Dragon Skeleton Key - A Vault Key For Solo Players

[BrazilianJoe]

So, there are players who might want to play Solo. It's a valid player base. 

 

But Orokin Vaults are very ill-fit for this playstyle. Soloing is a valid approach to Warframe, but soloers are being shafted on Vaults, with a 25% chance only of being able to open a vault. 

 

Enter the Dragon Skeleton key. A single key to open any vault door.

 

Build Requirements: 

 

One dragon key of each type

5 golem nav thingies

1 Orokin Cell

25k credits

1 hour build time

 

So, to build a single of these, the player must get 4 dragon keys, so its cost requirements are already 4 times as much as a normal key. To make it a little bit more expensive, factor in the orokin cell and golem navs. It's one thing to farm items, but anotehr entirely to try on a mission and just not open the vault because you have the wrong key.

 

 

Dragon Skeleton Key penalties: 

Half health/shields/regen/damage/status chance/crit chance

Double energy cost on casting.

 

No speed penalty. It's a key supposed to be a key most useful to soloers. It has greater cost than the other keys combined, so there's already a time sink there. The hobbled key is one of the most irritating keys, so it's best if avoided, because players are supposed to have FUN. So the player will still be able to prance around, with a paper warframe and a rubber band weapon. 

 

Double energy cost gimps better than halfing the energy pool, because energy spheres/recharge would only be half-effective.

Edited August 6, 2014 by BrazilianJoe

[PeanutMonster]

Warframe is a co-op game, understand it.

Edited August 6, 2014 by PeanutMonster

[Mongeri]

I think if you took the Orokin Cell out, it'd be more or less perfect. 

[immolator1001]

I like it, but how about you have 1 affect at a time that switches at random?

 

Warframe is a co-op game, understand it.

Really? Weird cuz there is this solo option....

[Sunfaiz]

+1

[sambarpowder]

I'd totally use that. +1

[OriVerda]

Why not have it use all four regular keys as its recipe?

[(PSN)KestralSylver]

I like it, but how about you have 1 affect at a time that switches at random?

 

Really? Weird cuz there is this solo option....

The game's default setting is coop. Almost every aspect of the game is geared for coop. There are certain things (such as Orokin Vaults for example) that are clearly meant for coop. The game is coop pve with a solo and pvp option, not the inverse.

 

This is a perfect example of expecting the developer to cater towards the needs of a specific playstyle that isn't the primary focus of the game right now.

 

It's not that I don't like the idea, I actually think it's pretty good (save for the golem nav coords, that doesn't make much sense to me). And I respect solo players because that's something I simply could never get interested in since I build my Warframes to be glass cannons. 

 

EDIT: For clarification purposes.

Edited August 6, 2014 by (PS4)KestralSylver

[(PSN)KestralSylver]

Why not have it use all four regular keys as its recipe?

Bingo, that sounds perfect to me. And it can't be equipped in coop sessions, only solo.

[immolator1001]

The game's default setting is coop. Almost every aspect of the game is geared for coop. There are certain things (such as Orokin Vaults for example) that are clearly meant for coop. The game is coop with a solo option, not the inverse.

 

This is a perfect example of expecting the developer to cater towards the needs of a specific playstyle that isn't the primary focus of the game.

 

It's not that I don't like the idea, I actually think it's pretty good (save for the golem nav coords, that doesn't make much sense to me). And I respect solo players because that's something I simply could never get interested in since I build my Warframes to be glass cannons. 

 

*Cough* PVP

[(PSN)KestralSylver]

*Cough* PVP

Which didn't even exist until relatively recently.

[Meenmu]

Which didn't even exist until relatively recently.

I think the point he was making was that the existence of pvp give precedence to " the developer [catering] towards the needs of a specific playstyle that isn't the primary focus of the game."

The fact that it only happened recently doesn't really have anything to do with the fact that it does exist.

 

That said, in this particular case I don't think a universal dragon key is necessary. The recruiting channel usually has vault runs going now and again, and if for some reason multiplayer is impossible for you there is always the option of aborting the mission and keeping the derelict key if the door doesn't match the key you brought. (I think?)

[armedpoop]

Or, why not solo everything except for something thats not meant to be soloed? I mean the whole idea of it being 4 possible keys, and you can play 4 player coop? 

 

Not to say this is a bad idea or anything. But what if somebody takes this into a coop vault run? Would be OP lol just have the other 3 kill errythang and all challenge is broken in vault runs.

[armedpoop]

The game's default setting is coop. Almost every aspect of the game is geared for coop. There are certain things (such as Orokin Vaults for example) that are clearly meant for coop. The game is coop pve with a solo and pvp option, not the inverse.

 

This is a perfect example of expecting the developer to cater towards the needs of a specific playstyle that isn't the primary focus of the game.

Pretty much this.

[(PSN)KestralSylver]

I think the point he was making was that the existence of pvp give precedence to " the developer [catering] towards the needs of a specific playstyle that isn't the primary focus of the game."

