New Enemy Class: Damage Absorption

[DJ_Redwire]

Hi guys, so I've been seeing a lot of people lately, meaning more than usual, that are upset with how easy Warframe is. Now before you jump down my throat - hear me out, I'm not here to talk about that.

 

Maybe people look at weapons and Warframes that are hard hitting and powerful, watching them clear rooms in a matter of seconds, and think "Something's not right, where's the challenge?" The immediate response to things like this is calling for nerfs - removing or diluting that room clearing ability from the battlefield to make things more 'fair' for the enemy. Nobody likes nerfing things, unless something is obviously broken. But we also need to consider that there's perhaps something wrong with the enemy factions rather than our fire power.

 

 

 

I've been doing some thinking about why people might be not getting enough of a challenge when it comes to combat mechanics. These are the types of questions I've been asking myself.

 

Are the units not dealing enough damage? Perhaps, but get high enough up and that quickly turns around. Nonetheless, it's not apparent in lower level content, nor is it interesting to any degree.

 

Are the units not beefy enough? Same issue, get high enough up and they're nothing but bullet sponges. Not only is it boring, it's repetitive and seemingly illogical.

 

Are they not smart enough? This is undoubtedly true in many cases. Enemies should get smarter the higher up you get, but unfortunately tweaking the AI to such a standard has proven not only difficult but largely ineffective.

 

So what then?

 

Well, I was think about one very important battle mechanic that has made Warframe dry as it's progressed to its current state. That mechanic is: when a player deals damage to an enemy.

 

Um, duh. Isn't that what you just said?

 

Yes, to a degree, but I'm talking about how to address it without doing things such as nerfing weapons and Warframes. The solution I'm proposing is creating new enemies that attract and absorb a players damage in order to prevent them from steam rolling the rest of the enemies who are shooting back.

 

 

 

This idea came to me when I was targeted by the Stalker earlier today. He does is normal routine, ya know, running around throwing despairs every where and missing wildly with is slash dashes. Even in his post-U11 form, he is still nothing more than a bullet sponge as you kite him around and the rest of the team blasts him to kingdom come. Then he did his pseudo-absorb ability. 

 

Many times have I seen people hammer away at him while in the absorb state, not paying enough attention or not smart enough to realize that he's invincible and simply going throw all the damage back because you're standing way to close to him. So I though "Hey, why not with regular enemies?"

 

Don't worry, I'm not suggesting we outfit every Lancer with absorb (lol) but perhaps this concept of being able to attract, consume, and maybe even redirect damage that a player deals could be carried over to new or existing enemies. That way, players will have to be much more tactical in how they approach a mob, knowing that to just point and hold their fire button at a group of enemies could have consequences. Let me show you what I mean.

 

 

 

I play a decent amount of Starcraft when I'm not mulling around in Warframe. When I began to think about this concept of absorbing damage, my mind instantly thought of Point Defense Drones (here's a link if you're not famliar with what they are).

 

So, why not have something similar in Warframe? There are an unlimited number of ideas in an unlimited number of ways that could stem from this, but here's just a few basic ones that I came up with.

 

 

 

Corpus:

 

V.I.P.E.R. Drone

(Vilification Inhibitor Prevention & Extermination Restriction)

 

When this drone is near enemy allies, it absorbs damage that is dealt to those allies to itself. When a Tenno is too close to the drone, it will then also direct the damage it has absorbed from its allies to the Tenno.

 

Grineer:

 

Buzz Bomb

 

This drone seeks out nearby Tenno and kamikazes towards them. When it takes damage, a part or all of that damage is stored. When it reaches a certain vicinity to a Tenno, or is completely destroyed, it explodes and releases the damage that it stored. 

 

Infested:

 

[size=5]Detractor[/size]

 

This creature buffs the damage output of itself and nearby allies upon taking damage, which increasing as the more damage it takes.

 

 

 

So, let me know what you think about this type of concept and whether or not you think it could make the grind a little more interesting and present and warranted new challenge where many people want it. Also if you have additional ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Edited February 23, 2014 by DJ_Redwire

[Hixlysss]

So basically enemies who have bullet attactor or a reverse link on them. Taking damage from enemies to themselves...Hmmm, interesting idea to be honest.

 

Though another idea would be simply adding more medic units that do their job, keeping their team mates alive. But another reason why people could be complaing that it's too easy is 1, they are using high level stuff that is meant for level 40+ in level 20- areas...or they are helping the grineer in their invasions. Seriously, go fight some grineer, they are pretty tough.

 

I suggested a while back that the factions should be more unique, at least the corpus and the infected. Corpus should, as a whole, be able to disrupt our powers(think EMP nades) or drain our shields(Shield Osprey don't just buff friendlies, they drain tenno shields!). The Infested should have the highest proc chances and be the over all debilitators. Disruptors now "pulse" and disable our powers(not drain our energy) for a certain time, Toxic Ancients now when they smack us have a 70%ish chance to proc toxic on you as well as another 70% chance to do impact status effect, so on and so forth.

 

This gives enemies more depth, and makes the came more challenging. And then combine this with your idea, and we are getting closer and closer to having a more complete warframe.