July 11Th: Community Hot Topics!

[JackBeloved]

Do you think cosmetic items should modify stats?

 

I think it would make sense for armor to add a modest amount of, well, armor. Maybe not so much that it's a pay-to-win necessity, but perhaps enough to make a noticeable (but not challenge-breaking) difference to survivability. I appreciate that this is an extremely difficult mathematical balancing act, and that players with widely varying play styles will be affected differently by the same number of bonus armor points: for example, a tanking rhino player may not be as impressed with a modest armor buff as a back-lines caster or stealth player.

 

However, I think that it's a worthy and noble undertaking, and that perhaps one could say that, sure, a tanking rhino might not need any armor buffs, but even a slight bonus could really help some embers or lokis, and therefore there's a niche for it. Or perhaps one might say that the buff could be reactive instead of a hard-set base number. Instead of "adding X armor points," which will eventually become meaningless at some level, perhaps they could "mitigate 3% damage" or 5% or 4.284% or whatever the right balance is.

 

As far as helmets affecting seemingly random and arbitrary stats- yeah, some are nice and others aren't. That's the nature of "seemingly random and arbitrary." I like the trade-off concept, so cudos on that. But perhaps the stats should be a little more related to the item in question? Armor that grants armor bonuses, helmets that provide some sort of visual buff (i dont know- radar? passive x-ray vision? even wider field of view? stuff like that?), weapon skins that effect some aspect of the weapon's performance (like how the Brock skin granted more damage for less speed- wait, that was a thing, right?), etc.

 

And then, of course, some things just shouldn't give stats. Like scarves. Unless they keep the cold from draining the shields around your neck. No, that's stupid. Just, no stats on scarves. Please. They can just be pretty.

 

I think that with some serious thought, such "common-sense" stat-altering cosmetic items could allow for players to fine-tune and fully customize builds to thier unique play style, without breaking the difficulty or becomeing a necessity. I think that "fine-tuning and fully customizing unique play styles" should be the ultimate and only goal of stats on cosmetics, and any decisions about stats on cosmetics should be in well-thought-out in service of this concept.

Edited July 12, 2014 by JackBeloved

[castem]

Love the new format!  I look forward to seeing future Hot Topics with this level of involvement and detail.

 

Nicely done.

[LukeAura]

Do I think Cosmetic should modify stats, 
While I liked the idea of Stat helmets there wasn't enough flexibility in their bonus allotments that allowed the cosmetic portion to be the main attraction. If we could use any cosmetic obtained bonus with any cosmetic piece that would work better. Also It'd probably be smart to keep the bonuses small, 10% positive or negative at most. It'd also be an idea to consider what they should benefit/harm. Should they improve frame strengths and make weaknesses more apparent, or the opposite? Maybe they should take two unspectacular aspects and turn one in to a strength and one in to a weakness. I'm not saying every cosmetic bonus could or should follow the same principle, but if we're covering weakness for one frame, then every frame should have access to a cosmetic bonus that covers a weakness.

Oberon, King of the What Exactly?
I voted Hallowed Ground because it does the least out of all his skills, but am a huge fan of its concept and potential. Although Smite was definitely a contender. HG is entirely reliant on enemies staying in its DoT area, but most enemies run out of it as soon as they start taking a tick of damage or two, and nothing Oberon has is reliant enough to hold them in or make that zone valuable. While Smite can deal decent damage to a single target, and possibly hit enemies if they are close enough or in a tight enough space. It is a little too random and slow for its general use 1 skill role, but it generally nets a better result. 

Handspring
Truthfully, any handspring mechanic implemented in to the game doesn't even have to significantly improve the time between when we can move again, it probably should, but it wouldn't have to in order to be a positive change. Giving a 'roll when on the ground' to get up effect would give one important benefit. It would cut the time we spend out of control in half. It would make the game feel much more fluid even if it didn't change the speed of recovery at all.  

And this new community hot topics is shaping up pretty well! I'm liking it. 
 

[Rhekinos]

Nice new format but I suggest removing the white borders on the screenshots. It hurts my eyes when a sudden white glare shows up in a mostly-dark background.

 

Does this mean that suggestions to topics will now only be discussed in the specified threads and that devs will be reading them? I put a few suggestions into the topics mentioned but I feel a lack of attention there D:

[(PSN)Daddy_Sausages]

Which Oberon Ability needs the most work?

All of them really.

The fact that he is a paladin and his element is radiation just hits a wrong spot with me.

