Make Vacuum A Generic Sentinel Mod, Replace It With Pack Mule

[Onihikage]

People have been wanting Vacuum as a generic sentinel mod for a while, but the question was always what to replace it with for Carrier. A recent comment I made on the subject was well-received, so I thought I'd make a post about it.

 

Pack Mule: Carrier's new unique precept. Any time the player runs over an HP orb, energy orb, or piece of ammo, and does not need it, carrier will pick it up instead and carry it until the player needs it. HP would be replenished if it drops below 50%, energy would be replenished when it drops below the cost of the player's ultimate or 50% of maximum, whichever is higher, and ammo would replenish when the weapon's spare ammo is at 50% of maximum.

 

Replenishing energy would occur after a delay (to avoid that blasted Magnetic proc), HP and ammo would be instant when reaching the threshold. I won't speculate on what the carry limit would be, as that's a bit more complex and up to DE in the end, if they choose to do this. If he's destroyed, he will drop all the orbs and ammo he was carrying (visible only to the player, for obvious reasons).

 

Now all sentinels become much more useful, and carrier retains a unique position of usefulness to the player.

 

Edit for clarity, because it keeps getting asked: There would be a carry limit on how many of each item can be picked up.

 

Link to the Warframe Reddit thread for this topic: http://reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/2m5u90/make_vacuum_a_generic_sentinel_mod_replace_it/

Edited January 8, 2015 by Onihikage

[Shion963]

Sounds great to me.

[PlayMakerrr]

Awesome idea. I'd love to see this go through.

[Veddhartha]

I'd love an ability like that.

[ThePresident777]

/signed

[Onihikage]

Glad to see people here like the idea as well, though it's a shame I only had it when there are much more pressing issues at hand. That's a lot of topics in not a lot of time!

[Pizzarugi]

This change would be very much appreciated. I don't use any of the other sentinels available simply because that means I have to shoot myself in the foot not being able to pick up drops from a distance. Making vacuum a global mod would be extremely helpful to me, and pack mule would make the carrier, well, a carrier.

[Noble_Cactus]

Good idea. Maybe it would bring attention to the other Sentinels and how lackluster their abilities are as well (i.e., Ghost).

[TheGrimGamer]

The general Vacuum mod sounds great and as for how much Pack Mule could hold I'm guessing around 1 orb and 2 ammo packs per rank would be balanced but it would be a cool addition to the game regardless of how it was balanced to start.

[Azawarau]

I like it

 

But woulod still use wyrm over it

 

Cutest little sentinel...

[Archwizard]

An excellent suggestion, actually. Far better than cloning Dig or Desecrate...

 

I added a link to this thread from the OP of the megathread I've been running.

[Onihikage]

Thanks, Archwizard! I hope it gets more attention :)

[Deus_X_Machina]

Nice idea!

 

That would be really neat.

I occasionally go to one of the other Sentinels, but always come back to Carrier, because of the time it would cost me to pick everything up by foot.

Also I don't need to see everything to pick it up.

 

I would so like to use other Sentinels, but Vacuum is so useful in a completly different way, that I just can't miss it for long.

 

Of yourse, if it were completly away, that would be okay (for me, I bet not for most), but the way it is I just have no choice but to use Carrier.

[Evanescent]

/signed

[Kruglov]

Someone suggested this before and it was the best idea then.

It's still the best idea now. And it NEEDS to happen. Sentinals are really imbalanced.

[DSpite]

That is a horrible idea.

 

You have just basically invalidated current energy pool mechanics by adding a "reserve energy pool" on top of the standard pool, same for ammo, same for health.

 

For one thing, If you got hit for Magnetic, so would the damn sentinel and it's "spare" battery, because screw you that's why. You don't get to get around energy drain when the whole point is to - you guessed it - drain energy from everything.

 

Damn sentinels are fancy pets, not you personal orbiting Death Star. They can already be maxed and assigned to an unranked frame with unranked guns and will run entire Extermination missions for you up to past Venus.

 

EDIT:

 

I just took a Level 4 Saryn to a Jupiter 11-13 Extermination mission. Did not fire a shot or use a single ability, and instead let my Wyrm Prime kill everything. Took a lot of dodging around and some fancy use of cover to hide me and expose the sentinel, but he got all the 87 kills. Damn Sentinel had twice my health and shields, and pretty much murdered everything in 2-3 bursts.

 

I don't think we need to make them BETTER.

 

Is there a "Sentinel Only mission" award? Needs to be added.

Edited November 20, 2014 by DSpite

[Edgedemon]

actually i only use carrier for the para carrier skin which looks amazing or if im farming a resource which  is less common each time, Wyrm prime Shade and my kubrows all go above him

[5H4DE]

Yes please...i want to use my shade more often .

[GSDAkatsuki]

Wow that would make it better to level sentinels you don't want and would buff carrier a good amount.

Edited November 20, 2014 by GSDAkatsuki

[Ronyn]

Glad to see people here like the idea as well, though it's a shame I only had it when there are much more pressing issues at hand. That's a lot of topics in not a lot of time!

same here

[ThePresident777]

If you take your sentinel into a mission where it is strongly equiped relative to the enemy, then of course, it's going to kill them for you.  It's like that by design.  That's the way level systems work.  And it's been like that since sentinels came out.  This is Warframe, not your standard RPG.  In Warframe, sentinels are not cosmetic items, not pets.  They are a significant part of your arsenal.  D&D pet theories need not apply.  The D&D lens/filter is not applicable to Warframe.

[Man_in_White]

Will be must have for Nekros, would like to see)

[BrazilianJoe]

One adjustment: I'd have the Pack Mule carry surplus ammo too. 

 

Other than that:

 

[-Onyx-AquaDragon42]

sounds good, but to me I just think there should be a max amount of Health/Energy/Ammo that the Carrier should be able to carry at one time.  My reasoning is that this would be extremely over powered in high tier defense missions when later on ammo, energy and health become more and more rare.  If this thing had a limitless amount of stuff it could carry it would just suck up all the excess from the earlier waves and make the later waves a cake walk.  

[Onihikage]

Thanks for all the support, guys!

 

sounds good, but to me I just think there should be a max amount of Health/Energy/Ammo that the Carrier should be able to carry at one time.  My reasoning is that this would be extremely over powered in high tier defense missions when later on ammo, energy and health become more and more rare.  If this thing had a limitless amount of stuff it could carry it would just suck up all the excess from the earlier waves and make the later waves a cake walk.  

 

Which is why it wouldn't have an unlimited capacity, it would only carry a certain number of each pickup, dependent on the mod's rank.

 

 

One adjustment: I'd have the Pack Mule carry surplus ammo too. 

 

Other than that:

 

 

It would:

Any time the player runs over an HP orb, energy orb, or piece of ammo, and does not need it, carrier will pick it up instead and carry it until the player needs it.

Edited November 29, 2014 by Onihikage