Several Ideas For Improving Gameplay With Mods And Weapons

[Zerrien]

There's a lot of buzz about the whole 'rework' situation, and I figure I'd toss my hat into the ring. Mechanically, there isn't much that needs to be done to fix some things, it's just a lot of design work. I'm talking a full redesign of weapons and mods, while introducing a few other minor mechanics that already follow existing methods.

 

For simplicity's sake, I'm leaving this discussion to Weapons/Rifles exclusively, but most everything can be expanded out into the remaining factors (Sentinels, Warframes, etc.)

 

1.) Give Weapons variable Mod Slots and Energy

The weapons are all mostly interesting. They have their different fire rates and different ammo counts... But, they all have 8 slots and 30 energy. There is no depth, and, those two factors are the elements that the ENTIRETY of the mod system depends.

 

So I propose giving weapons variable mod slots and energy. With a bit of creative design, we come up with the following:

 

Humanity/Tenno: Braton. It's a signature of all Tenno around. It's default, it's versatile. 8 Mods, 30 Energy. It's in balance, and while the weapon is weak, it has the potential to be great.

 

Grineer: Karak. A classic platoon rifle, and for the Grineer who build from the ground up, stacking more stuff on, modability is key. 6 Mods and 15 Energy. But, you ask, why is the Braton automatically better? It has more mods lots and more energy! It's not, as the Karak is more powerful in certain ways, while the Braton is rather 'average' in terms of damage and fire rate.

 

Corpus: Dera. Another classic rifle, this time used by the crew members of Corpus. Featuring specialization and focus, the Dera isn't as customizable, but, when it is altered, it's done to it's fullest. 4 Slots, 30 Energy.

 

Now, ... ignore the numbers given, for a moment. Just understand the concept. Some weapons follow a theme that allow them to differentiate themselves from others, by more than just damage and fire rate. Some, will just get barely any slots, because, well, they're very good already.

 

2.) A Total Revamp of Existing Mod Cards

This one is tough, and I apologize, but, current mods are dreadful. If it's in Warframe's design document that says 'all mods should be straight forward and beneficial,' then I think it's time for a change. Focus more on making the mods for each individual part (Weapons, Sentinels, Warframes, etc,) interesting, even if 'interesting' comes with downsides.

 

Not only am I talking about the mechanics, but, don't be afraid of making mods more verbose. Clarity is needed, too, as it's unclear why +5% Fire Damage is not the same as +5% Slash Damage in many cases. (Except... in this case... the mechanics are clear, just, the implementation isn't expected.) Consider, instead, the Status Chance mods. It isn't a +5%, but, instead of x105% mod.

 

Let's examine some possibilities:

 

Gorged Wound: +0.1x Critical Damage, -10% Critical Chance

Precision: +10% Critical Chance, -0.1x Critical Damage

 

They both increase/decrease damage roughly the same, but, some weapons may benefit from a specific mod more than the other, given a higher/lower raw Damage or Chance. These mods are much more 'interesting' than 50% More Critical Damage, or, 150% More Critical Chance.

 

Lucky Shot: +5% Drop Chance on Critical Kill

 

A favorite of mine that I can't get out of my head. But, again, you cry, it's so 'one dimensional' where's the downside? Where's the depth?

 

Well, the depth lies in the Critical Kill. I don't believe such a phrase would exist in 'current' Warframe, because DE is favoring 'clear/concise' mod text. What does a Critical Kill mean, to a new player? It's a hard question to answer, without some sort of context popup that says: "Well, a Critical Kill is when the damage that kills the enemy is a critical hit!" It's a stat that isn't easily displayed in the summary section.

 

But, I think it's still 'interesting,' in terms of a tradeoff. This weapon doesn't reward Crit Damage exclusively, so, a weapon with 1.0x Crit Damage still benefits from it! But, it doesn't benefit wasted crit, either. A red crit has provides no further advantage. After all, a crit kill is a crit kill, just because you crit 'twice' in one shot doesn't double the chances further.

 

Serendipity: +5% Item Rarity on a Red Critical Kill

 

Well, this is the obvious continuation of such a sequence, right? "Red Critical Kill" lacks a certain intrigue, however, but still conveys the proper requirement. If there was a specialty term for a double Crit, then, that could be used instead. "Critical" -> "Vital" or "Dire"? But, what about the future? Triple Crits? Quadruple Crits? How could these be explained? But, I digress...

 

Laced Shot: -25% Status Chance, -25% Critical Chance, Switch Critical Chance and Status Chance.

 

The description, again, is a little vague. But, the function makes it a utility mod. High Status weapons can become High Crit weapons, and vice-versa.

 

And consider the following weapon, assembled of completely arbitrary and OP mod cards I created:

 

Bullet Storm: +25% Fire Rate, +25% Multishot, -50% Spread

Iron Hail: +25% Fire Rate, +25% Multishot, -50% Recoil

Frozen Rounds: +25% Damage as Cold

Chilled: 25% of Damage converted to Cold

Aptitude: 150% Increased Status Chance, 50% Critical Chance

Subzero Magazine: Doubles Cold Status Effect Weight

Potency: 200% Increased Status Effect Duration, 50% Critical Chance

Absolute Zero: 25% Chance to apply Frozen to Cold afflicted Enemies

Shatter: +100% Critical Strike Chance on Frozen Enemies

Cataclysm: Critically slain Enemies afflicted with Tier 2 Status Effects have a 25% chance to apply them to nearby Enemies.

 

Now, there's a clear motif here! Cold damage. Lots of it, as well as the introduction of a silly concept for 'Tier 2 Status Effects,' namely, 'Frozen.' While such a suggestion would fall more under a Damage 2.0 rework, I did it to show that there is still potential to expand upon things.

