An Open Letter To Steve Regarding The Creative Direction Of Warframe

[CBAROG]

Excellent post. I, too, want to know where the game (and we with it) is going. 

[GideonG]

I do think development of the game has kind of gotten side-tracked (at times) into releasing things that seem mostly irrelevant to the larger picture. The game isn't even officially "launched" yet, and still sits in a perpetual "beta". I think the game has evolved a lot, but its very apparent to see where the old generation of frames/weapons/missions differ so greatly from the current.

 

Damage 2.0 and Melee 2.0 went a long way to correcting some of the core functions of the game. However, we've kind of veered off-path of correcting the core game play to adding more things that you'll have to "fix" or "balance" later (Archwing, Kubrows, Syndicates). Parkour 2.0 has been talked about for a while. I'd really like to see this happen. 

 

I'd also like to see more story-based missions. When I came back to the game after a long break, I played the newest intro mission. It was freaking awesome! I thought the game had really changed the way it handled missions. But alas, after the first 2-3 missions ... I realized it was still the same thing. No real story, depth, or intrigue. I find the story of the Tenno absolutely fascinating, but the game makes finding any info about the lore and back story very difficult. Even the tid-bits we do get are kind of conflicting and inconsistent. 

 

I'd like to see a lot more refinement of things that are (have been) released, rather than just putting it out there, never to really worry about it again. Some weapons have been fixed and made better but largely there's a huge imbalance to guns. Most are considered "mastery fodder" while very few are considered "usable" for "endgame". Frames mostly still sit in a very poor state of balance (IMO) when it comes to "end game". So many frames have so much wasted potential, and so few transition well from early-game to end-game.

 

In response to your original questions, however ...

 

C, B, A, B, A

[LinkGetsuei]

I like a lot of what you said, and can agree some more focus would be nice, as well as some written back story lore that wont be ret-conned every few Updates.

However I do have one issue, that is this.

I suggest that the tier-raising item be instead limited to pay only, in order to discourage players from cramming as much power into their weapons as possible if this were implemented.

 

 

Limiting anything in a game that increases power to a "Pay only model" turns the game slowly into a pay to win. In warframes case the Pay to win will end up being a " wont add you to T4 party unless you have weapon x with y tier raiser's on it"
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As a counter suggestion. I say Tier raisers are an item you have to build. give them a somewhat tough but do-able recipe with an appropriate credit cost. As for your fear of people over using it on Already top tier weapons. That is what a max ceiling is for.

Let's say the whole reason for a tier raiser is to put weapons on the same tier as others. if there is no universal ceiling then this becomes pointless. "Sure you can make the MK1-Braton the same strength as say boltor prime. but for the same amount of tiers you could just make Boltor prime better."

I'd say The ceiling should be 2 above whatever highest tier is. right now highest tier is 18 (Last I checked going off mastery) so all weapons could be brought to a tier 20 strength.


The problem with this is you then produces a whole new balancing bracket. Now you have to not only balance all weapons into tiers, but make sure all weapons are balanced with strengths and weaknesses that make them all viable at tier 20.


In other words - I see the idea of tier ranker's creating new flaws, and trying to restrict them behind a "Pay only" wall will only result in: kids with allowances, or adults with jobs, too much free time, and/or disposable income, to surpass everyone who don't have the funds to spend on them. even if they are costly they add up over time and it will just create a new gap in the player base.


That's my personal point of view on that part of the subject.


Edit: To everything else, I would say A, B(except in specific mission types like survival and defense. maybe go between A and B depending on wave), C, B ( feels like a safer/easier solution, could be wrong on that though), I personally would like to see a well done, working combination of A and B if at all possible.

Edited December 29, 2014 by LinkGetsuei

[(PSN)KaxMcc]

-snip-

 

For the record, I think you may be confusing novelty with atmosphere. Also, apologies for putting words in your mouth I was merely interpreting what you had said. Wasn't trying to be rude.

 

But back on topic.

 

On top of what is mentioned in the OP I think DE should come to a concrete decision as to how challenges are supposed to be approached in this game. Is it supposed to require mechanical mastery, execution, strategy, or teamwork. As of right now most players surmount challenges through sheer damage scaling because it is never made apparent how each frame can play to its role to achieve victory.

