Environmental Modifiers: A Rework Ii

[Juper0]

This was a forum post a while back. I revamped it and posted it to the Wikia blogs (http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Juper0/Environmental_Modifiers:_Rework). got a lot of good feedback. The devs also mentioned something like this in live stream 6. so i am continuing to edit this with hope that some of this gets into the game one day! These are the work of not just me, but of many contributors/players. I am not going to list everyone here, but many should get credit for good ideas. 
 
I know its a text wall, but its an easy read with a bit of humor. please read/skim through and let me know what you think. thanks! 
 
Currently in the randomizer of map making, there are options that will make the environment effect the players. 
->  cryo leak: 1/2 shields
->  self destruct: fires in random locations. fire attacks do more damage
->  haul breach: shields drain, room is locked, and audio is reduced (low pass filter applied) and visual is blurred.

so, 2 of these 3 don't make any sense, and the third only a little. I like them and would enjoy some more work on them, however. and I think there can be a lot more. I know they will not make it into UD8, but maybe this will get in eventually. the rest is a rework idea and some additions: (all units = players and enemies).

The numbers may not be perfect yet, but I'm thinking this will really help out with the randomization of maps and keep players thinking about who else is on their team. Sometimes, other frames may have bonuses! some of these things can even be added to the same mission, but some need to NEVER be added at the same time. sometimes some modifiers are actually impossible. Some of these ideas here could be applied at the start of a mission, or after the objective has been complete. Each event would occur once throughout 20 missions or so, meaning that 8 missions are done under "optimal conditions" (no modifiers). 
 
---Environmental Mods---
Cryo Leak
Ice all over the place (like it is already). All units run speed is slowed 5%. Melee is 10% slower (including charge time). weapon swap and reload is slower. All freeze damage +50%. Stamina recharge rate -20%. Air ducts and pipe leaks are pouring out a blue vapor like mist that is super cold. Units that step into mist are slowed by 60% for 3 seconds and take 50 cold damage. Units on the ice have a hard time moving (slipping a lot). Starting to move is very slow and stoping takes a long time (will probably slide off the ice before stopping).
The "warm Coat" mod will reduce reductions (improve) by 10%/20%/30%/40%. the slipping action is unaffected by the mod.
Frost is immune to everything but slipping.
can't happen on "outpost" maps
Lotus informs: The ships Cryo chambers have malfunctioned. You'll feel a bit sluggish.
 
Self Destruct
Panels all over are occasionally discharging for a second, causing 1 second (and not longer) stun and minor electricity damage. All electricity damage is increased 50%. 20-30 minute timer is in place. (cinematic of ship exploding if timer counts all the way down).
Volt is immune (maybe gets energy).
Having Lightning rod reduces damage, 
Lotus informs: The ship is going to self destruct. You need to do this fast, and keep clear of energy overloads.
 
Ship is Under Attack
random fires all over the place, corpses in random locations. Random atmosphere leak in random location in the room occasionally and self seal after 30 seconds. breach causes a slight drag on all units (like Vauban's vortex) that are near. some tremors causing all units to chance a stumble.
Rhino does not stumble
Lotus informs:Stay on your toes, the ship is getting bombarded with enemy fire.
 
Over Oxygenation
Colors are saturated. All fire damage is increased 50%. stamina max +20%. stamina recharge rate +20%.
Ember does not take increased damage from fire.
Lotus informs: Take a deep breath, Tenno. And steer clear of fires!
 
Engine Ion Leak
All units with shields (if any) start at full and have a 1% reduction applied every 12 seconds (5% in one minute) to a cap of 50% in 10 minutes. Sheild recharge rate -20%.
Lotus informs: The ships engines are having issues. Mind your shields.
 
Radiation Leak
Corpses in random locations. When a unit looses shields, they are instantly "irradiated" for 30 seconds at 1 health per second. Units without shields are only irradiated once. edges of screen blink red while irradiated (like when poisoned by a toxic). A radiation based frame would be immune. 
Lotus informs: The ship is radiated. don't loose your shields, even for a moment!
 
Electro Magnetic Pulse
Max energy is reduced 20%. energy pickups give 20, instead of 25. Energy siphon is reduced to 1 every 3 seconds. Magnetic damage +50%. Occasionally, a "wave" of energy (looks like volts shield) passes through the ship, causing robotics to be stunned for a second, panels to over load causing electricity damage and stuns nearby units. HUDs are distorted for one second (like with disruptor hit).
Mag and Volt are immune.
Lotus informs: I'm detecting a lot of EM. you'll need to find extra power for this mission.
 
Ship Wide Lock Down
Every room of the ship is locked and must be hacked to be opened independently from the last room. Enemies are always looking for Tenno. (should not happen in single player)
Lotus informs: There are other Tenno aboard, and have already been spotted. you'll need to do this room by room.
 