You could make a Warframe way better to suit the needs of a radiation elemental.

His skills are pretty much useless, Smite is far from a reliable source of damage. Hallowed ground either needs a larger radius, like a giant square around him, or a debuff to slow enemies. Renewal, has it's uses, but is far too inefficient to be of any use outside of solo. I would suggest a second use for it, that it would reset the timer on downed allies or something to give the slow travel some actual worth. Reckoning is a tad underwhelming, still don't understand where radiation comes into play, but it isn't useless.

Other than that, fantastic work with literally everything else. 

 

My favorite part of this company is that the community can help with decision making, and that is something every game like this should have.

[Zubaz]

People want fewer number of mods and lessen influence.

 

Most of the Systemic Overhaul threads picked either quadruple the number of mods or make the flawed slot/power system even worse.

 

Mod system being the only way to improve players and pitting them against enemies improving with multipliers is not working, deal with it.

Edited July 12, 2014 by Zubaz

[VegetableBasket]

Can't believe there are people who don't think the game is too easy, like, what? What are you guys not steamrolling?

 

New format is nice, though.

Edited July 12, 2014 by VegetableBasket

[DiabolusUrsus]

Well... finally getting around to explaining my decisions:

Cosmetics: No stats. Pretty much the same explanation other people have given.

 

Oberon Top Priority: Hallowed Ground. Sure, the other skills need work, but I'll still feel to compelled to use them. Hallowed Ground is just borderline useless. I'd say a complete overhaul is in order - Something more interesting than DoT to enemies, perhaps status resistance/immunity to allies, etc. Visual changes in that if it's going to remain righteous fire according to canon, it should looks more like a field of flames and less like a holographic shag carpet. Just saying. 

 

Challenge Level: Some are too easy, some are too hard. I really wish there was an "Other: Explain" option here, because it's not the too easy/too hard that are the biggest aspects of the problem. It is the absolute bi-polarism of the challenge that is the problem. It is always extremely easy (When you have at least one piece of maxed and optimized gear) or insanely difficult (whenever you don't.) Warframe never strikes that delicate balance of challenging but fair. I disagree with most people and their praises of the Suspicious Shipments alerts. Those missions were fun, yes, because of the slight air of mystery and the adrenaline-inducing damage output of enemies, but they did nothing more than encourage people to spam AOE damage/CC skills continuously to succeed. Both players and enemies need to be balanced for challenges to be a) possible and b) fun. 

 

Handspring Mechanic: YES. It's a staple of action combat for a reason. The games that don't give you a handspring mechanic at least give you a few seconds of invulnerability as you get up. 

 

Parkour: Needs a complete overhaul. I say this because while it may or may not need to be completely redone from scratch, it needs enough changes to constitute a "2.0" title. Wall attacks need to be useful, parkour needs to be less limited in scope, and should provide slight defensive bonuses (e.g. lowered enemy accuracy when targeted.) Transitions between surfaces need to be smoother. 

 

Good job on the new format.

[Dreykan]

Fantastic work with the new format! Although i'd like to see a button to hide the poll once completed. It could help with scrolling on an already long thread. 

 

Also: 500th post! yay!

 

Edited July 12, 2014 by Dreykan

[Ganpot]

Some of the above polls are dangerous, because the way they are set up allows for easy miscommunication between voters (fans) and the dev team. 

 

1. We are being told to vote on whether cosmetics should effect stats, without knowing whether these alterations will be balanced (some of the early alt-helm bonuses were legitimate trade-offs) and whether those stat changes will be optional (preferably these stat changes should be able to be mixed and matched with any currently owned cosmetic, so that a player can use the stats from alt-helm #1 while actually wearing alt-helm #2).  I want at least some cosmetics to have stats, but I also want those stats to be balanced and customizable.  If that won't be the case, then not having stats would be preferable. 

 

2. When you ask which of Oberon's abilities need to be changed, are you asking from a technical or design aspect?  Regardless of that answer, none of Oberon's abilities fit together as a cohesive whole or work well individually.  It doesn't matter what ability people choose as most lacking, because they all are.  Almost every warframe currently has a purpose, a role.  Oberon has no role.  The first thing the design team needs to do is figure out what Oberon is supposed to be doing (and don't you dare say jack of all trades; that's a lazy cop-out).  Not to mention that a heal-over-time ability just fundamentally cannot work well with the enemy scaling system. 

