Abyss of Dagath - Dev Workshop: Companion Improvements and Tweaks

[SteveCutler]

2 hours ago, (PSN)aarott said:

>Nothing for melee, though.

They said there were a bunch more mods beyond the four Bond ones. They just weren't ready to show them yet.

[Udoshi]

Couple questions Re: This rework

1) Are sentinels getting global damage reduction to account for the fact that they cannot dodge and just eat all damage sent their way? This is especially prevalent if you like using operator or drifter. (all the survivability mods won't save it from being immobile. Dodge chance passive maybe?)
2) can all pets just use link health/armor/shields? Can you the link mods be moved from 10-rank silver to 5-rank gold to make them more accessable to average, returning an new players? the endo costs are kinda S#&$ty. Ditto for basically all 10-rank pet mods. (consolidate the drain/effect at max to be the same at cap and work down.)
3) can we do away with 'robo/sentinel' type restrictive mods ? its lame that fired up can't go on moas, or that there's sentinel only mods. Robotic should be robotic!
4) can sentinels get extra mod slots, like necramechs, to make up for they have to equip targeting precepts when other pets do NOT?
5) sentinel gun exilus adapters when? (if eagle eye/zoom is an issue, just forbid it. certain guns really need it, like beam range extenders or projectile speed for helstrum)
6) its absolute horse dung that the deimos charger can't use kubrow set mods(mecha), when vulpaphylas and predacytes can use their respective types. This is one of the crimes against a cooler pet type in the game. In fact, consider giving it extra mod slots so you have the space to use both!
7) sentinel gun pass. Enough said. Most of these are garbage.  Like...anything older than dethmachine rifle prime is due for a tune up. Don't be afraid to assign innate elementals, or multiples. Ex: stinger being gas and viral, or whatever. Burst lasers could stand to hitscan type.
8)I would also like to see a long-range targeting precept (ie, the assault mode clone of thumper/dirigia' sniper precept that has a longer aggro range + a falloff boost, but a fire rate penalty or similiar.)

Feature Requests:
1) Shephard mod: This needs a buff to be flat, pre-math base amount. or a buff in general. or to be the first 'exilus aura' mod that affects your team(but doesn't give drain)
2) Allow extra Precept Polarities(penjaga) and/or bracket mod on moa's to extend max # of precepts. IE, 3 total.
3) Allow Sentinel precepts to be cross-equipped on similiar sentinels. EX: oxylus and helios are both SENSOR type, so botanist, fish-scan, camera mode, etc can be used on each. Alternatively, the moa solution: full cross equip once built/mastered.
5) make Coolant Leak work like Lucinia's Suffering, and not require active precept use. (code is already in the game, has synergy with cold procs, easy port - and make it work on Moa's/hounds/all robot units.)

That's all my frustrations with pets really.

Tldr: I'd like everything pet related was given a thoughtful once-over, as if it was a pet designed and released like modern pets: if it doesn't have the 2023 design philosophy, modernize it. Embrace permissive design(moa's can do anything any other moa can - if you build it) mindset not restrictive. (helios bad, and can't scan plants despite having plant scanning synthesis scanner  works scans plants in the players hands but for some reason)

lastly: Fire sale on simaris precept mods, because people will probably want to  try them out after pet revamp. they're -very- expensive. most of simaris's offerings aren't worth the grind too, but thats a seperate thing
 

Edited October 7, 2023 by Udoshi

[Larrell]

Guys, this is the "Let's make pets not drop dead instantly so I can get data to work out what needs buffing and nerfing on pets in another update" update. Speaking of per survivability, Please consider making the Pack Leader mods heal on ranged and even ability damage. It would be nice to have a way to heal them without melee/abilities

[Maian_]

I hope it works and the companions don't die so easily, I think it would be easier if the companions don't have weapons equipped, they simply don't die

[(PSN)RB3-Reloaded]

On 2023-10-07 at 7:28 AM, Udoshi said:

5) make Coolant Leak work like Lucinia's Suffering, and not require active precept use. (code is already in the game, has synergy with cold procs, easy port - and make it work on Moa's/hounds/all robot units

Oh most definitely Agreed and it does work on those units it’s just really bad because the slow is a measly 10% it’s basically unnoticeable and it’s a short range.

by the way quick question if this mod was to get that change of procing cold and maybe getting a slight range buff what mod capacity would you think it would increase to balance that just theatrically btw?

