Suggestions on various topics

[Aurikalchos]

So, prepare yourselves for a wall of text. I’ve played Warframe for many years with almost 1000 hours, taking a few long hiatuses during that time which means I have a lot of experience to draw from. This isn’t a collection of feedback offered by other members of the community, though I’m sure some of it will overlap or sound similar, nor is it comprehensive on all issues in the game, these are just things that I have personally noticed or felt could use improvement. My suggestions cover topics that would fit better in their subcategories, but it was simpler to put it all in one spot. Warning: there is no tl;dr.

 

LOOT AND LORE

Spoiler

Entrati Token Economy
 

Spoiler

Admittedly, this system seems unnecessarily convoluted at first, but after using it I have come to see its merits, though I still feel its a bit convoluted. On the plus side it does allow players with little time to play to hoard tokens to turn in for standing later, but then that just begs the question of: “why have a daily standing limit?”. It also forces players to do mining or conservation which a lot of player have strong feelings about. Personally, I am on the fence, though I do think I would prefer not having to do those activities to advance in the Entrati syndicate. But that may only be because I am more accustomed to how the other open world syndicates work. Though honestly, earning tokens just to trade it in for another type of token seems like a pointless step. If you want them to be more useful, allow the tokens to be traded in to their owners for a special benefit. DO NOT make it replace the cost of item, or be an additional cost. That will just exacerbate the issue.

Suggestion: Make all activities (fishing, mining, conservation, bounties) across all open worlds equal but different. What this means is the time put in should award about the same amount of standing with no requirement to do any activity the player does not want. I don’t know how exactly it will look, but it may require a bit of an overhaul. Non-bounty missions will have to be redesigned to be more exciting with unique rewards.

 

Besides that, the token economy introduces another unique problem. Well, not unique as it is also present in the other two open worlds, but unique in its scope. The problem is the overabundance of some resources gathered while trying to get others. Ganglion and Bapholite from the Cambion drift are prime examples. Ganglion and Bapholite have limited uses yet are some of the most easily acquired resources. Which is even more exasperated when trading them in for tokens. The values you need to exchange is chosen randomly within a certain range, but for a number of the rarer resources it can be the same as the more common ones. Otak’s exchanges are the worst offenders, while Father’s, Daughter’s, and Son’s seem to be more reasonable, but could still use some tweaking.

Suggestion: Allow player to exchange these resources directly for standing. Or, in the case of Deimos if you maintain the token system, have one or two tokens that can be traded an unlimited number of times for each for the Entrati family members (minus Mother and Grandmother) that take abundant resources in exchange. In the case of the Orb Vallis and Plains of Eidolon, allow us to trade in stuff like any of the ores (not just gems), Mytocardia Spores, Grokdrul, etc.

 

As a side note, there is no benefit for good or perfect captures on Deimos. I don’t have any good ideas for this, but how well you capture an animal should impact the result somehow just to follow the precedent in the Plains and Orb Vallis. I understand this is due to the token economy, but if there is no way to reconcile this, maybe remove the popup of how well the capture went?

 

Cryotic

Spoiler

Unlike the vast majority of other resources, there is no way to optimize or farm more effectively for cryotic. Plus, the amount it gives versus the time spent and the total amount needed for some blueprints are way off balance (looking at you Sibear).Suggestion: Excavation already gives us rewards after every completion, there is little need to add cryotic on top of that. So instead have cryotic drop like nearly every other resource in the game – as either a deposit, enemy drop, or both. To make it even more appropriate move the drop to only the Corpus Ice Planet tilesets or even Orb Vallis, or just on Europa. Seems kinda silly that we are earning cryotic on non-ice planets/tilesets like Mars and Earth.

 

Unexplained story tidbits in open worlds

Spoiler

The Pearl in Orb Vallis, Cerebrum Magna in Cambion Drift, and Er-Phyrah’s Vigil in Plains of Eidolon are all examples of points of interest that stand out but are never expanded upon or explained.

