The Stalker: Frankly Disappointing

[Kaidorak]

First, I have to say, I love the idea of the Stalker and I always have, but as of late I have been getting rather bored and,  frankly, disappointed in what he has become.

Some Backstory

When I first started playing Warframe, nearly four years ago, I was new to online gaming in general. I was a little scared of playing with the community, so for a long while I played on Solo Mode exclusively. After beating Vor on Mercury (Do I have to Spoiler Warn this?) I started the first infested mission of the game, remember this is back in 2013.

I wasn't ready for the creepier side of Warframe, and being an extremely new player without the fancy tutorial that exists nowadays, I was quite intimidated by the infested. It was dark, there were creepy noises everywhere and I was being chased by creepy crawlies. Then the light that was there flickered and the Stalker appeared on screen giving his usual spiel. I had no idea what the heck was going on but I was freaked out. Then out of the darkness there was a dim flash of red, and I was dead. This is why I now game with other people. Feel free to call me a coward in the comments below. (as long as it is done nicely)

Back to Business

The Stalker has gone through many transformations since the old days. I really appreciate most of the changes the Stalker has received, such as story development, however with that came something which I classify as a bad thing. It took away the mystery and added...

Predictability

The Stalker will literally send you an in-game Email telling you he is gonna kill you. This annoys me more than intimidates me. I know this is so that people can farm him more easily, but I feel like that is part of the problem. The Stalker is supposed to intimidate you, not show up to a fully prepared team of four waiting to beat him down and take his weapons. I miss the days when the stalker was not just a cow to milk for his gears.

I think a good way to get him to be more of an intimidating threat is to change the atmosphere surrounding him. When he shows up in the mission, have all the lights go out. Running around with just the Tenno flashlight is always more eerie. Then have him announce give him spiel without the picture to the side. Make his text crawl along the bottom middle of the screen to give it weight. Have Lotus try to tell you to run, like with the G3, Then, silence or ominous music. Set the tone of the encounter as perilous and terrifying.

Ending Thoughts

I also want to thank the devs for all the hard work they put into this game. This is definitely one of the best games I have invested my time in. I appreciate the love they put into this game and cannot wait to see how they improve it in the future. As a side note to the devs, this may be considered mildly offensive, but I think that shooting enemies in the groin should warrant a hefty critical hit, just throwing that out there.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Kaidorak
failed to finish a sentence.

[Justice_Ember]

Not only from the stalker, but in general I want WF to be more of a horror/shooting game than a horde mode.

[Urlan]

4 minutes ago, zzzNitro said:

Not only from the stalker, but in general I want WF to be more of a horror/shooting game than a horde mode.

I would suggest considering involving the Tenno themselves then.

[Justice_Ember]

Just now, Urlan said:

I would suggest considering involving the Tenno themselves then.

I expect as much from the next cinematic quest

[Wrum]

anyone else noticed that if you go invise when he starts talking he will loose track of you and just wander the map not doing anythingÉ he used to pull you out of it. also apparently question marks are now ``É``.

[Keiiken]

3 minutes ago, Wrum said:

anyone else noticed that if you go invise when he starts talking he will loose track of you and just wander the map not doing anythingÉ he used to pull you out of it. also apparently question marks are now ``É``.

Depends on which stalker you are talking about, Shadow stalker doesn't dispel as much as standard stalker. Vanilla/Original stalker wills till turn off your invis in a heartbeat, but when was the last time you were in a missions against him? All new players wanna rush through the quests etc.

[Kaidorak]

14 minutes ago, Keiiken said:

Depends on which stalker you are talking about, Shadow stalker doesn't dispel as much as standard stalker. Vanilla/Original stalker wills till turn off your invis in a heartbeat, but when was the last time you were in a missions against him? All new players wanna rush through the quests etc.

Actually, I was running a mission with a new player yesterday and the original Stalker spawned in on us. I forgot he existed 

Edited May 24, 2017 by Kaidorak
forgot a word

[Iccotak]

He needs more of a presence is what you are saying. 
Would love to not get e-mails but instead get a transmission directly from Stalker.
Also all enemies run from him.
Better hope you are not in a window room with him, he'll break it and maybe block your friends behind a locked door.

[(PSN)dark_knight_942]

2 hours ago, Keiiken said:

Depends on which stalker you are talking about, Shadow stalker doesn't dispel as much as standard stalker. Vanilla/Original stalker wills till turn off your invis in a heartbeat, but when was the last time you were in a missions against him? All new players wanna rush through the quests etc.

 

I second that!  I remember my 1st encounter with the Stalker I thought I could just spam exalted blade until he dispelled it each time and 1 shotted me with dread before I knew what was coming.  The Shadow stalker I'll admit doesn't dispel as often I you can definitely uses powers no problem most of the time, if anything you worried about the ordinary stalker using his 'reckoning' move immobilizing you then instanta killing you with dread...Now...  When Shadow stalker appears I don't worry so much as its mostly his grenade at the start, the ball of light and exalted blade you have to dodge which is easy (Even more so if you have completed the war within I might add).   What we need is the Stalker to (I know a lot of people will complain when I say this) take the next step in evolution and becoming stronger.  If anything I would love this to tie-in with the whole 'kuva' thing with Stalker becoming like an 'Abyssal Stalker' if you will after absorbing kuva somehow like it being a scheduled event in the Kuva fortress or some new area and obliterating an army of grineer/corpus and mentioning about the 'sins of the past must be cleased' (even mentioning that he is not a Tenno, but he is more that).  I feel that this change is necessary to give players a challenge because when you have a four man team it takes like what 10 secs maybe less to down the Shadow stalker. 

