Observations From A Veteran Player.

[SlightVect]

Like many who found Warframe when it was a young game, I found it through a few youtubers, liked the style of gameplay it had (Run and gun mixed with parkour along with a dash of skill) and quickly found myself signing up to be "a Space Ninja". (Late U7 and Early U8, represent. ) 

 

I was addicted, hell, still am. But as I grew to understand the game more with every patch, adapted to every change and began paying attention to the smallest change when it came to the AI. I began to realize something "DE may love their game, their playerbase, their fans and their job..But do they love every aspect of the game?"

By that, I simply mean "Do they not see how rapidly this game went from bright eyed and healthy to dull eyed and sick?" 

What do you mean by that?

 

Simply put, there are several core mechanics wrong with the game.

 

Elementals: In the olden days, these were utility that acted like Bane of mods. They were good against certain factions and gave the player the ability to experiment with a build on a weapon. As it stands now, you're forced to conform to having up three to four  Elementals to combat how broken enemy scaling is and have no room for utility mods. Something not healthy for a game revolving around PVE and gun based combat. A look at the original Borderlands will show how it was done. Realize how they still allowed you to use a regular gun that didn't have any elementals on it that still did proper damage? Then look at the sequel, that train wreck didn't give much other than "USE SLAG AND ANOTHER ELEMENTAL GUN IF YOU WANT TO STILL DO DAMAGE PAST PLAYTHROUGH ONE." 

 

I bite my thumb at thee.

 

Affinity: Good old fashioned experience that you can find anywhere from killing anything or breaking boxes...I really wish this system got a rework, I really do. Leveling weapons seem so inconsistent while having no indication of what their requirements are other than a vague little bar. Atleast with Eximi at mid level survival the progress isn't as bollocks, aye? 

 

Power creep: I really don't believe I have to type anything here, we all know how bad that issue is as we've all seen it happen first hand. 

 

Star map:Incoherent,lacking clarity, Pretty much everything a map Shouldn't be. In my honest opinion, while the current one looks better the older one had much more practicality and had a purpose other than looking like a fine polished turd. 

 

Well met....

 

Artificial intelligence: This has been bugging me for the longest. I'm pretty sure if you cut their friends in halves right next to them if you're stealthed or using Dread from a distance, they should have a reaction other than looking around confused. Just saying, if I see a dudes corpse cleaved clean in two, I'm dashing for that alarm to notify my CO before I get killed. As any soldier in a unit would. 

 

Now don't get me wrong, the AI is brilliant in several ways but at times, it seems like the only smart AI are the ones implemented in infested who are a hive mind of primal beasts....

 

Micro transactions: 370 plat to 20 US dollars...Yea, no. Just no.Especially when a gun costs 100plat+  That's just not alright. I get that the game NEEDS funding and it's employees HAVE to eat. I get that but that's just not okay in a Free to Play game based around Grinding where the boosts are useless. Look at League of Legends Model. Sure, they're an E-sport ( Or so they claim with a game that buggy) but atleast their conversion is legitimate and makes sense. They actually REWARD you for purchasing RP with reasonable character prices and other items such as Skins that are pleasing to the eyes.  or EXP boosts and IP boosts that are worthwhile, unlike credit and resource boosters...(Seriously, if you're a true vet, you don't have to farm anything except Orokin Cells and Nueral sensors. )

 

From the Wiki

• One platinum is equal to 6.7 cents or 0.067 dollars. (US Currency)

 

 

And when guns or lil' Accessories run 100-200 plat if not more and accessories 40-80 respectively. it's safe to say that it's "A poor investment"  (Don't get me started on Prime Access) 

 

RNG: Too rage inducing to speak of...It needs to be looked at soon (Which I know the Coders at DE are working hard at,keep up the good work boys.) 

 

Balancing: I think we can all agree. "A warframe or a weapon should never be just for Mastery."  There are a few frames that just shine above the rest, making the others Niche or obsolete. Case point, Saryn, Mag, Nova and Ember. These girls need love else the others who are good at everything and provide amazing utility outshine them permanently 

While I firmly believe that each frame has their place, Nova was hit too hard with that change (it was for the better but without compensation, she's pretty useless) Nekros was hyped up as this one man army but now is just a pitiful rice farmer (From Warlord to Rice Farmer, the Nekros story) Saryn was pretty much gutted with damage 2.0 and Mag is just a shield tank and corpus nuker. Her damage is fine but she just doesn't fit anywhere late game. Then there's Ember, I don't think she needed to lose her tankiness for more damage with the remake. Just seems...Silly.