Merchant Ship
This ship has 2 times drop of all resources and credits. Consequently, all enemies have increased level (standard level x 1.5 or something mildly significant)
Lotus informs: Take everything from this ship! We'll need it.
 
Gravity Plate Malfunction
The artificial gravity is malfunctioning. Canisters are floating, slowly spinning in place. Jump duration is increased 200% (3x jump height, and 3x range jump kicking), Wall running uses 1/3 stamina. Excalibur's and Vauban's jump really shine here! 
can't happen on planet maps. 
Lotus informs: The gravity plating on this ship is not working properly. remember your zero-g training.
 
Computer Virus
All AI units (osprey, MOA, grinders, etc.) attack anyone and sentinel shuts down randomly for a few seconds. Rooms randomly lockdown and unlock. laser doors and turrets randomly activate/deactivate. elevators randomly move. Hacks are tougher.
Lotus informs: Our enemies are attacking this location remotely, stay sharp and be ready for anything!
 
Battle Ravaged
Much of the ship is falling apart. What was an easily navigated tile is now wreckage with coolant lines leaking (being frosted), plasma lines spouting (fire damage), and electrical lines shorting (electricity damage). Occasionally debris falls from the ceiling. power is on but only enough for life support and doors. no alarms can be triggered.
Lotus informs: This place is falling apart. watch out for hazards. anything can break here.

High Gravity
The gravity amps are boosted for a short duration (1 minute) causing high gravity effects for a single room. This would slow movement 25%, reduce jump height by 25%, increase prone recovery time by 50%, all downward attacks do 50% more damage, increased drop on projectile weapons.
Lotus informs: The grav amps have been boosted here. Stay on your feet!

Smoke/Fog Filled
Be it from an environmental systems malfunction or bad weather all the tiles are filled with fog or smoke that reduces visibility to <30 meters. Enemies move like they are unalertted, but hunting (cautious?). This also opens up the possibility of having a mod or equipment for ir/nightvition that can see through the fog. things like the enemy sense mod become HUGELY more applicable.
Lotus informs: Keep your eyes open Tenno. This enemies could be anywhere.

 

Nighttime

Only outdoor maps. visibility is reduced flashlight is needed. Search lights all over the place scanning for intruders. if a spot light gets on a tenno, alarms are triggered. sentries are posted as the lights. lights can be shot out (potencially alerting the sentry).  

Lotus informs: don't get seen by the lights, Tenno. 

 

Weather

Snowing, ash fall, sand storms, Light/Heavy Rain, Light/Heavy Thunderstorms

These are mostly aesthetic, but it can cause sight issues. 

---On Trigger Events---
These would happen when a corpus crewmen or Grineer soldier hit a button, some destructible is destroyed (i.e. a window), a trap is triggered by a Tenno, or the Tenno hacks to make it happen. Every Room would have a "master panel" so that not every panel can be used to do the hackable modifier, and not every tile has a master panel, thus a player has to find the few master panels to do these....
 
Hual Breach
When a window is broken (and all windows should be breakable), a decompression sequence starts (this is already in the game, but only one window can break). a lockdown starts and the breach is sealed automatically in 10 seconds (it just makes sense!). Players still need to hack to reopen the room. During the time the atmosphere is escaping, all units take health damage at 5 health per second (bypasses shields). also, any loose items are sucked to the location (like Vauban's vortex) and all units stumble. can't happen on planet maps. 
 
Alarm
Anytime the enemies are alerted to the presents of Tenno, the player may attempt to hack a REALLY hard hack (12+hex's to hack). This will cause the enemies to return to normal alert mode (unalertted), and not respawn.
 
Lockdown
Players can start a lockdown on their own by performing a REALLY hard hack (12+hex's to hack). The player must then unlock the room to leave. (this would be really good if normal enemies would keep running in during boss fights.)
 
Low Gravity
Players can shut down the gravity amps for a short duration (1 minute) by performing a hard hack (8+hex's to hack), causing the Low gravity effects listed above for a single room.
 
High Gravity
Players can amp up the gravity amps for a short duration (1 minute) by performing a hard hack (12+hex's to hack), causing high gravity effects for a single room. This would slow movement 25%, reduce jump height by 25%, increase prone recovery time by 50%, all downward attacks do 50% more damage, increased drop on projectile weapons.
 
Neural Toxin
Upon Corpus or Grineer activation, toxic chemicals are pumped into the room. All bio form units take poison damage. It is stopped with a hack. Does not happen more than twice a mission. Saryn and toxic ancients/crawlers are immune.
Lotus informs in a strangely creepy yet familiar female voice: Studies find that test subjects did not perform well when put in a room with deadly neural toxin. 
 
---Destructables---
Item that can be broken either intentionally or accidentally by all units.