Edited October 9, 2023 by (PSN)RB3-Reloaded

[MirageKnight]

Could we get this looked at?

 

This bug has been around for a couple of years.

[Qriist]

On 2023-10-02 at 4:22 PM, Qriist said:

It is not listed here but I have confirmed via simulacrum testing that Hounds benefit from your Molt Reconstruct healing via the unintended (and soon removed) Link Health mechanic, even if you were at full health. A Hound given Vitality instead of Link Health does not heal when an ability is used. The same goes for Sentinels (which I tested), and presumably other pet types (which I didn't test).

I don't mind cleaning up the mechanic, but please add Molt Reconstruct to the unrestricted list. This was apparently a big part of why my Hound was so tanky and I'd hate to lose that.

Any word if Molt Reconstruct will properly apply to pets now?

[KitMeHarder]

I forgot, and it's kinda too late at this point... but it would have been nice if beast companions could have separately modded weapons like how robotic companions do. They could just be universal "claws" for each beast type, using the preexisting mods we currently have. It would also open up the opportunity to add an "attack precept" to companions, so we can choose if they're offensive or purely defensive (like sentinels).

Of course, I'm sure people have already brought up some or all of this.

Edited October 10, 2023 by KitMeHarder

[WasabiDonguri]

Thanks DE. i thought the pet 2.0 declaration had been forgotten. Is this all the rework that was declared about 3 years ago?

The durability changes are a welcome change, and I have high hopes for the New Companion Mods.
I hope someday the DPS will be improved as well.

[(PSN)Claudija]

On 2023-09-30 at 6:42 PM, doommoose22 said:

would really love to see the incorporation of some form of AI changes to the pets or something like a recall button at least to keep them from going on suicide runs into a group of enemies / getting stuck in place on certain missions. would like to be able to command them to attack specific enemies too but that's just me.

So take away Khora's unique exotic ability basically. Khora has had it rough; first Venari was the lone Companion who could respawn so could not die. All others would be permadead if not revived. DE remove this permadeath but you lose companion- Venari still unique.

Vulpaphyla enters now Venari is losing her unique feel as here was a second cat-fox mix that had her ability but could be taken regardless which Warframe you took. Still had her unique commands.

Enter Helminth - with every Khora you talk to bar the diehards like myself, they all will prefer to remove Venari's commands and have a skill of choice dependant on player preference.

So combine this with these pending companion changes; all pets can pop up after a duration, all pets return to your ship at the mission close you don't need revive them on knockout... if you have your idea then what exactly does Venari have that makes her special or unique?

[(PSN)Claudija]

those talking about unique species/ model mods... think about this; if Charm gets torn apart and/ or every companion gets something similar... everything becomes generic we just have skins. So would you prefer;

 

A. What we have in that each Companion has something their own so an identity but sharing some core rules such as non-death in a mission

B. Every companion has everything making it pointless adding any new companion except as a skin for; Robot, Dog, Cat, Fox, Walking Robot, Robot Dog

Which of those is going to be worse? So many complain on here about generic something or other so, which of these is worse?

[Tiltskillet]

15 minutes ago, (PSN)Claudija said:

So combine this with these pending companion changes; all pets can pop up after a duration, all pets return to your ship at the mission close you don't need revive them on knockout... if you have your idea then what exactly does Venari have that makes her special or unique?

I don't know the answer, but maybe consider proposing something new. Rather than protesting  QoL upgrades to the companion system because they'll make one ability feel less special.

[Qriist]

2 minutes ago, Tiltskillet said:

I don't know the answer, but maybe consider proposing something new. Rather than protesting  QoL upgrades to the companion system because they'll make one ability feel less special.

ngl, I'm also against the companions being immortal. I think the change renders moot important skills to be learned in modding and preparedness.

