Sekien, The Painter of Souls

[(XBOX)EternalDrk Mako]

About the Concept

The name sekien is derived from the famous Japanese yokai painter toriyama sekien from the 1700s, initially I was doodling and this guy kind of slowly manifested as i gave it more thought

Im not very good with coming up with abilities kits and details so with this ill just leave the basic concept i had in mind , i can do decent concept art so i thought why not share

(your free to suggest kits and ideas)

What I imagined was a artist themed warframe, but as warframes spins a twist on things so I thought about an artist /summoner  of monsters would be a fun idea

anyway thanks for checking out the idea, was more for fun then anything

Frame kit idea:

He kills an enemy and becomes inspired  then he harvests the energy  and  uses that to create his paintings , these paintings would be some sort of yokai beast/monster that then come to life and battle for him further killing and increasing his pool of souls to make more of his creations, possibly having a gauge meter like saryn and nidus.  the creations could be based on what he paints on or the type of enemy units energy. I was thinking at least 3 yokai beasts that he could use his powers to target designated enemies for him and or act on AI 

Concept art 

[FrostedMike]

I like the idea and the concept art. Let me help you with abilities as this is where I shine.

Passive.
Inspidered:
When Sekien kills an enemy with one of his abilities or creations, the soul of the defeated enemy joins a "pool" of souls Sekien has. Think of it like Nidus's stacks. The pool is capped at 20 for now. If a soul is in possesion, the next ability that Sekien uses will be enhanced and consume a soul.

Ability 1.
Stroke:
Sekien drows a large paint brush and stabs an enemy in from of him (like Gara's 1 when tapped), making a paint mark on him. The enemy takes minor damage from the impact, but take damage over time as well. Hitting the painted area will deal twice the damage.
A soul is granted if the enemy is killed by Sekien.
Ally who got hit by Stroke will heal.
When enhanced by Inspired, Sekien moves the brush in an arc to cover larger area (like Gara's 1 when held), dealing more damage on impact.

Ability 2.
Beasts of Souls:
Sekien summons one of three possible beasts to help him in battle (possibly inspired by yokai):
One moves fast and deal damage.
Second is tanky and deal more damage, but moves slow.
Third is supportive, dealing minor damage but marks enemies with paint from Stroke.

• Hold the ability button to toggle between the beasts.
• Only one can be summoned at once. Summoning a second one will replace the one currently on the field.
• The beast stays for about 30 seconds.
• Hitting a beast with Stroke will reset the timer.
• A soul for Inspired is granted when a beast kills an enemy.
• Inspired enhancement will allow two beasts on the field instead of one.

 

I currently don't have ideas for the other two abilities because it's late at night here when I write this comment. There is also place for balancing and new ideas from you, it's your concept after all.
Just noting something is the casting animation. An artist needs time to create an artwork. How do you fit this into a fast game like Warframe? We can go on the slower side of casting animations, but we already saw it with Nezha and how annoying it was. Here are examples:
Stroke is what it suggest, a quick brush stroke.
With Beasts of Souls, Sekien can quikly write the name of the beast on the ground instead of a painting. Can possibly use Tennobet which seems quick enough and keep the Warframe vibe. Maybe symbols.
I bet I will find more examples when I'll have ideas for the other two abilities.

[(XBOX)EternalDrk Mako]

1 minute ago, FrostedMike said:

-snip-

  thank you for the help 

[keikogi]

I will give you a rough idea if you get interested, I will detail it further.

Passive- (PH) Soul collector

Whenever an enemy dies on 50 meters radius from Sekien they will gain a soul shard. Thera are 5 types of soul charges; the enemy type will determine the type of soul charge drop. Soul Charges will be used to enable and enchant Seiken kit.

• Soul of fire- drops from melee enemies
• Soul of water - drops from ranged enemies
• Soul of Earth - drops from heavy enemies
• Soul of the wind- drops from summoned units and drones
• Soul of the Void- drops from Bosses and Especial units (Nox, Big Raknoids ...)

1. [PH]Great Wave off Kanagawa

Draws a great wave, the wave gains life and hits all enemies on straight line from seiken All enemies hit will be massively slowed and may drop energy orbs and additional soul shards upon death.