Cryo Pipe Burst
Upon being hit with enough damage, a pipe with coolant or cryo fluids bursts and sprays an area. anything in the area takes frost damage and the effect. Automatic safeties activate in 10 seconds, stopping the hazard. Frost is immune to the damage. 
 
Plasma Conduit Cut
Upon being hit with enough damage, a conduit with plasma bursts and spouts plasma in the area. anything in the area takes fire damage. Automatic safeties activate in 10 seconds, stopping the hazard. Ember is immune to the damage. 
 
Electrical Line Severed
Upon being hit with enough damage, a conduit with electricity running through it is severed. anything in the area takes electricity damage and the tenno HUD is distorted. Automatic safeties activate in 10 seconds, stopping the hazard. Volt is immune to the damage. 

Explosive Barrels(Yes, these are already in the game, but lets face it, they are virtually ignored.)
Explosive Barrels are set throughout the maps and indicated as such with red labeling. they increase in damage with level as well as armor. The number of yellow stripes indicates its explosive yield. Embur takes 50% less damage. All barrels can be moved by mag pull, Vauban vortex, and nearby atmo leaks.

Toxic Barrels
Green Barrels throughout the level will leak toxic gasses upon being hit with enough damage. the number of blue stripes indicates the toxicity level. Saryn is immune to the poison. All barrels can be moved by mag pull, Vauban vortex, and nearby atmo. leaks.

Slime Barrels
Gray like barrels will spill a slime on the floor that will greatly slow the movement speed of anyone who steps in the goo. All barrels can be moved by mag pull, Vauban vortex, and nearby atmo leaks.
 
Thoughts?

Edited June 20, 2013 by Juper0

[Ezard]

Sounds awesome - definitely a lot better than what they have in place at the moment :)

[noveltyhero]

Haha very nice ideas. The merchant ship and low gravity will work with space pirates and what Steve said about no gravity physics. I would like to see these implemented aswell at some point :)

[SirNerdsAlot5]

Shipwide Lockdown already exists.

Edited May 23, 2013 by MasterBuilder5

[Juper0]

Shipwide Lockdown already exists.

Yeah I for got to detail that one. What is meant is every room will need to be hacked. The enemies start the game knowing tenno are about. If it ever becomes possible to turn off the alarm, that feature would be turned off for this mod.

[Lumireaver]

I've been itching for a ship-wide power failure. No lights, dark yellow/blue/green visual filter, enemies with night-vision equipment staging ambushes behind shields, behind doors which need to be manually wrenched open. Everything echoes.

[twibs]

Nice overhaul, the current things definately need more work. ;) Here's my 2 cents

ICE (current)

50% hit to shields, considering how much it ups the difficulty, it just feels out of place. Not to say it's too hard, it just feels odd. Few things I would suggest. Either drop the hit to 25-35% OR make the enemies lose some shields too. Kinda odd they'd retain their full shields while we dont.

FIRE (current)

Kinda meh, to be honest. There's just spots we need to run around, or over since they really don't do much damage. Up the damage considerably and perhaps make some ceilings give in, dropping news pool of molten metal. Make them explode sometimes, I've heard it's the ammo that's become volatile.

LIGHTNING

This would fit the axis of elements nicely. Something like the generators being overloaded. What this would do is sporadic power surges from the wiring, causing electrical damage to the ones nearby the point of surge. Perhaps some humming/sparking to warn the players of incoming surge. This could either be shield only damage, increased damage to shields or just plain damage.

QUAKE

Periodic knockdown. Ships could shake, or be under meteorshower and planets have earthquakes. I know the players would hate this type since it's stops you from moving, so proceed with care. ;)

Edited May 29, 2013 by twibs

[iDarkWarrior]

I really like this topic, and definitely i'd like to see something like that in the game, as it really suffers from simularity of most of the maps. If every map was unique, it would add much fun and replayability( i mean, the amount of time you can play this game without a break before you get bored) to this game. 

 

I also like the concept that players can actually choose,how their hacking affects gameplay. Currently hacking is only an instrument to go through the closed doors. If we could use hacking not only when we need it - but also when we want it - it would make even more feel of space ninjas, which are also skilled in hacking :) It would also probably create new strategies, and definitely make more fun out of gameplay.

 

Also i'd like to make a suggestion: damage from destroyable dangeous objects (like explosive barrels etc.) should scale with level of the current map(if they already do,my apologises). I mean, it gives us some tactic on low levels, when enemies get serious damage from these sources. But in the high levels they all really dont care about these barrels, as explosions do a very little damage to them. As a result, we lose some tactical moves in the high levels, and this is sad, especially for stealth walkthrough (imagine a player waiting for enemies to get too close to that explosive barrel,while waiting somewhere in the dark; and when they get to it,he shoots it, so they all die, and there is nobody to turn on alarm - something like that )

[Aizeol]

-Awesomeness-

 

Thoughts?