 

3. This question misses the point entirely.  Enemies in warframe aren't challenging at any level; they are just brainless bullet-sponges who deal absurd damage at high levels.  Stats are almost the sole determining factor of victory, and because of that, players will always perceive the game to be too hard and too easy simultaneously.  Enemy scaling and player damage both need to be gutted, at the very least. 

 

4. Will the handspring mechanic be active or passive?  Will it have a cooldown timer (please no...)?  The answers to those questions will determine how successful the mechanic is. 

 

5. It is unclear what the difference is between some of these options.  Where is the line between major and minor overhauls?  Is allowing free-form momentum considered a complete overhaul or merely a serious change? 

 

6. I appreciate the new polls and attempts to gather feedback, but the polls need to be more comprehensive and in-depth in order to actually be useful.  It might be better to focus on one issue at a time, and make sure that singular issue is thoroughly explored. 

[ArkHunter]

Cool.  Really love the new format and everything!

[Deidaku]

Well pakour needs a lot of change. an overhaul would  mean altering the tilesets as well and that could be very time and energy consuming

[Chupacabra]

Warframes Challenge level

There's a lot to this one and I'd say it should be expanded

 

I'd say progression has a lot to do with the challenge level, especially considering that true progression in this game is only achieved by acquiring the right drops. of which is a system far to reliant on RNG (and I'd argue that adding worse tiers of mods is NOT the solution at all). 

 

Running missions against enemies that present no real change in gameplay isn't fun, it's monotonous, and when the player realizes that the most rewarding play-style is playing as efficiently as possible, i.e. rushing, it really warps the game imo.

 

As far as enemies are concerned any challenge in Warframe can be attributed to either scaling/false difficulty or invulnerability phases. We never really "learn" enemies we just get into a rhythm and slaughter. Prosecutors are a good example of the wrong direction imo. Eximus have potential, but atm they're mostly just cheap cc/damage/disruption. Notionphills thread on "We need better dumb enemies" https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/238581-forget-better-ai-we-need-better-dumb-enemies/ is great, and to paraphrase him on another thread that really spoke volumes to the issue:

 

"We want to solve more problems outside the arsenal"

 

 

If I could telegraph a single sentence to the dev-team it'd be that^

Edited July 12, 2014 by Chupacabra

[Shifted]

The polls are awesome, but you need to add more exposure for the hot topics. Announce them on Facebook, Twitter and everywhere else. If the community is meant to vote on the future of Warframe let them know they CAN!

 

PS.

U15: Movement / Parkour 2.0

DO EEEEEEEET

[Metalarcher]

First off, I want to say thanks for the hard work you guys (mostly [DE]Drew, I would assume, thanks man) put in to make this new format for Community Hot Topics.  There are, perhaps, still some overlooked topics (as there will always be, no community staff member can be omniscient!), and I would prefer if the topics at the end of the original post got similar treatment to the other topics covered (i.e. handspring), but that very well might be the case in future Hot Topics, and if so I look forward to seeing more in-depth analysis of the core gameplay.

 

As for the topics at hand, I'll go over them in the sequence they were presented in.

 

Cosmetics on armor?  I would side with the overwhelming "no."  I want to be able to look like whatever looks best without fear of it not being min/maxed, or being weaker than the next guy who is restricted to a set armor/helm perm.  Basically I think we shouldn't have to choose between power and aesthetics.

 

Don't know about Oberon.  Don't have the guy yet.  (sorry goatman)

 

For me Warframe is too easy.  I don't think it's because I'm just this crazy-good vet player or that the enemies aren't able to take enough of my bullets without falling over, I think it's just that the mods I have are too strong.  Streamline, stretch, and intensify with energy siphon and I'm done.  Enemies cannot retaliate outside the range my ult has, and inside it they are constantly stunlocked or outright killed.  But bluntly, it's a very boring strategy to have to take.  There's that famous game theory that if you are given a button that kills everything better than anything else, you will always use that button.  That's what 4 is to me, and mods only strengthen that.  I think this may just be the biggest thing that Warframe needs to overhaul:  mods, weapon, and ability rebalancing.  And it goes beyond just changing numbers, I think the functionality of many mods and abilities (especially ultimates, though others are not exempt) needs to change dramatically for Warframe to be meaningfully challenging to the player.  And regarding this, I sincerely hope you guys aren't afraid to take risks to change the game dramatically, because I think that's what the game needs desperately.

