Harmony - Skill-Based Rewards For High Level Frames

[CosyPigeon]

I like it, it would be nice to have some sort of benefit for playing with max level gear.

[EclipsedHusky]

Add higher drop rate/drop amount(like if you get 100salvage you would get 125 when in max harmony) That way you need to grind less if you are in harmony. Tired of farming wish there was something to make it so items rewarded more so I could do what I like more.

 

Also what about defense missions how would harmony work around those would it be in the "grinding" issue if I want to just do defenses to high levels with friends?

[RebornNemesis]

I like the idea. And I see just about everyone reading this likes it. And here comes the big BUT. But games that have a major element of farming need to balance the rewards of hardcore players and casual players. Depending on the quality/quantity of rewards from the harmony system, this could easily ruin that fragile balance. If this is pursued, caution must be taken.

[RebornNemesis]

After reading through more replies its apparent to me that everyone's definition of "skill" is different. This makes it impossible to program a system to hand out the correct "harmony". That's just how the game was designed, to use teamwork, whole at the same time exploring new weapons. The strategies in this game are endless, if anything they need to implement a "creative kill" bonus.

[notionphil]

I like the idea. And I see just about everyone reading this likes it. And here comes the big BUT. But games that have a major element of farming need to balance the rewards of hardcore players and casual players. Depending on the quality/quantity of rewards from the harmony system, this could easily ruin that fragile balance. If this is pursued, caution must be taken.

 

Hi Ally,

 

Thanks for your thoughtful opinions. I agree the rewards would require careful balance.

 

My numbers are starting points - EX: in the grand scheme of things a 25% increase to drop rate on rare items is not large. It means the difference between ending a 3hr play session with 6 control modules instead of 5. It means having a 2.5% chance to get Thunderbolt instead of a 2% chance.

 

These are things that casual players won't notice, and due to the RNG you won't really 'feel' them much either. But you'll know they are there, and that will make grinding feel less, well, grindy.

 

 

After reading through more replies its apparent to me that everyone's definition of "skill" is different. This makes it impossible to program a system to hand out the correct "harmony". That's just how the game was designed, to use teamwork, whole at the same time exploring new weapons. The strategies in this game are endless, if anything they need to implement a "creative kill" bonus.

 

A creative kill bonus doesn't address the issue that Harmony is meant to solve - people feel penalized for playing with their maxed, favorite loadout. The game should reward them for doing so, without undermining the Mastery system. Giving bonus XP to someone with a maxed frame is what the game already does, to the frustration of many.

 

Harmony should reward any and all forms of skill that is productive to the game, especially skills that are not suficciently rewarded via other mechanisms. EG: skill in trolling should not be rewarded. Skill in creative kills should be rewarded, but is not. Skill in rushing is rewarded (by more drops) so may not need any further rewards. The list of Skill-based rewards can certainly use expansion.

 

I think most of the debates about 'what constitutes skill' in this thread are by those who are arguing that rushing through a level quickly, thereby maximizing farming rate is skill. While that is certainly skillful play, I don't believe it is the skill that the developers wish to emphasize, and that skill is already rewarded by the fruits of a min-max playstyle.

 

A main goal of Harmony is to allow those who want to dispatch enemies skillfully and via creative means to ALSO be rewarded via enhanced drop rates etc. Those who ignore enemies and run through levels quickly are already rewarded by more runs/drops/hr.

Edited June 24, 2013 by notionphil

[JamnikPucek]

The concept in itself isn't bad.

 

The bonuses to any rare drops, craft times, etc. is not.

 

Especially the remarks how its not meant for "casual" players (define casual) that would not notice the difference seems completely out of touch. "Casual" (again, who are these casual players that you want to shaft with this system) will surely notice that they are getting shafted on drops, crafting times and everything else. In essence, especially since considering how "harmony" is supposed to be gained, its nothing more then something that players with more time and shove in the face of players with less time to play, making the gap between the two bigger the it already is just due to the playtimes themselves. 

 

This is not even taking farming into account. At its best, this system is just an attempt to sidestep some inherent limits that WF puts on players. At its worse, its something that will promote disparity between playtimes which is something WF should imho avoid, not the other way around. Visual effects, additional skin options etc seems like the best way to go if you really want to go there, but mod drops, loot increases, gameplay changes seem to make the game easier for the "hardcore" (again, very unclear term) instead of making the game more challenging for them.

 

Drop rates or whatever else should be the effect of an increased challenge taken and overcoming said challenge, or in general by practical application of skill vs. increasing challenges, not an arbitrary farm-able factor. 