[(PSN)WiiConquered]

*Disclaimer: This is just what could think up of at the moment, I will add more issues to this topic as they arise. Think of this as an open version of the community hot topics.

 

 

4. Weapon balance: Where the hell is it?

 

C. The tiered way.

This is the method that the Mastery System was supposed to accomplish, but isn't doing a good job of right now. Weapons are put into tiers based on their lethality and how easy it is to obtain them, which are balanced against each other. Every weapon is unique, but some basic characteristics will be present in each tier (sniper, shotgun etc.) The ultimate problem with this system is that some people may really love a weapon in a low tier due to its appearance or the quirks of its function. In order to remedy this, and satisfy these players, there must be a way to raise a weapon above its tier in terms of performance. However, one also runs the risk of players using these tier raisers on already top performing weapons, thus making them OP. I suggest that the tier-raising item be instead limited to pay only, in order to discourage players from cramming as much power into their weapons as possible if this were implemented.

 

This is where I have to disagree with you. What you just described is essentially a more exclusive Catalyst, and clearly those aren't doing anything to help balance. Players are going to cram as much power in as possible; there's no other reason why six-forma Boltor Primes exist. All this suggestion does is alienate the players who pay less.

Other than that, though, I definitely agree.

[Otaiken]

I'm afraid that Warframe is becoming more generic with every update.

 

Especially with how DE is trying to make Tenno into protectors of the system. It just doesn't fit. There is no context for this... there is nothing visible there to protect, always happens in the background. The gamplay and player actions are in direct opposition to this idea. Lore is all over the place. 

 

Tenno used to be a gray area before. Many people even  speculated if we were the good guys. Awakened race of super killers, we needed to defend ourselves but we were considerably aggressive... striking first, preemptively. And then Lotus rewarded us for supposedly helping our people, the Tenno, against overwhelming opposition. There was strong sense of unity, we stand together against the hostile word.

 

Now? All of the unity completely destroyed by Dark Sectors and petty politics. From gray area cornered predator kind of thing to knight in shining armor protecting... something I guess (never seen it), but we still fight for the factions for loot in the meantime. DE had a great thing going and they keep steering it towards the "noble protectors" thing which is as cliche as it can possibly get.

 

You awake? Great, those A******s there are trying to dissect you, be so kind and slice them to pieces. Good, now kill some more of them, you might not remember much, but you remember you're a killing machine right? Done? Good, now here's your badge Mr. Tenno policeman #21568572. Go save the solar system (for the right price).

Edited December 29, 2014 by LocoWithGun

[CaveCricket48]

C. The tiered way.

This is the method that the Mastery System was supposed to accomplish, but isn't doing a good job of right now. Weapons are put into tiers based on their lethality and how easy it is to obtain them, which are balanced against each other. Every weapon is unique, but some basic characteristics will be present in each tier (sniper, shotgun etc.) The ultimate problem with this system is that some people may really love a weapon in a low tier due to its appearance or the quirks of its function. In order to remedy this, and satisfy these players, there must be a way to raise a weapon above its tier in terms of performance. However, one also runs the risk of players using these tier raisers on already top performing weapons, thus making them OP. I suggest that the tier-raising item be instead limited to pay only, in order to discourage players from cramming as much power into their weapons as possible if this were implemented.

 

Instead of limiting the tier-raising item to pay-only (which will probably bring in a lot of "pay2win" complaints), just limit it to a max tier.

 

For example, our current max mastery rank is 18, so 18 will be the maximum tier that any weapon can be pushed to, regardless of the tier it starts in.