 

Then there's guns...Out of all the guns we have in Warframe, how many are viable and how many are there?  How many are worth building?  Why are shotguns garbage? Why are Snipers even here when Bows exist?  Why do Pistols out class Primaries? 

 

So many questions...I'd honestly want to talk to the Founders or even a Dev in a group conversation to see how they feel and see if they agree or disagree with me. 

 

 

Now to wrap things up. Do you, those within the community who love this game, do you agree or disagree with me? I believe we're all intellectuals here, we all have our views and input and honestly. I want to hear it! 

[Marinbawe]

So, you want to say that the game is very buggy. Well, the AI inteligence is realistic, because a group would stay more than a lonely man with a dead mate while they set the alarm on! And the balance? Well, is slightly unbalanced, but not so much you have to say that shotgun is garbage! I would choose a shotgun, with a semi auto pistol, or throwing daggers, and a giant hammer. So, yes and no

[(PSN)DesecratedFlame]

+1 especially that Borderland comparison.

[--FHDL--Bael]

hmm i agree with the micro transactions but weapon based i can take a sniper for long range and marelok for close ranged combat , both are equally as good. Or a boar prime with twin wraith vipers. well im more inclined to switching loadouts cause im a conclave player XD sorry for the grammer and punctuation 

[ClockworkSpectre]

You complained about plat prices, but who the hell actually pays full price for plat.  Just wait till you get a discount on your daily log in rewards, or buy one of the prime access packages.  There is absolutely no reason to pay full price. 

Edited September 24, 2014 by ClockworkSpectre

[SlightVect]

You complained about plat prices, but who the hell actually pays full price for plat.  Just wait till you get a discount on your daily log in rewards, or buy one of the prime access packages.  There is absolutely no reason to pay full price. 

The fact that you said that strengthens my point of "Plat not being worth it's value". 

 

Then there's the issue of "Half the things in the prime package are absolutely useless." 

 

Realistically, the fact that we WAIT for a discount proves how poor the ratio is for worthwhile plat. 

[KlarVyvern]

I think that the weapons are great as they are. There's very few weapons that amount to nothing but they are good for starters. I don't want every weapon to be viable in the endgame but I do want more warframes to be able to survive in the void. Ember is awesome but useless in endless defense and survival which is pretty sad.

[(PSN)DesecratedFlame]

You complained about plat prices, but who the hell actually pays full price for plat.  Just wait till you get a discount on your daily log in rewards, or buy one of the prime access packages.  There is absolutely no reason to pay full price. 

Consoles don't get the discounts and a lot of people don't want to spend prime access prices all at once.

[Sudri]

I agree with most of this but then again never underestimate a company that actually loves their product, DE never fails to impress me.

 

 

But to be honest a LOT of stuff still needs to be reworked, but then again DE has been dishing out revamps over and over again.

 

Examples: Melee 2.0 Damage 2.0 HUD 2.0 and then they went from a star chart while sitting on a hologram to something MUCH more immersive.

 

I trust that DE will revamp what needs to be revamped so long as they are alerted by the people who actually play the game often.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Sudri

[Maou]

Now I agree on almost everything here

specially the *smart AI* and the overly over priced goodies.

Whenever I see a new *Prime Access* pop out, I feel cheated.

I have always thought that *Founders* program was to be the only so called *exclusive*

 

But as for your Nova statement as well as the others I wouldn't really say so.

especially Nova, I mean the so called Nerf on her actually made her more OP.

Though I have to say that you're right about Ember and Saryn(Those girls need love)

[Lakitel]

 I actually do agree with your points here. To add to that:

 

1. There's the problem of runescaping the game, which is saturating the game with so much content, people can't be bothered to play anymore. WoW is heading that way, and many MMOs end up like that after 10 or so years. I mean, I feel ok in keeping up with all the new content because 1) I was here near the beginning and 2) I have a lot of plat which allows me to buy weapons instead of having to farm for slot money and build mats. I can imagine though for people who aren't founders and who haven't purchased PA or any plat, this can be a real put-off, especially if they are new to the game.

