Let's make a real engineer ! [Engineer based Warframe concept]

[Trichouette]

Let me start by saying that yes, I know we already have vauban, but do you really consider throwing balls around being an engineer ?

Creating vortexes and lifting enemies in the air looks more like witchcraft than engineering to me.

This is what this concept is for, for people who want a real engi frame, one that solve problems, but not problems like "which frame is the most fashionnable", but practical problems like "how am I going to stop these grineer from tearing me a structurally superfluous new behind ?"

See the point ? We need more guns than we can carry, so let's BUILD a gun.

A few things first :

I first apologize for my bad english, I'm trying my best here.

Since I do not work toward the balance of this game, I will mostly suggest "high" "low" instead of giving a value (or a random value that I find fair). This will give the devs (if they ever read this thread (which I hope)) an idea of what I mean.

For the people who got the reference, you probably got it, the concept is based on this handsome guy (see picture bellow). This concept will sometimes look too much like this character, however it's the general idea that needs to be retained.

Spoiler

This thread doesn't contain concept art, nor a name for the frame. The reasons behind these are simply the fact I can't draw anything (I really s*ck at that) and I can't find a badass name yet. Feel free to suggest names if you have an idea. I will mostly talk about him by saying "the engi" and you will notice that most names I chose s*ck.

Whenever I say "Buildings" I refer to his second & third abilities. Nothing else.

The concept is pretty big, therefore I'll use many spoilers to make it more clear.

Role :

The role of this warframe is to defend a position and to provide support to his allies.

His first ability allows him to help his teamates fight and improve his buildings, while the fourth grant more damage to get rid of a specific target even at long range.

His second ability will be his main source of damage while his third ability can be used as shield and medic.

He isn't very mobile, but he can build a real fortress anywhere on the map and secure any non-moving objective.

Attribute :

Spoiler

Health : Very Low, around 80 (250 at rank 30)

Shield : Very high, highest of the game if possible. This frame will mainly survive thanks to his shield.  Something around 200 (450 at rank 30).

Armor : Very low, 50 or even 15.

Power (Energy pool) : Very high. This frame will rather try to avoid taking damage by taking cover behind its constructions, and these construction need energy to operate.

Sprint : Basic, 1.0 should be enough.

Polarities : 1 vazarin & 1 naramon (1 D & 1 dash/bar)   because the warframe is mostly support & defensive.

Aura : Naramon (dash/bar)

Gender : Male

Passive : Engineering Expertise

Spoiler

- The engi grants a passive health regeneration to his constructions when he's close enough to them. (5 m radius) (Something like 1% max hp / sec)

- Additionally, his constructions drain him slightly less energy when he's close enough to them. (5 m radius) (Something like -1 energy/sec)

First Ability : Repair & Enhance
 

Spoiler

- Two hands ability (can't be cast while reloading/shooting) but can be cast while moving.

- Target : Allies, buildings, companions.

- Can be cast on his own sentinel if he aims at the sky or hold the 1 key. (I don't have a better idea but he should be able to cast it on his sentinel somehow)

- The ability grant its target a buff, increasing its fire rate by X% and its shield regeneration rate by Y%.

- While the buff remains, the shield will continually regenerate as long as possible. Even if the target's shield get further depleted, it'll keep regenerating as long as the buff last.

- The fire rate buff only works on primary and secondary weapons. It will not provide attack speed for melee, nor for kubrow.

- Additionally, if the target is a building, it'll level up. If the building is already at max level, it'll regenerate a % of its max health point.

- Can't be recast on a target that still has the buff.

- Cost : 25 energy.

- The ability cost is affected by power efficiency.

- The buff duration is affected by power duration.

- The fire rate & shield regeneration rate is affected by power strength.

- The cast range is affected by power range.

Augment Suggestion : Defense Protocole

Spoiler

- When the buff is applied, the target will emit a strong shock wave dealing a tiny amount of damage and knocking back & down the enemies.

- As long as the buff remains, tinier shock wave will be released every Z seconds, dealing less damage, going less far and knocking back the enemies only.

- The augment works on buildings.

- Power range doesn't change the range of the shock wave, it's a fixed value.

- Power duration make the shock waves more frequent.

- Power strength increase the shock waves' damage.

 

Second Ability : Sentry

Spoiler

- Two hands ability but can't be cast while moving.

- The engi will deploy a self building sentry.

- The sentry will be deployed with 10% of its max health point and shield, and will be gaining health point and shield for each second of its building time to be full health & shield when fully built.

