Thank You For Watching Devstream #25

[[DE]Rebecca]

YouTube link:

 

 

Check out BuildMyPaperHeart's summary on the Subreddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/210q1f/livestream_25_recap_and_discussion/

 

Devstream #25 Summary:

VOR’S PRIZE(DEVLEOPER PRIZE QUESTION)

Reb: First developer to tell the audience and myself something about Vor’s Prize get’s a prize!

 

Geoff: We’re working on it.

 

Steve: Vor’s Prize is going to introduce the Queens.

(Steve wins)

 

NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE

Rebecca: Anatolius asks “How do you feel about the new player experience? Many new players have struggled with getting past Earth due to the new interception missions, and many have also had a hard time collecting the mods they require in order to advance (serration, hornet strike.. etc.) Does this maybe bring into question difficulty settings that will cater to a player's skill level?”

 

Scott: In the last event I was playing a lot and I noticed it was very slow and I asked to make it harder. It might have been a little too hard. As far as required Mods, Mods that we think are “required” I think we're doing a better job on putting those on common enemies. We’re constantly reviewing those drops and making sure that those end up in players’ hands. We re-did the tutorial a while ago so that players got the Mod right off the bat. We’re always looking at tweaking player progression; it rises up on the list and falls down when we want to add new features to the game. Right now we’re in a low spot because we’re redoing Melee. Once melee is complete we'll go back I guarantee you we’ll go back take a look at new player experience. Mission types are always being adjusted.

 

Steve: I saw in chat that the early game is too hard and the late game is too easy. I think that’s because there is so much scaling and progression that it gets really powerful. We just need to keep working on scaling and progression.

Scott: Glen is always bugging us to make T4 keys.

 

MELEE 2.0

 

Reb: Haldos/ N7_Phantom ask “As always, the new melee system is a buzz topic. What new details can you share about it as you near its completion? What about the systems, as a whole, are you most proud of?”

 

Geoff: I don't really want to answer that until it's done, which doesn't mean we're not excited about it.

 

Steve: The more we talk about the higher the expectations get for it.

 

Geoff: On Wednesday night when we got together we realized it didn't feel Warframe. I don’t want to  be vague to the users, but we had a pretty good talk and we’re try to work in ideas to make it more exclusive to Warframe than just a broad melee game.

 

Steve: It really seems to come together in the end.

 

Reb: What was the most complex goal with you had with this system and what about this third iteration that’s less complex?

 

Geoff: We went too far down the well of combo length and focused on that over utility.

 

Scott: Trying to figure out what makes a players draw their sword and attack a guy VS shooting him in the head from 50 yards.

 

Steve: The name for the next update is Update 13 The Sword Alone. There is a new mod slot that will be going into Melee weapons like Auras slots in Warframe. This is a new slot exclusive to Stance mods. These are aspirational goals of course. For the one-handed sword there will be 2 Stance mods. One is the Iron Phoenix that is the slower stance for it with a lot of staggering hits/slashing emphasis/proc combos. The other Stance is the Crimson Dervish, which has a lot of fast hits, puncture procs, and a few staggering combos. They will be combo chains that will be unlocked through fusion, which are deeper combos which will change how you battle. There’s a Warframe specific thing that we talked about as a way of turning your energy and channeling through the Melee weapon that we think is going to be very Warframe-y. I won’t get into specifics until that’s totally proven. The way the Staggers happen will let you stun-lock enemies a bit more so you can get in and do some crowd control.

 

Reb: Someone in chat is saying are we still getting timed combos?

Steve: Yes, absolutely, that’s in the stances.

 

Weapon Grip videos: http://youtu.be/CJbgkl1OnP0?t=19m46s

 

Reb: Will there be an improvement with Stealth kills in Melee 2.0?

 

Geoff: We’ve had a lot of internal discussions about this but we haven’t really acted on it.

 

Scott: Once Melee 2.0 goes out something’s will solidify for the Stealth attacks and we can build on it.