2. [PH] Power Words

Seiken will draw kanji into the air buffing the target ally and himself ( you can also target an enemy, in this case the enemy will take damage and seiken will get the buffs)

• Consumes X of fire stacks and gives X% fire damage
• Consumes Y water stacks and gives Y healing/s
• Consumes Z wind stacks and gives increased bullet jump and projectile speed
• Consumes W amount of earth stacks and gives a W amount of armor.
• Consumes 1 void soul and gives a power strength buff.

Cannot be cast if you don’t have enough stacks to get at least one buff. This skill only consumes stacks if you got enough stacks to grant the buff.

3. [PH] Yokai

Cost 75 energy ,

Conjures one of 3 yokai

Tsukomogami (consumes X wind souls, Y fire souls )

Modable like a sentinel

Tsukomogami will fallow seiken around like a shield drone.

Has 2 abilities

• [PH] Umbrella- emit a field blocking X% of incoming projectiles.
• [PH] Trickster- disables the weapon and abilities of 1 enemy

Kappa(consumes X water souls , Y earth souls)

Uses Kubrow mods

• [PH] Bone mender- Heals an ally for X% health.
• [PH] Abduct- jumps into the ground creating a small pound , them abducts up to 10 enemies.

Kintaro (consumes soul of the void)

Uses Warframe Mods

Has a copy of your melee weapon

• [PH] Super Strength- Increases Melee damage by X% for 15 seconds.
• [PH] Warrior Prowess - Will use his melee weapon to block incoming attacks from any direction. Also gains increased movement speed

[PH] Background Change

Seiken paints over the battlefield creating one of his master pieces.

Only one masterpiece may be active at any given time.

Enemies dying inside the master piece will drop an additional soul shard , this soul shard will be of the same element of the master piece.

Mountain

Visual

Changes the ground color to brown

Adds a few rock formations

Effect

Enemies are slowed, each second, they stay inside the mountain the slow becomes stronger until they become statues.

Blazing Building

Visual

Changes the lighting in the area to closer to bright red  

Adds a few pieces of burning furniture

Effect

Allies receive increased power damage (skill deal increased damage inside this area)

Great Ocean

Visual

Changes the ground color to blue

Effect

Allies - Receive healing/s

Great Typhon

Visual

 

Spams "tornados"

Enemy

The great winds may redirect enemies’ attacks.

 

My idea is giving Seiken two skills two facilitate generating "ink”, the other 2 skills use the 'ink' to draw powerful summons and give buffs to ally. His 'ink" is made of the souls of fallen enemies.

Just realised that I should reduce the number of inks to 3 for the sake of simetry and simplicity. Maybe I will rework the kit with 3 elements istead of 5.

 

Edited July 18, 2019 by keikogi
Realised I need to rework the kit.

[FrostedMike]

11 hours ago, FrostedMike said:

I like the idea and the concept art. Let me help you with abilities as this is where I shine.

Passive.
Inspidered:
When Sekien kills an enemy with one of his abilities or creations, the soul of the defeated enemy joins a "pool" of souls Sekien has. Think of it like Nidus's stacks. The pool is capped at 20 for now. If a soul is in possesion, the next ability that Sekien uses will be enhanced and consume a soul.

Ability 1.
Stroke:
Sekien drows a large paint brush and stabs an enemy in from of him (like Gara's 1 when tapped), making a paint mark on him. The enemy takes minor damage from the impact, but take damage over time as well. Hitting the painted area will deal twice the damage.
A soul is granted if the enemy is killed by Sekien.
Ally who got hit by Stroke will heal.
When enhanced by Inspired, Sekien moves the brush in an arc to cover larger area (like Gara's 1 when held), dealing more damage on impact.

Ability 2.
Beasts of Souls:
Sekien summons one of three possible beasts to help him in battle (possibly inspired by yokai):
One moves fast and deal damage.
Second is tanky and deal more damage, but moves slow.
Third is supportive, dealing minor damage but marks enemies with paint from Stroke.

• Hold the ability button to toggle between the beasts.
• Only one can be summoned at once. Summoning a second one will replace the one currently on the field.
• The beast stays for about 30 seconds.
• Hitting a beast with Stroke will reset the timer.
• A soul for Inspired is granted when a beast kills an enemy.
• Inspired enhancement will allow two beasts on the field instead of one.