[notionphil]

The concept in itself isn't bad.

 

The bonuses to any rare drops, craft times, etc. is not.

 

Especially the remarks how its not meant for "casual" players (define casual) that would not notice the difference seems completely out of touch. "Casual" (again, who are these casual players that you want to shaft with this system) will surely notice that they are getting shafted on drops, crafting times and everything else. In essence, especially since considering how "harmony" is supposed to be gained, its nothing more then something that players with more time and shove in the face of players with less time to play, making the gap between the two bigger the it already is just due to the playtimes themselves. 

 

This is not even taking farming into account. At its best, this system is just an attempt to sidestep some inherent limits that WF puts on players. At its worse, its something that will promote disparity between playtimes which is something WF should imho avoid, not the other way around. Visual effects, additional skin options etc seems like the best way to go if you really want to go there, but mod drops, loot increases, gameplay changes seem to make the game easier for the "hardcore" (again, very unclear term) instead of making the game more challenging for them.

 

Drop rates or whatever else should be the effect of an increased challenge taken and overcoming said challenge, or in general by practical application of skill vs. increasing challenges, not an arbitrary farm-able factor. 

 

Hi Jamnik,

 

Thanks for your critique.

 

It sounds like you are concerned that players with limited playtime will get shafted by Harmony.

 

I will go through the original post and check my phrasing, but Harmony wasn't about throwing lots of playtime at the game. It was about gaining Affinity through skill based actions. If you are using a maxed loadout, you would gain it 2x as fast. Using a maxed loadout is something any player can do - the 'hardcore' would be the ones who would probably care about Harmony enough to make sure they do it.

 

In a couple of hours, anyone should have enough time to max their Harmony from a low level to full.  If you are too low level to have a max frame and gear, you probably don't care about a 2.5% drop rate vs a 2% drop rate on a mod you have never heard of, like Thunderbolt.

 

RE: drop rates and crafting rates - I don't have the RNG tables and raw data etc, so I'd leave that to DE. My #s are a starting point.

 

Let me once again state:

 

EX: in the grand scheme of things a 25% increase to drop rate on rare items is not large. It means the difference between ending a 3hr play session with 6 control modules instead of 5.

 

It means having a 2.5% chance to get Thunderbolt instead of a 2% chance. Meaning it would, on average take one player, 50 runs of xini to get it and another 40 runs.

 

The real point is by run 20 or so, both would have full Harmony, from zero, if they were playing with skill based actions, so it makes this argument pretty pointless.

Edited June 24, 2013 by notionphil

[JamnikPucek]

Hi Jamnik,

 

Thanks for your critique.

 

It sounds like you are concerned that players with limited playtime will get shafted by Harmony.

 

I will go through the original post and check my phrasing, but Harmony wasn't about throwing lots of playtime at the game. It was about gaining Affinity through skill based actions. If you are using a maxed loadout, you would gain it 2x as fast. Using a maxed loadout is something any player can do - the 'hardcore' would be the ones who would probably care about Harmony enough to do it.

 

In a couple of hours, anyone should have enough time to max their Harmony from a low level to full.  If you are too low level to have a max frame and gear, you probably don't care about a 2.5% drop rate vs a 2% drop rate on a mod you have never heard of, like Thunderbolt.

 

RE: drop rates and crafting rates - I don't have the RNG tables etc, so I'd leave that to DE. My #s are a starting point.

 

Let me once again state:

 

EX: in the grand scheme of things a 25% increase to drop rate on rare items is not large. It means the difference between ending a 3hr play session with 6 control modules instead of 5.

 

It means having a 2.5% chance to get Thunderbolt instead of a 2% chance. Meaning it would, on average take one player, 50 runs of xini to get it and another 40 runs.

 

The point is by run 20, both would have full Harmony if they were playing with skill based actions, so it makes this argument pretty pointless.

 

Any increase in loot chance will be perceived as essential by most players. Anywhere where random drops is increased, maximizing the drop rate is what a good deal of players will go for. This does not mean skillful play, just craftiness, and several of the ways of getting harmony promote just that, build twinks. Though ultimately, having the system open to all forms of play is a good thing and that really isn't that much of an issue for me.

 

Random chance and distribution does not work that way. You are not "entitled" to a drop of what you want after 50 runs if the chance is 2% , you can run it 1000 times and still not get it. You yourself mentioned that keeping it up at the highest level would require pretty much daily play. The assumption that "casual" players will not care about drop rates seems contrary to most of my experiences in MMOs with random drops, whoever those "casuals" are anyway.  