 

 Consider that the highest mastery rank achievable right now is 16 and the cap is 30. That means by the time we can reach 30 there will be double the equipment/warframes/weapons/companions that there are now. And really at that point it just becomes a hassle. I already feel like its a hassle leveling guns just to get xp in the mastery rank. I have a feeling at some point when I near MR 9 or so, I'm going to get bored of it and just end up focusing on other stuff.

 

2. Value for Money: While the game is great, and it is worth money, it isn't worth as much money as they ask for, discounts or not. They seem to approach all sales from a starter position. I can understand them wanting, lets say, 140$ for prime access, and from a new players point of view that isn't so bad. You get a warframe, a few weapons, boosters and a lot of plat.

 

 But from my perspective, that is a ridiculous amount of money to ask me to pay as a founder, considering I already spent 250$. I don't mind plopping down 50 or 100 dollars every 6 or so months, but if I'm expecting to pay 140 dollars every time a new PA comes out (Which it seems is quite often) I'm going to go broke. 

 

 They should offer large discounts for founders and previous PA purchasers, because quite honestly, they are losing money. I was considering buying the recent PA, but with all the talk about price, I have to say that I'm convinced now that its not worth it unless there is a massive discount. I'm sorry DE, I already gave you 250$ and I'm not planning on spending the same amount every year for this game. If you want money, take the advice of the people who actually are willing to spend it.

 

3. Elementals: I see no point in them any more tbh. Either remove them or remove utility mods. Or you can do what should be done, which is re-work the whole mod system so it makes more sense.

 

4. Founders: This is more of a founders gripe than a general gripe, but I really don't feel that the founders are anything more than a polling group. We don't really get to have a say in things other than if we prefer A or B. For 250$ I would expect to get a bit more out of it. Allow us to make suggestions, give more weight to our words. I'm glad that you are giving me a preview of what is coming, and you allow me to vote on some things, but I still feel that there should be more.

 

 That being said, I do love Warframe, and if I could it from the beginning and spend that money again, I totally would. I just wish there was more constructive communication between the player base and the devs. While I understand that as a developer they have their own ambitions and goals of what they want the game to be, but at the same time, don't alienate the people who actually play the game and want to experience the world you have created and plan to expand.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Lakitel

[(PSN)DesecratedFlame]

I agree with most of this but then again never underestimate a company that actually loves their product, DE never fails to impress me.

A lot of what they do just plain confuses me and comes across as them having no idea what they are doing.  I don't mean they lack the technical skills.  I mean it seems like they don't have a clear idea of what they want the game to become, and the game game suffers for it.

[AlphaSierraMike]

I always find killing an enemy right next to his buddy and not alerting him amusing, I would launch the body past his field of view and he doesn't even flinch. But then again, the way that the enemies move in packs sorta make stealth runs harder without using an automatic with hush, but yeah I do feel a lack of achievement when it happens.

[Wurdyburd]

Read through your list to see if there was any points that hadn't been brought up at least a dozen times already, and you bring up an interesting point about the elemental damage. It hadn't occurred to me yet, so if nothing else thanks for that part.

The real problem is the mod system altogether. To paraphrase the walls of text I've written in other threads, Warframe is constantly building new content on the foundation of a broken mod system, and the more they make new content dependant on that system, the harder it's going to be to change it all, even if it's for the better. Elemental damage falls into that as well. DE claimed Damage 2.0 was designed to prevent 'rainbow builds', of putting one of every element on a weapon, but the only reason anybody did that was to max out damage, and be good against every faction. Now, we STILL have rainbow builds; on weapons that have a single simple element, like the Ignis, it's possible to have three elements on it. Tell me why that's better than the old system?

 

1. Consider that the highest mastery rank achievable right now is 16 and the cap is 30. That means by the time we can reach 30 there will be double the equipment/warframes/weapons/companions that there are now. And really at that point it just becomes a hassle. I already feel like its a hassle leveling guns just to get xp in the mastery rank. I have a feeling at some point when I near MR 9 or so, I'm going to get bored of it and just end up focusing on other stuff.

