Another Archwing Feedback

[Venryl]

I'll start off by saying it's really a mixed bag. There are plenty of good and bad things about it, both having probably been stated in various other topics already, but I might as well give my own view of them. I've only tried the first set, that being the Odonata, the Imperator, and the Veritux, but I got all of them into near-30 or 30 each, and ran plenty of missions, including the Limbo quest, and built my feedback based upon that.

 

The good

 

- It definitely adds something new to the game. It's pretty much what Warframe is at its core: fast-paced shooting and fighting with great mobility to boot.

- If you can look beyond a couple issues, it is genuinely fun to play.

- The melee system, although flawed, is one of the best parts about the entire gamemode.

- The aesthetics are, even if slightly blinding at times, spot on.

 

The bad

 

- Even though it does add something new to the game, for the time being, it's not much. I get that it's still very early in its lifetime, and will definitely be expanded upon, but right now it's not much more than a showcase.

- It might be fast-paced, but it's actually slow. I did some measurements and calculations, and it seems like the Odonata's top speed is 360 km/h, which is slightly above 220 mph. Which is, considering that it's in space, where there's no air, and there are road vehicles that do more than that, it's just... slow.

  Now, I haven't had the chance to test it with Hyperion Thrusters (mostly because no luck with getting it, even after killing around a thousand Locust drones), but it's mostly noticeable on interception missions, where you have to get from one node to another quickly, kilometers apart, as well as seeing that the enemies are actually faster than your wings, and it's impossible to catch up to them until they reach a node.

- In interception missions, the AI sort of "cheats". Not only are they faster than you, but they don't have to stay near the point to capture it, and they can capture them in the clean-up phase, making them essentially start the next round with an unfair advantage. However, this is probably little more than a series of bugs.

- There's a severe problem with balancing, both in regards of Corpus versus Grineer, as well as individual units. In the former case, the Grineer are severely overpowered compared to the Corpus units, and the latter, one good example is the Hellion units, which not only do high damage, but can completely stunlock you, especially if there are multiple ones.

- Mod droprates are way, way too low. A good example is the aforementioned Hyperion Thrusters, which still hasn't dropped after around a thousand of them down. But that's fine, it's a rare mod, I get it. What's not fine is that the interception missions reward useless, regular, common mods, and the rate you acquire even the common mods at.

- The melee combat is severely overshadowing the guns, and I don't mean that they're overpowered, but that the guns are actually underpowered, even with mods.

- Pickups are often difficult to spot, and it's clunky to navigate with the current minimap, which was designed for 2D planes.

- No integration into regular gameplay, too disconnected.

 

The ugly

 

- Bugs. We all know they're there, from the derpy AI getting stuck against asteroids, to the players getting stuck in some debris' hitboxes. I know they're probably going to be fixed soon enough, but might as well list it.

- The lack of variety. Once again, I know it's very early on, and this is more or less a preview, and will be expanded on, but for now, it's lacking.

- Screen shake. Lots of it. Players with motion sickness have a hard time enjoying the new gamemodes because of it.

 

Possible solutions

 

- For the slowness, a general speed increase might be a good thing. Or, perhaps a sort of "second gear" on the boost, which is faster, but also drains stamina quicker, and could be activated with double tapping the sprint button or something along those lines. However, if the Hyperion Thrusters mod actually improves this significantly, then consider this invalid.

  Another way to improve it could be the introduction of a faster Archwing, eventually, sort of what a lot of other space fighters do: there are slow ships that are deadly, or fast ones that do less damage.

- Balancing out Corpus and Grineer alike. It's kind of silly to be able to tackle the node on Jupiter with no difficulty whatsoever, yet being murdered repeatedly on Saturn. Hellions either need to be nerfed somewhat, or give an indicator when they launch their missiles, so player can deploy countermeasures accordingly.

- Increase of Archwing mod droprates, as well as including them into the interception reward pool, replacing the regular ones.

- The guns need to be more powerful! The melee is fine in my book, definitely not for everyone's taste, but I'm personally enjoying it. It makes sense for it to work like it does in the space environment. The guns, however, are a little weak and slightly clunky to use, mostly due to the screen shake, making them way too difficult to use while moving.

- Pickups need some kind of indicator, like a glow or somesuch, so they're easier to spot, or they could show up on the minimap by default. The minimap itself needs to be replaced for something that's more fitting for a 3D plane.

- The screen shaking either needs the option to be disabled, or at least a slider to tone it down somewhat. I know several players who can't have proper fun with Archwing gamemodes because of it.

- Integration! Archwing needs to blend in with the regular gameplay in order to feel part of it. Things like sudden extractions, say, you're in the middle of a Corpus extermination when the Grineer suddenly attack the ship. And if I remember correctly, this actually has been discussed in a devstream before, and I really hope it will actually be a part of the game.

 

 

 

 

All in all, I believe Archwing could be something really great, but it definitely needs a couple changes, and even more polishing. Which I'm sure will surely come in time, and I can't wait to see it all get more fleshed out.

[TheErebus.]

Some well made and very well constructed feedback.

+1

[Rompido]

Make all drops automatically be picked up. This will help a ton

[Venryl]

Make all drops automatically be picked up. This will help a ton

Definitely a good solution as well. Either by making it default or integrated into a mod.

[sickness24]

nice bit of feedback +1. when they look at it they should also see if they can try and balance the wings with regards to the frames base HP. since some frames (looking at zephyr and such) give a huge benefit to the overall hp pool of the wings wich feels like pigeonholing to me

[Marthrym]

+1 OP, spot on.