This Game Is Getting Too Easy (Open Letter To De)

[twibs]

Forgive me if this sounds more like rambling, I'm just pouring out my feeling for this wonderful game.

 

Not to say it's not fun, but even as I play I have this feeling that it won't last forever. One of the bottom reasons for this is the earlier mentioned 'lack of endgame'. Some might argue that Void keys are the current end game and it's a good start, but it can hardly stop there if the game wants to stay afloat. This is not to critizize the developers, I know they are doing their best and frankly they're so far the best I've seen to communicate with their playerbase.

 

Currently we grind for to be able to try out new guns and ultimately grind more. Grind those guns to 30 for ranks, grind mats for new guns, grind mats for the Dojo, and I'm fine with that. We don't really need those guns for anything than to show off to some randoms that we god forbid are sometimes forced to run with. I think by now it should be clear that I'm from a clan, fairly tightknit clan of perhaps 20 or so active members. So far we have built 2 crossconnectors, reactor, oracle, energy lab and chem and 3rd connector are on their way. This should tell you that even smaller clans can achieve if only they play a-@(*()$-lot. *grin* Yes I'm hardcore gamer and my views will be weighted by that. But they are my opinions, I'm not forcing them on you.

 

Easy you said? Hold on, I'm getting to that. I don't mean the Dojo building, it's a game of it's own, what I mean are the actual missions. Currently just about everything we need are halfranked guns that we are leveling to blaze through just about any mission. The hardest, i.e. T3 void, can be done with half ranked guns with some teamwork. (par that unlucky room with 3 healers ,5 heavy gunners and crapload of leapers with half of our ammo gone). I don't even use my rank 30 guns because I always some other waiting to be leveled.

 

I like how the devs are finding ways to make us more ninja. Since true ninja is unbeatable, so all we can aspire is to be as close to ninja as we can. The coming clan polarity is extremely cool, yet another form of power-creep that we don't really need. Forma is edgy subject that I won't go too far into, just saying that the catalyst/reactors themselves are already very very VERY powerfull.

 

Let's take something that is relatively possible to achieve. Twice formaed equipment with reactors. That's enough power to blast through just about anything (assuming you had enough luck to get that multishot). And I haven't even touched the skills.

 

Skills like crush, vortex, sound quake, miasma (etc etc the AoE damage skills) are possible to balance damage-wise, and frankly are currently ridiculously powerfull. Skills like chaos and mindcontrol are more of a problem as they scale proportionally to the power of the enemy (I'll come to enemy scaling in a bit). So if we're ever in a tight spot, just blast one away. It wouldn't be so bad if not for the powersiphon artifact. In normal artifact setup for our group we have power siphon, power siphon, power siphon and depending on the mission perhaps enemy radar just for convenience or one more power siphon. I don't really remember having to pull back my skills due to lack of energy (apart from being hit by distruptor). People have gone to waves as far as 50 (with quick youtube search) in the defences, if the devs thought 15 would be 'high', I ask the devs to take a step back and think just how powerfull the Tenno are currently.

 

This is not asking to nerf us (well apart from the catalyst/reactor perhaps but it would be quite big of a hassle), it's asking to give us something we can use our powers on. More endgame content, which is quite probably coming in the future, which is challenging enough to make us use our powers. People have talked about bosses, trophies for the Dojo and the like and I'm all for that. Stuff for us to do and achieve.

 

First of all I'd like the Devs to take a deep breath before agreeing with any of the players opinion (yes, even mine). Agreeing with too many will lead to watered down experience that the casuals will rush through and the hardcorers will get bored with. I want you to make the game YOU want to make, not one for the masses that mainly consist of casuals that aren't really here to support your game. Solo gamers are likely not the target audience of the devs, as one Dev asked Soloer if he would not join even a small clan. There has also been outcries for the 'clan focused' content that the soloers cannot access to this. It clans versus solos now. This is either-or question. Devs, you cannot please both parties in satisfying manner so I beg you to choose one (and if I read your intentions at all, it is for the clan focused.) and stick with it.

 

For the bosses, I think the current size of 4 Tenno are just great, enough to get that teamwork but not too much to be a logisticial effort and requirement to join a 100+ clan to be able to do anything. Like one of the devs said in the livestream, don't let us rush through the content in hours that you worked months to creat. That is not just healthy or possible.

 

So what CAN you do to make things last. Again, this is only my opinion and I really have no idea about your 'big picture'.

 

Part of the problem I feel is the odd scaling of enemies that is most visible in the endless defence. They might start in levels 25, but soon grow to 50+ with waves 15 and onward. The difference is really huge. They go from 'let's afk here and let our cube kill all' to the 'holy f***, I need more ammo'. I can see the skills were balance around that higher end, but it creates a problem at the low end. What I would like to see is more calm difficulty curve, that can be perhaps aplied to the different leveled system to give a good defence mission for every kind and level of groups.