 

MISSION TYPES

Reb: jKon16 asks “MORE MISSION TYPES PLEASE!!! The community has so many ideas and the parkour/stealth/ninja aspect of the game needs some fleshing out. Anything coming? Time Trials? Melee only? Stealth required? Intense parkour rooms in tilesets?

 

Scott: Yes. Last event previewed a new mission type which is Hijack. According to the Survery shows that Rescue is the most hated mission ever. Rescue is actually getting a pretty big revamp. Some of it kind of snuck out in the last big update where you can give you Rescue target your secondary weapon which is part of a bigger change. The new rescue mission actually requires stealth. It's still being worked on and it's pretty rad that you have to work your way through a tile to make sure you don't trigger alarms or else the rescue gets executed. New Missions are always in the work.

 

Survery Results

 

Scott: I think the graph represents the hard-core players that have stuck with us for a long time. Those players have those required mods/primes/gear and they want that challenge. We're constantly trying to rebalance the drop tables and we’re talking about adding T4 keys so they have that challenge. Glen has been bugging me to bring other game types like Interception to the Void. I think it’s constantly a balance between new player and old player and challenges VS rewards. We're always looking into that we'll continue adding new challenges to the game.

 

VALKYR AND MELEE 2.0

Geoff: Valkyr won't be affected when melee 2.0 goes live but she will be looked at after.

 

ABILITY MOD DROPS

Reb: AuroraSonicBoom asks “There are some non-rare mods that are disproportionally difficult to obtain because they are only dropped by enemies with very low spawn rates. On the other hand players are amassing hundreds of other mods, even rares, which drop from enemies many times more common.”

 

Steve: We took them out of the packs because we were afraid that someone would nuke their last Ability Mod. I know Sheldon deals a lot with the Dilution and we need to grow the ways we give rewards.

 

Scott: The reason was the Warframe Mods were removed from the packs because Fusion level. We thought that players would like to have multiple versions of certain powers. Because you can’t under-clock fused mods.

 

Steve: So if we added a way to do that it would be some sort of solution to solve the Dilution problems.

 

WHAT ARE WARFRAMES?

Reb: DaWovl asks “What are the Warframes? We have mixed signals when it comes to the origin and nature of the frames.

 

Geoff: There is a tease in the Lore entries.

 

Sheldon: Some origin lore coming next week.

 

Steve: We’re intentionally not answering that question directly. I don't think an on the nose answer would ever be satisfactory. This game can be played in multiple cultures because we don’t really pigeon hole you into very specific things. The Tenno were at one point people; which the Lore hints that. The Warframes are something that goes over the Tenno. I hate to be evasive but it’s something that we’re gradually unveiling.

 

COMMUNITY MELEE WEAPONS

Rebecca: Kary basically said Melee 2.0 first and then he’ll get working on those.

 

Geoff: I told Kary to hold off because their new stances which will need new Animation sets. The amount of content we have to do with Melee 2.0 we just couldn’t fit it.

 

AROUND THE OFFICE IMAGES

http://youtu.be/CJbgkl1OnP0?t=38m5s

 

BADLANDS

Rebecca: Starside_Destiny asks “Could you please reiterate the scope and purpose of the Badlands during the stream? Answers to questions such as where are the Badlands? What enemies appear there? What is the incentive to go there, for average players and those who are at 'end-game' level?”

 

Steve: Badlands is about adding a bit of EVE online to Warframe. The idea is there are these locations in the Solar Chart that haven’t been opened yet and Clans can build a Solar Rail. Those maps will have better resources, rare resources, higher level enemies that might even have enemy types that are difficult to find right now. But when you play them, you pay a tax to the Clan who created that Solar Rail. If other Clans don’t like this and they want to control that area they can build their own tower and challenge that are. If you’re in a small Clan you can form an alliance with other small clans and still challenge those big Moon clans. When you play in that Node in the contested state it’s like those towers are Orokin in technology and it’s like playing an Orokin mission against the Corrupted enemies. It’s territory control on the fringes of the Star Chart.

 

I saw a question in chat about won’t 2 moon clans be OP? And the answer is yes, that would be very powerful but the alliance limit will be based on the total population. So you could have dozens and dozens of Ghost clans or could you have just a few Moon clans. We’re going to try and control it that way.

