May 15Th: Community Hot Topics!

[[DE]Danielle]

Event/Tactical Alert Rewards

Oranji’s hot topic asked the community whether or not they would like to resurrect past event weapons to spice up player rewards. With a focus on the Wraith and Vandal sets, the Tenno weighed in and gave their two plat on how it should be done.

 

What is the best kind of reward? Would you like to see old weapons return, or do you prefer new? How do you feel about event specific rewards? What other rewards would you like to see us dig out of the time capsule for future Events and Tactical Alerts? 

 

Source thread:

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/449388-wraith-vandal-weapons-of-the-past/

 

 

Precision Aim Damage

Are you a sharp shooter, Tenno? This particular hot topic suggests an armor system that would allow you to deal additional damage to a weakened armored part of the enemy. For example, shooting a Heavy Gunner’s leg would drastically decrease the armor of that particular spot, allowing you to deal increasingly more damage if shot again. Paired with  some Arcane Enhancements that reward accuracy on headshots, the compounded damage output would stop enemies dead in their tracks!

 

Do you like the idea of integrating more skill-orientated combat features? Would it make the game more challenging? Should it look visually similar to Banshee’s “Sonar” ability? Post your suggestions in the thread.

 

Source thread:

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/427382-break-off-that-armor/

 

 

Baro Ki'Teer Offerings

The Void Trader has been a hot topic in the Forums since he first surfaced in the Relays. Deshiel’s thread had the community speculate the Trader’s next offers, which lead to over 400 replies! With the community’s responses fresh in mind, I compiled a list in the poll for you to choose your preferred Void Trader items. Please post your suggestions in this thread!

 

Source thread:

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/431036-void-trader-will-bring-something-new/

 

 

Grineer Manic Enemies

After exploding onto the Warframe scene, the Manic Bombard has made some interesting first impressions! Ishiki88 shared his experience with this new Grineer unit and started the discussion in the source thread. We understand not everyone has come across this grenade throwing foe, so we thought we’d direct the discussion to Manics in general!

 

Have you enjoyed this new enemy type? How would you rate their difficulty level? What type of Manic would you like to see in the future? “Tyl” us what you think!

 

Source thread:

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/456396-manic-bombard-first-impressions/

 

 

(PS. Do not fear for the Crewman shall return from birthday festivities!)

[Tyreuzs]

Hell No! to more manic types!

Edited May 15, 2015 by Tyreuzs

[Drunkenbagel]

Hell YES to more manic types!

 

FTFY

[TDS0Spoderman]

We dont need manic enemies to be the new "eximus something" units , keep them rare 

[KingTaro]

Would you like to deal increased damage to enemies by weakening specific parts of their armor?

As long as it's melee friendly.

Because right now, melee is at a huge disadvantage against the enemies that require precise aiming, such as Ruk, Lephantis, Lech Kril,...

[Krion112]

For 'Other' void trader stuff, I'd put Specters and Gear. Not sure what exactly these would involve, but if he'd sell some kind of Specters or specialized gear with certain effects that aren't just restores, that'd be great.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Krion112

[Blackout751]

Event rewards tend to be good - Wraith / Vandal weapons, with an inventory slot and catalyst, are awesome to have as upgraded versions - but sometimes it's rather strange. Sheev and skins for weapons like Paracyst (generally underpowered) or Fluctus (near unobtainable without platinum) aren't great to have, to be honest. Tactical alert rewards are often good aside from the Christmas sigils, and I'm not a fan of bringing back old limited-type weapons through tactical alerts because it means we just get a repeated rotation.

 

Weakening armour is an interesting idea, but considering our power it's not going to be useful on any enemies but heavy ones which we find difficult to kill at levels we meet our match in.

 

Baro Ki'Teer's offerings are pretty cool as they are, I just wish Electric status mods weren't only from him. I'd like more expansions, particularly in skins - Prisma Excalibur, anyone?

