Melee Feedback

[soapLTD]

First off, if there is already a really good thread about Melee Combat ideas, please let me know and I will move my suggestions there!

 

I really enjoy Warframe, and overall the combat feels really tight and engaging. That being said, I really come to this game with the desire to really "be a ninja" when I play. In my mind, Ninjas are all about 3 things: Stealth, Acrobatics, and Blades. 

 

Yet when I play Warframe, I feel like the game is really strongly balanced towards a guns and head-on combat approach.

 

Acrobatics like running and jumping are all handled well already, and there is a huge thread on Stealth so I won't focus on that. I do, however, want to talk about the melee system. 

 

 

 

I find that while I am running around in combat, it is extremely difficult to connect my melee attacks with nearby enemies. I often run right past them or am just standing next to them slashing at air while they shoot me. 

 

Suggestion: Melee attacks should auto-target the nearest enemy within range. When I hit the melee button, I want my character to automatically face and make contact with the enemy I am standing next to. Lots of 3rd person action games do this.

 

Alternative Suggestion: Some sort of "lock on" feature for enemies. Similar to some action games, It would be helpful to have a hotkey that I can press that locks my view on the enemy I am currently facing and causes my character to auto-face and strafe around that enemy until I release the lock on or until the enemy dies.

 

 

Hitting an enemy with a melee attack doesn't have strong visual feedback. When I hit an enemy, I only really know they took damage when they die.

 

Suggestion: Enemies should have quick "get hit" animations and sound effects that they play every time a melee attack successfully hits them.

 

 

 

I love the idea of playing "space ninjas", and while Warframe certainly has the aesthetic down (everything looks SO AWESOME), the gameplay does not quite feel "ninja-like" to me. I feel strongly that I should be able to play an all-melee all-stealth character and have that be just as intuitive as shooting. Currently it is not.

[Densoro1]

I do feel like stagger is necessary for a good melee system, since the alternative is them sitting there gunning you down point-blank like 'meh.' Thing is, one of the balancing factors DE has decided on is whether or not a given weapon has it. I'm not sure how much I agree with that decision, but it's there.

 

With as quick as things die though, I'm not sure you'd want a lock-on system. It's intended for games where an enemy is kind of a big deal, not this Serious Sam type deal where it takes 50 of them to make you sweat xD