 

Handspring mechanic?  It's just a good thing.  Getting knocked down removes player interaction, as it is now.  You just have to wait to get up.  With a handspring mechanic, you are simply given a different opportunity to interact.  Regarding stuns, many games do not allow for a counterplay other than "don't get stunned in the first place."  It would be nice to see a handspring mechanic in Warframe for just that reason.

 

And lastly, parkouring seems to sticky as it is now.  It's definitely a really fun thing to do in Warframe, but the finer details of it seem lacking.  For example, it is too sticky.  Just wallrun up (or worse, to the side of) a cylindrical pole and see what I mean.  It just seems less flowy than it could, like you snap to the wall instead of seamlessly blending into the wallrun.  This would probably be a difficult problem to tackle, and I don't really have any propositions for solutions, but a little animatory ingenuity aside some programming prowess will probably do the trick.

 

I look forward to providing feedback in the next Hot Topics!  This really was an improved platform for meaningful discussion.

[VampirePirate]

In regards to handspring, I say grant us five extra mods that are exclusive for the utility mods (or "Band-Aid mods" as most would call them.)  This will allow us players to tweak things the way we see fit.  We can add fire resistances, electricity resistances, extra wall-running, handspring, or whatever to give us an edge in combat.  In my opinion, I think both players and devs will be satisfied with this.  Players will not have to sacrifice their specific warframe builds to make use of the 'extra' mods.  Devs will not have to make radical changes to the game about this mod situation.  This is only if handspring is to remain as a mod, otherwise it would make sense to make handspring as part of parkour somehow.  If possible.

[Chroia]

While I love the ability to give feedback, and I understand that polls are a way to 'at a glance' a lot of info... they require accurate phrasing to make clear the point they're getting at.

This can be an issue, and is my only gripe with the new Hot Topics format.

 

 

* Do you think cosmetic items should modify stats?

* What do you think of the new Community Hot Topics Format?

I can't believe that people have even suggested having stats on cosmetic items after everything that happened in regards to Arcane helmets. They're called cosmetics for a reason- they don't alter stats. You should spend Platinum (essentially real money) to look cooler, not to be more powerful than others. It's as if people WANT Warframe to become a pay-to-win game. On another note, thanks Drew for the new format, I like it a lot! The poll will be very useful for both the community and the devs.

What he said.

(Also, voted 'no'.  I don't mind having more tradeoff options like the Arcane Helmets offered, but

A) Most of the options offered by the stat-hats were either too good or too bad; some of the choices were 'no brainers'... which makes them actually not a real choice. (e.g. A.Vanguard, A.Vespa., and either Loki stat-hat (depending on build)) 

B) The stats shouldn't be tied to the cosmetics, because that's counter-productive. If the point it 'I want to buy/wear this hat because it's cool', I shouldn't have to counter-factor anything but price and opportunity cost (if I'm wearing this hat, I'm not wearing another hat).

Stats tied to cosmetics throws a completely unrelated consideration into the mix.

 

 

* Which Oberon abilities do you think need to be changed the most?

This really depends on what you want Oberon to do.

That said, I'd say his least useful/most situational skill is Smite, and voted as such.

Reckoning's fine, (by which I mean- more or less in line with other DD/CC ults)

Renewal's... okay. If you're in a coordinated group, so projectile travel time doesn't stillborn the skill.

(Consider Blessing. The complaint against it is that you can't react fast enough to damage.

Renewal's not only a HoT as opposed to a heal, it has projectile travel speed.

Good for topping up, but if you need it to save someone's life, that person's pretty much toast.)

Hallowed Ground is situationally useful against melee opponents/at choke points.

 

 

* What do you think of Warframe’s Challenge level?

What I was saying about accuracy of phrasing?

This is a good example.

There are way to many variables in such an open question.

What rank frame are you asking about?

Which weapons available, at what rank?

Which mods?

For that matter, which frame/mission matchup? e.g. Rhino in Capture vs Frost in Capture. For that matter, Capture in, say, Tower/Corpus vs Capture in (that %&*@$) Earth waterworks tile.

Does the question assume that you're semi-properly modded for whatever mission you're doing?

 

The long and the short of it is:

* Some challenges are too hard and some challenges are too easy.

 

because matching the challenge to the player's power isn't easy in such a system.

As exemplified by the Assassins.

 

Difficulty:

<snip>

The A problem with difficulty is that it's nearly impossible to match difficulty and loadout.