[Taranis49]

I keep seeing this posted constantly but there is something that actually happened that DID make us stronger. That was damage 2.0

 

When damage 2.0 came out the game suddenly got a lot easier and tons of different weapons got a whole lot stronger. Tenno did not actually used to be this strong and there have been rebalancing according to this whole new system but a lot of things fell by the wayside as the trade-off for more damage meant that a lot of the enemies were still just...whatever and not threatening anymore. Suddenly weapons were doing x2 the amount of damage than before and we got new cop-out enemies that made us bleed and poison us through our shields. That sure wasn't very fun. lol

 

Rose-tinted glasses, I think. Damage 2.0 didn't so much make us "stronger", back in the old 1.0 days, everyone just shifted over to AI/AP weapons since they were no brainers by the time you hit Ceres - it's why the Acrid was a god-gun back then and everybody ran around with Kunai/Hikou/Despair until they got it or if they simply couldn't stand the look of it. It's also why Saryn was the nuke frame back then, since poison was an "armor-ignoring" damage type.

 

Also, poison was always able to bypass shields, even back in 1.0. - it just happened less often since for the most part, the player actually needed to screw up for it to be a factor... either by getting too close to a Toxic Ancient or Crawler or they didn't bother avoiding the cloud left behind by one that died. Powerfists completely ignored shields back then too, though, again, nobody probably noticed since getting hit by one usually required a screwup on your part.

 

I'd actually peg us as being weaker now than we were around U7/8/9 too - Back when Iron Skin didn't have a damage cap and was duration-based, Blessing conferred invulnerability and Frost's globe likewise remained up until the duration expired, Ember could achieve 90% damage resistance with Overheat...

Edited December 29, 2014 by Taranis49

[DrBorris]

Progression, that is what Warframe is lacking. Most every issue currently arising on the Forums has been linked to the dire state Progression is currently in.

 

If it is weapon balance, enemy AI, MR, or grind, a solid progression system could solve most of the current issues. As for the atmosphere and lore, that is also part of some Progression system. As some other have said, a combination between the God and Soldier seems to be Warframe's direction. A solid progression system could retain both, have them be separate, but also together at other times. Early missions for a new player feel like a soldier, but as you get the good stuff, you become a God. While the God like actions have come to define Warframe, the Soldier actions should not be left in the dust. A system of Progression could bring enemies that will provide that soldier like action to even veterans, but at other times the action will be more God like when fighting mobs.

 

That is kind of vague, but I have been in the process of outlining a progression system that may be able to solve some of these issues. It is at about 10,000 words right now, so I am still in the process of thinning it out.

[R34LM]

The game just needs to take a step back from horde mode...more like a leap back. It never had this many enemies as it does now. All they have now are countless fodder that get cheap shots (bleed, stagger, disrupt, poison) on you. I feel more accomplished by killing an elite squad of enemies than to kill a random horde of slightly stronger and cheaper fodder that they call Syndicate Death Squads.

 

If it keeps going like this, stealth will always fail. No one is going to try and sneak around a clump of 10 enemies in a hallway, unless they're a Loki, which just turns into typecasting. Not to mention, spam spawn correlates with spam 4. Nuke a room and that is that many guns pointed away from you. If the frame doesn't control a large space filled with enemies, you might as well call it crap.

Edited December 29, 2014 by R34LM

[The_Traitor_Executioner]

*Disclaimer: This is just what could think up of at the moment, I will add more issues to this topic as they arise. Think of this as an open version of the community hot topics.

 

Start of the Letter/Questionnaire:

 

Warframe is a great game. It is the fantasy of a lot of gamers come true, something that incorporates elements of RPG's, shooters, fighting games, platformers, and pet simulators all in one. It has everything cool about science fiction games, powered suits, futuristic weapons, evil empires, bounty hunters, space ships, planet exploration etc. It has the potential to be literally the best game in the world, and I was honestly surprised the creators didn't call it that (or something similar but wittier) at first. Warframe is also the only game I know of where players can actually hope to see their ideas realized, where the developers actually listen to players' suggestions. However, perhaps because of this, or some other reason, Warframe's development appears to be constantly stuck in a cycle of "one step forwards two steps back", and then "two steps forwards one step back". Changes that happen one update get instantly reversed the next. New things are introduced that have no larger sense of continuity to them, and numerical values such as enemy scaling and weapon stats are all over the place. Trinity being nerfed has become a running joke. The community's knee-jerk reactions also seem to have carried over to the devs' decisions, with the building pressure between the two eventually leading to the incident known as Vivergate. Some of the community hot topics are about as meaningful as tabloid stories.There seems to be a lack of direction, of certainty. in the decisions of the dev team. Although the community is to blame for a lot of it, ultimately, the devs are the ones who know what they want the game to be. While the community can only guess, or make their own image of what they want the game to be.

