A Few Suggestions

[Huryiade]

Hello.

 

I've been playing warframe for a few days only (steam says 55hrs), but i've already encountered a few things that are not that bad, but still greatly annoying when ancountered repeatedly. First, keep in mind that i know it's only in beta stage, and that many things are on their way, or will be upgraded to something better (like the modding system), so i'm not whining but simply telling what i've found that could be changed to something better.Here's the list and suggestions on possible ways to change them :

 

1. The "X" button : in log in screen it makes the game close and that's fine. But once loged in, it's only function is to log us out. I can't stress enough how much games i've played (mmos included) where one could quit the game from the main menu. If i take GW2 as example, the menu actually has a 2 buttons "Log out" with submenu containing  "log off", "character selection" and "cancel" (which obiously isn't needed here), and a "Quit to desktop" button. And that is a menu appearing with the "esc" key. The game also has a "minimize", "maximize" and "quit" buttons as normal windows have, and the "quit" button make the game quit to desktop. I would like to see a better way of managing logging out and quitting the game instead of the actual way.

 

2. This i encountered when there was a patch : the launcher didn't see any updates, so i launched the game. Once i tried to log on, it said a new patch is available and had to reboot the game. This is probably a bad timing or a bug with the launcher, but it's not all : when i'm playing and there is a patch available, the game's continuing on as if everything was fine. Last time i had to find myself alone in a few online missions so i could begin to think it's weird and reboot the game and ONLY THEN see there was a patch available. It would be nice to receive messages in game when updates are available, same as the message in the login screen. (saw a "update available" message while being loged in when the patch 7.7.3 went live)

 

3. The right-click. I might be experiencing a bug, but i haven't seen any contextual menus in the game. So why? I mean it would facilitate many manipulations in game (of course, only outside the missions). For example, we have to go to the weapons screen, where we see the actual weapon we're using, and all the weapons available/owned to compare stats of weapons. A simple right click between 2 owned and selected weapons would bring a window showing their stats, so that we can decide which to keep or equip next.

 

4. The modding screens : not going to develop on this since many players have already complained about it, just making clear i think the same.

 

5. The solar system map in a squad : same as above.

 

6. The Begin Online button : it's nowhere. I already posted about this, but it's really annoying having to go trough dozen of disconnected messages till the game succeeds in connecting or there are no teams left so we can begin playing a map. Would be nice to have a button for that.

 

7. The Pages : i'm talking about pages when there are more items than what can be displayed on screen. Why not use sliders? You use them fine for the foundry, why not for everything else? It's more fluid and it's easier to use than pages. Especially when the buttons "last" and "first" aren't working (at least i've never seen them enabled even when i was browsing trough 10 pages of mods).

 

8. Trading : really important in a mmo. Instead of having to sell mods for 2-300 credits, we should be able to exchange them, or sell them to other players that need them more.

 

9. Stats comparing : it seems to work fine for weapons, but i can't see any stats when trying to compare warframes. In any case, there are many more stats than what's displayed, can we have a more detailed comparison? Like amor penetration or crit chance?

 

10. Buying requirements : i'm talking about the rank needed to be able to buy a weapon. We have to actually try and buy it to see the message that our rank isn't high enough. Why not display the required rank instead below the weapon where the price is for other weapons?

 

11. This is just an idea, but it might make navigation trough all the Warframe GUI easier : it seems the game has some kind of history of what windows were opened. For example, if i open the market window, then open the arsenal window, and go to mods window, clicking on the back button will bring me trough all those in reverse. At the moment we have to use the button or the key "esc" to go back, and it's not mappable. So why not make a "previous" (possibly "next") button and make it mappable on keyboard or mouse (i'd preferably use the 5th mouse button, same as when navigating on the web)

 

12. In mission notifications : same as for the modding, seen many people talking about it.

 

13. Minimap and map : while i see the use of the minimap, i don't see the use of having ONLY the minimap. I've checked hotkeys, and can't see any key showing the whole map of the mission. Would be nice displaying the whole map and deciding which path to take (yes, some maps have more than one path to the destination). Especially if we're trying to go stealthy.

 

14.  Minimap icons : i..i just think you used the same icons for most of the displays on the minimap : why do i see friendly targets (cryopod in defense maps for example) as red dots, same as ennemies? Also, i see gold/orange dots for all kind of things : breakable containers, important loot and others. Since it's always the same, i doubt it's a bug. Also, would be nice to have some kind of change on the icon depending if the object shown by an icon is on the same level, below or above. Once again i refer to GW2 : they use a down arrow for object below the player, and up arrow for objects above. I've been in a few situations where it showed me objects but i couldn't see them, even though on the minimap they were right in front of me.