 

I should not worry about maxing out my harmony to get higher drops. The only factor involved should be the difficulty of the challenge in front of me and playerskill required, not an arbitrary, "farmable" factor which is the root of my issue with this system. And while the general idea of rewarding skillful play (mass head shots, stealth clearing, etc) is not a bad one, the rewards should come just form the fact that using those methods lets you complete harder challenges without getting killed, not because it loads some arbitrary bar that gives you higher loot rates. Otherwise, you can be sure that shortly after implementation of such a system a "proper" way of farming that factor will show up and people will pressure others to follow the beaten path.

[notionphil]

Otherwise, you can be sure that shortly after implementation of such a system a "proper" way of farming that factor will show up and people will pressure others to follow the beaten path.

 

 

You're making it sound as if people are going to not play, and instead go gain Harmony. You gain Harmony while playing!

 

The difference will be - instead of running headlong through a mob of grineer on M Prime bc their puny guns are too weak to dent your 700 shield, some players will be rewarded for shooting them in the head or sneaking past them unawares. If a 'propery way of farming' now becomes to play like a skillful ninja, stealthily slaying foes, or evicerating them in bloody kill streaks,  I will bet you 100 platinum that DE will have a more satisfied playerbase and a smile from ear to ear.

 

 

Any increase in loot chance will be perceived as essential by most players. Anywhere where random drops is increased, maximizing the drop rate is what a good deal of players will go for. This does not mean skillful play, just craftiness, and several of the ways of getting harmony promote just that, build twinks. Though ultimately, having the system open to all forms of play is a good thing and that really isn't that much of an issue for me.

 

Look at the list of options - plenty of ways for any frame to gain Harmony. You won't need to scam or twink the system to get it. As more options open up to warframes, more items will go on the list

 

 

Random chance and distribution does not work that way. You are not "entitled" to a drop of what you want after 50 runs if the chance is 2% , you can run it 1000 times and still not get it. You yourself mentioned that keeping it up at the highest level would require pretty much daily play. The assumption that "casual" players will not care about drop rates seems contrary to most of my experiences in MMOs with random drops, whoever those "casuals" are anyway.  

 

I said "on average it would take..." which is...exactly.... how distribution works.

 

Yes, keeping Harmony it at the highest level would require daily play. The rare drop rate benefit doesnt affect you if you're not playing...so when you log in and go kill some mobs, you'll be back at max while you are playing. Your concern is that if I played yesterday, my harmony starts higher than yours? I believe that is an inherent advantage that DE wants in the game, look at build timers, daily rewards etc. I didn't pick these elements totally randomly :)

 

 

I should not worry about maxing out my harmony to get higher drops. The only factor involved should be the difficulty of the challenge in front of me and playerskill required, not an arbitrary, "farmable" factor which is the root of my issue with this system. And while the general idea of rewarding skillful play (mass head shots, stealth clearing, etc) is not a bad one, the rewards should come just form the fact that using those methods lets you complete harder challenges without getting killed, not because it loads some arbitrary bar that gives you higher loot rates. Otherwise, you can be sure that shortly after implementation of such a system a "proper" way of farming that factor will show up and people will pressure others to follow the beaten path.

 

Warframe is not currently a challenge = reward game, really in any way at all.

 

 

• Firstly, the biggest challenges in the game have no real rewards (high wave def).

   

   

• Secondly,the 'best' rewards in the game are hidden beneath multiple layers of RNG and many hours grinding, mostly with no challenge. (EG: Despair - grind+RNG to get Stalker, grind+RNG to get BP drop, grind to get mats to build it) 

   

   

 

 

I would love some Challenge = Reward play, and I discuss pure-challenge-based-rewards in my thread Cells - Challenging Plot-Driven Mission Arcs. This game has some limitations on implementing challenges across all levels/playstyles, as you'll see in the 6+ pages of discussion there. Suffice it to say I am passionate about Challenge=Reward.

 

However, I accept that the heart of this game is based on RNG + grind + explore your arsenal. I accept that and enjoy the game. I feel the Harmony system works well with that heart.

 

Harmony invites you to give yourself a little challenge : Use skillful play = get a modest bonus to RNG. OR, don't challenge yourself, and just run through blindly farming a boss BP then Abort after no drop, don't get a bonus to RNG. Your call.

Edited June 24, 2013 by notionphil

[JamnikPucek]

I guess the crux of our disagreement lies in this:

 

Warframe is not currently a challenge = reward game, really in any way at all.

