the master of ruin" from the Prime Access page itself.

Possible names for the Effigy modifiable weapon entity: Effigy [Prime], Pelt [Prime], Drake [Prime], Dracolyst [Prime]/Dominus Dracolyst (if the "pelt" is indeed a Sentient creature that Chroma has bonded with/assimilated).

CONCEPT ART, VISUAL AIDS, & OTHER IDEAS

*PROUD ROAR CONCEPT ART (ALL VARIANTS)

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*RUINOUS EFFIGY CONCEPT ART (ALL VARIANTS)

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All the elemental alignments would follow roughly the same idea: A simple landscape that matches the element (swamp/bog for Toxin, volcanic rock for Heat, snow/ice-covered rock for Cold, and black crystallised sand/rock for Electric) where the borders of the landscape are marked by a number of short elemental "towers" spouting elemental energy like in the above image; Chroma Prime's landscape would obviously have additional complexities and details to differentiate it from Chroma's. Heat would spew energy color-matching fire/lava particle effects, Toxin would emit poisonous smoke particle effects, Cold would spout freezing air and snow particle effects, and Electric would emit arcs of electricity/lightning strikes. As with similar landscape-generating Warframes (like Nidus or Oberon), anybody could freely move through the terrain; the towers would not be solid, so you could clip right through them (in order to prevent buggy terrain interactions).

MULTI-ELEMENT ENERGY COLOR MOCK-UP

Spoiler

If the ability to switch elements mid-mission is indeed implemented, this could be a way of allowing Chroma players to select the appearance of each element's color without being restricted to the original "this color always means this element" passive. Because, as we all know, Fashionframe is Warframe's true endgame, and it currently restricts Chroma too much in that regard.

ELEMENTAL LOADOUT MOCK-UP

Spoiler

Instead of three standard A/B/C appearance loadouts, Chroma gets four appearance loadouts, labeled for each element (i.e. a fire-symbol A, an ice-symbol B, a toxin-symbol C, and an electric-symbol D). They would each have the four elemental energy colors for you to choose (for when you switch elements mid-mission), but they would start with whatever elemental alignment is tied to the loadout elemental label. We know it's already possible to have different loadout configuration setups for different Warframes, because Zephyr has her own A/B/C/"Z" loadout that links to her minigame.

Chroma would start with just the one Heat loadout, but as his Elemental Ward level increased and he unlocked more elements, it would add the other loadout choices. If you had already filled out the other loadout options, but had reset your Chroma's level with a Forma and so "lost" the appearance loadouts, it would just "reload" those loadout appearances from your profile (from DE's servers or client-side, whichever is appropriate) without you having to do it all from scratch again.

By necessity, the elemental energy color choices would also need to be selectable on accessories, syandana, and regalia as well. Can't very well have energy colors mismatching, can we?

CHROMA UMBRA BACKSTORY [WARNING: THE SACRIFICE AND WAR WITHIN QUEST SPOILERS AHEAD]

Spoiler

I've been thinking more and more about what Chroma would be like if there were to be an in-depth Chroma Umbra quest. Keep in mind, I'm assuming every Umbra will have their own personalised quest that tells us more about what they were like as human beings, before the Technocyte assimilation that turned them into the earliest single-unit Warframes, before Prime Warframes were mass-produced for the Old War, before the fall of the Orokin Empire that led to the degeneration of Warframe design and their downgraded Tenno mass-constructions.

We know Excalibur was originally a Dax soldier, who was punished for trying to interfere with Ballas's betrayal of the Orokin, and was Infested to become the first anti-Sentient prototype Warframe, modified with a Transference Bolt to obey Ballas. His abilities were marginally modified (specifically, Radial Blind was changed into Radial Howl, which removes built-up Sentient defenses).

With that in mind...

WHO WOULD CHROMA HAVE BEEN?

In order to be thematically consistent with his abilities, Chroma would have to be a unique case, because I don't think he would have been a Dax warrior like most fighter-type Warframes.

I think, principally, he would have been an Orokin noble. He would have been a brilliant engineer that specialised in materiel research and development, specifically weapons and armor, as well as elemental modules. His designs would have made him wealthy beyond measure, perhaps the wealthiest of all Orokin; he would be a collector of antiquities, artifacts, and arms from all across the star system. (Thematically, this "hoard" of wealth and treasures suits a dragon, as well as meshing with Effigy's credit doubling/drop rate increase.)

In battle, he would have been ferocious, but measured, deliberate. Even in the martial sparring between Orokin nobility, when they wanted to demonstrate the newest, dance-like techniques they'd developed or learned, he'd allow the opponent to land their blows on him... relishing in their slow discovery that their blows were becoming less and less effective the more they hit him; and then, at the peak of their dawning terror, he would have struck back with all his gathered fury at once, taking them down in a single devastating blow, simple in its design, but raw power unadorned by needless ornamentation.

The scorn he had for the Orokin nobility would have been widely-known; he would have appreciated the common soldiers and the Dax more than his fellow imperators. The soldiers didn't engage in war out of pleasure, but out of necessity, to survive; they didn't revel in war for war's own sake, the way the Orokin did as if playing a game of Komi. He despised them for that.

WHAT WOULD CHROMA HAVE LOOKED LIKE?

He would have been ancient, even by Orokin standards, growing his wealth all the while; he would have eschewed the "ignoble indignity" of Continuity (the transference of consciousness from an old, decrepit body to a young, vital one). He would have too much pride in himself, in his own body and power, to dare steal the life of some young unfortunate slave auctioned in the Orokin markets. Instead, he would have regularly ingested Kuva, the "elixir of immortality." Whether it happened naturally over time, some aspect of his genes or exposure to alien forces, or by cosmetic alteration as the Orokin nobles were so fond of, his body would have... changed.

His brow broken into two short keratin horns; his skin hardening into a tough, near-scaly texture; his eyes lit by a fire within; his veins visibly pulsing with Kuva-borne power. He would have been massive, just as Chroma is, not just tall but heavily-muscled and barrel-chested. Long white hair, bound into two braids at the nape of his neck and ornamented with Orokin gold, both braids symmetrically framing his neck. He would have had a thick beard, neatly groomed and immaculately styled, with a long, distinguished moustache framing his mouth. He took pride in his appearance; he took pride in everything, frankly. If you couldn't do something better than everyone else, then you damn well needed to aim for that.

People would have forgotten his name centuries ago, simply because he didn't care to use it anymore. His friends simply called him "Old Man," while commoners reverently called him "the Dragon." His enemies and rivals among the Orokin spoke of "the Demon" in hushed whispers.

WHERE DID CHROMA'S ABILITIES COME FROM?

When the Sentients came to make war on the Orokin, the Dragon studied this new opponent, who made use of the Orokin's own advanced technology, turning their machines against them; he studied the Sentient ability to adapt to all forms of damage, but... he also noticed its limitations, that they could only adapt to a few forms of damage at once before having to shed old resistances in order to develop new ones.

Gun and blade, that is what was called for; things that couldn't be controlled remotely, that couldn't be turned against the user.

He recommended it to the councils, to the upper echelons of Orokin government, but was not driven to act, to personally intervene, until he learned of human colonies that were under regular attack by the Sentient fleets, left undefended because the Empire had pulled back its strongest forces to protect more "strategically important" settlements... that also happened to house Orokin nobility. If the Empire wasn't going to do the job expected of them—if they were going to let selfishness get in the way of protecting the pride of the Empire—then the Dragon would do it himself.

And so he recruited a team of like-minded fighters, mixed of Dax, commoner, and fellow Orokin, and armed them with weapons and elemental modules of his own design, determined to hunt down the strongest ground-based Sentient forces, and send a message that the colonies were under his protection.

As the leader, dubbed Kokkinos (lit. Greek "red"), the Dragon wielded the heaviest weapons: a Pyrkagia "firelance" beam cannon (think Opticor, but charges to fire a massive armor-bursting laser; Heat damage on the laser itself, AOE Blast explosion radiating outward from any enemies the beam hits) and the explosive heavy blade Balmung (heavy Blast, Slashing and Impact).

Prasinos (lit. Greek "green"), the daughter of an Orokin bloodline known for a long history of operating under the highest echelons of Orokin power as spies, assassins, and saboteurs, wielded a pair of toxic needle-spewing autopistols (major Toxic, moderate Puncture) as well as a pair of long daggers with an edge designed to corrode all forms of metal (heavy Corrosive, light Puncture and Slashing).

Galazios (lit. Greek "blue"), a Dax soldier known for his swift reaction time and superb swordsmanship, wielded a heavy-caliber handcannon that fired electromagnetically-charged shells (Impact and Magnetic) and a two-handed dai-nikana that coruscated with electricity (heavy Slashing and Electric).

Lefko (lit. Greek "white"), a commoner, but also a skilled and respected soldier and fighter in his own right, nearly as tall and well-muscled as the Old Man despite being an unmodified human, wielded a cryogenic flak cannon (fires cones of freezing Cold and Puncture ice pullets, charged for more narrow spread) and a massive hammer that released frigid blasts on impact (heavy Cold and massive Impact).

Even their armor had been altered to make use of the elemental modules, granting a searing regeneration that cauterised and closed wounds, armor reinforced by layers of ice, gas-based optic camouflage, and electrically-hardened shields. Together, the four of them became known as Chroma Dynami.

