Aesthetics - Are Things Getting A Little Too Whimsical?

[Cannamancer]

Also, Volt looks like a seahorse

 

Also:

 

 

Exactly. As much as players like to complain, ultimately they just want to complain, they don't care what a frame they never use looks like. Fake outrage is all the rage.

See this guy gets it lol.

[ShardsSuperior]

What about Mirage?

[CY13ERPUNK]

+1 OP

 

if Excal was the next new frame in U17 he'd be a medieval knight with swords all over him  

[elele]

What about Mirage?

 

Mirage also looks horrible, like a Harley Quinn cosplayer.

 

For this reason I refuse to build Mirage, OP as she is. I'll also sell off my Hydroid once I leveled him up to 30 cuz I can't tolerate his Davy Jones cosplay look.  

[Buzkyl]

This.

I agree with OP. For me, it all went downhill with Giraffe Neck Nova. Excalibur, Loki, Mag, Nyx, Rhino, Ember, Frost...the older the frame is, the better it looks to me. Warframe's style has shifted over time from a dark setting to a more airy, populated feeling. DE_Steve has acknowledged this, and says he wishes for Warframe to return to its former "dark" ages.

 

 

Gonna need hard facts and links on this one.

[PanicPrime]

my feeling isn't that Limbo needs to be changed or removed. (At least aesthetically. His skills could use some revision, but that's a different matter.)

 

My concern lies with how the game is going to look this time next year. The recent frames looking more "inspired" than original, could continue until the game looks very different.

I'm all for breaking away from the "Tenno = ninjas" policy. They're already far more than just ninjas. 

By all means we should have elemental themes, period themes, stealthy ninja classes and regal knight classes, eastern and western influences, etc.

 

My point of contention is that a few frames are starting to bleed into league of legends territory.

Look at LoL's character roster. There's a reasonably consistent art style, but beyond that there's nothing to tie the characters together. Mythological warriors, gritty real world warriors, fantasy tropes, sci-fi tropes, humans, furries, aliens, bug monsters, etc.

 

Hydroid is pushing it a little bit with his cartoon pirate silhouette, but Limbo takes the cake. His outfit is clearly a tuxedo with coat tails and matching white gloves. His hat is a top-hat and his alt helmet is a pointy wizard hat.

My concern is that there are going to be at least 4 or 5 more frames released over the next 12 months, and the increasing presence of the new frame style is going to affect the tone of the game.

 

Someone earlier mentioned Mirage. I hadn't paid much attention to her as I've only recently come back. But now I see her, wow. Her ultimate is a disco ball.

 

 

Is this the direction warframe wants to go in moving forward? The deadliest and most feared warriors in the galaxy with disco ball attacks, silly hats, and Pirates of the Caribbean cosplay costumes?

It's making the Tenno look less like disciplined warriors, and more like delusional sociopaths who treat mass murder like a game.

I'm sure there's a kind of irony in there at least ;)

[MetaTrooper]

I like Hydroid, to me he doesn't look too piratey to bother me since i use the ketos helmet, Oberon stands out a bit more but I've been fine with it and as someone has said nova's neck isn't exactly great to look at.

 

Limbo, i just plain dislike, the coattails are fine, the hat and the idle animation that takes it off, as well as his agile animation set, they just annoy me, the concept they gave the DC was 'void/phase sorcerer', i don't know about you guys, but a magician is entirely different from that concept in my opinion, to me he just looks like a joke, I'm here to kill stuff not perform at parties...

[ENIAK_Prime]

Besides... a pirate space ninja? Come on... Who can top that.

A space ninja-DINOSAUR.

[quietcanary]

So far the only one that has gotten too close to the line for me is limbo. I don't care how you explain it the hat is dumb. I actually like the idea of a kinda of gentleman frame or stage magician but limbo just comes off as a toss pot wearing a top hat. When his powers started the worst case of trolling in warframe so far I realized that's what the feeling I get from him is. Trollframe. Hydroid is definitely overdone especially since he very well could have gone for a sleek waterproof look but if space pirate is what they wanted at least he doesn't go too over the top. Very much agree they could reign it in a bit.

[Marthrym]

I have to admit, the latest frames do feel a little gimmicky, compared to the older ones. Kinda breaks the feel of the game for some players. I just hope it doesn't get too far down that road. But honestly, they still look cool. Out of place, like they don't "belong" here, maybe, but still, cool designs.^^

Edited November 17, 2014 by Marthrym

[PuffinLauncher]

What OP said is my thoughts exactly.

I loved this game for its unique art style. Loved that warframes look alien, nothing like anything from 'real world'.

Now we have pirate frame, bird frame, clown frame, magician frame... what's next? Game starts to look more comical, and it actually turned away some of my friends from playing it.

 

Fun fact: when creating this account, I realised I can't use "muffin" in my IGN (because badass space ninjas, I guess). And now the pirate frame with candy cane is real.

 

Don't wanna sound like I'm complaining too much, the game's still great, I just hope to see more weird and unreal art in its future. :)

[-BrokenBear-]

I sat and read every comment, completely agree with every single one of them, but to me when I look at the old warframes and the new ones the first thing that comes to mind is time period. looking back at dark sector and then looking at warframe they are classed into completely different points in time. And that's how I look at warframes. Ok look at it like this, If you were to goto the 80's wearing what we wear today you would be very freaking wierd, on that note I think the designs of the warframe fit into the time period of which they came into being what they are. Since this game is set in the future the frames were probably set in different periods of Earth history. I don't know thats just my theory  

[Azamagon]

Also, Volt looks like a seahorse

Lol, a seahorse? I thought he was supposed to based on a grasshopper, considering most of the early Warframes look a lot like bugs (at least their helmets). Look at Ash and Nyx and all their helmets. And the original helmets of Rhino, Saryn and Frost.

