Warframe 1999 - Add-on content is nice, but I'd have preferred core Warframe to be the main focus

[Silligoose]

I had some pretty lofty, unrealistic hopes for Tennocon. I was hoping for the current decision makers to realize this game they've been given the reins to, to continue building on, is pretty damn good. I was hoping they'd take a look around the landscape of gaming, take a look at top performing games and realize that those games remain successful because they have good foundations people enjoyed, that the devs continue to build on.

Warframe already has those foundations people enjoy. I was hoping devs would announce they will start building on those foundations again. That they'd start working on producing the well-balanced endgame this game deserves and improve balance in other stages of the game, for the diverse spectrum of players cultivated that enjoy different levels of challenge. I was hoping they would retcon the atrocious band-aids they've been implementing in lieu of actual balance, because those band-aids are slowly eroding the excellent foundation this game has. I was hoping they'd get this game in a better state not only for players, but so they don't have to go to the extremes of content islands in order to present some sort of challenge.

What I hoped for was not in line with my expectations.

Earlier this weekend I came across publications regarding the DE team. Given the Creative Director stated: "That's the layer of delicious sauce I wanted." when she first saw the random gear in the Duviri Cave, I got the feeling DE isn't looking to build on the foundations and I was expecting DE's focus to again divert away from actual Warframe towards some add-on content... unfortunately those expectations appear to have been met.

We got a preview of some frame gameplay, which I do look forward to a little (more on that later), but it seems DE is more focussed on building another new, lesser game, inside Warframe. It is early days, but Warframe 1999 reminds me of reskinned Kahl of Duty - a stripped down version of Warframe, inside Warframe. that will simply lack much of the variety, depth and mechanics I log in for.

I don't mind gaming companies working on some filler to add to their game, like Tekken bowling, or K-drives. or Dormizone decoration and many a time it is welcomed (even if I am not particularly drawn to it, like decorations), but it is disconcerting to see how much focus and effort DE seems to be putting into add-on content islands while neglecting the main game.

After seeing the trailer for Warframe 1999, hearing this is where we are going and that that will be the bigger expansion, I was disappointed. It even affects how much I look forward to actual frame content, as it appears DE is more than happy to sacrifice the quality of core Warframe content, in favour of non-frame filler, as was seen with Archon Hunts and even Zariman.

I'll keep enjoying the game for what it is, while I let the fool in me hope DE decides to properly build on the game that hooked so many people and address the issues they've ignored for years.

Are others excited for Warframe 1999? Do they like that more time and effort is spent on add-ons instead of actual Warframe? What are your impressions?

[AtsiaZ]

I'm absolutely excited for WF 1999. DE is going whole hog into the ramifications of alternate timelines and I'm here for wherever the story may go. It's all still Warframe content.

[Hypernaut1]

I like that they go against expectations. Because we always expect more of the same

[PublikDomain]

11 minutes ago, Silligoose said:

Are others excited for Warframe 1999? Do they like that more time and effort is spent on add-ons instead of actual Warframe? What are your impressions?

Depends on how it's done. If it's just part of the quest and we play as proto-proto-Excal for a bit while being expositioned at then I'm not concerned. If it's yet another disconnected game-within-a-game like Duviri... Eh. Guess it'd be more of the same.

[Genitive]

5 minutes ago, PublikDomain said:

If it's yet another disconnected game-within-a-game like Duviri... Eh. Guess it'd be more of the same.

Probably too early to complain, but I hope it isn't.

[Neo3602]

Considering what we have seen has little context, I'm going to wait and see how it plays out.  It could tie into the main loop in a good way or it could not. Either way we'll see.

[Veridian]

That's a whole lot of text to complain about a gameplay that was basically a Warframe with a human head.

 

[--END--Rikutatis]

30 minutes ago, Silligoose said:

I had some pretty lofty, unrealistic hopes for Tennocon.

