New Warframe Idea: Arachne The Spider Queen

[Father_McPheely]

I was thinking that an insectoid frame would be nice. The idea is that it would be a defensive frame in a different manner from other frames. It would be a humanoid shape with four addiational appendages on it's back.

 

First Ability: Venomize

Spit your venom on nearby enemies with a toxic effect causing them to flail about for the ability duration.

 

Second Ability: Spider Silk

Spit a web line between you and a distant target to give you a zip line to walk on or set as a trap to stick enemies in place.

 

Third Ability: Tubular Web

Fire off a large web array onto the floor or stick in doorways to trap enemies and leaving them ripe for the picking.

 

Fourth Ability: Hunter Spider

Become invigorated, setting aside your weapons and relying on your appendanges to maim, bleed and dismember your opponents. Gain a speed boost and gain toxic/slash procs effective against flesh creatures.

 

The idea for the frame is what came to mind...the abilities are just something that I threw together. It's like a combination of Ivara/Inaros/Saryn/Vauban except it's focus is less AOE and more 1on1 making it more challenging. What do you guys think?

Edited December 25, 2018 by Father_McPheely

[-skimmer-]

in before you realise that Khora was the spider themed warframe we got and so its extremely unlikely we get another frame with the same theme.

[BansheePrime]

1 minute ago, -skimmer- said:

in before you realise that Khora was the spider themed warframe we got and so its extremely unlikely we get another frame with the same theme.

She was supposed to be.... but turned into a crazy cat lady huntress.

[Father_McPheely]

Yes. Khora is arguably a "spider" kind of frame but she is actually the "cat" frame.

[-skimmer-]

the only cat thing about her is Venari. Calling her the "Cat frame" is like calling Batman the "Robin dude".

[Father_McPheely]

I understand your argument but she was not actually created as the "spider" frame. She was created as the "huntress" which would be closely similar to Valkyr the "berserker" frame. She is described as a cat and yes, only because of Venari, but she is not labeled as a spider which means an arachnoid/humanoid frame is still entirely possible. And the only reason people consider her a spider is because of the spiky detail on her body and the fourth ability which is made with metal tethers and blades and not web.

[Father_McPheely]

This is Khora, and her deadly beast Venari. With bladed precision, she is a mistress of entrapment.

Don't get caught on the wrong end of a whipcrack of Khora's steel. It may be the last thing you hear.

—Lotus

Fiercely poised with feral instincts, the huntress Khora and her feline familiar Venari prowl amidst combat scouring for prey. Mistress of the livewire, she enchains her foes to enforce deadly discipline by whiplash, claws, and serrated steel.

 

This is the details from the Wiki page on Khora. Nowhere does it mention her as a spider. It describes her as FERAL which is beast not insect.

[Birdframe_Prime]

Eh... sounds good, but could use a little work.

And I... may... possibly... have been working on a concept... for about a half year before this. And it does seem to have similarities with what you're hoping for too.

My concept involves a projectile that hinders enemies, a webbing function that traps enemies, a camouflage aspect to help with 'hunting', and even a transformation mode that turns her into that active, hunter/killer spider type. Tell me if this lines up with what you would look for:

Spoiler

Therid, the Arachne (Named for Therididae or ‘widow spider’, also sounds a bit like ‘thread’)

Spider warframe, themed for entangling web and unconventional movement.

Brief Description: (For the Ability Trailer)

Passive. Climber, Therid will resist CC abilities and effects of knock down and knock back as long as she is on non-floor surfaces, such as walls, ceilings and zip-lines. 

1. String Shot. Fire a silent projectile that passes through enemies dealing minor damage, but staggering them and inflicting a Slow proc.

2. Camouflage. Create a wide one-way screen in front of Therid, following her aiming reticle, that allows her to pass unseen from that direction. Hold ‘Interact’ to drop the camouflage screen in place as fixed barrier to hide behind, can be picked up or put down as long as Duration lasts. Enemies will still see Therid from other angles, while un-alert enemies walking through the screen will have their alert phase delayed allowing escape before Therid is noticed, or even promoting stealth finishers.

3. Silent Snare. Place a concealed trap on any surface, the first enemy to walk in range will be snatched up in a silent, silk prison, leaving other enemies unaware of their disappearance. Enemies within her trap will take low-level Toxin damage over time and their remains will dissolve in the trap to prevent other enemies becoming alert by spotting stray body parts.

Cast multiple traps within range of each other to create a web that can trap additional enemies beyond the capacity of individually placed Snares. An amount of energy will be refunded for consecutive casts if they form a web. 

