Harmony - Skill-Based Rewards For High Level Frames

[notionphil]

tl;dr: Harmony is an Metagame system that recognizes and rewards skillful play, especially with a max level frame.

 

EDIT - Thanks for discussing, upvoting, suggesting and liking Harmony! Now with 60, 70, 80 100, 150, 200 Upvotes! If you'd like skillful play with maxed frames to be rewarded, without unbalancing Mastery, please read and upvote Harmony! As I play more, and find myself mastery 10+...this post rings truer than it did months ago when it was written. I find myself feeling 'punished' for playing with my favorite weapons which are already loaded with Forma, and thus losing the chance to gain anything while using them. Harmony fixes that problem and makes both styles of play rewarding, grinding or playing for fun.

Mastery is the grind we all know (and some of us love). It's great way to get us to explore the many weapons and frames in Warframe. However, once we find a great loadout and rank it up to level 30, we stop being rewarded for using it! Giving Mastery for using maxed out gear would obviously break the system - a key mechanic of this game is building a dynamic and varied arsenal. So how can we reward playing well, especially with high level gear?

Harmony - "I have forgotten where I end and where my and my Frame begins" - Anonymous Tenno agent

Harmony is a measurement of how 'in-sync' you are with your loadout. In real-life terms, it's being on a hot streak. You know when an olympic skier nails that triple flip, or a motorcycle racer tucks nearly parallel in the twisties - that's Harmony.  When you're in Harmony, everything feels and looks effortless - the odds just seem to break in your favor.

 

Reflecting its simple nature - Harmony is represented by a single light near your Mastery bar on the System map. As you fight with more skill, it glows brighter, boosting your 'odds' and giving you subtle rewards. As you rest, rush or mindlessly farm, it dims.

 

Finding Harmony
In real life, Harmony is a result of practice, skill and top quality equipment. Same here. First, lets pretend that Affinity is now only earned via skillful play, not random glowing white orbs (more below)*

You will still gain XP normally (via kills, missions and bonuses), but the only way to gain Affinity will be by using your frame and gear well in combat. In the post-mission XP screen - half of this gained Affinity will go to your respective gear in the form of addl (white) bonus XP. The other half now increases your Harmony.

 

*

When I say Affinity am referring solely to the Affinity orbs - not combat XP or otherwise. I do know that all XP is technically Affinity as per lore, but the game calls it XP everywhere besides the Orbs and Hacking rewards. Thus I am co-opting the unused terms and making them consistent. Combat and bonus XP is still XP, Affinity is skill based combat XP.

Max Level, Where to now?
Currently, at max LV all that nice Affinity you gain goes nowhere. Not anymore with Harmony. Since maxed gear doesn't accept any Affinity, 100% of it goes to Harmony. Thus, you gain Harmony 2x as fast when playing with a maxed loadout. This is because your Tenno is so familiar with his gear that he starts to forget he's even wearing it - it feels as if it's becoming a part of him.

Harmony Level
A single, circular light next to your Mastery bar changes from unlit, to dim, amber then white. This light reflects the stages of Harmony (0,1,2,3). There are no numbers or graphs - it is meant to be simple. Just know, the brighter it glows, the better you are doing.

Unlike Mastery, Harmony automatically depletes over time. The higher the Harmony level, the faster it drains. This makes it easy to stay at a medium level of Harmony, but gives the highest rewards to someone who is actively playing with their best loadout.

 

Changing loadouts does not affect your current Harmony. You can raise it then switch to another Loadout to farm if you prefer.

 

lv 0 - no harmony

lv 1 - dim - modest bonuses, starter skill/play consistency to reach, depletes to level 0 in about a week

lv 2 - amber - medium bonuses, medium skill to reach, depletes to level 1 in about 3 days

lv 3 - white - high bonuses, high skill to reach, depletes to level 2 in about a day

Effects of Harmony
Harmony is for hardcore players. For the causal or newbie player - the benefits will be too specific to notice, and between lower play time, lack of play skill and Affinity being split with gear - their Harmony light will probably never turn on anyway. That is intended. The last thing a newbie needs is another gauge to worry about managing. They can simply ignore the little light, and it won't affect their Warframe experience.

