[Warframe Concept] Bastion, the Walking Fortress

[Teridax68]

1. Introduction

This warframe concept is the product of a series of exchanges with @LascarCapable: the core idea and the theme of most of the abilities are his, though this is also a different take on his vision of the frame. The central idea is to have a tanky warframe who uses force fields and other methods to corral and repel enemies.

2. Lore Blurb
"This is Bastion, the knight and his castle in one.

Countless have crashed and fallen against this immovable object, Tenno. His domain is boundless, and his rule absolute."

3. Stats

Numbers are obviously placeholder, and could change radically in practice.

• Health: 150 - 450
• Shields: 150 - 450
• Armor: 150 - 450
• Energy: 0
• Sprint Speed: 0.9
• Progenitor Element: Impact
• Themes: Knight, Fortress, Force Fields

4. Abilities

Passives:

• Bastion uses his armor, health, and shields to power his abilities, rather than Energy. Ranks that would normally increase his Energy pool increase his armor instead.
• Bastion's shields function differently from other warframes: his shields are normally disabled, and he does not benefit from shield gates, but aiming projects his shields as a wide, transparent frontal barrier (akin to a bigger version of this). The barrier intercepts and negates incoming attacks, using his shields to absorb the damage, and benefits from his armor. The barrier shatters once Bastion's shields are depleted, and only reforms when his shields are fully restored.
• Upon taking fatal damage, Bastion does not die or bleed out normally. Instead, he generates a large, spherical force field around him that does not pass through terrain: during this time, Bastion is immune to damage and status, and can move and use weapons freely inside the field, though cannot move out of it. Enemies inside the field are highlighted and revealed to all Tenno through terrain, and while no enemies are in the field, Bastion rapidly charges up a gauge. Once the gauge is full before the bleedout timer ends, Bastion is revived, otherwise he dies. During this time, Bastion cannot be revived by normal means.

1 - Shield Wall

Launch your shield barrier as a deadly wall of force, or drain your health to sustain an aura of shield regeneration.

When tapped, Bastion launches his barrier forward, capturing enemies it hits and dragging them with it. Upon impact with terrain, the barrier shatters, dealing Impact damage to enemies, stunning them, and opening them up to finishers. Shield Wall can only be cast while Bastion's barrier is available (but does not require activating it by aiming), and fully depletes his shields. The travel range is affected by Power Range, the damage is affected by Power Strength, and the stun duration is affected by Power Duration.

While held, Bastion drains his health to regenerate his shields and those of nearby allies. The regeneration rate is affected by Power Strength, Duration, and Efficiency, while the range is affected by Power Range.

2 - Dungeon

Drain your shields to trap enemies in inescapable force fields.

When tapped, Bastion launches a projectile towards the reticle that deploys a static, spherical force field upon contact with terrain or an enemy, which shrinks over a duration. Enemies can enter the field, but cannot leave it and have their shields and armor reduced, whereas harmful projectiles that enter it are negated on exit. While the field remains active, Bastion's maximum shields are reduced, and Bastion cannot deploy more force fields if he cannot reduce his maximum shields further. The field's initial radius is affected by Power Range, its duration by Power Duration, the enemy armor and shields reduction by Power Strength, and the maximum shields reduction by Power Efficiency.

When held, Bastion dissipates his deployed force fields instantly.

When Shield Wall's launched barrier comes into contact with the inner side of the force field, it shatters as if it hit terrain, damaging and stunning enemies as per normal.

3 - Citadel

Shatter your armor to repel enemies and create a zone of safety. Defend the zone from invaders to become invulnerable.

Bastion repels all enemies within a radius to a fixed distance from him, generating a static, spherical zone from the shards of his armor that does not pass through terrain. While inside, Bastion and allies gain life steal and immunity to staggers and knockdowns. While no enemies are inside the zone, Bastion and his allies also gain complete immunity to damage and status. Activating this ability reduces Bastion's armor to 0, which recovers to full strength over the ability's duration. The field dissipates immediately when Bastion leaves its radius, instantly restoring his armor to full. The field's radius is affected by Power Range, its duration by Power Duration, and the life steal by Power Strength.