If an enemy affected by String Shot is caught by Silent Snare, the Toxin damage gains a guaranteed Toxin Status proc.

All enemies in Silent Snare’s grip will receive full damage from outside sources, such as gun, melee and ability damage, without freeing them, so be sure to take full advantage of your helpless prey.

4. Hunt. Therid unleashes her true form, becoming a creature of nightmares. Transforming the lower half of her body into the skittering legs of a spider, Therid gains the ability to walk and run on any surface with heightened speed. Therid uses her signature silenced Fang rifle to deadly effect as she is able to strafe at high speed while aiming, ascend walls and even find purchase on ceilings.

All of Therid’s abilities gain strength while she is transformed. Camouflage extends in size and curvature to become a hemisphere before her, sheilding her more effectively. String Shot’s Slowing status becomes twice as strong and are refreshed in duration by shots from the Fang rifle. Enemies within Silent Snare take additional damage from the Fang Rifle, and Snare refreshes its duration when shot.

Therid is a deadly hunter, Tenno, be careful not to fall into her web.

Explanation: (For everyone concerned with the why and how)

The Passive is kind of the opposite application of Atlas’ version, as long as Therid is clinging to a surface using Wall Run/Latch or Hunt’s movement, she cannot be CC’d or knocked back, but CC still works on the ground and in the air.

String Shot works on the same principle as the Arca Plasmor, it passes through enemies to the limit of its range, but is blocked by geometry. It’s a wide projectile that can hit multiple enemies to slow them by a moddable, but capped, amount.

Camouflage is potentially really simple, working off the existing assets of Volt’s Shield. It’s a carried shield except that it does not count as a pick-up at base, so you can use Primary, Secondary and Melee through it. There is no difference in size between the carried shield and the placed shield, so that there’s a decent area to prevent being seen from the front. I would put this on a Duration, rather than on a Drain to ensure players use a bit more active play to move around rooms instead of trying to camp in the corner. Only one screen can be active at once, so there will always be a re-cast delay. The shield does not provide any specific buffs apart from the mono-directional invisibility, and the part where enemies that pass through it have their Alert phase delayed by a couple of seconds, letting you pull off melee finishers, or just not be seen if you move away quickly enough.

For Silent Snare, think of using the same resource that we have for Hydroid’s puddle, it’s a small area cast that appears at the reticle, within your Range. The first enemy that comes in range of it gets dragged in just like Hydroid’s little whip-tentacle does, the capture is silent and does not put any other enemies on alert, the enemy captured is held for a duration, affected by mods, and takes damage over time while captured. Should the enemy die while captured, their body dissolves (similar to a Corrosive death) and is not detected by other enemies. One enemy per Snare, with an allowance for the Web mechanic (see below).

For a bit of balance, the enemy within the Snare is technically in the Aware state, so they do not take the Unaware bonus damage, and if the duration of the ability ends without killing them, they will emerge and raise the alarm.

The webbing would visually work in a similar way to Vauban’s Tesla Grenade Augment, as long as there’s two in range, they will create a line of ‘web’ between them which basically allows the range to be increased. So technically it’s exactly the same as the base snares, enemies that are caught are taken silently, other enemies are not alerted, but if two are linked together, the individual snares are filled by the capture from the nearest one to the enemy. Visually you’d just see energy lines between them, but if enemies are passing by the original Snare, and you’ve linked in three more to it further away, that first Snare will pick up enemies and deposit them in the second, third and fourth Snares in turn as they are captured. So there's no wasted Snare placement as long as they link up.

An important mechanical note would be that each Snare can hold one enemy only, but if you link them up in the web, the combined snares can hold an additional enemy for each Snare linked beyond the first cast. So if you cast 4 Snares in an area, the next 7 enemies coming in range will be Snared, that’s 1 per Snare cast to make 4, plus 3 further enemies because the web is linking the first cast to 3 other Snares.

Snares that have enemies in them will, to us, have enemies sticking out of them, making it easy to see where enemies are to hit them for damage or abilities. But much like the traps Vauban places, the enemy can’t see them.

The final addition is the point about ‘energy refund for linked casts’, which is to encourage web-building. The base cast is a little lack-luster for 75 energy, so I would consider dropping the cost lower, but if you cast a second and it links up in a web, you’re refunded 50% of the cost. So even with just a Streamline you could cast for 53 energy, then consecutive casts would be for 27. It also then has the balance of not wanting you to spend all your time building webs, because the cost is still high enough that three or four is your average best. You could choose to get more efficiency, at the cost of Duration, a functional build would then cost only 23 for the first, and 12 for the follow-up casts.