 

Now, if that were the case we could give the skills more synergy. I like how the mag's bullet attractor works with Excaliburs radial javelin, except it's for 2 very specific frames. We need more things like that, but only in more general manner. What they would be? Perhaps play with the element, one attack gives opening to another type. (freeze -> crush, heat -> pierce) Slow things down (crush, vortex) to open them for some slow but powerfull attack. If they were to synergize more, we could tone down the damage of individual skill to more realistic levels. Give rhino are more tanky feel, up the iron skin and give it more taunt feel, but beware not to make this the old unholy trinity of tank-dps-healer. What I would love to see is great combination of crowd control and synergized damage skills. Speaking of Trinity, it's an odd frame. I like how you wanted to do something different but watch out so it won't become a mandatory member of the groups.

 

If one would ask from me, I would nerf the reactor/catalyst power up from 30 to 15 and limit forma to maybe 2-4 pieces per equipment. Devs, you shut yourself out of the great balancing factor that is the existing polarity slots. Not to mention getting to full power now feels extremely pay-to-win. (btw, formaing 8 times some weapon is just stupid, you can't know what mods will come in future, not to mention how would one even use all those points). Apart from that, having 60 points to spend on mods and several polarities just eliminates the choice. Why would I need to choose between clipsize and reload speed, when I can just slap in forma and reactor and take both. What seemed like great way to customize your gear is now looking more like slap-all-in and be the most powerfull. Make some mods exclusive to one another, incompatible with some mods. (elements) Give us hard choices and when you see your forums filled with arguments whether X is better than Y, you know you have succeeded.

 

With synergy skills we would need to work as a team to overcome perhaps the asked for bosses. Yet as a solo player you could find some other frame to synergize with even in random group. gives us moments of succes where we can feel like true ninja. The truth is that if you make harder/clan exclusive content, the soloers will yell and whine. But I ask you this, why would they need that omg-clan-weapon if they don't really need it for any content they run. With the coming clan cost adjustment I believe even smaller ones can achieve their shiny weapons, if they just keep at it. End-game is called that for a reason, if they want to experience it they need to work for it. With the current generation of gimme-all-now gamers it's hard to keep one's head but with harder goals there something for the casuals to aspire to and or the hardcores to actually do. If ever we feel like we've completed this game, we will quit. There is no replay, no restart, we will just move on. So keep us wanting for more and we'll gladly open for you our wallets.

 

Peace my Tenno, may the next drop be multishot for you.

Edited June 4, 2013 by twibs

[Sublime_Lizard]

Thank you

[Namacyst]

Info for OP: If you want to reach ANY audience... write a proper TL;DR.

[tactical_surgeon]

I want to point out that all be your points are very good I have one thing to add 

 

- the game is much too easy at the moment, except for tower 3 missions 

The enemies in those practicly eat your sheilds for breakfast, even a Rhino would get killed if they don't play defensibly.   Me and two others played it, all of us veterans of Warframe and were all using very powerfull weapons yet ate through ammo fast, and all died quite a lot.  It was only the fact that we were all using voice chat that we could organize well enough to survive it.   In short, I'd like to see more missions at the difficulty level of a tower 3 mission. - other then that, nothing else is really that hard as you said.

[Mickey1779]

AS TLDR is useless and this is a really long post, so I will comment on the title itself.

"This Game Is Getting Too Easy (Open Letter To De)" sounds to me like you are speaking about nerfs to mobs and bosses. As far as I recall there hasn't been any difficulty nerfs done to this game. If it is "Getting Too Easy" maybe it is because you are better geared then when you started playing or maybe you have developed strategies for each faction.

The game itself has always been this easy, you have just learnt to play better is all.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Mickey1779

[DAWGUNITALPHA]

So your answer to the game being "too easy" is not to actually make the game challenging by upping AI or actually creating a better game environment, but instead to cripple the potatoes which greatly expand the mod-customization of this game. Which is basically all this game really has going for it at this point.

 

Yeah, no thanks. Sure I'd love a more useful mod variation out there if possible, it'd be great if crit builds were actually viable on more than like two weapons. But taking away our customization options is not the answer.

[twibs]

I don't want to reach ANY audience, just the Devs. The topic itself is the TL;DR. Casuals move on. ;)

 

As to the title itself, mainly the slow power creep that is becoming with more and more options on customization that overlap (better weapons, forma, oncoming clan polarity) The game is easy enough as it is.

 

So your answer to the game being "too easy" is not to actually make the game challenging by upping AI or actually creating a better game environment, but instead to cripple the potatoes which greatly expand the mod-customization of this game. Which is basically all this game really has going for it at this point.

 

Yeah, no thanks. Sure I'd love a more useful mod variation out there if possible, it'd be great if crit builds were actually viable on more than like two weapons. But taking away our customization options is not the answer.

 

I think you missunderstood me. I did agree on the suggested bosses and by no means are agaisnt AI or enviromental suggestion. Covering every single aspect of the game would be far too time consuming and create post so lenghthy no one would read it. Other's have touched on (at least the enviroment) so all I'd do would be just mimicing their pleas. No, I wanted to convey my feelings. What I really wanted is to see more teamwork.

 

And what customization? There is very little of it. Slap in reactor and 8 forma and you can pretty get in every mod you can even think of, par running out of physical slots. Right now potato is mandatory for the weapon to be even considered 'full'. I don't expect them to touch the potato, it has been out for too long, I'm just saying what kind of problems that combined with forma is causing in my opinion.

 

Edit: Might as well remove the TL;DR. It really has no purpose.

Edited June 4, 2013 by twibs