 

Which is something I can agree to a certain extent, there is defiantly a lack of high challenge/high reward chance content that isn't defence missions (which I personally don't find all that interesting, but that is going into opinion territory)

 

Harmony invites you to give yourself a little challenge - Use skillful play = get a bonus to RNG. Don't challenge yourself, and just run through blindly farming a boss BP, don't get a bonus to RNG.

 

If that is the approach intended, then the harmony system indeed does what it is should. My issue is that it just isn't the way to go as far as resoling the whole challenge/rewards issue that WF has.

 

I would much rather just see content that is difficult and challenging by itself and promotes skilfully play by making the challenges easier (or at all possible) to complete, rather then offset it by a system that uses an outside "grindy" bar to do the same thing.That is probably something I should write down in a separate thread somewhere. 

 

But again, at this point we are moving into opinion/approach territory, which is something that we could probably dispute for pages without a clear resolution. Considering what you seem to want form the harmony system, I can't really see anything "wrong" with it as it is. I just don't necessarily agree that it is the best use of available dev resources to resolve the issue that we both agree exists, but well, thats what happens with different approaches/opinions ;)

[notionphil]

I guess the crux of our disagreement lies in this:

 

 

Which is something I can agree to a certain extent, there is defiantly a lack of high challenge/high reward chance content that isn't defence missions (which I personally don't find all that interesting, but that is going into opinion territory)

 

 

 

If that is the approach intended, then the harmony system indeed does what it is should. My issue is that it just isn't the way to go as far as resoling the whole challenge/rewards issue that WF has.

 

I would much rather just see content that is difficult and challenging by itself and promotes skilfully play by making the challenges easier (or at all possible) to complete, rather then offset it by a system that uses an outside "grindy" bar to do the same thing.That is probably something I should write down in a separate thread somewhere. 

 

But again, at this point we are moving into opinion/approach territory, which is something that we could probably dispute for pages without a clear resolution. Considering what you seem to want form the harmony system, I can't really see anything "wrong" with it as it is. I just don't necessarily agree that it is the best use of available dev resources to resolve the issue that we both agree exists, but well, thats what happens with different approaches/opinions ;)

 

I am somewhat of a pragmatist (and I also don't work for DE).  I don't disagree with your intent at all, but this is the framework we have and I'm trying to maximize our enjoyment of it with as little dev resources as possible. If I'm going to essentially be 'forced by drop tables' to run a level 5 mission with a level 30 frame 10x a week (which is another issue altogether), I'd at least like to have a Metagame element that allows me to bring a hint of challenge to it.

 

Please do check out the Cells thread for more on difficulty and challenge; critical opinion and debate does help refine these concepts. Your opinions presented here will specifically help me attempt to flesh out how long Harmony should take to build and decay.

 

A personal aside: Please see the numerous, very angry, long threads about 'How Impossibly Difficult Ancient Disruptors Are' (?!?!') and 'OMG Scorpion stunlock makes me want to rage quit'. I even found one about how unfair Grineer Napalm was..Yep, somehow.

 

This is a topic for another day, but tying rewards to pure player-skill sounds great but is harder in practice than theory.  Play time (to overcome RNG/grind)is something anyone can contribute (over time).... However, skill is more rare. Rare = inaccessable = anger. However, I'd love to see your thread on difficulty, rewards and challenge and expect it will be insightful, please ping me when you're done.

[S3riaL]

+1 dude I will finish to read this tomorow but this is the best idea for a little end game that and Cells. I hope your idea come alive in the game pretty soon.

[notionphil]

I quite like this idea. +1 and all that.

 

 

I do have a couple of suggestions, however! I like the idea of the "spy" action, as that encourages team-play. I'm all for that, and so I'd suggest some other actions.

 

"Spotter" for example, could be a (minor) bonus a Tenno would get if an enemy they marked with a waypoint is killed by an ally.

 

"Double-Team" (or maybe "Assistance"? "Flanking Action"?) would be a reward for kill-assists (which are already tallied, I believe).

 

I'm sure there's lots of other options to encourage team-play, as well as reward other kinds of gameplay. "Untouchable", perhaps, a reward for Tenno who get through a mission without taking any health damage? Who knows.

 

Anyhow, this is a good idea. It deserves attention.

 

'Spotter' is a great idea. Anything to promote teamwork or coordination between allies is good. The person killing the mob with Spotter on it would get a 'Tactical' reward from the orig post. I'll add that one.

