Espionage, Intrigue, Assassinations and stolen Grineer coffee?? Oh my!

[Shrak-aeon]

Let's talk stealth

Warframe has for the longest time tried to grasp towards the stealth aspect of the "space ninjas" thematic it goes for, yet always leaving it in the dust. Often stealth is indeed tedious and spy missions are, if not hated, then at least disliked by many. And on the flipside, the very concept of sneaking is ironically cast aside by the stealth-specialists of the game, we know who they are. There is nothing wrong with this however. After all, theirs is a power often focused towards tackling situations that require stealth optimally!

Yet indeed, warframe is lacking in stealth. Enjoyable, rewarding stealth, the kind that keeps one on their toes and offers risk and reward. And all of the stealth missions in our beloved game are "one-time-and-done" kinds of deals. Rescue can hardly even be considered a stealth mission at times, yet I do not intend to rag on the developers by stating this. Far from it. We all know that Rescue mode is one of the stepping stones of Warframe's past development!

What I propose is an endless mode for stealth, a kind of "Stealth Survival" if you may. Yet we are not here for life support my friends, oh no. We are here for supplies, information, sneaky yet swift and brutal takedowns and some of that SUH-WEET ROTATIONAL LOOT. Now I understand that this will make SEVERAL people bristle at the thought. The immediate fear would be: "Endless spy? Dear god no." but please. Bear with me!

The advantage of what I propose, is that it would not necessarily even require too much effort. Of course this must be taken with a tinge of salt because OF COURSE every new addition to the game requires a great deal of effort from it's developers. The amount simply varies. Now, enough rambling:

Imagine that instead of your general survival mission on a Grineer Galleon, you are not dropped in to cause noise. You're dropped in to take what you can and give nothing back... as long as possible until you are forced to extract.
A timer exists for each objective, not necessarily an unforgiving one either, as each target of opportunity is discovered. Must you locate and permanently borrow a supply shipment? Find and download key information? Or has some mook really just had a promotion at the wrong time of their lives and now their kidneys are very much at risk of receiving a sharp retort from behind? It varies, of course. And none of this exists without safety. Cargo crates litter the halls of the supply-laden ships, potentially allowing developers to simply reuse already existing tiles... requiring only cluttering them and reorganizing them.

Patrols move about and around these areas filled with cover, and could be made with predetermined paths. More patrols could spawn as a result of your little bouts of trickery and thievery, as their inventory and personnel records seem to be getting a bit slim! Precise and/or quiet weapons could be much more valued, as collateral damage or a large racket may shorten the length of your operation. Of course, this would not mean that EVERYTHING is as fragile as Vay Hek's ego. Simply dotting some key destructible bits here and there would serve enough to discourage frivolous applications of EXPLOSIONS.

What of simply murdering the poor sods as you dash and slide around at the speed of mach 12 while blasting the music of the famous Grineer rebel musician Innitahlk Dee?? I understand the concern for this solution being a staple, and I can offer an answer. Each patrol can consist of specific types of enemies, who are quite literally suited for protecting and spotting pirates and ninjas in their stores and cargo holds! Punishing wanton shooting with thick armour padding that much akin to the Nox, makes the Tenno question if they're shooting itching powder from their weapons rather than bullets. Accuracy is rewarded! Aim for the head or other weak spots to either daze long enough to make your escape, but be punished, or risk simply outright killing the security specialist before they can get their bearings and call in for backup. The most efficient results of course... come by introducing your beatsticks, blades, clubs and hammers to their backs, stomachs or necks. What's that? Whips??... Well only if that's what you're into.

