Operator 3.0 Part 2: Operator Movement/Abilities: A More Versatile Foundation

[DrBorris]

The Goal: To give a fully featured and consistent move set for Operators that makes using your Operator as a utility more enjoyable. Also aim to enhance the foundation ability set for better Operator/Warframe synergy and Focus Way customization.

Ability/Move-set Changes

As it stands Operators have three ability mechanics; Void Dash, Void Cloak, and Void Blast. While these three abilities do have some natural synergies between them, for the most part they don’t have much interaction with each other.

A large issue I find with Operator gameplay now is that they feel so clunky to use. They have some powerful aspects but when compared to the combat of Warframes it feels jittery. 

So, the first suggestion is giving Operators some tools Warframes got with Parkour 2.0, Aim Glide and Wall Latch. Of course these things would have a different flair, but the gameplay should be similar. We already basically use an infinite wall latch during the prologues, so it only makes sense to get that tool. Operators should retain elements of the Warframe power fantasy, you should not feel as though you are nerfing yourself when you use the Operator. This is not saying that Operators should actually be as powerful as Warframes, but that their gameplay should retain the feel and fluidity of the rest of the game.

The second part of this suggestion is to add ability “combos” between each of the tools Operators have.

The Current Core Ability Set

• Void Dash
• Void Cloak
• Void Blast

The Core Ability Set Additions:

• Void Glide (Aim glide)
  • Consumes energy per second while gliding.
• Void Latch (Wall latch)
  • Infinite duration. Does not consume energy. Allows energy to start regenerating.

Now let’s combine them…

• Void Blast while Void Dash:
  • Increase Void Blast range by 50%.
• Void Blast while Void Latch:
  • Just let it happen.
• Void Cloak while Void Latch:
  • Just let it happen.
• Void Cloak while Void Glide:
  • Let it happen. No movement speed penalty to the Void Glide, increased energy drain.
• Void Blast while Void Cloak while Void Glide:
  • Ground slam for Operators. If you Void Punch while in Void Mode while Void Gliding you will quickly descend. Once you hit the ground you Void Blast with 100% more range.
• Void Dash while Void Latch:
  • 50% more Void Dash range.
• Void Glide while Void Dash:
  • Retain some momentum into the Void Glide.

The five core abilities are the things that can be augmented by a Focus Way. Due to the ability combinations all working as extensions of the core abilities, any augment made to the core abilities would also augment the ability combinations. If a Focus Way adds an effect to Void Blast it will automatically work with doubled range from a Void Dash into a Void Blast.

The reason for emphasis on ability combinations is to double down on having quick, spammy usage of Operators be as fluid as possible. There are currently noticeable pauses in gameplay momentum whenever you use Operator abilities in sequence. Enhancing the gameplay of chaining multiple Operator abilities together will hopefully encourage using Operators as an active utility ability for Warframes. You pop into Operator, burn through your energy in a big show of fluid ability spam, then clean up the mess with your Warframe. All of the utility Operators offer is through their abilities, thus using their abilities should feel good.

 

While Operators being fun to use is nice and all, there need to be more reasons for us to use their abilities.

Void Wisp: A New Foundation for Operator/Warframe Synergy

• Void Wisp
  • Dealing damage with any Operator ability or inflicting a Void Status proc creates a wisp of Void energy that can be picked up by your Operator or Warframe.
  • Wisps are created for the entire party. Each Wisp can be picked up by every player individually (works like an energy orb).
    • The buffs you get from a Void Wisp are based on your equipped Focus Ways, not the Focus Ways of the Operator that created the Wisp.
  • Void Wisps grant 1 energy per second for 25 seconds. Picking up multiple wisps stacks the energy buff (up to 4x) and refreshes the duration.

While the base effects of Void Wisps do serve the purpose of alleviating some energy issues between schools, the largest power of Void Wisps is the opportunity for different Focus Ways to add new buffs to Void Wisps. For example, Madurai may give bonus fire damage to picking up a wisp. Naramon Wisps could extend the combo counter. A Zenurik Way could increase the effectiveness of the energy per second. Maybe some Ways could lean into Operator buffs, or have a Way give two different buffs for Operator/Warframe that synergize with each other.