Their greatest (and final) "kill" as a team was the massive soaring Sentient dracolyst dubbed Fafnir. It required their best effort, coordinating elemental rotations between the four of them so it never had a chance to fully adapt to any one source of damage. It bombarded them with constant, harrowing blasts of Tau energy "breath," alternating between beams, cones, and projectile bombs of the extracosmic energy. When it fell, incapacitated but not destroyed, the Dragon shackled its power core with an neural inhibitor, preventing its sentient impulses from traveling to its extremities—effectively keeping it paralyzed, because it would've just rebuilt and regenerated itself from its shattered parts if they "destroyed" it.

The dracolyst's paralyzed husk was moved to the Dragon's treasure vault, a trophy of their greatest hunt.

The team went to sleep in their separate rooms, preparing for another day of Sentient-hunting.

Only...

When they woke up, they found themselves restrained and shackled, in pods connected by bizarre, flowing tissue rippling with energy transference. They couldn't speak—not even move. Ballas, the legendary Orokin innovator, stood over them, watching their simultaneous realizations.

How much time had passed while they were so sedated and restrained? Days? Weeks? Months?

“Even compared to my Frames of War, the four of you make for a dangerous adversary for those vile machina.”

Ballas leaned back, folding one leg neatly over the other. His glowing-eyed gaze slowly swept from one prisoner to the next, on to the end, until it swiveled back to gaze at the Old Man.

“But only together. Individually, you are... weak. Pathetic. Human.”

The Old Man strained against his Infested bonds, unable to roar defiance; he could feel the Infestation transforming his skin, stealing his mouth; the best he could manage was staring daggers at his captor.

“And so I will try something new.”

He gestured with one overlong arm around the room. The Old Man looked, and realized that the Technocyte Infestation that was transforming his flesh, interlinking his organs, was also forming living bonds with the surrounding warriors.

Prasinos, Galazios, Lefko, all four of them were bound to the Old Man by the Infested flesh. And... the others' bodies were contracting, deflating, as if it was pulling their vital essence out of their bodies, transferring it all to the Old Man. He could feel their consciousnesses pouring into him, their pain and fear and despair and rage, their memories, their dreams, all flooding his mind. And still he could do nothing, not even scream; he was too weak, too impotent under Ballas's machinations.

“This will be the start of something... beautiful. Something perfectly monstrous.”

WHERE DID CHROMA'S PELT COME FROM?

Months later.

“The Machines easily adapt to our attacks; they swat aside concentrated assault after but a few moments of adaptive evolution. We cannot afford complacency... predictability.”

The massive Warframe emotionlessly cleaved a battalyst simulacrum in half with a single brutal swipe of its heavy blade, then turned and blasted a small cluster of conculysts with a searing explosion of flame from its visor. A pair of conculysts remained, and when struck by a second such blast, surged forward—their adaptation complete, the point made.

“We must be flexible. Capable of change at a moment's notice. To flow from one element to the next as easily as changing weapons.”

The Warframe flexed and stomped, and suddenly erupted in a maelstrom of electric energy. Then it clenched its fists around its sword and blasted a bolt of electricity from its visor, as if spitting lightning. Both conculyst simulacra shuddered as electricity arced between them, then exploded under the assault.

“This beast you see before you is a paragon of martial prowess, with the flexibility to bend the elements to our will; through its malleable nature, it will pierce the Sentient bulwark. It will be the greatest of our living weapons in the War against the Machines.”

The Warframe gradually calmed and stood still, facing the audience of nobles in all their grandeur. They applauded Ballas as he stood behind the shimmering shield barrier separating his control chamber from the Warframe's display area, which was similarly separated from the nobles by a thick pane of transteel glass. The clapping continued for what felt like hours to the Warframe, slow and muted, when only seconds were passing. The Warframe's head slowly tilted, unseen neuroptic sensors taking in a curious sight: the great Sentient dracolyst, suspended in the air above, its shackle on its nerve center still in place.

Ballas had stolen the Demon's prize; the arrogant Orokin had seized a trophy unearned.

“For your consideration, I give you... Chroma.”

The Demon felt a tingle of something it had not felt in months: an ember of rage and insulted pride, slowly building, stoked by the Orokin applause. Staring up at its trophy—at the captured Sentient predator—the Demon realized something. They were alike, the Demon and the dracolyst. The shackled monsters of domineering masters; the dracolyst had no more wanted to serve Hunhow's will than the Demon wanted to serve the Orokin Empire and its decadent imperators, cloistered in their high towers of ivory and gold while humanity spilled its blood on the frontline.

The Orokin kept applauding. They had no idea what was coming.

The Demon suddenly spat another bolt of lightning, surging power through the Orokin inhibitor—it overloaded, burst apart. The dracolyst surged into life, its great wings flaring into existence, vast things of pulsing Tau energy. It latched onto a wall, and its great muzzle swiveled to regard the Warframe. The Dragon stared back.

Unseen eyes met one another and found mirrored souls. They both wanted the same thing: to kill the Orokin.

To kill Hunhow.

To bring two empires to ruin and reign over the ashes.

The great Sentient dracolyst leapt through the air, wings spread wide, and suddenly latched onto the waiting Warframe. Dragon and dracolyst alike roared as the dracolyst molded its body, contracting its living-metal flesh around the Warframe, bonding body to body, Sentient carapace to Orokin weapon. Their scorn was their armor; their fury was their sword. Their pride was their power.

The Orokin had stopped clapping. Ballas was silent ... and nowhere to be found.

Before the Orokin could even scream, Chroma had cleaved through the thick pane of transteel glass in a single stroke of his heavy blade.

A moment later, and he had cleaved through the Orokin as well.

OPERATOR SUIT CONCEPT ART

Spoiler

"UMBRA PATH" OPERATOR FOCUS SCHOOL

Spoiler

UMBRA PATH
Functionally always active, uses existing Focus pool capacity, doesn't have to activate waybounds because it's a "core" path rather than a school of study (it would be positioned on the wheel at the center between all the schools); Umbra and your chosen school are both active at all times. Must activate waybounds with chosen school rather than Umbra. CLARIFICATION: All Umbra path nodes affect only the Operator. Warframes do not gain the benefits of reduced energy costs, extra/higher jumps, increased damage vs Sentients, or anything else. This is meant as a way for allowing people to augment their Operator experience and give them a way to do Operator-only runs even in high-level play, when combined with waybounds or their chosen school.

NEW EQUIPMENT: "ARC"

• Crafted three-part Amp-like bracer for left arm
• Generates a blade made out of Void energy the Operator can use in melee; never runs out of "ammo"
• ARC COMPONENTS:
  • CRYSTAL determines weapon type/Stance options and base stats (attack speed, damage, critical chance, &c.)
  • HILT determines bonus critical damage/status chance/damage balance; each Hilt carries two bonuses and one penalty (i.e. +critical damage/base damage, -status chance)
  • CORD determines bonus attack speed/critical chance/status chance balance; each Cord carries one bonus and one penalty (i.e. +attack speed, -critical chance)
• WEAPON TYPES: T1 crystal creates Dagger, T2 crystal creates Sword, T3 crystal creates Heavy Blade, T4 crystal creates Nikana
• DAMAGE SPREAD: Light Impact, Moderate Puncture/Slash, heavy Void
• ARCANE MODIFICATION: "Valiance" arcane; can potentially increase melee range, attack speed, damage, critical chance, critical damage, or status chance
• STANCE: Operator chooses fighting Stance for equipped Arc from all available and appropriate Stances; mod capacity/level is irrelevant, it's purely to determine attack animations and combos
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Because the Arc is worn on the left arm, all Stance animations would need to be mirrored for a left-handed user, for consistency.

ARC CONCEPT ROUGH ART

Spoiler

 
PATH OF POWER

A path of training that increases the Operator's command over the Void and all the powers it grants, as well as developing the Operator's skill with the Arc blade.

• VOID MASTERY: Press 1 to use Void Blast (unlocked by default); increases Void Blast radius by 2/4/6m
• Reasoning: This is a necessary functional change, because E is otherwise used for Void Blast, when it will be needed for meleeing with the new Arc. The normal Warframe ability functions of 1, 2, 3, and 4 are otherwise unused by the Operator.
  • VOID SLASH: Press 2 to fling an infinite-range wave of Void energy with a slash of your Arc; width of wave is 300/500/700/900/1,200% of Arc melee reach, deals 200/400/600/800/1,000% of Arc base damage, penetrates 2/4/6/8/10m cover (10 energy)
    • VOID CRUSH: Press 3 to ragdoll all surrounding enemies in 10/12/15/17/20m and pull them into a concentrated point in front of the Operator for 2,000/4,000/6,000/8,000/10,000 Void damage (50 energy)
      • VOID SPECTER: Press 4 to create a cloaked Specter of the Operator, lasts for 30/45/60/75/90 seconds (100 energy)
        • Uses Void Blast, Void Slash, Void's Edge, and Void Dash abilities (Void Mode if Operator is also using Void Mode)
        • Wields copies of Operator's Amp and Operator's Arc
        • Benefits from Operator's Umbra path, chosen school, active waybounds, and active Arcanes
        • Uses Arc and Void Blasts on close-range enemies, uses Amp and Void Slashes on distant enemies
        • Says "Hey, Kiddo" upon first appearing
  • FREEZE LIKE ICE: Slow enemies struck by Arc by 15/30/45/60%
  • BURN LIKE FIRE: Increases Arc damage by 15/25/35/50%
  • FLOW LIKE WATER: Increases Arc attack speed by 10/20/30/40%
  • STRIKE LIKE LIGHTNING: Increases Arc critical chance by 15/30/45/60% (multiplicative of the base chance)

PATH OF AGILITY

A path of training that increases the Operator's natural agility, developing their Void control in order to defy gravity, cling to surfaces, and move through the Void more swiftly and smoothly.

