Dev Workshop - Revisiting Augments

[Hikarin]

21 hours ago, [DE]Bear said:

Hysterical Assault - Hysteria Augment - Valkyr

• Let invulnerability linger for half a second when aiming to prevent getting downed immediately in high-damage areas 
• Increased Range 

Hysterical Assault - Hysteria Augment - Valkyr

• Let invulnerability linger when aiming to prevent getting downed immediately in high-damage areas 
• Increased Range 

Or alternatively

Hysterical Assault - Hysteria Augment - Valkyr

• Remove the energy drain while aiming while Hysteria is active.
• Increased Range 

Another idea

Hysterical Assault - Hysteria Augment - Valkyr

• Disables ability to use ranged weapons while ability is active allowing for active blocking.
• Disables passive blocking
• Increased Range

But that is just my opinion on how I'd rather see the valk augmentation go. 

But I was thinking of another way we could use this augmented slot:

Hysterical Assault - Hysteria Augment - Valkyr

• Let's Valkyr use her melee weapons instead of her claws if there is a melee weapon present in the arsenal. 
• Reduce/remove the energy drain scaling from 15 EP/s to Y EP/s 

[Autongnosis]

il y a une heure, Gene_Freak a dit :

How about, they can change a Valkyr's default Hysteria back to having a functional aimglide, and then the augment can allow you to use a gun within Hysteria with a brief invincibility period? That way the majority of Valkyr players get the consistent function of their frame back, and if anyone wants to use a gun in tandem with Hysteria for maximum CO efficiency or other synergies they can mod specifically for that.

That works too, just leave that choice in ;D either is fine

[Chroia]

16 hours ago, DeMonkey said:

Define the rule then, because all that's been stated so far on the matter is "Exalted weapon augments would allow for more build variety if they were weapon mods, not frame mods", which is not a rule, it's a guess.

I'd like to see actual proof of this, before/after builds that show a noticeable benefit and variation in the builds possible. Then you can say that Wukong will be an exception to it.

Fair enough, how about this:
The performance loss per mod missing from final build is generally greater on warframes than exalted weapons.

Without getting into specific builds just yet, do you disagree with this outline?

All of Ivara's, Mesa's and Excalibur's kits benefit from all of Str/Range/Dur/Eff, with Mesa being least affected because her abilities are least affected.
Can't really speak to Titania. Any other exalted weapon users I'm overlooking atm?

Wukong fairly inargueably needs duration and eff.
Range only really benefits Defy's damage component, so if you're not using that, it's a safe dump stat.
Strength benefits the Wuclone('s continuous survivability), but between Defy's armor, Cloud Walker's healing, and simply being able to trivially recast it, the strength required is fairly low, barring extreme high levels.

As such, Wukong has more un-earmarked slots than is the norm.

[SkuLLtheDread]

2 hours ago, AaronGamer11 said:

That blade storm nerf sounds good? Wtf man, Ash is already bad how can this be good in any way???

I only said that "some of these changes look very promising", but okay. I can't speak for Ash, as I don't really play him, my post was about possible Inaros augments.

[DeMonkey]

1 minute ago, Chroia said:

Without getting into specific builds just yet, do you disagree with this outline?

I do yes, because performance is really quite subjective in this regard. It depends entirely on the value we place on each mod and what we want from our build.

Do Excal, Mesa, Ivara need to build for all stats? I'm sure some people do, yeah. But at the same time there's certainly many with completely different and more focused builds.

On each of these frames you'd have to sacrifice a mod on your weapon, be it crit chance, crit damage, base damage, elemental damage or whatever, and in return you can apply a slight buff to another area of your Warframe. In my personal opinion I consider the weapon mods to be undeniably more important to the frames overall performance than the Warframe mods. The absolute majority of the damage output of the weapon will come from the weapon mods, and losing one will negatively impact that performance. A bit more duration, a bit more power strength or some health is not going to be comparable because I build these frames around their weapon, as I'm sure anyone who's using the weapon augment does. This is an opinion I hold for all the frames with relevant weapons, not just Wukong.

