Just Some Suggestions

[zGen]

First off, I'm actually quite impressed with this game considering it is still in BETA! I've had very few issues so far which is a testament to the developers, adn the game looks great.

I do have a few suggestions about the general gameplay and UX however.

Melee Combat

In most other games I've played, a melee attack can be executed without changing the player's position or direction. I've noticed in Warframe that when executing almost any melee attack, the player moves in a forward motion. This becomes a problem when you're trying to attack a target and he moves out of the way, or in some missions when you have to destroy a machine you need to crouch in order to stay still and prevent the forward motion.

I would suggest keeping the forward motion in place for charged melee attacks, but allow me to control my direction of motion when simply executing a flurry of normal melee attacks. Otherwise I often find myself running around in circles in order to catch up with my moving target. I'd like to be able to circle strafe around my target and slice him up from behind.

Summary

- Remove forward motion from normal melee attacks.

- Allow me to control my direction during non-charged melee attacks.

Tooltips

I find that trying to work out the menu system, foundry, arsenal, mods, etc. has been difficult without any clear instructions. I would suggest to make the learning curve much shorter adding tooltips to explain how each function or menu works. This could be an option that more experience players could turn off.

Summary

- Add tooltips to menu objects.

- Allow me to turn this option on or off.

Movement & Gameplay

When I started this game, I completed the very short tutorial which gave me some basic idea of how to get around and shoot things. It did not teach me anything about running into a slide, fly kicking enemies or wall climbing. All of these things I only learnt later when browsing through forum posts and experimenting with controls. I'd been playing with a friend and we both got stuck in a room where the only exit was a pipe opening in the roof. We had no idea that we could climb walls.

I would suggest extending the tutorial to teach players how to execute these movements, and any new functions which are introduced to the game. As it could cause new players to leave in frustration early on. And my second suggestion would be to simply display textual prompts in places where players may need to wall climb, or execute some other type of unique movement.

Summary

- Extend the tutorial to include ALL movement and gameplay functions.

- Display prompts in places where a certain type of movement or function is required.

Missions

I've played the game mostly in 2 player coop, and the gameplay is great. The difficulty can vary from hard to easy, and has a good mix of mission objectives to complete. I have played a few 4 player games and I feel that things get quite spammy... there is too much going on in a small area... and most of the time the game becomes more about getting ahead of the pack so you can actually get some kills before everyone else gets there first.

I would suggest forcing players to split-up in pairs in order to complete parallel missions (maybe a syncronised switch at 2 seperate locations). This would serve to both increase the difficulty of the mission and reduce the spam... forcing players to use a little strategy to complete the mission successfully.

Summary

- Get players to split-up to complete missions.

- Reduce the spam in 4 player coop.

As I keep playing the game I may think of some further suggestions, you can take em or leave em, do what you want. I'm loving the game as is, and I look forward to seeing it. =)