(This touches on why I *%@& HATE the assassins, but that's a different topic.

tl;dr - 1 game out of every X, bend over and kiss your @$$ goodbye.

They're a missmatch 95%+ of the time (in my experience with them). Rarely a challenge, usually a curbstomp battle.

Which side is doing the curbstomping depends on whether you were planning on their showing up (i.e. the battle isn't won on the field, but in the arsenal. Wow. Much challenge, very excite, etc.), and if not whether you or your teammates happen to have a maxed out gun (*Poof* Assassin shows up. *Ratatat* Assassin is dead before completing 'hi, I'm here now' animation), and that's pretty much it.

 

 

* Do you like the idea of a handspring mechanic when knocked down?

tl;dr - Either all knockdowns need clear warning, or there needs to be a player-controllable recovery mechanic.

SOMETHING that the player can control.

 

Let's start from the beginning.

Of the things a dev can do to the player, imo the most punishing thing you can do is remove the player's control.

With telegraphed attacks and such this is okay, since there's a clear 'you need to react to this', and if you fail it's clear what you did wrong.

-Tangent: This is my problem with, for instance, the Boltor beyond mid-range. There's no visible feedback, no 'ranging shots', so a player (Me. Not speaking for anyone else) can learn and compensate.

 

So, what can knock you down?

A grenade. - Which has no telltales at all unless you happen to notice the unit throw it. I'm not even sure they have an item graphic, as I've never noticed one sitting on the ground. They just explode.

A charging Charger/Leaper, etc. - They have a telegraph, they begin the attack at a specific distance from the player, and can be dodged once they start the charge. No SFX indicator, though.

A charging Ancient - No clear telegraph (sometimes a 'roar'-anim is just a roar), very variable trigger distance, follow the player as long as you're in front of them, and no SFX. Also, given the variable startup distance, are prone to charging you as you step through a door, having started the anim while you couldn't see them.

Grineer shield bash. Telegraph, melee range, specific trigger conditions.

Grineer Scorpion. Telegraph, long range, dodgeable/blockable, if you're fast.

Corpus Shockwave/Anti Moa. Telegraph, melee/long range, avoidable.

Grineer Hellion Macross Missile Madness. **** that attack.

 

Might've missed some. Just off the top of my head.

Most sources of KD can be nulled by the player, and make it clear what you did wrong.

2 (grenade/Ancient)... not so much.

"get moar gud". Yes. Concrete and helpful advice.

"Situational awareness". Correct in abstract. Hard to look around while trying to stay alive/kill these charging Infested, given that both aim and look are controlled the same way.

 

 

This does not serve Warframe (or any game, really) well.

 

 

So, bottom line: Those 2 need to stop being a 'screw you, player'. This can be achieved with either better (or any) telltales (and I still think a simple SFX would suffice in both cases: a unique 'pre-charge' Ancient roar, and a quickening beeping countdown), so the player can deal with them, or some player-controlled recovery mechanic (which only alleviates the problem, since you're still taking control from the player over something he has little control over).

 

 

 

 

* What do you think of movement (“parkouring”) in Warframe?

NOT SMOOTH ENOUGH.

I cannot emphasize this sufficiently.

 

Mastering a game's mechanics is a large part of why I play.

This starts from the 'simple' things, like movement.

The movement system is one of the first parts of the game your player experiences.

On top of that, nailing a jump/slide/etc., (or pulling off a perfect wallrun -> launch -> copter -> slide -> flip -> copter -> slide,) feels good.

And sadly, in my opinion/experience, anything beyond running/dashing in Warframe handles clunkily.

 

How many times have I wallclimbed instead of wallrunning?

How many times have I wallrun instead of wallclimbing?

How many times have I jumped in place, face against a wall, unable to start a wallclimb (a particular ceiling-fan tile), or stuck under a ledge I tried to jump though (again, that *%#(@ peace-sign fan)?

How many times have I airslammed instead of coptering (a second time)?

How many times have I jumped too close to a wall, and been sent flying (usually off a precipice)?

 

 

Smoothing Movement - YES PLEASE.

This should be part of my feedback post, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Here's the tl;dr version, though:

 

This account was created a few days before the survival weekend.

I played for maybe 2 hours and walked away with no intention of returning.

The only reason I did is that a pack of friends from another game migrated here.

 

WHY did I stop?

Inability to complete a "simple" 'Style kill' challenge.

One of the things that hooks me most about games is my ability to, for lack of a better phrase, master their movement systems.

