Big Pile-O-Feedback

[Retroperspect]

Introduction

Right oh! Been playing for around 107+ hours + the hours that got lost in database corruption a few weeks back, and I finally feel like letting loose and writing feedback. Now I’m not going to put in a TL:DR, but the Last word section is kind of a TL:DR, so go there if you aren’t up for reading too much nonsense from a random guy on the forum.

To give a short insight on what I experience so far.

 

Got all frames so far

Maxxed all but normal Excalibur, Ember, and level 19 Syren.

Only Ash and Rhino is bought with plat

Have gotten the following primaries maxxed (Latron, Gorgen, Hek, Snipetron, Paris, Grakata, Braton and Burston “which was a pain btw but that goes below”)

Have gotten the following Secondary’s maxxed (Viper, Lato Vandal, Aklato, Afuris, LEX!)

And lastly I have gotten the following Melee maxxed ( skana prime, Dual Zoren, Gram, Fang, Dual Ether)

”Gram is the only melee weapon I brought with plat”

I also got a lot more melee weapons, but since I haven’t gotten the time to use them yet, I can’t comment on their status.

 

In this post I will go over the following 3 sections each dedicated to their own respective area and then finish up with some last words on the game.

 

Content

 

Analyses

Gameplay

Balance

Last words

 

Analyses

 

My analyses have brought me to believe this is indeed a game in space…

With such silliness aside, I have been looking at the different sides of the game, and it’s actually hard to pinpoint what games are similar in design aspect, you have the idea of a Third person action title, and you use shooter elements as the primary part of the game while mixing it up with abilities and resource management between Health/Shield/Energy, while making a replayable focused title, in form of random room segments and enemy encounters to spice up the gameplay.

 

The game I find mostly align with this games mentalitet of Grinding and hub based missions, is the game series Monster Hunter. My reasoning behind this is the following:

 

“Both games strive to be skill based in form of dynamic aiming of once tool to achieve success”

 

(use exactly the right sword slash vs. aiming for the weak spot and adjust the firing rate against accuracy)

 

“Both games strive to have dynamic combat in form of avoiding dmg at the cost of other resources”

 

(roll and block which uses stamina VS. either roll or use Energy to dash out of the way with abilities)

 

“Both games strive to reward the players commitment in form of gear”

 

(farming a giant monster for its scale to make new gear VS. farming bosses and scavenging resources to create weapons and frames)

 

“Both games focuses on a advance resource system to create interesting flow of gameplay”

 

(each Health pot is a bit of grinding etc VS. Health and energy being pickup only and Shield being a recharge)

 

“I <3 both games”

 

(biased opinion in analyses phase)

 

I heard Steve said he don’t want grinding to happen, but I don’t think Warframe can survive on a Free 2 Play model without Skinner’s Box. The point is you want people to continue playing, and so far I find the mod upgrade system a glorious system given its exponential growth in requirements, not in mod spots but in upgrade cost, this creates a goal for those who wish to can farm up towards, at least that is what I can see so far.

 

However

 

The Communication between the Dev’s and the community is a problem, and I can only say this to the matter, there will always be a trade off behind each decision that is made, one decision could be excluding information to create hype, that could not be created without disillusion, and other cases the loud ones aren’t always the right ones. (look at me invalidating this entire post 5)

 

Either than that there aren’t much I can remember right now.

 

Gameplay

 

So far you know how Stealth isn’t a big part of the game yet, yeah I don’t need to stress it given you already said june, so I’ll just keep shut on that topic.

 

On the gameplay however the map designs needs even more wall running/jumping designs. There is one grineer room that I dreaded a bit, which is a highly vertical one with so many stairs it’ll make your head spin, but I gotten around it now and can blaze though it quickly, however it does raise one point I would love to address. There is not enough vertical gameplay, a lot of the rooms are flat designs with cover “rude of me to say but I believe in critic” they mostly follow a path which is either a bended road design to make less room a longer road, although in newer corpus maps this is completely false, these are wonderfully designed, but there still is a few flat faces with covers in that too, generally I would love to see inefficient paths that can be used for stealth, and also a lot more “optional” parkour areas for movement improvements.

