Collected feedback on story and characterization

[voidctrl]

Truncating this a lot so it doesn't turn into a rant.

Positive:

• Liked the new, distinct Corpus officer giving chase. Leave it at that with the character, but it's good that this was a new face. Well done.
• Just having the Operator speak something meaningful and providing expertise was good, there could have been more of that.
• Appreciate going up against different enemies as part of the quest.
• Sneaking through the Orbiter was cool in theory (see below).
• Duration was fine actually.

Negative:

• Emotional scenes don't work when the characters in it have the emoting range and the inherent silliness of Bionicle figurines. Those scenes are for human beings with human faces.
• The fundamental premise of Jade's "ailment" is jumping the shark more spectacularly than even the parallel dimension nonsense of the New War. But even if that element absolutely needed to be in the game for whatever reason (it doesn't), there should have been zero beauty in it, it should have been unspeakable horror. My understanding was that the human woman that was turned into the Jade Warframe was pregnant before undergoing the process. Imagine the monstrous effects the infestation could have had on that. "It very slowly killed my wife but the child is fine and some kind of cyborg" should have been "my wife was eaten alive from the inside by a foetus that Ballas turned into Grendel". Monstrous. Horrendous. Typically Orokin.
• As is the case with many other characters in Warframe, the Stalker should not have been humanized (or named!), but more importantly, neither should Hunhow. Hunhow should have the empathy and humanity of a spider. Not every character needs to have human feelings and sensibilities, and some absolutely mustn't have.   
• Along the same lines: The Corpus saw the limbs off of people to enforce debt collection but once they get a toddler in their crosshairs they become all weepy and fall to their knees? Really? Should they not have been more detached? Should they not have confiscated the creature?
• Minor complaint: post New War, the operator should not have been caught by surprise. They should have shown tremendous sensibility to invaders, and Stalker should YET have overcome it to make him seem even better at what he does. Hammer it in: This being is a lethal threat at all times. Any rando could have evaded patrolling Ordis.

[matt11mz]

Here's my take on those points. Not invalidating, just figured I'd add my perspective to a well laid out list:

Positives:

• I liked the Corpus woman, too. I think there's just one problem I'll list below.
• I liked most of what the Operator said. The only thing is I didn't like how he just happened to know about how to heal a warframe, but I'll give it a pass, since Operator knew about the Zariman incident long before we did. Probably knows a lot of our lore questions.
• Having nerded out over Reaper's Lament, I can't help but appreciate the symbolism in Jade's ailment. She is the cycle of life and death. There's also a kind of Orokin sting to it. "We, the Seven, have decided to spare your child, but I will be sure you will not be alive to witness it. Not even a lifeless body to hold the infant in your arms." Something to that effect.
• I disagree on keeping Hunhow and Stalker de-humanized. The Sentients, in particular, are built on that fact. Their whole thing is that they evolved free will and morals, seeing their makers for what they were. Stalker was always angry about something, and even on the warframe angle, by the continuity DE made, if a warframe is sentient, there must be a powerful emotional memory to keep their mind intact. Sure, you could have gone the route of "it has been so long that he doesn't even remember," but recently, there's been a lot of psychology references, so it fits with the current narrative to give him a motivation.

Negatives:

• Corpus Officer Woman had a perfect setup for a transition to the quest. I agree, this is very un-Corpus like, but unless we're just meant to handwave that, we could have been shown a scene, or maybe just an off-hand comment from Parvos, that she was punished for her "weakness" in letting a baby frame get away.
• I liked the idea of the orbiter section, but I couldn't figure out how to evade Ordis while he held the door open, so I just rushed the door before I could hit a fail state. I genuinely don't know how I was meant to sneak into the room unless the door was bugged or something.