Yes please.

[Aizeol]

I will be terribly sad if this doesn't get more attention or pinned

[Juper0]

I will be terribly sad if this doesn't get more attention or pinned

Spread the word! let others know about this thread! i will be working on it to keep it updated with good ideas!

Also i'd like to make a suggestion: damage from destroyable dangeous objects (like explosive barrels etc.) should scale with level of the current map

indeed. i have added this and a few other ideas that came to mind when you mentioned this!

Edited May 30, 2013 by Juper0

[Aizeol]

Posted a topic that redirects here in general discussion. Hopefully it will work.

[Ditsydoo]

Damn i would love seeing it if DE would implement this in-game. I mean this would spice things up for the player and having to deal with it on the fly.

Edit: This would also make carrying ciphers around a better idea.

Edited May 30, 2013 by Ditsydoo

[Keyza]

Bumped ! +1 ! Some really great ideas here, I hope the DEVS sees this !

[Lukap99]

Oh hell yes! come on DE! Do this!

[Juper0]

This would also make carrying ciphers around a better idea.

That is exactly the idea! right now they are just a fun little help, but not really worth the credits. 

[MrDESC]

This would really add to the game and make it more fun. It would help keep us on our toes so that we weren't doing the same thing over and over again even if we were playing the same mission repeatedly.

 

One concern with the hacking is that I believe that hacking currently gives you Affinity, so being able to hack all of the consoles in a level increases the amount of affinity available in the level. This might be a slight balance issue, but if the difficulty of the optional hacking and the time it takes to do them is sufficient, then a reasonable amount of Affinity would make sense. (Here I'm effectively thinking of Affinity / Time)

[Aizeol]

@MrDESC

As far as I'm aware hacking a terminal only gives 50 affinity. That is the last number I remember seeing, and a grineer lancer is already worth more.

Good eye for detail though, maybe they need to be buffed if they will be harder or tweaked since they will be used more often.

[MXXVI]

I'd love more environmental effects. But some of these would just be bloody annoying, and would punish/reward certain players too much based on their Warframe and their mod loadout.

 

 

What I'd like to see first, is for DE to decide whether the Warframes are actually sealed suits or not. Because let's face it; it's &#036;&amp;*&amp;*#(%&amp; that we actually take ANY damage from hull breaches, or have our shields reduced by exposure to cold.

 

I mean ffs, how do we extract?

 

We extract by strapping ourselves to the belly of a ship, and riding hard vacuum!

 

Why is our weakness to atmospheric conditions so situational!?

Edited May 31, 2013 by MXXVI

[Juper0]

some of these would just be bloody annoying, and would punish/reward certain players too much based on their Warframe and their mod loadout.

 

We extract by strapping ourselves to the belly of a ship, and riding hard vacuum!

 

Why is our weakness to atmospheric conditions so situational!?

One idea is that the ships extends its shields around the tenno. Another is that we can't see some doors closing.

As for annoying and punishing some war frames more than others, thats kind of the point. Players need to find another way to play for a mission. And really these would not be in every mission. These things represent the inherent unpredictability of missions. Some frames are improved in a sense as both enemies and tenno are effected by the envi. mods. This also opens up more tactics/srategies and game options beyond what is listed here.

The affinity issue is minimal. At 50 affinity a pop, I dont think people are going to farm hacks.....

[Aizeol]

We extract by strapping ourselves to the belly of a ship, and riding hard vacuum!

 

Why is our weakness to atmospheric conditions so situational!?

We don't ride hard vacuum. The ship that extracts the tenno is the same that drops it off planetside. It closes over the tenno inside. The only sad part is they apparently have no control over the ship's navigation unless it interfaces with the warframe itself. Which again would need clarification from the devs as to whether or not they are suits or extensions of the actually person inside like Hayden Tenno in Dark Sector.

I've heard that they are meant to be suits, it'd just be nice for the devs to actually say that.

[Ditsydoo]

Come on DE look at this thread, its a gold mine of future content. Though i really just like having diffrent things happen that make the player have to pay attention to the environment as well as enemies.

[Aizeol]

I think as long as some of these effects are limited to certain mission types it could keep from being too annoying. Being under-fire while trying to deliver false info just seems dumb, and so would trying to kill everyone on board to an extent.

But some effects would be not only lore friendly, but also give the sense that there is a larger world. What if a ship is "under-fire" from an infested ship and then the game starts spawning infested in the mission that started as corpus or grineer? It would actually feel like an invasion.

Again, this idea is amazing and I hope the devs implement some if not all of these.

[Krotalon]

This is awesome! Got all my support.

[LustinForBlood]

I really like this post. It would add so much more to the game. Even if only half the ideas got implemented that would make this game 2x better.

 

I hope this thread keeps alive so that the devs may see this! This is something the devs would want to look at, it's in their best interest if they do!