That pretty much explains the rest of what you wrote. Expecting a full gameplay balance rework of Warframe 10 years in is completely unrealistic and a forum pipe dream for the 6 years I've been on these forums. 

In terms of core gameplay they also showed a new warframe, an entirely new tileset and a new weapon class. 

Personally, I'm hyped for 1999. Duviri was pretty cool for me and the lovecraftian vibes of this upcoming update are amazing. 

 

[kamisama85]

"Core gameplay" means different things to every player because everyone started at different times. But everything Warframe needs more world building, lore, and story expansion to make way for that.

[rstat1]

43 minutes ago, Silligoose said:

Are others excited for Warframe 1999? Do they like that more time and effort is spent on add-ons instead of actual Warframe? What are your impressions?

I like that time is spent on new ideas, and not rehashing the same old boring stuff over and over. Also you can't tell me after reading the changelogs of most of the major updates the last few years that they don't spend time fixing and reworking existing stuff.

Space ninjas and their weapons and all the associated gameplay loops are what got in to this game back in day but 1999 is the sort of out-of-left-field stuff that's kept me interested in this game. Railjack, Duviri, Deimos, the open worlds, and all the quests (well most of them, there's a few I haven't played yet in the 10yrs I've been playing), that's what I see as "core Warframe" not add-ons as you called them.

I read the rest of what you said and to me it sounds like "Kahl of Duty" is more in line with you want. Not necessarily the gameplay of a CoD but the same sort continual-re-release-with-hardly-any-changes-with-no-real-story style of game development that Activision is known for, which I'm glad they don't do. If I wanted to play the 2023 version of a game from 2005 I'd go play the newest re-release of COD: Modern Warfare.

[Hypernaut1]

38 minutes ago, rstat1 said:

I like that time is spent on new ideas, and not rehashing the same old boring stuff over and over. Also you can't tell me after reading the changelogs of most of the major updates the last few years that they don't spend time fixing and reworking existing stuff.

Space ninjas and their weapons and all the associated gameplay loops are what got in to this game back in day but 1999 is the sort of out-of-left-field stuff that's kept me interested in this game. Railjack, Duviri, Deimos, the open worlds, and all the quests (well most of them, there's a few I haven't played yet in the 10yrs I've been playing), that's what I see as "core Warframe" not add-ons as you called them.

I read the rest of what you said and to me it sounds like "Kahl of Duty" is more in line with you want. Not necessarily the gameplay of a CoD but the same sort continual-re-release-with-hardly-any-changes-with-no-real-story style of game development that Activision is known for, which I'm glad they don't do. If I wanted to play the 2023 version of a game from 2005 I'd go play the newest re-release of COD: Modern Warfare.

As much as i love WF, theres no way i'd still be playing if they kept doing more of the same.  WF isnt the best game ive ever played, but ive played it the longest.  I kind of think DE knows what theyre doing. 

Edited August 27, 2023 by Hypernaut1

[SilentMobius]

I think that what I saw looked cool, but I don't know even close to enough to give any opinion on what I'll think of the content.

I mean what is the content? Is it a Duviri-like alternate world that somehow provides stuff to the general Warframe loop. either like the story or the circuit (forever fighting a battle on the cusp of the year 2000), is it only part of a story quest (Like the New War start segments) that provides lore and story progression, or something totally different? I simply don't know, but what I do know is that we're getting new Orokin tilesets, with a (deeply satisfying) cosmic horror twist, new Orokin enemies and more TMITW/Deimos/Void lore. Which is all stuff I've been wanting since the Void tileset was first released. So I'm starting from a very happy place.

Hell, I'm really enjoying the Duviri loop: SP circuit for Arcanes, Steel Essence and Incarnon adapters, then non-SP story mode for a relaxing and fun jaunt for resources and pathos clamps. then SP fissures ranking the new incarnon while earning SE and prime parts. It's much more enjoyable that the old "Rotation C defence or survival forever" or the more modern "Lua disruption forever". I've been enjoying bringing every weapon build up to spec since I always kept every weapon and all weapons got a catalyst I was in a good starting place for the circuit, but have a goal for every weapon to but circuit capable has really refreshed my game.