 

FOCUS

Reb: RawGritz asks “Can you please tell us more about Focus? Where are you? What are you excited about?”

 

Steve: It’s progressing but most of our focus is on Melee 2.0. Focus is going to be cool because it comes with more, it reveals the intent/origin of those little symbols that we have on the mod cards. Hopefully early game players will be interested in that.

 

LOGIN DIORAMAS

Geoff: Rebecca had a good idea to put them in the Fan Art section of the Codex because we don’t do the Login Dioramas anymore. After the next big update we'll get people back on those.

 

HELMET STATS

Rebecca: Archwizard asks “What about stat separation from the early cosmetic helmets?”

 

Scott: We aren't supporting stats on helmets anymore; the plan is to basically retire them. If you own them then you’ll keep them. We’ll reissue the same helmets with the same visuals again but stat-less, and if you already own then we’ll issue a blueprint that allows you to convert it to a stat-less version if you so choose to. I think moving forward cosmetics will be stat-less. The Hot Topics for our internal chat has been Alt Helmets on Prime versions. Mynki has said that he doesn't want primes to have the alt helmets, which I think we’re still fighting about. The problem is the visual cohesion of the Prime Warframe and making sure that those art assets actually work. The fact that the Alt Helmets actually fit/work means that there is usually a little bit of art problems which artists have to go back and touch up.

 

KUBROW/PETS

Rebecca: Zerrien asks “Kubrow, when, design plan? Pets or Sentinel replacements?”

 

Scott: Sentinel slot with probably be renamed to pet/sidekick slot. We haven’t really decided on that yet, but it’s going to happen at some point.

 

Steve: We already have something planned for an additional tab on that screen.

 

PS4 BROKEN LIGHTS

Rebecca: PS4CJDAM asks “Will PS4 be getting Broken Lights in the next update? Please don't do this to us.”

 

Steve: No they will get the Arc Traps.

 

Scott: Some of the stuff is work in progress that goes in the build that hasn't been fully finished.

 

CREDITS IN THE VOID

Sheldon: I’m looking at what it would be like if I pulled them all out, I don’t want to commit to that just yet but it's something we're heading towards.

 

WARFRAME ABILITES 2.0

Rebecca: Archwizard asks “Many players have noted that while Nekros and Oberon are called the “necromancer” and “paladin” - and visually align with those classes - their powersets invoke “scavenger” and “(squishy) priest” instead. Ember has also been called overspecialized since the addition of Accelerant, while Saryn and Volt are spread thin between melee and sniper skills. Can we expect to see an “Abilities 2.0” movement at some point, not just to buff frame powers, but to revamp roles and increase synergy to Zephyr/Loki level?

 

Scott: Yes they'll be revisited to make sure they fill the roles they’re supposed to. We intentionally designed them to be this way so that they were hard to compare/figure out whether this power VS that power was the best option. It all comes down to my opinion and right or wrong I’m the guy that usually says this is where we’re going with this frame so most times I ask Rebecca or Megan about what the most upvoted feedback is on the particular frame. I read those and try to figure out what the best course of action is.

 

Steve: Sometimes there is a clear message and we act fast. Players energy/passion is why we’re here showing you our progress.

 

Scott: The things that are drastically wrong we bring to the surface right away.

 

PERFORMANCE

Steve: We have performance fixes coming for large levels, specifically targeting large level objects like traps which drain performance when you’re not even near them.

 

 

Plat Winners:

 

Platinum Prize winner Twitch Alias's were:

 

Matiko13

RJManiac

Mattiq93

 

BONUS: Missed Melee 2.0 vid:

 

https://vimeo.com/89927987

Edited March 24, 2014 by [DE]Megan
Added summary!

[S.Fayden]

Normally I don't get excited about these things, but personally I'm looking forward to Badlands.

Gotta crush those pub towers yo.