That being the case, I found the cumbersomeness of movement in Warframe a dealbreaking turnoff.

 

At this juncture, I simply ignore it.

I wallrun->launch when I can (there are very few places where this is actually useful), but mostly I just sprint and copter.

No sliding, no wallrunning, no mantling (when I can avoid it by jumpkicking. It really breaks the movement flow, e.g. in a Grineer invasion, the windows after the flaming courtyard which always spawns; or that friggin' "peace-sign" fan to the plasma conduit to space in the Corpus invasion maps).

 

A suggestion: Press and hold jump for freerunning.

This means auto-mantling, auto-climbing (which doesn't always work on a certain tile. I'll have to remember to screenshot it at some point), ideally the ability to change from wall-climb to wall-run, etc.

 

All that said...

To answer the poll: I don't think Parkour/Movement needs changes so much as better support.

Smoother controls, and more... idk, parkour-enabling tiles.

e.g.:

 

You're dashing down a corridor.

There's a crate ahead!

Instinct says 'Wallrun!'... but the crate's at 45 degrees to the hall's direction, and would send you flying into the wall rather than through the door you're trying to get to.

^ Sooo often.

Or, alternatively, it's too close to the door, so you'll get stuck above it.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Chroia

[Loswaith]

Oberon:

While many think smite is weak, I personally dont agree as it fits with most of the other first powers for damage output.  Sure the pixel perfect targeting can be anoying, especially since you cant use it to target specific parts, but overall it fits the basic powers role.

 

Hallowed Ground is likely the weakest of the bunch.  As it currently is its just far too small an area to be worth while.  Expaning it alot can assist in that aspect.  Enhancing it would also go a long way, in that adding debuffs (defence/speed for example) to enemies and buffs (maybe flat damage reduction, stamina/health recovery, health/shield boosts or even slight speed increases could work) to allies within it.  Basically setting it up as an area to do battle with your enemies where oberon and his allies hold the upper hand.

 

Renewal (also in need of alot of work); Most damage is taken quickly in warframe so the regeneration while nice is wont keep you alive unless you are clever with it, however it doesnt apply if you are full health or if your health is maximum.  These are the real aspects crippling Renewal, even just simple fixes of it giving the regeneration for the entire duration (reguardless of health as you cant go above your max anyway) would go leagues to making the power that much more useful.  The current reactive nature of Renewal doesnt fit well with the time it takes to get to other players either (though would be fine if Renewal lasted the entire duration reguardless of the players current health at that time).  The recovery while active is nice but mostly useless given the speed characters can drop at from full health (again this would be much more useful if it lasted the duration reguardless of current health), and the lack of the effect taking place once already downed (if Renewal would revive if already downed that could also add more use to the power).

 

Reckoning: This isnt a bad power but even with the random health orb drop it is actually Oberon's best healing ability.  It kind of works, in that it has some damage and some CC for when the damage doesnt cut it any more.  Sure it could use some tweaking but for the most part isnt that bad a skill on the whole.

 

Warframes Challenge Level:

 This is a hard one to nail down because what one player find's fun, another can find too hard, tedious or easy. 

The range of fun challenges people like from games goes from succeeding only by not making a major mistake, and 1-2 minor ones (eg what dark souls is known for), to successs dispite a few mistakes that let you fall back and recover and learn from from them going forward, to able to succeed dispite many major mistakes, to no possibility of failure at all, provided you are actually playing the game (ie. not just standing around afk), and even then the same player can change from day to day as well on what kind of difficulity they want.

Part of the responsibility can be on the player to make it a 'fun' challenge for themselves too (an actual strenght of the mod system), some will run as much gear power as they can saying its too easy, others lower their own gear to make it a fun challenge for themselves as well (dispite self weakening themselves in the process), while other simply dont have the gear to make it easier on themselves to reach a fun level of challenge.

 

All in all not knowing where an individual is coming from when saying its too easy/hard can be part of the issue as well.  If someone likes super high challenge using the best possible gear they can and saying its too easy, can be as counter productive as someone who likes quite easy games running the weakest gear (be that all they have or not) saying it's to hard.

 

Handspring Mechanic:

 As a mod not so much as a skill factor, that can work for some.  Personally I think both can work if used to add a bit more personality to the individual frames (as I mentioned in this thread).  Currently Loki gets up as just fast as Rhino or Vauban, which feels slower than the players themselves can get up (the bigest factor).