4 - Last Stand

Make the ultimate sacrifice. Destroy yourself, and take your foes with you.

Passively, Bastion stores damage based on the Affinity he receives, with no upper limit. When activated, Bastion self-destructs, consuming the stored damage to deal it as True damage to all enemies in Affinity range and himself. If he survives the ordeal, including through the use of his passive, he gains bonus armor based on a fraction of the total damage dealt, resetting upon casting the ability again. The stored damage and bonus armor reset on death, but not on taking fatal damage. The Affinity-to-stored-damage multiplier is affected by Power Strength, but the bonus armor gain is not.

5. Conclusion

And that should about wrap it up! Credit once again goes to @LascarCapablefor the core theme of a force field-based fortress frame, hopefully I've done it justice somewhat. The key idea with this take on the concept is to have a primarily defensive frame who really doesn't want enemies getting close to him, and has both the control abilities to do so, and the utility to reward him and his team for achieving that. What do you think?

[keikogi]

17 hours ago, Teridax68 said:

Bastion's shields function differently from other warframes: his shields are normally disabled, and he does not benefit from shield gates, but aiming projects his shields as a wide, transparent frontal barrier (akin to a bigger version of this). The barrier intercepts and negates incoming attacks, using his shields to absorb the damage, and benefits from his armor. The barrier shatters once Bastion's shields are depleted, and only reforms when his shields are fully restored.

I think just having the shield normaly but aiming downsights makes it frontal shield with a strenght mutiplier would be more resonable. Also the projected shield should linger a sec after loosing hp otherwise it will be to frail late game.

17 hours ago, Teridax68 said:

Upon taking fatal damage, Bastion does not die or bleed out normally. Instead, he generates a large, spherical force field around him that does not pass through terrain: during this time, Bastion is immune to damage and status, and can move and use weapons freely inside the field, though cannot move out of it. Enemies inside the field are highlighted and revealed to all Tenno through terrain, and while no enemies are in the field, Bastion rapidly charges up a gauge. Once the gauge is full before the bleedout timer ends, Bastion is revived, otherwise he dies. During this time, Bastion cannot be revived by normal mean

Removing the ability off allies reviving you has no precedent , both sevagoth and inaros can be revived by standard means. It not really a balance thing feels more like a team game thing.

17 hours ago, Teridax68 said:

1 - Shield Wall

Launch your shield barrier as a deadly wall of force, or drain your health to sustain an aura of shield regeneration.

When tapped, Bastion launches his barrier forward, capturing enemies it hits and dragging them with it. Upon impact with terrain, the barrier shatters, dealing Impact damage to enemies, stunning them, and opening them up to finishers. Shield Wall can only be cast while Bastion's barrier is available (but does not require activating it by aiming), and fully depletes his shields. The travel range is affected by Power Range, the damage is affected by Power Strength, and the stun duration is affected by Power Duration.

While held, Bastion drains his health to regenerate his shields and those of nearby allies. The regeneration rate is affected by Power Strength, Duration, and Efficiency, while the range is affected by Power Range.

Neat 

17 hours ago, Teridax68 said:

2 - Dungeon

Drain your shields to trap enemies in inescapable force fields.

When tapped, Bastion launches a projectile towards the reticle that deploys a static, spherical force field upon contact with terrain or an enemy, which shrinks over a duration. Enemies can enter the field, but cannot leave it and have their shields and armor reduced, whereas harmful projectiles that enter it are negated on exit. While the field remains active, Bastion's maximum shields are reduced, and Bastion cannot deploy more force fields if he cannot reduce his maximum shields further. The field's initial radius is affected by Power Range, its duration by Power Duration, the enemy armor and shields reduction by Power Strength, and the maximum shields reduction by Power Efficiency.

