Feedback For The New Year

[TalonBlue]

A few months ago I made a post regarding the things I liked and disliked about the game and made suggestions for changes. Now coming back after some time away from Warframe for Damage 2.0 and playing for few weeks I feel like I've seen enough to offer another round of suggestions. The gameplay hasn't really changed, I still feel satisfied with the gunplay and slicing enemies in half, acrobatics and wall-running, but my enjoyment stops there.

 

I do not feel like the game respects the time I put in. I play a few hours a night and if I have time on weekends. That’s about the time I assume most gamers spend on a finished game. I feel like I am forced repeat the same content over and over again because I either have to farm a weapon/warframe mod that won’t drop for me or I have level up a weapon I used a Forma on, on the same high yield XP defense missions. Is that really necessary DE? Why do insist on making everything in the game farm-fest?

 

Now with the release of your game on PS4 I assumed that this game would be finished, but as it stands you are still in open beta. Let me say that again. Open Beta. I actually forgot that fact. You have a game in a very long beta period, but I don’t feel like it is being treated as one. I believe you are going about it as if the game was complete and I feel a number of players also think that way as well. You keep giving us new weapons quite often and you keep making new events for us to play, but I believe they are becoming a distraction (intentional DE?) from the fact that this game is incomplete. Realizing this now, I begin to question the morality of this. The free-to-play model partially absolves you from charging people for playing an incomplete game, however this certainly falls into a gray area that I find a bit unsavory. When are you going to complete this game? This a question that needs answering, timeframe needs to be set. I think you need to stop releasing new weapons and warframes and focus on making the game fun, filled with sustainable game content, and have working game mechanics (the mod system) that don’t force players to farm and grind. Many of the game mechanics make the game are un-fun and make gameplay inconvenient at times.

 

1) Forma

 

This is probably my biggest gripe about Warframe. The forced re-leveling of weapons after using Forma. For me, this absolutely MUST GO. I get the idea of power-gating and not giving the players too much power too quickly. However, this is not the way how to go about limiting the speed in which players acquire powerful weapons. As it stands, you really need a strong weapon with some Forma infused slots against higher level enemies who have become bullet-sponges. Forcing me to level the same weapon hurts my enjoyment of the game.  I would much rather do something else than level my weapon again. The other problem is in how polarized mod slots locks you into a certain build idea, limiting the ability to customize it against the several factions and hurting the ability to put the proper elemental damage combos introduced in the Damage 2.0 revamp against factions depending which number slot you've polarized. It also prevents the ability to be creative with your weapon load outs making it so that everyone’s build are nearly identical.

 

Suggestion: Instead of forcing us to re-level a weapon or a warframe after using a Forma, can there just be cool down on that weapon or warframe? A set time, for example a 24 or 48-hour period of time where that particular weapon or warframe cannot be allowed to have a Forma spent on it during that cool down period? And can we also have the ability to change the polarization type of the polarized mod slots whenever we want in the UI? This would give us more diversity in weapon builds and warframe builds. This would eliminate a great deal of the grind that is rampant in this game DE and make a lot of the players who do not have a great deal of time to play much, much happier.

 

2) Mod Availability

 

I'm sure everyone has that one or two mods that elude them, maybe even more. I have no problem with suggested rarities of any the mods you have in the game, however having certain mods drop only by very specific enemies is an awful idea, especially when those enemies only appear in small quantities in a given mission. This perpetuates the idea that you have to farm in order acquire anything in the game. No one should have to farm a specific enemy type to get a specific mod. I have no problem with mods dropping according to faction, but narrowing it any further than that adds another layer of grind. As it stands right now, I cannot mod my shotgun because I simply cannot find any elemental shotgun mods that are listed as uncommon, for me they might as be listed as rare. Another thing to keep in mind for the future is that as you add more mods into the game the most basic, fundamental mods that all players need become harder to come by. Therefore the mod system may NOT be sustainable in the long run. You need to think about this potential problem DE.

 

Suggestion #1: Can drop rates be affected in a way so that using the corresponding weapon causes mods of that type to drop more often? For example: If you use melee weapon to kill an enemy, you are more likely to see a melee weapon mod drop.

 

Suggestion #2: More balanced enemy type spawn rates.

 

Suggestion #3: Having better mod transmutation tables/formula would help. I think a simple solution to this problem that would still keep it random would be this: Transmuting 4 mods of the same type would result in a mod of the same type. For example: Transmuting 4 Shotgun Mods would result in a Shotgun Mod made. I feel like the transmutation system is just far too random and I’d use the system if I had a little bit more control in the type of mod I’m trying to make.

 

3) Story

 

There is none. Why do we fight? What are the Tenno? What is the Lotus? What happened to Earth exactly? What is the Void? There's things to stab and kill, but no reason or purpose. I’d like to know just why, and for what, and for who I am fighting for. I don’t want just a bland, short description in a paragraph somewhere in the UI. That's boring and lazy. I want people, motives, lore, and backstory. You need to start telling us the story about the game, the worlds, the universe we are playing in, and player should discover that story in the act of playing the game.

 

Suggestion: Get crackin’ on a story. Get writers. Get going.

 

4) Events

 

Your events... Suck.

 

When I think of in-game events I think of, killing giant snowmen in the winter, or pumpkin men in Halloween, or an invasion of...pirates or zombies or something unusual. Events should be a breakaway from the normal game content in favor of fun, non-serious gameplay in my opinion. Events should be something completely different from the rest of the game. And most importantly, they should be entirely optional and they should not be a farm quest for rewards. That is poor design, it is lazy, and it can lead to a dislike from players who simply want to enjoy the event instead of farming/speed-running the event for rewards.

 

Suggestion: Stop making in-game events for a while and focus on making your game a better experience. The events are just waste of time.

 

5) End-Game

 

What is the end-game? Is it simply fighting higher level enemies? Because that’s not going to do it and if higher level enemies is the “end-game” then the bullet-sponge, high armor-rated enemies have to go. It’s hard to kill things without the “flavor of the month” weapon that everyone seemly always builds. Enemy armor is a big problem, a problem I can’t really offer a good suggestion for a solution in how to fix, except by just doing away with it. What is the end-game?

 

6) Stealth

 

For a ninja game, stealth is an after-thought. Stealth is unsatisfying and disappointing in Warframe and stealth kills/assassinations happen far too rarely in Co-op.

 

Suggestion: I suggest you look at the Stalker archetype from the now defunct City of Heroes game.

 

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Stalker#Overview

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Inherent_Powers#Assassination

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Assassin%27s_Focus

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Stalker_Strategy

 

This may require a re-work of the Loki and Ash warframes, but I believe that game did a particularly great job in making a stealthy archetype in a PvE game. I think they did stealth the best, in an MMO. A stealthy assassin-like archetype should be doing burst damage focusing on removing biggest threats in order to protect the squishier teammates.

 

7) Color Options/Character Customization

 

I don’t find the need to customize my character due to the very limited color-palette we get by default. Of all the things you charge for in game DE, charging people for the right to use colors is wrong. You did not design or invent the color green. Why should I pay for that? I will pay for capes, or helmets, or clothing, or weapon skins or anything you have to actually take the time in order to design. Color does not count.

 

Suggestion: Do away color packs. All you are doing is suckering people by putting a price on color.

 

These are the problems I feel that Warframe’s future is riding on. I hope you take these suggestions into consideration and I hope the game becomes even better to experience in the coming New Year. Thanks.