[Warframe Combat Mechanic Critique] Parazon Mercy Finishers on Normal Enemies: Redesigning the Execution for Consistency and Feedback

[FoxFX]

INTRO

With the release of the Liches came the Parazons and their Finisher mechanics. From some time, I have felt their execution when it came to normal enemies in comparison to Liches to be rather inconsistent and with some oversight. This I usually do in comparison to Stealth Finishers which requires the enemy unaware of you or blinded/staggered for the finisher.

 

THE ISSUE TO CONSIDER ON MERCY KILLS

• Executing a normal enemy with the Parazon requires a random chance to occur where the enemy's Health must be 5% or less to have an indicator that lasts for 10 seconds

  • Impact Status Effects increases the chance to land a Mercy Kill

• The issue is that besides Liches, performing Mercy Kills on NORMAL enemies doesn't have them downed. It has them still active attacking and moving meaning there is a bit more risk in using the Mercy Kills.

• While technically more visible in higher levels if you were to pay some attention to what enemy you can Mercy Kill on, the higher the danger in being downed yourself. I could see this not being too likely to do in lower level content.

When it comes to how rewarding it can be to use Mercy Finishers, that is all dependent on the Parazon Mods we currently have. There currently isn't much right now, but I feel there is still room to expand more Parazon Mods in terms of combat.

Overall, Warframe's gameplay is described to be more mobile and fast-paced. Adjusting situational events like a Mercy Kills I feel is something that should be looked at in the future.

 

SUGGESTED CHANGES THAT MIGHT HELP IMPROVE MERCY KILLS

• For non-Kuva Enemies and non-Bosses: Make Parazon Finisher Indicator occur once the enemy Health reaches 0% while also turning them into a downed state [Mercy Kill State] to better opportunities for Mercy Kills.

• Increase animation speed of Mercy Kills across all

• Adjust the chance for an enemy triggering the [Mercy Kill State] at the 0% Health trigger.

  • Impact Status Procs will adjust the chance of a Mercy Kill opportunity up to 10 stacks

• Reduce the time for a NORMAL enemy in a [Mercy Kill State] to 5 seconds to allow a quicker time for them to be killed in case of missions requiring enemy deaths like Extermination.

• Offer a brief 0.6 second invulnerability after a Mercy Kill

• OPTIONAL SUGGESTION: Make Mercy Kills have an innate chance to drop Ammo/Health/Energy Orbs which can be adjusted through Parazon Mods

 

UPDATING CURRENT PARAZON MODS:

These suggestions are being added in the case IF Mercy Kills were also updated with an innate chance to drop Energy/Health Orbs and Ammo. While there are already Parazon Mods that do so, I wanted to experiment the idea of updating these mods with improving the chance for these resources to drop:

• [UPDATED] Blood for Life: +XX% chance to drop Health Orb on Mercy

• [UPDATED] Blood for Energy: +XX% chance to drop Energy Orb on Mercy

• [UPDATED] Blood for Ammo: +XX% Primary/Secondary Magazine Refill on Mercy

 

POSSIBLE NEW PARAZON MODS CONCEPTS:

• Murderous Chamber: Gain 30 seconds of Increased Reload Speed

• Impending Doom: Pull enemies 10 m to the player if they are under [Mercy Kill State]

• Defensive Assassination: Mercy Kills restores 25% of Max Shields

• Blood Plate: Mercy Kills grant +50% of Base Armor for 15 seconds

• Killer Step: Mercy Kills grant x1.5 of Base Run Speed for 20 seconds

• Extracted Weakness: Mercy Kills grant 50% Faction Damage of the killed for 15 seconds

• Rejuvenating Kill: Mercy Kills grant 15 seconds of +5 Health Regeneration

• Slayed Stimulant: Mercy Kills grant 15 seconds of +1.5 Energy Regeneration

• Additive: Mercy Kills grant 20 seconds of 30% Power Strength

• {WIP}

 

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

I'd like to think about how some games designed some Instant-Kill Finisher Mechanics in other action games such as Doom. The idea of creating a better flow and making the engagement on finishing enemies more rewarding than punishing.

Warframe's gameplay is meant to be on the fast side, and when it comes to Finishers, I feel that the Mercy Kills leave much to be desired in its execution.