[Tiltskillet]

10 minutes ago, Qriist said:

ngl, I'm also against the companions being immortal. I think the change renders moot important skills to be learned in modding and preparedness.

I have some of the same concern, and have never pushed for pet immortality except as a build trade-off.  But since it's happening anyway, and it seems like it might still leave about as much nuance or more to companion builds than there is now,  I'm more optimistic  it's going to be good than I have been at most player suggestions.

[GigabearPRIME]

All pet healing is nerfed. Nothing else in this matters if we can't keep them from falling over in the first place. I never had that problem. One more reason not to come back I guess. Terrible change.

[Probably_Asleep]

On 2023-09-28 at 6:36 AM, [DE]Momaw said:

Introduce more interactive Mods that offer ways to play alongside your Pet instead of it being mostly autonomous like a specter.

I like the idea of making companions a teammate rather than a accessory or a mod extension. Here's an idea (rather than mods):

Companions can be Interacted with Directly to activate unique assistance abilities:

• Carrier:
  • Fill Weapon
  • You hand it your equipped ranged weapon. That weapon becomes unavailable, and every second Carrier restores 5% of the Ammo of that weapon. Carrier gives it back automatically when it finishes.
• Deathcube:
  • Choke Point
  • Death Cube stays at location and continues killing all enemies in range. Stops when you get too far or if you trigger the AFK penalty.
• Diriga:
  • Aim Assist
  • Diriga attaches itself to your weapon, increasing the enemy weakness tracking strength and range while aiming. Stops when magazine depleted.
• Djinn:
  • Bodygaurd
  • Djinn hovers by nearest Defensible Target and sacrifices its own life if the target would receive lethal damage. Restores 30% HP of target.
• Helios:
  • Highlight
  • Enemies are visible through walls as though a scanner is being used. Lasts for 60 seconds.
• Nautilus:
  • Assist Crew
  • Refreshes On Call Crewmember's time with you. Must activate before Crewmember departs. 
• Oxylus:
  • Defend Wildlife
  • Prevents you from accidentally killing wildlife while in combat.
• Shade:
  • Ghost Now
  • Turns you invisible for 15 seconds even if no enemies are nearby. Can be recast. Still breaks when attacking.
• Taxon:
  • Help Teammates
  • Taxon transfers teammates damage to yourself for 30s. Will not work on squad members that have already activated the same ability.
• Wyrm:
  • Disguise
  • Worm covers you and makes you look like an enemy soldier. You cannot parkour, but enemies will ignore you and you can walk through security beams.
• Para MOA:
  • Become Sword
  • Anime Mech-Style transforms into a sheathing that is wrapped over your Melee Weapon. Doubles Range and Attack. Do a backflip to unequip. Allies can interact and equip it on themselves if you are not using it.
• Lambeo MOA:
  • Become Armor
  • Anime Mech-Style transforms into chest-armor that is worn over your Warframe. Adds +600 Armor. Do a backflip to unequip. Allies can interact and equip it on themselves if you are not using it.
• Oloro MOA:
  • Become Jetpack
  • Anime Mech-Style transforms into jetpack that is worn behind your Warframe. Gives you 10s airtime with Archwing-like controls. Do a backflip to unequip. Allies can interact and equip it on themselves if you are not using it.
• Nychus MOA:
  • Become Legs
  • Anime Mech-Style transforms into leg-armor that is worn on your Warframe. Gives you double sprint/jump/parkour/aim-glide specs. Do a backflip to unequip. Allies can interact and equip it on themselves if you are not using it. (In case your wondering, a 4-squad team can create a full MOA Mech armor for 1 member)
• Bhaira Hound:
  • Find Eximus
  • Bhaira marks all Eximus on your map by within 50m. Arrow on Map match Eximus aura color. Redo every time you want to rescan for Eximus.
• Dorma Hound:
  • Find Orbs
  • Dorma opens Lockers and runs toward all orbs. Stores up to 20 orbs and will give them to you as you need them.
• Hec Hound:
  • Find Exit
  • Hec runs toward extraction zone even if objective is not complete. Leaves visible footprints on the ground. Will come back after completing trail.
• Huras:
  • Raptor Maneuver
  • Huras goes around enemy while cloaked and scratches ground. Enemies turn toward sound while remaining unalerted, making stealth kills easier.
• Raksa:
  • Deter Intruders
  • Raksa uses Howl to scare enemies away from current spot for 60s. Draws aggro from enemies that are CC-immune.
• Sahasa:
  • True Fetch
  • Sahasa runs around picking up resources that outside of Fetch range and brings them back to you.
• Sunika:
  • Sick 'em
  • Sunkia attacks the strongest nearby enemy, including bosses, but biting on to them tightly and persistently. Enemy is slowed and occasionally distracted. Continues biting until wither the enemy or Sunkia dies.
• Chesa:
  • Bury Bodies
  • Chesa instantly disposes of all nearby corpses before enemies have a chance to see and and enter an alert status.
• Helminth Charger:
  • Canibalize
  • Helminth eats Infested corpses, growing +1x stronger and +0.01x larger with each one. Max 250 stacks.
• Vizier Predesite:
  • Corrosive Reprojection
  • Doubles the effect of your Corrosive Projection Aura Mod Value
• Pharaoh Predesite:
  • Spread Plague
  • Pharaoh blows a wind that causes enemies to transfer their current status effects onto one another.
• Medjay Predesite:
  • Greek Fever
  • Medjay charges your next attack with +100% Toxin. Toxin status effect has an infinite duration.
• Adarza:
  • Slash Ball
  • Adarza puts up a see-through ball that, when fired through, adds +100% slash to your shots.
• Smeeta:
  • Charming Gamble
  • Spend resources you've accumulated on the mission to roll Charm. 20s cooldown. Resources that will be used appear above Smeeta's head. Uses common, uncommon, rare, resources in that order. Will not offer if you've used all your resources.
• Vasca:
  • Accept Transference
  • Vasca stays put. While in Operator Mode, you can transfer into Vasca and move around. Will not draw Aggro, but cannot attack. Transferring out exits Vasca where you are.
• Sly Vulpaphyla:
  •  Assess Threat
  • Enemies get color coded according to their threat level.
• Crescent Vulpaphyla:
  • Contagious Lift
  • Crescent gives your next slam attack a boost to the lift status duration. Enemies that are attacked while lifted puff out spores that lift nearby enemies for remainder of the original's lift duration.
• Panzer Vulpaphyla:
  • Quill Ammo
  • Ask Panzer to drop an Ammo Case. When picking up the Ammo, current Magazine has +60% Viral damage and status. Lasts until next reload.

