An Idea On Reworking Forma

[(PSN)B0XMAN517]

I realize this is old news, but It's a problem non the less.

I like the idea of Forma, that is I like the idea of using an item to make my weapon more powerful. However forma is more of a necessity than a "power boost". Most weapons will use the holy trinity (serration, heavy cal, and split chamber or hornet strike, barrel diffusion, and lethal torrent) and lose 47 and 36, respectively, mod capacity before they actually start modding. That means almost every weapon will require 3 forma right off the bat. So we have to level our weapons to 30 four times before we can start modding (not using, modding). Then it's another 2 or 3 forma until you can use the thing.

That is absurd.

If it was up to me forma would not require you to re-level your polarized item, but this is a free to pay game and I understand DE needs to pay the bills (rushing forma, buying boosters, and prolonging gameplay)

So any solution would ideally ease the polarization grind while keeping in mind DE's stay in business model. (This is where community feedback helps)

My idea

Give players the ability to fuse multiple forma blueprints to create an "insert fancy name here" forma blueprint, that allows you to polarize a slot without the need to re-level after polarization (I like this one). I'd set the number at 3, but, keeping in mind DE's financial needs, 4 or 5 seems more realistic. Again DE has the keep the lights on so an alternative could be fusing completed Forma and the "fancy" Forma blueprint would be reusable and not cost platinum (I don't like this one).

What this could solve

1. No more "remove forma from void drop table" threads. (With this system you couldn't have enough forma BPs)

2. No more leveling a weapon over and over again.

3. Decrease of burn out. (Doing an 80 min t4 survival and getting a forma at each rot C is enough to to make a Tenno call it a night. With this system you just farmed yourself a "fancy forma")

4. I'm sure there may be a thing or two not coming to mind.

However, two glaring issues do come to mind; using a "fancy forma" bypasses "prolonged gameplay" and the need for affinity boosters.

IMO re-leveling a weapon six times is a redundant use of my time so I find the most efficient route to get from foundry to finished build. Others find the process extremely fun and a chance to mess around with different frames on beautifully developed maps, instead of living in the void.

I think "fancy forma" requiring multiple regular forma to make renders the "prolonged gameplay" thing a nonissue, but I could be wrong.

As for the whole "bypassing affinity booster" thing, I'm a little tripped up. This does negate the need for them, in a large way. Maybe the amount of people rushing forma will counter act the lack a booster purchases a bit, but I'm not sure.

I know I'm missing a lot of issues this change could create so any criticism and suggestions is very much appreciated.

Edited June 17, 2015 by (PS4)B0XMAN517

[Rayden_Tenno]

I realize this is old news, but It's a problem non the less.

I like the idea of Forma, that is I like the idea of using an item to make my weapon more powerful. However forma is more of a necessity than a "power boost". Most weapons will use the holy trinity (serration, heavy cal, and split chamber or hornet strike, barrel diffusion, and lethal torrent) and lose 47 and 36, respectively, mod capacity before they actually start modding. That means almost every weapon will require 3 forma right off the bat. So we have to level our weapons to 30 four times before we can start modding (not using, modding). Then it's another 2 or 3 forma until you can use the thing.

That is absurd.

If it was up to me forma would not require you to re-level your polarized item, but this is a free to pay game and I understand DE needs to pay the bills (rushing forma, buying boosters, and prolonging gameplay)

So any solution would ideally ease the polarization grind while keeping in mind DE's stay in business model. (This is where community feedback helps)

My idea

Give players the ability to fuse multiple forma blueprints to create an "insert fancy name here" forma blueprint, that allows you to polarize a slot without the need to re-level after polarization (I like this one). I'd set the number at 3, but, keeping in mind DE's financial needs, 4 or 5 seems more realistic. Again DE has the keep the lights on so an alternative could be fusing completed Forma and the "fancy" Forma blueprint would be reusable and not cost platinum (I don't like this one).

What this could solve

1. No more "remove forma from void drop table" threads. (With this system you couldn't have enough forma BPs)

2. No more leveling a weapon over and over again.

3. Decrease of burn out. (Doing an 80 min t4 survival and getting a forma at each rot C is enough to to make a Tenno call it a night. With this system you just farmed yourself a "fancy forma")

4. I'm sure there may be a thing or two not coming to mind.

However, two glaring issues do come to mind; using a "fancy forma" bypasses "prolonged gameplay" and the need for affinity boosters.

