Cells - This Is Warframes Endgame

[notionphil]

Hi Shifty,

I'm pretty sure bumping isn't allowed :p but discussing is!

I used the word Endgame because I think Cells can serve as a mechanic through with endgame level content should be accessed by the players. Cells would make it more challenging, more lore based and more team centric than another system or higher level void keys.

Having said that, I agree Cells are more than an endgame in the traditional sense, I think warframe is designed to encourage play across the entire arsenal. A mastery 1 player should be able to get as excited about a Cell as a mastery 8. But the mastery 1 player also has many other things to get excited about, the entire Warframe universe will be new to them at that time. Cells will help by serving as a focal point, where challenge meets lore meets teamwork meets risk/reward play.

[MECT_HET]

Message of the day, blinking in the left side of the screen... News, announcments... If you'll look a bit lower, you'll see an alert notifier where you can choose one of the important missions. And if you see even more lower, you can see a brand new notifier leading you in the exclusive new sort of stuff. I'm talking about story mode - that kind of scenario, when entire story of the solar system requires your direct involvement. From the "Tenno Rising" to the bitter "Tenno Exodus", you can  take a part in every major event.

 

But if you're willing to recreating some scenario with your own rules - well you should buy the Cell Keys and complete the original scenario in the first place.

 

tl;dr: my suggestion is - free to involve mandatory scenario part which is unlocking Cell Keys to replay on the harder difficulty/using another modifiers.

[notionphil]

So metochet,

You're suggesting that some cells are triggered by alerts? Or that you could run your own cell parameters. That was one thing I was thinking of too. Player made or clan made cells....

[arch111]

First of all great job of outlining quests. I have been thinking of something simular.

one thing, i get that this is a concern for the highest level playets. The same oroblem as in mmos i guess.

I however am not there yet. I love my Loki and the stealth it offers. Only 26 level Tenno rank 2 so far.

I have kids so my time is precious. Would this system exclude beginners or those in my situation? That would be a shame.

The lore, a common goal besides leveling is needed yes. But for all players. I want immersion from thestart.

You must join the war, we are told. But to what ulrimate goal?

[DreadScourge]

+1 and bump! It would be so nice to fight the boredom with something challenging like this.

[notionphil]

First of all great job of outlining quests. I have been thinking of something simular.

one thing, i get that this is a concern for the highest level playets. The same oroblem as in mmos i guess.

I however am not there yet. I love my Loki and the stealth it offers. Only 26 level Tenno rank 2 so far.

I have kids so my time is precious. Would this system exclude beginners or those in my situation? That would be a shame.

The lore, a common goal besides leveling is needed yes. But for all players. I want immersion from thestart.

You must join the war, we are told. But to what ulrimate goal?

 

Thanks arch111,

 

There would be low level, mid level and high level Cells. Your Loki is hopefully just one of the many frames you will level to max - Cells would exist along the way for you to enjoy no matter your level of play.

 

This is exactly the point I've been trying to make for a while here - Immersion shouldn't be limited to longtime players. To get hooked, many players need lore, challenge and fun from the start!

[notionphil]

I have to admit, this thread is highly productive and I really like what you guys crafted here. Great concept. I'll see whether I can move this upstairs.

 

Also, DE may not be responding, but trust me, they are reading. I spotted a few staffers in here, snooping around. ;)

 

Hi Ced23Ric,

 

Any word from on high here? We're at about 250 upvotes and the community has discussed this topic quite a bit.

 

Should this be either stickied so people can find it, or banished forever into forum oblivion?

[Phaenur]

4) Mission Variety/Difficulty

 

Maintaining engaging content for long-term and high-level players is a challenge we’re working on fixing. We mentioned in the latest Livestream the inclusion of “Nightmare Mode” which will be dynamic and challenging missions with restrictions on how they can be completed. We are determined to add more variety and content to the core gameplay options.

