Warframe 2020: The Year of Maintenance?

[(PSN)IndianChiefJeff]

2019 was certainly a year for Warframe. Fresh off the heels of Fortuna, we saw many things come our way, from the Nightwave system, the Buried Debts, the PoE face lift, the Jovian Concord & more. Each update had its fair share of issues, from the typical amount of bugs to the questionable implementation of Nightwave, but we were also given 3 of the most amusing Frames in recent memory. All of those pros & cons aside, each of these update pale in comparison to the wasted potential & depressing state that both The New Blood & Empyrean are in. Now obviously the features these updates implemented are entirely complete yet, but it doesn't excuse the current state they're in.

For the sake of simplification, I've decided to reorganize my points in a more simplistic manner with lists.

Disclaimer: Plenty of these ideas & criticisms have circulated across the community, I seek to reinforce these points for the sake of redundancy.

Old Blood/Empyrean Pros:

• Kuva Lich Design & personality variety
• Lich Combat encounters interesting, especially in CQC
• Weapon & Ephemera variety (Kuva Chakkhurr especially)
• Parazon is a useful tool that provides a variety of boons
• Tougher missions with every Lich Level increase
• Railjack piloting is smooth & fun
• Intrinsic unlockables offer useful perks
• Empyrean missions require cooperation on a similar level to Trials (RIP LoR), making organized team play amusing

Old Blood/Empyrean Cons:

• Murmur grind unnecessarily long
• Requiem Relics & Mods (Why do they exist?)
• Repetition in Kuva Weapon Rolls
• Kuva Weapon bonus stats (Keep Riven-esque RNG out of my weapons!)
• Kuva Lich cannot return upon death (Unlike Middle-Earth games)
• Lich conversion options limited to trading & random Lich spawning in the occasional mission
• Railjack starting gear isn't that effective, especially on starting nodes
• Resource requirements for Blueprints high
• Refine option in the forge is a crime against humanity
• RNG for part drops too low depending on the area
• RNG stats for parts certain parts (RNG on top of RNG)
• Certain starter-friendly Intrinsics feel stripped back to fill Intrinsic categories
• Only 1 mission type
• Not single-player friendly
• Arch-weaponry lacks ranged hit-scan damage potential & melee tracking
• Amesha is the only Archwing up to par
• Shedu mission too heavily reliant on timer
• Empyrean released too early in development, feeling too bare-boned (Will become more developed as time goes on, but was released at an inappropriate time)
• Lack of Old Blood/Empyrean integration as shown at TennoCon viewings

Old Blood/Empyrean Suggestions:

• Reduce Murmur grind
• Remove/Make Requiem Mods easier to acquire
• Allow Requiem Mods to be rechargeable via Kuva (Consumable mods are dumb)
• Make Kuva Larvlings carry weapons that'll be converted into the Kuva variant for easy tracking & selective processing
• Make bonus stats on Kuva Weapons tied to Lich Level and/or allow Kuva to be used to increase level
• Make Liches feel less disposable, Lich resurrection
• Allow Converted Liches to become Companions (Name, Armor, Weapon & Ability Customization)
• Reduce Empyrean grind, making everything more reasonable
• More mission varety (obviously)
• Make RNG drops more reasonable
• Remove RNG stats from Railjack parts
• Make Command Intrinsic reasonable & useful on & off ship (With Syndicate influence)
• Throw Refine option out the window, enable loot-share for squad (Huge maps make loot-gathering a chore)
• Incorporate Lich & Railjack system, taking advantage of squad link that was cut out for time
• Buff Archwing gear all across the board
• Make these updates feel less isolated

Other Suggestions for the Future:

• Pets 2.0, featuring separate modding for Damage & Survival Mods (Akin to Robots)
• Pet Armor applicable to skins 
• Mod-Share for Warframe & Robotic weaponry (No more mod conflicting)
• Exilus slots for Archguns & Robotic guns
• Condroc & Grineer Roller-Turret Companions
• Blade & Gun Dual-Wield
• Frame Fighter Roster update
• Scanning Mini-game for tracking Somachord, Cephalon, Frame Fighter fragments (Orb Vallis Map is far too big without proper tracking)
  • Works if fragments remain
• More Tenno Reinforcements (Non-Kuva Variants, Euphona, Nami Solo Prime, Twin Marelok, Nox Gun, Rictus Chainsaw, more Cephalon weapons, Arch-weaponry, expand upon smaller weapon categories like the Warfan)
• Gravimag integration for Arch-melee
• Sergeant & Phorid Reworks
• Weapon Plaque decorations
• More PoE stuff
  • New Zaws
  • Additional Conservation Targets
  • Map Expansion?
  • Unum side-quest?
• More Fortuna stuff
  • Kitgun Primaries
  • Moas, Ospreys & more
  • 3rd Orb Mother
• Trials Return
  • LoR Revisited: Includes puzzles, ground combat, Railjack vs. Fomorian action, Vay Hek-smackin' action
  • Jordas Verdict: Railjack combat, Archwing infiltration, ground sabotage
  • Corpus Trial?: Nef Anyo must die
• Warframe Balance Checks
  • Ability Scaling & more
• Weapon Balance Checks (Ignoring Riven Dispositions, Rivens aren't balanced to begin with)
  • Why does Stug deal 0% Status again?
  • Make MR fodder nonexistent
• Dojo QoL
  • Simplified Construction System: Reduces Time, & Stress
  • Additional Rooms: Danger Room (Simulacrum), Sentient Lab, K-Drive park, Personalized Rooms (Armory, Lounge, etc), Syndicate Rooms
  • Countless ingame assets for customization: Vehicles, fish tanks, useable furniture, armaments, utensils, etc
  • Room Somachord Options
  • NPCs (Patrol/Stationary)
  • Room Themes: (Factions/Syndicates)
  • Dojo Defense Missions?
  • Simplified Construction
    • Reduces build cost to base tier for items that do not grant Dojo XP (Rooms excluded)
    • Instant Building (Rooms & Dojo XP Items excluded)
      • Spiffing up the Dojo
• Faction Syndicate Rework
  • Featuring more mission variety: Railjack, Archwing, Defection, Disruption, etc
  • Leaders act as mission control: No more backseat Lotus
  • More than 3 dailies (It was never enough)
  • Remove/Change Syndicate Death Squads
    • Syndicate Operatives are preferable to random monsters we fight on the daily
    • Helps Ergo Glast recover colonists from Nef Anyo's grasp, proceeds to get attacked by Ergo's Death Squad soon after (It makes no sense)
  • Allow separate Standing for each Faction Syndicate
  • Make Glyphs purely cosmetic
    • Allow "Loyalty" selection for Standing to be earned instead
  • More Rewards: Armor Sets, Operator Suits, Companion Armor, Sentinel Skins, Glyphs, Emblems, Landing Craft Skins, Railjack Skins, Railjack Stencils, Archwing Skins, K-Drive Scrawls, New Weapons, Weapon Skins, New Arch-weaponry, Arch-weaponry Skins
    • Give Simaris some love too
    • Turn current Arch-weaponry into simple blueprints, removing the need to trade or rank into other syndicates
  • Have syndicate NPCs play a significant role as crew members aboard your Railjack
• Quests
  • Please, these are the only 2 syndicates without quests!
    • Arbiters
      • Arbitration-oriented?
      • Fleshes out their background & hierarchy
      • Warframe reflecting their honor-bound nature?
    • Steel Meridian
      • Dr. Tengus & Ghouls
      • Valkyr's Grineer counterpart?
      • Don't forget Clem
• Specter Rework
  • AI Adjustment
  • More cosmetic emphasis
  • Allow 4-team option while solo, allowing faster solo leveling
  • Phase out syndicate specters (Moa & Charger companions already exist)
• The Void
  • Bring the Void back to the forefront
  • Relic/Key missions return to their home
    • It's already limited to Argon Crystal farming, it deserves so much more
• QoL
  • Damage Rework
    • Make Puncture & Impact matter
  • Shield-Gating
    • I don't wanna die to Slash & Toxin
  • Scaling
    • Why is this Bombard 1-shotting me?
    • Why are armored targets so annoying?
  • Stealth
    • Make Stealth matter
  • Bug Fixes
    • Universal Necessity, FIX YOUR GAME!
      • Bugs many years old still exist
  • Reward Scaling
    • More time invested in a mission = higher payout
    • Resource acquisition increases per wave, incentivizing longer runs
    • RNG scales with more time spend
    • Rewards adjusted to scale with node difficulty (No more 1k Credit Cache on Sedna)
• Conclave
  • Give these poor dogs a bone!
• Community Polling?
  • Dare I give these fools such power?

In conclusion, there is so much to do besides just focus on The New War. DE's forward-thinking mentality is a double-edged sword, tending to get them past certain hurdles, but also showing their limited vision & lack of quality control. If more updates end up like Empyrean, it'll cost them a lot of community favor in the long run. The fact that Conclave, a mode I dare not touch, still exists in its current state is just plain unacceptable. I expect The New War to be a big focus this year, all their preparation indicates this, and their future ambitions are aimed at the Tau system, but we as a community should expect them to put their best foot forward & deliver polished, quality experiences. To succeed in delivering a steady year of content, they should aim to improve countless ingame systems that have faltered in terms of quality. Making old stuff new & making new stuff better is a goal I wish they'd strive for, but we'll have to wait & see. I've high expectations, but they're bound to be let down at some point unless DE shapes up.

Edited January 17, 2020 by (PS4)IndianChiefJeff
Reorganizing my thoughts

[peterc3]

11 hours ago, (PS4)IndianChiefJeff said:

Anyways, I'm ready to punished for suggesting that Warframe is in a questionable state.

Or it's for suggesting something that DE has explicitly said they cannot do? People routinely whine that frames and weapons are not content. Your argument falls apart when you fail to acknowledge reality.

11 hours ago, (PS4)IndianChiefJeff said:

showed off these ideas at their peak

A concept does not a good game mechanic make.

[fx25v]

Yeah, 2020 should be the year of FixFrame. Too many abandoned stuff "to be worked at a later date" and too many rushed good ideas turned into things far from fun (or at least far from what they could be).

[ixidron92]

No game really does that, as it would be a disaster. Games need to deliver content while fixing stuff all at the same time. That means none of the 2 things are done properly, but that's the way it is. I do agree that they should focus a bit more on the core issues of the game AFTER they finish delivering the core gameplay and storiline. Namely, they have to finish delivering the rest of railjack and the lich system, New war, Duviri and raids.

Then, they can focus a lot more on fixing the glaring issues like armor and level scaling, damage types, primary and secondary gun rebalance, mission node rework, warframe reworks, etc.

The problem is, their philosophy indicates all the content they produce is consumable, not meant to be replayed, and that's a big problem. Unless they shift away from that, nothing's gonna change. We need real sustainable, replayable content.

Edited January 2, 2020 by ixidron92

[ciTiger]

Maintaining the content is as good as new content when well done. I hope at least some of the content gets changes, looking at Liches specifically.