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Angels of the Zariman: Dev Workshop PREVIEW


[DE]Megan

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Greetings, Tenno!

Devstream #160 showed us a sneak peek of what’s to come with our next major update: Angels of the Zariman! Included alongside reveals like the Zariman tileset, Evolving Weapons, new Void Flood game mode and much more, we have some big mechanic reworks in store for you! Let’s break it down and sum up what was shown!

 

FOCUS SYSTEM REWORK

We are going all in on Focus changes for Warframe. This is a preview Dev Workshop to recap what we discussed on our latest Devstream: the real detailed write-up will come in April. Hopefully this can hold you over until then by providing an overview of our goals and how we aim to achieve them! Change is coming, Tenno!

We introduced Focus in 2015, and it’s undergone growth and changes in the years since its release. In 2022, we feel incremental changes won’t address systemic refresh needs, and our Angels of the Zariman Update will bring a reworked Focus.

What does this mean?

In practical terms:

  • This will be our most comprehensive Focus rework to date.

  • We are emphasizing gameplay changes & Focus school identity.

  • Keep an open mind to rebalances & learning new gameplay since so much is changing.

  • Operator-to-Warframe flow is receiving improvements. 

  • Void Dash is changing to be a more controlled movement tool and ‘less spammy’. We are generally inspired by the change from Coptering to Bullet Jumping. Not that the current Void Dash is an unintended movement, but redoing it to better fit our combat is the goal. 

  • A full respec will be required upon release to re-select your Focus Nodes!

 

We showed a first look at some Gameplay changes that we’ll summarize here, please watch the full stream for context:

General:

  • Beyond Focus school reworks, Operator combat flow is getting improvements. Whenever you are in Operator Mode, the Melee input will now instantly bring your Warframe to your location to execute a melee attack. This replaces ‘Void Blast’. Any interactions that relied on Void Blast will be audited to ensure everything still works with other Void combat abilities!

  • Void Dash: this is now a telegraphed movement tool with more interdirectionality and pivoting potential to better traverse the game’s tiles and combat spaces. Chained-forward traversal is still a valid option, but it has been redesigned. 

https://clips.twitch.tv/MildBlazingJaguarDxAbomb-lIacZK0xfZcQO2Mh 

 

Unairu Changes Preview: 

  • We wanted to use Unairu to preview how deep the rework goes because it is one of our least popular Focus schools, and demonstrating how we aim to improve it is key.

  • Virtually the entire tree has been reviewed and changed.  

  • Unairu further becomes the defensive / stalwart School of Focus. A sturdy mountain to be contested with. 

  • There are now more skill opportunities for players, with the example of being able to time a reaction in the Operator transference-death animation to immediately summon your Warframe in place and flow right back into combat, rather than being sent to your Warframe’s location. 

  • All numbers shown in the stream are subject to change. 

 

Beyond Gameplay:

We are adding a cosmetic Focus shop to spend your unused points in! Things like Landing Craft ornaments and more await students of their favorite Focus School. 


 

EXIMUS REWORK

The main objective of this Eximus Rework is to enhance their visibility in battle, both in how they function and their formidableness. We achieve this in 2 ways: 

  1. Amplify their threat with increased time-to-kill - accompanied with justifying rewards!

    1. More on this in our official Dev Workshop coming soon.

  2. Enhancing their visual and mechanical functions to be more identifiable in combat.

 

These two shifts for Eximus aim to make them more challenging to kill, but also make their specific threats easier to identify and give a more tactical way to evade. 

Devstream #160 debuted 3 of the various revamped Eximus units: Blitz, Energy Leech, and Arson. 

Let’s dive into their respective changes!

 

BLITZ

Current

A Seismic Shockwave knockdown with short range.
 

New

Blitz Eximus Units now summon a frontal chain Blast attack by slamming their fist into the ground that applies a knockdown and Blast Status Effect. This Blast attack is detected by an audio cue and FX of the oncoming Blast erupting from below.
 

Visual Changes

Blitz Eximus units are now covered in crackling energy, with the addition of small staggered explosions coming from their limbs. 


 

ENERGY LEECH / PARASITIC 

Current

An invisible aura that drains Energy over time.
 

New

Energy Leech/Parasitic Eximus units now periodically spawn an Energy Leech Zone where players are near/standing. The Energy Leech Zone is detonated within seconds, draining a large amount of Energy if not tactically avoided. This Zone is detected by an expanding energy zone and audible cue on placement & detonation.
 

Visual Changes

Energy Leech/Parasitic Eximus units now appear shrouded in Void-like energy, manifesting in short tendrils swirling from their body. The Energy Leech Zone spawns with a matching energy style and appearance before detonating.  

 

https://clips.twitch.tv/ObservantJoyousChamoisPRChase-VXXy9N_Dm7DbGfi4

 

ARSON / CAUSTIC 

Current

A concussive Fire Blast attack that knockdowns and damages enemies caught in its wake.
 

New

Arson Eximus units maintain a Fire Blast attack, but you can now counter the Fire Blast by simply rolling through it to negate its oncoming effect. However, Damage is now higher along with a forced Heat Status Effect when struck.
 

Visual Changes

Arson Eximus units are now completely engulfed in roaring flames. They occasionally send out these deadly flames in all directions as a slow rolling burst. The Fire Blast attack has been visually refreshed to not only match the fire FX engulfing the Eximus unit, but also to represent a “roaring wave” of fire as opposed to a blinding wall.
 

https://clips.twitch.tv/EvilAgreeableCormorantAMPEnergy-8QhmB5ZZF0wgzE2i 


Thank you for reading, Tenno. See you in April for our full Workshops! 