Granted this might not be what some people should focus on now, but I think this particular topic is something that should be thought about since it has become a new tool to use in game.

 

QUESTIONS FOR READERS:

• Do you find Mercy Kills a bit too slow?

• How often do you see an opportunity to perform these Mercy Kills?

• Do you feel like a Mercy Kill is rewarding?

• Do you feel that Parazons should play some special part in revivals?

• Do you feel you are vulnerable after a Mercy Kill?

• Do you want Mercy Kills to have innate chance to offer Health/Energy Orb drop and Primary/Secondary Magazine fill?

[KitMeHarder]

Your text is hard to read in dark mode.

2 hours ago, FoxFX said:

QUESTIONS FOR READERS:

• Do you find Mercy Kills a bit too slow?

• How often do you see an opportunity to perform these Mercy Kills?

• Do you feel like a Mercy Kill is rewarding?

• Do you feel that Parazons should play some special part in revivals?

• Do you feel you are vulnerable after a Mercy Kill?

• Do you want Mercy Kills to have innate chance to offer Health/Energy Orb drop and Primary/Secondary Magazine fill?

• Not if what they provide is worth the time invested. Finishers largely suck because all they do is damage to one enemy. But the Parazon gives you energy, blinds, parkour velocity, etc...
• Never in the base game. Like you said, (if the enemy isn't ragdolled) they should go into the mercy state for a few seconds before dying
• Yes, if it is reliable enough.
• Yes, something else to mod for. But they said it was coming over a year ago....
• I believe you have invincibility during it, so IMO that's enough.
• I'm always down for more power. Very rarely do I see things as being over tuned (like how the Xoris slightly was a few weeks ago).

Quote

 

Parazon Mercy Kills

As an aside, move the parazon finisher to just being a held version of the current X to melee finisher a vulnerable enemy. As the related mods will almost never be used now that thralls are gone. Have it’s damage scale off your equipped melee, or just simply let us have Covert Lethality back for its limited uses. If needed, balance it by making it unable to proc stuff like Arcane Trickery, Inaros’ passive, etc…

 

This was my simple suggestion for parazon finishers on my Lich rework thread. IMO it would be a very fun way to make builds less reliant on Zenurik (and the pads I personally don't enjoy), thanks to the interaction with Naramon and Blood for Energy.

[MonsterOfMyOwn]

The suggested changes to basic mercy would be really welcomed.

[FoxFX]

14 hours ago, KitMeHarder said:

Your text is hard to read in dark mode.

I remain unsure nor he method of making this post more visible in Dark Mode. For that I do apologize.

[DrivaMain]

5 hours ago, FoxFX said:

I remain unsure nor he method of making this post more visible in Dark Mode. For that I do apologize.

Change the text color to somethibg than black and white.

Anyways, Parazon Mercy kills are very rare because we always one shot enemies. 10% health is too low. Impact prcos should increase the minimun health threshold up to 30% at max stack.

[FoxFX]

On 2020-12-05 at 6:25 PM, DrivaMain said:

Change the text color to somethibg than black and white.

Anyways, Parazon Mercy kills are very rare because we always one shot enemies. 10% health is too low. Impact prcos should increase the minimun health threshold up to 30% at max stack.

I'll see if I can find a suitable color which can work for both Dark/Light Theme later.

OT: I feel having such a high increase in the minimal Health Threshold could make Mercy Kills a bit more abusive especially since they are designed to finish them faster. That and of course the necessary fact that you need to have their Health at a certain percentage while managing in the midst of combat might be a bit demanding for players to observe in battle.

[FoxFX]

On 2020-12-05 at 1:27 AM, MonsterOfMyOwn said:

The suggested changes to basic mercy would be really welcomed.

Its to make Mercy Kills a bit more accessible outside of Kuva Lich missions. Since Parazons are going to be a sub-core part of Warframe, I felt it needs to be updated more.

[FoxFX]

I guess with the recent updates, this topic will be talked about further in later date.

[DealerOfAbsolutes]

There needs to be something like a Parazon bomb. The Parazon implants a bomb into an enemy and the explosion after a 2 second delay deals true damage equal to the max health of the target like a pseudo marked for death. Then finishers would have aoe potential. The delay would make it weaker than Marked For Death and require players to be quick to avoid stagger.

