[Suggestion] Let's Talk About Auras

[Zhoyzu]

So In this thread i will attempt to solve a plethora of issues with the new Aura system in a systematic manner; the good, bad, new, and old.

 

So let's begin!

 

NEW SYSTEM +

Im going to start off with whats good about the new system.

- It's new.

-You can actually see what the auras do specifically.

-Other auras have become more viable for use, rather then everyone using energy siphon as a default.

-You can fuse the auras to improve them rather then leaving them at their base stats forever.

-Boosts polarity. if matching polarities mod slot increase is greater then using a different polarity. Meaning no need to forma the aura slot.

 

All in all this new system has a lot of promise and maybe some room for growth. Now I am aware of the negatives to this new system and i will cover those further down the thread. But for now lets take a look about what we all liked about the old system

 

OLD SYSTEM +

-everyone could see what auras you would be taking with you.

- allowed for team cohesion, IE i'll take corrosive projection because we are going into the void and y'all can take energy siphon.

-Didn't waste modding slots on warframes.

 

Those are, i think, the key points and positives of both the new and old Aura/artifact systems. Before we get into possible fixes to optimize the aura system lets take a look at the negatives of both the old and new.

 

NEW SYSTEM -

-most don't bother with auras because not worth the forma cost.

-not used because people don't have room in their already 3x forma-ed warframe ( some of those new mods are useful and expensive)

-arbitrarily assigned polarity slots for the auras and the warframes. 

-Not enough space on warframes for both new content (nightmare mode mods (which are generally pretty expensive) or the new auras)

-Overpowered, makes waste of forma for those that invested serious time into their warframes

 

OLD SYSTEM -

-weak auras, most were completely useless or buggy. ( rifle scav made pistol ammo drop more then rifle ammo)

-Vague descriptions with no values assigned, impossible to determine if useful or not.

- old and outdated

-Didn't grant bonus mod slotting points.

 

So in the old system there weren't that many things that were bad with it. It's more of a case that it just needed an overhaul and small fixes. Im not advocating a change back to the old system. I would like the new system if it were to adapt some changes and modifications that would make it worth while.

 

So, how do we improve the new system while taking into account everything we loved about the old system?

Firstly, i think we need to change how the polarities for auras interact with warframes.

 

The idea here would be to simply allow warframes to have an un-polarized aura slot. Why would this be beneficial?

This would be beneficial if and only if the auras took on two types of polarities. The two types of polarities would indicate the type of aura it is. For example, Energy siphon, would be a group beneficial aura in a passive manner, while things like corrosive projection and shield disruption are offensive by nature.

 

So how does this help our case with warframes? If our warframes started out with an unpolarized slot we could pick the correct polarity slots that fit our play styles, and what we like to have.

 

Awesome now we have reduced the haphazardness of the aura polarity issue with passive and aggressive auras.

 

Whats next? Well, a lot of people really liked to be able to see what everyone would be taking with them, and switch accordingly. So how do we fix this?

 

The answer lies within the older system. The way artifacts were like cards, and were even labeled as being in a "deck". The only way we can bring this system back while keeping the new system intact is with the... lets just call it the "deck" system, is with the new passive aggressive polarities. In Having only two polarity slots you would now have to choose based on the warframe you are using (assuming you polarized the slot). 

 

The Deck system's key point of awesomeness was the ability to change before you go into the mission while in the lobby. How can we use this system now? If we brought back the deck system to the new Aura system we would be allowed to change auras based on our warframes polarity slot. IE, im using Banshee and i have the passive polarity for my favorite aura energy siphon. and then i join a lobby for Kappa and everyone else is using energy siphon. Lets say im using the grakata and im like "damn, this gun eats through ammo like a mofo". I could then change to rifle scavenger while in the lobby without having to go into my arsenal to make the change (also assuming at this point that rifle scav would be passive).

 

The new Deck system would allow players to only select auras that will both fit and match the polarity. From the example above, if everyone is using energy siphon and i wish to change, i am only able to see the auras i own that both fit in the slot with my warframes available capacity and matches the polarity slot. If no polarity slot exists then all that can fit on the warframe will show.

 

I will conclude my post here for the time being. I have covered everything i think is highly important, but i may come back later for grammatical cleaning and editing as well as addition based on feedback/remembering something.

 

I would like to know what you think about this system. I personally don't use auras anymore because i don't care to polarize my warframes just to get a small energy regen, namely when i didn't use energy siphon to begin with before this update anyways. I just think that this is a potential fix for everyone's woes, granted its impossible to please everybody, i can say i've tried.

 

NEW CONTENT HERE! ! ! (added 7/17/13 3:31 local time)

U9HF9.1.4

- The new aura system brought a nice change to the game putting an end to most of the woes and grieving of the community. It still failed to address the issue of team play. And by this i mean people can no longer plan accordingly with respects to what others are bringing in their arsenal.

