Melee 2.0 At First Glance

[Ronyn]

Note the title. I said at first glance because I am acknowledging that I have not touched melee 2.0 myself.

These are thoughts based solely on what it looks and sounds like.

So please keep that in mind.

 

Alright, so let me start by saying I am so friggin impressed with what you guys have done.

You are bringing a new level of awesome to Warframe that can potentially bring in a whole new group of players.

There are people out there who don’t like shooters but love melee games.

This may very well bring them to warframe.

 

The new animations, hit effects and general capability make it well worth the wait for this long time player.

I look forward to using combos to great effect.

As usual, I am quite pleased with where this is going overall.

 

Now on to my critiques.

 

CHARGE ATTACKS

It was pretty obvious in earlier versions of Melee that charge attacks were too integral to the system.

Since they were the best way for most weapons to actually do damage most melee gameplay resulting in charge,charge,charge..ad naseum.

For most weapons the other moves were used mostly for traversing distance.

That wasn't so great.

So I see why the charge attack system as it was did not work so well.

 

But the truth is there were more options than just getting rid of it.

First off, for melee 2.0 you are raising the normal attack damage, giving us combos and putting in a hit meter..

You have already greatly increased the reason to NOT use a charge attack from moment to moment.

In that situation a player would only want to charge attack when it made more sense to spend extra time between strikes than to quickly try to hit the next guy.

In fact, knowing when to charge attack and when to normal attack would be an additional layer of depth and diversity to the system.

Now, if that alone wasn't enough…

Charge attacks could have been aimed at being more Utility focused and less damage based.

Obvious example is the punch/kick type weapons we have now.

That spinning back kick doesn't do much damage really but it is great for knocking enemies away.

That is Utility. That is what the charge attacks should bring to the table.

Other possible options to implement are attacks that turn enemies around, knock them into the air, trip them, pull them in close…etc.

I recognize that a lot of that kind of utility will be found inside of combos themselves.

But having access to that utility as an opening attack would be very useful in many places.

Essentially the usefulness of charge attacks on any weapon can be nearly as helpful and different as the charge attack on the glaive.

My recommendation-

Don’t get rid of charge attacks, learn to work them in properly to the rest of Melee 2.0.

 

CHANNEL SYSTEM

Despite the official statement about trying to get away from feeling too much like DMC ...

The Channel system really looks as though it acts much like a melee only Devil trigger mode.

For those who are very familiar with the DMC series you will remember that there were often special abilities that took from the DT energy pool.

Everything from shooting ifrits fireballs in DMC1 to using those sword slash waves in DMC4.

So the player had a choice between using those special abilities OR staying in DT longer.

Yep, a lot like this Channel system.

 

Which to be honest I perfectly fine with. I always enjoyed the general concept so why the heck not.

But there is a problem-

In DMC you gain DT energy at a pretty steady rate from fighting. DT energy orbs came now and then but weren't mandatory to have energy.

In warframe the energy orb's are often just non-existent for a long time or just too darn plentiful. Some days you go long periods without any energy and other times you can unload ultimate's like there is no tomorrow.

 

This energy variance is not a melee specific issue, it is an old issue that will keep coming back and messing with any system that works with energy.

My recommendation-

Allow non-Channeled melee hit’s to replenish energy by small amounts upon hits in Melee 2.0.

I am aware that there may be a mod meant to do this but I am suggesting that this be a standard aspect of the system.

Alright so there are some preliminary thoughts.

 

I look forward to seeing how melee 2.0 actually feels when I get my hands on it.

Carry on fellow tenno!

[Enmity666]

Sorry, but...

I don't feel like reading another wall of text. Bye.

[XenosInfinity]

Between Energy Siphon auras and the potential for energy-leech mods for melee, I think we should be fine for channeling. I personally never liked charge attacks much anyway, so I probably won't miss them.

[Casardis]

My recommendation-

 

Allow non-Channeled melee hit’s to replenish energy by small amounts upon hits in Melee 2.0.

 

I am aware that there may be a mod meant to do this but I am suggesting that this be a standard aspect of the system.

 

 

I agree with this. I can understand stamina refill from melee needing a mod slot, as well as vampire mod (confirmed in latest devstream), but for energy, I think that it would be better if it was innate (with a mod that increases the percentage). I think that it would be even better that it replenishes only with combo streaks, and as you continue your combo multiplier on, the energy regeneration will grow exponentially (will have a limit of course) so that you can keep on combo-ing and using your powers.

 

This way you can do channeled strikes more often (as you suggested, channeled strikes won't refill energy), and you can have some kind of synergy with powers as well: Ash using combos until he can Bladestorm and then use the additional combo hits from it to continue his streaks; Rhino punching and shoryuuken-ing people with Furax into a Roar and a melee finisher (or a Charge).

Edited April 5, 2014 by Casardis

[Ronyn]

 

Between Energy Siphon auras and the potential for energy-leech mods for melee, I think we should be fine for channeling.

Same response to this as I give to all energy related conversations-

If a mod is essential to make something function properly then there needs to be some adjustments.

Mods should improve the function of something not be required for it's basic functionality. 

 

I personally never liked charge attacks much anyway, so I probably won't miss them.

Honestly you had very little reason to like them before as they were just raw damage that required you to wait a lot. lol

Rare cases, like the glaive and the spin kick from the punch/kick weapons were actually fun to use because they served more purpose.

That would be the utility I was talking about above. 

[Hrodgrim]

I'm bumping this thread now. There are some good ideas in here.

[Ronyn]

I'm bumping this thread now. There are some good ideas in here.

Thanks