Kill squads. Ah yes... The fabled reinforcements. The active punishment for causing too much noise or attempting to use that Steel Meridian handshake on a Grineer patrol to try and see if they're rebels in disguise! A careless Tenno who causes too much noise, destruction, triggers traps or is spotted by a patrol they don't either hide from or kill swiftly enough is going to face the consequences of their actions, and are tagged by the enemy systems as a result. These elite troops will carry forth incredible amounts of pin-point firepower and specialized weapons to oust the Tenno from hiding, whilst zeroing in on the location of their tags. The kill squads are truly ruthless, and only the most reckless Tenno might be able to deal with them... If they even dare. Yet if one manages to evade the squad long enough in the numerous hiding spots and nooks and crannies of the ship? The tag wears off as the enemy cannot regain visual confirmation on the players and lose their signature. Thus the kill squads take their leave, assuming that their quarry has left for another part of the ship or even exfiltrated. The more players can get spotted, the more these squads appear over time.
But what if someone intends to troll their team by alerting as many kill squads as possible to make the mission much more difficult or impossible? Ah yes... This worry I expect, and wholeheartedly understand. The simpler solution here would be, that the kill squads home in on ONLY the tagged, triggering player of course. Thus meaning, that whoever is responsible for triggering the squad will be the one on their radar.
What if the tagged Tenno seek to run to their friends to lure the kill squads to them with this mechanic? This I admit, is more difficult to handle. Yet I'd offer a kind-of-solution, by making the kill-squad specifically prioritize their tagged target, before confirming the kill and possibly moving on to the next target they can spot.
Another solution for this could be to disable ally locations and silhouettes on the minimap and in the game world, disallowing the information of a friendly player's location from any trolls. Plus, this could feed into the whole "sneaking into enemy territory fantasy."

Hacking? I hate hacking! I understand this one, my friends. It can feel very abrupt and sudden. And it is something that I have tried to think through. For example, what if the sector a player is in gets put in lockdown while a kill squad investigates the area? Well, hacking could be involved of course, but breaker boxes could also be implemented. Where the player has to simply follow a set of cables and shoot or melee a breaker box to end the lockdown, and thus they are free to move on! Some objectives could require hacking of course. The fun would be to have different ideal loadouts however. One Tenno could be focused on dealing with the patrols on the side of hunting for their targets, be it through silent takedowns or precision firing before relocating in a hurry. Or brandishing those fabled silenced guns! Another Tenno could involve a setup to make hacking easier! And so forth. The playground of stealth could open ways for more than just "I bring X frame and weapons, because it kills things the fastest.

What of the clear gods of stealth, would they make this trivial? Perhaps in some ways they most DEFINITELY would make such a mission easy. Yet I do not think such is... wrong. They are meant to specialize in stealth, and as such using such a Warframe should reward the player for making the choice of optimizing their loadout for a given task! Of course, we can't let them completely invalidate the challenges of this activity, and as such I'd indeed recommend different kinds of traps and hazards. Simple sound traps that alert nearby patrols to check around in the vicinity. Energy barriers, pressure-triggered safety mechanisms, and mobile scanners that could be deployed with some, and only some patrol groups, that could detect stealthed Warframes in the vicinity. This could give an edge for players who choose to bring Loki or Ivara for example, allowing them to certainly dominate the objectives in some ways. But it would still keep them on their toes, simply much less so than other warframes.

What of CC-locking the patrols? To this I raise you either the option of diminishing returns, or simply making patrols highly resistant to crowd control effects, allowing Tenno to make swift getaways, or disabling a group for just long enough to make moving past them an option! Careful of the scanner drones though!... They do not sleep, and that radius of detection and alarm remains!

With this I hope that an alternative action-packed endless mode could be included into the game. I hope it would be simple enough to implement, by merely reusing assets and making them more crammed and trapped for the purposes of stealth, a part of Warframe that does hold a place in the game, even if it is ironically often left unseen in favour of a more direct approach by players.
I do not claim to be a master developer, far from it. But I hope this idea could gain some traction! Endless mode missions tend to offer much in Warframe's playground, and the very simple addition of the Defection gamemode caused different kinds of Warframes to prevail as a choice for loadouts due to their strengths. This could offer a much-required big-time playground for the more stealth-oriented warframes, weapons, mods and playstyles.

I truly wish to hear opinions and feedback on this!

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TL;DR: A suggestion of an action-packed endless stealth mission that allows you play with high risk and high reward, as the mission slowly progresses in difficulty due to roaming elite mobs and changing objectives.
 

[Sherbniz]

I like it! Such a well written suggestion!

DE hire this man!

[CosoMalvadoNG]

hace 11 minutos, Shrak-aeon dijo:

What I propose is an endless mode for stealth, a kind of "Stealth Survival"

+1 pleaseeee DE

[RLanzinger]

This is STEALTH REBORN ... 💖

💖💖

Individual stealth (counter/meter ?) : a simple, yet marvellous idea (also easy to program)

No more Baka-Rhino spoiling the stealth moods

Banshee's Silence, Loki's Invisibility, Ivara's Prowl, Hydroid's Undertow, Wisp's cloak ... so much abilities under-use

 

This deserve to be implemented with a badge ... one that can evolve to proudly earn the Ninja title. Like the tactical in better.