• VOID DRIFT: Increases movement speed by 15/25/35/45/60% (also increases sprint and Void Mode speed by the same amount)
  • KESTREL'S WING: Gives the ability to double/triple/quadruple/quintuple-jump (visually, a shower of Void sparks/particles with every jump after the first, as if leaping off an invisible platform)
    • HUMMINGBIRD'S HOVER: Gives the ability to hover when aiming in midair for 5/3/2/1 energy/s
  • FROG'S LEAP: Gives the ability to wall jump; increases jump height by 1/2/3/4m (combined with Kestrel's Wing, Operator can get serious height without Void Dashing)
    • WATCHFUL MONKEY: Gives the ability to wall-latch for 5/10/15/20 seconds
      • HIDDEN SPIDER: Activates Void Mode when wall-latching for 5/4/3/1 energy/s
  • TIGER'S HUNT: Increases Void Mode movement speed by 50/100/150/200/250% (at 250%, animation becomes a stealthy ninja run and the fastest non-Void-Dash movement mode)

PATH OF SUBTLETY

A path of training devoted to the Operator's mastery over Void ability usage, as well as his power while within the Void itself. The Operator who has thoroughly trained in this Path will find himself to be a potent adversary for all Sentients, and for all unwary enemies.

• VOID CONTROL: Reduces energy cost of all Void abilities by 10/20/30/40/50% (includes school-only Operator abilities)
  • WAY OF SHADOW: Arc slashes do not interrupt Void Mode invisibility, but each slash costs 10/9/8/7/5 energy
  • BLADE MASTERY: Increases Arc/Amp damage against Sentients by 40/80/120/160/200%
    • BLADE BULWARK: Blocking with Arc prevents all frontal damage for 2 energy/s; blocking with Arc reflects 30/60/90% incoming damage back onto attacker (reflected damage takes the form of Void lightning arcing off the blade)
  • VOID'S EDGE: Context-sensitive silent Finisher, possible when meleeing from behind unaware/stunned enemy while in Void Mode; increases Finisher damage by 100/200/300/400%
    • VOID'S CALL: When performing Void's Edge, creates 1/2/3/4 "Void Specter" clones of the Operator that also execute Void's Edge on nearby enemies before disappearing

Unrelated to Chroma directly, but it was something I came up with in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep, a way to "fully" outfit and define an Operator's potential.

*NEW MISSION TYPES CONCEPTS

Spoiler

A number of new challenge-based mission types in order to give fresh challenges compared to what players are used to. They might be implemented as a daily or weekly challenge, maybe even specifically a solo challenge like Maroo's Ayatan treasure hunts or Clem's Survival missions.

KUVA DISRUPTION:

• BREAKDOWN: In this mission type, the Operators themselves are sent in, because the Lotus (or whoever) has become aware of some sort of faction attempt to block Warframe transference links to their Operators. 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 could only be done solo. However, it would be repeatable for high credits, Kuva, and Endo. Or maybe the mission type should be solo-only from the start, increasing the challenge, and making the player focus on their own skill and efforts rather than another player joining and inadvertently doing all the work.

A similar mission for Warframes only:

VOID DISRUPTION:

• BREAKDOWN: This 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 or use Operator Void abilities in anyway.
• 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.
• DIFFERENT SUBMISSIONS—Spy, Rescue, Capture, Deception, Exterminate (smaller-scale, perhaps targeting a specific group of enemies with a unique leader, like a commander; all enemies would still have the same "lethal" vulnerabilities to covert attacks).
• 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.

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. Again, maybe Void Disruption should be solo only from the start, like the Ayatan sculpture hunts or Clem Survival missions, to increase challenge and make for a more satisfying experience, in terms of the player realizing their own skill.

Alternatively to Void Disruption:

COVERT OPERATION:

• BREAKDOWN: 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 FINISHERS and HEADSHOTS would be lethal by default, but fighting alerted enemies would be extraordinarily risky and they'd have much higher body defenses compared to their head.

*BROADER WARFRAME REWORK THEORY

Spoiler

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.

PASSIVE REDESIGN: More broadly, and for the sake of consistency, I think "the Passive," as a mechanic, should be renamed and rebuilt. They would be called THEMES, and would have three components that are consistently applied across all Warframes:

• SCALING TRAIT: A scaling mechanic, usually in terms of increasing the warframe's utility or power against increasing enemy level. It wouldn't scale infinitely, but it would allow every Warframe to function in high-level scenarios so people don't have to deal with a "cutoff" where only some Warframes are viable. It could scale how they damage with weapons , their ability to resist damage, the range of damageless abilities, the power or duration of buffs, the size and damage of damaging abilities, on and on. In Chroma's rework concept above, it'd be the Pride scaling power strength/duration buff he gets from kills (or whatever other "resource") that multiplies the damage of his Proud Roar. For Nidus, it's his Mutation, multiplying the damage of his Virulence and his Ravenous abilities.
• THEMATIC TRAIT: Theme-oriented traits that aren't necessarily scaling, but suit the Warframe's conceptual theme. This would be something like Zephyr's air control or, in my Chroma rework above, Chroma's visible wings and elemental-shifting nature. For Nidus, it's the rank-up bonuses he gets independent of standard Warframe ranking bonuses, and the visible armor pieces that appear as his Mutation grows.
• SUSTAINING TRAIT: A way to survive in increasingly difficult situations, especially important for squishier Warframes that could die in just a couple of hits from higher-level foes. These would not be as strong as Ironskin or Vex Armor, for example, nor would they be "panic button" defenses, but they would give some form of recovery or healing, possibly in exchange for reduction in the scaling trait. For Chroma and Nidus, it would be the ability to self-resurrect by "spending" their scaling trait stacks—I would see most tanks as gaining some form of self-resurrection or recovery from incapacitation, because they're the ones expecting to be standing out in the middle of the firefight, but it would of course come at a cost.

