May 15Th: Community Hot Topics!

[Drasiel]

As far as the Manic Grineer go:

 

Original Manic: I dislike him. He is a slow boring fight. He goes invisible and can't be damage. He locks you into a long animation you can't do anything during if he manages to pounce you. I get bored waiting to kill him. He's not a challenge he's a nuisance. And he has only once dropped a common mod for me. -_- never any other time.

 

Manic Bombard: I loved this guy. He had mobility, but could still be damaged. He didn't lock me into any long animations of watching my face get clawed. I could hit him more than once at a time without him vanishing. I felt like he was tough but I had the agency I needed to kill him without getting dragged into a boring slog of a fight.

[Archeyef]

I'm Just gonna comment on the Grineer Manic topic. I remember seeing a suggestion a while back the Exima be more along the lines of Nullifiers. That is, enemies with special abilities that might require a shift of tactics, rather than just regular enemies with higher stats and an aura. If we get more enemies like the Manic and the Nullifier, could you maybe consider implementing them in that capacity? I think it'd be more interesting to have Exima be unique enemies with different tactics. The current Exima just seem like placeholders, to be honest.

[(XBOX)LordPuck]

Manics should be combined with or replace Eximus. The Bombard seems fine with the teleport. I've only seen it.

The Manic seems better suited as a fast, skittering melee type. Leave tracers. Remove teleport, Invis and invincibilty. It was suggested earlier to have a way to block or knock them back? that sounds interesting. 

[Archwizard]

Precision Aim Damage

 

Isn't that literally the point of the headshot system, or Sonar?

 

I just don't want to see standard heavy units given the boss-style "tiny spot you can only aim for at point-blank that's covered for 70% of the fight" weakness. I'm not sure we need relatively common units rebalanced entirely around countering the potential to shoot most of their armor off (especially when the point of Puncture damage is to bypass it anyway).

 

Granting, I do believe that the repetitive use of an overblown armor formula to inflate enemy scaling and logarithmically weaken Warframe output is a huge issue. That could just be solved by writing a weaker armor formula for (at minimum) non-Alloy enemy units, though, to take the strain off of the select few anti-armor damage types.

 

Baro Items

 

I've been more of a fan of the Warframe-specific ability mods, honestly. A lot of the weapon mods to be released* either I already had (in the case of the Tethra mods), never particularly needed (like Heavy Trauma with the inevitable 120% Impact mod), or have found particularly niche (like Fast Hands or Pistol Mutation).

 

* The exception being Reach. Because it's amazing and I will hear nothing against it.

 

I've always thought the Void Trader concept was missing out on a whole opportunity to convert Prime parts we don't want into Prime parts we're actually looking for, or at least into keys for Prime parts (... for Ducats). I'd expect something inefficient compared to just grinding for the parts or keys, of course, but perhaps a rotating cycle of parts or keys offered without the grab-bag style reward from Syndicates that puts you at the mercy of RNG - which could be an excellent way to mitigate burnout from bad strings of luck, by providing a baseline to players.

"So you can go to trade chat for instant gratification at the cost of real money dictated by player-run economy, or go to the Void and take your 1% chances grinding for the part directly, or wait a few weeks for Baro to offer one of the parts guaranteed (provided you've had s#&$ty enough luck to afford it)." It's a fair list, I think.

 

Manic Bombards

 

No.

 

I'm already not a fan of how the original Manic concept was reduced from the first potential stealth enemy (dropping out of a shadow on the ceiling onto unsuspecting Tenno below, more of a jump scare than a threat), to Stalker-lite or Mini Vor. (You can't get much less stealthy than the guy who screams his presence across the map whenever he's in the area.) His invisibility is practically vestigial.

Nor am I a fan of the immunity phases that Manics get, since they make combat against them disjointed and jarring, particularly when you have any type of slowing effect or CC prolonging the immunity and particle effects highlighting them when they're invisible: You can look, but you can't touch. Giving that to more enemies is something we never needed, since it heavily interferes with the fast-paced combat of Warframe to force you to sit around waiting for them to come into line of sight.

Even then, the immunity phases were simply designed to prevent us from instantly blowing them off the face of the earth (which, from saw of the original design, was sort of the intent - they grab you, you shoot them off, like a Scorpion) - which a heavy unit doesn't need!