 

This is the source of all the arguments and flaming on the forums. People have different views of what they want the game to be, and try to impose their views on others, even though officially there isn't a single, true future for the game.

 

The purpose of the thread is to make the devs come out and say what Warframe is going to be, and if they don't know, then hopefully we will help them find Warframe's identity. It is also partly to help the community to realize that their views, are purely their own and not fact, and that many equally justified, but still unofficial images of the heart and soul of Warframe exist. Few have stood out and asked these questions regarding DE's creative vision, but I know that I am not the only one. For those of you who are so enlightened, I ask for your help in this task.

 

For the readers: If there are any major issues with Warframe caused by ambiguity, I would appreciate if you pointed it out.

 

So, here are the questions that may decide the future of Warframe:

 

1. The Atmosphere: How do you want us to feel when we are playing Warframe?

A. Outcasts, survivors

This is what people claim "old Warframe" used to be. There was a universal sense of loneliness that perforated every aspect of the game, from the main menu, to the lighting and sound in missions. The world was a dark, desolate place, with no hope for the future, with everyone only doing what they can to survive another day, for no reason other than out of fear of the alternative. Some games that do this well are Fallout and Dead Space.

 

B. Profiteers, bounty hunters

This is what the game appears to have become. We Tenno have adopted the doctrines and aesthetics of the Corpus. War rages around us, innocents die, but they do not matter to us. We only fight for the two dominant factions, often switching sides within the course of an hour. Why? Profit. They know that they cannot win the war without us, we are the ultimate machine of war, and they would give anything to not have to fight against us, even more for our services. The world appears shiny and bright, with everything refurbished using our fortunes. This is Warframe now, our spaceships are shiny, our dojos are shiny, our enemies' spaceships are shiny, their armor clean. Hell, just look at our mod cards! They're actually made of silver, gold and platinum! Any fictional setting that does not involve war pretty much looks like this, a futuristic utopia, think the Jetsons.

 

C. Protectors, guardians

The game has never gone in this direction for some reason. We know that the world around us is turning into chaos, but we spend all of our efforts to fight for the remaining good in the world. We have to make choices, sacrifice some for more, but our virtues remain unshaken. At the end of the day, we are just a rag-tag band of vigilantes, struggling with what we have, but we know that we have done good for the world. This is pretty much every MMORPG ever, so it's kind of cheesy, but maybe you can find a better way to do it.

 

2. The Enemies: What are we fighting against?

A. The horde

An unyielding armada, unstoppable seas of soldiers. This is what we are facing now. The enemies' soldiers are weak individually, and they know that. But they are also cheap, so they throw as many at us as possible. Flooding entire rooms with soldiers in a futile attempt to stop the whirlwind of death that is a Tenno. For a game that does this extremely well, look no further than Left4Dead with its mix of cannon fodder and heavy special infected. Is this what combat in warframe is really supposed to be?

 

B. The elites

This is what Warframe used to be like back in closed beta. Each soldier sharpened by years of experience, each having felled hundreds of foes to get where they are. They know how to fight, and their weapons are the best in the galaxy. To survive one of these soldiers is an accomplishment, to kill one is to become a legend. And what are we, the Tenno, if not legends? Combat is slow paced, and strategic, a single misstep could cost you your life. The game that does this most definitively is F.E.A.R. with its advanced AI and horror elements.

 

3. The Frames: What do we fight like?

A. Gods

With every step the ground beneath us trembles. Our enemies' armadas are akin to ants. With every step we take, a dozen of their soldiers fall. We destroy armadas on a daily basis. Our enemies fear us, and also revere us, for we are a source of seemingly unstoppable power. We know this as well, for we make no effort to be stealthy or tactical, we seem to have turned mass murder into a performance, augmenting our powers with bright colours for a morbid display of explosions and blood. This is Warframe right now, if everyone was a Mirage with a Phage and Castanas.

