General Feedback

[Kelakhai]

Hello people.

This thread is meant to be red by all an commented by all since I will give judgments.

1 - Graphics, Sound, Global atmosphere

For a multiplayer online game, this is close-to-perfect. The render of science-fiction ninjas from deep space feels very close... Playing solos, some infestation missions have even make me feel like I was in a survival game. And yet there are some flaws that I'll list up.

Flaw 1.1 - Music repetition (annoying)

Music is good, but sometimes repetitive. Add that some of the musics are drum repetitions, it feels sometimes like you got the same music very often and it makes want to turn it down sometimes (when stealthy or searching) and turn it on other times (in the heat of battle).

Flaw 1.2 - Not contextual music (disturbing)

Sometime you search or stealth through and you got a fight music ? I can't get what are the triggers to such things but it's strange and does not seem to be that hard to trigger properly. But I am no game designer, that may be an incorrect statement... Still, this could be corrected.

Flaw 1.3 - Repetitive landscapes (slight)

It always feels like we're in the same places, playing a long time some situations feels like something you've already seen or fought. That's a pity, but that's not the core of the game, is it ?

(*) No suggestions here, it's not my field of expertise.

2 - Gameplay

Warframe is quick, intuitive and extremely precise.

Flaw 2.1 - No stealth moves (kind of "wtf???" like flaw)

Every mission starts out stealthy, but the only way you have to stay is to crawl and kill unaware enemies. That's long and deeply innacurate. Every mission I did so far I stabbed over many goons and not any of them died from it...

Flaw 2.2 - Damage control (slight)

Having played recently Darksiders 2, you have a clear view of which damage is done by what type of elemental attack, which is critical etc. In warframe, well, you barely know which damage an element does, what is the % of what that is fire, cold, electrical etc damage. I'll add that having played only excalibur I still don't know what is the damage of his abilities or sometime if it lands well. I know that giving players a clear knowledge about this will lead to too much optimisation, but still...

Flaw 2.3 - Mission bugs (annoying)

I've played solo and multi for some missions, it happened sometimes that I got stuck in places of which I could not get away or that mission objectives were missing.

Flaw 2.4 - Killed by THE GRID (painful)

Lightgrids triggered by cameras are my most powerful enemy, since in multi you can't know when your teammates are going to trigger it and it does a colossal amout of damage (bosses should be ashamed that a single lightgrid outdamages them). I've even been blocked inside a grid, 300 shield 300 health down to zero and mission end. I know there are gameplay design issues, but that got to be fixed.

Flaw 2.5 - Bad 'level' handling (annoying)

What I call bad level handling is the caracteristic to mmo to just upgrade damage, armor and hitpoints to enemies so that they are harder to kill. This just make battles boring at high level, that's not what I expect to find since I've seen enemies' behavior at low levels and been impressed... And I have been playing 3 days... What will it be even more further ? Again more hp, more armor, more damage ? :-(

Flaw 2.6 - No rewards (annoying)

As I tested the game, going through very hard missions alone, facing hordes, lacking ammo and health... I felt very disappointed to find that there was no 'challenge' rewards for going out alone on suicide missions. This does not feel right, I wanted to point it out.

(*) Suggestions

Suggestion to Flaw 2.1 : Having a symbol when in stealh mode that appears on the enemy, meaning if your stab will kill him or not ; which will allow players to choose if they go through without a kill or if they choose to fight through.

Suggestion to Flaw 2.2 : Color each source of damage so that it is possible to know what damage comes from what.

Suggestion to Flaw 2.3 : Add a way to "reboot" the warframe at a waypoint in the dungeon, teleporting it into a safe location and checking all mission status - for a price, of course (via the 'Esc' menu).

Suggestion to Flaw 2.5 : Handle difficulty some other way, more detective and smart enemies. For example, in fighting the grinner, level up could mean more accuracy, better covering oneself, better covering with themselves, advanced military engineering and tactics (like energy shields, covering fire, defensive grenades).

Suggesiton to Flaw 2.6 : Adjust rewards for missions based on difficulty and player levels.

