[Update 20] Octavia Feedback Megathread

[Raqyia]

So, I just splashed my Limbo in Yellows and Grays in honor of his newfound control over [THE WORLD]. Though I suppose I probably should've tested him out a bit more before nearly getting my dapper tailcoat dragged from Oceanum to the Salad Bar on Jupiter by Zanuka. First things first, Can/Could DE bring back the mechanic where Limbo can pull enemies into the rift whilst in it himself? Granted that goes against the description of pushing enemies out of whatever [WORLD] he's in. I suppose it would probably be broken to just camp in the rift and pull people in? In any case, how do I go about overcoming this little flaw in my "strategy"? Banish, unleash the power of [THE WORLD] and then jump in to kill them? Hopefully every other Limbro here can help me better acclimate myself to this changing environment.

[Baoler]

Octavia in a nutshell

 

[TheGreatJackalope]

i have a major gripe about how you get octavia. the story mission is great. i loved it. but with most frames it goes either "kill this person till you have the parts. build them"  or with mirage, limbo, chroma, inaros, titania, and ivara. etc. you play the story and get a part at the end of every section. that way when your done you can start building.. but nidus and octavia is presenting a bad shift in my opinion. you shouldn't be forcing people into busy-work just to extend the time it takes to build the frame.. the way for previous frames already had you taking upwards of 5 days to build 1 frame once you had all the parts. 1 day to collect them all if you marathon the story. or get lucky with the boss kills for the parts.  or in the way of primes with drops from the rifts but those have no story mission i understand the "collect the parts at random" there.

no.. octavia's parts should have been

mission 1: collect madachord parts and build
mission 2: collect song fragment (end of quest song fragment translates into frame part)
mission 3: collect song fragment (again fragment is encrypted part blueprint)
mission 4: collect last song fragment (last part blueprint will decrypt at the end of the story quest)
mission 5: boss battle vs hunhow to save suda (this would be left as is since you'd get the frame blueprint at the end)

no need for the busy-work and i'd have to avoid taking part in random teams of annoying jerks who just care about big kill numbers for themselves and not being a team

stunts like this might just push people like me who find mindless busy-work ontop of having to do the mission to even unlock the possibility away from the game.. half tempted to just buy her off the market but with a stunt like this y'all don't deserve the money it would take

[Buff00n]

I always play with music off so I can hear caches and rare crates.  It's disappointing that I can't hear my song unless I enable all music in the game.

[LuckyCharm]

Now forgive me for asking, but weren't we supposed to get different instruments in the packs? I thought the whole idea of going to a music school to record was to get different sounds.. I've bought them all (purely because I've waited months for her release) and really... every single pack just seems like more of the same. All electronic sounds that you may as well have just gotten off any music program. Where are the flutes, the saxophones, the trumpets.. all of the rest of the instruments. Hell I would have loved an ocarina thrown in there so I can play Zelda songs. 

What we got instead was 250p worth of the same... Cmon DE please release actual instrument packs so we can actually have a band instead of a set of tenno playing the same instrument

[Sakatchi]

You can already fix this by turning off in game sound and listen to whatever it is you listen to. No need to complain about a frame that was literally released today.

[LuckyCharm]

After I bought and played octavia.. every single skill feels pointless. The only one I've ever seen do anything is AMP purely because the roller is so random it chases single enemies when im getting swarmed.. and the silly thing keeps picking up my mallets and running off with them so i have to spend more energy placing another down. Biggest disappointment though is metronome since it's almost impossible to get buffs with some weapons, and if you're bad with music but made your own beat.. it might not be timed correctly so your ducking or jumping erratically which makes it harder to time. 

As for the music itself.. I bought all the soundpacks and immediately regretted my decision. They all sound the same, slighty varied, but they all just have the same sort of electronic noise. Weren't we supposed to get other instruments to make up a tenno band or something ? 

[Xekrin]

Extremely disappointed with the finished art and animations of the 1st and 4th abilities.  The roller is nice and simple and the thrumming rings of the 3rd ability look nice.

The other two abilities though?  They are just square blocks popping out of the ground (and whatever the mallet is), they look so completely unfinished and, well, blocky.   Screenshots below.

Spoiler

 

I saw them exactly as they are now in the preview on devstream months ago and thought "Those are placeholders, it won't look that awful when finished."  Very sad that I was wrong on that.

Considering how awesome other ability gfx are, this is just upsetting to be brutally honest.  I only had to watch a youtuber's video who I know has full graphic options turned on to realize it wasn't even my crappy pc that was causing it.

I pray this is just due to the rushing of the update and they will get better in the weeks to follow.

Example of what I imagined it might feasibly have looked like, sort of...

Spoiler

---

Also wanted to add that I'm just a touch saddened by the fact that Octavia doesn't heal through her music.  I mean, come on.  Google 'healing with music', it just makes sense.

Oh well, maybe it can be an augment someday ... next year (still waiting on augments for the past 4 new frames, not expecting it any time soon)

Edited March 25, 2017 by Xekrin

[CephalonHibiya]

I mean, it was never going to be like getting a full orchestra.