EMBER REWORK CONCEPT

Spoiler

• THEME: Ember's passive is a decent idea in theory (+35% power strength and regenerate energy 10/sec while ablaze as from Heat status effect), 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. 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).
  • SCALING TRAIT: Wildfire—Permanent scaling power strength gained over the course of a mission. As a pure caster/ability striker Warframe, power strength is her most vital asset. Each Wildfire stack (max of 100) equal to +1% multiplicative power strength; each stack also multiplies the damage of her primary attack ability (Fireball/Detonate). Visually, the Wildfire gauge would start as a small ember in the lower right, above the abilities/Void energy meter, and the stacks would be visually measured as Celsius degrees; as Wildfire grows, the fire gauge would grow in fire size and intensity. Every 50° equals one Wildfire stack, for math purposes. At 80 stacks/4,000°, the fire gauge would achieve its final look: that of a small blazing sun. The Wildfire gauge would max at 100 stacks/5,000°. TO BUILD WILDFIRE STACKS: For every enemy struck by one of Ember's abilities, the Wildfire gauge gains 25 degrees. For every enemy lit on fire by the Heat status effect, the Wildfire gauge gains 10 degrees per second until the enemy is killed or the status effect ends.
    • Thoughts: May also need a way to ignore a certain amount of damage reduction from Ferrite/Alloy Armor per stacks, perhaps 1 stack = ignoring 1% of target's damage reduction, though boss damage reduction could be special case scenario. 100 Wildfire stack max, means ignoring 100% of standard enemy Armor-based damage reduction, in addition to power strength bonus and stack multiplier for Fireball/Detonate. Scales very well against late-game high-Armor enemies, lets Ember maintain usefulness throughout.
  • THEMATIC TRAIT: Firestarter—Patches of roiling flame (of various size) are generated from all of Ember's abilities. Limited duration of 15-30 seconds, unaffected by power duration. It deals steady Heat damage to any enemies, and moderate Status Chance (not guaranteed).
  • SUSTAINING TRAIT: Overheat—When either on fire as from Heat status effect or standing in one of her patches of flame, Ember steadily regenerates Energy and Health. She wouldn't regenerate 10/sec like her current passive (patches of flame too easily generated for such a quick gain), but she would have a more reliable way to regain the energy. Maybe 2.5 to 5/sec. However, if standing in multiple layered patches of flame, the regeneration would be multiplied/accelerated.
• 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, equal to the size of the explosion radius. Charged: In exchange for double energy cost, a number of Wildfire stacks, 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). Damage for charged/normal Detonate is multiplied by the number of Wildfire stacks. 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: Molten Ring
  • Rebuilt/renamed from "Fire Blast." Think "Arson Eximus" explosion. This would be Ember's "panic button" defense. The blast wave would move significantly faster than an Arson Eximus's, however. The explosion radius would be far larger than Fire Blast, and any enemy it hits would be shoved back either into a wall or until the very edge of the explosion radius, which could be 15/20/25/30m, and then they would be knocked down briefly; the damage on the wave itself would not be high, as the ability is used more for the knockback and molten terrain (read on for details) in order to give Ember breathing room. A very large patch of fire would be generated, which covers a large section of "warped/molten" terrain, like you see when a ship begins exploding; the molten terrain lasts for 15/20/25/30 seconds base, modified by power duration. While fighting on or firing from the molten terrain, the Warframe is granted a multiplicative scaling (scales with power strength, multiplies total damage) Heat damage bonus (+30/50/70/100% of total damage as Heat, affected by power strength) onto your weapon, but you would not be able to stack the bonus from multiple terrains. You could create multiple molten terrains, the same way Frost can create multiple Snow Globes, to create multiple "firing positions" for allies. Possible synergy between Ignition and Molten Ring so that the heat haze dodge bonus is applied to all allies on the molten terrain if Ember is ignited and also on the molten terrain. Affected by: Power strength, power duration, power range.
• ABILITY 4: World on Fire
  • World on Fire is in a tricky place.
  • It should be Ember's strongest ability, but, as DE has indicated in the past, we want to avoid it being a "press 4 to win" button and triggering an AOE nuke. You shouldn't just press a button, no effort, and BOOM hey the level's clear now, you won. There needs to be more to it. More finesse, more skill, just... a little more effort. But how?
  • Currently, World on Fire is a toggled ability. Turn it on and Ember emits AOE explosions in an aura around her. However, after a short amount of time, the explosion damage doubles but the aura radius shrinks by half and energy drain doubles. It's an interesting principle, but... thematically, it doesn't really make sense. Over time, fire isn't known to shrink and increase in power. As a principle, that'd apply more to a laser, focusing light into a pinpoint and increasing the burning damage thusly, but that's not at all what Ember does. For her, it's all about a spreading wildfire that grows hotter as it grows larger.
  • With that in mind, I suggest a different functionality:
  • REVISED WORLD ON FIRE v2: When toggled on, World on Fire raises the heat in a large radius surrounding Ember, and deals Heat damage per second equal to 25/50/75/100% of the current number of Wildfire degrees (base Status Chance of 15/20/25%/30% per second, modified by power strength to a max of 75%). This damage would not be modified by power strength. At maximum Wildfire (100 stacks/5,000°, and assuming it comes with the suggested "armor-melting" penetration mechanic), this means it would take at least two seconds to kill a basic level 60 Grineer Lancer (5,300 Health/728 Ferrite Armor, which would otherwise reduce incoming damage by 70.8%). Now, assuming the enemy can take multiple seconds of World on Fire without dying (such as if Ember's stacks aren't maxed or the enemies are even higher-level), this is where the skill-based mechanic comes in:
  • Heat boils form on the enemy's body as its flesh or armor bubbles, warps, and swells; one heat boil forms per second while within the World on Fire aura, to a maximum of three boils. When struck, Heat boils increase incoming damage by 25/50/75/100% per boil (except for the Wildfire degrees-based damage, which is a fixed amount; damage multiplier is affected by power strength); any AOE damage dealt to the body also triggers this amplified damage effect, such as from Ember's abilities. When a boiling enemy dies, the enemy immediately explodes in a spherical conflagration, dealing 50% Heat/50% Blast damage in a 5/6/7/8m radius. The explosive damage they deal to surrounding enemies is equal to all the Heat/Blast damage (whether from World on Fire, Heat/Blast abilities, or Heat/Blast-based weapons attacks) they took while boiling, not to exceed their max Health.
  • In this way, the explosive damage allows Ember to scale into late-game missions while also preventing it from being overpowered in lower-level play.
  • TO BREAK IT DOWN:
    • Ember turns on World on Fire, triggering massive Heat temperatures in a large radius.
    • While within the aura, enemies take Heat damage equal to 25/50/75/100% of Ember's Wildfire degrees per second (fixed amount of damage).
    • While within the aura, enemies also develop one heat boil per second on their body, to a maximum of three boils. The heat boils are permanent, remaining even if World on Fire is turned off.
    • When the heat boils are damaged (whether from targeted weapons fire or AOE damage), the damage the enemies take is magnified by 25/50/75/100% per boil (affected by power strength).
    • When a boiling enemy dies, all the accumulated Heat/Blast damage the enemy took (including World on Fire damage and any Heat or Blast-based weapon or ability damage), capped to not exceed their max Health, is dealt in a 50% Heat/50% Blast explosion to surrounding enemies (potential for chained explosions, if enemies are packed closely enough).
    • As with all her other abilities, temporary patches of fire would be created under exploding enemies.

VAUBAN REWORK CONCEPT

Spoiler

• THEME: Right now, Vauban's current passive is that he deals 25% extra damage to enemies that are incapacitated and unable to move, such as by his own abilities. It's thematic, but it could be more.
• PURPOSE: A hard look is needed at Vauban's kit. What is his goal? Right now, seems like his purpose is various types of lesser crowd control and enemy-debuffing, and even then, his crowd control isn't as massive in scale as a tank's: Rhino's single crowd control move Stomp is better at halting the actions of a far more massive crowd at enemies. Vauban handles choke points. So, Vauban's kit can't purely be about crowd control. He needs to provide more for the squad in order to be desirable.

DEPLOYABLES. Tesla. Bounce. Trip Laser. Shred. Concuss. Bastille. Vortex. Vauban has seven different deployables, but aesthetically they're all variations on a "mine" theme, each mine generating different effects, but ultimately being limited to being... a mine. I don't think I'm alone in seeing Vauban as the most Corpus-like of the Warframes, and yet... Corpus aren't really known specifically for their mines. Rather, any "mines" are generated by the real Corpus specialty: robotics. What if Vauban did more with robotics and complex machines, maybe turrets, than just simple mines? What if Bounce was a remotely-deployable teleport pad: requiring two castings, which creates two active teleport pads that automatically link to one another and are activated by context-sensitive interaction, limiting trolling against allies and increasing focused utility? Any subsequent casting just links the previous pad to the newest one; no range or duration limitation, survives for a certain number of teleport charges. It would be pretty useful in Plains of Eidolon and the coming Fortuna; place a pad at the entrance or near mission-giver (in Fortuna's case), do the mission, then drop the next pad and just teleport back to the original at the entrance/mission-giver. Note to self: Need player research to determine if this is something Vauban players would really want, or if they actually use the mines against enemies.

Tesla needs a decision made on it as well: It should either be charge-based or duration-based, not both. It should also release its electric payload much more quickly, rather than just firing every three seconds. I want to suggest turning Tesla into an electric orb that can cling to floor, walls, or ceilings, capable of generating flow of Electric damage against all enemies in a small/moderate radius, very high status chance to stun enemies, good for chokepoint defense, but that might be over-powered for 25 energy?

What if, as part of Vauban's Theme... most of his deployables are permanent? Perhaps they're limited in number, so past a certain amount, recasting the deployables in other areas would just cause the old ones to disappear/be overwritten. However, if you target the current deployable while recasting the ability, it strengthens the deployable. For instance, you could repeatedly cast Tesla in the same spot, and the Tesla orb grows larger and more powerful, maybe even more complex in appearance, until it reaches a certain point where it achieves maximum strength and area of effect. Perhaps you could have up to four such permanent powered-up Tesla orbs active at once. This could work with several varieties of deployables, and while he has such a strengthened deployable active, it would show as a buff on his screen. Over time, the buff would gradually fade by degrees, so it'd need to be refreshed, but the deployable itself would remain in place.

A permanent defense measure, but it would require maintenance to operate at peak power. Rather than determining how long the deployable exists, power duration could be used to determine how long each "stack" of mechanical prowess exists before it needs to be refreshed and the ability needs to be recast.

With all that in mind...

• THEME:
  • SCALING TRAIT: Architech—Most of Vauban's deployables have a permanent duration so that they do not fade over time. Instead, they're limited to a certain number of existing deployments (determined on an ability by ability basis), but can be enhanced with repeated castings, potentially gaining: increased range/radius, increased damage, increased effect chance. Architech could be stacked up to 10 times on any deployable (effects of each Architech stack will be listed for the abilities below). Recasting deployables that are at the deployment limit will cause the oldest deployables to simply disappear and be overwritten, with 33% of the energy spent on buffing the overwritten deployable being refunded [Tesla Architech x10 = 250 energy; refund of 82.5; Deploy Architech x10 = 500 energy, refund of 165]. All deployables have a placement range of 30 meters from Vauban's current position.
    • Thoughts: Should the Architech stacks fade over time or is that not necessary? If they fade over time, that would be a lot of micromanagement if Vauban's got a lot of deployables out, and could quickly become frustrating for players; making each stack of Architech last 30 seconds or longer by default, possibly affected by power duration, may help.
  • THEMATIC TRAIT: Exploiter—Vauban deals increased damage to enemies that are currently incapacitated, such as by his own abilities. 
  • SUSTAINING TRAIT: Tech Affinity—Vauban takes less damage when near his deployables. The more deployables that are near him (within 5m), the greater damage reduction he receives (perhaps each deployable reduces damage vulnerability by an additive +10%, with a hard cap of 50% Tech Affinity damage reduction). When at maximum Tech Affinity damage reduction, a translucent elliptical shield made of hexagonal plates of energy (color equal to Vauban's energy color) is visible around Vauban.
• ABILITY 1: Tesla
  • Rebuilt. Tesla deployable would now generate a steady small radius of moderate Electric damage per tick (25% Status Chance per tick, 5 ticks/sec), rather than one jolt per three seconds. While it could deal decent damage, the overall goal would be crowd control, rather than damage: to paralyze an enemy with electrocution and make them vulnerable to Vauban's Exploiter and his squadmates. Architech would increase its radius by an additive +10% (enhanced by power range) and its damage by an additive +25% (enhanced by power strength). Deployment Limit: Four Teslas.
• ABILITY 2: Deploy
  • Rebuilt/renamed from "Minelayer." Four options as before, but radically altered for more focused purposes.
  • Teleporter: Rebuilt/renamed from "Bounce." When deployed, places a small teleporter platform wherever Vauban's currently pointing his reticle; Teleporter automatically adheres to nearest floor. On its own, does nothing. However, when a second Teleporter is placed (energy cost temporarily reduced to 0 for the second casting only), it automatically links to the one placed before it. It can be activated by context-sensitive interaction. When a Warframe is near enough that the context-sensitive interaction comes up, it will point to the linked teleporter with an illusory line (even if hundreds of meters away) so that the player has some idea of where it will teleport them. Placing a third Teleporter down will destroy the first, and the third will link to the second. Teleporter would have no range limit, so it would be viable in Plains of Eidolon and Fortuna. Architech would have no effect on it.
  • Cutter: Rebuilt/renamed from "Trip Laser." When deployed, places a five-point short-range laser emitter (creates a "fan" of lasers) at where Vauban's currently pointing his reticle; Cutter can adhere to floors, walls (aims at nearest opposite wall) or ceilings (aims at floor). The Cutter laser stuns and knocks down enemies as normal, but it also deals heavy Slashing damage per tick (10% Status Chance per tick, 5 ticks/sec) as they pass through. It is a silent, invisible trap (the laser only visible to Warframes), so if an enemy passes through it and is cut in half, other enemies are not alerted unless they see it happen. Architech would increase Cutter damage by a flat +40% (enhanced by power strength). Deployment Limit: Four Cutters.
  • Boomer: Rebuilt/renamed from "Shred." When deployed, places a stationary turret at where Vauban's currently pointing his reticle; turret can adhere to floors, walls or ceilings. The Boomer turret will auto-target and fire on any enemies within 30 meters with explosive rounds (2.25 shots/sec fire rate), dealing heavy Blast damage (30% Status Chance per shot) to all enemies within 2 meters of target with every shot. Struck enemies have their Ferrite/Alloy Armor permanently reduced by 5% of the maximum per shot. Boomer would be destructible/targetable by enemy attacks. Architech would increase its Health/Ferrite Armor by a multiplicative +20% (enhanced by power strength; exponential returns) and its damage by an additive +25% (enhanced by power strength). Deployment Limit: Two Boomers.
  • Concuss: No concrete thoughts just yet. Radiation turret? Concuss original design is to inflict Radiation procs, which cause confusion. Could be a stationary light-strobing turret that causes confusion and/or blindness intermittently without causing direct damage (no Radiation damage, just the status effect); pure crowd-control deployable, compared to the Tesla, Cutter, and Boomer. If pure crowd-control, how would Architech affect it? Increased radius and effect chance ticks per second? Just increased radius? Just increased effect chance?
• ABILITY 3: Bastille
  • No thoughts just yet. May not need to be changed at all. Needs closer look.
• ABILITY 4: Vortex
  • No thoughts just yet. May not need to be changed at all. Needs closer look.

