Shield Osprey Upgrade And Badasses - Blocking Warframe Abilities (Anti-Win Button)

[DreadScourge]

Alright Nyx, Ash, Trinity, Loki, Ember - and anyone who deals exclusively in targeting enemies with abilities - this is a bullet/melee-only addition.

 

Shield Ospreys

 

Shield ospreys are interesting, but worthless overall. Ash can slice and dice anybody easily even with their shields. Nyx can turn the beneficiaries on each other, negating the shield entirely.

 

Basically, what I am proposing is immunity to Warframe abilities while under the influence of a Shield osprey. They will not be fooled by decoys, they are also immune to fire, shock, poison and frenzied/control effects. Anything that isn't bullets or frost will not harm these affected units. Ash will not be able to target them with Blade Storm etc, you get the idea.

 

Badasses

 

The Grineer are gritty, tough, durable killers, but we cut them to pieces, trick them into killing each other, and just obliterate them. They have the potential to be amazing enemies if we add a new type.

 

You ready for this sh*t?

 

Grineer Badasses (Change name if your giblets fall off after reading)

 

These bigger, bolder, and more badass versions of the standard Grineer troops couldn't give less of a sh*t what you do to them. They are the kind of troops that would flip Nyx the bird if she attempted mind control. They would cancel Bladestorm when it hit them, knocking Ash flat on his &#!. They would walk through Ember's searing flames, impervious to them. This grineer unit would jam radar when it walked in the room - but you'd have no trouble finding him.

 

Weapon - a double barreled hip cannon. This gun wraps around his back. When he fires, his extremely durable armor rattles as he laughs and blows you away, along with any grineer troops that wander between you and him, because he couldn't care less. He can fire semi-auto bursts of heavy rounds and occasionally a grenade will launch from the alternate barrel when you try to hide and shoot. You have to keep moving and firing to beat this beast.

 

Conclusion

 

We need units that break our play styles. The infested have the disruptors, which we hate, but at the same time, isn't it so satisfying to watch them go boom? The Corpus and Grineer need these in their ranks. We're sick of the fodder, DE - we're not cows. It's okay for you to break us out of our comfort zones because that's when you see the most diverse play - and dare I say it, teamwork!

 

Feedback is appreciated (especially on the grineer unit's name)

[MJ12]

The problem here is that 90% of abilities are already underpowered. Furthermore, abilities are most of what makes Warframe not a generic first person shooter.

 

That's a pretty huge problem.

[Buddlschlumpf]

Shield ospreys do matter. At lower levels, you obviously don't notice the difference. Once the levels start climbing, you will see the difference shield ospreys make.

The problem is in the right now pretty insufficient difficulty scaling with level.

[Numot]

Warframe abilities need to always be useful. Otherwise we wind up with frames like Volt. Nobody wants that. Powers are fun, keep things fresh, and make the game so much more interesting and entertaining than it would be otherwise.

 

Shield ospreys do matter. At lower levels, you obviously don't notice the difference. Once the levels start climbing, you will see the difference shield ospreys make.

The problem is in the right now pretty insufficient difficulty scaling with level.

 

This ^

 

In higher level situations you gotta get rid of them.

[Ronyn]

The problem here is that 90% of abilities are already underpowered. Furthermore, abilities are most of what makes Warframe not a generic first person shooter.

 

That's a pretty huge problem.

I'm not really a fan of the OPs idea bit to be fair....

I would say the acrobatics and melee (beyond gun smack) are equally responsible as the abilities for making Warframe not a generic FPS/3rdPS.

[stivoknis]

Shield ospreys do matter. At lower levels, you obviously don't notice the difference. Once the levels start climbing, you will see the difference shield ospreys make.

The problem is in the right now pretty insufficient difficulty scaling with level.

 

Not to mention how many enemies can be shielded by just one shield osprey.

I dread the moment when I see shield ospreys on Pluto.

 

However, I see the merit in the OPs ideas.  The difficulty in this game is just too easy right now.  DE needs to design the enemies to be more difficult without being cheap (stun-locking, loss of control).

[DreadScourge]

Shield ospreys do matter. At lower levels, you obviously don't notice the difference. Once the levels start climbing, you will see the difference shield ospreys make.

The problem is in the right now pretty insufficient difficulty scaling with level.

Guess I just want a bit more than "Units under influence are more durable"

[DreadScourge]

I'm not really a fan of the OPs idea bit to be fair....

I would say the acrobatics and melee (beyond gun smack) are equally responsible as the abilities for making Warframe not a generic FPS/3rdPS.

Gimme a little more feedback.

 

It would really be nice to have enemies that make you feel good about killing them, instead of "Oh it's more of the fodder. Better clear this room... then this one... then this one... then this one... done. I don't remember anything I just did."