IMO re-leveling a weapon six times is a redundant use of my time so I find the most efficient route to get from foundry to finished build. Others find the process extremely fun and a chance to mess around with different frames on beautifully developed maps, instead of living in the void.

I think "fancy forma" requiring multiple regular forma to make renders the "prolonged gameplay" thing a nonissue, but I could be wrong.

As for the whole "bypassing affinity booster" thing, I'm a little tripped up. This does negate the need for them, in a large way. Maybe the amount of people rushing forma will counter act the lack a booster purchases a bit, but I'm not sure.

I know I'm missing a lot of issues this change could create so any criticism and suggestions is very much appreciated.

i agree with you in some things.  Although:

When leveling (better said grind leveling) something, do a t1 defense, dont equip sentinel, and just take the item you wanna lvl up and another one in case of danger. You will level that item in 2-3 t1 defense, I dont think 2-3 t1 defense are even two hours. I polarized 6 times boltor p in one single day. I would've started sooner but formas require a full day to be made. That leads me to the next problem.

If you can only make 1 forma per day, imagine if you need 5 formas for *insert fancy name here* it would take you 5 days to have that *insert fancy name here*. in 5 days i can fully polarize it, IF i have the necessary formas indeed, but your method of 3 formas in one would take 5 days to be made (or 4) which actually means that you are getting less polarizing slots than if you are doing it individually.

Although i do agree a rework would be necessary. I polarized so many weapons that i cant see any more t1d in a long time. The last one was lex prime, 6 times. It burned me a lot.

[(PSN)DesecratedFlame]

Remove those mods like Serration and Hornet Strike, and anything else considered required.  Build them into the weapons instead (similar to the way Warframes work now). A level 3 weapon would be the equivalent of a weapon with a level 1 serration equipped; a level 30 weapon would be the equivalent of a current weapon with a maxed serration mod. 

 

Mod slots could then be used to actual affect variety and people could make their weapons unique since you would no longer have to waste space on madatory mods.

[(PSN)savoy123]

I understand where your coming from but personally I dont see forma being an issue. Using forma takes the weapon to its maximum potential and we each have weapons that we like and dislike. I will forma primes and other OP weapons then go on to forma weapons that I personally like that may not be worth the potato or forma for others. Lately I have alot less time to play and there are many weapons that I would like to forma but I just do not have the time too. 

 

I'm all for keeping forma in the voids but I see re-leveling a weapon as part of the warframe experience and only a select few weapons based on personal preference should be chosen to add forma. There are so many rank 10 mods and most players cannot fathom maxing them all or buying all the rank 10 mods so they pick and choose which ones they need and which ones need to maxed to rank 10.

Edited June 17, 2015 by (PS4)savoy123

[Racter]

Remove those mods like Serration and Hornet Strike, and anything else considered required.  Build them into the weapons instead (similar to the way Warframes work now). A level 3 weapon would be the equivalent of a weapon with a level 1 serration equipped; a level 30 weapon would be the equivalent of a current weapon with a maxed serration mod. 

 

Mod slots could then be used to actual affect variety and people could make their weapons unique since you would no longer have to waste space on mandatory mods.

That would reduce the grind a TON and it's obvious DE doesn't want that.

 

I don't mind re-leveling gear, there are a lot of ways to do it other than T#D, DSD or Draco now, many of which are pretty enjoyable. I do, however, hate having a year's worth of forma BPs because they take a day to craft. I'm finally at a point where I think I can start stockpiling them (every weapon and frame I like has enough to fit any build I'd use) for new stuff I like, but I'd still really like to be able to craft multiple at once. Put out a 5 or 10x bp in the market, only available for plat, requires that number of forma BPs to craft, even if it's consumed on use I and many others like me would gladly buy it.

[UnderFiend]

The last time this came up, the suggestion that using forma reduced the weapon level by a third was popular. I like the idea of Primed Forma but I can also see that getting a little silly. There are a lot of players that I've spoken to with ...let's just say a cache of forma and BPs. 5x forma for a Primed Forma wouldn't really be A Thing.