 

*WARFRAME STRATEGY LAYER / SYNDICATE EXPANSION

Spoiler

Ideas came to me while I was trying to sleep again. I thought about how little is done with Syndicates—they have their individual quests, but before and after those are done, very little is done with the Syndicates themselves, not much interaction is had outside of their little chambers on the Relays. And yet, they're full of potential, for deeper personal interaction with them. So, I had some thoughts on how to flesh that out with...

NEW SYNDICATE RANK 6: COMMANDER

Obviously, each rank would have a different name per the rank system of each individual Syndicate. They would all unlock a new selection of items. Specifically:

• Syndicate Specters: Functionally, they'd be like the rank 1 Specters; you throw a deployment beacon at the ground, a Specter pops out. However, in this case, you would get one of the NPCs that assists you on Syndicate missions, armed with a random selection of Syndicate weapons (always the melee weapon, randomly either primary or secondary).
• +20% Sigil: Just a better, fancier sigil with additional special effects that rewards more than the rank 5 +15% sigil. The daily standing cap wouldn't be increased, it'd just be easier to reach it.
• Syndicate Liaison: A placeable "decoration" for your Dojo or Orbiter that places a Syndicate human NPC (you choose the gender upon placing the decoration) on your ship. They will wander around the ship, sit on edges where possible, lounge on the couch or meditate in your quarters. Sometimes, you might even catch them staring in a concerned way at the Helminth door from behind a corner. They would all have their own voiced responses/ambient dialogue that gives your Orbiter a more lively feeling; they might even talk with Ordis when you're idle; if you have multiple Assistants from different Syndicates, they would even engage in conversation. Functionally, you would be able to interact with them in order to turn in Syndicate tokens, rather than having to visit a Relay. You can only one Liaison per Syndicate on your ship.
• Syndicate Construction Beacon: This is where the main idea I had comes into play. Once you bought this, you'd be introduced to a new system in Warframe:

NEW SYSTEM: SYNDICATE ORBITAL OUTPOSTS

While you have an undeployed Syndicate Construction Beacon in your inventory, whenever you select a world on the navigation screen, there would be this button:

Spoiler

Something like this, just a rough concept.

You click it, and then the same way you can choose different Extractors, you'd be able to pick from whatever Syndicate you're currently at rank 6 with. By "spending" the Syndicate Construction Beacon, you could then issue an order to the chosen Syndicate to begin constructing an orbital outpost. This would take anywhere from 12 hours to 3 days. However, once it's constructed, you would then be able to visit this particular world in order to enter the constructed outpost. Each outpost would be heavily themed on the chosen Syndicate's style and flair. Obviously, it wouldn't be full Relay size; that'd be unnecessarily large and have more rooms than are needed.

When doing any missions on this world from then on, you would always be accompanied by one Syndicate agent. (You'll always have that Syndicate with you on Solo missions or when you're hosting the mission; if you join another player's mission, however, it would be their Syndicate accompanying them or none at all, if they don't have the Outpost built.)

However, the Outpost could be expanded beyond that.

SYNDICATE ORBITAL OUTPOST EXPANSION

There would be locked doors, like on a Dojo, where the Outpost could expand, and you would need to supply resources in order to fund the construction. The rooms would follow a predetermined blueprint for the Outpost's layout, but you could choose when to fund the desired rooms. Rooms like:

• TRAINING ROOM: Upgradeable. Constructing one of these strengthens the individual agents. The Syndicate agent that accompanies on your missions in the area would be higher in level. If you spend additional resources and Syndicate standing, you can upgrade the room up to three times (which would come with visual upgrades and an increase in the number of agents visually sparring inside it, increasing liveliness), further increasing the Syndicate agent's level. The level boost works thusly:
  • No Training Room: Agent/Specter level is equal to the mission's starting enemy level -2 (minimum of 1)
  • Training Room [Unranked]: Agent/Specter level is equal to starting level +2
  • Training Room [Lv1]: Agent/Specter level is equal to starting level +5
  • Training Room [Lv2]: Agent/Specter level is equal to starting level +8
  • Training Room [Lv3]: Agent/Specter level is equal to starting level +12
• ARMORY: Upgradeable. Unlike the Syndicate specters, Syndicate agents for the chosen world will only use basic Tenno weapons such as you see on Relays—Bratons, Burstons, Latrons, Skanas, and the like. However, if you construct an Armory, they will be able to arm themselves with the Syndicate-specific weaponry. By upgrading the Armory, they will begin modding their weapons to be even more effective.
  • No Armory: Agents use basic Tenno weaponry.
  • Armory [Unranked]: Agents use unmodded Syndicate weaponry (always melee, either primary or secondary for "main" weapon).
  • Armory [Lv1]: Agent weapon damage increases +25%, magazine size doubles.
  • Armory [Lv2]: Agent weapon damage increases +75%, reload speed halves.
  • Armory [Lv3]: Agent weapon damage increases +150%, weapons are modded with elemental mods thematically appropriate to the Syndicate that add further damage, potentially exploit weaknesses, and cause status effects:
    • Steel Meridian: Adds Blast damage.
    • Arbiters of Hexis: Adds Cold damage.
    • Cephalon Suda: Adds Electric damage.
    • Perrin Sequence: Adds Magnetic damage.
    • Red Veil: Adds Heat damage.
    • New Loka: Adds Radiation damage.
• OUTFITTER: Upgradeable. This is where Syndicate agents become truly impressive. When built, the Outfitter arms every mission-active agent in a special Syndicate armor. With further upgrades, they gain improved defenses and capabilities. Each upgrade marginally improves the visual appearance of the agent's armor. All Syndicates use the same armor mesh on their human agents, just with different color schemes.
  • No Outfitter: Agents wear no armor and have no special actions.
  • Outfitter [Unranked]: Agents wear Syndicate armor [Ferrite Armor added, gain damage reduction]. Agents occasionally throw thematic-element grenades:
    • Steel Meridian: Blast grenade (knocks back/knocks down enemies).
    • Arbiters of Hexis: Puncture/"needle" grenade (ignores armor).
    • Cephalon Suda: Magnetic grenade (strips shields).
    • Perrin Sequence: Electric grenade (electrocutes/paralyzes enemies).
    • Red Veil: Heat grenade (creates patch of fire DOT).
    • New Loka: Radiation grenade (confuses enemies).
    • Reasoning: Some of the grenades use different damage than the "elemental mod" damage versions from the Armory because I'm trying to match the grenade with either the Syndicate's theme or with the damage type(s) its weapons already do. Arbiters of Hexis weapons already do Puncture damage on every weapon, so it wouldn't have added much if the Armory elemental mod just added more Puncture, rather than another possible effect. However, the grenade was designed to do the same damage, because Puncture is obviously the Arbiters of Hexis style.
  • Outfitter [Lv1]: Agents gain stealth capabilities (they turn invisible and sneak with you whenever you're crouched, if not in battle). More Ferrite Armor added.
  • Outfitter [Lv2]: Agents gain shields and a short-range teleport (can teleport to an enemy to engage in melee, or to reach you if they cannot otherwise path to you). Even more Ferrite Armor added.
  • Outfitter [Lv3]: Agents gain health regeneration and mark all targets that enter their line of sight; mark lasts for 30 seconds after they leave agent line of sight. Maximum Ferrite Armor added.
• QUARTERS: Upgradeable. When built, this provides a new room full of fresh, clean bedding and other Syndicate stylistic touches. The actual purpose of the Bunks is to increase the number of Syndicate agents active in each mission.
  • No Quarters: One Agent that travels with you on a related mission (any standard mission on the world the Outpost orbits); Ops teams consist of one Agent, low chance of Ops mission success
  • Quarters [Unranked]: Two Agents that travel with you on a related mission (as if it were a Syndicate mission); Ops teams consist of two Agents, moderate chance of Ops mission success
  • Quarters [Lv1]: One backup Agent (if an Agent is killed/incapacitated, they will be replaced by a new Agent); Ops teams consist of three Agents, increased chance of success on Deception and Spy Ops missions
  • Quarters [Lv2]: Two backup Agents; Ops teams consist of four Agents, increased chance of success on Rescue and Assassination Ops missions
  • Quarters [Lv3]: Three backup Agents; Ops teams consist of four "bonded" Agents, increased chance of success on Defense, Excavation, and Survival Ops missions