Edited September 12, 2023 by SilentMobius

[xcrimsonlegendx]

As I've said before, DE could do another 20 updates that aren't "core warframe" and 90% of the game would still likely be that content everyone loves. Just because they're adding some variation doesn't mean the game isn't mostly warframe warframe. To me personally the variety is what has kept me interested in Warframe for so many years, being able to take a break from bullet-jumping to extraction as fast as possible for the 100th time today so I can go fishing, skateboarding, piloting a mech, taking a space ship for a cruise, playing as a slower paced military character like Kahl, or the drifter. I appreciate all the effort that goes into those side activities because they're what keeps the game fresh and interesting. If the game was just race to extraction and nothing else, I'd have uninstalled ages ago and to anyone that only wants that content, then don't play the new stuff.

Edited August 27, 2023 by xcrimsonlegendx
Typos

[Vaml77]

I was expecting something more to duviri like a syndicate, the lich infested, more railjack content....what I saw just turned out to be pretty confusing. I don't understand this 1999... is it a game within the warframe?

[Beowulf22]

If you're talking about the core fundamentals of the warframe experience, i.e. sliding, bullet jumping, abilities and gun and melee combat.. that was all shown in the 1999 demo? You see Arthur use slide mechanics, you see him use his melee (slide attack). You see him using his primary. And while it looked more like a cutscene cinematic, you still see him use radial javelin. Comparing this to Kahl is.. silly. I have a feeling we are going to spend quite a bit of time in the Warframe 1999 world, using combat that is typical to warframe.

[Yakhul]

Warframe 1999 to me, feels like going back to their roots, to that one game that never saw the light of the day, combined with the landscape of Dark Sector, and i am all for that ride.

[ShogunGunshow]

I swear to f*** if we go through another questline of humans using Warframe weapons and then inexplicably when control is returned to me the weapons are taken out of my hands a la Nataruk I am going to flip a table.

If you don't want Drifter using weapons because of gameplay design, fine - just stop showing humies doing that. 🙄

[(PSN)GEN-Son_17]

1 hour ago, Vaml77 said:

I was expecting something more to duviri like a syndicate, the lich infested, more railjack content....what I saw just turned out to be pretty confusing. I don't understand this 1999... is it a game within the warframe?

It looks, IMO, like 1999 is what happened when Dr. Entrati came into contact with the Man in the Wall. My guess is that Wally used his eternalism ability to try to create the reality it wanted through Dr. Entrati. Perhaps Dr. Entrati created a way to also use eternalism to stop Wally but it's time limited or he is constantly battling with Wally in his mind and it is a race to control the actions of the planes of time and space Wally travels to. 

Sidenote: I'm starting to think we now know who the very first human was that Helminth successfully used to create Excalibur, the warframe.

[(PSN)AyinDygra]

I'm interested in Warframe 1999 in a "I'd love to see the cutscenes tell that story." way... but not in a "I wanna play that story." way.

[(PSN)GEN-Son_17]

3 hours ago, Silligoose said:

I had some pretty lofty, unrealistic hopes for Tennocon. I was hoping for the current decision makers to realize this game they've been given the reins to, to continue building on, is pretty damn good. I was hoping they'd take a look around the landscape of gaming, take a look at top performing games and realize that those games remain successful because they have good foundations people enjoyed, that the devs continue to build on.

Warframe already has those foundations people enjoy. I was hoping devs would announce they will start building on those foundations again. That they'd start working on producing the well-balanced endgame this game deserves and improve balance in other stages of the game, for the diverse spectrum of players cultivated that enjoy different levels of challenge. I was hoping they would retcon the atrocious band-aids they've been implementing in lieu of actual balance, because those band-aids are slowly eroding the excellent foundation this game has. I was hoping they'd get this game in a better state not only for players, but so they don't have to go to the extremes of content islands in order to present some sort of challenge.