  As of 7.8 it seems all minimap icons show their relative vertical position compared to the player's too.

15 Separating system map and other windows : as of now, we have to go back trough every window opened to get to the system map. Why not make it possible so that after a mission, we can go back to whatever we were doing by remembering what was opened and allowing us to switch fast between the 2.

Edit : I think an example will make things more clear as to what i mean by this switching windows. Let's say i'm in the modding window trying to upgrade my freezing melee mod called "North Wind" (name taken from warframe wiki, haven't looted this one yet). I've got one mod and a few common cores. the problem beside the cost of fusing using fusion cores is that north wind is an uncommon mod, so i won't be grtting far with the common rarity cores. I decide to go farm a bit with infestation missions (which seem to drop freezing mods). So i switch to the solar system and go do missions with pick ups. After a few missions, i got another north wind rank 0, and a few uncommon fusion cores. Then i switch back to modding from the solar system and find myself in the modding window ont the SAME page i was at, with SAME filters activated, and even the SAME mods selected (though i think this last one might be hard to do, depending on how the game works). And then with only a few more clicks i finish upgrading the mod and apply it to the weapon.

 

16. The mission launching countdown : simple, too short. In 5 seconds i don't have the time to validate the modding i've done to weapons/warframes. It makes any change between mission impossible (mission with random people). I usually have to leave the session so i can upgrade the mods of the newly leveled up weapon.

 

17. The last thing i wanted to talk about was talked about in other posts too : API for modding the UI. Although i got bored of Wow, i have yet to find a game with a UI so freely modded as the one in Wow. I'd really like to see an API for that.

 

18.  The daily rewards. I forgot about this until i saw the daily reward when i connected a few minutes ago. There were times when i was playing for several hours crossing over 2 days (begin late at night and end early in the morning). To get the daily reward of the next day i still have to reboot the game. Is it possible to make it so when it's a new day, we get a daily reward between missions and without having to reboot the game?

 

19. Sentinet and sentinel weapon's gained xp. Just discovered this too (because just got one) but i don't see my sentinel's xp gained after a mission, same for it's weapon. Would be nice to see what was gained.

 

20. Sentinel weapons. Since i got the sentinel, i thought i'll go and check available weapons for it, seeing how i can click on it's weapon the same was for my char. But there were no weapons available. Not sure if it's because it's only the beta, but it would be nice to introduce more sentinel weapons to tryout.

 

21. Affinity balls. The balls found in breakable containers giving affinity to the warframe, they're pretty much useless once the warframe hits the level cap. Why not make it so it gives affinity points to other equiped equipements that hasn't reached the level cap yet. Doesn't need to divide the points among all not maxed out equipement, just randomly selecting one for the whole level so it receives all affinity balls' points. That might sepeed up some of the leveling. For example i've leveld up my dual heat sword upgraded them and equiped them with good mods. Since then i rarely use my other weapons, since the can more or less slice trough everything (only problem being the poinsonous ancients on high level maps). Because of that, the leveling up of my rifle is going too slowly. On some missions the rifle doesn't get any xp at all.

 

Since i haven't played much, i might have to add thing later on, but at the moment that's all i can think of.

Edited April 23, 2013 by Huryiade

[CorpusCrewman]

Good suggestions. W/o comments.

[Pobunjenik]

Very thought through! +1

[Huryiade]

Ok, i've run into a few things while playing, so i'm adding the suggestions for those here.

 

22. Environmental effects : as far as i've come to experience, no ennemy is affected by environmental effects such as halved shields or being burned by burning debris. Maybe they are and i just haven't clearly seen it in action, but if not, i'd like to suggest that ennemies be affected by those. As for why, well it's simply because it's an "environmental effect", which means it affects everything and everyone, not only players. It makes no sense that only players get affected.

 

23. Production of multiple objects of same kind at same time : i was trying to make akbolto, and bought 2 bolto BPs, and then i saw i can't build 2 Boltos at same time. Seeing the time needed for each BP to complete, it would be helpful that objects of same kind could be built at same time.

 

24. Piecring mod : It says that bullets can pierce objects and being up to the depth indicated. Mine is fully maxed, so 0.6 meters. 60 centimeters and it can't pierce one slim window or thin wall...is it a bug? As far as piercing power goes, the one i've experienced in Mass Effect 3 with the Javelin or Black Widow describe best how i feel about it. If it says 0.6 meters, then whatever it is, it goes trough 0.6 meters of mater.