Edited May 16, 2015 by Archwizard

[[DE]Artarrwen]

"tyl us what you think" uhhhhhhh

 

Event / Tactical Alert rewards
Absolutely no problem with older event rewards returning, buuut....
Whatever happened to the idea of Events being re-playable as condensed player quests with some of their original rewards being obtainable there? Like I'm not asking how long does it take to implement that (obviously it would take more time after the new starchart rolls out and you finish reworking the quest structures and such), I'm asking if you're still even considering to do it, or have you changed your mind and decided to recycle the rewards through Tactical Alerts?

Precision Aim Damage
I'd like to see armor get dynamically scrapped off of enemies with well-placed damage procs, exposing their weak points. This will make status-heavy weapons much more viable even without elemental damage types (Impact and Puncture could finally do something that makes a difference). Ideally, I'd like this system to be a viable alternative to "shooting bullet sponges until they collapse".
However, I'd be strongly opposed to the idea of non-bosses being completely invulnerable to all damage not directed at their weakspots. Some bosses can have that, maybe a miniboss or two can have that, but not regular units.

Grineer Manic Enemies
Honestly, while the new Bombard enemy is neat, I don't feel like the name "Manic" applies to it. At all. A soldier equipped with grenades and an LMG along with teleportation ability sounds like a proficient tactic, a support unit. Tyl Regor looks like he would put emphasis on tactical thinking, efficiency and self-preservation. None of these traits pertain to Manics. Manics are the kind of guys to rush in and get to the killing asap.

What I described above and what we have in the game sounds like a Bombard Commander. Manic Bombard sounds like a guy with akimbo Tonkors that uses them to rocketjump and then rain hell from above while laughing hysterically.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Artarrwen

[counterflux]

Event/Tactical Alert Rewards

I'm enjoying them, nothing wrong with them I believe.

 

Precision Aim Damage

This would be nice, but it's mainly for rifles which already have a huge advantage over snipers and bows. I really don't want them to be even more powerfull compared to other weapon types.

 

Grineer Manic Enemies

I like their design and such but they are more needed in other missions. To prevent people from T1/2/3 camping and such. But draco camping might get a lot harder with these, and that might be a good thing.

Also I really like those manic mini bosses (exept for those that spawned in the limbo theorem)

[Boatsniper]

Event/Tactical Alert Rewards: I don't give half a purple dildo for the rewards when the gameplay itself reeks of unpolished, half-finished, inconsistent, and ultimately short-sighted design. What good are the rewards if getting and using them is unbearably messy?

 

Precision Damage/Armor Breaking: Oh my God. A good idea? That could add the tiniest mote of depth in moment-to-moment gameplay? Blasphemy!

 

Void Trader: Don't care. Fix the rest of your game first, then consider the meager importance of what's-his-face later.

 

Manic Enemies: When I fought the Manic Grineer back during that Tactical Alert with the level 6000 Hacked Moas that (embarrassingly) took two hotfixes to properly fix, I did not enjoy fighting them in the least. Why? Lethal slash-procs. What's with you and these one-shot mechanics anyway? It's like you expect your playerbase to use exclusively Valkyr and god-mode their way to victory, whatever meaning "victory" holds now. How about you normalize player-enemy scaling, rework the damage model again, remove all invulnerability skills from frames and enemies, completely overhaul the progression system, and rewrite the movement and animation code to utilize Procedural Animation? Maybe you'll add some much needed depth in the process. One can only ever hope at this point.

[(PSN)SuperRaySonic]

I love the idea of cosmetic items from Baroo so I voted for cosmetics!

Wait there's a Manic bombard?

Edited May 16, 2015 by (PS4)SuperRaySonic

[Othergrunty]

Define "manic type"?

 

Does it just mean a tougher enemy with special tactics who can appear at random in missions to offer a random challenge.

 

Because if it only means that type of enemy, than i don't see much wrong with the concept.

 

However if it means a frustratingly designed enemy, who combines strong uninterruptable "cutscene attacks" with teleportation spam, invicibility, invisiblity and near power immunity. Than no. Not more of that.

 

The current Manic is just a game of wack a mole. His laugh just means the team will go into a quite corner, await his appearance, wack him a few times and curse that Four Riders didn't drop.

 

I assume the reason the Manic combines all those annoying traits is simply because the players are too strong with their high powered carefully tweaked weapons and Warframe powers.

