February 13Th: Community Hot Topics!

[Higure]

We get now 5 rare fusion cores, but only one  uncommon fusion core?

[Centias]

Fusion Cores

It's a good start, as it brings some players out of the Void to do other missions in the star map. Chances to get the core packs should go up to around 40% for Survival and 60% or higher for Interception. But more importantly T3 and T4 missions need to have Orokin Cell and Silver Fusion Cores replaced with Rare Fusion Cores/Core packs, and any Rotation C in the Void/Derelict needs a higher chance to drop Prime parts, or the rotation need to change to ABC instead of AABC. But I'm getting a little off topic so I'll move on.
 

 

Friendly Fire

Short answer: NO.

Slightly longer answer: ONLY if it's completely optional. Not in tactical alerts, not in major events, not in nightmare as a possible mode. Only if it's entirely by player choice.

 

 

Nekros Changes Aftermath

We're getting there, but it's still obviously NOT there. SotD is at least more useful now. Shadows manage to stay alive most of the duration and actually manage to kill something. However, they often have completely useless AI, don't take threat off of the player, and still only manage to kill maybe five enemies if you get lucky. It lacks the killing power AND utility of almost every other 4th slot ability in the game. It basically serves no other purpose beyond distraction, and it doesn't even serve that purpose well because they don't cause extra threat. Even getting good results out of the ability involves tediously micro-managing your stack of souls, which you still have no visual indication of what's in it. The stack of souls also has no priority sorting to make sure you get the most powerful enemies you've killed. You just get them in order (or reverse order, I forget). This ability still needs a lot of work.

 

Terrify finally got the ability to be recast and affects more targets, but for some reason got a reduced range? Why? It already has a target limit. Soul Punch finally doesn't interrupt anything you're doing to cast it like Fireball, which is great, except it's still pretty much only good for knocking down a Heavy Gunner, Bombard, or Napalm and otherwise gets ignored the rest of the time, because all it can reliably do is knock down ONE target. Make it affect a bit of an area around the target, so it feels like a giant, ghostly fist "punching" through that target's location, knocking them and anyone next to or behind them away.

 

And yet, for some reason, Desecrate remains untouched. This ability is the bane of Nekros existence and the only reason other players demand one in squad. When most of the player base only cares about one ability on a frame, it's probably a sign of the unhealthy state of that particular frame. The by the numbers post should have shown it already. Desecrate is long overdue for complete replacement. When you put out an update changing the other three abilities of a frame, and then track how often abilities are being used in the two weeks surrounding that update, and Descrate STILL manages to be the #1 ability when players should be trying out changes to his OTHER skills, there is an obvious problem. Change it to something completely different already. Change it to something that doesn't re-roll mods, resources, pigments, etc., and make those things drop more often to compensate. Then make the ability something entirely new and actually interesting rather than gimmicky, so Nekros can actually play like a Necromancer instead of being pigeon-holed into being a loot-bot. Change it drain corpses for health and bonus damage or something. Anything but what it is. At the very least, make it 100% for any body in the area to disappear and drop whatever it would drop, so there's no need to spam it.

 

 

Daggers

Daggers should be a good choice for powerful single-target damage, quickly slicing up single enemies. They should also have bonus finisher damage, quickly dispatching enemies left vulnerable (stealth, knockdown, in-combo finishers, parry finishers).
 

 

Rakta Ballistica

Not even close to strong enough, but at least it has the right damage type now. The Rakta Ballistica and Sancti Castanas should be comparable to all the other syndicate weapons, yet for some reason the Rakta Ballistica does WORSE sustained DPS than a Lato. It's the 6th worst pistol in the entire game, and the special explosion doesn't make up for it. Make both Ballisticas drastically better. Sancti Castanas need a similar buff, but not quite as badly.

 

 

Upcoming Conclave changes

I may dabble in PVP at some point, but it isn't likely. These changes don't really affect me. I'd rather just have more to do in PVE.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Centias

[SullyTheStalker]

I feel like daggers should specialize in taking out groups of weaker enemies in quick fashion, making up for how little damage they deal compared to heavy melee weapons with their superior speed and mobility.  One of the most annoying problems I have with daggers is when I'm swinging at an enemy that is backing up/running away faster than my combo can carry me forward.  I understand that we have a choice of stances to remedy this, but lunging stances like Gnashing Payara hardly give enough mobility during a combo to actually make a significant difference.