Sort of true, mostly false. The current rank achievable is actually 17, but in order to get there you need to have had access to weapons no longer in the game. Also, there isn't an equal amount between each mastery rank; from rank 0-1 you need 2500 xp, and from rank 1-2 you need an additional 7500. The amount increases every level. Which means that, rather than doubling the amount of weapons to get to MR30, you'd have to include an EXPONENTIAL amount of equipment. Equipment which, as many have pointed out, isn't balanced against previous content in such a way to avoid power creep or making older weapons obsolete. Yet another system that needs to be addressed before DE builds more on broken foundations.

[Aure7]

Micro transactions: 370 plat to 20 US dollars...Yea, no. Just no.Especially when a gun costs 100plat+  That's just not alright. I get that the game NEEDS funding and it's employees HAVE to eat. I get that but that's just not okay in a Free to Play game based around Grinding where the boosts are useless. Look at League of Legends Model. Sure, they're an E-sport ( Or so they claim with a game that buggy) but atleast their conversion is legitimate and makes sense. They actually REWARD you for purchasing RP with reasonable character prices and other items such as Skins that are pleasing to the eyes.  or EXP boosts and IP boosts that are worthwhile, unlike credit and resource boosters...(Seriously, if you're a true vet, you don't have to farm anything except Orokin Cells and Nueral sensors. )

 

RNG: Too rage inducing to speak of...It needs to be looked at soon (Which I know the Coders at DE are working hard at,keep up the good work boys.) 

 

Balancing: I think we can all agree. "A warframe or a weapon should never be just for Mastery."  There are a few frames that just shine above the rest, making the others Niche or obsolete. Case point, Saryn, Mag, Nova and Ember. These girls need love else the others who are good at everything and provide amazing utility outshine them permanently 

While I firmly believe that each frame has their place, Nova was hit too hard with that change (it was for the better but without compensation, she's pretty useless) Nekros was hyped up as this one man army but now is just a pitiful rice farmer (From Warlord to Rice Farmer, the Nekros story) Saryn was pretty much gutted with damage 2.0 and Mag is just a shield tank and corpus nuker. Her damage is fine but she just doesn't fit anywhere late game. Then there's Ember, I don't think she needed to lose her tankiness for more damage with the remake. Just seems...Silly.

 

 

I'd disagree that all plat purchases are worthless. Boosters are great and very necessary and cosmetics feel very worth their plat value. Weapons and frames might be too expensive but since most of us build them we don't really complain that much.

 

Rng itself can't be improved. It was already fixed from having patterns to something that feels without a pattern. It's just random, you can'd do anything more about that. Anything else will not be random. I'd say prime gear and stuff like stances should be moved away from RNG into different systems.

 

And warframe balancing is really not that big of a deal. It's a PVE game and choosing warframe is really more about fun and playstyle. With weapons it's extreme since there's so many of them but with warframes I think it's totally okay for some to be worse. There will always be someone that loves them. Also scott is looking at each one of them too.

 

Everything else I agree. I particularly wish physical damage would be just as viable as elemental damage at 30 with catalyst.

[SlightVect]

I agree with most of this but then again never underestimate a company that actually loves their product, DE never fails to impress me.

 

 

But to be honest a LOT of stuff still needs to be reworked, but then again DE has been dishing out revamps over and over again.

 

Examples: Melee 2.0 Damage 2.0 HUD 2.0 and then they went from a star chart while sitting on a hologram to something MUCH more immersive.

 

I trust that DE will revamp what needs to be revamped so long as they are alerted by the people who actually play the game often.

I mean guys, don't get me wrong. I love the game but I've been witnessing it SPIRAL downwards for the longest time and just sat there, helplessly. 

 

DE made an amazing game but it to me it only looks nice. Gunplay is lack luster, Mods are busted to hell as the previous event will show, and Melee is suffering so much right now due to Melee 2.0. 

 

I've literally only used two melee weapons since the system was shoved down our throats. Dakra Prime and Dual Ichor. If it seems I'm ungrateful for Melee 2.0 it's because I AM upset with it. We went from Spamming E to Spamming E and occasionally Right and left clicking.  In my eyes, there's nothing there other than a flashy combo that wastes time when Quick Melee does the same thing only more efficiently.  Literally, everything is Mastery to me because Melee is a joke. To me, atleast. ( More than 300 hours on steam and 100hours on the standalone client. I love the game but hate it at the same time.) 