 

I'd prefer to keep the Manic-type enemies to the Underwater lab tileset and only when the alarm is raised, personally. The idea of each tileset having enemies unique to them seems pretty cool to me.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Blackout751

[unknow99]

Armors : Yes ! Add to this a system of wound detection (where armor parts get visually destroyed) and I'm all for it!!

 

I find it strange that enemies stay with a clean appearance even when they're half dead & received bolts,rockets & melee slashes....

[Cpl_Facehugger]

On the manics:

 

I really, really liked the manic bombard. He's fun to fight without being terrible, he doesn't have the flaws of the normal manic (ie stunlock, invincibility frames, 200 damage/sec slash procs through shields), and he's generally a solid part of the game that I hope shows up more often in the future.

 

However, I don't think he should be a manic for stylistic reasons. Manics are crazy debased grineer produced by Dr. Tengus in the Gustrag facility. Manic Bombards are Regor's vaunted Tubemen, grineer who are smarter, stronger, and deadlier than normal grineer. Not beings given over to pure rage, they should be more... Professional, I think. It's purely a audio/visual thing. but I don't think Tubemen should use manic helmets and voices because they aren't manics. They're wholly separate units, and they should be treated as such.

 

I will say that having tested out some manic bombards in the simulacrum area, they are way, way better when you're not trapped in close quarters. Their grenades can be dodged but are punishing if you don't, which is exactly as things should be. Their movement abilities give them a different flavor than most other enemies, and they really shine in wider open terrain. They actually *feel*, behaviorally, like elite super-grineer, which is exactly what they should do.

 

As for the Void trader:

 

I said I wanted more mods (and more guns, of course), but I want to talk about a caveat. Namely, I want mods that are actually useful to my builds and which are not recycled from the past. This means no primed slip magazine, no jolt, etc. (Jolt and the other tethra mods should be on the starmap; as something core to a great many builds, they should be easily farmed just like the ice/fire dual stat mods.)

 

Basically, if it's a primed mod, it's taking up 528 rare5 cores to max, along with several million credits. The benefit absolutely has to be worthwhile for that level of expenditure. Primed streamline? Yeah. I could get behind maxing that. Primed ammo drum or its pistol equivalent? I'm more insulted. Maybe if they offered something like +200% ammo supply or +200% magazine or something; something that would seriously affect the handling and build of the gun or frame in question. Basically, void trader is an endgame mechanic, so his offerings should cater primarily to endgame players. The current tempo (ie every two weeks he brings one new item of value, a cosmetic, and some repeats for people who missed him before) is good, it's just he needs to offer better offerings instead of utter garbage like prime slip mag ala last visit.

 

For the armor system: As long as it can be made melee friendly, I think this would be an amazing thing to add to the game. In this way, the obscene enemy armor scaling can be mitigated through skillful play, and it might even break the monopoly corrosive projection has on endgame play.

 

On event rewards: I'm of two minds. I like giving new players a chance to get old event rewards, but I'm not going to lie, doing the murderdoge alert was disappointing because I already had a strun wraith and bite mod, and apparently my stratos emblem isn't levelling up any more. It'd be nice if new events gave the old gun as well as a new one, similar to how this year's anniversary gave us dex dakra and last year's dex furis. This way vets who've been here forever like me don't feel let down.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Cpl_Facehugger

[TriggerHappyWhiteGuy]

When the Prime Trader came out it took like 1000-1500 ducats every 2 weeks. But I made sure I got everything so these last few months I think I have only spent 1500 ducats. It took months to spend that amount to get every single thing I did not already have. I still have a good amount of ducats and dont see a point in trading any more prime parts for ducats. At this rate I have enough to last me a few more months. My point is that we should get a ducat sink for those players to spend whatever extra ducats they have left over and have a reason to look forward to the void trader as he only shows up every two weeks.

 

We need him to have "Common Items" stuff that he will have every single time when he shows up. My example is Primed Fusion Cores equal energy of 25 Rare fusion cores? People could use these and spend any or all of their extra ducats on them. These would show up every single time with the prime trader and be a ducat sink. So even if we get all repeat stuff at least we can use our ducats on something worth while and feel like we waited 2 weeks for nothing.  

