Warframe in 2016

[Shockwave-]

Being the new year i found myself looking back over the past year of Warframe and well, mourning. I think 2016 was a downturn in the game. I honestly can't think of virtually anything significant that I would view as an improvement to the game and while I'm sure there are small ones I may not be thinking of here and there, overall the bad has outweighed the good by quite a bit in 2016. I found myself thinking simply that I'd rather be playing WF from December 2015 than Warframe from December 2016.

Obviously new prime frames and new weapons and such would have happened even if no other development was done, and the routine vaulting,  so I'm not really considering those that much, but the other developments in WF have made it a worse game than a year ago.

1) SOTR

introduced surprise paid archwing slots for PC users (while allowing console to farm up free slots), the new archwing movement and missions and removed the old archwing missions.

The new relic system. Personally I like the grind and comradeship of old void. The ease of recruiting, the sharing of keys the helping of new players to go in longer missions, etc. The relic system made prime farming a bit easier (not a plus to me) but took all the fun out of the journey. For those who just want their prime NOW, they probably like it, for those that like playing the game it's a downgrade in play-ability. Endless fissures can't hold a candle to endless void, as they are not always available, require relics and require you to leave at your trace cap or waste traces.

Released the relic conversion in the middle of the mag unvaluting screwing many players out of the keys they farmed specifically to farm mag. The conversion was bugged, and not all players were made whole for the relics they lost.

The grind for relics is increasing as DE adjusts the rarity of relics (Axi E1 is rarer than other Axi relics no question, but that's invisible to players)

Stealth nerfed Syndicate mission rewards. DE said it was a bug, then claimed (twice) they had fixed the bug, but syndicate mission rewards remain halved to this day with silence from DE on if it was intentional or is still a bug. 

2) The Riven System

The worst thing to happen to WF since I've been playing. The Resource hogging system to buff old and under-powered weapons instead of simply buffing and rebalacing old and under-powered weapons. The riven system is a plat sink/rng nightmare that seems like a giant step backwards (or rather twoards power creep). It's arbitrary and based seemingly on popularity of a weapon and not it's power (a evidenced by the bizarre assignment of shotgun rivens). It seems like DE simply didn't want people using only a few weapons, which seems overly micromanagment-like on their end. Create good content and let players decide. Balance content and let players decide. Rivens seem like trying to shoehorn players into playing more of the weapons because DE simply wants their content used.

In addition, while Rivens are supposedly "common" in the sortie, virtually everyone i have compared notes with says the same thing> I've gotten more lenses than rivens, more greater lenses than rivens, more 4000 endo than rivens (all uncommon rewards).

3) The Silver Grove

Meh, Titania isn't great, and thew auras are ok,

4) TWW

Mediocre quest, was boring and forced. Certainly not worth waiting the year for. Operator mode is something i loath and wish was not in the game. It seems out of place and unfinished. It still forces the player to play as the kid in the ship instead of a badass warframe. I for one would like operator mode to simply go. However we are now forced to use it for Kuva farming, which is yet another resource to farm, seeming added so veterans have to farm for new things instead of sinking the old resources.

Immune enemeies (kuva siphons and guards) are immersion breaking. Once again DE creates artifical difficulty with invulnerability to WF powers. If Grineer coudl make guards immune to warframe powers why not guarding everything? Where were they until now? there are seemingly thousands of them out there since they are guarding the 1000s of kuva siphons we've collectively killed so far.

5) Nidus and the virus

Nidus grind is fine, doesn't bother me at all. An infested warframe does. The idea of using an infested warframe seems out of whack to me (we fight the virus, no?). Didn't like the concept, don't like the OP frame, hate the PVP infection issue dumped on players without any explanation of what it is. Nobody knows how much effort we should put into avoiding the virus because nobody told us what it was. If you didn't do the quest and don't have nidus then you are participating, and getting spoilers, without any real choice to pursue that content. This was a huge mistake on DE's part and it is forcing players to play solo to avoid the virus because they don't want to find out a couple weeks from now they would rather have avoided it.

The Nidus quest itself had far too much index and no mention of nidus or the new game mode at all (which is simply lifted from JV). The quest seemed rushed and half baked.

6) Time gating.

Time gating has gotten more and more unbearable in 2016. WF has become a game you play every day or not at all. Trials were the only real time gated thing prior to 2016 but we've added nitain alerts, and now Riven mods on Sorties (which used to be skippable without too much concern). Even the snowball event is timegated, if you don't do it every 24 hours you lose out. Other evens used to let your prgoress though the event in one sitting when you had time, but not this one.

7 vacuum and Kavats

Perhaps the only good things to be added in 2016. I'm sure there are other small things but the fact that none come to mind is telling. In addition vaccum nearly became another item on this list if it had been nerfed as planned.

 

What I would have liked to have seen instead.

all this dev time, in my opinion could have been better spent on the core game. 

Improve the focus system. It was broken to begin with and should have been given some fixes early on before players started maxing out schools.

Quality of life improvements to matchmaking, hosting, the arsenal interface (like adding focus and arcanes), the minimap and pathing. Lots of little improvements would have made the game much better than the TWW quest.

reworking and balancing the energy system to remove endless power spam

Balance enemy scaling and create real challenge.

New missions types and overhauling missions to be more challenging and more interactive.