 

B. Ghosts

Our enemies fear us, but they do not know what we are. They have never seen our faces, for we do not leave a single survivor. We complete missions tactically, sneaking through the ships to obtain our objective, and when necessary, we silently assassinate everybody on the ship, leaving only a vessel full of bodies as evidence of our existence. This is what the stealth lovers want Warframe to be, to basically have the Tenno act like Predator.

 

C. Soldiers

We are small in number, and only slightly more powerful than our enemies, but we are resourceful. We can attack with either stealth or charge in with guns blazing. Or, we can hack into the enemies' ship and turn off artificial gravity, leaving our enemies hopelessly floating while we stroll into the ship's control room. The game is challenging, as we are still ultimately outnumbered, but we have a wide array of tools at our disposal to turn the tide of the battle on our side. This is the hardest to balance, but also the most fun. I think that a relatively good difficulty (enemy damage, enemy health, ai etc,) can be found in the Heroic difficulty of Halo.

 

4. Weapon balance: Where the hell is it?

This question is specifically to address the balance issues in the game, and not gameplay/aesthetics like the rest. Ultimately, the mod system is still broken as it is, and the banishment of Zamboni did not show that the devs liked talking about this. However, it is still a large part of the game as equipment sales are directly linked to the devs income and the economic stability of the game. Below are some possible ways that weapons can be balanced:

 

A. The classic RPG way.

Some weapons are direct upgrades of each other, and perform exactly the same apart from damage. Basically, we're looking at something like LV1 BRONZE SWORD -> LV5 IRON SWORD -> LV20 MITHRIL SWORD where each weapon performs exactly the same, and the difference is only in damage values and colour scheme. This method ensures that here will be tonnes of trash weapons and mastery fodder, however everyone will accept them as such and not ask for a LV1 weapon to be buffed to LV50 damage or something like that. However, this systems ultimately makes it impossible to have unique weapons at any level but the max, since they would be trash otherwise.

 

B. The competitive shooter way.

Sidegrades, every weapon has the same killing potential as the other, with some having more situational uses. Look no further than Team Fortress 2 to see how this is done. Every single benefit that a weapon receives is balanced with a drawback, unless the benefit is so small that the price of the weapon itself is enough to offset its power. Any straight upgrades in this system should be very difficult to obtain. The benefit of this system is that players can choose any weapon they want and do well with it, and not have to worry about their favourite weapon being made obsolete by new ones.

 

C. The tiered way.

This is the method that the Mastery System was supposed to accomplish, but isn't doing a good job of right now. Weapons are put into tiers based on their lethality and how easy it is to obtain them, which are balanced against each other. Every weapon is unique, but some basic characteristics will be present in each tier (sniper, shotgun etc.) The ultimate problem with this system is that some people may really love a weapon in a low tier due to its appearance or the quirks of its function. In order to remedy this, and satisfy these players, there must be a way to raise a weapon above its tier in terms of performance. However, one also runs the risk of players using these tier raisers on already top performing weapons, thus making them OP. I suggest that the tier-raising item be instead limited to pay only, in order to discourage players from cramming as much power into their weapons as possible if this were implemented.

 

5. The Movement: Parkour or freerunning?

A.Unrealistic, but efficient movement

At its heart, Parkour involves getting from point A to B as quickly as possible. In real life, this is exemplified by people running on walls and jumping between rooftops. However, this is ultimately a pointless limitation in the virtual world. Instead, the movement abilities in a virtual world that can be considered parkour are far more diverse. Some of them started as exploits. Things such as Quake's strafe-jumping, Tribes' skiing, Unreal's dive-roll/wall-jumping are what video game parkour should be. They should be things that require skill, but are tailored to perform well in the game that they are in, and some end up defining the playstyle of the game. This is the potential of Zorencoptering, if it were expanded upon, given a proper animation, having set limitations, a tutorial, and equipment affected one's ability to copter. Of course, the levels would also have to be designed with coptering mind. Instead of wall-jumping up a 100 foot wall Mario style, we would have to copter between pillars to reach void treasure rooms.