[SlightVect]

Read through your list to see if there was any points that hadn't been brought up at least a dozen times already, and you bring up an interesting point about the elemental damage. It hadn't occurred to me yet, so if nothing else thanks for that part.

The real problem is the mod system altogether. To paraphrase the walls of text I've written in other threads, Warframe is constantly building new content on the foundation of a broken mod system, and the more they make new content dependant on that system, the harder it's going to be to change it all, even if it's for the better. Elemental damage falls into that as well. DE claimed Damage 2.0 was designed to prevent 'rainbow builds', of putting one of every element on a weapon, but the only reason anybody did that was to max out damage, and be good against every faction. Now, we STILL have rainbow builds; on weapons that have a single simple element, like the Ignis, it's possible to have three elements on it. Tell me why that's better than the old system?

 

Sort of true, mostly false. The current rank achievable is actually 17, but in order to get there you need to have had access to weapons no longer in the game. Also, there isn't an equal amount between each mastery rank; from rank 0-1 you need 2500 xp, and from rank 1-2 you need an additional 7500. The amount increases every level. Which means that, rather than doubling the amount of weapons to get to MR30, you'd have to include an EXPONENTIAL amount of equipment. Equipment which, as many have pointed out, isn't balanced against previous content in such a way to avoid power creep or making older weapons obsolete. Yet another system that needs to be addressed before DE builds more on broken foundations.

I personally never knew that, Appreciated also. I'm glad I could point out how we haven't moved anywhere since damage 1.0 in terms of builds. We simply put on MORE elementals and far less utility. I also didn't know you could achieve MR17, good on ya mate. 

[Lakitel]

Sort of true, mostly false. The current rank achievable is actually 17, but in order to get there you need to have had access to weapons no longer in the game. Also, there isn't an equal amount between each mastery rank; from rank 0-1 you need 2500 xp, and from rank 1-2 you need an additional 7500. The amount increases every level. Which means that, rather than doubling the amount of weapons to get to MR30, you'd have to include an EXPONENTIAL amount of equipment. Equipment which, as many have pointed out, isn't balanced against previous content in such a way to avoid power creep or making older weapons obsolete. Yet another system that needs to be addressed before DE builds more on broken foundations.

 

 Thanks for pointing that out. Although I feel it works more towards my argument than against. As for one-time weapons, as far as I understand it, they show up from time to time. Still the issue remains, to reach rank 30 there would have to be a massive amount of items and equipment in this game that will just make it off-putting.

[Wurdyburd]

 Thanks for pointing that out. Although I feel it works more towards my argument than against. As for one-time weapons, as far as I understand it, they show up from time to time. Still the issue remains, to reach rank 30 there would have to be a massive amount of items and equipment in this game that will just make it off-putting.

I wasn't so much arguing the point as clarifying the details. I'm not personally against the game having one-time weapons, since all they serve to do is add mastery in a system where mastery holds no sway, except for a couple weapons before MR8. Nothing even close to MR14 though, let alone 17.

To be honest I'm not even sure DE is capable of inventing the additional dozens upon dozens of weapons we'd need to reach MR30 to a consistent standard of quality. Furthermore, as more weapons come out, there's one thing that has become increasingly clear: the game is too limited to allow for much variation. Which sounds odd, but consider the new Buzlok: I, and other players I know, don't ever use the targeting shot because of the ammo it uses up, and the highly probable chance it'll miss. Especially at long distances, where the auto-target system would be most useful. But more importantly, because nothing in this game stays alive long enough to bother taking the extra 5-10 seconds to target an enemy and spend tons of ammo killing it. I suppose there are ways that DE could have made the gun viable against difficult content, but based on the mechanics alone, it simply can't survive in a game where players move this quickly.

 

The lack of use for Mastery Rank is part of the problem; the other part of the problem is that to get that many weapons, DE is going to have to introduce a lot of garbage.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Wurdyburd

[Desertwind]

I love this game! This is the first thing I want to say. Secondly I agree with mostly all you said in the post. I am quite a new player returning to the game after almost 1 year due to RL problems (have around 200 h of play).

