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Melee Changes: Phase 1


[DE]Rebecca

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Warframe and change go together like Inaros and Vitality. Without change in Warframe we'd still have Stamina Bars, Nekros would still have to hit '3' every time he wanted to Desecrate, and bullet jumping wouldn't exist. In fact, without change, Warframe melee would only consist of quick attacks.

Melee changes are coming - and they'll be rolling out in Phases. Starting with this ‘Phase 1’ overview, we hope to give you some insight as to what you can expect coming down the road - starting with the following goals:

1) Uninterrupted Combat - firearm to equipped melee (and vice versa) states are instant.
Bonus 1.a) Combo Resume
2) Ground Slams are more controllable, cleaner, and simpler.
3) Visual FX: 2019 style!
4) Keybinds!
5) Change & Methodology.

UNINTERRUPTED COMBAT
 

Our original "Sword Alone" melee update inspirations came from a lot of '1 player vs. 1 enemy' materials, which over the years has not kept up with Warframe's combat pace. To benefit from blocking, combos, channeling, and more you had to hold a key and lock yourself into melee mode entirely. This had huge appeal in 2014 because everything was new, but now it is time to bring back fast and distinctly Warframe combat.

With the instant firearm to equipped melee (and vice versa) states, you can immediately engage in all things melee - Combos, blocking, and more. No more interruptions between firearm and melee!

COMBO INTERRUPTS/RESUME

When interrupting a melee combo with gunfire, dodging, bullet jumping, or any parkour, your next melee attack will resume the combo where it left off (within a window). This simply means taking brief and tactical actions between combo executions is now a valid strategy.

Combo Resuming is something we are trying for Phase 1 - at least as a prototype. This is the most subject to 'too volatile to ship in Phase 1', so we'll keep you posted.
 

GROUND SLAMS

Aerial dominance is a key part of Warframe - you have full freedom to not only weave in and out of combat on the ground, but bullet jumping and aim gliding from above is one of a Warframe's most lethal advantages. Current ground slams instantly interrupt all momentum, direction, and cancel any aiming to slam you down right where you are. We are going to make Melee ground slams aimed, and as a result more controllable. You will be able to use your aerial advantage to aim, and then target the Ground Slam to more tactical end results.


OLD SYSTEM
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NEW SYSTEM

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FX: 2019!

Our FX art team will be updating all things Melee FX. Expect a beautifully redone FX pass with all this change in Phase 1!

Our FX Team says:

'We're replacing all Melee FX with the new clean basic ones!' You can see what that looks like here:
https://gfycat.com/gloomyenlightenedhoverfly

https://gfycat.com/clutteredpotablekagu


Because this is Phase 1, it 'means all the unique weapons will have new generic FX for a little while (Jat Kittag etc.) until we can get through them all and make new clean variants'.

New and cleaner FX have been created with the idea of beautifully short, highly detailed lifespans. Not infinite - meaning the 'Constant Weapon Trail' option will be removed as a result of this change (at least for Phase 1, we really do think it looks better removed).


KEYBINDINGS

Things are changing. This may lead to keybindings from our old Melee system becoming obsolete.

Notable Keybind changes:

BLOCKING

Blocking with a melee weapon is no longer keybound, it is automatic when facing enemies who are dealing damage to you in melee mode. Your Reticle determines all!

CHANNELING
Channeling is now a toggle set to your alt-fire button when in melee mode.
Your 'F' button now exclusively swaps between Primary and Secondary weapons with a tap.
Your left mouse button is gun fire, always, instantly.
Your right mouse button is now aim, always, instantly.

OPTIONS:
We are adding a toggle to preserve one aspect of the older melee system. You will be able to toggle an option, allowing you to continue melee attacks with the left mouse button once in melee mode.

CHANGE& CHANGE METHODOLOGY:

We have been discussing Melee over the course of many Devstreams - at one point planning to release it one weapon class at a time. This is no longer a wise case for any practical development to be made, so instead we are releasing in Phases. Instead of doing all the changes to one weapon, we are doing smaller phases of changes to all weapons. That way you'll be able to experience batches of changes across all you weapons - what is good for a Dagger may not be good for a Hammer, and as each Phase rolls out, you'll be able to compare and contrast!

We cannot make innovative change when trying to preserve the status quo from 2014. What this means more broadly is that melee habits will change, not just keybindings. Keybindings are just a facet of the current combat systems - however, we are confident that the changes being made will increase the fluidity of melee combat, and that new smoother feeling will outweigh the old, clunker need for different keybindings. We cannot upgrade the melee system to 3.0 without refactoring what exists.