This would give players a bit more options too in that you can use skill, a faster/more agile frame, or a mod if either options dont suit as well.

Also fixing knockdown to work as intended, IE. blast effects not knocking you down forward if they blast infront of you.

 

Parkor:

This could initially use just some polish, with expansion later on.  Parkor now can fail to do what you are trying to do.  Simply not running up a wall, or running up a wall you want to wall run across, or wall running across a wall your trying to run up, or even flinging you miles ahead when you only want a short jump and have low momentum.  Thses aspects really need to be worked on first then adding a bit more free form to it in future once the basics work flawlessly.

 

New hot topics:

This is a good new format but the answers for polls really ony give a vague idea of what the real issues are.  Not to mention it rally hits only a small section of the playerbase, so may result in skewed results, from what the game population would like to see.  Either way it cant hurt to have further info rather than going in blindly

Edited July 13, 2014 by Loswaith

[(PSN)Pengu_Imperialus]

I'll give this a shot.

Cosmetics: Should remain cosmetic. Most of the responses I've read arguing for stats on cosmetics is so they can min/max away any weakness a frame may have.

Oberon: Smite is a first slot power so I don't expect to hit hard but at least lose the person targeting thing.

Hallowed ground: can it at least slow enemies or something, anything?

Renewal: needs a duration and to be allowed to affect your allies even if they have full health when you use it

DIFFICULTY: Corrupt Vor as an example for what I see as the problem. Comes out slaps us around we are dodging shooting picking allies up and generally having a blast. Mind control him and we just gun him down. There should be somethings our powers don't work on, period. Loved the Suspicious Shipments because if you didn't work as a team or weren't careful you died pretty fast.

HAND SPRING: I don't find knock down a huge problem, and can't tell if it just doesn't bother me or if it's just general whining about a mechanic that leaves you vulnerable.

PARKOUR: I have a huge problem when going from wall to wall and it being entirely inconsistent on whether I cling to the wall, face plant on it, run up it instead of across and vice versa. If it's a single wall run its a blast but to combo is so ridiculously uncertain I don't bother trying most of the time.

[HitPointPredator]

Actual community focused. Much, much better.

 

Cosmetics

Should remain just that. Cosmetics. We finally got rid, almost at least, of the helmets with stats.

You at DE shouldn't repeat the error by making the new armor cosmetics have stats to them as well.

Remember though, if you make it so that the cosmetics in market have stats, and we cannot get them in any other way, the game officially turned Pay-2-Win.

 

Oberon

Outside my comfort zone. Not sure what to say.

Do feel like Hallowed Ground is the worst abilities out of his kit. Reckoning is just an improved version of Crush. Smite is unpredictable at its damage dealing capabilities. Renewal is.. awkward. 

 

Difficulty

Sometimes it is mindbogglingly easy and sometimes it is just insane. 

Survival missions are a nice example. Up to 25-30 minutes the game is easy, but somewhere there enemies start scaling something furious and it quickly get out of control.

 

Handspring Mechanic

Something that would allow players to actually have control in case of a knockdown? YES.

Should have been introduced as a core gameplay mechanic at the very beginning, instead of some band-aid mod. 

 

Parkour

The current sorry excuse for parkour is sticky, clumpy and awkward to use. It defiantly needs to be improved by LOTS.

Learn from Overgrowth, which is the example game used by Aure7's thread. Super smooth, fluid and amazing parkour.

Parkour has to be one of the main focus points for Warframe. It is supposed to be about NINJAS, remember? 

Edited July 13, 2014 by HitPointPredator

[VDeorsum]

The hot topics 2.0 is awersome! Good work guys =)

[(PSN)Zelgorath]

Cosmetics

Cosmetics shouldn't have stats, unless DE is planning on making cosmetic bps for all cosmetics available in alerts. So no, just no.

 

Oberon

Oberon is my favorite frame. I don't know why so many people have issues with him. Also, I play with so many Oberons, I would think he is everyone's favorite frame.

I can OHKO most MOA's with smite's radiation, and between intensify and blind rage, the number of orbs that fly out wreck havok with radiation procs.

Rejuvination works the way it should, it gives some heals to your party. Oberon is not meant to replace Trinity. With one heal move, the best he can do is aid her.