If he could be attacked while invisible, players would just keep attacking him and bringing him down. If he can't teleport they would just follow his movement when he cloaked and also shoot him. If he wouldn't be near immune to powers they would just spam Stomp, Monecular prime and co.

 

Makes me wonder though if the Manics are lorewise just meant to be really fast and able to cloak instead of having powers which make Warframes look weak?

 

Anyway. That really doesn't sound like a good solution to me, but just the arms race between the devs and the players getting worse.

 

 

Wait there's a Manic bombard?

 

There are two types of missions in the current Event. They both start with having to flood the facility, however once you are going down to the caves the mission can go one of two ways.

 

One has you destroy 7 clone tubes and 3 terminals. The other instead leads you to encounter one of Tyl Regor's new Grineer, the Manic bombard.

 

It has the body of a Bombard, with an armored sling around the chest, similar to the Elite Lancers, wearing a Manic mask and wielding a Gorgon (unlike what it's name implies).

 

It has the same movement abilities as the Manic, but only shoots at you with the Gorgon.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Othergrunty

[DeMeritus]

Apropos manics: Sick of these "one shot kill" enemies, to be honest.  If there was some way to get the thing off of you when they hit you during say a host lag spike for example, then yeah.  Otherwise, no.  I think you can design something better than that, DE.

[(NSW)BlaineKodos]

First time I've weighed in on one of these threads with a post rather than just a poll, because I feel this is a point that really needs to be said until it sticks: Baro's offerings are too light for how long he takes to appear. As was mentioned before, he can offer so many things now that sometimes people who have visited him every time will come to the relay and walk away with only buying one very cheap new item, as he always has at least one new thing. I haven't had to seriously hunt duckets for a good long while, because the days of a slew of brand new items have passed. Either having him appear every week, or greatly expanding what he can offer at once (either double or 10% of what he can offer, either works for me) would ease this sore spot. Baro's appearance is meant to be an event unto itself, with Tenno crawling from the corners of the system to browse his wares. Nowadays those of us who have kept up are met with more disappointment than excitement. I don't want this trend to continue, because I enjoy looking forward to things like Baro.

 

As for the old event weapons reappearing via Tactical Alerts, I am highly in favor and would like to see this Tactical Alerts as a vehicle for re-issuing old rewards. I joined just after the Cicero Crisis, so I never got a Strun Wraith despite a year of play. Being able to access an old weapon is a nice little bonus. Enough time passed between its initial release and the Tactical Alert that I feel most toes that were stepped on by it coming back had long since stopped being so concerned with their Strun Wraiths being a limited run. I support this avenue of rewards, so long as we keep drawing from the furthest shelves of the vault.

[(PSN)LoneWolf_001]

Baro Should offer Rare Quests and Challenges that reward you with unique Arcane Artifaces for weapons. Direct stat modification for you favorite weapons, small but infinitly stackable, and limited availability (1 every 2 weeks).

[Casardis]

I voted "weapons" for the Void Trader, but not just any weapons: I wish for unique weapons instead of power-creeping, direct upgraded version of existing weapons.

 

I've discussed something similar regarding Syndicate weapons, but the same thing applies to Baro.

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/456942-changing-the-formula-of-future-syndicate-weapons/

Edited May 16, 2015 by Casardis

[Chroia]

Event/Tactical Alert Rewards

1. What is the best kind of reward? 2. Would you like to see old weapons return, or do you prefer new? 3. How do you feel about event specific rewards? 4. What other rewards would you like to see us dig out of the time capsule for future Events and Tactical Alerts?

1. Don't understand the question, sorry.

2. Wouldn't mind, and don't care - respectively.

3. Not sure I understand what you're asking.

Having them is nice.

Not having them isn't the end of the world.

Would I like them back? Yes.

The hole in my Codex irks me.

But here's the thing: If it weren't for the mastery they give, I wouldn't mind. None of them are 'best of its type' (so I'm not losing potential power) or mechanically unique (so I'm not missing out on options), and I can accept having missed timed exclusives.

Note the emphasis.

4. The ones I don't have? :P Whatever, honestly.

How do you feel about Event and Tactical Alert rewards?

(Adding a list would have been helpful.)

-> I've enjoyed most of them.

 

Precision Aim Damage

Are you a sharp shooter, Tenno? ...

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?)

I am not.

I do, it wouldn't inherently make it more challenging as more engaging... at least until enemies are balanced around players utilizing these features. Then it'll be more challenging.

Which can be a very good thing.