 

This issue is more than made up for in Archwing with its melee dash mechanic, which is one of the few things that game mode actually has going for it.

[(PSN)handmedownheart]

As previous posts state: Too many trolls to even be considered.

 

 

With that being said, I'm glad I don't see a lot of Limbo's walking around in game now...

[SumFunGuy]

R5 cores - we need a more sustainable way to get cores, cores give you more bang in your builds, which gives you access to the more difficult parts of the game and more fun in general.

The biggest and most painful grind in this game is cores.

Especially when unique builds or slight changes in mods produces different results and cores power those builds.

I think one way might be allow people to trade in all of duplicate mods they have collected, I am sure you can work out a ratio that makes it still feel like the grind is actually worth it but not a freebie.

I like that the game caters for those that have time and those that have money. Selling R5 cores could also work.

[Rambone77]

Mastery 18.5 with many hours of gameplay including recent gameplay; I can tell you this:

 

R5 Cores need to drop more often in the void, and need less of the filler like forma and cells, especially forma since T4 Defense is now bugged,at the time of writing, with what I call forma streaks (3-4 Forma in a row in a T4 Defense). Never experienced them until the 3x Cell patch, and then everything went to hell. Most people want void parts + the R5 Cores. Not just R5 cores in a seperate map. If you don't plan on changing this I HIGHLY SUGGEST you implement a reward called Legendary Rank 5 Cores into the new Raid Rewards. Make them tradable for about 30k credits each.

 

 

 

Friendly Fire will wreck the game completely for the most obvious of reasons to anyone who has played more then 100+ hours. Inadvertant hits from different players explosions, aoe's etc, and not to mention trolls that might take advantage of this makes this one of the worst possible ideas that has ever been made specifically for warframe.

 

 

 

To make me use Daggers I would need a very slight increase in reach and a medium buff in power. If that power goes into stealth so be it, but it might be better outside of it for others.

 

 

 

Rakta Ballistica is still weak as hell in comparison. Your statistics on how many people are using it should show that as well.

 

 

 

The new balanced conclave will be awesome and there is no doubt about that at all. Just keep slowly balancing out weapons and skills and don't listen to all the riff raff about "Oh, but I want this gun/warframe NOW!".

[MadCrazyFox42]

R5: it's an improvement but the issue remain is T4 SUR rewarding Cells is my issue. I think you should remove them from the list, and make it so that R5 pack are guaranteed to drop at A rotations.

 

Friendly Fire:Your joking right? This would have been a great April fool's prank.

 

Nekros:

 

Do you think the recent Nekros changes have made his abilities more useful?

 

Nekro´s ultimate still is one of the worst abilities in all the game (no exaggeration, it really is)

It always created allot of chaos and mess into the battlefield, all those npc's can be very harmful for the tenno.

The devs did well to make them pass trough and also bullets can punch trough them, but they still are opaque, transparency would help allot.

And strategy wise, they would be so much better, if they were only 2 or 3 shadows, but strong and smart npc's, its better then all those useless mediocre npc's that, again, just cause confusion and can work against the tenno.

 

 

I think his soul punch could uses a bit more work. For the most part the pin point aim is the weakest concept, if it worked like an ember fireball dealing impact damage and ragdolling the mobs in the area you point at soul punch would be a far more useful ability. 

[Cpl_Facehugger]

On R5 cores:

I appreciate the idea of moving stuff out of the void and giving us a reason to play the starmap, but I think the actual mechanism for this was implemented poorly. Rare core drop rates should have stayed the same in the void but been given a buff in the starmap. Void should be a one stop shop for everything, but it should never be the best place to get anything outside of prime parts. If the starmap had maybe 50-60% chance on core packs on rotation A, that'd be fine.

 

On friendly fire:

 

Nope. I'm imagining how terrible it would be and I'm shivering. When it happens due to rad procs it's amusing, but that only because it almost never happens. I'd never ever play a game mode where friendly fire is a real thing. Or at least, I wouldn't do it with other players.

