Why the Lich gameplay died, and what can be done to improve it ?

[Galuf]

I would consider farming liches if there was a solid reward associated with farming liches. It is one of the better content in the game atm. Also thralls are fine, I know that the whole loop is a bit confusing at first, but if it takes me less than 1h on average getting a lich kill at the age of 36 and while watching a movie on the side, you can do to. Like you I was confused by my first liches, but I kept playing for the weapons and after few it became a cruize, and not a long one. I spent less time on liches than I did getting arcanes in SS.

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

2 hours ago, Galuf said:

I would consider farming liches if there was a solid reward associated with farming liches.

🤔

2 hours ago, Galuf said:

 Like you I was confused by my first liches, but I kept playing for the weapons and after few it became a cruize, and not a long one.

So you got the rewards, and now you just want more, for what you describe as a stroll in the park? 

[Galuf]

Il y a 14 heures, (PSN)guzmantt1977 a dit :

🤔

So you got the rewards, and now you just want more, for what you describe as a stroll in the park? 

Exactly. It is however a personnal opinion. Different players have different experiences and sources of enjoyment

My 10 last liches took between 5mn(it happened once, I had a weapon in 5mn counting the Cassini run) and 1h of grind depending on my luck. And I would farm a lich if I was able to guarantee a return at the end of the road. Affinity is decent, there is some kuva, just at the end you don't care anymore when you have maxed the weapons you use and have all the ephemeras atm. However the time spent on your lich is more interesting than most content in the game, killing matters, parkouring matters, choices maters(mission choice, how to handle parazon stuff, etc...). It's the most wholesome "vanilla experience" in the game(where you use mainly your frame and do normal missions), it's never gated behind arbitrary bs stuffs like survival timers if you choose so. And more importantly, it is the fairest content imho because the rewards are deterministic enough and the average return is function of your powerlevel and skill.

TBH Liches and RJ, concept wise, were extremly well fited to Warframe, the implementation of the liches was way too greedy and clunky at first, DE got imho slightly too greedy, there was illogical things. And RJ got shipped in a pre MVP state. The fact that good concepts are poorly received is a bit sad, Overall I found that 2019 content had more meat than 2020 content, yes Covid but still.

[PowerPieDj]

The general feel of the lich system is just uninteresting. Your lich is supposed to be a personalised nemesis who grows stronger with each encounter, a boss that feels unique to you and changes the way missions are played. But if you ask me, the lich has nowhere near enough presence in missions, and the varying aspects of liches don't make them different enough to feel new.

Regarding liches' presence, it's really lame that it's basically limited to some voice lines while you're on the star chart and when they physically enter a mission. You should be able to tell that your lich has control over an area as you explore; they could do broadcasts throughout the map as they command their soldiers. Warframe already has good examples of this, like the Regulators in Grineer missions or the Solaris prisoners on Corpus ships, that make those places feel like they belong to the enemy.

On top of that, it would be nice if liches actually appeared in missions more, rather than just occasionally appearing as a miniboss. For example, instead of enemies just randomly turning into thralls, what if we got to see our lich briefly teleport in to convert them before disappearing with a taunt? It would help with the feeling that your lich is actively trying to stop you, rather than twiddling their thumbs until you fill the anger bar.

Then there's variety; liches just don't have enough of it. One personality for male and female with a few swapped-out voice lines based on RNG just isn't enough to make each lich distinct. It basically amounts to: male = goofy and female = serious. I understand that more voice acting means more money to pay, but having some extra sets of lines for liches would go a long way in making them feel unique. Also, the personality quirks basically exist for a brief gimmick. You hear a line about how the lich is allergic to kubrows or whatever, and that's it. Would be nice if they had some more effects that had a bigger impact on gameplay.