Custom Warframes Redux

[Udinbak]

*Just noticed this should probably have gone into "warframes" not "general" 😞

At the risk of flogging a dead horse, I've seen a few archived threads relating to this over the years and apparently I'm going to throw in my own take on the idea:

So we max rank a warframe. It's components then become available to combine into custom warframes. The 4 individual parts are tied to the 4 skills:

Blueprint: Defines skill 1 and the mesh/skin.
Chassis: Defines skill 2
Neuroptics: Defines skill 3
Systems: Defines skill 4

A story quest line is used to introduce the mechanic. Maybe explaining early research into how operators channel void energy through the warframe's components to manifest the abilities each warframe uses. Maybe by the end of the quest line, Ordis, or the Lotus, or Ballas,or Alad V or another existing/as-yet-unknown-charactor, understands warframe physiology enough to combine components from different frames, maybe you need to Unlock a Blueprint to accept parts from other frames... Who knows?

The end result being, the Operator can pick and chose from any ability s/he has mastered by chosing non-prime warframe parts. This new warframe is a prototype, a ProtoFrame if you will. with base stats of 100 (or whatever) and no slot polarities. Once Max Ranked, you now Name it and it becomes a Warframe proper, gaining an Aura polarity (by whatever mechanic),gaining stats (by yet another mystery mechanic, because I'm lazy) and gaining a passive ability chosen from the (up to 4) warframes from which the original components were used. Then, once Max Ranked a second time, Forma become usable to add or change polarity and you gain the option to use Prime Warframe parts (the prime version of the non-primes you used to build the custom warframe) to turn your custom warframe into it's Prime version, gaining prime stats and another polarity. Maybe once this Primed custom Warframe is max ranked, a further sacrifice could be made to turn it into it's Umbral Form... At least for Excalibur, since Sentience isn't a passive that could be acquired via an existing component, and it's prime parts don't exist..

So for example, you build Mag Chassis, Ember Neuroptics, Trinity Systems, and combine them in a Nova Blueprint giving you:

Nova BP: Null Star
Mag Chassis: Magnetize
Ember Neuroptics: Fireblast
Trinity Systems: Blessing

Passive choice between: Explosive Counter, Magnetic Attraction, Ignition and Triage.

Personally I don't think you should get any mastery xp for these custom frames, you already mastered the skills and abilities. I personally view this idea as an end-game mixer-upper. Ideally accompanied by content that challenges these new frames. It would let people experiment with new strategies/play styles, and sure, OP frames might be a concern, but is it though?.. 😛

Edited November 2, 2018 by Udinbak

[5H4DE]

No. Weapons and mechanical companions are one thing but Warframes? No thanks. Especially not combining pre-existing warframe parts, it would kill the identity of each frame as a standalone and would be a giant powercreep. People would make the ultimate tank/Healer/Buff/DPS frames and that is all we would see.

Trin4,Oberon3,Gara2,Equinox1----Loki2,Mirage3,Excal4, Nidus passive HP regen 

All in one frame

This is just what I came up with off the top of my head, I'm sure there could be way stronger combinations.

Edited November 2, 2018 by TheRealShade

[Zi-Sui]

As said before, the powercreep would be quite too severe, and some abilities would be ingored and others overused, as is already the case with frames. For zaws there's the plague kripath meta, we'd likely see something like that with this system.

Gotta say it'd be fun to build your own frame and using it, and the powercreep would be limited by having only one 4th ability, but some abilities would just be abused to whole new levels of powercreep. I love tanks and main Inaros, so I'd keep Inaros' stats and 1st ability, then add either Rhino 2nd ability Iron Skin or Chroma 2nd, and Trinity 3rd and 4th. My Inaros can already facetank well over lvl 100, after that it'd be 3 times more tanky on top of having either stupid amounts of health or status immunity from Iron Skin. How is that balanced?

[Atsia]

 Iron Skin, Virulence, Peacemakers, Nidus Passive. That totally wouldn't be broken.

/s

[Guest]

Possibly Best frame = Nidus Passive and body, Virulence, Gara 2, Rhino Roar, Exalted Blade

[Udinbak]

I get it, power creep is a thing. But power creep is the reality. The whole point of the game is to get more powerful. You fight, you master, you rank up, repeat. Some weapons will always be more powerful than others, rivens notwithstanding. Sure, meta builds exist.. because they can, they make us more powerful, and the game rewards us by making the early stuff easier and the content we now have access to, harder. It's how practically every game works. Don't get me wrong balancing warframes and abilities is important, but there will always be meta builds that do one job perfectly. Part of the fun is figuring out how to do that with what you have, and if not where do you get what you need to be more effective.
More powerful.

With the 36 unique warframes and 4 abilities per frame that's 1679616 unique combinations, including the 36 original frames. Some will be terrible! Others, OPAF! But I guarantee there will be people trying each and every one of them. Figuring out new combinations. New ways of playing. Streamers trying warframes with abilities that make absolutely no sense together, just because people will be willing to watch them do it.

