Dragon Nikana And Its Quirks

[Vanadium]

How excited was I to come back after a month of Skyrim to these shiny new Katanas with crazy stances and ridiculous Loki invisidamage. Eager to show off my nolife-rank, I skipped the vanilla Nikana and went straight to the Dragon and am much pleased with my new level of swag.

It only took a few missions before the Dragon's issues became obvious. To start:

1) The sword itself is one color (tint color 4). My swaggish defaults are the ivories off the Storm pallete (so, white), so to test I changed my sword the brightest, most saturated color I had:

So, the wraps on the handle are the same piece as the blade (that's what's being conveyed to me by them being one solid color). Would like to at least like have the blade (and the funny lotus guard) have a steel color or have the sword be customizable to the other tints (latter preferred).

2) The sheathe floats off the hand when reviving

(sorry for the overkill of effects that probably make it hard to see; will replace later when I have time)

3) Character holds the sword by the handle on exiting the mission, after you've played the entire mission holding it by the sheathe.

4) The tassle on the end is really stiff.

It just looks like it got epoxied on the end. Would be cooler (and might make more sense) if it dangled by ring or a few links of chain.

I don't expect any of these things to get fixed anytime soon (because of mountain of other things that need fixing) and only the first one bothers me. These are just things which reduce the Dragon's swag and thus leads to losing Warframe.

If anyone finds other issues, feel free to post here and I will add them to the list (pics help). If the vanilla Nikana has the same issues, post some pics and I will include them in this OP.

Edited May 9, 2014 by Go4tfi5h

[Brynslustafir]

Nikana*

[Archistopheles]

I think this is the first thread to use both the words "Swag" and "Nikana" and not make me want to barf.

 

Well done.

[Orbister]

yes, the dragon nikana is the most subpar item in terms of quality ever, i just stopped using it, because everything about it screams "rushed underdeveloped content"

[rapt0rman]

The sword itself really should have identical color customization to the regular nikana, no excuse for having an entire model be a flat untextured color.

[[DE]Draice]

Thanks for the informative review! I'll pass your feedback to our animators and weapon artists, and see if there is anything we can do to address these issues.

[Nakhoda]

how strange it is that i have the same experience as you when playing back at this game(though a little bit early)

[Casardis]

1) Yeah totally agreed. I think it wouldn't be hard to simply assign certain details on the Dragon's sword to the 4 color channels that affect its scabbard.

 

For example, just by testing, Channel 1 can be good for the Lotus guard, Channel 2 for the handle, Channel 3 maybe for additional details (just like regular Nikana) and Channel 4, which is currently used to paint THE WHOLE SWORD in one plain color, would be used to color the blade separately from the guard and handle.

 

Here's a quick edit, which illustrates exactly what my sword would look like if we follow those color channel assignment in the way I described.

 

Currently:

 

My ideal (Channel 1 for guard + pommel cap ; Channel 2 for handle ; Channel 4 for blade)

 

 

This would allow better customization as a whole. It would allow for player to control blade, guard and handle colors separately.

[Zkorp]

Please, this BTW beautifull weapons has a scabbard, so can you at least not show the elementals effects on it it untill unsheated ?

I use it mainly to not have the disturbing green corrosive aura on all my stuff, and sometimes it seemed to work like that : sheated : no effect, but recently the effects are showed even when sheated. Thank you.

[Maou]

The ninkana series seems abit rush for me, It wont even show itself when using radial blind.

[Llyssa]

I'd like to note that the way katanas are forged, the handle and blade are a single piece.

[ScorpDK]

I guess it would be too much asking for a few more color channels on weapons (and maybe frames) for finer tuning of the appearance. Nikana is one such weapon where there are too many pieces for the current amount of color slots, making the weapon look rather plastic-like when you color the scabbard to look fancy, and then you draw the blade and it looks...just wrong.

 

Also... we still need chrome/metallic shader color packs :P Can't make a fake prime without shiny gold.

[SomethingCrazy]

I'd like to note that the way katanas are forged, the handle and blade are a single piece.

 

Yes but the do add other tid bits on them to make them look as if they're not.

 

I'm a big swords collector and many of mine look like several pieces instead of just the blade/handle and guard.

[Fayde8]

I love the Dragon Nikana. But yes, it definitely has some issues. I would love to be able to color the blade and not have the entire thing change, as the OP stated.

 

Thanks for the post, and thanks for the response Draice!

[Vanadium]

Thanks for the informative review! I'll pass your feedback to our animators and weapon artists, and see if there is anything we can do to address these issues.

 

Thanks, I and obviously others appreciate staff confirmations. Good to know that it will get looked at.

 

Please, this BTW beautifull weapons has a scabbard, so can you at least not show the elementals effects on it it untill unsheated ?

I use it mainly to not have the disturbing green corrosive aura on all my stuff, and sometimes it seemed to work like that : sheated : no effect, but recently the effects are showed even when sheated. Thank you.

 

Agreed, it looks cooler if you don't see the elemental effect until the blade comes out.

 

I'd like to note that the way katanas are forged, the handle and blade are a single piece.

 

The blade and tang are one piece, yes. The handle, which is built for/around the tang can be removed. Here:

 

 

Fun fact: Japanese swordsmiths would inscribe their signatures on the tang, a reason why the blade is sometimes displayed outside of the sheathe/handle.

Edited May 12, 2014 by Go4tfi5h

[Casardis]

I'd like to note that the way katanas are forged, the handle and blade are a single piece.

 

The source material used as inspiration is already shown on the sword's design, clear as day. It's not necessary for them to do a color channel like the blade and tang as one piece. In fact, with the way the Nikana's built, it has a handle, alongside a pseudo-tsuba. Its silhouette reflects that of a "fully built" katana, not the blade+tang alone.

 

Those suggestion alone should be enough for them to stray away of the blade+tang one piece color scheme.They did it with the regular Nikana; why must the Dragon Nikana be one solid color when it obviously look plain?

 

Because of these issues, I don't see any legitimate reason for them to take the one-color design as they did.

Edited May 13, 2014 by Casardis

[Snisify]

So post update 13.3 know we can have a different color set for the scabbard and attachment, but the main blade and the grip are still one color... hope DE will fix it soon

[Casardis]

So post update 13.3 know we can have a different color set for the scabbard and attachment, but the main blade and the grip are still one color... hope DE will fix it soon

 

This. There's absolutely NO reason now for them not to go all out with the Nikana and its coloring.