- Once fully built, the sentry will start operating, which means shooting at people. (what were you expecting ?)

- The sentry has 3 different levels, each having more weapon / health / shield than the previous one :

• Level 1 : Gatling gun
• Level 2 : One more gatling gun
• Level 3 : Rocket launcher

- Health : machinery or robotic I guess. Affected by the engi's health & armor mod(s). Increased by level.

- Shield or proto-shield. Affected by the engi's shield mod(s). Increased by level.

- Both gatling deal the same amount of damage, 33% puncture / slash / impact with a low status chance and a high rate of fire

- The rocket launcher deal blast area damage with a high chance of status and shoot every 3 secondes.

- All 3 weapons have a low crit chance, however, their damage / element damage / status chance / crit rate & damage are affected by the engi's primary weapon's mods.

- The sentry has a limited range for its targeting system. (let's say 40 meters)

- The sentry will target the first & closest to its facing direction enemy and then keep firing at it until it dies or is immune/out of range.

- In case of being attacked, the sentry will change focus to deal with its aggressor. (If in range)

- When the sentry get targeted by Repair & Enhance, it'll stop shooting and level up, and then start shooting again. (That means there is a building time when leveling up the sentry)

- Cost : 50 + 2/3/4 energy per second when firing. Each number being refered to the sentry's level.

- When the sentry is idle, it doesn't consume energy. If the engi runs out of energy, the sentry will shut down and power up again as soon as he gets energy.

- The energy drain allows him to recover energy by any way unless by passive energy regeneration (energy siphon / zenurik / rift)

- If you keep pressing 2, the sentry will be destroyed.

- If you are less than 3 m close to the sentry and press 2 while looking at it, the sentry will get removed and the initial energy cost will be refund to the engi (50 by default)

- Energy cost is affected by power efficiency, drain is affected by power efficiency and power duration.

- Targeting range isn't affected by power range. It's a fixed value and can't be changed.

- Damage, health point and shield are affected by power strength.

Augment Suggestion : Retaliation or Tremor

This augment is very close to the previous one but doesn't prevent both of them to be active at the same time.

Spoiler

- If an enemy get too close (<10 m) the sentry will emit a huge shockwave knocking down & back every enemy while dealing huge damage that scale with range. (lower damage to farther targets)

- This shockwave attack is available at every level of the sentry.

- Has a cooldown of 10 second and is half inversely affected by power duration. (+50% power duration reduces the cooldown by 25%)

- Damage affected by power strength and sentry's level.

- Shockwave's range isn't affected by power range, it depends on the level of the sentry.

Augment Suggestion : Surrounded

Spoiler

- Allow the engi to deploy 3 tinier sentries.

- These sentries can't be leveled up.

- Each inflict 75% of the damage of a regular lvl 1 sentry.

Third Ability : Dispenser
 

Spoiler

- Two hands ability but can't be cast while moving.

- Deploy a self building dispenser :

• Level 1 : Slowly Heal and slightly increase shield recharge rate boost.
• Level 2 : Same bonus as lvl 1 but sligthly better, Provide ammo.
• Level 3 : Same bonus as lvl 2 but even better, provide 5 energy / sec.

- These bonus are granted to any tenno that is 5 m or closer to the dispenser.

- Exactly like for the sentry, the dispenser has a building time for being erected and leveled up.

- Each level make the dispenser bigger, allowing to use him for cover.

- Same kind of health point and shield as the sentry, however the dispenser is tankier since he's also used as a cover.

- Same health & shield type as the sentry.

- Health point and shield also improved by warframe's mods.

- The dispenser has an innate (and tiny) health regen. (yay self repair)

- Energy cost : 75 + 1/2/3 energy / sec.

- Energy drain works exactly like for the sentry, it cost nothing when idle and 1/2/3 when healing/granting energy&ammo.

- The engi also benefit from the energy / sec.

- Also shutdown when out of energy.

- You can remove the dispenser exactly like the sentry, it also refund the base energy cost.

- The dispenser has all the effects from Repair & Enhance unless the fire rate buff.

- Health / shield and health/ammo/energy restored is affected by power strength.

- The range to benefit from the dispenser isn't affected by power range and doesn't change per level.

- The energy cost is affected by power efficiency, the energy drain is affected by power duration and power efficiency

Augment Suggestion : Nullifier Bubble (no idea for the name)

Spoiler

- The dispenser now have a nullifier-like bubble around it, shielding units that are inside it from outside shot / abilities / projectile / AOE.