 

Also please don't add a T4. Grinding for keys is annoying enough; you all said you wanted to reduce the grind. Even if you make it much less of a pain though, the problem still comes up that these don't really present a new challenge. Literally the only difference between each tower level is the enemies' levels. It's the same challenge as before, the enemies are just bigger bullet sponges and better at one-shotting you. Vastly increasing the enemy level doesn't add a challenge, it just reduces the number of successful tactics to the point that you're forced to do the only select few things that work anymore.

Before you start adding more towers, you might want to revise the older ones first.

Edited March 21, 2014 by S.Fayden

[Illuminatus51]

Don't add actual swimming. Water-themed areas are sweet, water-based Warframes can be interesting.

 

But there's no way that actual water-based movement will work in this engine. I implore the devs to not waste their time on that pursuit.

[zergla]

Please remove powers from the drop tables!

[Shaydewalker]

Why don't I ever win? Is it because rngeezuz thinks the talk is enough?

EDIT: brakk... I meant brakk

Edited March 21, 2014 by shaydewlaker

[Nkomo-Sama]

The pre-release melee 2.0 Nerf...... WHYYYY??????? #hearfbroken 

 

Edit: Watched it again... Not bad actually

Edited March 21, 2014 by Nkomo-Sama

[Aure7]

Curse you twitch for such painfully slow video loading!!!

[Monolake]

Very interesting stream and thank you very much for answering many of the hot topics. 

Its great that you realised how good a challenging mission can be. Veteran players definitely need more challenge, thank you for voicing this.

 But considering Earth interception: its a huge spike unbeatable for  new players, they are absolutely stuck there untill some one with good gear shows up to carry them. They dont have player skill. They don't have mods. 

You probably have no idea that a typical loadout of mods for a new player who comes to Earth has ZERO damage mods for Braton and one damage mod for pistols. 

I believe you should have some game statistics of how much players die and fail at interception, look into it please.  When Sheldon said it was fun and challenging for him, he should imagine how a new player with, again, hardly any damage mods tries to beat this unstoppable stream of enemies for the 20th time, when he technically is incapable of killing them faster then they spawn. 

 

If you dont have testers and words are not enough for you, I could record some videos of new players struggles. 

Edited March 21, 2014 by Monolake

[RawGritz]

I guess I should say. Drawing sword from the hip seems more Samurai than drawing from a scabbard on the back...?

[xShadowsaur]

The Devstream was fantastic, as always, but no one spoke about the Kubrow! When can we expect to see them! I've been waiting on more animals since the introduction of the Desert Skates. Also, any new planets coming?

[FunkDoctaSpock]

Lol, why delete my question DE ? I've been here a long time and protected you from many ill-sayers. And you delete my post asking if melee 2.0 is coming soon (again) ? This reminds me of dictatorships who suppress infos not giving a good image of themselves. Shame on you DE for acting this way. This game should be out of beta already if all you're gonna do is add more plat content while not polishing the core game-play mechanics. Delete this if you wish, but posts like these are merely a friendly reminder that some of us players who have been there since almost the beginning are running out of patience. Peace !

[Konmatic]

Amazing stream, enjoyed it very much! keep on the good work!

[Oraz]

Missed this due to timezone change over there

[Deidaku]

Dammit DE!

 

Because of the previous stream I have HEKOPHOBIA, I'm always expecting him to appear at the end XD

[Haiova]

U13 \o/

[AuroraSonicBoom]

I just want to correct one of the question DE_Rebecca's asked the devs in regards to mod drop dilution.

 

The question I asked wasn't about warframe mods diluting the drop tables but why enemy rarity isn't factored in to the chances of getting drops to a greater degree, and why the most common enemies don't have way more mods they can drop compared to the rarest enemies to prevent super low drop rates of mods that shouldn't be that rare.

 

Warframe mod dilution is only a symptom of the larger problem I wanted to address.

 

That's it.

[KaraLotus]

Np.

[Leorion]

Normally I don't get excited about these things, but personally I'm looking forward to Badlands.

Gotta crush those pub towers yo.

