Idea For The Kind Of Boss Encounters We Could See In The Future

[Zakalwe]

Boss mob stands in Centre of room and activates a machine.

The machine releases pods which float around him.

The pods increase his shields considerably.

To destroy shield, the pods must be destroyed.

To do this, you have to shoot them in a critical spot.

OR

You can just brute force your way through his extra shield with your weapons.

While you are doing this, Boss is attacking as normal.

Every five pods you destroy, you produce a feedback of energy which gives a window to attack the bosses base health.

However, the boss can also absorb the pods, and as he does he fills a power meter. If he fills it entirely, he will evolve into a new form.

He will target a pod before absorbing, and there will be an indicator and a brief window. Each team member must shoot the pod in the critical spot to prevent the kill.

If you manage to kill him before he changes form, you get X, Y, or Z drop.

However, if you allow him to change, you get a chance for an extra drop, something rarer.

When his power bar fills, he throws a protective bubble around himself and begins to change.

While he's changing, he's indestructible and a horde mode begins.

Grunts attack you, some grunts carry power cores and run straight to the boss.

If they manage to make it to him and dump the core, he will be stronger when he emerges.

When he emerges, he has a new power that can 1 shot a teammate.

The power targets everyone and prevents them from firing.

IN 10 seconds it will select a random player and KO them with no chance fo revive.

If your team manage to score enough melee damage in that 10 seconds, you will stagger him and prevent the KO.

Make it so it's not difficult to stagger him, but you need all teammate to do it.

This way it's easy to prevent 1 shot KO, but the threat of it being able to happen will add a sense of real danger and keep team focused as it could be anyone!

-

Something like this doesn't seem to far outside of the current AI coding. some parts could be scripted, while others would take simple path and animation updates (I say simple, I mean that in a relative sense).

What do you guys think? Would ideas like this interest you in the future? How far off do you think we are from seeing something like this in game?

Edited September 10, 2013 by Zakalwe

[RYN0C]

The idea of multiphase boss fights are a great idea just like the upcoming golem boss, cool idea zakalwe.

[NukaKV]

I like the idea of a rarer drop happening if you don't just kill the boss right away

Edited September 10, 2013 by NukaKV

[Lord.Finster]

Sounds like Chemos boss fight from DC Universe. I'm not convinced. Let's see how Golem turns out first.

[MeteorKing]

Definitely would like to see something more elaborate than what we have now.  The U10 boss shall be a nice surprise.

[Zakalwe]

Sounds like Chemos boss fight from DC Universe. I'm not convinced. 

Why not?

Do you have any ideas how Boss fights could be made more interesting/engaging?

[LtZefar]

Why can't you think up of bosses without invincible barriers? Because any smart boss would put those corpses behind a locked door and you would stand no chance against the boss.

It also begs to question how the shield is powered when going by Lore.

 

Imo there shouldn't be any permanent invincible barriers around. There should be ones that can be weakened but you should also be able to brute force your way through it.

[Zakalwe]

Why can't you think up of bosses without invincible barriers? Because any smart boss would put those corpses behind a locked door and you would stand no chance against the boss.

It also begs to question how the shield is powered when going by Lore.

Imo there shouldn't be any permanent invincible barriers around. There should be ones that can be weakened but you should also be able to brute force your way through it.

Didn't say invincible, said very durable. Option wold be there to blast away with brute force, or nullify the shield entirely using the feedback. The risk would be that you might not bring it down in time before he gathers the energy to change...

Lore is easy. The game is already full of enough science fiction. Say the boss has a device that can feed off power that feeds the Grineer armour, or the corpus shields, or even uses nano-tech to convert body energy into shield power.

None of this is any sillier than "space ninjas".

Edited September 10, 2013 by Zakalwe

[Archistopheles]

 

Boss mob stands in Centre of room surrounded by grunts.

Boss says something scary, then uses power to adsorb life force of grunts which gives him a very durable shield.

Grunts rise off of the floor and float around the room.

 

 

Who would do that?

 

Grineer clone and use armor, grunts are used to shoot you, not absorb.

 

Corpus build robots, they don't need to sacrifice organic life to become stronger.

 

Infested infect others. This would be the closest to your idea you could come, but they wouldn't draw life from living grunts. They would either eat them outright, or infect a group of "grunts" only to have them turn on you.

 

I just don't see this happening.

[Quasar-Sandwich]

I just watched a video on zelda bosses so I'm kinda like... "Wait did you just play some zelda?"

[LeoAtKnight]

Not a bad idea.

I don't support it, but won't be mad if something similar is implemented. I'm neutral is what I'm saying.

However,

IN 10 seconds it will select a random player and KO them with no chance fo revive.

I do not like this. At all. If it instantly downs us it is perfectly fine, but at least give us a chance to get our team mate up.

[Zakalwe]

Who would do that?

Grineer clone and use armor, grunts are used to shoot you, not absorb.

Corpus build robots, they don't need to sacrifice organic life to become stronger.

Infested infect others. This would be the closest to your idea you could come, but they wouldn't draw life from living grunts. They would either eat them outright, or infect a group of "grunts" only to have them turn on you.

I just don't see this happening.

Grineer are ruthless, you could easily write in the idea of a boss desperate to destroy the Tenno using any means possible.

