Forma Should Accelerate Affinity Gain

[NikolaiLev]

Forma's already grindy as it is.  From having to grind ODS to the hefty crafting requirements, with the measley payback of a few mod points.  I understand that grind is supposed to be what Warframe is about (unfortunately), but I think it ought to be mitigated a little.

 

Forma should double the affinity gain from a weapon.  Each forma increases affinity gain, but with diminishing returns; the second forma increases by 50%, next 25%, and so on.

 

One nice aspect of forma is it allows you to hang around at low levels for a bit without mowing down enemies like they're training dummies.  This would be preserved, but without the arduous grind involved for those who just want to get their weapons up to snuff.

[BladeMaverick]

Eeeeeh... I would have to go with "no".

 

Reasoning : While yes it would reduce the grind - if the player so wishes to multi-forma their pride and joy - at the same time, it would cut away a considerable chunk of play time, players could have their endgame weapons ready by the end of the day of them forma-ing their weapon the first time.

 

If you want to have a strong weapon, you have to work for it. While this option would cut that time in half, or at least a quarter, it's time possibly less spent playing the game itself with an inventory full of 5~6 forma rank 30 weapons/frames in the long run.

[C-O-M-P-A-C-T]

I wouldn't actually mind them increasing the amount of affinity needed to add a forma to a weapon a re-level it.

 

IMO!

[VoidPunch]

I have to agree with the above post. Having to re-rank your weapon back up again makes you think more about what to forma and prevents everyone from having inventories full of weapons formaed 5 times over. It makes you want to only forma what matter and that's how it should be, you work for your power

[123Olympian]

I'd like it, although no.

 

We would have a myriad amount of player with endgame weapons, so then the Devs would have to put even more time into the endgame content more than ever.

[Genoscythe]

I would just say they should fix the annoying expierience distrubution system, if you kill something you get exp for everything, not only for the weapon you use.

 

Or distribute EXP from weapons, or the warframe which are already 30 to the other items you have equipped.

[DaftMeat]

Disagree. Honestly, ranking a weapon to 30 isn't that much of a grind, and it's a fair price to pay for supercharging a weapon.

[DCypherThis13]

If I understand this correctly, you're not asking to make Forma easier to get, you just want the Forma'd weapon to rank up faster. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I see two sides to this issue.

 

One side is going to think, "I've already leveled this thing to 30 once, let's make the second time faster." I agree with this.

 

The other side will say, "I leveled this thing to 30 once and it was a pain, but with the extra polarity, it will go much faster this time." I also agree with this.

 

Basically, neither side is wrong. The faster affinity would be nice and it would help a lot with the grind, but the new polarity will allow you to move into more challenging content faster.

 

Consider this example, I threw a Forma at Hek last week. After a few runs on Apollodorus to get the keys back and level it up some(level 10 as I recall), I went straight to Neptune, solo. I don't think I could have done that without the Forma.

 

P.S. +1

[Zephyric_Reaper]

When I got wraith vipers I could just cringe at the thought of formaing it 4 times. 

I bought a booster, did it in less than a day. Happy overpowered vipers now. 

Since it "forced" me to buy a booster (which I also used to improve other weapons and mastery) it's not so bad as in, you want less time, buy a booster, if not well...then use time. 

[NikolaiLev]

Eeeeeh... I would have to go with "no".

 

Reasoning : While yes it would reduce the grind - if the player so wishes to multi-forma their pride and joy - at the same time, it would cut away a considerable chunk of play time, players could have their endgame weapons ready by the end of the day of them forma-ing their weapon the first time.

 

If you want to have a strong weapon, you have to work for it. While this option would cut that time in half, or at least a quarter, it's time possibly less spent playing the game itself with an inventory full of 5~6 forma rank 30 weapons/frames in the long run.

 

It still baffles me that people are okay with play time consisting of grind, instead of substantial content.  Oh well.

[BadAimbot]

It still baffles me that people are okay with play time consisting of grind, instead of substantial content.  Oh well.

 

It's only a grind if you're doing something purely for the experience. For example, you can do Infested Mobile Defense for the reward and get weapon XP at the same time.

 

Forma already make the level up process faster by letting you put your mods in at lower levels, meaning the weapon is in a usable state more quickly.

[AuroraSonicBoom]

It does already do that. Each time you forma a weapon, you can equip more mods compared to the last time the weapon was at the same level. This dramatically increases the time your weapon is useless, as a weapon with 4 forma(and potato) at level 10 potentially already has room for 2 mods at rank 9 and two at rank 11.

[NikolaiLev]

It does already do that. Each time you forma a weapon, you can equip more mods compared to the last time the weapon was at the same level. This dramatically increases the time your weapon is useless, as a weapon with 4 forma(and potato) at level 10 potentially already has room for 2 mods at rank 9 and two at rank 11.

 

Only slightly, really.  I think it should be less grindy.

 

Then again, I seem to be the only one around here who actually dislikes grind.

[Psroij]

NikolaiLev, on 12 Jan 2014 - 8:18 PM, said:NikolaiLev, on 12 Jan 2014 - 8:18 PM, said:

Only slightly, really.  I think it should be less grindy.

 

Then again, I seem to be the only one around here who actually dislikes grind.

Nah, I am with you. I am fine with grind when it makes sense, or has known chances/outcomes. However, grinding back up a weapon? I am not one of those players (like multiples in this thread) who finds value in wasting time getting the result I want. I've already spent hours leveling the weapon up once. I've done (several hundred hours) of missions. I know exactly what load outs I will use and what polarities I need. I have dozens of more weapons to level up if I so desire.