[(PSN)WiiConquered]

Manic enemies, if handled correctly, could represent a positive shift for Warframe's difficulty. Instead of just slapping bigger numbers onto enemies' effective health, higher levels could have more challenging enemies with additional powers. This would also make progression feel more meaningful, as instead of getting stronger only to face the exact same enemies, players could get stronger to truly take on more difficult ones.

There would still need to be some changes. I would suggest adding a new type of enemy (Mimics?) that would bridge the gap between the rare Manics and common enemies, adding more abilities with a lower TTK and damage. These could effectively replace heavies at high levels (again, offering more meaning to progression), while making up a larger portion of normal troops at those levels.

[MechaKnight]

For events, I would appreciate older weapons and mods coming into circulation periodically. It would give balance to the community.

 

Precision aim damage sounds great. It could give purpose to snipers, and give risk to using Heavy Caliber. I'm not sure how or if shotguns would benefit from such a change.

 

So long as Baro Ki'Teer's items flow it at a steady rate, I appreciate them.

 

More manic enemies sounds great. Just balance them to the current infrequency of manics as they spawn now. Alternatively, implementing them to spawn at higher levels as a form of enemy progress sounds great.

Edited May 15, 2015 by MechaKnight

[Cpl_Facehugger]

We need him to have "Common Items" stuff that he will have every single time when he shows up. My example is Primed Fusion Cores equal energy of 25 Rare fusion cores? People could use these and spend any or all of their extra ducats on them. These would show up every single time with the prime trader and be a ducat sink. So even if we get all repeat stuff at least we can use our ducats on something worth while and feel like we waited 2 weeks for nothing.  

 

I just wanna say this is brilliant. Primed fusion cores worth a decent number of rare5s? That would go a long way towards making a lot of vets less disappointed in Baro's offerings.

[MrPie5]

I'm okay with the manics as long as they don't have periods of invincibility like our original manic.

[skull755]

more  manic-types

 

[(PSN)THREEKLAW]

I think that precision aiming should be incorporated much more. Presently, accuracy isn't often a huge issue, but I think if some enemies were more vulnerable in some place or were specifically vulnerable in a few spots, it would make weapon accuracy and how we engage enemies more interesting. While I enjoy "spray and pray" gunplay, I believe players should benefit from precision shooting.  So maybe not all enemy types, but I think especially on deadly enemies with high DPS attacks, there should be at least a weak point that is extra effective.  I realize that some of this functionality already exists in the game: I do think there should be more though.  Especially now that Simarus has a mod specifically for this to put on Helios. 

[4ever4gotin]

Tac alerts/rewards:

- Most are challenging and give pretty adequate rewards (whether they are cosmetics, stances, mods, weapons or items). It is a fun addition in between updates.

 

Weaken armor:

- I saw this thread a while back and I adore the concept, maybe blast can rise up by having an additional effect of blowing off multiple pieces of armor! Definitely want to see added mechanics to deal with scaling.

 

Baro all the tears:

- This man, this abomination, is the bringer of disappointment. As much as the vote says about what people want, I know to never expect anything great now. Which is a terrible shame, when you think about it, as the Arbiters of Hexis would put it "A shame to see such potential, squandered"

 

He's a Manic!

- Sure WHY NOT! As long as you change the invincibility periods on the Original Manic to simply high damage reduction AND impliment a method for us to fight/shake off the Manic before he claws you to death then do whatever you want.

Edited May 16, 2015 by 4ever4gotin

[BAR_GUNNER]

On the topic of Manics, I feel like we should have more enemies like it, but just don't give them invulnerability. They should have some kind of variant that aren't melee focused, maybe like a beefed up Lancer or Sniper unit that when you try to melee it, it will teleport out of the way most times and strike from behind. Also cloaking enemies are also something to expand on since we don't have many of them.