Personally, the only thing I wish could be changed was recording more than 5 songs. They do sound different though, especially the Grineer sound pack.

[Skaleek]

25% too good to be true. Go cast blessing.

[Cyrocco]

I personally love Octavias skill effects, I've been missing big, bold, flashy, bright colors ever since they nerfed the visuals on Mirages 4th.

I do however agree with how the Third ability is currently set up, maybe nerf the times on the bonuses a bit, and make it so if Octavia completes the requirements, the party can have the buff too?

[Shaydewalker]

Hey,

So I've been looking forwards to this frame for a while, thinking of all the songs I'd be able to make and all that(Likely not the only one in that boat). And when she arrived I was extremely excited and decided to purchase her and test out the step sequencer, which turned out to be very disappointing.

As a person who has been involved in music in some way for the past 5 years, I found it frustrating that I could not do any of the following:

1. Lower or raise the tempo(Yes I know balancing and all that blah blah I just want to play something a bit slower)
2. Use the notes B or E Natural
3. Use any sharp or flat note

I get that the pentatonic makes everything we create sound "Warframe-y," but why wasn't the frame named Pentavia? Or Pentatonia? I love the frame and the concept, but so far the only notable difference I have heard between songs is the instruments used. Everything else just seems far too similar.

I also do not mean to say that my opinion is the only one that matters. Maybe there are technical problems I'm not seeing or maybe the devs already thought about all this and decided they wanted to go with the pentatonic scale even though it would limit the amount that could be done with the sequencer. Maybe it was done this way because the devs didn't want to make it difficult for people who didn't have too much musical experience.

As far as the in-game stuff goes, she feels really clunky. Playing in time for metronome requires you to mash out those quarter notes(2/second) which I would rather not do. If the threshold for playing in time could be increased to playing in time with every other note I would enjoy it much more as I wouldn't feel like I had to suddenly put all my focus into mashing control(The problem seems even worse with guns as from what I've seen they require you to shoot eighth notes-4/second). As far as her abilities in general go, they feel like they should be energy drain over time. You can only have one of each up at a time, nothing about them stacks, and you could easily change the passive to give your other party members bonus energy regen for each ability you have active.

tl;dr I want to be able to use octaves, I want slower music, and I want fewer pointless duration abilities.

PS: I am writing this at about 12:05 AM and I do not mean to offend anyone. This is honest feedback on a frame I had been very excited for up to launch.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that I really dislike the 16 note limit on the both melody and bass while the percussion gets 26, though maybe that's because most notes mixed together sound like crap

Edited March 25, 2017 by Shaydewalker

[Ennokk]

Mallet needs to be hit in order to start doing damage. However, Resonator forces enemies to stop attacking and mindlessly follow it. Because of this, the Mallet will not soak in any damage and becomes useless. Throwing out a fresh Mallet won't help because the Resonator will spin back around and pick it up, so you won't be able to use your Mallet at all until Resonator runs out. These skills just do not work together. 

[Volinus7]

Visually designed like a military marching band uniform but dances like people in a disco tech... It's a contradiction in the theme IMO.

[Methanoid]

7 hours ago, lailaichu said:

Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate the effort put into Octavia, however, I would just like to point out the extreme limitations of the Mandachord system. As someone who is versed in classical music, chords, analysis, and whatnot, I find this system to be overly limiting. The D Minor Pentatonic Scale, while easy to compose with and generally harmonious with itself, is extremely limited. It cannot even compose simple songs such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, not to mention tracks such as Warframe's own Second Dream focus song. I acknowledge that the system should be somewhat limited to avoid absolute dissonance between players, however, I think that the current restrictions are overboard. I would propose, at least a full scale of some sort, as a full major scale in any key also provides notes to compose in minor keys as well. I know that I probably sound nitpicky and pedantic, and I have no idea of the work required for a system like this, and I am also grateful that DE even thought to create a system like this. I simply wanted to voice my opinion. Thank you.

EDIT: Spending more time with this system, I have come to the realization that I cannot even compose Mary Had a Little Lamb at an appropriate tempo using this system.

it would be a bit better if we could set the 3 musical segments to run at their own independant speeds.

[MrZeeck]

Please for the love of god Lotus give us an option to MUTE all player-made sound regarding Octavia.. People make annoying noises instead of music, drives me crazy.

[(PSN)OmegaSlayer]

D Minor is said to be the saddest key in music...and having a pentatonic version into Mandachord is ever more sad.

For those that aren't musically acknowledged, D Minor Pentatonic is a "stripped version" of D Minor (Melodic) scale.

Minor progression is a sequence of intervals between notes that goes into a set pattern of Half Tones and Whole Tones...the sequence is WHWWHWW 

Thus D Minor is defined by the notes D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C, the pentatonic, from Penta (Five in greek) uses only 5 tones; in this case D, F, G, A, C...Tonic, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th intervals...all the ones that aren't separated by a Half Tone

DE used pentatonic as it is a very open scale that can't be in any way made cacophonic (bad sounding) and so, no one can troll with it.

While I get why this has been used...it can't help but feeling sad and restricted in creativity, so I do really hope that DE will look into this and give us a full scale to use.