This is a system that could turn the current Focus passives into an active system that encourages the utility playstyle of Operators. With the changes to the Operator abilities above the hope is using your Operator to create these Void Wisps won't feel like a chore. The target gameplay loop is to use your Operators to create temporary powerful buffs for Warframe.

I can not stress enough how important the Void Wisp part of this rework is. The whole point of Operators is to act as utility for the Warframe, Void Wisps are a limitless foundation for how Operators could go about interacting with Warframes.

 

For the sake of keeping the suggestions focused I have split up this rework into three parts. Each part can stand on its own although they come together to be greater than the sum of their parts.

Part 1: Focus Point Acquisition: A Minimum Wage

• Add a set of daily challenges that reward around 130,000 Focus for relatively simple tasks, most of which you will naturally complete just by playing normally. Also improve the experience of farming Focus with Lenses.
• https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1192190-operator-30-part-1-focus-point-acquisition-a-minimum-wage/

Part 2: Operator Movement/Abilities: A More Versatile Foundation

• Bring up Operator movement to the standard of fluidity Warframes have as well as expand/standardize base Operator abilities for integration with individual Focus Ways.

Part 3: Focusing on Customization

• Rather than select one Focus tree, mix and match different Focus Ways into a personalized build while retaining the concept of having one school be your “focus”.
• https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1192865-operator-30-part-3-focusing-on-customization/

Edited May 13, 2020 by DrBorris

[Synpai]

You know I'm all about better Operator progression

[Steel_Rook]

To be perfectly honest, I feel Void Dash itself needs some kind of redesign. I know a lot of people like it the way it is right now, but that design seems fundamentally flawed to me. See, DE removed "Stamina" from Warframes to ensure constant rapid movement and unlimited parkour, but literally everything else they've created still gates movement speed and manoeuvrability behind a stamina bar. Operators have Void Energy, Railjacks have a Blink cooldown, etc. The propblem with teleportation (which is what Void Dash is, effectively) is that you HAVE to gate it in some way, else we're back to the Itzal "golden age" again. Not to mention teleportation tends to not work very well in actual video game controls. I love my Operator Void Jump to bits, but I've lost count of how many times I've Void Dashed into ledges, railings, ceiling lips and other random crap which didn't seem like it was on the way, run out of Void Energy and simply dropped down.

Personally, I'd like to decouple Operator mobility from the energy pool they share with their offensive abilities, maybe turn it into some kind of Zephyr-like flying dash with actual travel time that we CAN be allowed to spam, and maybe even control in close quarters. I'd also personally prefer it if Void Dash didn't send enemies I impact pinballing off every wall until I lose sight of them. Maybe then I can use my Unairu armour strip on Void Dash without ragdoll-glitching enemies into walls. Operators have the capacity for MASSIVE speed across open ground like in the Plains or the Vallis, but that comes at the cost of really clunky controls and really irritating limitation in-doors - something Warframe Parkour rarely suffers from. That's especially annoying to me, considering I tend to try and move a second battery with my Operator in Excavation missions.

And finally, there's Void Mode. While that's an extremely powerful ability, I feel it's given DE an excuse to design some pretty S#&$ content. Eidolong fights seem almost purpose-designed to drown you in unavoidable AoE such that the only way to survive is to turtle in Void Mode. It's also allowed them to short-change Operators on both offensive and defensive abilities, because eh. You can just idle in Void Mode, so that makes up for having terrible damage output, crap for EHP and no rechargable shileds. OK, so my Operator is sitting on 1000 HP with I think 400-ish armour so that's not exactly "squishy," but my point stands.

I firmly believe that we need to move some of Void Mode's power over into Operator base stats and into some of their other abilities, because otherwise it turns them into somewhat one-trick ponies. The ability itself isn't BAD, don't get me wrong. I just feel it's all too often an excuse to avoid giving Operators proper combat balance.

[DrBorris]

9 hours ago, Steel_Rook said:

-snip-

I think that Operators should be balanced like their entire kit was a single ability. You push 5, in one chain of actions do a thing, then return back to your Warframe as if you had hit any other ability. Operators, in my opinion, are at their peak when they are a short boost of extreme power.