[FoxFX]

If there is no other thoughts about Parazon Finishers and Mercy Kills and possible revamping them, I will have to close this thread off.

[FoxFX]

I am thinking of adding new Parazon Mod suggestions for Railjack content.

[Lutesque]

I can't see !!! 😱

Is there a way to format the text to make it Colourless ?

On 2020-12-05 at 2:16 AM, FoxFX said:

Killer Step: Mercy Kills grant x1.5 of Base Run Speed for 20 seconds

So this is basically Dispatch Overdrive for Parazons... Hmmmm.... Except it's worse.... 

On 2020-12-05 at 2:16 AM, FoxFX said:

• Do you find Mercy Kills a bit too slow?

•  

Sure I guess... Doesn't really bother me even during Lich Hunts...

On 2020-12-05 at 2:16 AM, FoxFX said:

How often do you see an opportunity to perform these Mercy Kills?

Fairly Often... But since Viral + Slash Meta I only see it for half a second before it's gone...

On 2020-12-05 at 2:16 AM, FoxFX said:

Do you feel like a Mercy Kill is rewarding?

Nope... Not even with Blood For Energy + Arcane Energize.

On 2020-12-05 at 2:16 AM, FoxFX said:

Do you feel that Parazons should play some special part in revivals?

You mean like a Healing Stab ? 😳...

Sure 😁 !!!

On 2020-12-05 at 2:16 AM, FoxFX said:

Do you feel you are vulnerable after a Mercy Kill?

Oh yes Definitely....

On 2020-12-05 at 2:16 AM, FoxFX said:

Do you want Mercy Kills to have innate chance to offer Health/Energy Orb drop and Primary/Secondary Magazine fill?

As much as I want all those things especially if they are Innate... I'm just not down with the "Chance" bit...

 

[Steel_Rook]

When it comes to Mercy Kills, my only desperate desire for them is to stop locking my camera. Mercy Kills are the only thing in the combat system which does this, and it's really annoying - especially since they have Jason Bourne shakycam, too. I've lost count of how many times I've had my camera clip into walls or enemies. Treat Mercy Kills like Finishers, leave the free camera and just animate the damn animation.

That's not to say that's their ONLY problem, but it's by far the most frustrating one for me.

[DrBorris]

Ayyyy, another "make the Parazon more like the DOOM chainsaw" post. Love to see it.

You know what I don't love to see? This iteration of it.

On 2020-12-04 at 7:16 PM, FoxFX said:

For non-Kuva Enemies and non-Bosses: Make Parazon Finisher Indicator occur once the enemy Health reaches 0% while also turning them into a downed state [Mercy Kill State] to better opportunities for Mercy Kills.

Is this better than what we have now? Yes. Would this work? Absolutely. Would I be content if this is what DE went with? I'd sleep happy.

Is it the best solution? In my opinion, hell no. There are two massive problems with this method of making Parazon finishers more common.

1. It is out of the player's control. Energy orbs are already RNG, we don't need to replace RNG with more RNG.
2. A shower of energy, health, and ammo is a reward. And how are we rewarded? By watching an enemy we thought we killed not die. I shot that enemy with a contained nuclear explosion from my Lenz, they should be dead, not kneeling over like a washed up method actor.

Let's take a quick look at what the DOOM chainsaw does because it feels like we are skipping over some of its roles.

• The Chainsaw is a tool used to refuel your murder capabilities.
• The Chainsaw can be used to tactically remove enemies you deem need to extra-die.
• The Chainsaw allows you to choose the right moment to refuel.

The bad proposal hits that first bullet point but completely fails at the other two. And while we shouldn't always want to copy other games one-for-one, those second two bullet points are vitally important for why the DOOM chainsaw is such a major success.

But hey, I'm not just a negative Nancy, I'm also here to sell solutions to the problems I find.

The good Parazon proposal:

• Gaining affinity from any source (your kills or ally kills) builds up a Parazon charge. Up to four Parazon charges can be held at one time. When you have a Parazon charge you can interact with any enemy at any health value and immediately dispose of them, consuming all of your Parazon charges. For every Parazon charge consumed you get additional Health/Energy/Ammo.