I'm imagining these abilities can be triggered just be interacting with the companion, except in the case of Sentinels. For Sentinels, I'm not actually sure. Do we have any buttons left to map to? Maybe marking the ground and quickly unmarking it could be the trigger.

Regardless of trigger condition, I think these abilities would make them helpful and fun partners to take into Battle. It would make me want to be aware of them and create builds that capitalized on their contributions. I'd also love to see a full Mech MOA set on one of the squad members. (I'd have to YouTube it though because I play solo 😐)

[(PSN)rexis12]

16 hours ago, (PSN)Claudija said:

So take away Khora's unique exotic ability basically. Khora has had it rough; first Venari was the lone Companion who could respawn so could not die. All others would be permadead if not revived. DE remove this permadeath but you lose companion- Venari still unique.

Vulpaphyla enters now Venari is losing her unique feel as here was a second cat-fox mix that had her ability but could be taken regardless which Warframe you took. Still had her unique commands.

Enter Helminth - with every Khora you talk to bar the diehards like myself, they all will prefer to remove Venari's commands and have a skill of choice dependant on player preference.

So combine this with these pending companion changes; all pets can pop up after a duration, all pets return to your ship at the mission close you don't need revive them on knockout... if you have your idea then what exactly does Venari have that makes her special or unique?