There is a lack in diversity as far as I see it. What do I mean by that: we have a lot of frames but only a few are considered "high level gear". That could be happening because of the skills (some of them should be reworked to keep the pace with the new technology) or by overall effectivness of the frame. For exemple: recently i managed to build a decent Rhino to have a chance of gong in T3/T4 missions. What I see often: Rhino Prime (yes I have one too but I am a beginner), Frost Prime, Loki/Loki Prime, Nova. Very rare I see Saryn, Mag, Banshee, Ember, Valkyr, Oberon (very very rare), Nyx. Same goes with the weapons: Boltor Prime everywhere, Soma, Dual ichtors/Orthos Prime, Dragon Nikana. That is why i really think a lot of love is needed for the rest.

The mods: again some core mods and nothing else.

RNG gods are not smiling upon me for weeks.

Microtransactions: the RNG gods haven't thrown me a bone of 50% discount so I can buy some plat. 20 euros/dollars for 370 plat is a bit too much.

To conclude: At least this things should be fixed somehow and then I can be a verrryyyyyyy happpy man.

 

P.S. sorry for my english but is not my native language.

[saltshaker42]

I'm super pissed off now. Everything I typed now gone...

 

To put it simply:

Yes.

The baseline needs a rework ASAP. If DE doesn't fix the base soon, then the game will forever be broken.

My thoughts on frames:

 

Tank frames: useful (even frost somewhat maybe if you use him right... GIVE US BACK OLD FROST).

Support frames: useful. CC, and other various utilities gives them a chance to help the dmg frames deal dmg, and the healer frames keep the party alive.

Healer frames: Only 2 of them... We could have more... But they're both pretty good at what they do. Useful.

Damage frames: Complete and total trash.

 

What is a damage class supposed to do? Deal high amounts of damage in a short amount of time in the widest range possible.

What do our damage frames do? Absolutely nothing. They're useless. They're glass cannons (like damage classes should be), but they lack the thing they were designed to do. All the hindrances of a damage class without the benefits.

 

Why don't our damage frames do anything? Because noobs screamed "OP" and DE listened for some reason. On top of that, enemy scaling is broken. There's practically no limit. Enemies will end up  killing you with 1 shot, and no matter how much lead you pump into them, they just drink it up. They  WANT you to shoot them. It gives them life.

Enemies should get tougher, but not by their base stats. They should be tough, but kill-able, and survivable! How do you do this? Increase the enemy AI. Increase enemy tactical efficiency. Increase something that will require players to increase in SKILL, and not in how long we can cheese these guys until they are unaffected by our cheese. If you have to cheese an enemy, it's a bad enemy.

 

Increase dmg frame effectiveness (MORE DMG), and decrease enemy scaling. Level 30 enemies should really be the limit, like how we're limited to only 30 levels. At this level their physical attributes should stop increasing, and the only things that should be increasing are the things that will give players a challenge, but allow them to continue to kill and survive as long as they're SKILLED enough too.

 

TL;DR? Too bad.

[Lakitel]

I wasn't so much arguing the point as clarifying the details. I'm not personally against the game having one-time weapons, since all they serve to do is add mastery in a system where mastery holds no sway, except for a couple weapons before MR8. Nothing even close to MR14 though, let alone 17.

To be honest I'm not even sure DE is capable of inventing the additional dozens upon dozens of weapons we'd need to reach MR30 to a consistent standard of quality. Furthermore, as more weapons come out, there's one thing that has become increasingly clear: the game is too limited to allow for much variation. Which sounds odd, but consider the new Buzlok: I, and other players I know, don't ever use the targeting shot because of the ammo it uses up, and the highly probable chance it'll miss. Especially at long distances, where the auto-target system would be most useful. But more importantly, because nothing in this game stays alive long enough to bother taking the extra 5-10 seconds to target an enemy and spend tons of ammo killing it. I suppose there are ways that DE could have made the gun viable against difficult content, but based on the mechanics alone, it simply can't survive in a game where players move this quickly.

 

The lack of use for Mastery Rank is part of the problem; the other part of the problem is that to get that many weapons, DE is going to have to introduce a lot of garbage.

 

 I know, I didn't mean to imply you were arguing the point, I just meant your clarification adds to my argument :).

 

 I agree that they probably won't be able to craft all these items with a high level of quality. That being said, I'm assuming archwing (?) is going to have levels and those will contribute to MR, so I'm guessing we'll see a lot of this type of additional content.