 

I think along the lines of DesecratedFlame's comment, and the devs suggested something similar before, straight damage mods should be removed and that would allow us more mod slots for weapons, and cause less clutter in our inventories and drop tables. It's great that there are common puncture mods for puncture-based weapons, but why not have the weapon's damage and puncture (or whatever else damage type) scale with the weapon? At the least, the base damage should scale, if not the damage types.

[Grom-84]

When leveling (better said grind leveling) something, do a t1 defense, dont equip sentinel, and just take the item you wanna lvl up and another one in case of danger. You will level that item in 2-3 t1 defense, I dont think 2-3 t1 defense are even two hours. I polarized 6 times boltor p in one single day. I would've started sooner but formas require a full day to be made. That leads me to the next problem.

 

Well everybody knows this every day routine... but its still takes so much fkn time just only for adding capacity on a single item(not forget to mention time needed for building formas themselves) only to being able to squize the right mods. it's so redundant, i hate this process. And i hate that changing polarity with a forma requires lvling item again - this is complete bs.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Grom-84

[Grom-84]

Remove those mods like Serration and Hornet Strike, and anything else considered required.  Build them into the weapons instead (similar to the way Warframes work now). A level 3 weapon would be the equivalent of a weapon with a level 1 serration equipped; a level 30 weapon would be the equivalent of a current weapon with a maxed serration mod. 

 

Mod slots could then be used to actual affect variety and people could make their weapons unique since you would no longer have to waste space on madatory mods.

Yea i appreciate this idea, i also consider that during the leveling weapon must unlock it's potential gaining more strength lvling... but) i dont like the idea of removing dmg mods like serration, cuz the damage of most weapons for now is insufficient for my taste.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Grom-84

[(PSN)B0XMAN517]

i agree with you in some things.  Although:

When leveling (better said grind leveling) something, do a t1 defense, dont equip sentinel, and just take the item you wanna lvl up and another one in case of danger. You will level that item in 2-3 t1 defense, I dont think 2-3 t1 defense are even two hours. I polarized 6 times boltor p in one single day. I would've started sooner but formas require a full day to be made. That leads me to the next problem.

If you can only make 1 forma per day, imagine if you need 5 formas for *insert fancy name here* it would take you 5 days to have that *insert fancy name here*. in 5 days i can fully polarize it, IF i have the necessary formas indeed, but your method of 3 formas in one would take 5 days to be made (or 4) which actually means that you are getting less polarizing slots than if you are doing it individually.

Although i do agree a rework would be necessary. I polarized so many weapons that i cant see any more t1d in a long time. The last one was lex prime, 6 times. It burned me a lot.

My first idea would require the use of forma BPs to create a "fancy forma" so it would still take only 24 hours to build (though it would consume more than 1 forma)

[(PSN)B0XMAN517]

Remove those mods like Serration and Hornet Strike, and anything else considered required. Build them into the weapons instead (similar to the way Warframes work now). A level 3 weapon would be the equivalent of a weapon with a level 1 serration equipped; a level 30 weapon would be the equivalent of a current weapon with a maxed serration mod.

Mod slots could then be used to actual affect variety and people could make their weapons unique since you would no longer have to waste space on madatory mods.

While I dislike having my first three mods being decided for me as much as the next guy, there will always be a meta. Take away mods like serration and they will be quickly replaced. Looking at it from DE's side, those mods = players buying catalysts which makes them unlikely to go anywhere. Edited June 18, 2015 by (PS4)B0XMAN517

[(PSN)DesecratedFlame]

While I dislike having my first three mods being decided for me as much as the next guy, there will always be a meta. Take away mods like serration and they will be quickly replaced. Looking at it from DE's side, those mods = players buying catalysts which makes them unlikely to go anywhere.

I am MR10 with a dozen or so top tier weapons and frames all Tatered. I never purchased a single tater. The only thing I have paid for are weapon and frame slots. People that currently pay to tater their weapons still will in order to hit max effciencey.

 

If anything, building them into the weapons would cause people to spend more, because there would be a rush to find a new meta.