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Thanks for Watching Devstream #87!

[DE]Rebecca

By [DE]Rebecca,
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(PSN)MrNishi

(PSN)MrNishi

Posted
Posted

Eximus Weakpoints ...

Eximus Stronghold Sorties should be exempt(Hoping for obvious reasons)

I think Eximus Weakpoints can work if they are larger inside like Sonar Weakpoints.

-Visibly they could be Armor piece additions

(Larger Plating on Grineer &Corpus, Larger Infested Growth)

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Lyravain

Lyravain

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Eximus units with invulnerability are a death-rattle just waiting to sound. We need less means to make us feel worthless, not more. Invulnerability is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas for a game mechanic for this game. Do you really want this to turn into yet another debacle?

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(PSN)GR13V4NC3

(PSN)GR13V4NC3

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I don't like the new concept for the eximus units at all. I understand the mentality of wanting to freshen up the enemies like the warframes, but the eximus units are already tough as it is. Right now at high levels, eximus are a pain and come in such volume... not to mention when you get a Nullifier Eximus that has both shields going simultaneously. I'm not even taking into account sorties and the eximus condition missions (but imagine this new mechanic in there, brutal).

So with this mechanic installed, a player would have to take out the nullifier shield, then the snow-globe, then the new weak spots and then drain the the enormous health pool of the high level enemy... all while trying to avoid 40 other eximus units and I almost forgot, all this while you have no energy because the stacking auras of all the eximus combined completely negate your powers. You may have to reconsider this one, DE.

In truth, I prefer the corpus method: make the armor actual armor that has to be worn away or destroyed in order to kill the enemy more efficiently, unless you are really good at headshots and/or have a very destructive nuke, like Saryn (because she has, lore-wise, powers that not only eat through armor but diminish health also). This was a change made to the regular corpus units that was welcomed, the metal helmets and destroying them for the easy kill (and encouraging skill). If you need puncture to get through grineer chest armor, then using it should eat away at the fortitude of the material with each shot (but things like bows, with innate punch-through, would take less hits to be as effective).

From what I also have seen/heard, enemies/units already have default weak points: Grineer have the face, Corpus people have the body, Moas have the legs, bursas their backs and Infested are a combination of all. Just somehow enhance these things, but don't make the unit invulnerable... it's a bit too much.

 

BTW: Love the Nidus design! Great job there, DEvs! That being said, I do have some ideas:

A thought stemming from my short time with Nidus, infestation. I don't know if he has a passive yet, but it'd be awesome if it were two-fold:

- Nidus infests any weapon he is using, adding his own unique look (like parasitic link but for weapons) and damage addition to the item (like toxin or gas or life strike, something infestedy in nature).

- Ceasing all attacks on infested enemies will make them passive to your presence after a short time.

I'd like to see the new infested doggie come more into play. It'd be cool if Nidus could absorb the dog and gain mass and strength and health and become like a berserker type monster, kinda like an infested werewolf, at least in terms of how he'd stand and move (both on all four's and upright).

Edited by (PS4)GR13V4NC3
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Chroia

Chroia

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Interesting stream.
I'd be happy to hear more from Dan and Tom.

 

Rebecca grapsed the question correctly. Thanks for the clarification about the Conculyst attack.
I'd swear I've never seen it run out before connecting, but I'll see.

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(Eximus?) Sortie exterms don't stay calmed down. Enemies start alerted, and are forced back into alerted state, even with no alarms.

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Operators, as you say, don't have the same power as frames.
This is actually something of a problem.
Enemies are given eHP/damage stats and scaling in line with anticipated warframe damage and survivability.
Operators have neither, which makes them entirely unsuited to mixed combat gameplay with warframe enemies past midevels. They simply have neither the tools nor the stats to pull it off - which is why people look for Warframe-based crutches for them (Banish, Electromag Shielding, Invis arrows, Warding Halo, etc.).
Consider my recent post about actually liking Kuva missions. I doubt I'm the only person who plays like that (read: disregard enemies, obtain Kuva), I just don't know that anyone else likes it.
And even then, it wasn't my first choice - I'd initially tried killing the Kuva Guardians in Flood missions, before coming to the conclusion that it simply wasn't worth the effort.