What we need is more backstory on him (second dream awesome but he was put down too easily and in octavia's anthem Hunhow survived how?) and for there to be like a change in atmosphere when he arrives (music changes, area becomes a bit darker) as he is supposed to bring retribution for the bosses we've defeated. 

I know alot of people will have different views on this but I genuinely do think there needs to be an overhaul on the stalker for him to remain a big player in the game especially for end-game players that I'm sure find him trivial at most except when some it comes to the horrible drop rates but thats another topic I'll not go into. 

[DSpite]

5 hours ago, Kaidorak said:

 

I think a good way to get him to be more of an intimidating threat is to change the atmosphere surrounding him. When he shows up in the mission, have all the lights go out. Running around with just the Tenno flashlight is always more eerie.

 

 

No.

If I was in Solo mode I'd just pause the game and turn the brightness up. It's not "immersive", it's just "I can't see a damn thing for no logical reason now".

I'm staring at a big rectangle full of LED's one foot away from my face, not in a real environment. It's fake light with fake images, and you want to make it even harder to play my game by giving me fake darkness.

 

[Kaidorak]

8 minutes ago, DSpite said:

 

No.

If I was in Solo mode I'd just pause the game and turn the brightness up. It's not "immersive", it's just "I can't see a damn thing for no logical reason now".

I'm staring at a big rectangle full of LED's one foot away from my face, not in a real environment. It's fake light with fake images, and you want to make it even harder to play my game by giving me fake darkness.

 

I also see your point there. There is no reason you can't turn up the brightness. I happen to enjoy the cool lighting effects. I like artistic design like that, even if I'm just staring at a rectangle screen.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Kaidorak
polishing

[(PSN)XxDarkyanxX]

1 minute ago, Kaidorak said:

I also see your point there. There is no reason you can't just turn up the brightness. I just happen to enjoy the cool lighting effects. I enjoy artistic design like that, even if I'm just staring at a rectangle screen.

There are other ways to change the atmosphere, turning off the light in a fighting game surely isn't artistic.
If anything it doesn't make fighting the bright shining Stalker any scarier, it just hurts your eyes more than anything. 
Keep in mind that we have very bright powers, those would most likely outshine stalker in a dark area, staring at a rave show isn't exactly what I'd call frightful.

[Kaidorak]

Just now, (PS4)XxDarkyanxX said:

There are other ways to change the atmosphere, turning off the light in a fighting game surely isn't artistic.
If anything it doesn't make fighting the bright shining Stalker any scarier, it just hurts your eyes more than anything. 
Keep in mind that we have very bright powers, those would most likely outshine stalker in a dark area, staring at a rave show isn't exactly what I'd call frightful.

True, it was simply a suggestion, considering the stalker being something of an assassin. There are plenty of other ways to give him more of an atmosphere, and I started this thread to here more opinions and such.

[(PSN)XxDarkyanxX]

1 minute ago, Kaidorak said:

True, it was simply a suggestion, considering the stalker being something of an assassin. There are plenty of other ways to give him more of an atmosphere, and I started this thread to here more opinions and such.

I was just saying ahah, I hear a lot of people who think that Blacking out the screen automatically makes the game scarier and much more "Obscure" however that's rarely the case without the proper setup.

Stalker appearance system could certainly use a more "Stalker-ish" feel.

-Whispering behind you without actually being here. Make it so that teammate can't hear the whispering. You're the target after all, you should be the one freaking out.
-Appearing at different instance on the map, in the line of sight of a player but disappearing right after.
-Take out his dot on the mini-map or freeze/static the minimap whenever he's near.
-Take you by surprise without instantly killing you. ( Imagine opening an elevator door as you speed-run and he's just sitting there chilling in the elevator, knocks you back outside of the elevator and starts fighting you )

Anything that will make you ask your teammates to stick together since you don't know WHEN he'll appear.
You do know he'll jump on you at some point in the mission, you simply don't know if he'll do it 10 seconds after showing himself or 4 minutes later after you begged your teammate to protect you.

[Kaidorak]

4 minutes ago, (PS4)XxDarkyanxX said:

Stalker appearance system could certainly use a more "Stalker-ish" feel.

-Whispering behind you without actually being here. Make it so that teammate can't hear the whispering. You're the target after all, you should be the one freaking out.
-Appearing at different instance on the map, in the line of sight of a player but disappearing right after.
-Take out his dot on the mini-map or freeze/static the minimap whenever he's near.
-Take you by surprise without instantly killing you. ( Imagine opening an elevator door as you speed-run and he's just sitting there chilling in the elevator, knocks you back outside of the elevator and starts fighting you )

This is certainly better than what I had in mind.