 

I didn't follow the whole stream so I can't exactly guarantee this is what it sounds like, but it certainly sounds like you're in.  "Dynamic and challenging," "restrictions on how they can be completed," "variety and content," the mechanics might be different than how you first dreamed it up but that sounds like a Cell mission to me.  I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how close it comes to what this thread has concocted.

[Niavlys77]

All I can say is - yes please! This sounds awesome.

[NoirHikari]

you sir, have a really great idea, i like the idea of the environmental dangers, the harder mobs that could spawn and the possible mission side effects. This would be really interesting for an endgame content.

[Boomstick720]

I don't say this often, but I must say, this is damn brilliant.

 

Most "game change", ideas are pretty S#&$ty or very flawed in many senses, but this is truly one of the first ones I've seen that is well thought out, refined, and overall just a great addition.  It adds a whole new level of gameplay without adding way too much stuff to be reasonable.

 

That being said, there are a few additions that kind of require... significant changes in some aspects, such as the timed mechanism things, but overall I think this would be a brilliant addition to the game.

[ChrizzieCostanzie]

I like the parkour challenge ;3

[notionphil]

I didn't follow the whole stream so I can't exactly guarantee this is what it sounds like, but it certainly sounds like you're in.  "Dynamic and challenging," "restrictions on how they can be completed," "variety and content," the mechanics might be different than how you first dreamed it up but that sounds like a Cell mission to me.  I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how close it comes to what this thread has concocted.

 

Hi Phaenur,

 

I watched the livestream and what's being discussed is far from being Cells. 'Nightmare Mode' is essentially a super hard version of a mission that is randomly unlocked every once in a while, with higher level mobs and mission restrictions (which may or may not be announced prior to mission).

 

This will successfully add more challenging content for high level players, that's a good thing. However, that's all that I believe it will do.

 

Nightmare mode is not epic, lore based content across all levels. It's not a veichle to finally add depth to the game, It does not reward overcoming challenges across the entire level range (just bring a high level frame to M prime nightmare mode), finding/accessing it will be reliant on the RNG, drops will also be reliant on the RNG, and most importantly, It won't encourage a tactical team based experience. It just a regular warframe mission, but harder.

 

Nightmare mode does sounds fun, however I hope the inclusion of mission parameters (EG: Recon Conditions) with harder mobs isn't intended to replacement for multi mission story arcs that always reward overcoming challenges.

[Serapix]

Man I was really disappointed in Nightmare mode.  To me that just encourages the use of the "God Tier" frames, and the optimal loadouts. 

 

 

Aside from that, its nice to see this topic still being discussed.  Notionphil, how do you feel about a mechanic that blocks your mod slots?  At the beginning of a cell, you have to choose what mods you want for your frame and weapons.  As you progress to a new cell you get to choose another mod slot to be active.

 

A rough idea of what I have in mind is like a Vision Quest type of cell, where you can discover the origins of your Warframe. 

[Archangelzz]

In my opinion the entire game should be something similar to this - just scrap the current "free roam" mode which makes up the entirety of Warframe at the moment. WF so far has no real purpose, you just roam around wherever you feel like going, wandering aimlessly farming for scraps and parts as we mindlessly slaughter whole platoons to level up our frames and weapons so we can more efficiently slaughter yet another endless platoon of baddies.

 

There is no depth, no strategy no real tactics involved other than occasionally having to duck behind a crate to let our shields recharge. There needs to be some overarching thread that ties some sort of a plot together, some sort of purpose that exists within the game world. Right now the only purpose that exists is entirely outside the gameworld, the purpose of players to level up gear, and the acquisition of materials that allow us to do so. That's it. The only exception is the recent addition of the clan dojo but you basically do the exact same thing to build the dojo as you do for frames and weapons: farm mats.