Could you give me an example of a mod on say, Mesa's Peacemakers that you'd happily get rid of, and the replacement Warframe Exilus mod you would use.

Or an Artemis Bow mod and it's replacement Warframe mod.

10 minutes ago, Chroia said:

Any other exalted weapon users I'm overlooking atm?

Baruuk and Valkyr, although Baruuk doesn't yet have an augment, beyond that though I think you're good.

[Teridax68]

While I'm glad that some augments are getting revisited, I'm not a fan of having augments passively buff the base stats of the abilities they're affecting -- augments I think should specifically exist to alter or expand an ability's playstyle, which means that if an augment needs more power, that power should likely go into the bonus effect. When an augment needs to just straight-up buff the base ability, to me that suggests that:

1. The augment is not desirable in its current state to be worth picking, and should have its own bonus effect either buffed or reworked.
2. The ability itself is deficient and somehow needs the base stat boost to be at an acceptable level, in which case the buff should just be made baseline.

In neither case do I think it's the best idea to passively buff the base ability via augment. I also do think there are many cases of abilities being weak on their own (Valkyr's Paralysis for example could really use its augment's increased stun duration as a baseline), which need to be buffed directly, not through augments. More generally, I don't think any mod should feel like it exists to cover up some baseline dysfunctionality, particularly since band-aid mods in Warframe tend to not work very well.

[EdDiesel]

Would be cool to have a way to specialize our frames with additional augment slots. Not something that can be purchased or obtained in 5 minutes but for those who are dedicated to their favorite frames. How to obtain I am not sure but would be cool.

 

Would like to see furious javelin or even slash dash augment add some sort of damage reduction per enemies hit.

[EdDiesel]

22 hours ago, [DE]Bear said:

Fireball Frenzy - Fireball Augment - Ember
Freeze Force - Freeze Augment - Frost
Smite Infusion - Smite Augment - Oberon
Venom Dose - Spores Augment - Saryn
Shock Trooper - Shock Augment - Volt 

Hopefully this will not alter elemental combos on other players weapons. Only add more damage to elemental combos that use the element being cast or adding the elemental status proc affect to weapons without being combined into others.

[EdDiesel]

18 minutes ago, Teridax68 said:

While I'm glad that some augments are getting revisited, I'm not a fan of having augments passively buff the base stats of the abilities they're affecting -- augments I think should specifically exist to alter or expand an ability's playstyle, which means that if an augment needs more power, that power should likely go into the bonus effect. When an augment needs to just straight-up buff the base ability, to me that suggests that:

1. The augment is not desirable in its current state to be worth picking, and should have its own bonus effect either buffed or reworked.
2. The ability itself is deficient and somehow needs the base stat boost to be at an acceptable level, in which case the buff should just be made baseline.

In neither case do I think it's the best idea to passively buff the base ability via augment. I also do think there are many cases of abilities being weak on their own (Valkyr's Paralysis for example could really use its augment's increased stun duration as a baseline), which need to be buffed directly, not through augments. More generally, I don't think any mod should feel like it exists to cover up some baseline dysfunctionality, particularly since band-aid mods in Warframe tend to not work very well.

Chances this will happen is null I suppose but I am just having fun with this. Perhaps a talent or specialization tree dedicated per frame as a deeper form of progression system for the warframe itself?

 

IN regard to what you suggested I agree. An augment should not be dedicated to simply adjusting base stats of an ability. IMO should change functionality and allow for different play style.

[(PSN)Androscoggin]

My thoughts on the ones I have used/ seen used

Hallowed Eruption – Increased duration would make the mod useful, but not overly. My recommendation would be have the Hallowed Ground passively explode when the duration runs out. And please let this effect apply to Hallowed Reckoning (if it doesn’t. I don’t have both yet)

 

Magnetized Discharge – any chance that this can also make the magnetize target invulnerable until it is discharged? The only issue I see is magnetize enemies die incredibly fast. Especially in group play.

 

Fireball Frenzy/Freeze Force/Venom dose/Shock Trooper – Yes. Please do this. Exactly this.