 

On Bonedaddy:

 

No opinion here. My Nekros is a desecrate bot, I don't use him for anything else. The changes generally sound good, but I don't play Bonedaddy much unless I'm needed for a survival mission, in which case it's all desecrate all the time.

 

Daggers:

 

Their quick melee is generally fine. But their stanced melee is invariably hugely slow and weak. All the stance moves and combos need to be sped up massively and get improved damage to compensate for their short range.

 

Rakta:

 

The buffs are a movement in the right direction, but it needs more. Vaykor and Synoid (and Telos to a lesser extent) are generally much more convenient to use, while a Ballistica of any sort is not. 

Mind you I don't have the rakta so this is pure theorycrafting.

 

PvP:

 

The changes generally sound good, but honestly I don't enjoy PvP in most circumstances, so I'm probably not going to play this much. (I do think the move to pvp only for dark sectors killed my enjoyment in the system.)

[perryguy21]

Just my ideas and whatnot.

 

What is your opinion on the R5 Fusion Core changes?

 

I don't like it but I do think it was much needed.

This video here explains it actually better than I ever could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJPgNq6Qwog 

 

Do you think friendly fire would add a fun challenge to certain mission types?

 

Yes it would be fun HOWEVER the Warframe community is not mature enough for a mode like this. Too many trolls would just ruin the S#&$ out of something already kinda meh. I see no problem if there are full pre-made groups. or even if the friendly fire was a random nightmare challenge. But if it's gonna get thrown into random regular missions with random people. I cant see it going too well.

 

Do you think the recent Nekros changes have made his abilities more useful?

Yes, yes i do however he still needs more revisions. not much more i can say.

 

In your opinion, how do daggers compare to other melee weapon types, overall?

 

Compare? Hah! They don't. simple as that. There is nothing a dagger could do that any other melee weapon in the game can't do better. I'm not saying i hate daggers. Because I don't. They are just so under powered if anything give them a massively high crit multiplier or stealth multiplier. That's what they're for right? sneak attacks  and quick jabs to vital points at the cost of getting uncomfortably close.

 

In your opinion, are the recent Rakta Ballistica changes sufficient to balance it with other syndicate weapons and/or secondary weapons?

 

I am part of Red Veil and as much as I love the guys. Red veil sucks. in everything. No i'm so happy Rakta got a buff. I feel like i was heard as well as many others were heard and i'm perfectly fine with what it is now. Not every single new weapon that comes out needs to be end game rip enemies into oblivion with 1 trigger pull. And I can kill stuff with it now...... kinda.

 

Will you be more inclined to play Conclave with the upcoming changes?

 

Sorry. I cant say much here since i've never done conclave... I dont think I have. :s

[(PSN)KidKosmo]

Don't turn on friendly fire please, I get pissed as it is when someone turns on a laser on Void Defense missions.

[IronRoby]

Friendly fire? Is this Warframe or Magicka, and you do know what half of Magicka multiplayer games decent into, right?

 

Do you remember when players couldn't unbanish themselves when a Limbo decided to troll? And now you want to give all players an ability to shoot others in the back for giggles?

 

Not even mentioning any practical problems for even an actual team-player squad, like daggers being an awfully appropriate topic, because you would be risking when bringing anything other with a reach long enough to accidentally shank your squadmate with your swing. And forget explosive weapons and mods.

 

*reads the source thread*

 

...You mean some versions of this idea include frame powers too!!?

 

Lol. Max power range Excalibur.

Edited February 17, 2015 by IronRoby

[(PSN)MrNishi]

These Community Hot Topics are very PC-biased.

I assume the R5 Cores are better and hopefully represent pack size based on Void tower. T1-1, T2-2, T3-3, T4-4 (or 5)

Friendly-Fire...would be excessive trolling at best. Radiation Proc is bad enough (especially in Archwing) as is Muralist Alad V mind controlling and killing a 3 players out of the squad...

I like the Nekros Changes, keep them coming...