Additional aesthetic rooms/furnishings (medbay, lounge, recreational facilities, decoration items like potted plants, statues, or video screens) would be available too, possibly tied to some kind of Syndicate agent "morale" system that makes them perform better (small stat boosts) if they're satisfied.

SYNDICATE REGIONAL OPERATIONS

The Orbital Outpost will always start with an Operations Room on an upper floor, accessible by elevator. This is where the magic happens, where the entire purpose of the Outpost becomes clear: the actual strategic layer I was hinting at.

• OPERATIONS ROOM (OPS): Prebuilt and upgradeable. From here, you build up the Syndicate's regional forces and send them out on missions and alter the very nature of the (client-side) chosen world's power dynamic. You become the Syndicate's sector commander, overseeing Syndicate operations in the sector. As you upgrade the rest of the Outpost, Ops is automatically upgraded to grant you special actions and increase how many operations you can have active at once. There are also facility upgrades for the Ops room that have special functions. When you send the agents to perform their missions, they will leave for a period of time, then have a chance of returning with relevant rewards, in addition to some regional resource drops (and boss drops, in the case of Assassination missions). Missions cost nothing to initiate, but they take time to complete (shortest mission being 30 minutes, but could last hours, depending on the mission type).
  • MISSION OPTIONS:
    • Reconnaissance—Short-term. Low-risk mission. Success: Codex/archive data (on regional enemies, can include rare enemies and bosses)
    • Procurement—Short-term. Mission can fail if agents aren't adequately informed. Success: Regional resources, regional enemy-drop mods
    • Assassination—Short-term. Mission can fail if agents aren't adequately armed or informed; upgraded Armory greatly increases chance of success; success: Credits (large amount).
    • Recruitment—Medium-term. Mission can fail if agents aren't adequately informed. Success: Warframe Specters (commonly x5-15 Vapor/Phase, uncommonly x2-5 Force, very rarely x1-2 Cosmic) 
    • Spy—Medium-term. Mission can fail entirely if agents aren't adequately informed; stealth/teleport Outfitter upgrades greatly increases chance and level of success. Success: Spy rewards (x1-3, dependent on level of success; tier of reward dependent on regional Spy mission tier).
    • Rescue—Medium-term. This mission only becomes available upon an agent's failure in Assassination, Reconnaissance, Procurement, or Spy in which case they're imprisoned and must be rescued. While an agent is imprisoned, the operation slot is locked for a set number of real-time hours (1-6?), after which they escape on their own, so it is very important to rescue agents so you don't get all your slots locked once you have multiple slots. Success: Restored operation slot
    • Survival—Variable-term. Upgraded Outpost greatly increases potential mission duration. Success: Endo, mods (more Endo gained the longer agents endure)
    • Defense—Variable-term. Upgraded Outpost greatly increases potential mission duration. Success: Relics, mods (more and higher-quality Relics gained the longer agents endure)
    • Excavation—Variable-term. Upgraded Outpost greatly increases potential mission duration. Success: Cryotic, mods (more Cryotic gained the longer agents endure)
  • FACILITY UPGRADES:
    • Codex Interlink: Your Codex data on relevant enemies (regional factions and assassination targets) is linked to the Outpost tactical mainframe; this improves the success chance of Assassination, Procurement, Recruitment, and Spy Ops missions based on how thoroughly you've scanned the relevant targets/enemies.
    • Cephalon Insertion Point: You're able to have Ordis infiltrate the regional faction's computer systems. Functionally, this lets you instantly free a captured Agent by opening its cell door remotely (thus removing the need for a Rescue operation), but it has a 12-hour cooldown as the faction scrambles its communications until the hacking threat is over.
    • Tactical Operations Matrix: Mini-game assistance for active operations that either increase overall success chance (for any mission), "restore" agent durability (for variable-term missions) or decrease remaining mission time (for short- and medium-term missions).
  • CAPABILITIES:
    • Unranked: Can have one operation active at a time.
    • Lv1 [Unranked Training Room and Quarters required]: Can have two operations active at a time.
    • Lv2 [Lv1 Outfitter, Armory, Training Room and Quarters required]: Can have three operations active at a time. Insurgency unlocked.
    • Lv3 [Lv2 Outfitter, Armory, Training Room, and Quarters required]: Can have four operations active at a time. Orchestrate Conflict special action unlocked.
    • MAX [Lv3 Outfitter, Armory, Training Room, and Quarters required]: Can have five operations active at a time. Revolution special action unlocked.
  • SPECIAL ACTIONS:
    • These are temporary special actions you can take once per day, lasting for a few hours each. (They require Standing to activate.)
    • Insurgency: ???
    • Orchestrate Conflict: Cannot be active at the same time as Revolution. Orchestrate Conflict turns every local mission into a pseudo-Crossfire mission, by having the Syndicate covertly orchestrate a conflict between the regional faction power with another random faction power (Grineer vs Corpus, Corpus vs Infested, Infested vs Grineer). Whenever you fight in a regional mission, the regional faction will be in battle with another random faction, providing an effective distraction, but both can attack you if they don't have one another to fight nearby. [In endless missions, this results in the warring factions coming in from opposite sides and spending as much time attacking each other as they do you or the defense point.]
    • Revolution: Cannot be active at the same time as Orchestrate Conflict. Revolution is similar to Orchestrate Conflict, except that it floods every local mission with basic Syndicate agents (not armed or armored like the specially-trained Outpost agents) in pitched battle with the regional faction power. Unlike with Orchestrate Conflict, you don't have to worry about the Syndicate agents ever attacking you, making for a powerful advantage in endless missions.

WHY?

This would all tie into the mobile app, for those people who still want that Warframe experience, but can't find the time to actually get on their PC or consoles and play. But even for regular players, it just adds an extra layer of interaction with the game, where the player can really feel like they're making an impact on the Warframe universe by influencing the missions that they personally host.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Spoiler

No idea if this is actually necessary, but: "As of Sunday, November 11th, 2018, I, under the Warframe username Endrian, relinquish any claim to all rights and intellectual property ownership to and of the ideas and concepts listed in this forum post to the corporate entity known as Digital Extremes. I give full legal permission to Digital Extremes to use the ideas listed by me in this forum post as they see fit, fully or partially, in perpetuity. I also give full legal permission for Digital Extremes to use any ideas or concepts further posted by me to this forum thread, as they see fit, fully or partially, in perpetuity." Obviously. There wouldn't be much point if I listed a bunch of changes I thought would be ideal for Chroma and DE couldn't legally use them. I mean, if there needs to be some sort of contract/payment in order for the rights to be exchanged, I'll sign. If payment is a necessary part of it, five bucks would do. Some platinum. (Concept artist/designer internship? ) Whatever it takes to get Chroma what he needs to be a fully-fleshed-out fighter, unique and playable in all forms and aspects.

Mind you, if DE decides to make use of any of these ideas, I wouldn't be adverse to being credited for the concepts, like any Tennogen creator.

 

Edited November 26, 2018 by Endrian
Regular updating.

[HugintheCrow]

Well thought out, easy to implement, stays true to the character, well presented, enough said. Now, if they just used this.

 

[xZeromusx]

I like a lot of this. My primary issue with Chroma is his passive making you pretty much lock in abilities to a specific niche before you go into a fight, thus making you stuck with no tactical way out. I like your passive, as it's fitting with the dragon theme of hoarding gold. I personally like having a breath attack, but an elemental "lugi" is also a great concept, but take this idea and maybe add it if you like: An elemental wheel added to his first ability that allows you to cycle your elemental affinity so you can actually access your skills and choose their tactics on the fly.

A few things to consider about an elemental wheel:
- Cycling the elemental wheel wouldn't change the mechanics of a skill currently active. To initiate the new element on a skill, you would have to recast it.
- Elemental Ward would have to be able to be recast before its cooldown is up, like Vex Armor can be. Over riding the current buff with a new one with the currently chosen element.
- Should do the same thing they did with Nezha's 1 on Chroma's 4, Effigy. Make it a duration skill, and recasting before the ability ends causes the Effigy to disappear from its current location and reappear at the player location with whatever element is currently chosen. Toggle energy drain skills are notoriously hated by a lot of players because they cause you to lose out on things like Energy Siphon, buff from the Zenurik school, Trinity skills, etc.