More tactical alerts, we seemed to have a dearth of them in 2016. Even retreads like the acolytes again would be welcome.

 

All in all I just look at year's worth of effort and don't feel the game has really improved at all. Certainly the downsides this year have far outstripped the improvements. I hope 2017 is better, but it doesn't seem to be looking up going into it. Perhaps WF is just past it's peak.

In general improveing the daily missions we play and daily experience of WF is much better than a 1 hour cinematic quest

 

[--RV--LadySpiderwick]

I'd like to see the following addressed this year:

- enemy armour scaling

- focus gain, alternative ways to get lenses other than sorties, market & trade

- matchmaking changes that focuses on getting you into a match rather than telling you there is a squad but forces you to create one

- more ways to get relics and reduce some of the relic grind 

Overall 2016 had a little more negatives than positives for the year, issues such as matchmaking, armour scaling and more sorely need addressing. The quests this year haven't been too terrible, TWW was as well as Glast Gambit being a little too Index heavy. Titania is nice with the archwing mode but I feel like the team at DE need to consult the community more on 'sensitive' issues without things like the outrage at the vacuum incident blowing up so bad.

 

[deothor]

1 hour ago, Shockwave- said:

3) The Silver Grove

Meh, Titania isn't great, and thew auras are ok,

hat do you mean? Could you elaborate?

[Shockwave-]

13 hours ago, deothor said:

hat do you mean? Could you elaborate?

I meant silver grove was meh. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't great. The I was acknowledging that the silver grove wasn't really a negative on the year but it didn't weigh too heavily in the positive column. I wasn't thrilled with the frame nor the quest, and the mod additions while welcome were not significant.

[deothor]

@Shockwave- Ia sked cause I had no idea there was such quest. I'm collecting quest flora as we speak ;D

[MithrilDragon]

You forgot the Ash rework (who are we kidding, it was a flat-out neutering) and the Valkyr rework.  I know Valkyr is technically still playable, but I've completely stopped using her. 

Edited January 3, 2017 by MithrilDragon

[k05h]

@Shockwave- You missed the rework of fusion with the removal of fusion core and the introduction of endo. I think that was quite a huge change and one of the few most people seemed to like. And while we are at it the Ayatan sculptures are also missing. 

[Voltage]

Endo and the starmap (visual wise) are 2 good updates. Acolyte mods was also awesome. The negatives outweigh it though with Specters of the Rail, TSG, TWW, Rivens, sortie changes, Hema, and Nidus farming.

[Jakorak]

On 1/1/2017 at 11:15 PM, Shockwave- said:

5) Nidus and the virus

Nidus grind is fine, doesn't bother me at all. An infested warframe does. The idea of using an infested warframe seems out of whack to me (we fight the virus, no?). Didn't like the concept, don't like the OP frame,

geez I swear, so many friggin warframe critics seem to willfully be ignoring that every. single. warframe. is essentially a technocyte (infestation) cyborg puppet

[Shockwave-]

4 hours ago, k05h said:

@Shockwave- You missed the rework of fusion with the removal of fusion core and the introduction of endo. I think that was quite a huge change and one of the few most people seemed to like. And while we are at it the Ayatan sculptures are also missing. 

It was as side grade at best. It was ok, i don't mind it, it didn't do much for the players other than make the clicking slightly better. I had maxed most every mod so it didn't impact me much but for the game it was ok. Increase my credit costs for maxing mods by quite a bit though. Still, i think it notches slightly in the plus column.

Ayatan was a WASTE of resources. Shouldn't be in the game. Useless. Getting endo other ways is much easier and doesn't cost credits. I have statues filling my inventory (they don't stack) because there is no reason to spend credits to turn them in. Thinking back to when I was new, credits were always more the gate than fusion cores because you were still building market and dojo weapons, so i'm not sure that spending credits for endo is something new players are gratful for. I can't be sure on that given the changes in drop rates and such since I was low  MR.

[Shockwave-]

3 hours ago, Jakorak said:

geez I swear, so many friggin warframe critics seem to willfully be ignoring that every. single. warframe. is essentially a technocyte (infestation) cyborg puppet

i just don't like the infested abilities, the look, the screen spam of nidus. Infestation everywhere. It really breaks the game for me by overdoing the infestation. Given how scalable and OP nidus is he will likely remain popular and i'd rather have simulor balls all over my screen than nidus's powers.

[Volinus7]

Steath nerf 

Stealth price tag

Monetized weapon balance

Hema controversy 

Operator being a kuva can opener

Long overdue matchmaker/lockout for prime run

 

Year of Quality indeeeeeeed.

[Jakorak]

2 hours ago, Shockwave- said:

i just don't like the infested abilities, the look, the screen spam of nidus. Infestation everywhere. It really breaks the game for me by overdoing the infestation. Given how scalable and OP nidus is he will likely remain popular and i'd rather have simulor balls all over my screen than nidus's powers.

well that's a shame. I don't necessarily agree with you, but i can see your concerns

[LuckyCharm]

I'll just add that theres been barely any new stances added, and when they were they werent added for popular weapon types. dual swords, polearms, hammers, whips all would have been better choices than gunblades etc for new stances. Hell they released a quest staff and guardians with polearms.. where are our new stances for those?