A thought on how to improve companions

[ObviousLee]

A while ago warframes powers were equipped mods that one could get from the loot tables by killing enemies. This was a massive pain in the neck as it caused severe loot table dilution.This was eventually changed to reducing the number of slots warframes had on them, and making the moves themselves inherent.

So, Why don't we do the exact same thing with companion precept mods?

Here's my idea: We scrap every preset mod in the game and make them inherent within the sentinel/kubrow/kavat/specter. Then, we give a toggled Passive/Defensive/Aggressive system to all companions with a single hotkey. You select default stance of companion in arsenal, and use the hotkey in the following fashion to swap between settings; example default stance passive, hold hotkey to swap to aggressive, tap to swap to defensive. From aggressive, hold hotkey to swap to passive, tap to swap to defensive. This would give the player complete control in real time of their companion for a stronger tactical advantage when on mission. Convert all precept mods to Endo to reward players with large stockpiles, and reduce the companion mod slot count by two.

What this accomplishes: Frees up the loot table to allow for more diverse reward drops, frees up slots for more diverse builds, and rewards the player with modding energy to rank up mods for use should they be struggling in obtaining things for fusion.

 

Post your thoughts and feedback below. If it's in disagreement, please keep it constructive and if you have another way to improve the current system by all means post it. 

[BubblesTheBlob]

It would probably be more intuitive if it was more like the Weapon Swap system, instead of being defined per stance because most already understand the weapon switch system.

If a primary or secondary is on, hit F to swap to either, and hold F to swap to melee. If melee is on, hit or hold F to swap back to whichever primary/secondary you were holding before switching to melee.

To translate it to your "stances", Passive and Defensive would work like the primary/secondary, and Aggressive would work like melee. That way, if you're tapping [SWAP KEY], you know you're swapping between stances that are conducive to stealth gameplay, and if you hold [SWAP KEY] you will always switch between whatever you were using and the Aggressive stance. And how to indicate stance? A little colored icon next to your sentinel's name, color coded green, yellow, and red (colors people know from traffic lights). Easy.

As for mods, I really couldn't care what they do to them, but this could free up the "attack precept" slots at least.

[ObviousLee]

that does simplify the system by adopting a currently existing, working formula so hell, why not. thanks for the feedback homie.

[Keiga150]

Another thing to add to that is give some sort of audio or visual cue to the stances. Companions can give out the energy glow for visual light. Blue light for passive, Green light for defensive, and Red light for aggressive. As for audio cue different beeps/growls for those that are color blind.

[ObviousLee]

i like this concept. essentially give the player no excuse to not know what stance their companions are in. groovy.