Its About Time To Fix And Balance Hard (Nightmare) Mode

[HillsAndTheSea]

With all the balance talk, its about time to seriously discuss this, since it seems to be of low importance and all but forgotten about. this can and should be DE's next big rework.

 

Nightmare mode in it its most basic form is nothing more than a difficultly slider. in its current state is a mess, its a great concept; give players more challenge, more rewards, while at the same time making more content relevant.

 

Nightmare mode is in desperate need of a rework and expansion, with different and less random modifiers, different enemy types, and possibly different drop tables as a whole.

 

currently it is too random, things like no shields+higher enemy damage are absurd when you can just restart the mission and get only a timer. instead all the modifiers should always be active, and balance the modifers that way. (lower level planets have less modifiers) make it so i can do it on any frame if i so choose, and give us a reason to fill the niche roles you guys have designed

 

imo nightmare mode should be what players do when looking for a challenge AND getting good loot, instead of sitting in defense/survival missions until thier eyes bleed or they die of boredom. make each enemy a threat, and reward us for killing each one. instead of getting 1000+ kills we should be focused on ~100 of the toughest dudes we can possibly fight that are worth exponentially more by comparison.

 

nightmare mode enemies ideally should have an entirely different drop table, with a chance to drop the nightmare mods themselves, and then the nightmare mode rewards can be changed to something entirely different, and much better.

 

There needs to be added complexity, and there needs to be a possibility of failure, so that we can feel some actual satisfaction from seeing the "mission complete" screen. the current mindset of most warframe players is not "can i handle this mission, but instead "when do i get my reward"

 

examples of better modifiers

 

-higher enemy damage

-higher cc resist (ie 50% duration on cc abilities)

-higher chance to drop rare resource (ie nightmare eximus drops orokin cell)

-higher amount of resource (ie nightmare oxium osprey drops 5-6 oxium)

-more eximus enemies (subbosses, prosecutors, wardens etc)

-higher enemy level

-faster enemy speed (when alerted)

-countdowns/parkour requirements

 

DE you need to open your eyes. after recently looking at the mission survey feedback, its abundantly clear how the community became the way it is. and its simple:

 

-long defense/survival is NOT about the challenge, but is primarily about the highest possible rewards. for example, if i use a T3 key stay in a survival for 1 hour, it gives me 12 times the rewards of a T3 exterminate, while there are more possible enemies in higher density, all of who give me loot and expierence, and the mission in of itself is not harder by comparison. "survival" might as be called "genocide".

 

nightmare survival and defense needs to be as hard as 1 hour T3 survival (if not harder) but in the first 5 minutes, 20 minutes in a survival should be an accomplishment worthy of praise. this way you can actually balance the gamemodes.

 

come on DE, the framework is there, give us a "hard" mode. we know you can. the grustrag three was fanastic, prosecuters were a great idea, hyena's are great, we need to be able to reliably find more enemies like this. make it so there is something to actually do on the starchart. if you want to buff us, make sure we have the enemies first, they should always be one step ahead instead of 3 miles behind. im excited about the focus system but what is the point of being stronger if i am already an immortal god?

 

TL;DR: 

 

-Make nightmare modifiers more acceptable for different frames and approaches.

-Give Nightmare mode and its enemies there own drop tables

-Make it actually difficult, there should be a possibility of failure.

-Make the rewards worth the challenge

-Make each enemy a challenge in of itself, make "zerg rush" suicidal

-Make sections require actual preparation and or teamwork

-Give us more enemies with better mechanics.

-every enemy is a hyena/zanuka/g3 level threat

-Make Nightmare mode less random as a whole

 

 

 

im sure im not the first one to suggest this, and this is only a rough idea at best. but i think as a whole this is what the community should focus on. anyone else have any thoughts/things to add?

 

 

 

[GaleRoar]

What if broken lights were put back into the game for only Nightmare Mode?

[ViLeDeth]

What if broken lights were put back into the game for only Nightmare Mode?

 

I would be ... ecStatic.

Edited May 22, 2014 by ViLeDeth

[KeepOnFlowing]

Warframe: Survive the Lights

Warframe: Throw Your Monitor Out The Window

[Sumarbrandr]

What if broken lights were put back into the game for only Nightmare Mode?

 

 

NOPE.

[HillsAndTheSea]

Warframe: Throw Your Monitor Out The Window

 

 

hey, leave my mother out of this

[Kirby47]

Like in Starcraft, "zerg rush" should only be for early game, and only pros would be good at it.

[Haxwell]

your entire argument could have been reduced to "put a timer on every nightmare mission you have to wait out if you fail it or abort". So you fail/abort the nightmare mission? Gotta wait 20 minutes to do it again. Could have saved urself 5-8 paragraphs.

[HillsAndTheSea]

your entire argument could have been reduced to "put a timer on every nightmare mission you have to wait out if you fail it or abort". So you fail/abort the nightmare mission? Gotta wait 20 minutes to do it again. Could have saved urself 5-8 paragraphs.

 

i don't know who's argument that was but it certainly wasn't mine