When held, Bastion dissipates his deployed force fields instantly.

When Shield Wall's launched barrier comes into contact with the inner side of the force field, it shatters as if it hit terrain, damaging and stunning enemies as per normal.

Interesting balancing mechanism. Limited deployment and need to enter and exist the buble for damage nulification. 

17 hours ago, Teridax68 said:

3 - Citadel

Shatter your armor to repel enemies and create a zone of safety. Defend the zone from invaders to become invulnerable.

Bastion repels all enemies within a radius to a fixed distance from him, generating a static, spherical zone from the shards of his armor that does not pass through terrain. While inside, Bastion and allies gain life steal and immunity to staggers and knockdowns. While no enemies are inside the zone, Bastion and his allies also gain complete immunity to damage and status. Activating this ability reduces Bastion's armor to 0, which recovers to full strength over the ability's duration. The field dissipates immediately when Bastion leaves its radius, instantly restoring his armor to full. The field's radius is affected by Power Range, its duration by Power Duration, and the life steal by Power Strength.

I would avoid life steal mechanics because life steal is borked because of damage. I had cooked up a unique lifesteak mechanic thats 100% of the enemy base hp. For example if you deal 10% of the hp of a bombard lvl 100 it would life steal 30 hp ( 10% of the the life total at base level ). It just removes all the nonsense with scaling damage. Or just go for the simpler mechanic of per kill regain.  I don´t really think it overpowered by any means ( have experience with harrow and I can say infinity lifesteal is not op on a low ehp frame because it does not matter if you can heal 1 kk per second if you hp pool is just 1k ) 

17 hours ago, Teridax68 said:

Passively, Bastion stores damage based on the Affinity he receives, with no upper limit. When activated, Bastion self-destructs, consuming the stored damage to deal it as True damage to all enemies in Affinity range and himself. If he survives the ordeal, including through the use of his passive, he gains bonus armor based on a fraction of the total damage dealt, resetting upon casting the ability again. The stored damage and bonus armor reset on death, but not on taking fatal damage. The Affinity-to-stored-damage multiplier is affected by Power Strength, but the bonus armor gain is not.

You can´t use afinity for this because it would be pay to win due to boosters. It´s the same reason I could not make a credit frame because well on double credit weekend with a boosters things would be silly , same applies here. 

 

[Teridax68]

11 hours ago, keikogi said:

I think just having the shield normaly but aiming downsights makes it frontal shield with a strenght mutiplier would be more resonable. Also the projected shield should linger a sec after loosing hp otherwise it will be to frail late game.

This was actually my initial thought, but I ended up deciding against it for a number of reasons:

• Given that the passive is a directional shield that would soak up hits across a wide area, Bastion would probably not want to project his barrier if it meant getting his always-on shields damaged.
• In the event that Bastion does use his passive, having its resource constantly depleted and its regeneration interrupted would likely make it a pain to control without just constantly draining health via his 1.
• Having "special" shields that aren't really shields I think justifies giving Bastion lots of durability through high base stats, healing, bonus armor, and above all a self-rez passive. If he could also have shields and shield gating on top of that, he probably would need to be made weaker, and would have to lose some of that (and if he loses his self-rez, that messes up his 4).

Quote

Removing the ability off allies reviving you has no precedent , both sevagoth and inaros can be revived by standard means. It not really a balance thing feels more like a team game thing.

This is fair enough, and I think it might be fine to add something that allies could interact with to revive Bastion regularly. The main reason why I removed that bit is because allies can already participate in rezzing Bastion by killing or moving away enemies highlighted by his zone: ideally, the gameplay should be for allies to help him murder everyone close so that he can revive, rather than for them to just hold a button for five seconds.

Quote

Neat 

Interesting balancing mechanism. Limited deployment and need to enter and exist the buble for damage nulification. 