 

Warframe desperately needs something similar to what the OP proposes as its main mode - not just as endgame. And it needs it soon - like yesterday.

the devs are working on that they have a story line and missions in the works and the first part of the storyline will be implemented in update 9 i believe its the storyline for mercury they are also adding a nightmare mode sort of similar to what this guy who posted the thread was talking about with challenges and such

[Ced23Ric]

Hi Ced23Ric,

 

Any word from on high here? We're at about 250 upvotes and the community has discussed this topic quite a bit.

 

Should this be either stickied so people can find it, or banished forever into forum oblivion?

 

Heya,

 

from what I could gather, the future will be bright in regards to a system that is similar to cells. No promise, no details, just a pat on the back.

itssomething.jpg

I still appreciate and love all the time and effort put into this concept. Well done.

[VoidianAgent]

+1

[VoidianAgent]

Heya,

 

from what I could gather, the future will be bright in regards to a system that is similar to cells. No promise, no details, just a pat on the back.

itssomething.jpg

I still appreciate and love all the time and effort put into this concept. Well done.

Btw this idea was pretty good, give the guy something if you guys decide to use most of it.

[Ced23Ric]

Btw this idea was pretty good, give the guy something if you guys decide to use most of it.

 

I could give him a hug if I ever meet OP, I am not a DE employee, good sir. And while DE won't be using this here concept per se, Steve has previously mentioned something similar and that's in the works. Looking forward to Nightmare mode, Intel drops, Lore puzzles, etc. pp.

[notionphil]

I could give him a hug if I ever meet OP, I am not a DE employee, good sir. And while DE won't be using this here concept per se, Steve has previously mentioned something similar and that's in the works. Looking forward to Nightmare mode, Intel drops, Lore puzzles, etc. pp.

 

 

Heya,

 

from what I could gather, the future will be bright in regards to a system that is similar to cells. No promise, no details, just a pat on the back.

itssomething.jpg

I still appreciate and love all the time and effort put into this concept. Well done.

 

Thanks Ced23Ric,

 

No hug required :) All I want is for a developer from DE to have a discussion with the community about the key elements of Cells (and not simply tack on a hard mode and call the game 'done'):

 

Key elements:

 

-multi-mission arcs with perma-death (for that arc if not revived)

-real lore based content (including gear/frame/boss backstories)

-started via dossier (a key like item, with a BP that is not consumed on use, so you can re-run after re-building key)

-challenging pre-announced conditions

-additional real-time challenges, with slight notice so team can quickly devise

-true risk/reward play (you pay the build cost to enter , if you win, you get the main reward 100% of time)

-rewards playing level appropritate content: long term goals to look forward to while forma/new frame or gear

[notionphil]

...And not to come across as entiled, but I would hope with nearly 300 upvotes we could get an official reply. Especially given how communicative DE normally is with the player base.

[[DE]Rebecca]

Although not the same in distribution and content, Nightmare mode is coming soon and a new effort of ours to offer high Risk/Reward gameplay that has interesting restrictions within. Scott talks about this briefly in our U9 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z5eR8xiZvs
 

[Un1ted]

Although not the same in distribution and content, Nightmare mode is coming soon and a new effort of ours to offer high Risk/Reward gameplay that has interesting restrictions within. Scott talks about this briefly in our U9 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z5eR8xiZvs

 

Thats nice, but unless this "Nightmare Mode" is something exactly along the lines of what was proposed in the original post, it will fail.

[Bennyworld]

Although not the same in distribution and content, Nightmare mode is coming soon and a new effort of ours to offer high Risk/Reward gameplay that has interesting restrictions within. Scott talks about this briefly in our U9 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z5eR8xiZvs

It was about time wardrame for a little harder!

Great going DE.

[http404error]

Thats nice, but unless this "Nightmare Mode" is something exactly along the lines of what was proposed in the original post, it will fail.

 

Your confidence is appreciated, but perhaps a tinge of ego is coming on here. Besides, it's a contradiction to say "exactly along the lines of".