 

Only very skillful players who are using high level gear will be able to keep their harmony maxxed. It simply depletes faster than you can gain it at that level, unless using max gear and playing with skill.

 

For the hardcore, Harmony gives an account-wide chance to reach the boundaries of the Warframe universe. Here are some of the proposed effects of Harmony - higher levels of Harmony provide more benefits:

1) Gives an account-wide bonus to rare item drop rates (BP, mods and rare resources). Up to 25% at higher levels.
2) Adds extra rare Mods to the drop tables that are only available to Harmonized players.
3) Boosts crafting rate up to 100% while at max Harmony (EG: 12hr craft done in 6hrs)
4) Boosts credit rewards up to 25%
5) Boosts mission bonus XP up to 25%
6) Enhanced visual and sound effects during combat - when skill based moves are completed
7) Energy dots/line on your Frame glow brighter, relative to Harmony level
8) Slightly increases pickup radius for credits and orbs

9) Increased chance to gib/decapitate enemies on kill

...more ideas?


Affinity Overhaul  = Skill Based Rewards
For this to have meaning - glowing white Affinity orbs have to go. They are immersion breaking and random. Tenno are supposed to be highly skilled operatives, we should be rewarded for behaving like them. Bonus Affinity should be earned solely via skill based gameplay. The Affinity system will start where the current Challenge system ("headshot 10 enemies") leaves off. Challenges would be replaced by prompts to earn Affinity on newbie accounts. These actions would earn Affinity any time, not solely when prompted by a random challenge.

Actions that earn Affinity:

     Annihilate- Earn a Killstreak. Each enemy killed within 3 seconds of the last kill counts towards your Annihilation total. Enemies killed by AoE powers reward only .1 - .25 kill per death depending on power (MP? :P). Higher Annihilation = more Affinity.

     Snipe - Kill an enemy with a headshot

     Execute - Kill a downed enemy with a finishing melee attack

     Ambush - kill an unalerted enemy

     Assassinate - use a stealth attack on an enemy

     Disable- using a power, or a knockdown attack/jump kick, on an enemy that is subsequently killed by anything else, within X seconds.

     Unite - Reviving a fallen Tenno

     Spy - Being the first to mark a mod or material with a WP. Or mark an enemy with a WP that is killed by a squad member within X seconds.

 

     Tactical - Kill a support enemy first (shield osprey or ancient healer, etc) before killing its allies. Or kill an enemy Waypointed by a squad member.

     Finesse - Killing an enemy while wallrunning, sliding, in air or with melee after a wall jump.

     Evasion - Utilizing your roll to avoid damage that contacts your Frame, assuming there are invulnerability frames in the roll (if not, there need to be!).

     Shadow - clear a room without being detected

More of these can be added, and the relative gain of each will require tweaking.

One Last Thing - Total Harmony Earned
At the end of the mission, your Affinity earned is applied to your XP and Harmony. But one more thing happens. Your total Harmony ever earned is tracked. When it gets to certain, very high levels, it unlocks unique visual tweaks which you can use across your account like:

 

-change colors of your powers

-choose glowing colors for your frame

-select from textures in addition to colors

-ideas?

Edited January 10, 2014 by notionphil

[notionphil]

saving space for updates...

[TheHeraldXII]

Interesting idea, replying for interest. +1

[Dtexas]

I like it :3

[SwordAxeMace]

I absolutely love this idea, nothing game changing would come from adding this but the effects will be felt, I totally agree that affinity orbs past level 5 are completely useless and that xp that is wasted on a level 30 wep/frame should/could go into something more useful.

 

Take all my +1 sir, you deserve it

[unmog]

Neat idea, as long as your harmony didnt deplete "too" fast. I dont wanna go to sleep, and go from max harmony to nothing. It should be like over the course of a week, or weekend. Not a day.

[notionphil]

Neat idea, as long as your harmony didnt deplete "too" fast. I dont wanna go to sleep, and go from max harmony to nothing. It should be like over the course of a week, or weekend. Not a day.

 

Thanks.