I wouldn't mind there being 'easy-mode' and 'hard-mode' frames. (You could argue that there already are. You may be right, but I'd prefer if it were a concious design choice.)

I recommend taking a look at Extra Credits'

video.

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

-> No opinion on this topic.

Needs more specificity. What, exactly, are you asking?

Otherwise I see this as a bandaid for enemy armor scaling.

Which is fine, if it's planned and implemented as such.

 

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!

Look, when he was being discussed on the Dev Streams, he was being touted as an alternative to Prime grind, giving you something useful to do with your unneeded 'trash' Prime parts or letting you "polish up your <whichever item DeSteve used as an example>".

This isn't what he is.

He's not an alternative to grind. In fact, the nominal reason he only brings 1 new time per appearance is stated to be that people felt that he unbearably increased grind, by adding a deadline.

Nor does he let you improve anything (but your looks, which isn't categorically a bad thing).

Beyond that, with him came Primed mods. Which - imo - shouldn't exist. At least, not as they are.

Quoting myself in the last CHT:

Are you happy with the primed mods that have been released so far?

No.

Mods that straight-up make other mods obsolete should not exist.

If nothing else, because it's bad design.

-> I’m not happy with any of them.

What would you like to see Baro Ki'Teer, the Void Trader, offer more of?

-> No opinion on this topic.

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!

Look, I... well, like is too strong a word, but I don't mind the Manic.

The teleportation is annoying (because teleorting 10m away in a straight line may well mean he's most of a minute away by sprint - because walls), but not a deal-breaker.

What gets my goat about him is his reactive scripted invulnerability.

He can be stunned, recoiling, mid-animation in the air, and if the script decides I did too much damage? Poof.

Now, the Manic Bombard on the other hand, is excellent. Yes, he has invulnerability, but he has to use it. Meaning that I can interrupt it.

Further, the low level of the Op taken into consideration, I see the MB being the good type of Demonic Spiders (or at least would be, if it weren't for their hitscan weapon), as opposed to the Manic, Nullifier, etc..

Would you like to see more Manic-type enemies?

With the caveat as explained above? -> Yes, bring it on Grineer!

Edited May 18, 2015 by Chroia

[matrixEXO]

Personally, some of the event rewards could have been better. Siding with either side for Gravidus Dilemma and this current Tubemen of Regor should have been given more freedom and also locks the opposing member from getting it.

 

IE: If people side with Nef, they are guaranteed the Dera Vandal whilst the Karak Wraith is for people who side with Alad V. But these rewards are only for people who actually played and sided with one or the other and will not appear anymore (being a status symbol for people that played during that time).

 

I agree that armor chinking should apply bonus damage but that also means that the damage dealt should be sufficient to chink the armor in the first place. Currently, corrosive proc and Corrosive Projection mod acts that way but is more all-rounded while Banshee's Sonar already acts as a damage multiplier on 'weak' points while it's active. Maybe if it were to be embedded into impact damage to give them more usefulness...

 

Baro needs to provide more than just cosmetics. We visit Baro to get something fresh and not see some samey stuff and something we may or may not want. Sure, I might buy almost all the skins and color palettes he provides but that's only because he lacks anything worth getting during his visit and I would need to wait another 2 weeks for him to come again. Or worse, not find anything I would desire for consecutive visits.

 

Manics are a yes and no together. Yes, I would like to see more but no, I don't want to see more Manic nonsense. Their invisible-teleport is annoying and is very irritating to fight against when used consecutively (normal Manic) but I kind of like the direction where the Manic Bombard is taking where he doesn't use it much and is actually more focused on offense (though he is tanky in general so.... higher levels begs me to differ). I'd like to see more Manics in Events and maybe if I feel that their design is fair play then yeah, they should be permanent in the game.

[Scuffedge]

add more companions cosmetic stuff. skins for everything

[ReizoRyuu]

People are actually voting for more primed mods? Must be nice sitting on thousands of R5 cores with nothing to spend on.

If Baro is going to offer more primed mods, then we need a new rarer core to deal with the ridiculous grind that comes with them.

 

 

Definitely want to see him offer skins/sigils/attachements though, this is fashionframe afterall.