 

So what the hell if a player has *gasp* multiple fully forma'd weapons in their inventory? It is almost like they had to either run many void missions to get those forma, or the blueprints (which means more missions runs for the materials), or they purchased the forma outright from DE (thus claiming somehow DE loses money from them is moot). And if they have multiple then they probably also purchased slots, but no, no, no, apparently it would be bad for people to actually have lots of items they enjoy and made useful at all levels of play without dedicating even more hours above and beyond what they have done already. What a seriously ridiculous argument.

 

And heaven forbid people not "work" for their power. They only already invested the time to get forma, level the weapon, earn the mods, and level the mods, they have just got to spend a few more hours doing something they've done plenty of times before. Why? Because they have to "work" for it. All that other repetitive crap they slogged through wasn't actually "work," you see.

 

This game already lacks meaningful content as it is, and having to tediously regrind weapon levels is not adding to that content. Really, the emphasized lack of content through the repetition of the same old missions (usually survivals or defenses to waste the least amount of time) actually subtracts from what meaningful content is in this game.

 

At the end of the day, while I would be happy to see re-leveling weapons go the way of the dinosaur, it won't bother me if it stays as it is. What bothers me are the arguments people bring up for keeping the system just suck. There are no good reasons for keeping the re-leveling system as it is. It is a boring, repetitive time sink; the worst kind of time sink to keep players interested and playing.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Psroij

[Monolake]

Makes sense but ... you don't need ranks beyond 6, I stopped caring about affinity long time ago. And you dont really need bunch of formas for everything, you can beat lvl 50s with unforma'd Soma. In fact I didnt even feel the need to potatoe it until I started fighting levels 25-30s. Maybe you need 2 formas for weapons that come with no polarities or more formas for worse weapons that you still love to use.  

You could say 'what about endless survivals defences?' But there is zero incentive or reward to play those, only for personal record.

 

So yeah, the problem is not in the ammount of grind per se, its the lack of any end game, not much to do for high level players. Except forma weapons for more stars! 

[Technic235]

What about this idea? You spend one (or two) forma to permanently increase a weapon's affinity gain by 50%. The weapon remains the same level and does NOT gain a polarity slot. Simple as that.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Technic235

[Shifty_Shuffler]

Here's an idea. Buy an Affinity Booster.

[NikolaiLev]

Makes sense but ... you don't need ranks beyond 6, I stopped caring about affinity long time ago. And you dont really need bunch of formas for everything, you can beat lvl 50s with unforma'd Soma. In fact I didnt even feel the need to potatoe it until I started fighting levels 25-30s. Maybe you need 2 formas for weapons that come with no polarities or more formas for worse weapons that you still love to use.  

You could say 'what about endless survivals defences?' But there is zero incentive or reward to play those, only for personal record.

 

So yeah, the problem is not in the ammount of grind per se, its the lack of any end game, not much to do for high level players. Except forma weapons for more stars! 

 

I still think the game is too grindy.

 

Also, the fact you can beat level 50s with unforma'd Soma is only because the Soma is overpowered.  If you want to use anything else, you need formas or potatoes.

[arisaka]

I think the reason why people complain about forma resetting the weapon's rank to 0 is not so much that they have to work to, I guess, "earn" it, but that in order to make their weapon better, they have to make it worse and grind for hours with a weapon that was good. It's one thing to take a gun straight out of the foundry and level it (something that no one complains about), it's another to already know what that weapon is like at level 30 and have to work to get it back to that level.

 

It is not okay to torture the players who want to make their weapons better by requiring them to go back to level 0...every single time.

[DannieRay23]

The main problem is actually having to re-level the weapon because of how the affinity gains system work.

 

You could probably take the unranked weapon to a lower level game and kill stuff with it, but its way faster to go into a very high level defense mission and just let the rest of the team kill everything.

 

Instead you could make it that when you Forma a weapon it goes back to unranked experience wise but you actually get to keep the 30-60 points.

 

You'd still have to grind back to 30 so you can use your second Forma but this time you could actually kill stuff on the maps that'd you get worthwhile experience and would help your team instead of being a leecher.

 

If I wanted to test myself on what's the higher map I can clear with unmodded weapons I would just unequip my mods and go for a challenge.

 

Forma's sending you back to 0 really adds nothing to the game.

[MDRLOz]

I buy boosters and find them so useful. Can hardly play without them now 

 

However once your forma a weapon first time if it took say 10% less affinity to reach 30 it would not be that bad a change.

Further Forma does not affect the value further. Basically 1st time to 30 takes 100%, 1st forma onwards 90% of affinity value. 

Its not a big change and would not instant level weapons but would make a dent in the grind. 

 

That would be nice. Would represent your previous "mastery" of the weapon making you know how to level it quicker next time.

[HailCreation]

Why would you run ODS instead of ODD? They both scale with levels the same way. ODD let's you gain XP faster though because you're not constantly running around. 

[NikolaiLev]

I think the reason why people complain about forma resetting the weapon's rank to 0 is not so much that they have to work to, I guess, "earn" it, but that in order to make their weapon better, they have to make it worse and grind for hours with a weapon that was good. It's one thing to take a gun straight out of the foundry and level it (something that no one complains about), it's another to already know what that weapon is like at level 30 and have to work to get it back to that level.

 

It is not okay to torture the players who want to make their weapons better by requiring them to go back to level 0...every single time.

 

Honestly I'd love forma to just not reset the weapon level.  It really does just add pointless grind (like many other things in the game).

 

I don't know why the community seems to adore mindless grinding.  The first few replies highlight that.  There's always this sentiment of "There would be no gameplay if there was no grind" as though this was somehow acceptable.  If there was something fun to do in Warframe, we wouldn't need grind.

[NeroUmbra]

I've asked this question before:

 

Remembering this game is hosted on YOUR computer not servers what would you consider fun?