The most intriguing thing about this is that even after all my suggestions (and other from the replies) in this thread, which i think are pretty solid and would be great if implemented back in, DE did not even consider the possibility of adding the aura equipped into the party UI along with peoples load-outs for that mission. It would have been so simple. I still think they need to add the ability to swap out auras like in the old system (suggestion above somewhere) and they can just add the aura used into the party UI and then IMO the aura system would be perfect.

 

ADDITIONS

- https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/80367-suggestion-lets-talk-about-auras/#entry882748

- did some additions to pros and cons

-adding my opinion about new system after U9HF9.1.4

 

TL;DR? sucks, im not going to summarize any of this.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Zhoyzu

[Zhoyzu]

sad day, my topic got flooded out by mass vampire and difficulty threads

[Platinumless]

dont be sad man..im totaly agree with you about this..

[LasersGoPewPew]

the aura system would be great if all frames had the same polarity and all cards were the same polarity, it doesn't matter if you choose+damage or +regen of health, or +energy/radar abilities it's a tactical decision no matter how "aggressive" the +damage mods are, they should all be - slots, and all the aura polarities should be -.

[Excitonex]

My main gripe with the current system is that we can't equip more than 1 aura. Everyone still uses energy sihpon if they use any aura at all. If we could equips multiple auras we would see much more diverse builds.

[Rett]

it might sound silly but the had the idea of having the aura's account bound instead of frame bound.

in a way you just bind the aura in your general armory and make it take mastery rank point instead of mod points on your frame

that way the mastery points become more practical and give a minor boost to those of us who worked on getting it high

and that way it won't matter what polarity it is and it won't take from the power your frame has.

and it won't make you switch it every time you go on another frame.

but thats just my opinion

[Zhoyzu]

it might sound silly but the had the idea of having the aura's account bound instead of frame bound.

in a way you just bind the aura in your general armory and make it take mastery rank point instead of mod points on your frame

that way the mastery points become more practical and give a minor boost to those of us who worked on getting it high

and that way it won't matter what polarity it is and it won't take from the power your frame has.

and it won't make you switch it every time you go on another frame.

but thats just my opinion

That is an interesting idea. However I like how the current system is kinda saying "plan accordingly and play smart". I would rather play a game that forces me to make an educated decision and play smart then play a game that let's me take everything so the I become a deity on the game and nothing can stand in my way. That's just kinda how I feel about that.

 

But i had been saying in my OP that the auras could be changed like they were account bound but be bound to the warframes instead.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Zhoyzu

[Zhoyzu]

My main gripe with the current system is that we can't equip more than 1 aura. Everyone still uses energy sihpon if they use any aura at all. If we could equips multiple auras we would see much more diverse builds.

two auras at once would kind of be over powered. I don't know why everyone only uses energy siphon. I've never personally been in a situation where i was like " im sure glad we all brought energy siphon. It really helped us out there" Its advantage is minimal to begin with. there is usually enough energy dropped that it makes energy siphon obsolete when im sitting at max energy most of the time

[baglady]

just take away the polarity from the aura slot and it wouldnt be such a big deal.

[Midkraft]

I dislike the fact that auras use the same points as modules, since you now wont be able too get the full potential out of your frame.

I like the fact that you are able too "level" your aura, i think that a 0 rank aura should be worse than it was in artifact form, at near max it should be the same as artifact and maxed out a bit better than the artifact form from before. (dont know if this would be balanced but i think it sounds fair)

I dislike the fact that you cant see your team members aura´s.

 

I loved the way artifacts were before, it was a unique feature.

Now auras is just a fancy module that takes up points

[Fleiryn]

Things about energy is totally #@$@# now, i hated those blue orbs system from the very first days in warframe, but then i found that there actually exist artifact called energy siphon that would resolve all my problems about energy. Now i have to lose tons of mod point just to have far lower energy regen, simply because no one using ES anymore.

[Onbashira]

Steel Charge is still absolute garbage.

[Kaizz]

Why not put the aura mods on the Sentinels so they're a bit more useful, make the polarity slot the same, and have up to 3 different aura mods on at once? If not on the sentinel, I saw a pretty nice suggestion of having a "mod energy pool", and still have the slots the same. Right now, I only see 2-3 good mods. Energy Siphon, Rejuvenation (I believe, regens health), and Impedence (dunno if there's one for grineer and corpus, but the infested one is ridiculously good, even if it might be bugged). 

[Demonseed_Elite]

The way I think it should be...

 

-Keep auras as mods the way they do it now, but completely remove polarity (or make them all the same polarity for consistancy).

 

-Remove the Aura slot on the Warframe.

 

-Equip them like the old card system, i.e. on the fly at squad creation, the upper limit of points being your player level.  This way squads can dynamically swap in and out Auras as the squad/mission comes up.  Player level = max rank of Aura mod (A level 4 player, can thus equip a three-dot mod - all Aura mods start at 1 point and increase with combining).

 

-No auras should stack, aura effects are limited by the highest rank aura of it's type in play... thus, if 4 players all want to run Energy Siphon, they only get the benefit of whoever has the highest-ranked Energy Siphon.  This will encourage squads mixing things up and everyone assigning a different aura.