 

Thanks for everything you do <3

[SenorClipClop]

These all sound pretty nice! Thank-you for putting your minds toward some of the older Mods we have and keeping it fresh. (And also for sparking my hopes of an eventual Trinity update.)

22 hours ago, [DE]Bear said:

Target Fixation - Tail Wind Augment - Zephyr

• Remove buff after 2 seconds of being on the ground, instead of immediately
• Damage increase per target hit

With the Zephyr Augment, I feel like we need a bit more to it than just extra damage and buff protection. It's still very likely going to be easier (and more powerful) to just shoot enemies rather than perfectly align a Tailwind to hit them.

Perhaps if the Augment allowed us to home in on and lock our trajectory to enemies we aimed at when we cast the ability... you know, like some kind of Fixation on a Target. Like a diving hawk, Target Fixation might allow Zephyr to soar straight toward these enemies, damaging them on contact and repelling off of them once she hit (rather than sailing past them and into the floor). In keeping with Zephyr's theme, let's say the targets need to be airborne (or very recently airborne) to fixate on. This wraps some synergy into Zephyr, as both her 2 and 4 will pop enemies into the air. What is useful CC also becomes a setup for damage with the Tailwind augment.

[JPJared]

The reason I don't use most of the augments is that they'd require me to take off mods that affect all my abilities instead of just one (Duration, Strength, etc.). I think adding an Augment Slot, like an Exilus Slot, would help players use different augments, and more of them as well. Making the adapter 20p like a Forma or Exilus Adapter would be nice, but also adding them into Syndicate rewards (with the augments themselves, but more expensive than them) would be good for keeping them accessible to all players, no matter where exactly they are in the game itself. 

[CanOfCraig]

I feel like if Augments are going to be addressed as a system they need to be looked at from the ground up rather than just changing how a few act, and buffing some others.
Questions that should be asked are :
What is the goal of augment mods?
What stages in the game are players expected to learn about/start using them?
Does someone actually have a valid reason to use this mod in popular modes of content, and if so why?

 

Currently I've been filling my collection of augment mods, most of them getting tossed to the side as "completion" rather than anything I'd really consider using. I know many may have long worded reasons as to why Warframe X, should use Augment Y because Paper math says good numbers. I've got primed mods, mod sets, and arcanes for that.

There are some augments I love using ie. Mesa's Waltz ads a good deal of mobility to a frame that tends to get locked into a turret stance. Volt's Capacitance makes him a favorite for me in ESO giving me speed, CC, and support not only for myself, but my squad with big over shield protection. And I'm sure many remember the glory days of using Hydroid's Pilfering Swarm before it's ability to stack with other abilities was removed. As much as I enjoy using these mods, I don't like the system in place that governs them, as when I look at the majority of these mods the intention for "added power, or all new use" is not the intention.
 

 

When looking at changes to Tidal Impunity my mindset on Augments doesn't change at all. I can't think of a reason why that mod would be used for anything. I'm sure someone can come up with a use case scenario - but many others would just say to use another frame, or better yet a mod that just makes it so you don't need to run into that situation in the same context. If the mod ultimately has no purpose than "to shake things up gameplay wise, be it for better or worse" I can't see reason to put it in the valuable space that is mod slots.

If you were to re look at all augments and make them all useful that would be one thing, but I feel like the discussion of a specific mod slot for warframes needs to be brought to the table seriously, otherwise it seems like wasted time on something new players won't understand, and older players won't care about.

[(XBOX)EternalDrk Mako]

i was kinda hopeful the radial javalin would get some tweaks more so then basic adjustment 

the ability itself is not worth much in combat, needs scaling

[zirkwander]

What I want for Augment Mods is to have their dedicated mod slot similar to what the Exilus mods has.

That way, people would actually bother in using them with their Umbra mods rather than taking the slot of one or any other important mods like Adaptation/Corrupted Mods, etc. 