 

Double-Team/Assistance/Flanking, could be seen as encouraging kill stealing, which isn't really a bad thing in the game yet. Maybe it would work to make sure that kill stealing = kill sharing, which is good. That definitely warrants discussion.

 

'Untouchable' and similar end-of-mission rewards are a great idea, if kept simple and not promoting odd play or rushing.

 

I had a number of those but scrapped them in the initial plan for simplicity's sake. In fact I had an entire system where each player would be given a 'title' based on their play in the prior mission, eg, 'Assassin' for stealth kills, 'Sniper' for headshots etc, and that would give them a slight bonus in that skill going into the next one....but scrapped all of that :P

 

Thanks for ideas!

[ZWarhammer]

I like the general idea but execution could be tweaked a little.

[notionphil]

I like the general idea but execution could be tweaked a little.

Ideas please!

[Ariarch]

I approve of the approval of the community moderator.

In other words, I approve of this thread.

[Shifty_Shuffler]

Hats off to yer notionphil, you have posted a couple of very good ideas (this and your cell suggestion)! Another +1 from me.

 

I think I would be happy with Harmony depleting fast, i.e. from 3 to 2 in a day, maybe even less, but to counter this you can gain it fast if you're really skilled. But, you have to be skilled. Things like kill count should add very little harmony, otherwise people will only play certain frames that have awesome offensive skills that rack up the kills easily. You did state that AoE kills would count for less, but when you taking out 20-30 mobs at once it would still clock up very fast.

 

In essense top level Harmony should be a feat to achieve, through skill and not persistance. Thus giving a player true bragging rights :)

 

EDIT: there should also be some sort of ratio between enemy level and weapon/frame level, so players can't farm harmony with level 30 frames and weapons on Mercury missions ;)

Edited June 25, 2013 by Shifty_Shuffler

[notionphil]

Hi Shifty,

Love your ideas on harmony rate, difficulty of attaining and thoughts abt the mechanic.

I thought about level ratio affecting Harmony too, but the issue with that is harmony shouldn't take you out of your regular gameplay. It shouldn't be something you have to go somewhere to farm. If the game makes you farm control mods on a level 10 planet, you should still be able to gain Harmony effectively while doing so.

In fact that is kind of the whole point - Harmony lets you challenge yourself whenever and wherever, regardless of enemy difficulty. So it makes the grind feel a little less punative especially w a maxed frame.

I would love to see level appropriate, difficult play rewarded but i think the Cells mechanic does that - Harmony just adds a way for you to challenge yourself via skillful play.

Edited June 26, 2013 by notionphil

[notionphil]

I approve of this concept.

 

 

I approve of the approval of the community moderator.

In other words, I approve of this thread.

 

I do too! So Ced23Ric...DE seems to be quite responsive to the playerbase. Any feedback on the Harmony (or Cells) mechanic? Have the Devs seen it? I think we have at least a few hundred very curious players...

[Ditsydoo]

If DE needs ideas for content just look at the two threads (Cells and this). Also why not have affinity based mods, I.E. something like the mod Rage but affected by affinity instead of health lost Though it would eat away at affinity faster then without it.. This might be unbalanced but hey its an idea.

[notionphil]

Thanks for the support Ditsydoo.

Affinity based mods are an interesting idea...what would you suggest they affect?

It could certainly get unbalanced though :)

[Ditsydoo]

I would suggest minor effects for affinity based mods, such as combinations with with other skills/elements.A mod that would add certain effects when affinity is at certain levels. I.E. Frosts freeze would have 1-3 more ice shards being sent out that hit at the direction or have a timer instead of damage as the unfreezing point. Or Ember and world on fire when activated would add fire elemental damage to her weapon when activated and it would be a set % per affinity level.

[notionphil]

I would suggest minor effects for affinity based mods, such as combinations with with other skills/elements.A mod that would add certain effects when affinity is at certain levels. I.E. Frosts freeze would have 1-3 more ice shards being sent out that hit at the direction or have a timer instead of damage as the unfreezing point. Or Ember and world on fire when activated would add fire elemental damage to her weapon when activated and it would be a set % per affinity level.

 

I find that concept interesting...I do think passive mods would be cool such as fire damage on embers weapon but I think tying it to affinity and mods might get a bit unbalanced.

 

I wasn't in beta when there were passive mods for warframes so I'm not quite sure how that played out, but I'd love to see some gameplay altering passives - prob not attached to the Harmony system though.