As for Hunt, it should feel like a regular transformation type ability that grants an Exalted style Rifle. The Rifle is reasonable damage but high status chance, and will deal additional multiplied damage to those in Silent Snare for taking care of tougher targets.

I want to be very clear about one thing, though; to prevent motion sickness the default view when moving and strafing the camera’s perspective of up and down will not change, merely move to a perspective that’s still ‘over the shoulder’ to ensure consistency of aiming, the Fang rifle is not a sniper, so there will be no scoped in view to confuse the matter and prevent you from seeing what Therid is climbing over/on. While I do want to be able to invert this frame, I know exactly how nauseating inverting the view can be. Just be aware that this will mean that inverted movement will require inverted strafing ^^

For those that want to invert the camera with the frame to get that true spider-frame experience, it will be something you can toggle on in the settings, just like the inverting on Archwing, but it's not on by default.

The rifle will be, for some, a sticking point. I mean, I know, I know, another Ability Weapon that replaces your kit, and will need more Forma thrown into it. It’s a pain, I understand that point of view.

The first reason I include it is to ensure that the Hunt mode is using that specific combo of a Silenced Primary Weapon and can have its damage adjusted in relation to game balance and the combo with Silent Snare. Think if it the same as Titania's Razorwing with the Dex Pixia, where the mode itself has a specific transformation, and because of that transformation you’re being limited in which weapon you can use, but it has advantages and ability improvement to balance out.

The other reason is because, with the extra legs on Therid during Hunt, there is custom animation for movement that would be involved, she simply wouldn't be able to use Melee stances or similar. It just won’t work out. In the same way that Razorwing can’t use the usual melee animations because she’s flying, Therid won’t be able to use them because she has extra legs. So it makes sense to give her something powerful to make up for that loss.

While Hunt does enhance her other abilities (putting double strength Slow status on Sting, better shape and size on Camouflage) besides those and the nice Rifle it doesn’t do very much else but apply mobility to her, allowing her to move and strafe at full speed even while aiming, and also able to simply walk up a wall like any spider. So it’s possible, even while aiming, to strafe sideways at sprinting speed across a corridor, up the wall, across the ceiling and down the other wall without needing to turn around. As such, the cost and Drain can be quite low. It doesn’t scale up in damage over time, it just adds to her kit and gives her a new weapon. Much like Exalted Blade or Razorwing the use of the rifle doesn’t cost extra, just the ability over time.

Play Style:

I like including the ‘play style’ section for referencing how potential frames would fit into the game. You can mod Therid the same as any Ability Weapon user, with good Duration and Efficiency to reduce the cost of Hunt, and boost the usage of her 1, 2 and 3. The Fang rifle would work well with a high Status build to help strip enemies down, and the damage boost from enemies being Snared will help with actual Base Damage.

Modding in Strength, of course, will increase all the damage she deals and increase the amount of Slow on enemies, it will also increase the damage bonus for shooting Snared enemies with the Fang rifle. While Range will increase the area that Snare can effect, which is not to be neglected, and the distance that String Shot will travel.

For those that love melee mode, well... this isn’t really the Warframe for you, but the frame will function okay as long as you're not using Hunt. Slowing enemies, applying a stagger, with solid CC using Silent Snare, plus enemies will not be able to see you as you approach due to Camouflage being between you and them. The combo between String Shot and Silent Snare means you get a guaranteed Status effect to run well with Condition Overload, and with the unaware enemies from Camouflage, this could be functional even though you're ignoring Hunt.

Stealth is obviously something that players would really want to get out of her, so a long Duration, decent Range and higher Efficiency so that you can cast multiple Snares, web up a crowd of enemies and eliminate them with either regular silent weapons, or with Hunt where you’re hiding on the ceiling. You could even fool Security Cameras to prevent accidental discovery during Spy missions.

But the operative style would be to run-and-gun the levels with Hunt's silent rifle, a large Camouflage shield and web up enemies from all angles, String Shot the helpess enemies for that Toxin Status when combined with Silent Snare, shooting them in the web for bonus damage, and never leaving a trace.

In group play, allies will be able to attack helpless enemies in Snare for full effect, and of course the Camouflage barrier will protect your allies just as easily as it will protect you, drop it down in one direction to even hide Objectives from the enemy like Ivara's Stealth Arrow. 

Therid could be a completely new take on the Stealth gameplay, or a full-on mobile turret frame, hanging from the ceiling, functionally invisible and gunning down the enemy from range, or even a run-and-gun master with enemies Slowed and unaware of her charging right for them.

I love coming up with concepts and working with other people on them, do you like this one at all? Or does it clash with what you were thinking?