If you've ever played Transistor it is kind of like Turn(). Turn() is the core combat of the game, or rather it is one form of the combat of the game. How it works is when you use the Turn() ability time stops and then you select a bunch of attacks/movement. Each ability you use during Turn() takes up a portion of an energy bar. When you have your "turn" ready to go you hit play and the character quickly powers through the abilities you selected.

Spoiler

For reference, 1:20 in the video.

 

While this is obviously not a one to one representation of Operators, I like to imagine using your Operator feeling a lot like using Turn(). Operator gameplay is quick and methodical, a large burst of power. Peak Operator gameplay should be ability after ability after ability until you run dry, no down time for your Operator to run around. Basically requiring you to always be consuming energy to stay alive is what is forcing you to hurry up, you can smell the roses when you are in your Warframe. If you aren't using your Operator's utility you shouldn't be using your Operator.

The energy limitations are a core part of this concept. You only have so much juice to work with so you have to be tactical what you do. When you hit 5 you have to choose what parts of the Operator's utility you want to focus on. The limitations is what potentially makes using your Operator interesting, using your Operator is fundamentally different from using your Warframe. Operators exist in burst while the Warframe is your sustain.

 

I know this doesn't directly address the points you made but I think if you understand how I am viewing Operator use (a short and methodical power fantasy) you will better understand what my intentions are for the rework above. Also play Transistor if you haven't, it's amazing.

[DrakeWurrum]

I'm still convinced that Void Dash should basically be turned into the Operator's "Bullet Jump" - Instead of tying it to Void Mode, tie it to tapping the Sprint key.
That alone would make Operator mobile enough to satisfy anybody. Energy pizzas give us unlimited dash already anyways.

I'm also still convinced that Operators should be given abilities on the 1/2/3/4 the same way Warframes do, but unique to individual Focus schools (giving them a stronger identity and more draw). So Madurai players can get more fire stuff, Zenurik can be more zappyboi, Vazarin can feel like a supportive waterbender, etc etc
The Focus schools probably need a dramatic redesign as is, but that alone would satisfy me.

I'm also still convinced that Operators need a melee equip. Not sure how I'd work it without also losing Void Blast, though. Maybe change it so that the quick melee key is a melee attack, but Void Blast uses the Heavy Attack key (and scales off combo counter for extra fun).

10 hours ago, Steel_Rook said:

The propblem with teleportation (which is what Void Dash is, effectively) is that you HAVE to gate it in some way, else we're back to the Itzal "golden age" again.

Honestly, I wouldn't 100% hate a 1-second cooldown on Void Dash. But functionally, people already use Void Dash in that way with energy pizzas. The "meta" for ground team Scarlet Spear included people using Void Dash to just poof around the map to the next spawn, ignoring any and all threats.

10 hours ago, Steel_Rook said:

I've lost count of how many times I've Void Dashed into ledges, railings, ceiling lips and other random crap which didn't seem like it was on the way, run out of Void Energy and simply dropped down.

Maybe for a second or two after using Void Dash, Operators should just float in place without gravity's effect.

Edited May 13, 2020 by DrakeWurrum

[Steel_Rook]

10 hours ago, DrBorris said:

I think that Operators should be balanced like their entire kit was a single ability. You push 5, in one chain of actions do a thing, then return back to your Warframe as if you had hit any other ability. Operators, in my opinion, are at their peak when they are a short boost of extreme power.

I don't agree. That doesn't mean you're wrong, but I feel the exact opposite way. To me, treating Operators like a fire-and-forget ability is missing the core of their potential - the fact that we have a second playable characters we can control independently of our first. That is to say, Operators allow us to alternate between two characters potentially existing in two separate places at once. This opens the door solo flanking opportunities, to the ability to fight on multiple fronts and the ability to solve complex puzzles solo which would otherwise require multiple people - like the Cooperation Drift. I would personally prefer to see Operators gain abilities 1-4 of their own, determined by their Focus Tree of choice similar to what Warframes, Archwings and even our Railjacks have. I get that DE don't want Operators to be more powerful than our Warframes (so why write them as demigods in lore?), but I feel them serving as a weaker back-up Warframe surrogate and placeholder elsewhere on the map would be a better use for them.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not opposed to being able to build an Operator to work in short bursts like what you're describing. That should definitely be an option. In fact, some people have suggested letting us hold the Transference button to execute the Transcendence chest beam, then put Transference on a cooldown. I'd absolutely like that, but as one option of many. In fact, I already have that option as we speak, and have been using my Operator like that when fighting my Lich. I use Unairu largely for Magnetic Blast. When my Lich shows up, I call my Archgun, switch to my Operator, run at the Lich and slap them with Magnetic Blast, then swap back to my Warframe. At that point, I can unload my Imperator Vandal roughly where the Lich's head is and the Magnetic bubble will push the bullets right into the Lich's head for shocking amounts of damage. I can usually blast through the shields and health of even a Rank 5 Lich in half an Imperator magazine doing that, plus the Lich can't fire their gun out the bubble.