 

 One thing that does bother me though is the whole one-time weapons. I don't necessarily care about MR that much, but I would like to have the option to advance that high, especially considering that I'm not always active and i might miss an event or something.

[Wurdyburd]

I'm super &!$$ed off now. Everything I typed now gone...

*snip*

First off, I'm not sure you can judge the frames by group like that. There are definitely frames within each group which outperform the others, and some that crossclass; Nova for example is used less for her damage at high-tier and more for M Prime's slowing effect.

Also, Trinity's info blurb states that frames that can heal are rare, and for the longest time she was the only one. I wouldn't call her useful anymore though, since she's getting nerfed into the ground. Oberon is actually useful now though, since his abilities pitch a good fight against the nightmare that is status proc at higher levels. Valid, but still not popular, since he doesn't have any crowd control options.

I do agree though, that some of the Damage-style frames need work. Many of them have a very, very quick dropoff when fighting against difficult content, to the point where people question why they're using ultimates at all, it's just a waste of energy.

 

Secondly, it was explained in a recent post by a dev or moderator that there's too many enemies onscreen at all times which would be bogged down with good AI. So, instead we have the swarm mechanic, to have tons of guys shooting at us, who are all really dumb.

Another thread by another user described that we don't need smarter enemies, we need smarter enemy mechanics. We need more enemies that DO things, rather than enemies with specific weapons/armor stats. Not knockdown, since everyone hates that, but enemy variety like Ancient Healers and Shield Drones. Enemies that cause us to aim for something first, rather than fire blindly into a crowd. There needs to be a reason why we're losing, instead of being overpowered by EnemyNumber x TooPowerful = Dead.

 

 I know, I didn't mean to imply you were arguing the point, I just meant your clarification adds to my argument :).

*snip Archwings*

*snip one-times*

While true equipment used in Archwing missions will likely grant us Mastery, I feel that it's wrong to do so. The entire point to Mastery is that by using lower-end weapons, we get better, until we're given access to higher-end weapons. The Focus system is supposed to be intended to reward us for our mastery by letting us choose classes. The only way I can see Archwings being relevant to Mastery is if they added a class that allowed a frame to use Archwings better. But currently Archwings will have such little use, there'd be no point in that. Otherwise, use of the Archwings at all might be limited to a certain Mastery or higher, which would alienate some of the community, and DE would have to change that. So I have trouble appreciating how Archwings might add to Mastery. 

 

Most online games have some kind of one-time weapons though. It's simply a reward for being active in the game at the time of the event or weapon release. Players joining afterwards shouldn't have access to it, and sometimes, might not even want to.

As an example: the Lato Vandal, handed out to players who were a part of the closed beta. I still have it, and it's quite the joke. Nobody in their right mind would use it, but they're supposed to want it for the mastery, just to push themselves into the MR17 zone, in a system where there's no significant gain past MR8? Why?

Same goes for the then-legendary Snipetron Vandal. Tried comparing it to other snipers? The VULKAR of all things, regarded as the worst sniper rifle with no Mastery Rank requirement, has better damage and status, with worse reload speed and crit chance. But that still means that it's an alternative to the Snipetron Vandal, a one-time weapon that nobody will ever have access to. Which begs the question, why do you want it? For a useless Mastery Rank? Or just because it looks cool?

[SilentCynic]

The fallout from Damage 2.0, Melee 2.0, the current power creep trend and the lack of usefulness from damage frames are all symptoms of a game which, at its very core, suffers from unhealthy gameplay. The results that we are sitting with now, and which continue to fester and rot, are all consequences and bandaids.

 

DE needs to go back to basics and strip down the core combat mechanics of the game; everything from enemy stats to their behaviour, from damage types to our abilities and parkour.

[Davoodoo]

You complained about plat prices, but who the hell actually pays full price for plat.  Just wait till you get a discount on your daily log in rewards, or buy one of the prime access packages.  There is absolutely no reason to pay full price. 

And you see no problem with that??

That platinum is actually reasonably priced only if you get 50% discount.

 

PA is also overpriced, it offers 50-63% discount + that discount is wasted on overpriced prime pieces.

 

For plat alone 50% discount is better deal.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Davoodoo