Less 'New' Warframes, More 'Different' Warframes

[-Krux-]

The pitch

We have so much to offer in cosmetics, some frames moreso than others, but everyone more or less looks unique. Think about this from the lore perspective: One atlas is different from another atlas. Its abilities follow the same theme - but what their imagination allows them to do with their void energy may be interpreted differently from one another..

The Point

Why must every frame (every copy of the same frame) act & think the same way, so to speak? They use the same 4 abilities, albeit with augments in some cases. Some augments are simply direct upgrades though or run a meta or something, many simply aren't inherently 'different' versions of an ability. This idea takes it a step further and really blows open the diversity frames can have now not only in appearance, but in function.

Imagine going to your arsenal and clicking Abilities on your warframe, and having up & down arrows above and below each ability. A selection of 1st abilities, 2nd abilities, 3rd abilities, and 4th abilities. Any combination of the selectable abilities in combination however you see fit. Augments available for each ability, of course.

Selling Point for Devs

This process on the developer's side should be attractive as well: When you create a new warframe, you need to come up with concept art of the model, agree on a selection, get the 3D modeling in, new animations, sections of the frame broken down by color selection for user customization, etc... A lot of work.

Imagine ONLY needing to create new abilities for existing frames. Cuts a lot of that work out of the picture... New animations at best, but mostly scriptwork/coding. And with that, more diverse warframes running around. Not every Excal will be the same, not every Saryn will be the same. They follow a theme, but now suddenly behave as differently as they are in appearance to one another.

Please, mull it over.

[Rose415]

And imagine all the work it'd take to totally overhaul the system they have now. I enjoy each character being defined and having an obvious character, as befitting their names. Having this would take away the character/identity each character has earned, which would take away a large part of the appeal of "maining" a frame as they wouldn't feel special nor unique at all. This would also hurt the community as a lot of the memes/discussions/builds/etc are all about frames.

When I see an Excal, they are almost never the same. That's because this game has great fashion.

Me personally, I was interested in this game as I thought the defined characters and their innate "personalities" they have without any dialogue or anything was really cool as you could find one that fit you and connected with you. I care much more about frames over weapons, and taking away all the identity they have established would just ruin a big portion of the appeal.

[-Krux-]

I see it the other way when talking about 'uniqueness'. If Atlas, for example, had an alternate 1st ability you could select - balanced to his already existing 1st ability. People would be running around with 1 or the other, making each more unique. If for some reason one did gain favor over another, say 70% of the community jumped to a particular alternate ability.. It's more diverse/unique than it stands now because currently everyone, 100% of the community (on any particular frame) are using the same 1st ability. If we're all using the same kit, how are we unique exactly?

Helminth breaks it up very slightly, augments less so.. This would really give not only each frame, but each frame belonging to each player - character. As you said.

[DrivaMain]

We already have this. It's called The Helminth. I think it would be better if you suggest more helminth abilities instead. Much better than ruining our current Warframe's identities.