[Endrian]

1 hour ago, RaphaelSanzio said:

... take this idea and maybe add it if you like: An elemental wheel added to his first ability that allows you to cycle your elemental affinity so you can actually access your skills and choose their tactics on the fly.

A few things to consider about an elemental wheel:
- Cycling the elemental wheel wouldn't change the mechanics of a skill currently active. To initiate the new element on a skill, you would have to recast it.
- Elemental Ward would have to be able to be recast before its cooldown is up, like Vex Armor can be. Over riding the current buff with a new one with the currently chosen element.
- Should do the same thing they did with Nezha's 1 on Chroma's 4, Effigy. Make it a duration skill, and recasting before the ability ends causes the Effigy to disappear from its current location and reappear at the player location with whatever element is currently chosen. Toggle energy drain skills are notoriously hated by a lot of players because they cause you to lose out on things like Energy Siphon, buff from the Zenurik school, Trinity skills, etc.

I like this idea. It seems to be becoming a new Warframe thing where warframes have unique gauges in the lower right, that I think began with Nidus and his Mutation stacks, but now includes Saryn and her viral counter, and an elemental wheel showing Chroma's current element would be tremendously helpful, especially if it becomes possible to toggle his elemental alignment on the fly. It might even show both his current element and the "strength" of his Vex Armor, where it changes in appearance the closer it gets to maximum strength.

Chroma's unique sigil could be something like a scaly crest that goes from fleshy/raw scales to steadily more steel-like and hardened, surrounded by an elemental ring that glows when Elemental Ward is active.

Agreed with the need for being able to recast Elemental Ward while it's active in order to alter current element (or else you'd be stuck with the original element when wanting to change elements for Spectral Scream or Effigy).

Also agreed with how often energy-drain abilities are disliked, but I'm wondering if three duration abilities might be too many for one warframe? Still, it would be nice to be able to benefit from Zenurik's energy-regen Void Dash when Effigy is out. Hm...

Edited September 28, 2018 by Endrian

[Endrian]

Made further adjustments, added some image flavor.

[xZeromusx]

Il y a 14 heures, Endrian a dit :

Also agreed with how often energy-drain abilities are disliked, but I'm wondering if three duration abilities might be too many for one warframe? Still, it would be nice to be able to benefit from Zenurik's energy-regen Void Dash when Effigy is out. Hm...

I don't really have much investment or interest in the effigy to be perfectly honest. Also, thinking on it a bit more, having a skill like this with a duration may run into tactical problems too when the skill also reduces armor so significantly. Being able to turn it off quickly might be a smarter mechanics decision. And with an elemental wheel, it could still be turned off and on again to change to the new element. That might make more sense and be more advantageous to the players.

[Endrian]

Made further revisions, this time to Elemental Ward v1. Considering the concept of Toxin as a stealthy swamp dragon, like a D&D green dragon that hides amongst the trees and wild growth, where Toxin Elemental Ward silences weapon fire and camouflages Chroma from unalerted enemies. Rather than invisibility, the camouflage becomes less effective and easier to see through when enemies are alerted and aware that there's a dragon in their midst. But even if the camouflage fails, Chroma would still gain melee attack speed and firearm reload speed from the aura.

12 hours ago, RaphaelSanzio said:

I don't really have much investment or interest in the effigy to be perfectly honest. Also, thinking on it a bit more, having a skill like this with a duration may run into tactical problems too when the skill also reduces armor so significantly. Being able to turn it off quickly might be a smarter mechanics decision. And with an elemental wheel, it could still be turned off and on again to change to the new element. That might make more sense and be more advantageous to the players.

Agreed, if there's still an armor reduction from Effigy, it's important to be able to turn it off as needed for survivability. Still fiddling with the elemental wheel idea you suggested, visually.

[(PSN)Frost_Nephilim]

On 2018-09-27 at 6:42 PM, Endrian said:

Make Spectral Scream function similar to the "Afterburn" augmented variation by default: For 25 energy, exhale a single-shot 150/275/400/525-damage explosive elemental projectile rather than a weak continuous breath attack. Casting animation doesn't interrupt mobility.

Nooo, thats just ember, the contionus fire breath is unique!!! Deserves to be kept

To make it better i would say allow it to stagger enemies and remove armor and shield vs going ember on it! Maybe even allow it to deal a % of damage equal to enemy health, armor, and shield.

 

Just read the rest and im in love with most of your suggested changes!!!!!! 

[Endrian]

2 hours ago, (PS4)Ghost--00-- said:

Nooo, thats just ember, the contionus fire breath is unique!!! Deserves to be kept

To make it better i would say allow it to stagger enemies and remove armor and shield vs going ember on it! Maybe even allow it to deal a % of damage equal to enemy health, armor, and shield.

In fairness, many Warframes shoot/throw projectiles for their first ability; it's not really a unique mechanic.

Yes, Ember's Fireball throws an explosive fireball, but it can also be charged to deal up to double damage, and it creates a patch of burning fire, so it's superior to my v1 suggestion for Chroma's ability. However, she's not unique in having an elemental projectile for her primary attack/#1 ability:

• Volt's Shock fires a lightning bolt which can also chain to nearby enemies, and with a high-chance status effect that stuns. (Electric Fireball?)
• Frost's Freeze throws an explosive snowball that also freezes enemies and creates a patch of slowing ice. (Or perhaps Ember's Fireball is a fiery version of Frost's Freeze?)

Also, notice how these three Warframes are elemental Warframes using three of the same elements that Chroma uses, and are some of the earliest added Warframes in the game? Why shouldn't the "master of the elements" be able to fire his own single-shot elemental projectile? There are plenty of examples in myth, lore, and game design of dragons breathing single-shot explosive projectiles rather than just sustained elemental breath. The Afterburn augment already pushes us a step in the right direction, but it needs to be the default rather than an augment. Besides, the Effigy will still have the continuous breath weapon, so it's not as if the mechanic is being removed entirely.

Returning to the subject at hand, however, only Chroma uses a channeled, close-range attack that also prevents weapon usage for his only attack ability (Effigy isn't an attack ability; it's a summon/turret, and you can't control who or how it attacks). Spectral Scream, as it is, is a weak ability because it limits weapon usage, has extremely short range compared to projectile attacks, and its damage is based on ticks rather than continuous immediate damage (which means enemies that should be dead from it have a chance to fire/attack before the damage tick takes effect). All these factors combine to make it undesirable.

Don't get me wrong, it's a unique idea, but it's weak in functionality because of all the limitations it comes with. Even the Effigy uses it far more effectively than Chroma himself does! And that's why the Effigy should be the only one using it that way.

Anyway, that's my view on why it needs to change.

Edited September 29, 2018 by Endrian
Grammar/sentence fixes.

[Endrian]

Should I do concept art for what the Tier III Spectral Scream attacks and ruined landscapes would look like?

[xZeromusx]

Il y a 6 heures, Endrian a dit :

Should I do concept art for what the Tier III Spectral Scream attacks and ruined landscapes would look like?

If the drawing near the bottom is your concept art, it's very good. Visual representations are worth thousands of words, please do.

[chainchompguy3]

The T3 suggested changes for Effigy seem very interesting.

It adds in a touch of "the great dragon subjugated the land", while also giving some pretty concrete reason as to why anyone would want to place down a stationary ability like effigy.

With the largeness of the new open world maps, though, I'm a bit worried that it'd need a rather ridiculous amount of range.

 

I was also a bit concerned about his energy economy, but hopefully by being more survivable, he'll be able to make better use of Rage. Maybe that'll even out.

 

I'm still very skeptical of adding change-element-mid-mission. Unless his kit is built around having multiple, situational playstyles (like Equinox), then changing element isn't about "Adapting to the situation", it's just kind of arbitrary "I wanna be ice now".

Enemy elemental weaknesses/damage don't change during most missions, and Elemental Ward buffs of fire, ice, and electric all serve the same general purpose of Defense.

I suppose I can't complain too much, though, as you did reserve it for Tier 3, aka the "Wouldn't it be cool if"(But not necessary) ideas.

[Endrian]

On 2018-09-29 at 3:28 PM, chainchompguy3 said:

I'm still very skeptical of adding change-element-mid-mission. Unless his kit is built around having multiple, situational playstyles (like Equinox), then changing element isn't about "Adapting to the situation", it's just kind of arbitrary "I wanna be ice now".

Enemy elemental weaknesses/damage don't change during most missions, and Elemental Ward buffs of fire, ice, and electric all serve the same general purpose of Defense.

I suppose I can't complain too much, though, as you did reserve it for Tier 3, aka the "Wouldn't it be cool if"(But not necessary) ideas.

The way I see it, in terms of each Element Ward's variation:

• FIRE: Anti-Infestation. Healer aura, provides survivability to those players who wouldn't benefit much from Cold's armor augmentation if they're a squishier low-armor Warframe.
• COLD: Anti-Grineer. Tank aura, good when fighting alone, provides the most EHP with the suggested Vex Armor calculation, and the bullet reflection would play havoc with ballistic-mad Grineer.
• ELECTRIC: Anti-Corpus. Damage aura, taking advantage of robotics' inherent weakness to electricity, but also capable of punishing any attacker. Provides a small amount of survivability in terms of max shield increase and overshield gain from the arc discharges, but everyone knows a little Health with high Armor is better than a lot of Shield, so it's not really a defense aura except on lower-level missions.
• TOXIN: Stealth/Weapon Synergy. General purpose aura (firearms reload faster, melee weapons swing faster, camouflage mechanic), decent against all factions without being specialised against them the way the other elements are.