Daggers, Fist, and Sparring seem to be on the short end of the melee-stick, literally. They lack the reach to connect with large mobs and keep hit counter active. (Risk vs Reward for using a shorter reach and weaker hitting melee weapon....sometimes slower as well) Melee 2.0 reduced the attack speed of a lot of weapons (Obex...cry) and Wall attacks are not fluid or practical compared to Spin-attack or directional air-melee. (Melee 2.0 also removed 1,100 base Obex/Kogake Wall attack....Struggle)

-Compared to the Axes and Hammer (Heavy Weapon) buff; several melee weapon classes seem like pillows (over exaggeration): Scythes, Daggers, Fist, Sparring, Claws, Tonfas, Sword&Shield, and Machete weapons... (Aside from Aesthetics, there is no real reason to use these weapons in Tower 4 to tickle heavy Gunners while eating Lanka face-shots and Bombard rockets...)

I was fine with Rakta Ballistica 5Forma and on PS4 so still Impact damage

The status and Crit deficit in comparison to all other Syndicate weapons is what really had the Rakta as the odd ball out especially since it cannot be recolored. A Crit buff is always a welcomed change. (Velocitus Crit stats would make me happy 25% Crit chance and 3.0 multiplier...leave status as is...this would match Red Veil looking Wraith variants with increased Crit chance)

I may Conclave but am a little indifferent about PvP. Balanced PvP is always a good thing though ;-)

[IronRoby]

Also, didn't the cited source threads for friendly fire already contain mostly "are you high?" and trololo feedback?

 

What sort of a grassroots community initiative gets taken up after receiving mostly negative feedback from the community?

Edited February 17, 2015 by IronRoby

[iamnuff1]

>Friendly Fire

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

 

Dear god, please tell me you're joking.

 

Do you have any idea how much damage our weapons do compared to our HP? One Hit Kills for days man

 

The amount of Chat/Forum Rage and the sheer number of teamkilling trolls would utterly drown your game in a tide of S#&$ the likes of which have never been seen before.

[CatPhoenix]

Cores,

I don't mind the core changes that much, but please make it so you get more than one uncommon core when rewarded.  Every time get an uncommon core as a reward, I want to throw up a little.

 

Friendly fire in a game where most people have their weapons so strong, it could a player in seconds... yeah that will not go well.

 

As for things that would make me play Conclave, you see, when you play almost any game type in Warframe, you get xp and you get stuff.  For all this Conclave stuff, you get absolutely nothing but support the dark sectors, which reduce the grind and, to be very honest, I have not played in months.  And I know, you cannot really put rewards on these things because people will just game the system to get everything but something has to be done.  Most of my time playing these days has been for either syndicate medallion searching or getting any void parts that I can for whatever exclusive one time appearing items the void trader will sell this time.  The amount of time/effort needed to get all of these ducats is a bit crazy.  I'll probably just have to forgo that I won't have every shiny weapon/mod in the game and simply move on now, his exclusive deals will be the death of me.

[Janzer]

Performing well in a broken, poorly designed game system doesn't speak to someone's ability to talk game balance.  DE is rebuilding PvP balance from the ground up for a reason.

 

You don't understand but you're responding in a fair way, so I'll respond in a fair way, even though I have ZERO PvP experience. The point of using a person that has accumulated x amount of hours and x amount of skill, where x is really high....means that they understand the mechanics of the game better than a person that has y amount of hours and y amount of skill, where y is really low.

 

Rompido is a well known PvP player as are 2 of the people mentioned as sources. The third link, that person that is pointing out EXACT changes as if they understand every aspect BUT doesn't elaborate on how those changes are or aren't needed, and clearly isn't supported in replies.

 

For example Volt's Electric Shock stating doesn't need a change (we all saw how OP it was during the devstream). I'm not even a PvP player, but I main Volt. I know the basic mechanics of how it applies to PvE, and during the devstream you could hear the frustration of how it was being used as a cheap tactic to get kills. No one would say that such a skill should remain unchanged, if they had put in the time and effort required to skill up and be good at a certain game mode.

 

The current PvP vets understand what the cheap mechanics are and have created a meta of what weapons, abilities (if any), and tactics are allowed in a gentlemanly fashion, for a "fair fight". It's what they've had to develop over time in order to have some kind of skill based victories.

 

If I were the devs, I'd listen to what they have to say. If I were the PvP vets, I'd elaborate and advocate for change, the same way I advocate for melee changes because I main melee in PvE.

