[TWW Spoiler] Riven Mods, good idea, terrible execution

[lZerul]

I personally like the idea behind Riven Mods, powerful high costing end-game mods that can turn almost any weapon into a viable one with a good roll. They even offer up unusual modding potential on weapons, such as turning some weapons into viable crit/status weapons when they weren't with traditional mods.

But there are multiple huge issues preventing this system from becoming enjoyable.

 

1) Avaliability

The only source of these Mods is currently Sorties, they need to be available through other methods.

Maybe put more in circulation through Invasions, high cost Syndicate rewards or even as a possible Gift of the Lotus alert. Events should also frequently feature them as rewards.

2) Tradeability

There are currently so many issues with trading these items, due to their limit availability and potential power, they have effectively broken the plat economy. The biggest issue here is you can't tell when a veiled mod has been rerolled, thus increasing its reroll cost and locking it to a specific weapon. This has created a huge amount of trade scams in chat, with very large amounts of plat being involved in the exchange. Make them untradable or allow us to see when a Riven Mod has been rerolled. This needs to happen ASAP.

3) Rerollls

I like the idea of being able to reroll a mod with stats you don't want and hunting for ideal rolls, but currently the scaling Kuva cost is too high for this to be a desirable route. It starts at 900 and increases significantly for every reroll, this actively discouraging further rerolls and potentially getting you stuck on a really terrible roll. The reroll cost needs to be flattened out, this would help those Tenno who got scammed into buying already rerolled mods as well as those who wish to spent a lot of time developing a single Riven Mod up.

4) Smart Loot

While I like the idea of the random stats and disadvantages on these mods, there are some rolls that shouldn't be allowed to happen.

In particular, Riven Mods should not be rolling non-functional stats on specific weapon types. AKA, Sentinel Mods with reload speed and Zoom, Pure Elemental Weapons getting bonus Physical damage, bows receiving bonus clip size, etc.

On top of this, outright rolling negative multi-shot and damage are colossal detriments that can neuter a weapon so badly you can't even kill level 1 enemies with it, this value should either be toned down or removed entirely as a disadvantage due to the incredibly severe nature of penalty.

5) Challenges

The process for unlocking Riven Mods ranges from easy to nearly impossible with alarming frequency. Some of the more difficult challenges need a looking at to reevaluate if they are even achievable without cheesing them in some way. The ones that disturb me the most are the ones that actively encourage you to leech off your teammates in specific mission types, dealing no damage, using no abilities, no consumables, etc. To make matters worse, the usefulness of the Mod itself has no correlation to the difficulty of the challenge.

While some of these challenges would be fine on their own, other need to be split up or toned down.

For example, completing a 30+ mission with a key equipped is fine on its own, but not when you are also forced to kill no enemies or use any abilities in a survival mission, you start to become completely reliant on others to even make the challenge possible.

Edited November 14, 2016 by lZerul

[Insizer]

please use the spoiler tag for TWW related threads.

EDIT with actual feedback:

I completely agree OP. What was an interesting idea is squandered by some of its elements. The things you listed are the bare minimum of what needs to be fixed. Personally, I'd like more, like being able to re-roll the gun itself.

Edited November 14, 2016 by Insizer

[Nero9937]

This is of capital importance

+1

[Maercurial]

I like the availability being like this, they should be hard to get, and also limited on how many you can acquire at once as that keeps them rare. Putting them in the Sortie reward table seems to be the obvious choice if you want to achieve this. I've also been enjoying the challenges ( 4 headshots while aim-gliding with a Hobbled Key was hilarious, at first I was like "wtf" but then you have a lot of options, just think about it and you'll get it done)

What I agree with is the trade issue, the Mod needs to show wether it's been recycled before or not.

[notlamprey]

Some sort of freeze on the proliferation of these mods needs to be implemented as soon as possible, to assess additional changes that need to happen.

I think the changes you've listed here are at least a good start, but we absolutely can't let this system remain unchanged. Every hour adds a boulder to the hill that must be climbed to fix them.

[Shirelagel]

I would like to add that some of the penalties make the mods completely useless. For instance I have acquired an ampres mod that will cap out at a -87% damage without a damage increase to balance it. This penalty is WAY too steep, outstripping an nightmare mod penalty.

 

I understand that I can reroll the mod, once I can get kuva without the game crashing during the kuva guardian fights. But rerolling something so hard to get should be "a chance at something better or different" NOT "needs to be done to make this useful in any way.