I have as "tanky" an operator as they get. 1000+ HP, 400-ish armour, health regent, etc. I can afford to take a few hits here and there. Even then, I almost never use my Operator for extended periods of time because there's no point. Even with that amount of tankiness, high-level enemies still rip through my health and my Amps do garbage damage to anything that's not Sentient (and also to Sentients, because of how Void Damage works). There's simply no point trying to run around shooting when I can Transfer in, slap Mag Bubbles on everyone, Transfer out an start blasting with my Warframe guns. What I want out of Operators is precisely this reason to stick around longer, to actually fight here and there, to prove that my Operator can hold her own even if she's not as rough and tough as my actual Warframe. I want to have more Operator puzzles, as well. You could solve them with friends, or you could solve them with your Operator when solo - best of both worlds.

I get that that's not what you want, so I guess we disagree there.

 

10 hours ago, DrakeWurrum said:

Maybe for a second or two after using Void Dash, Operators should just float in place without gravity's effect.

This is kind of apropos of nothing, but... The more we talk about Void Dash, the more I get flashbacks to City of Heroes' "Teleport" power. In CoH Beta, that used to drop you out of the sky as soon as you appeared, so people kept taking the Hover power to complement it. Developer Cryptic ended up giving it a 4-second rooting Hover after every teleport... Which people complained about because it then made the ability feel clunky. We kept asking for the Hover to be made interruptible by movement, but they never did - likely for technical reasons. We also had a lot of the same arguments here, about how clunky straight-line teleportation was in indoor missions with curvy hallways and random props all over the place, etc. Man, that brings back memories 🙂

 

10 hours ago, DrakeWurrum said:

I'm still convinced that Void Dash should basically be turned into the Operator's "Bullet Jump" - Instead of tying it to Void Mode, tie it to tapping the Sprint key.
That alone would make Operator mobile enough to satisfy anybody. Energy pizzas give us unlimited dash already anyways.

Operator controls are... Weird to me. Void Dash is tied to Void Mode because Void Dash is "bullet jump" and Void Mode is "crouch," so DE likely wanted to retain similar-feeling controls between Warframes and Operators. Except they didn't because "Operator slide" isn't bound to "Operator crouch" but rather "Operator dodge." Operators don't HAVE a regular slide option, because Void Mode takes that spot. Because my suggestions to "merge crouch and dodge" don't go well, here's an altenate suggestion:

Change Void Mode to work like Limbo's Rift Dimension hopping. Swap Operator Dodge to a quick slide (similar to what Wisp has) and have slides toggle us in and out of Void Mode. Give Operators a proper Crouch, with the ability to slide longer distances. Bind Void Dash to jumping while sliding, exactly like Warframe bullet jump. Let Operators slide in the air like Warframes can, allow them to levitate additional Void Dashes off an air slide, exactly like Warframes can. Allow Operators to hold Aim in the air to glide down slowly. Also - be a dear and get rid of fall damage for Operators, please. It's pointless and annoying.

This accomplishes three things. It allows us to Void Dash both in and out of Void Mode. It allows us to slide and glide in a more familiar fashion. It allows us to hop (and NOT always Void Jump) in Void Mode, thus adding a bit of extra utility when sneaking.