 

Actually, if you think about it, most frames look like animals (or at least earthlike objects): Ember, the chickenframe. Loki, the hammerhead shark with jester pants. Rhino's Thrak helmet looks like a bull. Trinity has the lobstertail. Banshee looks like a xenomorph. Vauban has a locomotive head. Et cetera.

Only Excalibur and Mag really have "bland" looks, but still with their styles (Mag has an Astrohelmet, Headphonehelmet and a Radiatorhelmet, for example).

I guess the main difference between the old and new isn't that they look inspired by animals or other earthlike themes. It's that they are not over the top in that particular theme and/or they had a more serious, dark and warrior-like look.

 

And with that I can certainly agreed that Limbo sticks out like a sore thumb...

Edited November 17, 2014 by Azamagon

[[DE]Momaw]

It seems clear to me that a warframe is shaped during its creation by the will or character of the very first person it is built on. So what you are seeing is the original frame user's personal opinion of what looks powerful, terrifying, or whimsical, as they see fit.

 

In other words: rule of cool.

 

The Tenno are "space ninjas" in that they are secretive, devastating, and for hire...  But that describes their methods, not their appearance.

[(PSN)Strifedecer]

People read such topics, and get the wrong impressions.

Limbo is a great looking character, but not a good looking Warframe.

If you get what I'm saying, he doesn't look like he's been designed for combat. The Limbo suit doesn't look like a combat suit. Imagine going into battle, wearing a Warframe.

Would you wear a hat? That too, a top hat, not a sleek, vertically thin hat, like Kung Lao from Mortal Kombat. Would you wear trousers, and evoke the look of a cliche stage magician? 

I know I wouldn't. 

Edited November 17, 2014 by (PS4)Strifedecer

[Candengard]

I agree with op, I support Steve's comment about returning to darker theme in Warframe design if that was indeed what he said, not just Warframe, but overall game direction.  Personally I'd prefer a gritter, more sci-fi, industrial, and gruesome feel for this game.  I was thinking the reference to various classical figures and real life animals because designers ran out of ideas and are looking for inspiration from those places, I hope that isn't the case.  I remember when I first entered the game, the first area was very well made and I told myself the atmosphere felt like Gears of Wars.  Even the rendering of Evolution engine looks similar to Unreal Engine.  There was a sense of darkness and gruesomeness, and I'd prefer the game to strive that way.  But if I'm not mistaken, the gore in the game had already been toned down.

[MichaelSD]

I agree with the OP. The most of the new frames look like the members of a circus freak show.

[MoyuTheTrinity]

As far as I am concerned DE have never once changed something aesthetically because people didn't like it and as long as that precedent sticks to cosmetics then I am fine with Minki doing what he wants. 

 

yeah even tho 90% of players want trinity to have a new model like ember got 

trinity and mag both use the edited male model from when they where first turned into guys and they are the only 2 left with that weird jagged look to them since they where designed for guy bodies and not females

I hope someday they get a nice remake like ember got

[ENIAK_Prime]

yeah even tho 90% of players want trinity to have a new model like ember got 

trinity and mag both use the edited male model from when they where first turned into guys and they are the only 2 left with that weird jagged look to them since they where designed for guy bodies and not females

I hope someday they get a nice remake like ember got

I'd like to see Nyx stop looking like a female excalibur with a unique althelm, to be honest...

[Hezekiah]

Yeah, Long story short, time for some alternate skins/frame looks.  

[Ryjeon]

I don't think they break aesthetic. They're just very archetypal, which is a common and I would even say important hero trope. Archetypal meaning "recurrent as a symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology."

[BrotherIcarus]

yeah even tho 90% of players want trinity to have a new model like ember got 

trinity and mag both use the edited male model from when they where first turned into guys and they are the only 2 left with that weird jagged look to them since they where designed for guy bodies and not females

I hope someday they get a nice remake like ember got

I disagree I love the way Trinity looks and hope she never changes (Excluding the addition of cloth physics)

[adiamorph]

This thread in general is exactly what I've been thinking, and it's put in a way that isn't "the new designs suck" or something, so you have my +1.

 

Every single detail on the newer frames seems to be put towards their particular theme and it seems a little uninspired. (Limbo might be an exception to this specifically because he isn't excessively detailed, but we know he's not an exception to the gimmicky designs.) The older frames seemed to have more originality and even personality. The details on them seemed to put an original idea first (being their "personality" along with the overall aesthetics which all the warframes adhered to), and then very subtle details of their theme. The newer designs aren't subtle at all, and that's the big difference.

[HolidayPi3]

Mirage also looks horrible, like a Harley Quinn cosplayer.

 

For this reason I refuse to build Mirage, OP as she is. I'll also sell off my Hydroid once I leveled him up to 30 cuz I can't tolerate his Davy Jones cosplay look.  

Really? I love how Mirage looks (as long as she's given believable colors). With her alt helmet, she very much has an assassin aesthetic. The rest of her design / shape is very much in line with the older, sleeker frames IMO. Aside from her helmet, there's nothing too crazy going on with her.

Sort of reminds me of the pre-redesigned Manikins from Dark Souls 2

So much edge.

[Dreadnaux]

Limbo is majestic as F***. I really like his design.

 

But he's about as much of a Space Ninja as Rhino.