But then again, it's also kinda why I said "Ideally accompanied by content that challenges these new frames".
The Sentients are coming.. I don't know when, but either way we're closing in on MR30. We have one weapon that goes up to mr40. Will we see more? Will the Mastery simulator in samaris' room open the door at the end and keep going? Who knows..?
But they are coming. We beat them last time, but they've had a long time to adapt. Maybe the sentient scouts we've seen so far are like the boy scouts to the US military...
Maybe it takes the ultimate tank, however you decide to set yours up, to actually tank whatever the eidolons originally were. Maybe it does actually take the ultimate healer to keep that tank alive.. Maybe our first real encounter with them leaves us with our ass handed to us on a silver platter... To be honest, I'd be disappointed if we didn't. But maybe it's our turn to adapt, to try something new..

Even if it's not the Sentients, content would need to exist that challenged these frames, clearly. All I'm really suggesting is that it's how you manage power creep that matters, because power creep is inevitable. Arbitrations are simply the latest example. It's not like this idea could be turned into a reality inside of a couple of years either way. plenty of time for details to be ironed out, but it also speaks to the operator's role. They wake up, master frames, wake up, master themselves, explore the solar system and the past. Then the past catches up with everyone. With everything they've learned they forge a new frame that perfectly expresses their individual wisdom and strength.. or some equally prosaic nonsense.. Ready to take on this new threat.

 

Edited November 2, 2018 by Udinbak

[Udinbak]

2 hours ago, GOOFBALL1 said:

 so I'd keep Inaros' stats and 1st ability

Actually no, You'd keep Inaros' appearance and first ability. You'd start with baseline 100 stats, then through some balancing algorithm, stats would be assigned when you upgrade from a prototype. Maybe the average of the stats of the original frames so (inaros+rhino+trinity+trinity)/4=Custom stats. That seems fair...?

Your stats, for that combination, are:

Health 212.5 (775 at rank 30)
Shield 87.5 (262.5 at rank 30)
Armour 105
Energy 125 (175 at rank 30)
Sprint Speed 0.9875

Edited November 2, 2018 by Udinbak

[Tsukinoki]

57 minutes ago, Udinbak said:

But then again, it's also kinda why I said "Ideally accompanied by content that challenges these new frames".

Except that with some combinations nothing would be able to challenge them.

This isn't just power creep, its just "Hey, lets be OPAF with nothing that can even hope to balance or stop this!" and the game really doesn't need anything like that.  Its easy enough as it is, no need to throw in what amounts to basically a cheat mode....
I mean how could you possibly balance something that has:
Spores, Iron Skin, Roar, and Blessing?
Nothing would be able to kill it, and it has insane damage scaling over wide range, and the ability to more than double that damage and its scaling.
Hek you could even drop blessing and replace it with peacemaker, or exalted blade for even more damage depending on what it is and it wouldn't hurt personal survivability too much.

What could DE throw at us that could even hope to scratch a frame like that?

57 minutes ago, Udinbak said:

I get it, power creep is a thing. But power creep is the reality.

And this isn't power creep.
This is tossing out the entire power curve for a small laugh that will cause everyone to get bored of the game even faster.

You're pretty much asking for a god mode cheat here...and the game wouldn't survive long with that type of thing active.

Edited November 2, 2018 by Tsukinoki

[Loza03]

Limbo's Banish, Nova's Wormhole, Loki's Switch Teleport and Nekros's Shadows.

This unholy combination of abilities that can screw with other players would be possible. Just imagine what mayhem could be wreaked on other players with that. Untouchable enemies! Impassable Doorways! Displacement at your teammates's will, not your own! Seven or more enemies running around blocking your view and distracting you from the actual enemies!

No thanks.

[Udinbak]

11 minutes ago, Tsukinoki said:

I mean how could you possibly balance something that has:

Spores, Iron Skin, Roar, and Blessing?
Nothing would be able to kill it, and it has insane damage scaling over wide range, and the ability to more than double that damage and its scaling.
Hek you could even drop blessing and replace it with peacemaker, or exalted blade for even more damage depending on what it is and it wouldn't hurt personal survivability too much.

What could DE throw at us that could even hope to scratch a frame like that?

Well, Sentients could scratch a frame like that. We fought them before, they know our abilities, they've had time to develop countermeasures.
Why shouldn't a sentient smash through iron skin like it was a wet paper bag? They faced rhino in the old war, and not only do they know our abilities, they also, apparently, have Nataah's knowledge of warframes' strengths and weaknesses. Maybe they can turn a buff into a debuff. Use your own abilities against you, or in any other way make your preconceptions of how a fight should go as fragile as a fart in a breeze.

20 minutes ago, Tsukinoki said:

You're pretty much asking for a god mode cheat here...and the game wouldn't survive long with that type of thing active.

It's definitely not what I'm going for here. I'm not saying custom frames should be right there when you start playing. This would be well after The Sacrifice in terms of story. MR locked to 20 or even 25, when the max MR is 30+.

 

[Udinbak]

7 minutes ago, Loza03 said:

Limbo's Banish, Nova's Wormhole, Loki's Switch Teleport and Nekros's Shadows.

This unholy combination of abilities that can screw with other players would be possible. Just imagine what mayhem could be wreaked on other players with that. Untouchable enemies! Impassable Doorways! Displacement at your teammates's will, not your own! Seven or more enemies running around blocking your view and distracting you from the actual enemies!

No thanks.

lol. Yep, you're totally right. I've made a terrible mistake.
Sorry everyone! I f'd up.
I shall commit Hari Kiri at the earliest convenience.