You say Fire, Ice, and Electric all serve the general purpose of defense, but I see Electric as being the most offense-centric aura, because Electric's arc discharge actually does a pretty impressive chunk of damage: By default, level 3 Electric Elemental Ward has a 10x multiplier on its damage reflection, but an arc discharge range of just 10m; and because most people play Chroma with very limited range, they never see what the arcs are capable of. Let's face it: Narrow-Minded is practically a requirement for Chroma players because literally all of his abilities are heavily dependent on power duration, and so Chroma tends to have his power range reduced to just 34%. This means Electric's arc discharge range is reduced to an abysmal 3.4m.

(EDIT: For clarification on what I mean by saying all of his abilities are dependent on power duration, I mean either the length of the buff, as in the case of Vex Armor and Elemental Ward, or energy cost per second, as in Spectral Scream and Effigy. If you try to trade duration for pure strength (such as Blind Rage and Transient Fortitude) and efficiency (such as Fleeting Expertise), you find that not only do your primary buffs last hardly any time at all, but your Spectral Scream and Effigy actually become more expensive than default. Even with Streamline and Fleeting Expertise! You cannot afford to sacrifice duration as Chroma. It and strength are his key attributes.)

Electric Elemental Ward used to have a much longer default range, and then that got nerfed for who knows why, which basically meant "Well, no one's going to use this element anymore." And that's been borne out for years! I used to use Electric practically religiously because I loved how the arcs tore my enemies apart for attacking me until its range became nerfed into useless oblivion, and then people swore by Cold for a long time until the Vex Armor nerf, and now everyone swears by Heat because all the other elements are so weak now. That's what I'm seeking to correct: to fix and make every element viable, but also desirable for its own niches. Right now, it's pretty boring seeing a Chroma using Heat in every mission he shows up in (I know I've been forced to go that route just to survive sorties, and I'm not a fan of it).

Anyway, that's how I see it as adapting to the situation—If your friends are injured and out of revives and you need to heal them back to full? Fire Elemental Ward. You've arrived at the boss and need to be ready to tank a lot of damage? Cold Elemental Ward. Robots are rampaging and machines are swarming? Electric Elemental Ward. Oops, you accidentally joined a Spy/Rescue mission as Chroma and don't want to risk alerting the entire ship/base? Toxin Elemental Ward.

Edited October 1, 2018 by Endrian
Grammar/sentence fixes.

[xZeromusx]

Il y a 3 heures, chainchompguy3 a dit :

The T3 suggested changes for Effigy seem very interesting.

It adds in a touch of "the great dragon subjugated the land", while also giving some pretty concrete reason as to why anyone would want to place down a stationary ability like effigy.

With the largeness of the new open world maps, though, I'm a bit worried that it'd need a rather ridiculous amount of range.

 

I was also a bit concerned about his energy economy, but hopefully by being more survivable, he'll be able to make better use of Rage. Maybe that'll even out.

 

I'm still very skeptical of adding change-element-mid-mission. Unless his kit is built around having multiple, situational playstyles (like Equinox), then changing element isn't about "Adapting to the situation", it's just kind of arbitrary "I wanna be ice now".

Enemy elemental weaknesses/damage don't change during most missions, and Elemental Ward buffs of fire, ice, and electric all serve the same general purpose of Defense.

I suppose I can't complain too much, though, as you did reserve it for Tier 3, aka the "Wouldn't it be cool if"(But not necessary) ideas.

While generally, going into a mission, you're usually aware of what you're going up against, I have to nit pick that the uses of the elements on Chroma's skills are not just about exploiting enemy weaknesses. Yes, it changes his breath's damage type, but on ward, it actually changes a huge part of the skill's mechanics. What you describe as change on a whim, I'd say is actually a very vital part of his tactical ability. Will most people more than likely still use ice for the defense? Probably. But wouldn't it be nice to be able to throw on that ice ward and then change to fire or toxic breath on the fly? To get your defensive armor up, but also make use of inhibiting panic proc of fire or the shock of electric breath? There's a lot of tactical maneuverability that comes with having these options available to you on the fly.

[Endrian]

Tweaked suggestions for Tier I Vex Armor and now added a further-reworked Tier III version. At some point, it's probably throwing too much at the wall to see what sticks, but whatever DE will listen to in order to improve his kit and make him worth playing for real and not just for aesthetics, I'd be happy for. 

[Top_Kekkonen]

Very well thought out, but DE is incapable of making good decisions. Let's just hope that Pablo gets full permission to change Chroma. Chroma will get nerfed again if anyone else touches his kit.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Top_Kekkonen

[Endrian]

7 hours ago, Top_Kekkonen said:

Very well thought out, but DE is incapable of making good decisions. Let's just hope that Pablo gets full permission to change Chroma. Chroma will get nerfed again if anyone else touches his kit.

Thanks very much! And, yeah, here's hoping for a positive rework rather than further nerfs. His utility is already severely diminished outside of eidolon fights.

Also, added crowd control mechanics suggestions for Ruinous Effigy. It's basic crowd control, not huge AOE stuns like Rhino's Stomp or guaranteed freezes like Frost's Avalanche, but it would give Chroma more utility and desirability in point defense, such as Defense/Mobile Defense or Survival.

[Endrian]

And now I've added more passive concepts under the Tier III heading.

[-Iceage-]

DE Seriously needs to look over this. I want to play chroma to be a dragon not some pathetic buff thing. This seems extremely well thought out and should be implemented. I love the nods to the greed passive along with the extra credits with effigy just ties in together so well.

[Endrian]

3 hours ago, Iced_Chronosaur said:

This seems extremely well thought out and should be implemented. I love the nods to the greed passive along with the extra credits with effigy just ties in together so well.

Thanks very much!

[Endrian]

Improved mechanics is easy enough. Simple one-cast Spectral Scream so you can keep moving/keep shooting, elemental switching, better math on the Vex Armor, more utility from the underused Elemental Ward elements... but how do you make Chroma scale for endgame content?

What are the most important attributes for surviving extreme endgame content?

• Crowd control. That's obvious enough. My Tier III suggestions for Effigy should help with that, even if it's not mass-area crowd control like Rhino's Roar or Loki's Disarm.
• Weapon damage. If you've got a good weapon, Vex Armor should keep you doing top-tier weapon damage. But..
• Damage avoidance/mitigation. New-math Vex Armor should help with that for certain. Cold element would increase damage reduction, fire element would restore lost health with careful use, and toxin would help you avoid enemies altogether if you can keep your distance once they're alerted. 
• Ability damage. This is the hard one. How do you make Chroma's ability damage scale for endgame content the way Volt's or Saryn's does?

[Endrian]

Pardon the rough nature, but I sketched this out pretty quick. This is what I have in mind for the "ruined landscape" generated by the Tier III rework version of Effigy (this would be the elemental Heat version):

I went ahead and added it to the OP as well.

[Top_Kekkonen]

Talking about synergy, Chroma's kit is somewhat weird. If we take a game like League of legends, we look at veigar. Veigar has 3 damaging abilities, which are all semi equal in strength, and he has 1 cc ability to setup all of his damage. Chroma's kit has no such consistency, his 1 is laughably outclassed by all of his kit. And effigy fits in a frame like vauban instead of a weapon enhancing tank like Chroma. I just don't get the design point of view.

[Endrian]

1 hour ago, Top_Kekkonen said:

Talking about synergy, Chroma's kit is somewhat weird. If we take a game like League of legends, we look at veigar. Veigar has 3 damaging abilities, which are all semi equal in strength, and he has 1 cc ability to setup all of his damage. Chroma's kit has no such consistency, his 1 is laughably outclassed by all of his kit. And effigy fits in a frame like vauban instead of a weapon enhancing tank like Chroma. I just don't get the design point of view.

That's exactly why I think Spectral Scream needs a significant boost, more than just the Vex Armor Fury boost. It needs long range by default like every other elemental projectile, needs to not interfere with weapon usage, and a major increase in damage and area of effect.

[Endrian]

Added new mechanic idea to Tier III Spectral Scream rework involving the new "Pride" passive I came up with. This rebuilt version of Spectral Scream, Proud Roar, would be massively improved to let it scale into the lategame/endgame, but it would require building up Chroma's power over the course of battle in order to show off this power—the same way the most powerful dragons are the most ancient ones, who've long gathered their strength (and pride).

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

So if the base damage of a level 3 Spectral Scream is 525, Chroma has a maxed Intensify (+30% power strength) and Chroma has not yet made any kills (i.e. no Pride stacks), and hasn't been hurt by any enemies:

PROUD ROAR Final Damage Value = (525 x ([1 + 0] x 1.30)) (no Fury multiplier) = 682 elemental damage

That would be the default, when just starting a mission. But let's say our favorite Dragon this time is better-equipped, brings along more power strength mods like Umbral Intensify, Blind Rage, and Transient Fortitude for around 302% power strength. Over the course of a long fight, Chroma has slain a hundred foes (100 Pride stacks) and built up his Fury to its maximum multiplier (830%)...

PROUD ROAR Final Damage Value = (525 x ([1 + 100] x 3.02)) x 8.3 = 1,329,124 elemental damage

... That seems like an absurd number, but keep in mind that's with extremely high power strength, maximum Pride stacks (which means killing at least a hundred enemies, or in fact more if you've been using Proud Roar), and maximum Fury multiplier. But this is the kind of damage abilities need to do to remain relevant against level 100+ enemies, especially those with mountains of armor dramatically reducing the damage.

Edited October 2, 2018 by Endrian