 

Additional Information:
 

  • Updated Reticles: Melee mode has received its own reticle!
  • Archwing: Arch-Melee & Arch-Gun now also use the 'instant swap' behaviour.
  • Dual Wield (i.e Glaive & Single Secondary) is still supported!
  • Exalted weapons will also benefit from the uninterrupted swaps!
  • AI hit reacts are getting updated! Enemies will have a more visceral/realistic response to the various hits you dish out. It'll look a little something like this: https://gfycat.com/SpiritedLastHeifer

CONCLUSION

We don't want to repeat 2018's Melee discussion where we show, go dark, and the year passes. We'll live through this evolution in phases together and adjust the sails along the way. We are confident the change is needed, and we've started charting the course.

We'll let you know when release week comes for PC. Once we've made progress, we'll start writing about Phase 2 which will talk all things MODS and CHANNELING. We are not touching any of your upgrades or gear until you've been able to try out Phase 1.

It feels incredibly refreshing to play missions on the Dev build with Phase 1 so far. We hope you enjoy a new spark of action coming to your Arsenals soon!

P.S. we're going live 45 minutes from now twitch.tv/warframe to read this with you all and demo it.. if you want to see your favourite frame/melee demo'd, reply here with details!

----------------------------------------------

Post-Stream Edit!:

We had a lot of excellent questions come up during the livestream about these upcoming Melee changes, as well as some great questions here in the thread. As a result, we wanted to recap some FAQ's here in the main post:

  • When is it going to be released? - Development is ongoing, and you can see that we are making excellent progress. Right now, the plan is to release Phase 1 of the update with our next Mainline Update. We are hoping this is in a couple weeks on PC! 2019's wells appear to be dry so far from the outside, Tenno, but we’ve not been sitting idle within DE's walls.
     
  • How will this work with Combos that need a Block button to use? - The current plan is to change these combos to an alternate function, although the final decision on this has not been settled upon. It may require a bit of re-learning, but we are aiming to make it as intuitive as possible!
     
  • How will special blocking weapons’ abilities work? - We have plans to include alternate ways of using these abilities to make them work with the new system. For example, the Vaykor Sydon unleashes its special ability when block is released. The plan is to change that so built-up charges will only trigger when aiming, giving you more control over its use.
     
  • How will this effect ‘X’ Mod? - Mods are coming in a later stage of development of this huge change, and you may see some changes to how Mods work with the new system. We are staying aware of any breaking changes that will be reported, however, and will make adjustments as we get feedback.

Thank you for joining us on our impromptu Stream to look at these changes and to get a bit more of a demonstration of how this rework will function. If you missed it, you can look at the footage yourself and see all the glorious new FX and functionality by watching the video below!

 

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8 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

OPTIONS:
We are adding a toggle to preserve one aspect of the older melee system. You will be able to toggle an option, allowing you to continue melee attacks with the left mouse button once in melee mode.

This fixes the only lingering concern I had about everything Steve has been showing off, so I've gone from 90% hyped ("this looks sweet, so I'll deal with relearning") to 100% hyped. 😄 😄

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How would this augment work with secondary/alt fire being replaced for channeling?

HystericalAssaultMod 

8 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

P.S. we're going live 45 minutes from now twitch.tv/warframe to read this with you all and demo it.. if you want to see your favourite frame/melee demo'd, reply here with details!

SHOW US HAMMER STANCES

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12 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

snip

are we getting any 'attack where we look' added to our melee attacks?  Currently there is no 'change in plane' for the melee attack so it makes hitting things lower and higher than us harder so it would be nice if something like this is being added, ie to we look up to hit an osprey or we look down to hit something below us on a staircase?

 

Not to mention how will this affect mods that deal with swapping weapons faster or vigorous swap where it gives extra damage etc

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Goodbye melee aimgliding, I guess? Actually a little disappointing with some of the weapon passives that only count when the weapon is out, like the Rakta Dark Dagger's reduced visibility.

edit: hopefully you guys are going to take an immediate look at any of the weapons with blocking mechanics along with this. stuff like the Vaykor Sydon is... bad to begin with, and very incompatible with auto-blocking, so this is a perfect time to change it!

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11 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

OPTIONS:
We are adding a toggle to preserve one aspect of the older melee system. You will be able to toggle an option, allowing you to continue melee attacks with the left mouse button once in melee mode.

This is all I needed, thanks so much ❤️

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