[WaRDeMoN787]

What is your opinion on the R5 Fusion Core changes?

 

I think the changes are ok, but need tweaking. (Post your explanation below)

I like what you've done, however....I was thinking. For the lower tier missions why not add 5x uncommon cores and 5x common cores. As a player I feel like there's just always so much to level up, especially with how fast you guys produce content (which isn't a bad thing, but I find myself falling behind at times because there's always a new primed mod around the corner).

 

Do you think friendly fire would add a fun challenge to certain mission types?

 

Yes, it would be fun in some missions.

 

And by this, I mean with friends. I feel like private matches would be best to use this game type. Whether it's shooting your friend in the butt with a lex prime for some laughs or taking it as a serious challenge and working together to get through the map. I could see this as a game type that could drastically improve team work and player skill if used correctly.

 

Public? Hell no!

 

Do you think the recent Nekros changes have made his abilities more useful?

 

Yes, the changes have made his abilities more useful. He is well-balanced now.

 

I honestly never expected him to get a buff. I never saw his character as someone who was offense, but instead defense. Soul punch is probably his only offensive move (I love not having to stand still anymore). However, terrify is amazing to use when trying to aid a fellow tenno who is downed. Desecrate increases drops, but more importantly gives a lot more health helping players last a lot longer. And his fourth ability allows him to bring out fodder. It's perfect to do in excavation, when the enemies are all attacking the drill, defense when the core is under siege and even a great distraction when a team mate is trying to help another tenno up. For the people who think his 4th ability needs to be stronger, I disagree. Maybe because of the way I play with him, but I don't think he needs much more tweaking.

 

In your opinion, how do daggers compare to other melee weapon types, overall?

 

Overall, daggers are roughly equal to other melee weapon types.

 

I feel some daggers can be as good, however very few. When considering melee weapons for my frames I rarely pick daggers if I plan to go into a game I feel I'll be in for a long time. However, I'll experiment with and play with other daggers in lesser, non-serious missions.

 

In your opinion, are the recent Rakta Ballistica changes sufficient to balance it with other syndicate weapons and/or secondary weapons?

 

No opinion on this topic.

 

Will you be more inclined to play Conclave with the upcoming changes?

 

Maybe, I’m not sure if I will play Conclave.

 

I've always enjoyed playing in the dojo but was always to afraid to venture into the real pvp because I felt like I would face nothing but bolter primes (like everyone had seemed to complain about in the forums) but I've always wanted to. Maybe with the new revamped pvp I'll give it a try.

 

It'd be neat to build a conclave room in your dojo that you could modify and invite other clans to vs. you in those room, and vice versa. The aspect would be like sports, where a team could have the home field advantage, while the opposing team coming into a domain would have the experience of playing on a unique level they would have never played in normal conclave.

 

Anyway, that's my two-cents.

 

Thanks for listening DE!

Edited February 17, 2015 by WaRDeMoN787

[ThePresident777]

The Core Issue:

1)  So with that in mind, what is your opinion on the changes to R5 core rewards?

Not sure.  There are over arching problems and this change seems dwarfed by them.

2)  Do you like that R5 cores are easier to get without spending void keys?

Yes.  Is it the preferable method?  Not sure.  Bigger issues loom overhead.

3)  Are there other changes that you would like to see made?

Oh, where shall I begin? The Real Core Issue, the galactic 800 dwarf star gorrilla in the room is that missions, maps, enemies, etc., are not beiing treated as game play, which is what they are, but as vending machines instead, which is what they are not.

Go here, fight this, do this, for these treats.  Go there, fight that, do that, for those treats.  This game play is more rewarding for stuff than that game play.  The assignement of rewards and loot is arbitrary, even if systematic.  There is no game play reason for any of this.  There is no reason why one form of game play should be a superior vending machince to another form of game play.  Arbitrary decisions are a matter of taste and should be left to the players to make as an expression of their freedom and enjoyment, their purpose for playing a game, other wise the develpoer is clashing with the players for no reason at all.

It suits my personal taste that survival rewards R5 Core Packs.  But, what about people who do not like those missions?  What if I get temporarily bored of my favorite stuff and want a temporary change of scenery?  Why should that be loot dependent?