What I hoped for was not in line with my expectations.

Earlier this weekend I came across publications regarding the DE team. Given the Creative Director stated: "That's the layer of delicious sauce I wanted." when she first saw the random gear in the Duviri Cave, I got the feeling DE isn't looking to build on the foundations and I was expecting DE's focus to again divert away from actual Warframe towards some add-on content... unfortunately those expectations appear to have been met.

We got a preview of some frame gameplay, which I do look forward to a little (more on that later), but it seems DE is more focussed on building another new, lesser game, inside Warframe. It is early days, but Warframe 1999 reminds me of reskinned Kahl of Duty - a stripped down version of Warframe, inside Warframe. that will simply lack much of the variety, depth and mechanics I log in for.

I don't mind gaming companies working on some filler to add to their game, like Tekken bowling, or K-drives. or Dormizone decoration and many a time it is welcomed (even if I am not particularly drawn to it, like decorations), but it is disconcerting to see how much focus and effort DE seems to be putting into add-on content islands while neglecting the main game.

After seeing the trailer for Warframe 1999, hearing this is where we are going and that that will be the bigger expansion, I was disappointed. It even affects how much I look forward to actual frame content, as it appears DE is more than happy to sacrifice the quality of core Warframe content, in favour of non-frame filler, as was seen with Archon Hunts and even Zariman.

I'll keep enjoying the game for what it is, while I let the fool in me hope DE decides to properly build on the game that hooked so many people and address the issues they've ignored for years.

Are others excited for Warframe 1999? Do they like that more time and effort is spent on add-ons instead of actual Warframe? What are your impressions?

I have no idea what are getting at. 1999 looked exactly like Warframe content, gameplay and direction. Honestly, and this isn't a dig, I think you really don't get what this game is and what it's doing. I mean, DE has been expanding and experimenting with this game's world for 9 of those 10 years. The only reason it never looked that way to some is because tech and development wasn't up to par yet. 

[Duality52]

2 hours ago, Veridian said:

That's a whole lot of text to complain about a gameplay that was basically a Warframe with a human head.

A lot of artists now feels validated by Tennolive, especially after what happened back at the Sacrifice.

[Kaotyke]

3 hours ago, Veridian said:

That's a whole lot of text to complain about a gameplay that was basically a Warframe with a human head.

 

And when you think about it: all Warframes have human heads.

*looks at Xaku*

... oh had.

[Marvelous_A]

The only thing I can tell from the demo is Durivi is gonna be cast aside and forgotten like many new content came before it.

[ShogunGunshow]

2 minutes ago, Marvelous_A said:

The only thing I can tell from the demo is Durivi is gonna be cast aside and forgotten like many new content came before it.

That's fine tbh, I don't want to be there. It was a fun gimmick but I'm ready for something else.

[CrownOfShadows]

Well, I feel weird about connecting the WF universe directly to ours, even if in lore it always has been, idk, I feel weird about it. BUT, I'm also interested.

I agree with OP, I'd really appreciate core gameplay love instead of content island #861. If we got an overhaul of what we play every day instead of what we burn through, I'd be much more excited.

That said, it's not like they're completely ignoring the rest of their game. The Hydroid rework, the incarnons for old weapons - there's some attention. It's just not the game mode / game play attention the game deserves.

One major praise I will levy is the introduction of a new faction - the murmurs feel like they have tons of potential and are just conceptually cool af. The game could really benefit from a new faction. However, I'm kinda getting the sense that this will not be a 'mainstream' faction, and will instead be the equivalent of the Deimos infested, which is unfortunate. Also, expanding necramechs (just one? ugh) and the necralisk depths is great, I adore that whole aesthetic, I just wish they'd do something as cool that we can keep playing later :/