 

Also please don't add a T4. Grinding for keys is annoying enough; you all said you wanted to reduce the grind. Even if you make it much less of a pain though, the problem still comes up that these don't really present a new challenge. Literally the only difference between each tower level is the enemies' levels. It's the same challenge as before, the enemies are just bigger bullet sponges and better at one-shotting you. Vastly increasing the enemy level doesn't add a challenge, it just reduces the number of successful tactics to the point that you're forced to do the only select few things that work anymore.

Before you start adding more towers, you might want to revise the older ones first.

 

This please.

 

As I have said before, making it harder will NOT and I repeat, NOT make it better. It will only increase the rage when you don't get the item you want.

[Bobsplosion]

Lol, why delete my question DE ? I've been here a long time and protected you from many ill-sayers. And you delete my post asking if melee 2.0 is coming soon (again) ? This reminds me of dictatorships who suppress infos not giving a good image of themselves. Shame on you DE for acting this way. This game should be out of beta already if all you're gonna do is add more plat content while not polishing the core game-play mechanics. Delete this if you wish, but posts like these are merely a friendly reminder that some of us players who have been there since almost the beginning are running out of patience. Peace !

They've said "when it's done" a million times. Asking more is just spamming.

[Cybernetix]

After that all I can imagine is the Lotus working in McDonalds.

*Larger than average customer enters*

'Be careful, there's a heavy unit approaching'

[V45H]

Don't add actual swimming. Water-themed areas are sweet, water-based Warframes can be interesting.

 

But there's no way that actual water-based movement will work in this engine. I implore the devs to not waste their time on that pursuit.

i don't see why this wouldn't work in the engine and they already said they were thinking about adding it in small amounts to the tile sets in the future in a past dev stream

[TheOmnipotentKiwiStand]

Normally I don't get excited about these things, but personally I'm looking forward to Badlands.

Gotta crush those pub towers yo.

 

Also please don't add a T4. Grinding for keys is annoying enough; you all said you wanted to reduce the grind. Even if you make it much less of a pain though, the problem still comes up that these don't really present a new challenge. Literally the only difference between each tower level is the enemies' levels. It's the same challenge as before, the enemies are just bigger bullet sponges and better at one-shotting you. Vastly increasing the enemy level doesn't add a challenge, it just reduces the number of successful tactics to the point that you're forced to do the only select few things that work anymore.

Before you start adding more towers, you might want to revise the older ones first.

 

It's not about challenge, it's about adding another tier to sort out reward dilution. Instead of new game modes, they'd add another tier.

Edited March 21, 2014 by TheOmnipotentKiwiStand

[(PSN)abomb650]

Normally I don't get excited about these things, but personally I'm looking forward to Badlands.

Gotta crush those pub towers yo.

 

Also please don't add a T4. Grinding for keys is annoying enough; you all said you wanted to reduce the grind. Even if you make it much less of a pain though, the problem still comes up that these don't really present a new challenge. Literally the only difference between each tower level is the enemies' levels. It's the same challenge as before, the enemies are just bigger bullet sponges and better at one-shotting you. Vastly increasing the enemy level doesn't add a challenge, it just reduces the number of successful tactics to the point that you're forced to do the only select few things that work anymore.

Before you start adding more towers, you might want to revise the older ones first.

This sums up the towers quite efficiently, well said sir

[Nabzig]

Those awkward stares at the end of stream after someone did a Freudian slip with dihydrogen monoxide..... priceless. Great stream. Thanks.

Edited March 21, 2014 by Nabzig

[SatouJin]

It's not about challenge, it's about adding another tier to sort out reward dilution. Instead of new game modes, they'd add another tier.

 

what no one seems to understand about rng is that all those numbers and probabilities mean absolutely nothing. in rng, one person can get a drop on the first try, then the next person may have to farm for it 6 hours a day for a month. even if they add new tiers and/or spread drop tables out, it will never amount to anything other than the same frustrating rng system.

 

oh yea and: cool badlands, so we can fight another different colored grineer type right? melee 2.0 still seems promising but didn't they scrap the overcomplicated animations on ash's bladestorm because of the time and cost? this seems to be going in the same direction. maybe getting a bit too overblown for it's own good? i'll be happy as long as all dual weapons don't use the same dual sword animations cause that was a huge letdown on the dual kamas for me.