[maddragonmaster]

ok anyone finding an issue with DE leaving out any tweaks or necessary parts that seemed like very necessary involving the frames that have a exalted melee weapon that ends up effected negatively vastly like lets say valkyr's hysteria? honestly i am getting slightly annoyed with this issue of melee feeling like an unfinished puzzle. and slightly annoyed with the gunplay mechanic, and the passive blocking. especially when passive blocking severely skewers  some of the melees weapons effects like lets say charge attacks with gunblades. and anything that has to do with charge attacks currently.  i mean if they had to include a patch on a augment that already feels moot  especially with the melee 3.0 in the far soon'ish future.

[LupoDWolf]

23 hours ago, [DE]Bear said:

Swazdo-lah, offworlder!

As we re-look at systems within the game, there is one aspect that we haven’t touched in a while, and those are the Augments. As new Augments and new gameplay systems make their way into the game, the older Augments need some attention, and so the team has been assessing what we have and how they can possibly change.

It should be noted that some Augments are tied to abilities that see very little use (such as Pool of Life), however, these will be looked at later on when those same abilities are considered for a rework. For now, this Workshop only covers Augments that we felt we could improve fairly without major overhauls of the base ability as well. They are 'Augments', after all! 

This Dev Workshop is to go over the various Augments we are looking at and our considered changes to each one. So, without further ado, let's take a look at what is under the microscope! Keep in mind, all changes here are impacted by other Mods, this is just the proposed changes to the Augment’s themselves! 

Hysterical Assault - Hysteria Augment - Valkyr

• Let invulnerability linger for half a second when aiming to prevent getting downed immediately in high-damage areas 
• Increased Range 

Rising Storm - Blade Storm Augment - Ash

• Attacks by clones will raise the combo counter 
• Include a passive benefit to extend the combo counter by a duration

Titanic Rumbler - Rumblers Augment - Atlas

• Increase to damage and speed 
• Re-triggering the power will activate the taunt, as well as cause a knockdown effect

Hallowed Eruption - Hallowed Ground Augment - Oberon

• Additional passive ability that triples base duration

Furious Javelin - Radial Javelin Augment - Excalibur

• Increase duration and damage on the buff

Tidal Impunity - Tidal Surge - Hydroid

• Increase the duration of the immunity buff

Magnetized Discharge - Magnetize Augment - Mag

• Include a passive benefit that increases power range for this Ability only 

Muzzle Flash - Shooting Gallery Augment - Mesa

• For kills made by a player (self or ally) with Shooting Gallery activated, generate a blinding AoE when threshold is met

Explosive Legerdemain - Sleight of Hand Augment - Mirage

• Increase damage and status chance when triggered

Total Eclipse - Eclipse Augment - Mirage

• Increase range on the buff to other players

Piercing Roar - Roar Augment - Rhino

• Allow Roar to be recast when equipped
• Increase debuff duration based on equipped Mods
• Generate a stagger effect on enemies when the Roar hits

Contagion Cloud - Toxic Lash Augment - Saryn

• Allow buff to activate when enemy is killed by damage over time effects
• General increase on range and damage

Transistor Shield - Electric Shield Augment - Volt

• No additional energy drain when a shield is picked up by another player
• Increase damage conversion %

Target Fixation - Tail Wind Augment - Zephyr

• Remove buff after 2 seconds of being on the ground, instead of immediately
• Damage increase per target hit

Fireball Frenzy - Fireball Augment - Ember
Freeze Force - Freeze Augment - Frost
Smite Infusion - Smite Augment - Oberon
Venom Dose - Spores Augment - Saryn
Shock Trooper - Shock Augment - Volt 

• Holding the casting button will send out a wave (much like similar, expanding Warframe Abilities) giving the elemental buff to every player it touches, including the caster

Please be aware that during this process, tweaks and changes will be made to these alterations provided. We are always open to your feedback, so if you have any thoughts on the proposed changes above, we would love to hear your comments in this forum thread! Please make sure to keep your feedback constructive and concise, so we can better compile your thoughts!
 

The biggest problem is that we don't have space, so unless the augment is Op (chromatic blade) or way to essential (despoil) we can really make a sace for then. 