 

Just noting something is the casting animation. An artist needs time to create an artwork. How do you fit this into a fast game like Warframe? We can go on the slower side of casting animations, but we already saw it with Nezha and how annoying it was. Here are examples:
Stroke is what it suggest, a quick brush stroke.
With Beasts of Souls, Sekien can quikly write the name of the beast on the ground instead of a painting. Can possibly use Tennobet which seems quick enough and keep the Warframe vibe. Maybe symbols.
I bet I will find more examples when I'll have ideas for the other two abilities.

 

7 hours ago, keikogi said:

-snip-

I personally don't like the multyple soul types idea. Quite a lot to keep track of. What I do like in your idea is the creative freedom which define an artist. I think it can be simpler.

Here are my other two abilities and an update for my other ideas:

Inspired passive update:
Inspired pool capacity is capped at 100 souls.

Beasts of Souls update:
Tanky beast isn't really tanky as all beasts depends on duration. This one just deal more damage but slower.
I like @keikogi idea of each beast uses a different mod set.

Ability 3:
Souls Heist
Sekien creates an aura around him. Enemies killed in range yield an additional soul to the pool:
One soul when killed by weapons, two souls when killed by an ability, one more if stroked.

• Beasts of Souls within range gain:
  • Fast beast now also apply Viral proc to attacks.
  • Tanky beast apply damage to all enemies in 3 meters range of his original target.
  • Supportive beast also slowly heal Sekien and allies in range.
• Inspired enhancement slows enemies in range in addition to the above. Consumes 5 souls.
• Toggle ability that consumes energy over time.

Ability 4 (inspired by @keikogi idea).
Great Wave:
A combination of Nezha's Fire Walker and Hydroid's Tidal Surge.
Sekien gain a speed buff and is followed by a wave of ink. Whenever Sekien doesn't move, the wave doesn't move. Whenever Sekien moves, the wave follows.
Enemies hit by the wave take damage and maked with ink. If they die, Sekien gain a soul to the pool.
The wave leaves a line of ink that lasts about 30 seconds and slows enemies down.
Toggle ability that takes energy over time. Deactivating the ability will send the wave forward and deals more damage.
Now comes the interesting part:
Closing an ink line will complete a shape. The shape will blow up when completing it, damaging  any enemy standing on the shape or it's line. Better to explain with a picture:

The dark red lines represent ink lines left by the wave on the field.
Left line is an open shape, but if closed like in the right shape, any enemy in the blue area and on the lines will blow up. Larger shapes deal more damage.
What is going on, is the player turning the battlefield into his canvas, making shapes by moving around. I mentioned in my previous comment here that an artist need time to create an artwork. Taking Warframe's fast nature (fast gameplay where movement is power), an artist's creative freedom (the ability to go everywhere you want) and the time to make a masterpiece. The more time the player spend on his "art", the more rewarding it will be. We don't need slow casting animations of Sekien drawing, we can have a proper warframe that draw by moving around.

• Inspired enhancement takes 1 soul per second and pull enemies into the wave.

In a game all about killing hordes of enemies, the battlefield is the canvas.

Edited July 18, 2019 by FrostedMike

[keikogi]

16 hours ago, FrostedMike said:

personally don't like the multyple soul types idea. Quite a lot to keep track of. What I do like in your idea is the creative freedom which define an artist. I think it can be simpler.

I do have a nasty tendency of overcomplicating desing , especially of I doing it spontaneously. I will see if I can simplify that mess into 1 resource and maybe a empowered( inspired ) state.

Nonetheless , I glad my ideas inspired you.

16 hours ago, FrostedMike said:

Great Wave:

This Skill is amazing the idea of drawing on the ground is so simple and fits so well. The only way I can see this getting any better is if allow stoke to interact with it. It would fit well placing the finishing strokes to a great piece.

I tought this energy was a great opportunity to introce damahe scaling to seiken kit. I would give his 1 and 4 the fallowing effects.

     ₪ Enemies hit by stroke leave drawing on the ground when killed.

      ₪ All drawings inside the great wave will be washed away , but the damage of the great wave is incresed by sum of the original HP of drawings on the ground.

What do you think of this combo, @FrostedMike ?