Edited May 15, 2015 by BAR_GUNNER

[Krak_Nihilus]

I'm all for more manic like enemies if DE would finally stop trying to prolong our fight with those units. Grineer Manic has invulnerability, Manic Bombard luckily doesn't have that. But guess what he has? Damage caps. A single shot can't do more damage than 435 to him, and that's on a headshot. Everywhere else it's half of it. And it doesn't change with level. A level 5 manic bombard due to this takes 2 shots from a 4 forma Paris Prime to kill. I didn't have nearly enough ammo to kill a level 65 Manic Bombard. 

 

DE please stop punishing low fire rate-high damage weapons all the time, I see that you got a liking in things like this.

[Unknown924]

Manics: As long as they are more like the Manic Bombard than the current Manic - aka no abusive invulnerability phases while attacking.

I think the Manic Bombard was an excellent enemy - highly mobile and dangerous without abusing invulnerability.  The challenge is to hit him instead of having to hit and deal with invulnerability at the same time.

 

Void Trader:  He either needs to offer a lot more when he visits or visit a lot more frequently.  I would argue for having him available all the time with older items that rotate weekly.  New items can keep the every two weeks for a few days availability.  Once the items are a month or two old they should join the weekly rotation.

 

The number of items he offers at any given time needs to increase as his pool of potential items grows larger.  Perhaps make make him offer ~10%(or more) of his stock each visit.

 

Either way a balance needs to be found between new vs old items, otherwise the issues with the trader will only increase as time goes by.

[VKhaun]

Precision Aim Damage

Are you a sharp shooter, Tenno? This particular hot topic suggests an armor system that would allow you to deal additional damage to a weakened armored part of the enemy. For example, shooting a Heavy Gunner’s leg would drastically decrease the armor of that particular spot, allowing you to deal increasingly more damage if shot again. Paired with  some Arcane Enhancements that reward accuracy on headshots, the compounded damage output would stop enemies dead in their tracks!

 

Do you like the idea of integrating more skill-orientated combat features? Would it make the game more challenging? Should it look visually similar to Banshee’s “Sonar” ability? Post your suggestions in the thread.

 

Source thread:

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/427382-break-off-that-armor/

 

I think you'll see a lot of support for this because the game has a big void when it comes to any sort of conditional effects. The very first conditional effects we've had since headshots were the arcane enhancements which are still chance based.

 

Adding conditional effects should not be done through enemy design IMO because it's either dictated to the player (specific points) or by other players (shooting points) and so does not really feel conditional in practice.

 

It should be done through AoE and player controlled abilities of decent duration (sonar -> anyone can see the opportunity on any enemy) or through the mod system (personal mod choice -> personal choices in-game -> personal playstyle).

 

I would gladly welcome more animations where armor flies off, such as with the Corpus helmets, but associating it with a debuff is not going to turn the game into precision fire IMO. The only consequence I see is that the animators/artists will get a lot of praise and the rest of DE will probably get a lot of blowback from people who like low RoF weapons, who are already hurting because of nullifies.

 

Maybe against a SPECIFIC BOSS this could be a thing. High RoF weapon breaks armor -> low RoF weapon uses some kind of special scaling multiplier that rewards damage-per-hit to deal lots of damage in a short window where it's vulnerable(?) but I'm not seeing it as an improvement for shooting at Lancers and Bombards on the go.

Edited May 15, 2015 by VKhaun

[DJ_Redwire]

The concept of manics is great - but their execution at the moment is poor. Specifically the act of teleporting. I would LOVE if manics were simply very fast moving units, but unfortunately right now they are not. Their tenancy to teleport (and very abstractly mind you) is not an engaging mechanic, and more time is spent waiting around for them to pop back up than actually fighting them. I believe if they were just very fast runners, I would look forward to actually facing them instead of standing around for several minutes waiting for it to pop out for me to shoot at once and then disappear again. Right now they are more annoying and time consuming than scary or threatening.