Holy ground is worthless oaffal. It only works (deals dmg) on idiot mobs that run up to you directly to melee (i.e., infested), and it only if you are bottlenecking a door and forcing them to walk on it. And the dps to energy ratio is just bad. I would make it an aura that buffed all offensive abilities of friendly units with radiation damage, and debuffed enemies to have less resistance to radiation (affected by range, power, and efficiency, but not duration: toggled). Friendly units shields could erupt in AoE radiation dmg when depleted (synergizes well with Mag's shield polarize).

Reckoning. Between having fleeting, overextended, stretch, intensify, and blind rage, I rail a large group of enemies and leave a load of health orbs behind (and don't need to spam rejuv ;-))

 

Difficulty

Difficulty balance has come a long way from when I first played the game. I went from having missions with infinite mobs spawning near extraction to guarantee my death (and force me to spend plat on revives :-s) to being able to solo the Suspicious Shipments alerts without difficulty (just lots of patience). There needs to be some more balancing, for sure. One way is to have partying in pickup matches done by mastery level as well at network connectivity. That way, a Mastery Rank 15 doesn't end up carrying a Rank 0 through a mission unless one of them invited the other.

 

Honestly, I have the Handspring Mod and have never ever seen tbe use of increasing it, let alone equipping it. The enemies that use knockdown as cc are well known. And with the exception of the anti-MOA's projectile, all have to be in melee range. I keep my distance and kill, or spin attack with a crit build dual ichors stacked with cicero and tethra mods with a radiation/viral combo and OHKO for 40k. I think DE needs to think of another way for enemies to cc besides knockdown or energy drain, though... 

Parkour/ Mobility

Needs some serious attention, like stealth.

 

Systemic Overhauls

I am really looking forward to the Liset. I think pet Kubrows cool looking but just plain bad conceptually (they won't be able to compete with Sentinels for the slot in terms of utility or dps). In they end, they are just another grind. Love the overhaul of Rescue 2.0. Wish the target had better AI, though. Love interceptions, that kind of innovation makes the game real fun to play. Wish there were multi-phasic quests like, a capture quest that turns into a mobile defense.

[Khunvyel]

Do you like the idea of a handspring mechanic when knocked down?

3. Maybe (post in this thread, or start a new thread, to explain your concerns).

 

I almost wanted to say "yes", having this an inherent core mechanic of the game, but there is more to it than just that.

 

If you integrate handspring as default "getting up" method, then what are you doing with the handspring mod? Make it another type of stamina mod which makes it become an additional rare mod which is utterly worthless? Or making it into something acrobatically powerful new thing which then people are going to demand AGAIN being a core mechanic? Like, for example, causing damage/staggering/knockdown applied to surrounding enemies upon getting up, etc.

 

My opinion for the best solution to this is the requirement to pair it with the movement/parkour overhaul which HOPEFULLY addresses the dodge mechanic as well.

 

Yes, I do want to have Tenno stand up a LOT faster by default, about as much as with the handspring mod, but I ALSO want to have an even faster skill based variant to this;

I'm thinking about the dodge function again. If you hit the dodge key (or tap sprint by default) during a certain time window after being knocked down, I imagine an animation where the Tenno stops the fall with the left hand and half-vaults into standing position again. The time window would be the moment you're starting to be in the knockdown animation until you're short of hitting the ground. If you're knocked down and fly through the air for a certain period of time, then pressing dodge in the time window makes you regain your balance by curling up to a ball and performing a half somersault so you're in upright position again and regain full control of your Warframe, so you can spin-attack or ground slam or slide down to the ground.

 

Now with that said, what would the Handspring mod do in this case? That remains tricky. I'd say make it like the Parry mod. There you have a chance to auto-counter. With the new handspring, you have a chance to auto-execute what would normally require the skill&time based dodge action described above. That way it also sticks true with the name of the mod, as this is basically a "hand-spring" movement.

 

So yes; getting up FASTER by default as a core mechanic but allowing even faster recovery through a skill based action, and have a mod allow to substitute for those who cannot or want not to execute it.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Khunvyel

[ROSING]

So right now the most important topic in this to me is handspring. The selling points are undeniable, more fluid gameplay, more emphasis on player skill, mod slots are much better served with more useful mods, etc.

People have been pushing for this thing since closed beta. Now that you see that there is an overwhelming majority in favor of making it a built in mechanic, are you reconsidering your stance on the issue?

[Implodingbanana]

parkour NEEDS a BIG change IMO 

 

 

oh and i like the new community hot topics! it makes things easier and the voting thing was an amazing and efficent idea