 

Powers are our security blanket and make us unique in a way. Temporarily removing that and relying on teamwork and grit (like the Grineer) to take down a massive threat would be more rewarding. (fight fire with fire)

 

I really hate sitting in kiddie playtime with my megapowers that absolutely win against everything, on every warframe (except volt/loki)

[Ronyn]

Gimme a little more feedback.

 

It would really be nice to have enemies that make you feel good about killing them, instead of "Oh it's more of the fodder. Better clear this room... then this one... then this one... then this one... done. I don't remember anything I just did."

 

Powers are our security blanket and make us unique in a way. Temporarily removing that and relying on teamwork and grit (like the Grineer) to take down a massive threat would be more rewarding. (fight fire with fire)

 

I really hate sitting in kiddie playtime with my megapowers that absolutely win against everything, on every warframe (except volt/loki)

That is a fair thing to say... I'll expand on my thoughts.

There are three parts to this.

 

1: I don't think that shield ospreys are useless at higher levels.

Their ability to greatly increase the durability of so many enemies is quite relevant in a combat situation.

I feel what they do is conceptually strong in itself. 

Personally I wouldn't give these guys the ability to retard power effects AND protect so many enemies at the same time. 

IF we are going to let them do it they should be able to protect a smaller number of enemies.

 

2: The balance of the powers isn't quite right.

Some will blow through enemies like they are nothing and others are largely ineffective.

I think the insta-win feeling you're having is more about the powers needing to be tuned properly than the ospreys needing to change.

 

3: One of the secrets to good encounter design is the mix of enemies. No single non-boss enemy should be so overpowering in itself that it absolutely forces a players priority. That is better than enemies being all the same but it is very binary. Instead there should be a few different enemies that make you question yourself on where the priority should go. Ospreys making powers useless against several enemies would push them into a higher priority than they already are by too big of a margin.

Better off making some special enemies gain an improved benefit from ospreys shield to achieve a similar result to what you're after but keeping the priority in question.

[tommyrt]

OP your suggestion sounds more like a boss unit. For the thrill you are seeking , there's another thread about having assassination squads for each faction. Quite like the stalker but with multiple formidable units. I like the way you are going though, we need more diversity in the challenge. I want to be on the edge of success and failure more often than not

[DreadScourge]

-snippity snip snip-

Thank you. You're right about unit variety. I guess my main problem is the lemming AI of our enemies. I wish they noticed eachother and worked with each other (like ospreys). And Ospreys are a challenge at higher levels, and they do serve their purpose in a way. I guess my thread can be amounted to "Holy crap this game has been too easy for months and there is absolutely no diversity in enemies."

 

Also, you are right about the powers. As a Nyx/Trin I can be a little overpowered at times since I have "win" buttons. I am hoping for challenge. I firmly believe there should be uncommon enemies who can resist Link, Chaos, and Mind Control. Shield ospreys could remain the way they are, even if I find them a little stale. Although, I find near every enemy stale, no matter what the level - even if I do runs with no powers (which I do often).

 

At any rate, thanks for the expanded feedback.

Edited June 30, 2013 by DreadScourge

[DreadScourge]

OP your suggestion sounds more like a boss unit. For the thrill you are seeking , there's another thread about having assassination squads for each faction. Quite like the stalker but with multiple formidable units. I like the way you are going though, we need more diversity in the challenge. I want to be on the edge of success and failure more often than not

Yeah it is a lot like a boss unit I s'pose. As I was typing this I was thinking, "If these guys surrounded boss units, the challenge wouldn't even be the boss." They are reworking bosses to make them not such a joke, like hammer guy, who is still a joke - just not as funny.

 

I guess I get on my way to the boss and they are taunting me, like I am nothing - but the troops don't share the personality of their leaders. Variety, DE. We need variety! We need an enemy we "love to hate."

[TheHeraldXII]

Devaluing player abilities is just annoying and kinda pointless. Enemies should never be immune to powers, it's annoying and pointless and taking away our tools is not a good way to add challenge.

I agree that nobody uses teamwork because every suit has a skill that clears a room in one use, making the only use for multiple team members to spread the damage around, but the solution should not be to add an enemy type that encourages us to just stand behind crates and shoot. There are so many games that do that do that, and the enemies would just be annoying and frustrating, not fun. The gameplay seems to be based mainly around tactical use of powers, but most powers are way, way too powerful and having more than two frames in a gametype other than defense makes it a huge rush to get to press the "I win!" button.

As for enemies we "love to hate". Yeah, I guess we do. But for most people, enemies that take away player control or arbitrarily narrow down our options simply by existing are simply "enemies we hate". Enemies that change up the tactical situation by using their own abilities are better than enemies that deny us the ability to use ours effectively. As a little addition to the previous statement, a little bit of warning and a chance to avoid them wouldn't go astray. Disruptors are fine, even if ancients could do with some sort of noise to signify their presence, they're big and in the way, you know they're coming and can dodge them. Grineer commanders are just annoying, instant stun and displacement with no warning or chance to avoid, plus they're immune to staggers for some reason, not so fun.