 

I encourage more manics, but they need to be fixed first.

Edited May 15, 2015 by DJ_Redwire

[Mcl_Blue]

"What is the best kind of reward? Would you like to see old weapons return, or do you prefer new? How do you feel about event specific rewards? What other rewards would you like to see us dig out of the time capsule for future Events and Tactical Alerts?"

I feel that, with the recent return of the Strun Wraith, we might have actually reached a pretty good solution for this. Events, IMO, should always bring something new. I mean, events are usually big deal, there's a moderate amount of hype surrounding it, there's usually something important ab out it, like some important new lore, a potentially game-changing incident, the ever-so-awaited boss reworks... They're way too important to have repeated rewards.

 

On the other hand, I feel like the Tactical Alerts are like "junior events". They're smaller, usually faster, there's not nearly as much hubbub around them as there is an event, and they're also more frequent. I think they are ideal for featuring returning rewards, if we're gonna have that.

 

"Do you like the idea of integrating more skill-orientated combat features? Would it make the game more challenging? Should it look visually similar to Banshee’s “Sonar” ability? Post your suggestions in the thread."

This is something that, while a neat idea, shouldn't be overdone. I think a few specific units should have this, so that it adds to the challenge instead of being trivialized. I mean, we kinda already have this with the Corpus Crewman helmets, and that's already a great example of how such a mechanic could be trivialized by sheer firepower. On them, it's not much more than a neat gimmick that we see every now and then. So in short, my fear is that, should this be overdone, weak units become even weaker with this feature on.

 

"Have you enjoyed this new enemy type? How would you rate their difficulty level? What type of Manic would you like to see in the future? “Tyl” us what you think!"

We dont need manic enemies to be the new "eximus something" units , keep them rare 

My thoughts exactly. While the sight of the Manic Bombard felt... interesting... to me, the idea of making Manic variants of other enemy units feels like it opens up TOO MANY possibilities, culminating in what was quoted above. Furthermore:

 

I really, really liked the manic bombard. He's fun to fight without being terrible, he doesn't have the flaws of the normal manic (ie stunlock, invincibility frames, 200 damage/sec slash procs through shields), and he's generally a solid part of the game that I hope shows up more often in the future.

 

However, I don't think he should be a manic for stylistic reasons. Manics are crazy debased grineer produced by Dr. Tengus in the Gustrag facility. Manic Bombards are Regor's vaunted Tubemen, grineer who are smarter, stronger, and deadlier than normal grineer. Not beings given over to pure rage, they should be more... Professional, I think. It's purely a audio/visual thing. but I don't think Tubemen should use manic helmets and voices because they aren't manics. They're wholly separate units, and they should be treated as such.

 

I will say that having tested out some manic bombards in the simulacrum area, they are way, way better when you're not trapped in close quarters. Their grenades can be dodged but are punishing if you don't, which is exactly as things should be. Their movement abilities give them a different flavor than most other enemies, and they really shine in wider open terrain. They actually *feel*, behaviorally, like elite super-grineer, which is exactly what they should do.

100% agreed. Not only does the unit feel more like what it's supposed to be, as opposed to a Manic variant, as described above, but also I feel that any cool new units that should come out of this trail of thought ("Manic-sizing" existent units) should also have the above logic applied to them.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Mcl_BlueMadness

[GinKenshin]

DEDanielle is the new DEDrew??? XD 

he's gotta be at his B day party, happy B day Drew ^^ and nice to see you Danielle 



nice topics too, glad DE has realized they need to ask us about what baro needs to bring >.>

[7grims]

Weird hot topics, have not seen the community talk about these, only the maniacs and the void trader, but even those weren't hot.

 

Meanwile, idk how so many anti-Gmag treads, and so many anti-exploit-camping treads I have seen, and those are not part of this hot-topic...

 

The star chart was also a huge hot-topic, although that one I comprehend why DE snuffed it, and does not want to talk about it yet.

Edited May 15, 2015 by 7grims