Long-Gun/pistol/melee Combination Needs Tweaking

[Kaiku]

In some games you save your rocket launcher ammo for the big bosses and use a bit weaker weapons against weaker enemies.

 

From my I experience this doesn't seem to be the case in Warframe.

The amount of ammo and the drop rates seem to be the same for all kind of enemies; for the weak melee brawlers as well as for the heavy units.

 

It's actually more profitable to use a melee weapon against a heavy unit because you might not want to empty a whole mag to kill it, but it's okay to use your strongest gun against all other units, since they die easier and can give you more ammo than you actually used to kill them.

 

What I'd like to suggest is that the weaker an enemy unit is (for example an osprey, a crawler or a grineer sawman) the less likely it is to drop a lot of ammo. Especially long-gun ammo.

And a heavy unit, like a Heavy Grineer or an Ancient could then drop a lot of pistol ammo, long-gun ammo and energy.

 

This should make you use all your weapons more equally, instead of using your long-gun 90% of the time.

Gives a bit more variation to the gameplay as well.

[Nuko_Miko]

I agree that I barely ever use my side-arms except when I have to carry a data terminal xD

The main reason for that is that I have dual vipers and I go through 1 mag/second. I notice that most storage containers/enemies drop rifle ammo so I use my rifle most of the time and I never ran out of rifle ammo before. On the other hand I do run out of pistol ammo in 1-2 rooms of enemies even though I have maxed max ammo mod

[Panzermeido]

I kinda disagree on this one. Your sidearm complements your long arm. Unless you're using the Hek, there are tactical situations in which using the sidearm will be more favourable. Key point is "favourable" - not forced via logistics, and I like it more this way.

Still, I feel the sidearm would've been more widely used if wielding the pistol would grant some bonuses to melee. It's very fun to weaken an enemy with Lato Vandal loaded with freeze-rounds and quickly finishing the bugger with a charged attack.

Edited April 22, 2013 by Panzermeido

[Rakuall]

Warframe isn't Halo, please stop trying to balance it like it is.

[Kaiku]

I kinda disagree on this one. Your sidearm complements your long arm. Unless you're using the Hek, there are tactical situations in which using the sidearm will be more favourable. Key point is "favourable" - not forced via logistics, and I like it more this way.

Still, I feel the sidearm would've been more widely used if wielding the pistol would grant some bonuses to melee. It's very fun to weaken an enemy with Lato Vandal loaded with freeze-rounds and quickly finishing the bugger with a charged attack.

I wanted to keep my post short and simple, but yes, your sidearm should complement your long arm. It works if you're using a sniper rifle, or Paris etc.

So yeah, it works in some loadouts, and I don't think limiting sniper ammo even more would be good. Snipers are currently suffering from low firing speeds and long reload times. Make other weapons a bit more similar to this and we've got ourselves a slightly more balanced game.

[Kaiku]

Warframe isn't Halo, please stop trying to balance it like it is.

Each game should be different.

Each game should be balanced in different ways.

What do you suggest?

Or do you think everything's already in balance?

Or do you think it's better not to have more balance?