Suggestion: If you already have plans for these landmarks then feel free to ignore this suggestion. If not, you could blend the lore of these places with the quests to earn warframes detailed in the following suggestion.

 

 

WARFRAMES AND LANDING CRAFT

Spoiler

Parazon
 

Spoiler

No real issues with it so far, just some ideas to integrate it more. Though, I would like it’s appearance to be saved by configuration and not have the same appearance shared across all loadouts. To add a not-so-important idea onto that: you have been developing unique dodges for warframes, so what about adding uniquely designed parazons for each warframe as well? The default look doesn’t fit in well with many warframe’s aethestics.

Suggestion #1: I think it would be a fun idea to allow the ability to grapple ledges (this is kind of already shown in the Jackal fight), and maybe even enemies, with the Parazon. Regarding enemies, you could either pull yourself to your enemy, or your enemy to you, depending on button press and the size of your enemy (you’re not going to be pulling the Exploiter Orb to you). It would be another awesome mobility option for our space ninjas.

Suggestion #2: Since the Parazon is described as an omnitool, have it function as all the equipment we need open world activities (mining, fishing, etc). We might still need to purchase upgrades for it from syndicates like the Ostron, Fortuna, and Entrati to function as a scanner, mining laser, fishing spear, and tranq rifle, but just think how cool it would look to fish with a Parazon! Plus it would save a lot of gear space.

 

Warframe Acquisition

Spoiler

Earning non-prime warframe parts through loot tables makes them feel mundane, not special, and that is even ignoring the poor drops rates for some of them (looking at you Harrow, Equinox, Ivara, and Nidus). Warframes are the core of your game – it’s what the game is named for after all, but the time and effort it takes to earn a core component of the game is very discouraging. In many cases it is easier to get the prime version before the non-prime version. In fact, if I recall correctly, I got Nekros Prime before vanilla Nekros. The process of obtaining primes is vastly more engaging than obtaining non-prime counterparts as it allows you to focus on a specific reward (or at least a very small pool of rewards), not to mention a radiant void relic has a greater chance to get a rare item than the chance to get a blueprint for most of the components of the aforementioned difficult-to-obtain ‘frames.

Suggestion: Non-prime Warframe blueprints (including parts) should only be acquired through quests. Doing so will also allow you to drop more lore into Warframe. While there are many warframes whose main blueprint is a reward for the completion of a quest, there are already a number of others where the quests rewards blueprints for all components: Chroma in the New Strange, Limbo in the Limbo Theorem, Titania through the Silver Grove, Inaros in the Sands of Inaros, and Mirage in Hidden Messages. So there is precedent for this being done. This will make it easier to obtain warframes that otherwise took a while to get, but many players won’t be able to play their newly acquired warframes immediately anyway. They may have to get more resources or another slot. If you do use this suggestion, maybe limit the player from retrieving completed primes from the forge if they haven’t mastered the non-prime version. But only do this for ‘frames – doing the same for weapons is different as some non-prime weapons are difficult to acquire (unless you make acquiring non-prime weapons easier as well).

 

Landing Craft Acquisition

Spoiler

Following the same thought as the previous feedback, trying to obtain the alternate landing craft designs of Xiphos, Mantis, and Scimitar is ridiculous. You have given an alternate method with the Nightwave design and is a strong step in the right direction.

Suggestion: Replace landing craft parts as drops with another system. This can either be an option such as purchasable from an NPC like Baro Ki’Teer, or earned through completing challenges like junctions, quests, planet node completion, etc.

 

Oberon Prime

What is with the gear tooth things on his shoulder and feet? And why can’t I remove them? That technology/industrial iconography clashes with his nature/fey theme.