 

B.Assassin's Creed movement

Freerunnin, on the other hand, is all about performance. It's not about speed, but rather about finesse and beauty. It's basically break-dancing while jumping between rooftops. This is what movement in Assassin's Creed is like in a lot of ways. The levels were designed so that you really wouldn't need to go on rooftops at all as the movement controls are clunky and unintuitive, unintentionally prompting people to take the easy way on the streets below. It's what's happened to Warframe as well, the levels have been changed so that wall-running and such are not necessary at all to complete a mission. Is this the path that you want Warframe to go down? Where advanced movement is only optional and mostly for show?

 

I don't understand why so many people babble about how the Tenno are totes teh corpus no srsly u gaiz!!1  It's stupid.  We're nothing like them.  We're enforcing balance, which is what the goal has always been. 

[AlphaHorseman]

This is honestly the best and most accurate thread I've ever read, ever. Especially for some guys 4th post xD

 

Here's the direction I think Warframe should go in.

 

1 - C: Protectors/Guardians. Even though OP doesn't want it, it's the most fitting considering how most of the choices we make (lore-wise, because every choice the players actually make are based on rewards) have been to protect innocents, or restore peace to the System. We pretty much are protectors/guardians of the solar system, and I don't think we should try and change it -  but we should try to expand on it. 

 

2 - I think a mixture of both A and B could be good. We fight more hordes of enemies early in the game, since we are weaker Tenno and they think they can just take us out with sheer numbers. Then around the middle of the game, we start fighting more squadrons of elites - thinking their skill can take us out. And in late game, our enemies are so fed up and want to take us out that they start fighting us with hordes of elites.

 

3 - A: Gods. Most definitely. This is the most accurate considering our history and our abilities. I think the whole "stealth" and "space ninja" forced theme should be taken out of the game, as it isn't representative of us at all. We have just 2 ninja-like frames (Loki and Ash), while the rest just border on full-out Gods. We should follow the God theme more, but also have the option to play with stealth. I think the difficulty thing you said about soldiers should also apply. But we are most definitely Gods at heart. 

 

4 - C: The tiered way. However, we should have a huge amount of equal variety in each tier. 

 

5 - A: Unrealistic, but efficient movement. This would be good, if DE expanded on it and polished it. Which we know they will early next year (Parkour 2.0!!)

Said everything I was thinking.

[AlphaHorseman]

1. I believe we should be protectors and Guardians, I mean, we're supposed to be protectors of the Balance and Guardians of the Origin System, I'd like to see our actions reflect that.

 

2. A mix of horde and elite enemies. The hordes can be as they are now in the beginning, and maybe sprinkle in elite units as we have them now. Then, as we progress farther into the star map, or into endless mission types, the mix expands to bigger hordes and more instances of elite units.

 

3. Gods. We stopped the Sentients, and pushed them out of the Origin System to help the Orokin. The Grineer and Corpus are still trying to figure out Orokin technology and reverse engineer it to their advantage, our ability to harness Orokin military technology at it's peak is no small feat, and is still something both sides are trying to discover. We should be more powerful than them by leaps and bounds, because that's what we are.

 

4. I would say tiers are best. Nothing behind paywalls though, that's a horrid idea. Tiered weapons was what the Mastery System was supposed to achieve, and I believe that it still can if DE can flesh out the system and make it something workable.

 

5. A mix of A and B would be cool I would think. I'm not an animator nor a specialist in any of these fields, so I couldn't say for sure.

[(PSN)atpbx]

I played full time (virtually playing warframe exclusively on PS4 and PC) from Nov 2013 to August 2014, and a little bit since then.

 

I dont like playing warframe now, its a cluttered, overblown mess.

 

I appreciate it has to evolve, hell I wanted it to evolve as I think the universe and characters have a great deal of potential, but I log in now and virtually every level is just a mess of swirling colors and numbers and clutter and confusion.

 

The new menu system for upgrades is terrible, the Liset method of going between foundry and upgrades and modding is incredibly clunky and counter intuitive...

 

And after all that, all thats been added to extend the life of the game is more time and credit sinks, which I just dont have the appetite for.

 

The Warframe universe deserves exploration, persistence, discovery..

 

Until it evolves past grinding out more numbers so you can grind out some more numbers, I cant really face putting much more time into it.