Now that the Abilities have a better window, way not make then like Arcanes. All of then have 3 levels, so they can have the same leveling sistem.

[Leqesai]

22 hours ago, Koldraxon-732 said:

Speaking of augments, could Exalted Weapon augments be possibly moved to the Exalted Weapon itself as to allow for more build variety?* This would require a lot of new Exalted Weapons to be created though, like with Chroma's Spectral Scream.

Edit regarding more Exalted weapons: A lot of weapon-like abilities are under-performing in comparison to others. Some of the most obvious ones being a LOT of first abilities, with major examples being Volt, Frost, Nekros, Ember and Chroma's breath.

 

Edit. *This could turn those augments into Exalted Stances which alter the ability's function, but nothing else. I also agree that more room for more mods (slots and capacity, that is) would be nice.

Really good ideas

[(XBOX)KayAitch]

23 hours ago, [DE]Bear said:

Please be aware that during this process, tweaks and changes will be made to these alterations provided. We are always open to your feedback, so if you have any thoughts on the proposed changes above, we would love to hear your comments in this forum thread! Please make sure to keep your feedback constructive and concise, so we can better compile your thoughts!

OK, all Augments should fit in the Exilus slot.

There doesn't seem to be a clear mechanism for what is and what isn't Exilus, but some augments count and others don't, possibly based on some idea of movement stats (long since broken by all the Drift mods).

All Augments should be Exilus, which fits with them being designed to change the way you use abilities rather than flat boost them.

[Zangetsu23xx]

I would suggest that there should be a dedicated augment slots. because some frame can't really be played without its augment and yet you need to be able to survive. it leaves you no choice to either survive but lacking in warframe abilities or having augment ability but unable to survive.

[Gnomeasoarus]

You're only looking at Warframe Augments. What about weapon augments?

What if Neutralizing Justice went from a 90% chance to a 100% chance, the "+100% melee damage" mods got changed to either be stronger or do something unique, Gilded Truth was equipable on both the normal and the prime Burstons, Avenging Truth had a mechanic that could actually work properly (given the rework to melees that happened ages ago), Entropy Flight wasn't useless, Entropy Spike had an affect that wasn't even more worthless than Entropy Flight's, Sequence Burn had something to do with burning rather than just being a range extender, Voltage Sequence wasn't just a bad gimmick, and Winds of Purity was equipable on the Afuris and Dex Furis?

There's a bunch of weapon augments that are bland, bad, literally unusable or severely limited. They are, in essence, the poor man's Riven.

And while I'm at it, what about Rifle Aptitude (and the other status mods like it)? For 9 drain, it provides just a 15% buff to status chance. The dual stat elemental mods provide 60% buff to status chance, in addition to only having a drain of 7. Meanwhile, Hammer Shot gives 40% to status and 60% critical damage, for 9 drain. Rifle Aptitude and its ilk are some of the worst mods in the game, and they need to be buffed.

[TenTonneSkeleton]

Thanks DE, this is very much a step in the right direction. I am certainly in favor of any kind of augment rework because anything at all in this direction would be an improvement! For me personally, I would say that I only use about 10% of the available augments. Not because they aren't cool or interesting but because I simply don't have room. 9 times out of 10, other mods will be better choices than the augments. For this reason I don't think simply buffing existing augments is a long lasting or complete solution. I think the main problem with augments is not their power level but the fact they that they are mods.

Therefore, I propose that we take this opportunity to undertake a complete overhaul from the ground up. This is certainly more of a long term project that requires a lot more discussion, but I do think there is a ton of potential here. With a well thought out overhaul you could address many issues at the same time.

THE PROBLEM: Augments generally fall into 1 of 3 categories: "patching weaknesses", "perks", or "power multipliers" A. augments that in my opinion should have been a part of the ability to begin with (Ice Wave Impedence) and so generally don't feel worth it because the ability itself already feels fairly weak, B. augments that although nice, aren't at all necessary (Ore Gaze) and are more of a perk, and C. augments that are pretty much mandatory to use (Despoil or Regenerative Molt). These "good" augments make up 10-20% of the ones available, while the other 80-90% are not worth slotting in over another mod unless you just enjoy them. They might be fun to use but are generally not worth sacrificing increased power strength, duration, survivability, or range for.