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i DEEPLY hope that Zenurik energy dash and Naramon combo decay are jsut waybounds now. and not nerfed into irrelevency! 

also, keep current Void Dash. it fills it's job and you are trying to re-invent the wheel for no reason about this mechanic. it's good as it is, stop trying to change things that works, and works good for what they're used for. 

there is NO NEED to have this telegraphed, even less having it nerfed to be slow, and short distance. void dash isn't used for combat purpose. it's used for TRAVELING. 

Blink Nerf 2.0. 

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Some really neat things you've showed there, lots of things to like. I guess if I'd had to pick one thing, especially that you decided to put some emphasis on parkour in one of the new modes. Looking forward to seeing how that'll shake out.

 

But I have to admit, I'm on the fence about some of the Garuda changes.

One of her playstyles (the other being maximising her nuke, I don't care much about that) was about juggling her various buffs, bars and meters. Health and her passive, energy, shields, her blood orb damage. That and her mobility is what gives her a very unique playstyle, diving in and out of danger. If you take that away, why shouldn't I just play one of the same-old meta frames instead?

Seems like this will be another victim of the "streamlining process", or rather "dumbing things down unnecessarily" as I like to call that kind of change.

(Preliminary opinion, of course, wait and see)

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It's a good thing to give the player more control over the distance travelled with void dash, but the execution seems flawed. So far, the comments here and on Reddit are unanimously against the change: we fear it will make movement slower and feel bad.
There's the saying of "don't knock it till you try it", but we all know that void dash won't be changed anymore after we get our hands on it, even if it is on the test server.
So, DE, please workshop the implementation some more and take in community feedback about how to make a version that has the best of both worlds.

I'm sure the rest of the comments will spawn lots of ideas of how to implement it, but here are some of mine to get things started:  

• Have void dash use the maximum distance when the jump key is tapped rather than held.
• Control the distance indicator by moving the mouse up/down to allow the distance to be set fast once muscle memory learns to make use of it.
• Allow players to switch between keeping movement and removing all movement after void dash on the fly.
• Freeze the player in mid-air while setting the distance to avoid the scenario where you fall too much to get on a ledge while setting the distance. Rebecca already had this happen on stream.
 

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void dash is great for fast traverse
making it slow kinda kills this without any real advantages

Blink nerf 2.0?

 

I saw a lot of really good changes to Focus tree, namely no more unavoidable drain on active nodes. But new dash is a miss imo

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have you made ANY considerations for the eidolon hunting community? it doesn't seem like it

 

edit: current dash is fast, satisfying and gets the job done. new dash is just a slow cumbersome mess. huge downgrade.

i also suspect that it's just a farce for nerfing mobility as a whole, to make the game overall slower, which has been proven time and time again to be a bad idea

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Please consider reverting the changes to the dash, as I think it will make the operator less useful for getting around.

In addition, I think that its looks slow and clunky the telegraphing seems pretty pointless as most of the time people are just going to dash into the group to stop them self's if needed.

 

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2 minutes ago, mikakor said:

except that it DOESN"T fit the combat. it's now slow, goes almost NOWHERE, and seems rather extremely cumbersome to use. whoever designed that, back to the drawing board you go. seriously. what am i saying, back to the current one, period. nobody should have even thought about changing a tool that was doing it's job perfectly. i hope the backlash is so intense that it goes back to what it should be. a traversal tool. not some kind of tactical fancy bullS#&$ like you pulled today... 

And this, fellow Tenno, is a prime example of knocking something before trying it.

Wait until the test cluster or release before you throw your toys out of your pram.

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Please, be VERY careful with void dash changes.
The new one seems very slow/sluggish, and I really hope that's not all that there is to it.


I'd rather not have a downgrade to a system so deeply ingrained into the game's movement.

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I am unbelievably hyped about the changes we saw on stream today. As someone who's been trying (despite somewhat clunky and ineffectual mechanics) to integrate operator play into my overall gameflow, seeing that the devs are actively moving toward improving this experience and rewarding it is very exciting!

Looking forward to Narimon rework the most, for OC/lore-related reasons. (ノ ФωФ)ノ

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Not really digging these void dash changes. It feels slow and cumbersome. If I want to have a shorter dash, I can easily just look down at the floor or do a little jump and then dash down. Never would've crossed my mind to have a telegraph for it, because it's really not all that necessary.

I'd rather keep the old dash.

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Eximus rework looks promising so far. Looking forward to that.

Void Dash looks sluggish (other comments touch on this already).

Something to think about for maybe the future is giving some kind of scaling sink for unused Focus Points that have steep scaling for marginal bonuses to give players who've been playing a long time something to use Focus for once "completing" every node. Having insane scaling would mean nothing is powercrept into oblivion and newer players can get almost the same performance while Focus Points become indefinitely useful for something, even if small improvements at scaled milestones. Many players have tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of unused points that will continue to accumulate.

Also regarding this:

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Make the teleport of Frame to current location automatic rather than manual. This would not only be nice, but also fix the entire situation where Operator death is abused to teleport the Warframe across the map using cached locations.

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I'm begging you to change the plans on the Garuda passive and make it an augment or something.  Give it a second trait if you need to, just don't make one of the most fun risk-reward 'frames in the game hyper-safe, boring, and tethered to a single point.  Because that is what will happen.

 

edit:

Hello from the future, yeah I was right. :/  She just feels way too safe, and boring, I feel like I'm playing less "risk-reward bloodmage" and more "what if Valkyr but literally better in every way."

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