 

Updates to Older Warframes

Spoiler

There are plenty of posts about this on the forums, some even designing reworks of their own. I have little input in the way of suggestions (I’ve seen posts in Fan Concepts that are much better than what I could come up with), but I just wanted to add my voice to call for some attention to the older warframes. Frost and Chroma are two I own and most familiar with. Frost’s passive doesn’t do much and few of his abilities interact (minus his 1 being able to pop his Snowglobes). Chroma just doesn’t fill well either his dragon or “master of all elements” themes. Taking this a step further, maybe consider taking a look at older prime frames? Looking at the awesome designs of modern prime warframes, some of the older ones are looking dated. I already listed Oberon Prime above, but another one I can personally add to the list is Frost Prime. There is very little change between vanilla Frost and his Prime variant. Compare Mirage and her prime or even the most recent Ivara and her prime, and you will see drastic, if not dramatic, upgrades to their appearance, while Frost just gets a palette swap and an Orokin crest on his helmet.

 

Loadout QoL

Spoiler

The uniqueness of the crafting and modding system is one of the things that makes Warframe stand out. However the dynamic nature of being able to mod is not taken advantage of enough.

Suggestion: Improve the “change loadout” button from the navigation screen to include a “quick loadout” option. Loadouts will still be saved by ‘frame, but after selecting the loadout we can then choose which of the saved configurations to use. So instead of using three loadout slots for a Frost (one for each configuration), I have one loadout slot with Frost as the base, and then three configurations built to focus on each faction, or built to focus on a specific ability of the warframe, etc.

 

 

WEAPONS AND COMBAT

Spoiler

Zaws and other modular weapons
 

Spoiler

Despite all their parts, only a few combinations are effective. Especially with the most recent Melee Rework changes, specifically speaking about Zaws, there are two grips (Peye for 1h and Seekalla for 2h) which are the best in every combination due to their balance of damage and attack speed.

Suggestion: I know it is easier said than done, but just take a balancing pass on zaws and kitguns to make combinations more varied and up to preference rather than stats.

 

Void damage status

Spoiler

Bullet magnet sphere doesn’t feel right as a side effect of void damage (if anything it would be more appropriate for magnetic), nor is it all that useful.

Suggestion: Procs make the target vulnerable to other damage, stacking up to a max.

 

Melee Combat

Spoiler

Attack speed is essential for higher levels of play as longer attack wind-up times leaves you too vulnerable to enemy attacks. This removes usefulness of many otherwise powerful melee weapons, mostly the two-handed ones, because their attack speed is too slow. Stance combos have a similar problem. Despite looking really cool, weaker enemies don’t last long enough to use complete combos on, and tougher ones are lifted immune such as the Jugulus and Juggernaut. Melee is too complex a system for me to imagine a solution, so I’ll leave it to you/others.

 

Energy Drain

 

Spoiler

This mechanic in its current state is too powerful. It’s especially debilitating for ability focused builds and just annoying for anyone else. There is no warning for when your energy is being drained, and often times it is drained so fast you don’t realize you are on empty. Frequently, I glance and see that I have full energy only to be completely out a few moments later without using a single ability.

Suggestion: Have the energy drain be MUCH slower and more telegraphed/visual such as with a stream of light (representing our energy) that leads from us to the enemy that is draining us. Design energy draining units to have a storage container on them, and when destroyed or the enemy killed releases a portion, if not all, of the energy back to us.

Unavoidable, strong status procs

Spoiler

There are a number of Orb Vallis enemies that give really strong electricity procs from nearly unavoidable attacks, i.e. Terra Trencher’s slam and the Terra Shockwave Moa’s grapple line. Plus there is the gas proc from the Deimos Jugulus’s bone glaives. Just to emphasize how strong the gas procs from a Jugulus are, I can handle the tier 5 bounties solo (lvl 40-60), dying most often to the gas procs. Even when I go tier 2 (lvl 15-25) I die nearly as often to the gas procs as I did in higher tiers. We do have a few resistance mods, including one for electricity, but we have nothing to defend against the gas procs. Not to mention the strain it puts on builds if we have to start including resistance mods. Plus, both of these strong procs decimate sentinels. I rarely return from the Orb Vallis or Cambion Drift without having lost my sentinel at least once.Suggestion: Diminish the damage these procs do, or telegraph these attacks better so they can be avoided. With so much going on the screen at once, these attacks can easily fly under our perception. I can attest personally to the Jugulus bone glaives as there have been a number of times where I notice myself being damaged, but not being able to tell immediately where from, and only to find out there is a Jugulus a short distance away.