Thank you! Indeed, the max shield reduction is there to put a hard cap to force field deployment, plus a tradeoff, and the mechanics of the 2 are meant to encourage Bastion to make some distance between himself and his enemies (his kit in general encourages that I think). He can trap enemies, but only if he positions them and himself right, rather than by just stunning the whole room or whatever.

Quote

I would avoid life steal mechanics because life steal is borked because of damage. I had cooked up a unique lifesteak mechanic thats 100% of the enemy base hp. For example if you deal 10% of the hp of a bombard lvl 100 it would life steal 30 hp ( 10% of the the life total at base level ). It just removes all the nonsense with scaling damage. Or just go for the simpler mechanic of per kill regain.  I don´t really think it overpowered by any means ( have experience with harrow and I can say infinity lifesteal is not op on a low ehp frame because it does not matter if you can heal 1 kk per second if you hp pool is just 1k ) 

Healing per kill doesn't actually sound too bad, actually. I think there are enough other relatively unproblematic sources of life steal in the game for it to be considered okay, but healing flat amounts from kills may be a better way of going about that mechanic, assuming it doesn't lead to players getting screwed over if some other player gets the last hit instead of them.

Quote

You can´t use afinity for this because it would be pay to win due to boosters. It´s the same reason I could not make a credit frame because well on double credit weekend with a boosters things would be silly , same applies here. 

 

Indeed, boosters exist, though the solution to that is to just specifically have Bastion only ramp damage up from Affinity before boosters and modifiers are applied. That way, he wouldn't be able to buy himself more power via Affinity boosts, or turn nuts on double Affinity weekends, Dark Sectors, etc.

[keikogi]

19 hours ago, Teridax68 said:

This is fair enough, and I think it might be fine to add something that allies could interact with to revive Bastion regularly. The main reason why I removed that bit is because allies can already participate in rezzing Bastion by killing or moving away enemies highlighted by his zone: ideally, the gameplay should be for allies to help him murder everyone close so that he can revive, rather than for them to just hold a button for five seconds.

Hold to revive is a somewhat popular mechanic because it's a risk manuver. It kind off lost this part on warframe because off the multiple ways to negate all risk involved. I've brought it up because we'll it has been always there.

19 hours ago, Teridax68 said:

Healing per kill doesn't actually sound too bad, actually. I think there are enough other relatively unproblematic sources of life steal in the game for it to be considered okay, but healing flat amounts from kills may be a better way of going about that mechanic, assuming it doesn't lead to players getting screwed over if some other player gets the last hit instead of them.

The second mechanic is wordy to explain but it pretty much is life steal over the enemy base health. I've came up with it because life steal os unbalanceable in warframe because when you deal 1kk damage and have 1 k hp any amount of life steal is too much life steal. I don't think refen on kill is that a good of a mechanic ( has a lot of flavour and I've used it a lot ) because it easily starverved.

 

[Teridax68]

6 hours ago, keikogi said:

Hold to revive is a somewhat popular mechanic because it's a risk manuver. It kind off lost this part on warframe because off the multiple ways to negate all risk involved. I've brought it up because we'll it has been always there.

I'm not quite sure I understand, as it sounds like you're trying to say losing the manual revive component here is a plus, when it would make reviving Bastion a bit more difficult, something precisely intended to counterbalance his high survivability somewhat. I also don't really see how he has "multiple ways to negate all risk involved" any more than the usual frame when he lacks shield gating and has an ability that's pretty much designed to kill him.

6 hours ago, keikogi said:

The second mechanic is wordy to explain but it pretty much is life steal over the enemy base health. I've came up with it because life steal os unbalanceable in warframe because when you deal 1kk damage and have 1 k hp any amount of life steal is too much life steal. I don't think refen on kill is that a good of a mechanic ( has a lot of flavour and I've used it a lot ) because it easily starverved.

I don't think life steal has really been all that unbalanceable in practice, as it's nowhere near problematic in Warframe relative to many other mechanics.