---

If I can go one further, I'd recommend slowing down Void Dash. Rather than making it an instant teleport, have it launch our Operator into an slightly controlled straight-line flight in the direction we were facing, which we can tap the Jump button again to interrupt. To give a Railjack comparison, think of launching yourself out of the Archwing Slingshot vs. using Archwing Blink. They both move you very quickly, but Blink teleports you long distances quickly on a cooldown while the Slingshot moves you across distance more slowly but with less of a start-and-stop to the proceedings. This way, Void Dash can consume energy over time as we use it, allowing us to travel long distances on a single dash, or use less energy to travel short distances and use multiples of them. Overall it might be a bit slower to cover long distances, but it should be a lot more controllable in covering short hops in crowded terrain.

 

10 hours ago, DrakeWurrum said:

I'm also still convinced that Operators should be given abilities on the 1/2/3/4 the same way Warframes do, but unique to individual Focus schools (giving them a stronger identity and more draw). So Madurai players can get more fire stuff, Zenurik can be more zappyboi, Vazarin can feel like a supportive waterbender, etc etc
The Focus schools probably need a dramatic redesign as is, but that alone would satisfy me.

I'm also still convinced that Operators need a melee equip. Not sure how I'd work it without also losing Void Blast, though. Maybe change it so that the quick melee key is a melee attack, but Void Blast uses the Heavy Attack key (and scales off combo counter for extra fun).

This is a bit off-topic, but I agree with both of these. As I said above - I'd like for Operators to have Warframe/Archwing/Railjack abilities of their own determined by their own Focus Schools to give different schools a slightly more unique feel. And I absolutely do want to see Operators gain some kind of Void energy melee weapon. I would even like to see it attached to our existing Amps. Like, maybe let us break them back into pieces and reforge them with a fourth component that's a melee weapon, replacing our Void Blast. That's a very broad topic, though, and I don't really have very specific proposals on implementation.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Steel_Rook

[DrakeWurrum]

2 hours ago, Steel_Rook said:

Change Void Mode to work like Limbo's Rift Dimension hopping. Swap Operator Dodge to a quick slide (similar to what Wisp has) and have slides toggle us in and out of Void Mode. Give Operators a proper Crouch, with the ability to slide longer distances. Bind Void Dash to jumping while sliding, exactly like Warframe bullet jump. Let Operators slide in the air like Warframes can, allow them to levitate additional Void Dashes off an air slide, exactly like Warframes can. Allow Operators to hold Aim in the air to glide down slowly. Also - be a dear and get rid of fall damage for Operators, please. It's pointless and annoying.

Design consistency is appealing.

2 hours ago, Steel_Rook said:

replacing our Void Blast.

If they did this, they would need to redesign the Focus schools for sure (which they really should consider anyways), since there's some Ways that specifically gives bonuses to Void Blast. Honestly, I wouldn't mind keeping Void Blast as our "Heavy Attack" and let it benefit from a combo counter.

[Steel_Rook]

1 hour ago, DrakeWurrum said:

If they did this, they would need to redesign the Focus schools for sure (which they really should consider anyways), since there's some Ways that specifically gives bonuses to Void Blast. Honestly, I wouldn't mind keeping Void Blast as our "Heavy Attack" and let it benefit from a combo counter.

I mean... You'd have to 🙂 Void Blast IS the Operator melee option, bound to the Melee key and serving a similar purpose. If we want to give them melee weapons - which I believe we agree on - we'd need to replace Void Blast with said melee weapons. Yes, that means Focus abilities which buff Void Blast would need to change, but let's look at those. Madurai has Flame Blast and Rising Blast. Flame Blast could still work with a melee weapon, Rising Blast could increase Heavy Attack damage. Possibly scaled off weapon damage. Naramon has Disorienting Blast and Disarming Blast, both of which could be added as procs to a melee weapon. Possibly scaled off weapon attack speed. Unairu has Magnetic Blast and Unairu Wisp. Both of these can proc off melee hits. Zenurik has Temporal Blast and Voltaic Blast, which are essentially guaranteed Cold and Electric procs. Could easily work on regular melee weapons.

Vazarin's Guardian Shell and Guardian Blast are the only ones which I can't come up with easy canned solutions for since they have unique mechanics of their own. Honestly, though, I feel these shouldn't BE melee abilities. If we want Operators to have a few abilities of their own, then both of these can be turned into 1/2/3/4 abilities, with Vazarin Melee doing health steal on hit, or stacking a refreshing armour buff or some such.