So what you want all companions to be dumpstered so that one frame's singular ability is marginally better due to it being less frustrating and unfair to the player?

[Qriist]

Could Null Audit give the Hound the stripped Overguard?

 

Would you please change Reflex Denial's bubble to not block friendly fire? At least not from the inside, ala Frost's bubble.

[Hexerin]

On 2023-09-28 at 7:36 AM, [DE]Momaw said:

• The improvement to Shield Gating where it now scales with maximum Shield strength and fully resets as long as you have any Shield charge at all, also applies to Companions.

That's not how the new shield gating works, though.

On 2023-09-28 at 9:02 AM, [DE]Taylor said:

For example, if you had a max Shield value of 1200, but your Shields were broken with only 350 available, you would receive ~1.3 seconds of Shield Gating!

Shield gate duration is based on how many shields you had on the last hit that struck you. You could have 1,150 max shield capacity with the 2.5 second shield gate, but if your shields were at 1 shield point and something hit you, you'd only get the minimum 0.33 second shield gate.

Or is the actual shield gating post wrong?

[sunderthefirmament]

On 2023-10-12 at 1:52 PM, Qriist said:

ngl, I'm also against the companions being immortal. I think the change renders moot important skills to be learned in modding and preparedness.

No amount of modding is going to prevent my idiot smeeta from crouching in a flame jet on Jupiter and dying repeatedly.  No amount of learning or skill on my part is going to magically make my pet keep up with me as I move through a tileset quickly.  No amount of preparedness is going to change the fact that going into operator mode means almost instant death for a sentinel at the level of content that DE keeps pushing us towards lately.

 

I shouldn't have to be a stealth frame, a massive wall of linked HP, or a Safeguard spamming Nezha to keep my fully modded and meta build pets alive in high level content.  I don't think DE is willing to allocate the resources necessary to make pets behave with some degree of self-preservation in mind, so this pseudo-invulnerability rework might be the best we can hope for.  I'm going to withhold initial judgement until the update comes out... and then I'll withhold further judgement after the next round of the pet rework arrives (if, indeed, it ever does).

[ShogunGunshow]

12 hours ago, Hexerin said:

That's not how the new shield gating works, though.

Shield gate duration is based on how many shields you had on the last hit that struck you. You could have 1,150 max shield capacity with the 2.5 second shield gate, but if your shields were at 1 shield point and something hit you, you'd only get the minimum 0.33 second shield gate.

Or is the actual shield gating post wrong?

Fwiw kyaii is a content creator on yt, and they posted a shot supposedly from the private creator's part of the warframe discord that has clarification from @[DE]Zach that the gate is based on the highest level of shields you were able to attain since the last shield break.

Which yes doesn't seem to be the language in the workshop post. 

Edited October 14, 2023 by ShogunGunshow

[Qriist]

21 minutes ago, ShogunGunshow said:

Fwiw kyaii is a content creator on yt, and they posted a shot supposedly from the private creator's part of the warframe discord that has clarification from @[DE]Zach that the gate is based on the highest level of shields you were able to attain since the last shield break.

Which yes doesn't seem to be the language in the workshop post. 

Pillage is gonna be super busted then. I suspect we're gonna see even more of it than we already do.

[OrsonBear]

I hope the Looter mod exclusive for Carrier and Carrier Prime can be tweaked. Now it requires line of sight of the sentinel, which is unreliable at the moment. 

[Tiltskillet]

44 minutes ago, Qriist said:

Pillage is gonna be super busted then. I suspect we're gonna see even more of it than we already do.

I think Pillage probably has a nerf in the works.  Maybe it doesn't get released simultaneously with the shield changes, but I'd bet Pablo's put some thought into it already.

Condemn and a few other shield restore gimmicks might also get some attention, but Pillage is stupid powerful already.

[Qriist]

3 minutes ago, Tiltskillet said:

Pillage is stupid powerful already.

We've danced this dance before. ;)