 

On the topic of alert mission. Yes they are part of the gameplay since it’s the goal of getting loot, these are interesting but you seen the topics and heated debates, I come to the point where I missed around 4-5 Glaive BP by just sleeping or missing by being to school, this is disheartening and I believe it is the core of the problem, yes people that dedicate more time should be better reward we all know this, but what about those that can’t dedicate that time, at the right time when a alert pop up with something of interest to them. I believe that if you tweaked alerts, so if they popped up doing offline time, when a account login these alerts pop up, and then they would have a limited time to do all that they can, given people a grace time to “choose” which alerts they give their attention towards, and since players can’t receive double reward from alerts by redoing it with a friend, this can’t be exploited (in Theory) and it will provide a less strict and demoralizing gameplay, but keep the randomness of the alert mission, which I believe is key so far (skinner’s box nudge nudge).

 

On the topic of rewards for gameplay, I was there when 7.0 released and rare mods rained down on us, and it’s the prime reason why I won’t reset, the mods are rare indeed but there is no real way to get them, other than defense missions but those rare mods are like common dirt rewards to be honest, and when you reach level 100+ monster on xini, you start to expect at least a bit better rare chance instead of a drastically drop in mod drop chance, but that’s my experience of it so far and RNG gods never loved me anyways.

 

But with this in mind I believe in the jolly cooperative action this game provides, and I hole heartedly believe this game needs missions where teamwork is much more needed, and the rewards are much sweeter, making teamwork rewarded and promoted, “but oh terror he speaks of co op and my solo play will be ruined” I believe there is always a tradeoff when something is implemented, and this game’s solo gameplay needs to focus on stealth, and here’s why:

The more people there is in a group the easier it is to be spotted hence making stealth harder with bigger groups

The more people there is in a group the easer it is to overcome what the enemy throw at you given they notice you

This create the interesting dynamic of hard content, being playable by both solo players and co operative ninjas. The risk reward scenario is if you are alone and get spotted, your screwed! but alone you don’t need to wait on others slowing you down, hence enhancing the lone wolf aspect of stealth, and allowing the loud 4 man groups to go gun blazing down the corridor. “Seems like a win-win scenario in my head at least”

 

Balance

 

Oh boy this one is a big one for me.

So with gameplay out of the way I would like to talk about the balance of PVE content and the balance between frames. I once believe that balance in PVE games was a garbage topic cause who needs balance when you are beating a AI senseless right? No one gets hurt right?

 

Well a good friend of mine put this argument on the table for me:

 

If you play with your friend and you have a water pistol, that does next to nothing, and your friend around with a bazooka, and the end score of the match is 3% damage done by you and 97% damage done by him, wouldn’t you feel like a useless brick in that scenario? To put up with a example this very thing happen for me and my friends by the following story:

 

We are 4 mates playing at a get together bro Lan party, and 3 of us have been hooked on warframe to the point of playing around 30+ hours together, we then tried to convince the last of the group to join in, and he weren’t optimistic about it but he joined anyways, he had starter gear and we ran with full rare potato powered guns, he struggled to keep up and after a few tries, I suggested we tried lowering out equipments to match he’s to make it more “balanced” but alas the damage was done and he uninstalled the game shortly afterwards because he only felt like a “useless brick”.

 

This is a unavoidable scenario given we had worked hard for our powerful gear and he was just starting out, but it does enhance the reasoning behind a balanced playing field, because as soon as people invest time in getting these frames, and figuring out they are terrible in comparison to the other frames they have, it feels crushing to have worked so hard for such realization.