[FrostedMike]

11 hours ago, keikogi said:

I do have a nasty tendency of overcomplicating desing , especially of I doing it spontaneously. I will see if I can simplify that mess into 1 resource and maybe a empowered( inspired ) state.

Nonetheless , I glad my ideas inspired you.

This Skill is amazing the idea of drawing on the ground is so simple and fits so well. The only way I can see this getting any better is if allow stoke to interact with it. It would fit well placing the finishing strokes to a great piece.

I tought this energy was a great opportunity to introce damahe scaling to seiken kit. I would give his 1 and 4 the fallowing effects.

     ₪ Enemies hit by stroke leave drawing on the ground when killed.

      ₪ All drawings inside the great wave will be washed away , but the damage of the great wave is incresed by sum of the original HP of drawings on the ground.

What do you think of this combo, @FrostedMike ?

I wanted to add an interaction with Stroke, but it was late at night and had to sleep early. I will take your idea and make it simple because I think I missed something there.

• Stroked enemies leave a paddle of ink when killed (visually can look like a symbol / painting / siluate of the enemy).
• When the Great Wave pass on an ink paddle, the paddle explodes, dealing damage to nearby enemies.

Some tips to help you with overcomplicated design:

• Try to describe your design in a single sentence, maybe two. If you can't find a way, it's too complicated.
• As far as numbers and math, no one really cares at the HLD part of the design (High Level Design. A document made to describe a design of something in details, but kept to the minimum. What we did in this thread). You give numbers for comparison and estamations. For example: high amount of damage and not base damage times whatever. You figure out the math later on. Example from here: I said the pool is 100 souls, this is because it feels right for now and because this is a parameter that matter. Will it stay 100? Doesn't matter.

[(XBOX)EternalDrk Mako]

one thought instead of summoning a brush as i read prior, what if he just uses his hands? 

  he inks out the soul ink  from his hands/fingers and paints it on in this style^ 

[FrostedMike]

2 hours ago, (XB1)EternalDrk Mako said:

one thought instead of summoning a brush as i read prior, what if he just uses his hands? 

  he inks out the soul ink  from his hands/fingers and paints it on in this style^ 

Makes perfect sense.
He is an artist of souls.

[keikogi]

6 hours ago, (XB1)EternalDrk Mako said:

one thought instead of summoning a brush as i read prior, what if he just uses his hands? 

Since we are adding visual notes here. I just had an idea for the animation on for Great Great wave.

What if the Great Wave changes the walking animation of Seiken. During the ultimate seiken would use the corpus comba walking animation ( the corpus dudes using space ski guys).

The sking animations would fit better , since its natural for a sliding motions to leave a trail.

What do you think @FrostedMike ?

[(XBOX)EternalDrk Mako]

2 hours ago, keikogi said:

Since we are adding visual notes here. I just had an idea for the animation on for Great Great wave.

What if the Great Wave changes the walking animation of Seiken. During the ultimate seiken would use the corpus comba walking animation ( the corpus dudes using space ski guys).

The sking animations would fit better , since its natural for a sliding motions to leave a trail.

What do you think @FrostedMike ?

a different animation would be nice, i know de has done custom ones for wisp and hildyrn so make hed get his own following that pattern

[FrostedMike]

12 hours ago, keikogi said:

Since we are adding visual notes here. I just had an idea for the animation on for Great Great wave.

What if the Great Wave changes the walking animation of Seiken. During the ultimate seiken would use the corpus comba walking animation ( the corpus dudes using space ski guys).

The sking animations would fit better , since its natural for a sliding motions to leave a trail.

What do you think @FrostedMike ?

 

10 hours ago, (XB1)EternalDrk Mako said:

a different animation would be nice, i know de has done custom ones for wisp and hildyrn so make hed get his own following that pattern

Nice idea.

[(XBOX)EternalDrk Mako]

On 2019-07-20 at 3:22 AM, FrostedMike said:

 

Nice idea.

it would certainly give it a more personalized touch 

[Amarid]

Excellent concept. An creative idea which include with a long-desired summoner type frame

[(XBOX)EternalDrk Mako]

12 hours ago, Amarid said:

Excellent concept. An creative idea which include with a long-desired summoner type frame

thanks , im glad you think so ^~ ^