[XToxinator]

Warframes fight like gods? Yeah man they must be superhuman

[matrixEXO]

I played full time (virtually playing warframe exclusively on PS4 and PC) from Nov 2013 to August 2014, and a little bit since then.

 

I dont like playing warframe now, its a cluttered, overblown mess.

 

I appreciate it has to evolve, hell I wanted it to evolve as I think the universe and characters have a great deal of potential, but I log in now and virtually every level is just a mess of swirling colors and numbers and clutter and confusion.

 

The new menu system for upgrades is terrible, the Liset method of going between foundry and upgrades and modding is incredibly clunky and counter intuitive...

 

And after all that, all thats been added to extend the life of the game is more time and credit sinks, which I just dont have the appetite for.

 

The Warframe universe deserves exploration, persistence, discovery..

 

Until it evolves past grinding out more numbers so you can grind out some more numbers, I cant really face putting much more time into it.

Unfortunately, DE doesn't really have the stomach to delve into this design in a very major way. You can see them saying 'yeah, we're putting exploration' and then you are hit with a very minor exploration capability at update that doesn't really pull much weight... and it stays that way for a very very long time.

[Ryjeon]

As a former flag-running team fortress classic concussion grenade skimmer I want to thank you for describing the joy of video game parkour. That it's not simply about being an accurate simulation of real world free-running. It's about exploring the potential of a games kinetic language and discovering emergent skills that arise from a versatile motion system. I've said and I've been shouted down when I said Warframe's movement system is a sheer joy to play. I still think the mass of people don't get the potential in the current movement system. But I believe DE does recognize this and I am confident that when they make changes to the parkour system to satisfy the unsatisfied they will not stray far from the magic that is already in place, so that new additions will serve to further expand it's fluidity and dynamic motive expression.

[DesecratedPoop]

Bump so that Steve can see this and formulate a public response.

[Ryjeon]

I think this is a well outlined write-up and I enjoyed reading it more than I expected I would given the critical subject matter. It's a fair appraisal of a lot of the stances people take on the game's systems and themes.  I hope the devs do read it and address it during a dev stream. It seems like it would be a good panel discussion question.

 

My me personally I expect Warframe to evolve overtime and appear to favor different models as time goes on. I think with the new Fomorian operation we're being pushed away from the mercenary model and more towards the guardian and vulnerability model, such that there is greater pressure for players to strive against adversary or face game-world consequences.

 

One thing I miss is how Invasions would commonly change the enemy type of different nodes. Grineer Outer Terminus was one of my favorite alterations. But currently nodes rarely changes hands. I liked it because it made the game geography seemed like it would be in continual flux which was exciting to me. I'd like to see more that.

[Kestral9999]

I just finished reading the entire letter, it is spot on.

 

I miss the atmosphere the most, the dark ambience.

That dark ambiance you miss so dearly was due to the game only having one tileset which was poorly lit.

 

DE's tastes and lighting skills have developed since then, it seems.

 

There's still plenty of dark ambiance but too much of that and it becomes indistinguishable. You have to have seen light to fear dark. Tilesets like Infested (Hive) Frigate are quite dark and eerie. Tilesets like Europa's are more light and colorful but they feel more... spectacular and grandiose.

[(XBOX)Skode]

The only thing i would ask is that for the game to be less... camp.

 

Alad V is a laugh a minute but the infested should be the one force we come against which is unstoppable and to be feared by all around them including Grineer and Corpus. The game has great humour from Ordis to the boss taunts to Darvo and i love it for that... hell even the warframes have managed to make me laugh at times... i mean tentacles slapping people all over the place or turning into a giant puddle never fails to amuse but i feel it should also have a darker tone when the need calls for it. Your the Tenno, everyone around you wants quite literally a piece of you but the game feels bright, bubbly and without that Mass Effect style sense that your galaxy is buggered if you dont do something about it.

 

Latest problem? You create an event where the relays are gonna get borked by the camp funny bad guy and how do the Tenno masses react? "let if burnnn, for science!" - great game though and i dont mind the direction the game is taking one bit otherwise. Im having a blast with every update

[Kestral9999]

the infested should be the one force we come against which is unstoppable and to be feared by all around them including Grineer and Corpus. 