Not only does this fix both the RNG and power fantasy problems, it actually enhances our power fantasy. New players hate Bursas and Nox, imagine the catharsis of a baby Excalibur being able to immediately wipe them out with a fancy animation. Furthermore it adds emergent strategies to the moment-to-moment gameplay. Maybe you want to save your Parazon charge for that special someone. Maybe you know you are about to spam a ton of abilities and you want to be ready to top-off on energy after. Seeing as energy/health/ammo are party-shared, maybe you work together as a group to stagger Parazon usage for a constant stream of fuel.

It is painful how perfectly DOOM's chainsaw fits into Warframe, let us have a good thing DE.

 

6 minutes ago, Steel_Rook said:

my only desperate desire for them is to stop locking my camera.

I wonder if this is a technical limitation due to how the third person camera works. I'm sure you've seen how perspective can sometimes get funky. Even if it is an issue, I completely agree, especially if the Parazon is supposed to be a more integrated part of our arsenal it needs to feel more fluid.

[Steel_Rook]

1 minute ago, DrBorris said:

I wonder if this is a technical limitation due to how the third person camera works. I'm sure you've seen how perspective can sometimes get funky. Even if it is an issue, I completely agree, especially if the Parazon is supposed to be a more integrated part of our arsenal it needs to feel more fluid.

Based on conversations DE had on-stream back around the time of Melee 3.0, I believe it to be a stylistic choice. They were talking about making finishers more "cinematic" with fixed camera angles, how often and under what circumstances those should trigger, etc. There was actually talk of using the Parazon to replace all melee finishers at one point, as well. I may misremember slightly, but I strongly believe that the reason for the fixed camera is aesthetic. Which is fair enough - to each their own. There really ought to be an option to disable that at least, though. Never take camera control away from the player unless you absolutely HAVE to.

[Lutesque]

13 minutes ago, DrBorris said:

 

1. It is out of the player's control. Energy orbs are already RNG, we don't need to replace RNG with more RNG

PREACH !!!!

15 minutes ago, DrBorris said:

•  
• The Chainsaw can be used to tactically remove enemies you deem need to extra-die

This !!!

The Chainsaw will literally one shot anything... including Barons... Ofcourse doing that costs more fuel but what ever... The point is it works 100% of the time !!!

18 minutes ago, DrBorris said:

•  

Not only does this fix both the RNG and power fantasy problems, it actually enhances our power fantasy. New players hate Bursas and Nox, imagine the catharsis of a baby Excalibur being able to immediately wipe them out with a fancy animation

That actually does Sound Cool... 😃

 

[DrivaMain]

36 minutes ago, DrBorris said:

The good Parazon proposal:

• Gaining affinity from any source (your kills or ally kills) builds up a Parazon charge. Up to four Parazon charges can be held at one time. When you have a Parazon charge you can interact with any enemy at any health value and immediately dispose of them, consuming all of your Parazon charges. For every Parazon charge consumed you get additional Health/Energy/Ammo.

Not only does this fix both the RNG and power fantasy problems, it actually enhances our power fantasy. New players hate Bursas and Nox, imagine the catharsis of a baby Excalibur being able to immediately wipe them out with a fancy animation. Furthermore it adds emergent strategies to the moment-to-moment gameplay. Maybe you want to save your Parazon charge for that special someone. Maybe you know you are about to spam a ton of abilities and you want to be ready to top-off on energy after. Seeing as energy/health/ammo are party-shared, maybe you work together as a group to stagger Parazon usage for a constant stream of fuel.

It is painful how perfectly DOOM's chainsaw fits into Warframe, let us have a good thing DE.

Bringing back Old Covert Lethality? Now that’s something I am onboard with. This will also help new players to dip their toes in high level missions without being a “dead weight“.

[Drastic]

I would be all aboard the Doom Chainsaw Parazon idea of building up charges for instakills as an interesting tactical choice.

For baby tenno onboarding, a little bit of rework on the Venus boss could enable access to it, as it's the first time most players will even hear about this parazon thingamajig they've been using mostly as a very aggressive USB fob for terminals to that point. Or perhaps a quick little couple-mission "The Parazon Mercy" mini-quest added in, that introduces one of the early-game irritating enemies (that first bursa is a learning experience indeed!), and then Space Mom is all "Tenno, there is a better way. You must relearn...Mercy" and off to the races.

[Famecans]

I support, that more features come to mercy because finishing attacks are outdated.