Archwing Melee "Homing" removed? Feels bad.

[(PSN)Unstar]

It used to be that if I used melee in Archwing, it would zip me over to a nearby target so I could plant an attack square on them.  This behavior seems gone now; instead I just swipe at the air in front of my face.  This occurs in not only Empyrean missions, but also in old-school Archwing missions.

While generally speaking I think the Archwing controls right now are pretty great, it's very difficult to line up melee attacks without this "homing" ability that melee used to have.  Right now it feels like I'm a pixel in space with an animating Warframe on top of me, and the enemy is a pixel in space with an animating drone on it, and if I can line the two pixels up properly then I will deal damage and eventually kill it.  But it doesn't feel like I'm actually interacting with my enemy, and the only feedback I get that lets me know I hit instead of whiffed is to try to guage whether the health bar went down (easy on less durable enemies, but more difficult on the tougher ones).

I definitely think the "homing" behavior of Archwing melee attacks should be added back in so that punching things in space can feel satisfying again.

[Uhkretor]

1 minute ago, (PS4)Unstar said:

it's very difficult to line up melee attacks without this "homing" ability that melee used to have.

Here's the thing, there's a huge problem with the aiming range of all Melee weapons, including Arch-Melee weapons. The "automated" system actually puts players out of range 90% of the times, making them miss all the hits. Since I've disabled all those "automated" assistances on non-Archwing/non-Railjack missions, I'm pretty used to the freedom that comes with it and can have a much higher performance without them rather than with them, especially with the broken range of those assistances. That's the reason why it was brought down.

Interestingly enough, I find it easier to actually hit with Arch-Melee weapons as it is now than with homing assistance.

[(PSN)Unstar]

3 minutes ago, Uhkretor said:

The "automated" system actually puts players out of range 90% of the times, making them miss all the hits.

Huh, that's strange, we seem to have entirely opposite experiences.  For me, I never had any issues with Arch-Melee (or normal melee) with the auto-targeting.  My weapon of choice is the Knux, and every punch was always exactly where I wanted it to go, instantly jumping me from target to target in clusters of enemies faster than I could ever move myself, and with much less frustration.  Without it the auto-tracking, my Archwing is just too finicky (in that it makes fast, jerky movements) to navigate into the precise locations I need to be to connect with my big punchers.

My best guess is that maybe this is one of the differences between using a mouse/keyboard and a controller, since we're playing on different platforms?

 

[Uhkretor]

Perhaps.

 

Assistances were invented to compensate for inadequate control systems, like a decade ago or so, and are usually applied in games that weren't meant for such controls. But I do hope they fix the problem though.

[taiiat]

i didn't have something like a 90% failure rate but, there was definitely a moderate amount of the time that the game wouldn't actually get in Range of the Enemy before the swing tried to hit, and the first swing wouldn't do anything or something like that.

with or without though, the Melee offering in Archwing isn't good anyways, i'd rather see it rethought from the ground up but using the same Mods and Weapons already present.
for starters Archwing really needs Instant Switch, and rather than a single couple hit swing of button mashing i'd rather Archwing Melee Weapons go for more of a 'Heavy Weapon' style where you don't try to hit a particular Enemy so much as cleave the general area in front of you or something.
give the Melee Weapons unique traits while you're at it. perhaps like Knux will push Enemies backwards, Rathbone Stuns Enemies, Agkuza pulls Enemies closer to you, Kaszas.... has really high Range?(idk), Veritux uses those Thrusters to do something, Centaur can be used as a Shield, Et Cetera.

Edited December 29, 2019 by taiiat

[(XBOX)KayAitch]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Unstar said:

This behavior seems gone now; instead I just swipe at the air in front of my face

It's a bug, it's broken for everything except the Veritux, which still works. 

I'm sure it's on the long list of bugs to fix that they'll get on to when they come back from holiday.