It's worth noting here that the "perks" category of augments don't usually boost damage or survivability directly. Therefore they don't create powercreep. They are also some of the best candidates for inclusion in an alternative system and would be best realized not as mods.

The "power multipliers" should either remain augment mods as is, or be incorporated into the below systems as higher-tier perks. I think many of these types of mods are fine as is because their power level justifies a mod slot.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: There are several directions in which we can take the overhaul, and I'll break them down with some of my own ideas.

Incorporate augments into weak abilities by default.
I feel that many augments were created to patch weaknesses of existing abilities. For abilities that see very little use or are underpowered, why not simply add the augment effect into the ability by default?  This would be a relatively simple balance pass across all frames. Some examples of augments that should be incorporated into the ability by default: Bullistic Bullseye, Shocking Speed, Soul Survivor, Hallowed Reckoning, and Insatiable. There are many others but these are some of the ones I personally would love to see incorporated.

While this is certainly an easy fix, I think it also doesn't adequately address the opportunity before us, and I will elaborate below.

Skill tree progression for each Warframe.
With this overhaul, former augments become unlockable perks on each Warframe's skill tree. Rather than just handing out power like candy, why not let us earn that power? Augments for warframes become a part of player progression. A warframe skill tree could look very similar to our existing Focus Skill Tree.

Although this would be a drastic overhaul, if done correctly, I feel that it could really add something to the game. The current system feels very rinse and repeat. You level a warframe a few times to add some standard polarities and you are done. The vast majority of customization is cosmetic. Yes, there's a fair bit of flexibility in mods, but generally, after playing the frame for a while, you arrive at the same conclusions as everyone else. I wouldn't go so far as to say that warframes are cookie cuttings, but sometimes it can feel that way.

Something I've never understood is that the skill progression for a warframe is completely automated other than your choice in mods and polarities. For example, each time you level your frame with affinity your base stats are boosted and your abilities unlocked at the same point each time. Why is this progression automatic in first place? Don't we want to encourage player choice?

A system like this would also allow a player to use multiple augments at once, which is something I've always wanted to be able to to do, but because most augments aren't that powerful they just take up too much modding space. Changing augments from mods into perks eliminates this problem. More powerful augments should still take up more capacity and be more difficult or time consuming to unlock.

A skill tree model of progression allows for some really creative customization options and would reward players for sticking with a particular frame for the long haul. This approach views each Warframe as a unique character with whom our operator can learn and grow. According to lore and quests each operator appears to have had a very intimate and unique connection with a specific frame. They weren't just a "master of all" or a collector of frames. They mastered a specific focus school and a specific frame. Not to say we can't branch out, but my point is that mastering a specific frame should take much longer and be much more involved than it currently is. When I say that my main is Oberon, I want it to mean more than that's the frame I use most often. It should reflect weeks or even months of training, knowing his abilities inside and out and generally maxing out his potential.

This skill tree could be very involved, but I will shoot out a few additional thoughts:

• Much of the skill tree could follow the existing automatic stat progression from an unranked to rank 30 frame, however  instead of the game system automatically buffing my abilities and stats each time I level the frame, I would get to choose what gets buffed. I would like the possibility to give a bit more health to a warframe at the cost of another stat, say max energy, at least while I'm ranking it up.
• There would be additional nodes on the tree for most of the existing warframe augments. For example, you might have the Phoenix Renewal augment as a node on the tree for Oberon's 3rd ability, and it takes a given amount of affinity and/or resources to max it to, say, rank 3.
• To keep things balanced, developers could do a few different things: Unlocking some augments might require a rare resource (say an eidolon shard). Some augment nodes might be Mastery Rank locked. I think you will definitely have to re-balance some of the augments so that they can be used simultaneously without making frames too overpowered. Alternatively, for a given frame, you might only be able to use a couple augments at one time, limited by some overall capacity. But the more than you pilot and level your warframe the more of its skills and abilities you unlock.
• It gets a bit complicated when you are polarizing your warframe. Re-leveling shouldn't completely undo your progress on the skill tree, but it should give you a chance to re-allocate your affinity. Maybe each time you re-level a frame you gain additional points to spend overall. This would make it more rewarding to re-level. Perhaps you are able to unlock and use an additional augment node each time you polarize up to say a maximum of 3 or 4.
• I realize this skill tree progression adds a lot of complexity to the game for newer players. It's possible that this content should be locked behind a quest that has a few different requirements, as much of the other content of this nature is. Once the quest is complete you might need to obtain a certain item to unlock the skill tree for each of your warframes (similar to an Orokin Reactor)