 

 

MISSIONS AND LEVELS

Spoiler

Allow us other ways to turn enemy assets against them

Spoiler

What would add a lot of variety to missions would be more enemy assets that we can turn on them. Allowing the Dargon on the Plains to be commandeered is a great option. Unfortunately, just like the Grineer Rampart, they become ineffective at higher levels.

Suggestion: Add more assets and have current assets scale better. Allow us to hack and control automated defenses such as turrets. Add a Corpus and even Infested variants of the Rampart. Maybe even let Ordis control a few of these devices at a time for our benefit.

Make Missions more unique

Spoiler

Even between planets most missions are exactly the same (the exception being assassination, and spy due to the different vault designs).

Suggestion: Have each mission offer different rewards, i.e. capture missions will have rewards that rescue missions won’t have (I know rescue missions already uniquely reward spectre blueprints. This goes a bit beyond that). For example, rescue missions could award standing for the syndicate the rescued operative is aligned with. An operative aligned with Arbiters of Hexis would award standing with the Arbiters upon mission completion. I don't imagine this would be hard to implement; we already have the syndicate aligned operative assets from the operatives that assist you on syndicate missions.

In-mission allies

Spoiler

You did give us allied converted Kuva Liches, but I’d like to add on to that. Since we get randomly assaulted by syndicates that think poorly of us, can we get the ability to occasionally call in reinforcements from syndicates that think highly of us? I don’t want them to be the same eximus units whose blueprints we can purchase (or killing those which are sent against us).

Suggestion: Allow us the option to call in operatives similar to those that assist us on syndicate missions, and have them leveled to the mission they are called into.

 

 

POSITIVES

This section is last because I wanted to end on a positive note. I’ve spent a lot of time of this game and I know it has a lot of potential. It has come very far and I want to continue to play more.
 

Spoiler

 

The Lore! There is too much I like for me to point out specifically, but just know that the whole void-powered warframes controlled by traumatized children—cared for by a former enemy—who might have a more direct connection to the void through the Man in the Wall is so compelling.

 

I really like and support giving players equipment slots as Nightwave rewards. Shortly after I got far enough into the game to want to expand my arsenal a bit, I noticed I only could if I spent platinum (which I know I can earn by trading stuff, but still). Seeing it now be available without spending plat is such a good move.

 

The UI upgrades and improvements. Can’t wait to see what you do with the mods, foundry, and arsenal screens!

 

The warframe and weapon options. The creativity to come up with so many designs and mechanics is astounding.

 

Your transparency with the community. I absolutely endorse the fact that you listen, respond, and make changes based off community feedback. Few games can say the same, especially to the degree that you do.

 

 

OVERHAULS

Spoiler

While working on this feedback I made an observation: that you (DE) excel at the creative side of this game. Eidolons, revelations regarding the Lotus, the object in the Railjack Reliquary drive, the Man in the Wall, Liches, open world wildlife and ore/gem names and design, Warframes, weapons, storytelling, etc. The other half of this observation is that, unfortunately, it appears your mechanics design doesn’t keep pace. Understand that I don’t mean this in an accusatory way, but you can see it in the number of posts regarding how un-fun or boring certain parts of the game are, and there are a lot of them that I can agree with. The next few topics will discuss potential changes that are more in “overhaul” territory and as such didn’t feel appropriate above in the smaller feedback section. I don’t claim to be a master game designer, but I do hope this at least starts discussion that will lead to positive changes to this game because I enjoy it so much.

 

Skillful Play

Spoiler

 

One of the things I feel makes Warframe boring overtime is the lack of skilled play. And there are two major components to this: enemy design, and player actions. There are a number of enemies, the vast majority actually, whose attacks or abilities give us little time to react to or aren’t telegraphed enough. I already listed a few when I spoke about enemy status procs and energy drain in earlier sections, but here I want to include other examples such as a Bombard’s rockets, Napalm’s projectiles and lingering AoE, Scorpion’s and Ancient’s grapple lines, and those are just the few at the top of my head. Now, I would be remiss not to mention the examples which are done well: Shockwave MOA’s stomp, Ballista sniper shot, Osprey mines, Hyena elemental slams, Charger charges, Volatile Runner’s self-explosions, etc.