 

I'm thinking you would deplete from Max to the 2nd highest level in about 1-2 days of no play. Next level takes 2-3 days to deplete. Lowest level maybe a full week to run out. I'm not sure on the # of levels, but that could be tweaked. maybe lvs 0,1,2,3.

 

Should be so that it's tough to keep it maxed, that would be more for a weekend or during an intense session....but pretty easy to keep medium/low going if you play every few days.

 

It also wouldn't take too many missions to build up to level 1, but to get max level would really be tough without some skilled play.

Edited June 17, 2013 by notionphil

[fishworshipper]

I very much like this idea.

[Dieson]

I keep throwing money at the screen but nothing seems to happen! >_<

[Zero.No.Hikari]

I love this idea, it'd make using my maxed Afuris more fun than having to relevel it.

[gell]

As you rest, rush or mindlessly farm, it dims.

 

I could rush and earn most of the proposed affinity too. Do you really care if Harmony requires players to not rush?

 

Also, I will have to assume, since you didn't actually say it, that "playing with skill" is referring to those examples of gaining affinity.

 

It's good to have affinity do something for maxed frames/weapons, but I would not want a glowing light. I'm too OCD to accept an indicator of how well I'm doing. It's the same reason why I don't like the mpg readout in cars. The one in my car is disabled. You could suggest turning it off in the options, I suppose, but it goes back to me thinking it should just be inherent in the system, without an indicator. Get your end-of-mission results and show your bonus rewards, but never give me a grade or a score. It would drive me insane.

[theammostore]

DE, please look at this. Also, link this into the livestream thread. Try to get them to take a look at it while streaming. See if we can get a response on this.

[Quetzhal]

This is a pretty great idea. Would love to see it in game!

[Aeriax]

I really like this idea, and support it or something similar. It'd be a great thing to keep things fresh when working with max level gear (which I'm starting to accrue at a worrying pace).

[Enomic]

Good one, you have my +1

[Iceyspy]

DE, hire this guy already, jeez >_>

[Azure_Kytia]

Yeah, This is a very well thought out and awesome idea. I would love to see this.

 

+support

[vilivanili]

Yes, all my yes.

[Ced23Ric]

I approve of this concept.

[notionphil]

I could rush and earn most of the proposed affinity too. Do you really care if Harmony requires players to not rush?

 

Also, I will have to assume, since you didn't actually say it, that "playing with skill" is referring to those examples of gaining affinity.

 

It's good to have affinity do something for maxed frames/weapons, but I would not want a glowing light. I'm too OCD to accept an indicator of how well I'm doing. It's the same reason why I don't like the mpg readout in cars. The one in my car is disabled. You could suggest turning it off in the options, I suppose, but it goes back to me thinking it should just be inherent in the system, without an indicator. Get your end-of-mission results and show your bonus rewards, but never give me a grade or a score. It would drive me insane.

 

If you can rush and earn all of that proposed Affinity, then you are playing with skill. Works for me!

 

Yes, though, in general, I'd like Affinity to be rewarded for more deliberate play.

[notionphil]

I approve of this concept.

 

 

Yes, all my yes.

 

 

DE, hire this guy already, jeez >_>

 

 

I keep throwing money at the screen but nothing seems to happen! >_<

 

Thanks for the support guys!

 

Anyone have ideas for other actions that could reward Affinity, or other rewards for Harmony?

 

My thought is that the rewards shouldn't be directly related to combat power. Conveineince, differentiation and cosmetics are great though - or other ideas?

[Pourvoir]

I don't know if I skipped it but how would we gain harmony?  Killing enemies with skill isn't very specific and I'm not sure how to do that exactly.  I'd like if we got more "harmony" from not switching our loadouts.  The idea is basically nephalem valor stacks in D3.

[notionphil]

I don't know if I skipped it but how would we gain harmony?  Killing enemies with skill isn't very specific and I'm not sure how to do that exactly.  I'd like if we got more "harmony" from not switching our loadouts.  The idea is basically nephalem valor stacks in D3.

 

You skipped it - you get it from the Affinity generating skill-based actions listed in the orig post.

 

The idea isn't nephalem valor stacks. Though, it would be more like that if you got more Harmony for not switching loadouts (as you suggested). But there's no reason for that - it's contrary to the purpose.