The fact that it only happened recently doesn't really have anything to do with the fact that it does exist.

 

That said, in this particular case I don't think a universal dragon key is necessary. The recruiting channel usually has vault runs going now and again, and if for some reason multiplayer is impossible for you there is always the option of aborting the mission and keeping the derelict key if the door doesn't match the key you brought. (I think?)

I feel like he also missed my point, all that was said in my post was not to negate the validity of pvp and solo play, it was simply to say that the MAIN focus RIGHT NOW is coop pve. Also it irked me that he was trying to dispute that because of the inclusion of a solo and pvp option, it's clear that as of now those are secondary. They're working on balancing the infrastructure for their other game modes and that takes quite a bit of time, diverting their attention from that process isn't necessary right now (assuming they ARE working on those aspects as much as they claim). Granted the addition of a dragon key that guarantees an open vault is a step in the right direction.

[(PSN)KestralSylver]

-snip-

Aborting the mission removes the key from your inventory as far as I'm aware.

[(PSN)KestralSylver]

Or, why not solo everything except for something thats not meant to be soloed? I mean the whole idea of it being 4 possible keys, and you can play 4 player coop? 

 

4 possible keys... 4 player squads...

 

It's weird how stuff lines up like that, isn't it?

 

/conspiracy

[BrotherIcarus]

The game's default setting is coop. Almost every aspect of the game is geared for coop. There are certain things (such as Orokin Vaults for example) that are clearly meant for coop. The game is coop pve with a solo and pvp option, not the inverse.

 

This is a perfect example of expecting the developer to cater towards the needs of a specific playstyle that isn't the primary focus of the game right now.

 

It's not that I don't like the idea, I actually think it's pretty good (save for the golem nav coords, that doesn't make much sense to me). And I respect solo players because that's something I simply could never get interested in since I build my Warframes to be glass cannons. 

 

EDIT: For clarification purposes.

I wonder why DE have stated multiple times that they want to support/cater to solo play as well as Coop.

[Endrance]

I'm a solo player, getting the right key to the right vault is lame, 75% chance of failiure. Yet, i can deal with it. How?

 

DE added a "chat" system to the game. Cluncky, but still there, and you can use it to spam "Anyone wanna do some vault runs?" Thank god for communication.

[Spikey844]

For those saying that this is meant to be a co op game, whilst I do agree with you, what about those who have trouble playing co op due to Strict NAT? Why should they be shafted for something that isn't their fault?

[sneakatone]

orokin cell, ''yea right'' 

[Aramanth]

There's a video of someone soloing Lephantis in 5 minutes.  Lephantis, the "raid boss".  It's clear the "co-op" thing is just one of four options, right next to solo.

 

Other than tweaking the materials used and the negative effects having it in your inventory, I approve of this.  I hate teaming up with other people because I always seem to be in the party with the elitist jerks who look down on me for using Rhino Prime while they spin dash everywhere as Loki Prime wielding Orthos Prime.  Even if I get lucky and my clanmates want to party with me, my latency is apparently so bad it takes 2 seconds for my angstrum's to hit a target.  I'd rather go it alone.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Aramanth

[(PSN)KestralSylver]

I wonder why DE have stated multiple times that they want to support/cater to solo play as well as Coop.

Want to being the operative words. As of now they really aren't, I'm sure they're working on it but the argument that there is an option to do pvp and solo missions doesn't negate the fact that the game's main draw is for coop pve right now.

 

In all seriousness, it's like nobody bothers to read the parts of my posts that really matter.

 

PS I made multiple posts after that for further clarification, don't use the original as a means to undermine my overall point.

[kanzu]

Would be nice +1

[BrazilianJoe]

Please don't obsess over the exact recipe or penalties on the skeleton key, it is just a ballpark idea. 

 

Even if the formual 'only' costs 4 dragon keys (take out the orokin cell), it's already 4 times as expensive as a single dragon key. 

 

People quote only a bit of what I have said and argue on it out of context, which isn't helpful to the development of the idea.

 

In Warframe, PvE > Solo > PvP, historically and currently.

 

The game is primarily PvE, but it can be played Solo as well, and DE makes some effort to scale the game difficulty with the number of players. It's already there. 

 

PvP is a recent addition and is not the *main* point of the game, it is just one of the possible things, and comparatively restricted to very few levels and game modes. 

 

Solo is in the game for much longer, and also closer to the core of the game. What I am proposing is something relatively simple to implement - a dragon skeleton key which can open any vault door - to make one mission type of the game more accessible to solo players. 

 

 

Sure people can look for teams, joing a clan etc. But that's not the point. Some people just don't *want* to go through this for whatever reason which is just not relevant. Solo play *is* in the game, but vault runs impose a heavy penalty to soloers.

 

This is just  rough draft of a solution meant to make the game more accessible and enjoyable by more people.