The tactical possibilities of making Shields an Arsenal item

[McGuffin]

Hi Guys,

There's a lot of great feedback here regarding 'frame customisation, making meaningful skill tree decisions, and the like.

I want to throw in my own take on the whole customisation issue by proposing that Shields be made an equippable Arsenal item with blueprints, its own leveling skill tree, elemental attributes, mod slots and the like.

Here's why:

Diversity - Having Shields as a separate item gives us another 'class' of items to craft, grab blueprints, mod and generally argue over :P

Tactical possibilities ala Borderlands - Do you take the shield you've modded for quick recharge against the corpus? Would fatter shields be more effective against Grineer? Do I take an ice based shield and protect myself from a (possible) cryo malfunction level? Should I grab a fire shield and laugh as I stand defiantly in roaring flames to do a super evil Switch Teleport?

Focus - Warframe mods can now focus on making the base 'frame itself more badass. Its also cleaner, Shield mods don't clutter up the 'frame Arsenal screen.

A teeny tiny bit less grindy (for Rank Ups) - Having an extra item equipped that you can level cuts down rank up times quite a bit and lets you get to the things you want that much faster.

Something else to spend credits / platinum on - I think this one is pretty self explanatory, and it helps the devs too.

I imagine it working out like this, new players start out with the 'frame of their choice and a basic shield that is unique to their chosen starter Warframe. For example, the Excalibur's shield could be more resistant to melee attacks, Volts recharge slightly faster, etc. The shields gain exp and level up like other items and can be supercharged.

Nodes could include mod slots, recharge time, maximum capacity, resistances, etc.

Blueprints can be gained via the normal means (market or drops from alerts and bosses). There can be multiple shields available, from the standard 'take damage equally from everything' to ones that have resistances to one or more forms of damage.

TL;DR: More shields :p

[Nyss]

I think this is a good idea, but in response, the 'shield strength' slots and mods for warframes would have to be removed.

Different attributes could include

Charge speed

Shield strength

melee/bullet/explosive/laser/heat/cold/elec resistance

extra powers like hp and energy regen

Edited January 25, 2013 by Nyss

[McGuffin]

I think this is a good idea, but in response, the 'shield strength' slots and mods for warframes would have to be removed.

Different attributes could include

Charge speed

Shield strength

melee/bullet/explosive/laser/heat/cold/elec resistance

extra powers like hp and energy regen

Thanks for that :)

And I don't think they have to be removed per se, just change them to a 'Shield' mod instead of a 'Warframe' mod. What you mention about resistance and such is exactly the kind of thing I'm going for :)

[neKroMancer]

I think we should have shield as an alternative to normal melee weapon. Each shield has a unique base attributes and special defense like the OP stated

It's a good idea since the animation is already in the game. While using shield, hold melee button will put your frame into shield stance and only sidearm will be available. During shield stance, your movement speed will be reduced and releasing melee button will resulted in a shieldbash melee attack which has a 180 degree AOE.

Shield should have it's own hp/shield to withstand limited amount amount of damage before collapsing to recharge state on your frame. Modding your shield to increase shieldbash damage/shield's shield/hp/movement speed/special resistance.

[McGuffin]

I think we should have shield as an alternative to normal melee weapon. Each shield has a unique base attributes and special defense like the OP stated

It's a good idea since the animation is already in the game. While using shield, hold melee button will put your frame into shield stance and only sidearm will be available. During shield stance, your movement speed will be reduced and releasing melee button will resulted in a shieldbash melee attack which has a 180 degree AOE.

Shield should have it's own hp/shield to withstand limited amount amount of damage before collapsing to recharge state on your frame. Modding your shield to increase shieldbash damage/shield's shield/hp/movement speed/special resistance.

Nice, I like this idea too. I was originally toying with making a post about making a stamina based blocking mechanic. It doesn't stop full incoming damage, but it deflects some attacks back to the enemy. It would be cool to see someone twirling the Bo at high speeds, redirecting plasma shots.

But then, it would be faster to kill enemies just by shooting at them, and safer / less damaging to the player if they simply took cover :p Until we Tennos can 'tank' for teammates like the Shield Lancer does, sacrificing offense for low utility defence doesn't make much sense.

I'd rather see some combos along the lines of 'Rhino's Iron Skin ability taunting enemies' before we have a 'press the shields button' mechanic.

Still, what you put up there is food for thought :)