 

Neph valor has a totally different function - to make you stick to one loadout and play through an entire level, bc skills in D3 can be nearly instachanged and you can warp to many bosses.

 

Harmony's point is to reward skillful play with a maxed frame, which is currently ignored/punished by the game. Harmony works with Mastery, by allowing you to decimate an entire Grineer army with your maxed frame then switch to a lesser frame and still benefit. What you are suggesting would work against Mastery.

Edited June 18, 2013 by notionphil

[Pourvoir]

Its a metagame system that adds magic find which is what their function exists for, not sticking to a loadout.  Sounds like nephalem valor stacks to me.  It just wouldn't be ruined by switching loadouts.  After reading the ways to get affinity here are my concerns:  The stealth ones don't fit in currently because there isn't much of a real stealth mechanic right now which DE is aware of.  The run to a waypoint one obviously would just promote rushing.  The other combat ones make it so basically I'll spam the slide and only shoot things while sliding.  

 

We don't have a huge pool of combos like a devil may cry game to build a skill meter.  Also, this all sounds contradictory to your idea of harmony.  If I'm in the zone I'm not taking the time to stealth kill everything, trying to knock down an enemy to get an execution, or rolling around.  I slide to avoid damage personally (roll invulnerability is for monster hunter :p not ninjas).  

 

Much like your cells idea you have the potential of a good idea it just doesn't fit into the game.  Unfortunately people are going "all my yes" because they're being dazzled with a wall of text so of course it must be an amazing idea.  Sorry if that's harsh sounding but it's honest.

[notionphil]

Its a metagame system that adds magic find which is what their function exists for, not sticking to a loadout.  Sounds like nephalem valor stacks to me.  It just wouldn't be ruined by switching loadouts.  After reading the ways to get affinity here are my concerns:  The stealth ones don't fit in currently because there isn't much of a real stealth mechanic right now which DE is aware of.  The run to a waypoint one obviously would just promote rushing.  The other combat ones make it so basically I'll spam the slide and only shoot things while sliding.  

 

We don't have a huge pool of combos like a devil may cry game to build a skill meter.  Also, this all sounds contradictory to your idea of harmony.  If I'm in the zone I'm not taking the time to stealth kill everything, trying to knock down an enemy to get an execution, or rolling around.  I slide to avoid damage personally (roll invulnerability is for monster hunter :p not ninjas).  

 

Much like your cells idea you have the potential of a good idea it just doesn't fit into the game.  Unfortunately people are going "all my yes" because they're being dazzled with a wall of text so of course it must be an amazing idea.  Sorry if that's harsh sounding but it's honest.

 

Thanks for your opinions - however, lets get some pesky facts out of the way:

 

-Neph valor exists to make you stick to a loadout and a level. this is a fact and not my opinion - The magic find+ is the carrot to help you do that.

 

Quote from Diablo Wiki "This (Nephalem Valor) system was implemented to encourage players to stick with a skill build of their choice, select an area of the game they enjoy, and sweep it for elite and champion packs on their way to a boss"

 

Harmony is not to intended to help you stick to a loadout and a level - it is for rewarding you for playing skillfully with a maxed frame.....so again.....not for the same purpose, or even mechanism as Neph valor, at all.

 

-There is no 'run to a waypoint' affinity reward that promotes rushing, you misread. The Spy reward is - 'be the first to Waypoint a Mod'. Meaning Hit 'G' and create a WP on a mod to show your team where it is.

 

-There is no combo meter, the Harmony indicator is only visible on your system map, and would slowly glow more intensly over time. One 'combo' would have no effect on it. It would take an entire play session to max it.

 

If you'd like to talk more about the 'in the zone part' please go on, but the other things were just factually incorrect.

 

My thoughts about 'the zone' is bascially saying, when Tenno are using their skills well, they are in the zone:

 

If you want to shoot things while sliding, I think thats fine...that is a skill based move. As is stealth killing. Not sure why you call these 'not in the zone'. I made the Affinity rewards directly from the list of the special skills that all Tenno have. Using skills well = in the zone IMO.