 

I don’t need to stress the amount of threads that have screamed for review on abilities, and after the Rhino outcry at least one frame is getting a review. However this is not enough in my opinion, and the balance of all frames needs a relook on their abilities to make them more fun and not “one trick ponies”. With the newly added Vauban I can tell you I LOVE HIM, he’s amazingly fun to use and I see a use for all he’s abilities, but he’s powers is…. Questionably strong compared to other frames in my opinion. Take “Tesla” as a example, when it’s boosted up with a lot of abilities it does more damage from 2 out of what? 13-20 attacks than Volt’s “Shock” ability does. The cost efficiency is insane(ly fun) and so is all he’s abilities, but even “bastille” who I counted up to 13 second off Crowd Control time makes Rhino go over in a corner and weep. My point is that you hit goal with Vauban’s power but there’s a lot of other frames which abilities aren’t that powerful/useful compared to he’s. there is a few ways to balance gameplay, and without going over them I would suggest the one I love the most “Fight broken with broken”. The mentalitet of something being so brokenly overpowered, that it’s fun to use, but it’s okay cause the other things are broken in their own right, disruptors as a example not only takes ALL your energy, they also takes ALL your shield rendering you in complete panic state, no other enemy can do that and it’s brokenly over powered, but most importantly it’s super FUN, since it makes you fear them at all stages, and panic when you end up in a awkward situation against them.

 

This applies to all enemies but a lot of them aren’t as over powered as other, like the Grineer heavy gunner stops up every time she gets shocked, make her immune to shock stun and immune to freeze completely, making her a terrifying enemy on the field, and the grineer bombard unit make he’s explosive shots knockback people in area of effect! Gruesome in my opinion but that is what sparks interest, when the player sees something that aren’t interesting they just go “meh another one to kill” but when it’s grineer rollers it’s more of a “NONONO GET AWAY YOU !=)!(¤=)!(/%=)/”!%)(/!%=)=(“ or “steady steadyyyyy GOTCHA” depending on experience and so on.

 

With this mindset and overpowered enemies you can enhance the fun factor of the frames making them all strong and unique in their own right but it won’t matter balance wise since the players are “fighting broken with broken”.

On one more note about the frames I read up a few suggestions of “passive buffs”, and honestly I like the premise but it got to have a cost, in the game “path of exiles” the game uses mana for spell casting and the likes, but it have a interesting idea on aura’s, you “reserve” a part of your energy pool making it unusable but gives you a aura, could this be implemented in warframe in any case? Like a 50-75 or more energy reserved on trinity if she activate a healing aura that passively gives 2 hp per second? She can’t cast her ultimate if she haven’t upgraded her energy pool, making it a decision of healing over time or burst heal.

 

Last words

 

So to conclude

 

My analyses have brought me to believe this is indeed a game in space.

The game plays and feels a lot like Monster hunter.

Not mentioning stealth… promise.

The map layouts have room for improvements.

Alert missions needs a grace timer for people that login after the alert have ended.

Needs more teamwork gameplay that is rewarded.

Not mentioning lonewolf stealth.

All frames need a relook and review with hopefully Vauban as power level estimation.

Balance in PVE is more important that PVP balance ever.

Make the enemies even more broken and fun to fight (fight broken with broken).

Possible Passive ability toggled on and off with a energy reserve that limits what you can cast but grant passive buffs.

[Aryll]

Wow... You have been busy Retro

[Aryll]

Also I love the "Water pistol/Bazooka comparison", Ancients are Acceptably overpowered and yes the Grineer Heavy Gunner should indeed be a more feared enemy. The same could be said for a fusion Moa. It would be more fun to have people poop themselves every time a fusion moa comes round the corner instead of one shoting it with your latron. The rollers are just a whole other level of scary there is not one boss that i fear more than the roller (Yes I consider the roller a boss....)

 

The alert rewards are indeed a problem for me to as I have also missed all of the Glaive Opportunities and I am a Regular player like you as you know (105 hours on the clock) Us Europeans seem to be rather unlucky when it comes to them. Grinding... I am a Grinder when it comes to it. I can grind for hours on end and not lose stamina so grinding does not concern me. 

 

Cant think of anything else to say in this one.

 

Aryll, out
 

[Zhonatta]

Tesla, rollers will die by the dozens....

 

Great post agree on all accounts.

 

Please break the crap out of the Grineer and Corpus heavies because they are like minor speed bumps as it is right now.

[Druulx2]

Excellent points, I too agree on all of them.

 

P.S

 

Add color blind option or just change thieves witt color to blue on the map so we can distinguish treasure from co-players