If DE doesn't want players to stop hammer the same spot all the time then claming that the game is boring because all they do is that, then it has to stop making the players choose game play over rewards.

It's one thing if a player likes only a particular game play.  They are happy there.  But, if players are willing to try different stuff but they are punished for it with weaker rewards/loot, or punished with boring game play for the rewards/loot they want, then DE is creating the problem, not the players.

The conveniance model is not dependent or supported by making rewards/loot game play dependent and restricting player's freedom to enjoy different game play.  Rewards/loot are inherently and simply a matter of time.  Conveniance is a matter of time.  So, it serves no purpose to have these arbitrary and unfair game play based reward/loot distributions when time is all that is neccessary.

Piling boredom on top of impatience makes one question if it's worth even spending money.  What are you actually buying?  Does it get you what you really want?  Is one so turned off by the experience that spending money seems like giving in to extortion?  Futile?  What are we really investing in?

This segues into the other other massive problem at the base of Warframe, the lack of investment, the obsolescence.  But, I'll let that go for now.

Friendly Fire:

1)  How do you think friendly fire would change how you play Warframe?

It really depends on the details.  But, I'm not anti-FF as a rule.

2)  Would you enjoy the challenge of friendly fire in certain missions types?

Depending on circumstances, absolutely.

3)  If so, what missions types do you think would benefit from it?

I don't see FF as being mission specific.  It looks like a universally applicable option to me.  Who enjoys it comes down to details.

FF would be an interesting experiment at the very least.  It would help people crystalize their opinions on various mechanics.  In my opinion, I can't see how that is anything but pure win.  There are a lot of complaints on the forums but not very many well written ones.  Giving people specific choices to make and discuss would help make feedback more clear.  

It has this same value with PvP.  It is related to PvP in the obvious way.  But, the different circumstances really do matter as in PvP you want to hurt other Tenno, but in FF you do not, at least circumstantially.  It's a totaaly different skill set.

Of course, who wouldn't laugh when a score hog routinely cuts off your gun fire for points and gets themselves killed?  But, that has consequences for the team in clutch play.  When the team is pushing their limit, it becomes obvious who is not playing coop when they routinely get themselves killed with their score hogging strategies.

FF would add more dimension to the game, new loudouts, and require skill for success.

This really should be emphasised, FF requires skill.  People complain that Warframe requires no skill.  FF will put that to the test, allow them to crystalize their thoughts on the matter, and give them an outlet for skill.

 

What if the question were:  should DE never ever under any circumstance ever make a game with FF in it?  Would that be considered a serious question?  It seems to me that it has no place in the modern gaming world where games are self published and the core of the game is the concept, the world.  There is no reason why the core concept of Warframe cannot have FF, PvP, strategy, plush toys, kitchen sinks, whatever.  It's all really a matter of marketing.  The better question is, can DE find a worth while market for FF Warfame.  To ask if this current player base prefers FF or not is the final question.  Market's for FF clearly exist.  The question is, can DE break into that satisfactorily?  Can DE get more customers for more game elements than what they currently have in Warframe?  In what ways can DE expand the Warframe player base?  If the current player base is not very keen on FF or PvP or whatever, that does not rule out the possibility of success nor does it dictate throwing out one player base for another.

 

Nekros Changes Aftermath:

1)  Do you think the recent changes to these two abilities make them more valuable?

 

Yes, except Soul Punch.

 

2)  If not, what other changes do you think are necessary?

 

Hmm, I don't know, have Soul Punch create voodoo dolls?

 

As long as abilities like Soul Punch do at the cost of energy what weapons do energy free, they will be useless.

 

3)  Do you think Nekros’ is well-balanced now?

Nekros waves his hands.  Bodies turn into candy.  That's his purpose.  I don't see what balance has got to do with it.

 

Daggers:

1)  Do you think daggers should infer a bonus while stealthing?

The primary difference between daggers and not-daggers is size.  They are tiny swords.  On account of their smaller size, they are more portable, more manuverable, and more concealable because less weight and bulk, less mass, than larger objects of the same density, and less reach.