Suggestion: Redesign more enemies with strategic ways to defeat them and more visual/telegraphed attacks that we can react to. A situation of note are the homing projectiles that target you while in an archwing in an open world. Aside from them being a one-hit KO for the archwing, they are nearly impossible to see and there is no counterplay besides flying away really fast. To fix this, make them easier to see, allow us to shoot them down or dodge them, and have it take a few to take down an archwing (unless it is a special projectile from a boss like an Orb or Thumper). A HUD element that shows the direction of such projectiles, similar to how grenades are displayed, would be nice as well.

 

Now onto player actions, which includes thing such as dodging, blocking, and other mobility. Sure we have to learn boss mechanics to avoid some of their attacks, or damage types to defeat enemies more effectively, but timing of attacks or dodges has little to no value in Warframe. What seems to matter most is the “build”: doing enough damage to complete the content. Now, I know that’s how most other ARPG’s do it too, and damage is the standard for advancing play, but most of them have skillful play alongside it. Path of Exile has mobility and guard skills. Destiny has more responsive mobility, while both Destiny and Path of Exile have more telegraphed attacks which allow you to dodge or block in skillful ways. Warframe’s mobility is unexciting: the only time I use wall latch is either by accident or to complete riven challenges. I never deliberately use aim glide except at the end of the only one I do use regularly, as everyone else does, which is bullet jumping to get around the maps.

Suggestion: Make dodging and blocking useful by adding more, or redesigning current attacks that can be defended by dodging or blocking. More powerful attacks would have to be dodged as attempting to block could stagger, knock you back, still deal damage, or a combination of the three. Also consider the mobility options of the Parazon I listed in a previous feedback section I know there is a lot more to these mechanics, but this is all I can think of for now.

 

 

Environments

Spoiler

 

Add more interactable/useful environmental objects. There are various exploding barrels and other hazards like the death orbs scattered around some maps, but they are much more of a problem for us than our enemies it seems. I think it would add large amounts of fun if we could have more availability of these option to use against our enemies. For example, that tile on the new Corpus ship tileset that has a crate zoom though the middle: allowing us to activate it as some enemies are on the bridge would be a riot.

Suggestion: In addition to other enemy assets detailed in an earlier feedback, add explosive barrels in more useful places, large crates that can be grabbed with the Parazon to drop onto enemies, perhaps even the ability to use the Parazon to grab barrels and throw them at enemies. Another option is to add more mobile tiles where certain objects change location so that we have to constantly change our location to utilize or work around them. An existing example would be on some defense missions where the defense objective changes location (though the locations currently don’t change the combat options all that much…).

 

 

Intel System

Spoiler

 

One of the biggest complaints of Warframe is the drop chances for some of the most sought after items such as warframe components and mods, an issue I covered to a small extent in a previous feedback section. What I propose here is a way for players to actively influence the drop rates of certain rewards so that players can focus on the ones they want and diminish the ones they don’t.

Suggestion: The term “intel” or “intelligence” gets thrown around a lot in Warframe during most missions like capture, spy, interception, rescue, and sabotage. What if intel was a resource we earned and then spent to change the chance of certain drops? This system would work similar to the relic and void trace system in that regard. Intel would be earned from the aforementioned mission types and then players could spend it to lower the chances of drops and/or increase others. However, there is a major flaw with this approach as I see it now: it would increase mission wait times as players would have to modify the drop chances before starting said mission. An alternative would be to instead add an “intel market” where players can spend earned intel directly for items. Rarer ones would obviously cost more intel than more common ones. This would unfortunately require a large overhaul (and perhaps removal) of the drop table and rotation system for many missions (excavation would still award relics as that makes sense).