 

But how are all of these not direct upgrades? W-well.. It's... hard to explain? I can argue Frozen Rounds isn't too much of an upgrade as they apply cold damage. If, in my mind, Cold can't be applied to an enemy that is burning, then that is a dubious upgrade if another player has a Flamethrower. Or, some enemies are weak to Cold, some are strong against it. It increases your damage, yes, but not against all types.

 

Chilled and Subzero Magazine are both 'good' because they don't increase the damage, just make Cold procs much more likely, which is/isn't a good thing, depending on the situation. Yes, they're upgrades, but there are tradeoffs.

 

Aptitude and Potency are both blatant upgrades for this build, as, down the line, we get access to a +100% Critical Chance mod, given a few requirements. But, they're part of the cost of this entire build. We could get away with not including the Duration mod, but, it helps keep enemies afflicted for Cataclysm and Shatter. Since we're directly increasing Critical Chance with Shatter, Gorged Wound could work just as well, too.

 

Absolute Zero is an upgrade as well, but, it takes up a mod slot, and energy. It doesn't DIRECTLY increase damage, but it brings something new to the table. It's a good mod, if you're doing a lot of Cold damage/effects.

 

Shatter is just a GREAT upgrade as well, like, amazingly so, but... You can't Freeze an enemy without Absolute Zero and large amounts of Status Effect + Cold. I understand it's not as direct of a downside, but the fact it's down a chain makes it 'expensive,' so it can't be used unless the prerequisites are met.

 

Cataclysm is amazing. But, it's just a demonstration of what potential there is if synergies were considered. Cataclysm exists as a final stage for a Tier 2 status effect and crit weapon/build. In this case? The cold + frozen + AoE effects? A great survival weapon that transcends +Damage +Fire Rate +Multishot. (Okay, okay, I included two Fire Rate/Multishot mods, but those both have harsh negatives, causing the player to be controlling a wild cold-based machine gun.)

 

But... that's 10 mod slots... Yes, I know... I can dream, can't I?

 

3.) Expansion on variable Weapons

Now, now, don't cry, I didn't forget about Catalysts. They could exist, as they are, but I think their use could be brought back to better fit with Forma.

 

Catalysts 'overcharge' Mod Slots

Just as a player can Forma each slot, players will now be able to Catalyst each slot. This will boost the equipped mod, in that slot, with an additional mod 'level'. After maxing out the level, a player has the choice to either Forma or Catalyst a slot.

 

Reactors 'boost' Energy
Make Reactors general and have them provide a ... +2? permanent Energy per use, used in the same way, at max level. I don't know how exactly I'd implement a limit on this. I think the best way would be 'per number of Mod Slots there are.'

 

I mean, come on, Catalyst -> Overclocking and Reactor -> Energy? The names are already there!

 

The good thing about the previous two is that they exist for players. After a full weapon reset, they're rewarded their Catalysts and Reactors to do with as they see fit! Of course, they'll be rarer than Forma, for now, but if you were to stuff them in both Blueprint and Finished form into missions, it'd give an additional alternative to Credits and Keys and Mods. I'd make them just as rare as Forma, but make the 'Forma' tier a bit more common to push the lesser desirable out.

 

But what about the amount of Mod Slots?

This... one is tough... I have a hard time validating this, as, it presents the opportunity to run away from itself. Given a low Energy, low Mod Slot count item, and being able to... just improve it? Endlessly? It's... a tough call! As the weapon already is powerful enough to elicit such low values, another mod slot could prove too powerful.

 

My first intuition was to make a 4th item that could be applied in a similar way to the previous three, but... If it was rare, and sold in the market, people would complain about P2W, as, a player would be free to buy any amount of slots and Energy upgrade them all he wanted to stick EVERY single mod he wanted, just because he paid for and had the boosters to level it easily.

 

My second thought was to make it so a fully buffed 'slot' could be 'split' into two, by removing all the buffs. This puts it behind a suitable grind wall for the average player for the 'endless power,' but... It's still P2W, slightly. You're milking the player for a Forma, Catalyst and Reactor, but they still have access to ENDLESS POWER.

 

Finally, I think I'm settling on an idea of upgrading, based on the amount of slots there already are. If a player has modded their weapon a number of times equal to the number of current slots, the player can remove those buffs for an additional slot.

 

The only problem is that an additional Mod Slot is easier to acquire for a weapon that has fewer Mod Slots, which, means, it's benefit more from another Mod Slot, which means that the balance of giving it less Mod Slots is not as severe...

 

It's a hard one to wrestle with, but, I think, in the end, it'd be best to simply 'lock' Mod Slots per weapon.

[DSpite]

You seem to be wanting to turn WF into a first person version of Diablo.

 

This is a game about shooting stuff, so we need more interesting mobs to shoot at, not balances to our capabilities in order to make the existing mobs survive 1 more second then they do now.

 

I actually want reasons to have a need to equip recoil reducing mods or fire resistance or ice resistance or knock down resistance etc etc. All mods are viable under the right conditions, right now it's simply that the current mobs respond best to straight forward DPS then to flanking maneuvers or distance sniping or using Radiation Procs to make them attack their own. Why try and rely on Radiation procs when simply killing them is more efficient?

 

If on a new tileset you needed to equip a special mod in the Aura slot because you had to go onto the outside hull of a spaceship, be exposed to vaccum, and have to contend with low gravity, weapon recoil pushing you all over the place and spinning you around, then recoil reduction mods, energy weapons, Maglev and Warm Coat mods would be the new metagame.

 

Straight corridors, mobs running straight at you and Heavy Gunners that basically sit in one spot and have high damage mitigation? You just bring DPS.