Or a high ranking corpus technician using multiple drones to buff himself while he attacks.

Or an infested creature that sucks the life force out of the drone creatures to sustain itself

All of these things would fit with current lore. I'm not saying they're great ideas, but they work within the confines of the world the devs have laid out so far.

Not a bad idea.I don't support it, but won't be mad if something similar is implemented. I'm neutral is what I'm saying.However,I do not like this. At all. If it instantly downs us it is perfectly fine, but at least give us a chance to get our team mate up.

It's just a little risk versus reward aspect. You want the rarer drop, you need a risk to go with it. It doesn't need to be difficult to stop the boss KOing someone, just the threat of it happening would be enough to keep you focused as a team and give the encounter a sense of danger.

Right now, boss runs give no sense of danger. I would love a mode or set of levels/encounters with no revives and one life each....

Edited September 10, 2013 by Zakalwe

[The_Promethean]

Nice kind of ideas you got there. I am guessing this will be another new faction.

[Zakalwe]

Nice kind of ideas you got there. I am guessing this will be another new faction.

It could fit any of the factions if you twisted the details to suit their styles, or a new faction, or whatever.

This is just the kind of content that would make me happy, I was curious if anyone shared similar ideas.

Edited September 10, 2013 by Zakalwe

[Destro6677]

It sounds like a WoW boss to me. That said, the only thing I really disagree with is having everyone headshot the thing giving the boss power, because not everyone is good enough to land headshots under pressure. It should be a flat damage meter if we are going for that.

[Zakalwe]

I updated the post. Now it doesn't challenge any lore and could be applied to any faction.

And not headshots but critical spots. Like, say, the pods have a glowing centre. And the entire point is that it rewards skill. It's not essential to destroy the pods, it's just one way to best him. You could just shoot him if you prefer (it would be just like bosses are now, bullet sponge type) or ignore the pods and let him transform to get to the next stage for the rarer loot.

Besides, you don't make a game and say, we won't put that in because some people can't headshot things... You make content that's a challenge and people try. Not everyone can clear T3 defense in their usual groups, for example.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Zakalwe

[LeoAtKnight]

It's just a little risk versus reward aspect. You want the rarer drop, you need a risk to go with it. It doesn't need to be difficult to stop the boss KOing someone, just the threat of it happening would be enough to keep you focused as a team and give the encounter a sense of danger.

Right now, boss runs give no sense of danger. I would love a mode or set of levels/encounters with no revives and one life each....

Sephiroth from KH2 has an ability where he floats into the air and chants for a while, meanwhile a dark halo appears above your head making you aware of the danger. It cannot be dodged, and you must quickly interupt him before it casts or you will have your HP drained to 1 and MP completely gone. The only way to save yourself if you get hit is either dodge for a minute (at least) until your MP is back up, or use some sort of potion. But potions are limited, so if you get caught by this too many times you're out.

I completely understand your reason, it is fair. An easy way to stop it, and if you don't there is a tremendous consequence. I just feel the consequence is too steep.

Just my opinion.

Edited September 11, 2013 by ProfessorSnow

[Destro6677]

I updated the post. Now it doesn't challenge any lore and could be applied to any faction.

And not headshots but critical spots. Like, say, the pods have a glowing centre. And the entire point is that it rewards skill. It's not essential to destroy the pods, it's just one way to best him. You could just shoot him if you prefer (it would be just like bosses are now, bullet sponge type) or ignore the pods and let him transform to get to the next stage for the rarer loot.

Besides, you don't make a game and say, we won't put that in because some people can't headshot things... You make content that's a challenge and people try. Not everyone can clear T3 defense in their usual groups, for example.

Yes and no Zakalwe. 

 

Let me rephrase this.

 

I had a friend tell me about his favorite boss battle in Wow. It was a volcano elemental of some sort which required perfect tanking in order to keep it from injuring everyone with aoe attacks. Not everyone had to tank to beat the boss, only the tanks needed perfect tanking.

 

There was another WoW boss which would spawn 4 eyes and if the party did not kill or banish the eyes before the time ran out, they would be dealt 90% maximum health damage. The thing is, a few players could be trusted to do the job while the rest did their own thing, or everyone could chase the eyes instead.

 

What you're suggesting, requiring everyone to be equally good at landing headshots, would lock out players who are very good at spray and pray or tanking maneuvers, but hopeless at headshots, from beating the boss in the best way. From my friend's description, I don't think that WoW did that with the volcano elemental (not everyone had to tank perfectly, only the tanks) and I don't think Warframe should either.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Destro6677

[Zakalwe]

I think you missed the point a little, destro.

The easiest way would be just to shoot him like normal.

Players skilled with well placed shots could make the encounter a little quicker, just like players who can shoot better can clear all the levels faster, but the easier way would still be to just shoot him like you shoot bosses now.

Nothing about this suggestion would make it difficult for anyone who can kill a current boss with a full team.

[Destro6677]

I guess I might have been a bit off if you were actually trying to say that. Thanks for clarifying though.

[Zakalwe]

Soz, I thought the very fact you had to score critical shots made it obviously a more difficult way to do it.

The idea was simply to give players looking for a little extra challenge some skill based involvement, while keeping the encounter manageable for all and the loot available to everyone.