- The bubble also shrinks when being shot at, however, it shrinks slower than a nullifier bubble (simply because otherwise it would be useless considering the amount of enemies)

- The bubble has a cooldown until it starts growing back to its original size, however the cooldown is bigger if the bubble got totally destroyed.

- If the engi use Repair & Enhance on the dispenser, the bubble will start growing and will not stop until it reaches it's original size. If it gets shot at, it'll shrink like it normally does but it'll still keep growing as long as Repair & Enhance's buff is still on the dispenser. (just like the shield effect)

- This mod isn't affected by power attributes.

Augment Suggestion : Support Link

This augment works exactly like Trinity's link, but reversed.

Spoiler

- The dispenser will be linked to any tenno in a 10 meters radius.

- Each tenno will have a X% damage reduction applied to him as long as he's linked to the dispenser.

- Every damage prevented by the link will be dealt to the dispenser instead.

- Link's range is affected by power range.

- % damage reduction is affected by power strength but should be capped. (80%?)

Fourth ability : Priority Target

Spoiler

- Two hands ability but can be cast while moving.

- Target : 1 enemy unit only.

- This ability mark a target for X seconds, making it visible through walls.

- The marked target will take Y% increased damage by any source, and will be heavily slowed. (80% ?)

- If the sentry is deployed, it'll attack the marked target without taking care of anything else (even if it's attacked by close enemies).

- The sentry can attack this marked target even if it's out of range.

- The sentry will stop attacking the target if it's dead, unreachable (line of sight) or immune. (rift / boss)

- Energy cost 50.

- Energy cost affected by power efficiency.

- Slow isn't affected by power strength, however, increased damage % is.

- Effect duration is affected by power duration.

- Cast range is affected by power range.

Availability :

What about making its parts loot from the second or third hidden cache of sabotage 2.0 ?

That would fit the theme.

 

 

I believe I should swap the second and fourth ability slot, but that doesn't really matter.

This frame seems balanced like this in my opinion and would be a nice way to change the classic "let's pick frost for defense"

If you have suggestions / questions do not hesitate, and If you like the concept, a tiny +1 would be nice of you :D

[MichelPostma]

I really like the idea, but instead of having the Warframe spawn sentries, why not connect it to other existing game elements which are now completely under used. 

Airsupport charges.

Why not make this frame able to upgrade the sentry you drop from the xiphos? Like so you can connect it even better with game elements.

If you want to make this frame to be any real competitor against frost, why not make it able to replenish a defense targets health more quickly or make it able to restore the health of a corpus rover? 

I really like the idea, but this character is down to the essence a vital part. It will be the link between game elements, so making it create new elements as it's abilities is missing out on an opportunity. 

I'd love to see this character implemented, but I would like to see it more being connected to "the system" instead of it having yet another set of yet some new powers.

[Trichouette]

20 minutes ago, InglriousB said:

I really like the idea, but instead of having the Warframe spawn sentries, why not connect it to other existing game elements which are now completely under used. 

Airsupport charges.

Why not make this frame able to upgrade the sentry you drop from the xiphos? Like so you can connect it even better with game elements.

Because that would require you to have xiphos which isn't something everybody can afford...

(and because xiphos' sentry is crap)

21 minutes ago, InglriousB said:

If you want to make this frame to be any real competitor against frost, why not make it able to replenish a defense targets health more quickly or make it able to restore the health of a corpus rover?

Simply because they already removed trinity's ability to heal a cryopod, pretty sure they don't want a frame to be able to do that.

And the corpus rover is a moving target not easy to heal when your dispenser can't move. And I assume they don't want us to be able to heal it since it loses 10hp/sec... (to not camp the mission I guess)

 

[MichelPostma]

16 minutes ago, Trichouette said:

Because that would require you to have xiphos which isn't something everybody can afford...

(and because xiphos' sentry is crap)

Simply because they already removed trinity's ability to heal a cryopod, pretty sure they don't want a frame to be able to do that.

And the corpus rover is a moving target not easy to heal when your dispenser can't move. And I assume they don't want us to be able to heal it since it loses 10hp/sec... (to not camp the mission I guess)

 

The sentry was just an example, think of an increase for the health station etc. Make this Warframe able to improve the concept of Airsupport charges which is totally crap atm. 

[harvie89]

I like the idea, but you need to find a way to be original with the concept about the Sentry Turrets and Dispenser. Nobody wants to see a TF2 copy. Just stay original

Suggestion:

Dispenser - 2/3/5 hp/sec

Turret - other than Gatling Guns