3 - Warframe gestion

That's clearly of the things that does not look like any other game, leveling up gives space for customisation of suits, weapons and sentinels. That's neat. Playing as a private team, one could be the smart stealth enemy and loot detector that takes enemy from distance, one can play the tank when another is doing the damage... There are many things to do, plan and play, this is very good.

Flaw 3.1 - Unclear fusions (slight)

Is that part of the atmosphere planned it is so unclear how it works ? Anyway, I don't have a lot of clues about that.

Flaw 3.2 - No power-up (slight)

I'd still add some basics power-up to suits and weapons as they level up... "Why ?" you'd ask. Because having played a bit in solo I know that even playing a real tank is not going to help much (300 shield, 300 health, +40% armor I mean) when you are outnumbered by troops and in the open because juste teleported by a grinner commander... Also, having a maxed out rifle (+50% damage, +38% critical, +30% ice damage, +30% pierce-armor damage I mean) still needs a full magazine to kill ONE mini-boss (and that means HE's killing you too).

Flaw 3.3 - Pay-to-win (you saw it coming, didn't you ?)

Typically the type of game that won't earn my money, but that's a personnal opinion. I have been farming some zones to get specific materials to build up a "Cronus" in the foundry... Just to see that for cash I could have a just more powerful blade in just one click... That feels like... Ahem... Well... Don't know... But I don't like it. The only online game I gave money to is league of legends since it's only cosmetic and that is does not affect gameplay. I know you do all this for a living but still I won't pay to win, that doesn't feel sane to me.

Flaw 3.4 - Strange power ratios (disturbing)

I have a clear exemple in mind : double-shot probability 20% on guns is 4 and double-shot probability on rifles 20% is 10 ? Well, I don't understand how you rate this but I think it's broken somewhere.

Flaw 3.5 - Absolute ceiling items (slight)

Well, it speaks for itself. With the kind of management that's built, I didn't think there would have a limit.

(*) Suggestions

Suggestion to Flaw 3.1 : Clarify, or maybe make more simple the fusion process (by the way, the French traduction of "Fusion core" is "Noyau de fusion" and it's not "Coeur de fusion"... but still, that may be some artistic choice of words).

Suggestion to Flaw 3.2 : Add basic damage to weapons and basic armor to warframes.

4 - Universe and implications

Houston we got a problem. Does anyone sees what or who the Tennos are fighing for ? If everyone in this universe is gone killing machine, who is left to save ? Is there is no one to save then we are killing the last breathing humans ? Shouldn't we be talking to them and try to reason ?

Flaw 4.1 - Goal of all this (major)

That will cripple the life of your game is there is no "final goal" to achieve. There is no "personnal goal" to achieve. What does a player want to succeed in when he logs in to play Warframe ? I don't know. The soft is built on the epic battles led by the Tennos wearing Warframes but there must be something in the background that will make the player want to win his battles for more than coins and power-ups.

Flaw 4.2 - What does it changes ?

What does it change to succeed a mission in the world of Warframe ? Just coin and xp ?

(*) Suggestions

The game needs a global goal, arch-enemies that threaten people the Tennos swore to protect some people that are weakened by the Tennos' constant attacking and reinforced by the Tenno's deaths and mission failures. Some threat that is over the solar system.

5 - Conclusion

Very good game in constant evolution. Epic graphics and atmosphere, good sound. I gave what I thought about the game here, I hope this will help designers to give WF the success it deserves. For me the event is over, I'll come back eventually to the next patch to see if something has changed because there are some of the flaws I listed that really bug me out.

And I admit I've never see something built like this game that feels so much as a mixture of tons of different people and ideas that have mixed together to give this unique feeling. I just hope that it will carry on like this and that pros will outnumber cons so that WF will be one day unforgettable.

Note of the end :

The best part of my gaming was the other, I would say "dark", Warframe owner that came to fight me and killed me on an easy mission. That popped out of nowhere, I've never seen this guy again. That was a moment close to perfection.

Thank you for this experience.

[Venarge]

2.6

Its still a coop game. Why should you be rewarded for something that isnt the core mechanic of the game....

Something like that would kill the game. People would no longer play in groups cause there is a reward for solo playing. Not a good idea.

3.3

Its still a free2play game. If you dont want the easy way(buying) you have to go the way everyone does. Farm it.....