They will be if/when the mutalists are added to the horde.

[OniDax]

Yeah, this is why Arktourus and I made a thread about "the future of Warframe". Warframe has no clear direction, imo, and definitely little continuity. While I may not agree with your specific suggested answers to the questions you posed, I do agree that these are questions that need consideration. Whether DE responds here or not, I sent a tweet to DESteve asking him to read the thread I put up. So, you could try doing that since this letter is directed to Steve.

 

The important thing that I'm starting to see from people in the community is that we want lore, purpose, direction, and a future for Warframe that makes sense, not simply a bunch of loosely-connected content. Warframe needs a specific theme, story, and gameplay style that all fit together. Warframe can look to games that are similar to draw references instead of merely drawing reference from the devs' favorite games, like Devil May Cry for example. Assassin's Creed's movement system (parkour, transition from walking to running, motion-captured/life-like animation), The Force Unleashed's open environments (myriad of fresh, vivid environments with enemies tailored to those environments) and melee combat system (combos like Warframe, but fluidity of animations and reaction from enemies made the combat feel more engaging, imo), and inspiration drawn from Eastern warrior culture (samurais and ninjas, for example, influencing the art design of the Warframes instead of random pop culture references, like guys magicians, gunslingers, and pirates) can serve as meaningful influences for Warframe's design and development. In agreement with (XB1)Skode, less camp and a more serious tone for the more serious subject matter (of Tenno dismembering scores of enemies) can also go along way towards making the content, features, and gameplay feel more unified and, again, make more sense as a holistic game.

 

So, in all, this is yet another good thread that emphasizes the importance of Digital Extremes having a clear direction, focus, and future for Warframe that isn't just more disjointed content. Please check out my proposal (linked above) because Arktourus and I brought out similar points.

[DesecratedPoop]

Yeah, this is why Arktourus and I made a thread about "the future of Warframe". Warframe has no clear direction, imo, and definitely little continuity. While I may not agree with your specific suggested answers to the questions you posed, I do agree that these are questions that need consideration. Whether DE responds here or not, I sent a tweet to DESteve asking him to read the thread I put up. So, you could try doing that since this letter is directed to Steve.

 

The important thing that I'm starting to see from people in the community is that we want lore, purpose, direction, and a future for Warframe that makes sense, not simply a bunch of loosely-connected content. Warframe needs a specific theme, story, and gameplay style that all fit together. Warframe can look to games that are similar to draw references instead of merely drawing reference from the devs' favorite games, like Devil May Cry for example. Assassin's Creed's movement system (parkour, transition from walking to running, motion-captured/life-like animation), The Force Unleashed's open environments (myriad of fresh, vivid environments with enemies tailored to those environments) and melee combat system (combos like Warframe, but fluidity of animations and reaction from enemies made the combat feel more engaging, imo), and inspiration drawn from Eastern warrior culture (samurais and ninjas, for example, influencing the art design of the Warframes instead of random pop culture references, like guys magicians, gunslingers, and pirates) can serve as meaningful influences for Warframe's design and development. In agreement with (XB1)Skode, less camp and a more serious tone for the more serious subject matter (of Tenno dismembering scores of enemies) can also go along way towards making the content, features, and gameplay feel more unified and, again, make more sense as a holistic game.

 

So, in all, this is yet another good thread that emphasizes the importance of Digital Extremes having a clear direction, focus, and future for Warframe that isn't just more disjointed content. Please check out my proposal (linked above) because Arktourus and I brought out similar points.

You can tell DE that they are doing things wrong but you can't tell them what to do. When you say "the community thinks this", you are only projecting your own desires upon everyone else. The community's posts mean nothing. Most of the time they are only petty whining threads about whatever aspect of the game happens to frustrate by chance on a single occasion. Commoners know nothing and only care about their own petty wants and fancies, otherwise they would be the ones making a game, not the developers. The whole purpose of this thread was to highlight that people have strong opinions on what they want Warframe to be, and that all of those opinions are wrong.

[NocturneOfSolace]

Bump so that Steve can see this and formulate a public response.

It's unlikely Steve or any other DE member even cares