[ecwp1981]

Only going to comment about the manic and Baro (Void Trader)

 

manic

-------

The original manic is irritating and i feel that he should be used as an assassin ie instead of the G3, you can use him as an assassin for the player choosing to help the corpus instead of the grineer on invasions, and G3 only hunts you if you kill Grineer Bosses (or kill tooo many manics)

 

Generally i feel that the manic does not fit in the game well. Perhaps instead of buffing enemies health and damage, DE could introduce more tougher enemies like the manic and the bombard manic slowly in the session like after 20mins of survival just to get things upped in more difficulty and variety.

 

void trader

--------------

The void trader's items so far are quite interesting and at times they have been disappointing as there is nothing I want ie the last visit. I would like to see more cosmetic items and useful mods. Weapons wise, there are still tons to explore from the dojo's labs and so not too fussed about weapons at the moment.

[(XBOX)CrunchyHyena]

Say yes to Noggles! :D

[Cerenax]

Would you like to see more Manic-type enemies?

Depends. If this means making actually new enemies with unique appearances and mechanics, then yes. If you mean making more "Manic Bombard" type of enemies where you just reskin an old enemy to look black and red and make him spam grenades and teleportation, then no.

Edited May 21, 2015 by lvl999ArchNecromancerIRL

[krizhadow]

i'd like the void merchant brought us some more things, and a open market for daily trade at lower cost for not so important things (mainly cosmetics for our warframes, weapons and kubrows or sentinels.)

[(PSN)Viggorrah]

Wouldn't mind another Manic-type enemy so long as it doesn't come with its own abysmally low drop rate for rare mods.

 

I understand they're supposed to be hard to get, but come on.

[Zardbooster]

Events

Events in general feel quite boring and mundane, it's cool for the endurance, where you have to step up your game (unless you powerspam, which is a totally valid strategy). This makes events feel like they are split up into different tiers, even though all technically have access to them, not to mention that you have do some things to get to others. Now how to make everyone have the same feeling of nice. No idea, thus no opinion.

 

Breakable Armor

This were brought up in tenno'clock if i'm not in, and then i thought it was a good idea, and still thinks it is, even if it doesn't stip them of armor, it oculd open up for multipliers. Whatever the case i like the idea, gives me something more precise to aim at.

 

Void Trader

I still think the prime mods is a bad thing, with a few exceptions, however, i'll admit that i like him giving costumization, and to some extend weapons, as long as they remain sidegrades of original weapons. Still here wanting a way to buy prime parts for ducats.

 

Manics

I didn't get to fight the bombard manic, so i can't say if that's a different experience than the normal manic, that said though.

I'm honestly very split on these, the normal manics become a 1-hit fight more or less, and if you decided that taking a mid level mission on uranus exterm with mildly leveled weapons were a good idea, you'll come to regret the moment you said to yourself "it's probably alright", because you will hardly be able to hit the manic, much less kill it.

This of course is a solo scenario, but a lot of people do solo missions, and they will have quite a hurdle to overcome when they get to uranus.

I would however mention that in the original post it was mentioned that the bombard manic acted smart, which i think was a big part of the message in the post, but on the same note I'd like to say that some of the infested enemies actually does a very good job at dodging fire, moas and leapers jumping out of line of fire can happen, and have done so for me quiet a few times, oh well getting off- topic.

In the end i wouldn't mind more enemy types of the manic kind, but keep it to events, the pesky little buggers can leave a sour taste in your mouth.

 

Edit:

As for mods with Baro I'm ok with them if they're new and special, not overpowered, but special.

Sort of the lines of an augment, hek, it could even be an augment, possibly with a 'void theme' in mind. Mods are cool, just not when they are primed, or otherwise render similar mods obsolete (looking at you status chance).

Edited May 21, 2015 by Zardbooster

[T3RT1UM]

What would you like to see Baro Ki'Teer, the VoidTrader, offer more of? (Can choose more than one)

 

Other:  Weapons that got sent to the Vault. ex: Boar, SNIPETRON VANDAL :), Latron prime or any future prime items that gets shafted into the vault.

[(PSN)Magician_NG]

So voted.

 

A1: I've really enjoyed the various events and tactical alerts.  It mixes up the gameplay from the usual grindfarm.

 

A2: I'm not a fan of weak spots on boss types, I definitely wouldn't welcome them on fodder enemies.

 

A3: Just a rotation of primed mods with no repeats for atleast two or three months would make me happy.

 

A4: I think Manic is just as challenging as the Stalker, bring on more variants of that if you'd like.

Edited May 21, 2015 by (PS4)Magician_NG