 

25. Droprates : aside from me thinking the droprates are bugged (made a post about it), i think it might be a nice idea to have modules/bonuses imroving droprates of specific objects/ types of objects. For example, a bonus for Neurodes droprate (players still have to break objects / open lockers / kill mobs). Or a bonus to getting elemental damage mods. All those bonuses are applicable for one mission, or a period of time. As for the cost...i think it's better making them buyable with both Platinum and Credits, the cost being moderate because of the fact that even with the improved chances of droprate, the player still might not get any object. there might also be different droprate improvement bonuses of same kind (kinda like the mods give) : +5%, +10% and so on till some limit, or one basic improvement accumulable infinitely, or till a certain %.

 

26. Pages : the pages system for viewing items/mods/whatever, would be nice to get rid of it and replace it with the scrolling system you use in the new modding menu. It's really tiring having to switch pages all the time, just to find a peculiar object.

 

27. Planet levels : i encoutered this when i got my Trinity warframe. Since it's new, i was looking for low level maps, and thought that it might be helpful if the minimum and maximum ennemy levels of each planet was displayed in the planet info, before clicking on it and going over the missions.

 

28. Exploration maps : this, i thought of this because many times in missions i wanted to just take my time exploring the maps and appreciating the view. So, why not make exploration mission, where the goal would take the players all over the map, instead of making them rush from one WP to another. Oh and adding tons of mobs would be nice, making it harder. At the moment the only kind of maps where there was seemingly high number of mobs was with corpus when i let a corpus crew member trigger the alarm...but even then with a fully upgraded Latron it's easy to kill them all till they actually get scared to come and attack me (they just stand out of my reach, which shows some kind of emotion in the AI, pretty nice if you ask me :) ).

 

29. Ping suveillance : many times i've begun a mission having a host with crappy connection, or crappy computer, or being on another continent (all those are cause of lag), and many times the host just disconnected. And among those times, sometimes the game couldn't move hosts, and i had the message "You'll be returned to multiplayer menu", losing all progress. Would be nice if the game could show the ping of other players in the team, so that we could chosee to stay or leave the team if the ping of the host was too high. Of course, it implies showing who the host is too.

 

30. Longer Defense maps : As of now, with a good team, i've gone up to wave 15, but i'm pretty sure it's possible to go to wave 20 or a bit beyond. As far as i'm concerned, i do defense mission to get mods, and i'm not talking about the break waves reward, but also the mods dropped by the ennemy. Is it possible to make the increase in difficulty (and increase in the quality of the reward) a bit slower? That way we can get more ennemies, and more chances to get mods. Or you can make it so we can chose if the increase will be slow or fast, depending on how much time the team wants to spend on the mission. I'm saying this because it's really tiring having to stop after a  dozen minutes because we reached the limit and have to restart the mission. What i'm trying to say is that, all of the maps are made so that they can be accomplished fast, but defense is the only one so far that is not. And as such i think it should require more time to finish, even for normal teams, and not only overstuffed teams.

 

Well, this is what i have for now. Will add more if and when i find more suggestions.

[Huryiade]

So, i got a few more suggestions after experiencing the new clan and dojo interfaces :

 

31. Same as private, we need a clan only sessions, that clan members can join, and another where friends AND clan members can join, or put a togglable option to choose which can join private sessions. It's annoying having to "friend" every clan member so they can join out non online sessions.

32. Invite only seems to work with friends only too, should work with everyone, even strangers. Otherwise it's a simple private with more restictions, which is good, but inviting anyone is better.

33. Your dojo modules information is vague (i suppose it's because of the alpha). From what i understood from reading it, we need to have an oracle room, which is then converted to a lab, but some other people say the lab is a separate room. And if i'm right, what becomes of space and power cost? Should be more specific.

34. You say keys to void space missions can be bought (understood), gotten from daily (understood) or looted (where? how? when?). Since someone got a key in a defense missions, everyone is running defense all the time (except players trying to level up their new gear). Might be a problem later on.

35. This is just me throwing a wild idea, but i think it might be nice to see this in game : a map selection parametrable randomiser. What i'm talking about, is a tool, that has options such as minimum/maximum ennemy level, composants wanted to get, prefered faction and other options. Once the options are selected by the host, the tool selects all maps that enter the options criteria, and selects a random map from those. exit the trouble selecting maps without being able to go to solar system screen, or having to wait for everyone to select the map (or the countdown).

36. Another thing that should be added is the begin button. Many times a player isn't on the same planet screen, and the group has to wait for the countdown to begin, would be nice that when only one map is selected (unanimous vote for that specific map when clan/friends run), it shows everyone else a button allowing them to say they are ready, instead of them needing to select the same map.

 

That's all for this time.