But, reach, speed, and manueverability are irrelevant in Warframe stealth attacks so I don't see how daggers could be any better or worse in stealth than any other melee weapon in Warframe.  

Nor, do I think I want them to be any better or worse because of the implications.  The purpose of a Warframe is to grant super human ability to it's wearer.  Introducing real world scale to Tenno ability defeats the purpose of the game.  If you can't manipulate a giant hammer as deftly as a letter openner while wearing a Warframe, then, what is the purpose of wearing a Warframe?  If you can wield a giant hammer as deftly as a letter opener than what does that imply about the letter opener in the hands of a Warframe wearing Tenno?  It implies blinding speed.

2)  In your opinion, what should the bonus be?

Speed, manueverability, and reach are the only possibilities I see available.

3)  How do you think daggers compare to other melee weapons, overall?

They're all on the lowest half, many even lowest third, of the unmodded DPS range by my calculations and recollection.

They're all bizzarly as slow or slower than larger weapons.

Their current implementation in Warframe makes absolutley no sense.   They aught to be much much faster and the increased speed should make up for the decreased mass so that they are as viable in terms of DPS compared to a larger, hence slower, weapon, trading off damage per stab for more stabs.

They appear unwanted, purposeless, like shotguns, slighted for no reason at all.

Daggers expose a contradiction in Warframe.  On the one hand, they imply maximum speed.  On the other hand, Warframes themselves imply super human speed.  On another limb, giant weapons.  DE seems to be avoiding super human speed here despite what the game implies.

4)  Should they have a niche purpose or should they be comparative to other melee weapons in all circumstances?

They should be the most manueverable weapons in the game, a virtually weightless extension of the hand, converting the hand into a slashing or puncturing implement of the highest speed and manueverablity, implied by Space Ninja, implied by Warframe.

Rakta Ballitica:

1)  What are your thoughts on the recent Rakta changes?

No real difference.

2)  Are they appropriate or are there additional changes you would suggest?

It's a niche weapon appropriate for it's nitch.

It seems that 100% viral proc would double the DPS, but it's more complicated than that because it takes time to prime the proc and wait the ensuing time out.  It has a rythm.

It seems that the people complaining do not want to play a support role by running around with the weapon in hand so the team can set off the explosion while the weapon carrier tickles the enemy or relies on quick melee.

My gut feeling is that the easiest thing to do about this is:
1)  Leave Rakta Ballistica as is.  Make the following changes to the next upcoming Red Veal weapon.  This way we'll have a means to compare possibilities.
2)  Increase the DPS into the same range as the other syndicate weapons.
3)  Change the damage type to (cleansing) fire.

Upcoming Conclave Changes:

1)  How would you improve the Conclave?

No clue.  I don't PvP in Warframe.  Tried it twice and it made no sense to me.  It was devoid of the 4 Tenno Devastate Massive Armies that I know and play Warframe for.

2)  Do you think you’ll PvP more with the balance changes that are coming?

I'll try it but I can't guarantee it.  I'm not anti-PvP.  I've done a lot of it over the years.

3)  Do you like the idea of restricting conclave gear? Do you like the idea to have separate balance for PvP and PvE?

Definitely need different rules for PvP vs. PvE as they each have a different premise.  If boss battles have different rules than 4 Tenno Devastate Massive Enemy Army, then why wouldn't boss vs. boss (which is what Tenno vs. Tenno essentialy is)?
 

Edited February 17, 2015 by ThePresident777

[gkuoni]

If friendly fire were to be added, then it should be minimalistic and should not be able to kill allies. It should also be that melee, abilities, aoe and elemental statuses should not affect or damage allies in any way, however melee should allow allies to stack up combo points.

[Vinidy]

so..I dont usually comment...as i think most of the points r covered by my fellow tenno here....but this time with the idea of *Friendly Fire*....i thought that it was fr me to say......and fr me this idea is a big NO

friendly fire will just ruin this game...totally...Warframe is nt buld like that.....

I dnt want to be doing a exterminate and get killed by my friend using rhino stomp when we getting overcrowded.....and this is one of many other examples my fellow tenno have given.....With this i want to tell DE to plzz frgt abt this idea and keep working on making warframe better..!!!