I'm not saying that you can't make good music with a Pentatonic Minor scale, just that I found the choise disappointing and it totally killed my hype for what could have been my favourite Warframe

[GSDAkatsuki]

So for Octavia Team Usage you would want to make actual simple repetitive music for your team to take advantage of right? So far I've made a decent tempo'ed song so I can consistently utilize the multishot and stealth buffs, and I expect teammates can use it fine. The Melee one is difficult since it depends on the weapon's attack speed being too fast or too slow, and what combo movements they got. Anybody find something that works for them for general melee?

Edited March 25, 2017 by GSDAkatsuki

[deepwaterrosebud]

It's like a guitar hero version of fruity loops haha

[(XBOX)TheMadCash]

I think instead of it require you to swing to gain the buff. It shouldve been timed blocks that will grant you the melee bonus. Seems better fitting

Edited March 25, 2017 by (XB1)Cash201293

[Casval_Rouge]

After Nidus, we're back to bad power design, Octavia is just such a mixed bag when used in practice.  Waste of all the effort put into the Mandachord in my opinion.  Assuming they are all working as intended and not bugged of course.

1.  Mallet and AMP are the only ones without any major issues, they are generally fine when not combined with the other 2.

2.  Resonator and Metronome have a few glaring issues that make them not effective and worthwhile to use.

3.  And when the Warframe is about combining her own music, that's a serious problem when you don't want to combine them gameplay-wise.

4. Octavia's music gets pointless interrupted far too often.  Why are her powers duration based?  Even if you want to avoid the problem of repetitiveness, that's not the way to do it.  This ruins the fantasy of being the sci-fi bard/DJ.

Resonator simply works against Mallet despite the fact that it should work well with each other.  Charmed enemies can't attack and build up Mallet, thus effectively disabled Mallet's effect.  Because all of her powers have similar duration for obvious reasons, that means you can't just build up Mallet first, then cast Resonator.  Because the buffed Mallet will disappear long before Resonator, and if you cast a new one, not only is the stored damage gone, the existing Resonator will pick that one up and stop the new Mallet from building up. Needless to say that's anti-synergy; a big no-no when it comes to designing a power kit.

Metronome just don't work effectively enough to be worth trying to keep up with it.  Having to get it right in the midst of battle not once, but multiple times just to get the buff is just not practical.  And the power and the buffs don't even last long enough for you to really build it up.  Furthermore, once it's gone you'll have to interrupt your "dancing" to recast it.

Which all comes down to one final major issue.  For a Warframe about music, Octavia has to interrupt the flow constantly just to keep the music going.  And there's no way to perfectly keep up with the beat if the powers goes off by itself at fixed duration.  Imagine a DJ has to press play every 30 seconds, and can't queue up a playlist, and can only select a song once the current one is over.  That would be a S#&$ show.  

So my suggestion is, allow all of Octavia's powers except Amp to be toggle powers that drains some energy every loop of the song.  Meaning the songs should never stop at random points, unless powers are disabled.  You're basically automatically paying energy up front every time to play the song again. You can essentially toggle Percussion, Bass and Melody on and off in combat perfectly just like with the Mandachord.   Also rework Octavia's passive to something like this.

"Octavia regains energy and grant half of that to allies whenever she takes an action in time to the beat." 

Action means the ones Metronome take into account.  This allows good "dancers" to not only keep the songs going, but also keep the buffs going for as long as the mission would be.  Music being constantly interrupted is one of the most annoying thing, and the Bard frame really shouldn't have to suffer this kind of problem.  

Resonator also needs to be fixed to work with Mallet like it should be.  So, every charmed enemies within the radius of Mallet will contribute to the damage counter by their mere presence.  Octavia and allies "dancing" to the beat will also contribute.  Mallet's damage per beat is now capped.  Amp will still double the damage during its duration.             

 

[EchoesOfRain]

I will say that that the Roller+Mallet combo has been VERY useful for keeping enemy attention.

 

During the Cephalon Suda Quest... 

Spoiler

the combo did a fantastic job of keeping the sentients off of me. I would have had a very rough time otherwise. (Yes, I bought Octavia. It was worth it too)

 

[Methanoid]

7 hours ago, Buff00n said:

I always play with music off so I can hear caches and rare crates.  It's disappointing that I can't hear my song unless I enable all music in the game.

its soo repetitive that you end up just disabling music anyways, the bland short duration repetition at present just grates on your nerves if your doing endless missions.

[Methanoid]

2 hours ago, MrZeeck said:

Please for the love of god Lotus give us an option to MUTE all player-made sound regarding Octavia.. People make annoying noises instead of music, drives me crazy.

there at least should only be your own music playing if you are octavia and there are more in the team, otherwise you get a screen full of epilepsy flashing away and a non stop ear bleeding combination of noises.

Edited March 25, 2017 by Methanoid

[Methanoid]

Agreed that each of the 3 musical segments ideally should have their own tempo/rate of play independant of each other, also a lot of these music packs/sounds just dont blend well together, some sound downright useless/horrid.

Edited March 25, 2017 by Methanoid