"Void Channeled" abilities

As an alternative to a warframe skill tree, you could add the augments as perks on each focus skill tree instead. The ideal is probably an amalgam of this idea and the one above. Not quite sure what it would look like though.

Something that continues to feel under-explored is the relationship between operator and warframe. Most of the time, due to the sheer power of my maxed out warframes and weapons, I rarely use my operator unless there is a specific reason to do so: for example, stripping shields from eidolons. Many of the Focus tree perks go unused, simply because they are unneeded when all I need to do is spam E with a giant sword and press 4 every once and a while. This strategy works for 90% of warframe content. Any steps toward remedying this problem will be welcomed. One way we can begin to tackle the issue while simultaneously offering a solution to the augment problem follows:

Something that could be incorporated either into the above skill tree idea, or implemented on its own is to be able to "void channel" a warframe ability. Channeling an ability consumes your operator's void energy to augment it. Mechanically, you would hold a modifier key while pressing your ability key at the same time to void channel. Think of this as a parallel to channeling a melee weapon using your warframe's energy pool. The warframe is the operator's weapon after all.

Each ability would be capable of equipping a maximum of one "void perk". These perks would previously be augments, albeit balanced to fit within this new system.  So, if you void channeled Rhino's 1, Rhino Charge you would also activate the Ironclad Charge perk if you had that perk unlocked and selected. These void perks could even be tied to specific focus schools and unlockable through that school's Focus tree. Because most warframes have a mix of damage, support, or mixed abilities, only specific perks would be tied to a given school. For example Oberon's Phoneix Renewal perk would likely be tied to Vazarin (support) while his Hallowed Eruption augment might be Madurai. Alternatively, each school would directly govern specific warframes and all of that frame's augments.

Augment mod slot.
I am ultimately not as much in favor of this idea as the above ones but it should be discussed. I know the upgrade screen is getting a little cluttered now, but I think we have visual room for one more slot, if the aura and exilis sots are shifted over. The fact that any additional slots will use that much more mod capacity I feel automatically balances this pretty well, especially since this new slot would only allow augments to be fitted in. It would just require a couple more polarizations and probably not allow Umbral Builds unless you had an Umbra Forma.

Allow augments in the exilis slot
Another solution would be to allow augments in the exilis slot (just like Mesa's Waltz). While I would be less happy with this, it would still be an improvement over the existing situation. There are tons of augments I wish I could use, but using them would simply be worse than not using them. There are also a limited number of exilis mods that are worth slotting in - these being Handspring, Enemy Sense, Power Drift, Cunning Drift, Rush, and a couple others. For many frames I would rather have a useful augment over these.

 

Future augments should allow frames to fulfill a niche.

When you as developers are designing new augments I think that augments that either fall in the "patching a weakness" or "perk" category will almost always be misses within the existing augment system. I believe that successful augments either allow the frame to do completely unique things or bolster the warframe's strongest ability. When I think of the augments that I actually do use and are able to find room for, Despoil, Regenerative Molt, Mesa's Waltz, Hushed Invisibility, Chromatic Blade, Resonating Quake, Fatal Teleport, Pilfering Swarm, Negation Swarm, Infiltrate, Phoenix Renewal, etc... they fit this criteria.

Warframes that see the most play do things that no other frame can do or do it so well that they are simply the best choice available.