Edited February 17, 2015 by Vinidy

[Padreic]

I have to agree with the prevailing opinion on friendly fire: absolutely not!  If you allow players to hurt other players, trolling will make the game pretty much unplayable in random groups.  If you only give NPCs the ability to hurt players, we will just kill them as soon as a match starts.  NPC allies are nothing but bullet sponges anyway, and the AI is not sophisticated enough to keep them from being obnoxious as it is.  In fact, some of us might welcome friendly fire for NPCs *just* for the opportunity to kill them off.  Speaking of which...

 

Shadows of the Dead is more useful than it was, but still annoying.  The shadows might not block movement or line of fire, but they still block line of sight.  I would suggest a complete overhaul.  I would recommend having the Nekros use the "captured souls" to power a creation (or at most two) of his own, combining some of the abilities of the original souls.  So you would create (for example) a hulking shadow with a beam weapon and shield regeneration if you'd killed some Corpus, or a healing pulse and melee knockdown if you've been fighting corrupted ancients.  You'd create a much stronger and less trivial NPC, and much less visual detritus on the screen.  If you make it useful enough, we might even care enough to try to keep it alive.

[xxxxxxjessica]

ran a ton of T3Survivals, last one ran was 50 some odd minutes and there were still no nova drops...all i kept getting were orkin cells and oberon drops. its beginning to get frustrating. im tired of playing and never getting the parts i need. would be nice if the problem could be fixed.

[Scubet]

With the rakta balistica, ive only used the regular balistica but im sure this still applies, make it so the is no delay for the next time we can charge up shots or fire a next wave of bolts, that was a big issue for me personally, where I would click to charge my next shot but couldnt yet. That made me annoyed with the weapon, fix that, and youve got a happy camper

[Aggh]

You don't understand but you're responding in a fair way, so I'll respond in a fair way, even though I have ZERO PvP experience. The point of using a person that has accumulated x amount of hours and x amount of skill, where x is really high....means that they understand the mechanics of the game better than a person that has y amount of hours and y amount of skill, where y is really low.

 

Rompido is a well known PvP player as are 2 of the people mentioned as sources. The third link, that person that is pointing out EXACT changes as if they understand every aspect BUT doesn't elaborate on how those changes are or aren't needed, and clearly isn't supported in replies.

 

For example Volt's Electric Shock stating doesn't need a change (we all saw how OP it was during the devstream). I'm not even a PvP player, but I main Volt. I know the basic mechanics of how it applies to PvE, and during the devstream you could hear the frustration of how it was being used as a cheap tactic to get kills. No one would say that such a skill should remain unchanged, if they had put in the time and effort required to skill up and be good at a certain game mode.

 

The current PvP vets understand what the cheap mechanics are and have created a meta of what weapons, abilities (if any), and tactics are allowed in a gentlemanly fashion, for a "fair fight". It's what they've had to develop over time in order to have some kind of skill based victories.

 

If I were the devs, I'd listen to what they have to say. If I were the PvP vets, I'd elaborate and advocate for change, the same way I advocate for melee changes because I main melee in PvE.

There's very little skill to PvP as it stands.  It's a low ttk mess with stunlocks and cheap tricks that make actual skill pretty meaingless.  The problems that it has are so incredibly basic (and kind of embarassing considering DE's experience as one of the creators of UT) that they make any excess time spent playing it meaningless.  Also, since it is being built from the ground up, PvP "vets''' experience is even more meaingless.

 

An example to further illustrate my point: When hidden path entertainment consulted with professionals when working on CS:GO, it made sense.  These are people who are paid to play in international tournaments in a proven franchise that is at the pinnacle of competitive gaming.  It makes sense to consult with them, they are a proven commodity. It doesn't make sense to consult with people diddling around in a broken, largely ignored game mode. Warframe PvP is not a game that has fostered an actually competitive community and consequently people who play it exclusively aren't that amazing well of game balance info that you make them out to be.

Edited February 18, 2015 by Aggh

[Rakshal]

There's very little skill to PvP as it stands.

Instantly lost you. Maybe you should look up some conclave videos and see actually how much skill it takes, or better yet, go into Europa conclave and fight a few pros and see how much skill it takes.