Where Will The Difficulty Balance Be In Sorties?

[DSpite]

If we had Conclave score limitations I could see more of an even ground between players and a system that actually made players build specifically for each one, but without that, won't sorties just turn into a fancy "gear check" system?

 

One of the missions on the list in the Devstream was "Shotguns only". With Primed Point Blank, Shotguns do immense damage, so having "Shotgun Only" won't exactly be a limitation of any kind for a few people, in fact, all it might do is make the mission next to impossible for people that don't have and like shotguns. If one person can one shot something and another takes 10 rounds, player tactics take a back seat to pure damage application.

 

I don't have an issue with the system personally as I have two accounts to do tests, so I can pick a semi-Optimal setup on the primary, containing a wide choice of Frames and mods and guns, and I will see the limitations and damage issues on the one that only has 3 Frames and very limited weapon/mod choices. I actually look forward to the "struggle", and find it ironic that the missions themselves might actually drop more tools to make future runs easier. I mean, in the odd 0.0000000000001 chance my first run dropped a Legendary Core, one weapon might instantly shoot up in Mod power by a whole order of magnitude. I would actually NOT burn a L.Core because it would screw with tests, as I'm trying to simulate an "unlucky" account.

 

On the Stage 2 Sortie of "only shotguns", would I even be able to enter the mission on my testing account? Not that I have any problems with that, I'm just pointing out mechanics, and even If I had one, I would not have it Forma'd (don't make heavy use of shotguns, the recoil is headache inducing) so I have no idea how well they would have functioned in putting enemies down using an Excalibur. I take it Abilities work? I would have to make heavy use of Blind and EB I guess.

 

All I'm trying to say here is, will the Sorties become trivial even at Stage 3 for people that have everything? Does it look like the general idea is :

 

Stage 1: People that have just started getting decent gear prepared.

Stage 2: People with quite a bit of stuff with a couple of Forma in it.

Stage 3: Specifically for what we now refer to as "broken gear", like 10 point Primed Point Blank, Vaykor Hek with 6 Forma in it?

 

Are the Stage 3 missions going to feel like "a simple run" to anyone that manages to have the "optimal gear" for that particular random bunch of mutators? I'm not saying that people that did a lot of playing should not have an easier time, I'm simply asking will there still be a reasonable amount of intrinsic difficulty, or will player meta manage to trivialize them?

 

Is there actually a way to make decent mutators that flatten the gear impact to a level where player interaction with the mission takes a front seat to the fact that we might have weapons that can one shot anything?

 

I'm having some difficulty seeing it.

[letir]

What do you mean by "difficulty" in Warframe?

[bejuizb]

Sorties will have limitations based on how tough the missions themselves will be. High level enemies with fairly strong and powerful conditions seem to be the key to it all. Sure, some of them seem simple enough, but I'm assuming each trio together will pose the challenge.

[AnnoyingBanana]

Its time to stop hate shotguns and start use atleast one of them for these sorties

[Rioma]

I'm pretty sure higher MR players that have most everything will have an easy time with them. Rebecca used a random loadout given to her by someone else and beat the first mission solo as a squishy frame while eating a sandwich. If you took appropriate gear modded specifically for that mission it would be super easy. I'm sure the lower MR players who haven't invested much time in their gear/ the game will call upon us to carry them. : l

[(PSN)TreySoFreshh]

A point many people forget about sorties is that enemies will have higher resistances along with higher levels. In the dev stream, during the sortie mission, Rebecca kept saying that the mobs had higher 'physical'(IPS) resistance.

So, with this, not every mission(most likely) will have 'physical' resistance and you'll have to focus on elements instead.

[Paradoxbomb]

Are the Stage 3 missions going to feel like "a simple run" to anyone that manages to have the "optimal gear" for that particular random bunch of mutators? I'm not saying that people that did a lot of playing should not have an easier time, I'm simply asking will there still be a reasonable amount of intrinsic difficulty, or will player meta manage to trivialize them?

 

Besides the enemies being as high as level 100 in the final mission, whatever mutator you get seems to be the determining factor for difficulty. So if the restriction is shotguns only, you'll probably have no problems if you already have a shotgun that wipes the floor with level 100 enemies. If it's something like no powers, than you can probably expect quite a few dead Tenno to litter the floors.

 

Otherwise, it seems like the Meta will prevail for the most part, unless Sorties throw a curve-ball with some unexpected mechanic.

[DSpite]

What do you mean by "difficulty" in Warframe?

 

When the level of enemy resistance is fairly even when the damage you actually put out, it means you have to actually shoot things twice or even three times, and not "one shot kills everything in a direct line. I'm not implying the game is difficult, I'm implying you actually have to aim to some extent.

 

Its time to stop hate shotguns and start use atleast one of them for these sorties

 

I don't hate shotguns, I'm effected by heavy amounts of movement, I'm also effected by the flicker of neon tubes, and get headaches inside places that are full of them.

 

Should I start hugging neon tubes and learn to love them as well because you say so?

[DSpite]

A point many people forget about sorties is that enemies will have higher resistances along with higher levels. In the dev stream, during the sortie mission, Rebecca kept saying that the mobs had higher 'physical'(IPS) resistance.

So, with this, not every mission(most likely) will have 'physical' resistance and you'll have to focus on elements instead.

 

 

Well, the thing about that is that the base damage of a weapon determines how it will scale, right? So if an enemy unit has non-linear, base damage reduction on damage applied before boosts from Mods, you instantly compress the damage scale of all the weapons down, and it's not really a proper nerf because "special missions".

 

Instead of two people now having one weapon do 10K and another doing 20K you would have 10K and say 13K which is still high, but not one double the other, kind of like

 

http://fooplot.com/plot/edbgp4342i

Edited November 29, 2015 by DSpite