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Eximus strongpoints. Ugh.
Alright, let's see -
I'm assuming that nothing will change regarding enemy stat or density scaling, since Damage 3.0 is (currently) aimed at enemy mechanics rather than touch their stats (to go with not touching mods) anymore.

First off: The starting mindset is problematic.
"How can we make an enemy require skill, instead of being a one-shotting bag of HP?"
"I know! Make it invulnerable unless specific points are hit!"
Why is that the starting brainstorming position?
How about "Hey, high level enemies are one-shotting bags of HP (and that's not changing). How can we make player skill more impactful?"
"Why not - in addition to their normal eHP and scaling - give them 1-4 weak points that, when hit with precision weaponry, instakills them?"
Voila. Both low effort, low efficiency brute force and high effort high efficiency finesse are possible.

(P.S.
Wasn't that the supposed intention/domain of headshots/crit headshots?
Might be worth considering why you're superseding them.
Are they not filling their role? Why not? Would it perhaps be better to address that instead?)

Now, in fairness, it's possible that this was talked about in brainstorming.
But we-the-community can only base ourselves on what you say.
If it was talked about, I can't see how not talking about it as part of the discussion on the devstream helps the discussion-in-general.
If it was talked about, enlighten us as to the cons that barred it from being the basis.
If it wasn't talked about... Why not?

Second, density scaling.
"How can we make an enemy require skill, instead of being a one-shotting bag of HP?"
"I know! Make it invulnerable unless specific points are hit!"
Because that makes Ruk, Kril, etc. such fun boss fights, but at least they're optional and unique (read: 1 per mission). Past 20 minutes into an endless, you're getting 4-12-more Eximus units per wave.
On the bright side, at least here you're not hamstrung by depending on the AI to decide to expose the vulnerable spots... Which is, in retrospect, a subject that I should have asked about for the Devstream.

Third, Eximus auras.
"How can we make an enemy require skill, instead of being a one-shotting bag of HP?"
"I know! Make it invulnerable unless specific points are hit!"
As if elemental Eximus aren't bad enough, entirely invalidating damage from their related elements (e.g. Toxin, Gas, and I'm not sure about Corrosive vs. Toxic Ancients, Arson eximi reducing Blast damage to 0, stacking Guardian + elemental eximi granting area-wide elemental immunities)
just wait until you meet a invulnerable Energy Leech, Venomous, Shock oh right, they don't proc Mag atm, Guardian, Cold (i.e. slow aura) eximus or six, forget the base unit being any kind of Ancient or heavy-hitting unit, amid a couple dozen smallfry. Or, RNG forbid, an Eximus sortie.

Or an Arctic Nullifier or three.

Wait, no, actually, I take it back. Go right ahead.
I'd love to see how 'just run into the bubble and melee it' apologists (I call them apologists because that's not the problem with Nullifiers... but that's a different discussion) will adapt their narrative.

 

tl;dr-
I don't see how this can work alongside all the other mechanics currently in place.
You want to go with this? I'm fine with that, but some of the other stuff needs to change (even if it didn't need to, already).

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Defector rescue 'like an event'. Speaking of which: what happened to the Treasury Ship alerts?
I don't particularly care about them in-and-of themselves, but there was a tiny bit of discussion about the credit economy and the NPE (not the tutorials) surrounding after the Secura Lecta nerf.
One of the sources of credits was those alerts, not seen since SotR.
Granted, not a reliable source, but 50k for someone who can't access Akkad is a damn hefty sum.

Not much to say about the game mode itself. Will need to see how it works in practice.

Edited by Chroia
Punctuation
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