Here is an example of an augment that I would personally love to use:

Garuda's Blood Altar: Blood Altar's radius is tripled. Garuda's blood altar siphons a percentage of kuva resource for all squad members within its radius. (percentage of Kuva gain is proportional to Power Strength)

Garuda as a character is petty awesome, however I feel that she is generally outclassed by other frames at what she does. An augment like this gives her a purpose, similar to a frame like Nekros, Saryn, or Trinity which everyone loves to see in a squad comp. Kuva is a resource that we can never seem to get enough of. Running out of Kuva? Slap this augment on Garuda and go to town!

Here's another one:

Vauban Bastille Augment: On cast, mechanical enemies within bastille's range fight for vauban instead and attract aggro from enemies for the duration of bastille. (Number of enemies affected and their damage boost is affected by power strength. Damage boost affects all mechanical allies as well including sentinels and moas.)

Giving specific frames augmented effectiveness toward certain factions is a good idea. This augment makes vauban one of the best choices for defense against Corpus.

[Neightrix]

6 hours ago, (NSW)Gunz said:

I don't think most people are using Eternal War to slow enemies, just buff self and ally speed. The slow doesn't really matter in the long term

The fact that no one uses it for slowing helps my argument. It's not being used to slow enemies because every fully build Valkyr uses Eternal War, and because it can't be recast even without Eternal War, and because many builds gimp her range. Additionally, it currently needs nearly 250% strength for maximum slow. At its cap it slows as much as Molecular Prime, and we all know how appreciated that ability is. And it has the same base range and Rhino's Stomp.

[(PSN)Stealth_Cobra]

Ash Suggestions :

Make Smoke Shadow exilus compatible and have bigger aoe effect so you can hit more allies.

Make Fatal Teleport The Default Behaviour for Teleport (since it feels like a band aid mod for bad targeting) and make a new augment for it (damage or survivability buff when using finishers maybe ?).

Bladestorm Augment should go increase the targeting reticle for the bladestorm targeting making targeting groups easyer, plus your mentioned changes.

Seeking Shuriken could maybe affect shields for corpus... ? Honestly it's fine as it is....

[(PSN)Ozymandias-13-]

On 2019-07-25 at 3:44 PM, Chroia said:

I'm thrilled to see this.

That said, before you get too deep into this process, please have whoever's in charge have a sit-down and decide what the role, the purpose of augments is.

Are they intended to serve as upgrades to abilities? Bandaids? (Plz no.) - i.e. 'why would you ever not use the augment if you use ability X?' Irradiating Disarm serves as a 'good' example for the former, Piercing Roar as a 'bad one' (can't blame the aug for Punct proc effect sucking), Iron Shrapnel or Larva Burst as well as Neutron Star for the latter.
Are they intended to promote alternate or niche playstyles? - i.e. Not a no-brainer, but has its place. Chromatic Blade is a (kind of bad) example.
Are they intended to create or promote new synergies within the frame, the loadout, or the squad? (Best example I can come up with off the top of my head here is the '1 -> elemental buff' augments, and I don't love it as an example.) On reflection, Molecular Fission is a better one.
Are they intended to change the aesthetic of an ability (via mechanic change)? - e.g. Absorb -> Assimilate, Sound Quake -> Resonating Quake, or Artemis Bow -> Concentrated Arrow.
Something else?

This would also really help direct the conversation, as we'd know what we're calibrating for.

As is stands, some augments are straight upgrades in the form of MOAR STATS! (such as Primal Fury or Piercing Navigator), some are straight upgrades in the form of added capabilities (such as Seeking Shuriken or Pilfering X), and a few are mechanics changes (see: Absorb <-> Assimilate).

These are not equally attractive, even ignoring not all abilities being equal.
And with mod slots at a premium, as things stand, many augments are basically never worth a slot, even for niche builds.

Quoting for emphasis. 

There's no clear indication of the goal of augments, but too many of them are blatantly bandaids. Literally at least half should be inherent to the ability given the scope of newer frame capabilities.