[Phaenur]

I'm sorry it took me so long to reply to this post.  Part of it's my Internet connection, the other part is that I wanted something to say beyond "Oh my God I love it."  In the end...

 

Oh my God, I love it!

 

All right, I actually do have some more direct feedback.  For one, this is much more of a "metagame" than your Cells idea, which I believe stands quite well on its own without needing to force de-levelling (equipment selection depends on the story, of course).  In fact, if both ideas were implemented then Harmony might just handle the metagaming portion of Cells on its own - "Do I run with my current kit and maintain my Harmony, or swap out for something else and risk jarring myself but also gain access to new Cells and fresh Mastery?"  Aside from that, I could see Harmony boosting percentages more or less everywhere - reduced shot scatter, faster reloads, quicker movement, smaller detection threshold for enemies, things like that.  Small increases, probably ten percent at the absolute high end of the top Harmony rank, but things that essentially reflect the Tenno's great expertise with the relevant equipment and skill at using it the way it was intended.

 

In conjunction with that, I would like to suggest that changing your loadout risks kicking you down a Harmony rung.  Swapping out one weapon doesn't threaten much, two might be a 10% chance or so, all three gets a little risky, and throwing your 'frame into any combination gets genuinely scary.  Of course, you can always earn it back and you won't drop more than a single rank between missions, so hopefully players won't feel too limited if they want (or need) to change gear between enemies.  The last thing you want players to do is feel stuck fighting Infested with their brand new Lanka, after all!

 

Finally, I agree that Affinity orbs have to go.  They're unutterably minimal right now (although yes, I am aware that the sheer number of drops adds up eventually) at only 100 each, where for comparison ranking up from 0 to 1 requires 1000 (that was either weapon or 'frame, I forget which).  Replacing them by ranking up the challenges and allowing more than one bonus reward per mission - both the Affinity challenge as usual plus any skill rewards your new system introduces - would frankly make gameplay that much more engaging, and the focus would be less on the "hey, leave that for me, I needed that last kill!" aspect and more on making each of your kills count in as many ways as you could manufacture.

 

And, well, that's about it.  Keep it coming!

[notionphil]

I'm sorry it took me so long to reply to this post.  Part of it's my Internet connection, the other part is that I wanted something to say beyond "Oh my God I love it."  In the end...

 

Oh my God, I love it!

 

All right, I actually do have some more direct feedback.  For one, this is much more of a "metagame" than your Cells idea, which I believe stands quite well on its own without needing to force de-levelling (equipment selection depends on the story, of course).  In fact, if both ideas were implemented then Harmony might just handle the metagaming portion of Cells on its own - "Do I run with my current kit and maintain my Harmony, or swap out for something else and risk jarring myself but also gain access to new Cells and fresh Mastery?"  Aside from that, I could see Harmony boosting percentages more or less everywhere - reduced shot scatter, faster reloads, quicker movement, smaller detection threshold for enemies, things like that.  Small increases, probably ten percent at the absolute high end of the top Harmony rank, but things that essentially reflect the Tenno's great expertise with the relevant equipment and skill at using it the way it was intended.

 

In conjunction with that, I would like to suggest that changing your loadout risks kicking you down a Harmony rung.  Swapping out one weapon doesn't threaten much, two might be a 10% chance or so, all three gets a little risky, and throwing your 'frame into any combination gets genuinely scary.  Of course, you can always earn it back and you won't drop more than a single rank between missions, so hopefully players won't feel too limited if they want (or need) to change gear between enemies.  The last thing you want players to do is feel stuck fighting Infested with their brand new Lanka, after all!

 

Finally, I agree that Affinity orbs have to go.  They're unutterably minimal right now (although yes, I am aware that the sheer number of drops adds up eventually) at only 100 each, where for comparison ranking up from 0 to 1 requires 1000 (that was either weapon or 'frame, I forget which).  Replacing them by ranking up the challenges and allowing more than one bonus reward per mission - both the Affinity challenge as usual plus any skill rewards your new system introduces - would frankly make gameplay that much more engaging, and the focus would be less on the "hey, leave that for me, I needed that last kill!" aspect and more on making each of your kills count in as many ways as you could manufacture.

 

And, well, that's about it.  Keep it coming!

 

Hi Phaenur,

 

Thanks for your very well thought out feedback as well as the support.

 

I too didn't want to reply to your post until I had a chance to think about the ramifications of your ideas on losing Harmony when gear swapping. However - I will have to hold off temporarily due to work but I definitely have thoughts on this.

 

More soon!