And since you can get every object and weapon through simple playing, I really dont see the problem here....

4

Beta. Content will follow. saying that the lack of lore is flaw, in a beta is simply.... funny

Besides that, you can be excited for U8. Clan stuff will come and other cool stuff =)

Edited March 29, 2013 by Venarge

[Kelakhai]

2.6

It's a coop game ? No it's not. It CAN BE a coop game and it CAN BE a solo game. That's how it's sold. Besides, going coop on a hard mission should be rewarded the same way. Having played both, you have more chances to win if you're more than one. So it would be pure logic that a solo going on mission earns even more based on level difference.

3.3

I haved farmed. But based on the rare materials *extreme* rarity, I think your statement saying that since you can get every object and weapon simply trough playing maybe mad or wrong. Or needing statistics to calculate how many days you need to collect what you need (not hours, that's days... well, maybe weeks I agree).

4

...

Beta is "pre-official-launch" which also means "nearly finished, just polishing the edges".

Do I describe something that does not require a tremendous amount of design and work ?

Because it does. I don't find this funny. I find this sad. Is it kept secret for a surprise ?

U8

Are clans going to change anything to what I stated above ?

[Tsukinoki]

3.3

Its still a free2play game. If you dont want the easy way(buying) you have to go the way everyone does. Farm it.....

And since you can get every object and weapon through simple playing, I really dont see the problem here....

This exactly.

The only things that you absolutely cant get by farming are:

1) Color packs, and even then so far for 2 holidays they have released a holiday color pack for 1 credit

2) Cosmetic weapon skins, currently they have the hammer skin which actually modifies stats but I believe that its either A) a test to see how people like it or B) they just havent added the bps for it (They might have and no one knows where to farm it yet)

Absolutely everything else can be gotten by just playing the game, buying the bps with credits and then building it.

[Tsukinoki]

2.6

It's a coop game ? No it's not. It CAN BE a coop game and it CAN BE a solo game. That's how it's sold. Besides, going coop on a hard mission should be rewarded the same way. Having played both, you have more chances to win if you're more than one. So it would be pure logic that a solo going on mission earns even more based on level difference.

3.3

I haved farmed. But based on the rare materials *extreme* rarity, I think your statement saying that since you can get every object and weapon simply trough playing maybe mad or wrong. Or needing statistics to calculate how many days you need to collect what you need (not hours, that's days... well, maybe weeks I agree).

Your first point: This game was designed with the vision of being a great coop experience. If they start giving a bunch of incentives to not play in groups the coop experience that they are working towards will start to collapse because it will be more profitable to do everything by yourself.

Your second point: It is a F2P game. The core of those games is farming and grinding for the most part. And nothing has that extreme of rarity outside of warframe bps. Even then most people can get all of the warframe bps to build a single warframe in 3 to 5 days of farming the proper boss. And the materials come quickly enough that they can build it soon after.

Edited March 29, 2013 by Tsukinoki

[Kelakhai]

Ah, the internet...

Talking to moderators until the end of time, unable to reach the core of things.

Wasting oneself howling in the crowd, having one's effort lost and becoming piles of data bits just like its neighbours.

Have fun with this game people.

I had this kind of conversation too much to ignore how it's going to end.

Goodbye.

[Venarge]

3.3

I haved farmed. But based on the rare materials *extreme* rarity, I think your statement saying that since you can get every object and weapon simply trough playing maybe mad or wrong. Or needing statistics to calculate how many days you need to collect what you need (not hours, that's days... well, maybe weeks I agree).

Oh thats really funny xD Rare materials xD Almost everything can be gathered so easily. I made akboltos and had no materials for them. I farmed 2-3 hours and had almost everything. So your point on this is simply wrong.

[Venarge]

Ah, the internet...

Talking to moderators until the end of time, unable to reach the core of things.

Wasting oneself howling in the crowd, having one's effort lost and becoming piles of data bits just like its neighbours.

Have fun with this game people.

I had this kind of conversation too much to ignore how it's going to end.

Goodbye.

This kind of conversation? Just because we do not agree with your opinion? It seems the internet isnt the best place for you.....