Sentinel Concepts

[Vilesavant]

I was wondering what, if anything is limiting the Sentinels to being small little floaty guys off to the side. I was thinking it would be pretty neat to see something walking on the ground next to you. Now this idea mostly comes from thinking, "Hey, ninjas, FF 6 had a ninja. Shadow, and he had a dog, Interceptor. That would be pretty sweet." Of course this doesn't need to be limited to a canine, we could go with large felines (panthers etc) the look would be a cross between that organic 'frame look and with obvious robotic extremities. I envision these to not be the actual animals but just that sentinel AI (or personality or whatever makes them tick) uploaded to a robotic body.

Mods for behavior could include the (yes I'm gonna do it) Takedown which would have the canine tackle the nearest enemy when your shields break and do an aoe knockdown. As well as "Attack dog" which has the sentinel charging around and biting enemies. For a feline sentinel you could have "Hunter" the sentinel cloaks and goes for stealth kills when commanded allowing you to coordinate multi stealth kills. Another could be "Swipe" when you're in melee the sentinel swings its razor sharp claws (cleave) damaging enemies in front of it. By no means is this an exhaustive  or definitive list of abilities just some thoughts.

Wish I was more of an artist I'd love to draw some concepts..oh well. :\

Anyway feel free to brainstorm with me, hope you like the ideas.

[FiendFyre]

I do like this idea, but what kind of abilities would they have then? 

Maybe those kinds would be more offensive and the air ones would be more defensive instead.

The air ones have ranged weapons (pistol and rifle) so the ground based ones could have melee maybe.

[Vilesavant]

Oh yes, weapons. Thats what I was imagining, melee oriented. So jaws on the canine, claws/jaws on the feline. Perhaps at some point we can change out the heads/forelimbs to different types of weapons (ether claws, power jaws, chain fangs). But honestly nothing really limits it, put a weapons mount on their backs/shoulders and you can make them long or close range. Say you mount dual strun on the canine makes it so an "Attack Dog" behavior mod makes him close the gap, but a "Warhound" mod makes him use the dual strun while in that melee furball. For the feline a railgun, like the rail moa's and it sits back and plinks with a "Sniper" behavior mod. Some other ideas of back/shoulder mounted weapons: Rocket pods, rotary cannons, beam lasers, grenade launchers (with sentinel weapon mods to say make flashbangs, incendiary, ap/shrapnel, emp could also be applied to the rockets). The skys the limit!

[CrazyCanadian24]

I think I may be digging this.

[GTG3000]

It could be a big and bulky robot, using chargers' skeleton animation...

Dunno, something like this? 

I'm no artist either, but that didn't ever stop me :d

[Vilesavant]

Cool! Thanks GTG! Awesome of you to draw something up! I likey! Yeah perhaps using that charger skeleton it could be fairly easy to implement in game. Course thats on DE, but those are some great ideas. I love collaboration. This got me thinking about something from years ago, a pen and paper rpg called Rifts by Palladium games. There were some pretty nice bits from that game. I found this:

 

 

 

Of course this needs to be brought up to Warframe standards. If we get DE_Rebecca over here it would make this a slam dunk. We're talking about putting CATS (and dogs) in Warframe. She'd be our biggest supporter, lol.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Vilesavant

[GTG3000]

Heh, thank you. I like collaboration too...

I can't say I ever played that game, but the artwork looks nice...

I guess the canine/feline features COULD be introfuced as skins, though that would require some tricky work of the animators to pull off.

[Vilesavant]

Any other ideas about modules (behavior and otherwise) as well as weaponry folks might like to see? What about variations of the base concepts, would you like the feline to come in various types such as larger ones like lions or tigers. Smaller ones like, a lynx, ocelot. What about the canine standard dog, wolf, mastiff. Size wise big is good, small is good. I mean Wyrm and Shade aren't big by any means, but nothing larger than a charger, because I feel if its too big it might be competeing for face time with you on the screen. As it is if its on the ground I'd imagine it would have to walk a step or two behind you to avoid clutter.

[GTG3000]

I think that making it rather big and tough would add a nice contrast, especially if it was forced to follow you by foot, using the points enemies use to jump up and such. Then you'd trade mobility for power. I think that the easiest way would be to let it have the attack-related mods from other sentinels, so that player could see, if he wants the sentinel to rush at enemies on sight with Warrior or stay near with Revenge. As for attacks, I think there could be a nice idea to give it a selection of mods, specific to it, since it can't really use the Guardian or invisibility one... I think that it would nice to have it have a mod to create a decoy out of itself, so that it would run into the crowd and trade ability to move for extra armour  and such, as a replacement for crowd control, or an ability to throw enemies off their feet. It would be more of an attack dog, anyway, so maybe an ability to slowly regenerate health would be in order?

 

As for weapons, I'd imagine clas would be the way to go, I don't see jaws fitting in with existing designs really...

[Vilesavant]

Thats good, they can go either 'tank' roles or damage dealers. I wonder if the decoy should be a passive mechanic or an actual ability. Do they even have threat in the game? I notice like on Kril fight he seems to go to whoever is currently dishing the most damage. Since the current sentinels are really support it'd be neat to see them just dive in and create some havoc while you pick off the most dangerous stuff from the back. As for the jaws I was thinking in the same way we have alternative helmets, alternative heads for these types of sentinels, and they would have a variant "jaw" weapon."

But maybe thats too much, I'm unsure. I have a feeling that if these ever saw production the back mounted weapons would probably be the more popular choice of players. I just like the idea of a cyber-droid-bot dog going after a Grineer's throat.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Vilesavant