 

-In squad formation, everyone can see everyone elses Aura like they could with cards, so everyone knows what everyone else is running.

 

-Add a visual effect to your kneeling tenno in the mission select view...  have an "aura of power" (particle effects) emit from around them that's unique to each aura.  Nothing too flashy, just a subtle thing. 

[Zhoyzu]

Things about energy is totally #@$@# now, i hated those blue orbs system from the very first days in warframe, but then i found that there actually exist artifact called energy siphon that would resolve all my problems about energy. Now i have to lose tons of mod point just to have far lower energy regen, simply because no one using ES anymore.

I don't see how you like energy siphon so much. in the time it takes to recover 25 energy i can pick up 3-5 energy orbs. In reality energy siphon is obsolete, now more so then before because the other auras got a buff that makes them pretty useful.

[Zhoyzu]

 

 

-Equip them like the old card system, i.e. on the fly at squad creation, the upper limit of points being your player level.  This way squads can dynamically swap in and out Auras as the squad/mission comes up.  Player level = max rank of Aura mod (A level 4 player, can thus equip a three-dot mod - all Aura mods start at 1 point and increase with combining).

 

 

 

 

I dislike the fact that auras use the same points as modules, since you now wont be able too get the full potential out of your frame.

I like the fact that you are able too "level" your aura, i think that a 0 rank aura should be worse than it was in artifact form, at near max it should be the same as artifact and maxed out a bit better than the artifact form from before. (dont know if this would be balanced but i think it sounds fair)

I dislike the fact that you cant see your team members aura´s.

 

I loved the way artifacts were before, it was a unique feature.

Now auras is just a fancy module that takes up points

 

 

What if warframes at a base level (no potato) were to receive 1 more mod point every 3 levels to accommodate for auras? In turn auras would not have a polarity as when potatoed thats 18 extra slots for the auras. I say no polarization because otherwise we will have to increase the cost of all mods so that the extra mod slots cant be abused like some form of free forma.

 

This could be solved by having the 3 points per level but that point pool can only be consumed by the auras (in an effort to maintain balance).

 

The values used just an example. I do believe that the current system is flawed largely by the aura cost affecting the regular modding pool. A solution to the costs i think would please almost everybody. I personally would still be able to love to see what everyone is bringing with them and use the old card swap system to allow changes on the fly. keep auras not bound to frames but bound to accounts then equipped on the frames like mods before the mission starts. kind of repeating myself now as im sure you all read this part in my OP.

[GE_granado]

For those people who have used FORMA

 

Is there some unfair?

 

FORMA change artifact plaid

 

Starting with a good MODS, but now much more Points

[CerebrateJoe]

I really like the system where Auras took energy points.  I know everyone is excited about more points, but I liked the restriction.  It felt like bringing an aura was a big deal.  I felt like I was making a real contribution to the team.  Now, you just feel dumb without one.  There's not just a little bonus, there's a huge overpowering one.

 

Devs, even if you want to have everyone take an aura, how about just making them cost 0 energy.  The bonus energy is crazy.

[Zhoyzu]

updating. adding to pros and cons adding stuff post patch 9.1.4

 

i believe that most, if not all, of this thread is still relevant even after the change

 

 

EDIT/ADDITION: New information can be found near the bottom under the section labeled U9HF9.1.4

Edited July 17, 2013 by Zhoyzu

[Zhoyzu]

I really like the system where Auras took energy points.  I know everyone is excited about more points, but I liked the restriction.  It felt like bringing an aura was a big deal.  I felt like I was making a real contribution to the team.  Now, you just feel dumb without one.  There's not just a little bonus, there's a huge overpowering one.

 

Devs, even if you want to have everyone take an aura, how about just making them cost 0 energy.  The bonus energy is crazy.

thats kind of how i feel. made the game feel a bit more tactical

[gell]

Good thread weighing the pros and cons. This is a lot more useful than the people crying (of varying opinion). I may be someone who preferred the pre-U9 system and only desired tweaks, but you've outlined exactly the issues. We need something to keep the team focus going. If it's not the aura system then something else, but I feel auras are already team-benefitting; they should fully be team-oriented too by allowing quick swaps, and that would probably require them not adding to your energy pool.

 

So I'm not sure what the solution here is aside from keeping the system (too many people love all the extra energy hur hur), but adding some new team stuff, maybe based on mastery (could work with the mastery updates coming later on).

 

Btw OP, I love Energy Siphon still because I feel it corrects a silly design in Warframe: requiring you to hunt down energy by breaking stuff, or by killing enemies (when the enemies run out, that's it for orbs). I like being able to know that if I'm ever in a situation low on energy, I will have some soon. If I'm just a few points away from an ability, I'll have it in a matter of seconds (enemies can sometimes 1-2 shot you depending on level, regardless of what your shields are, so trying to kill some for orbs is not a good solution). And if I'm really messing around, like I was yesterday with repeated usage of Nova's Wormhole, I can get that 75 energy back without leaving the area, especially if I've already killed everything on the map (our group had 2 maxed ES, so it wasn't too bad to wait).

 

I feel like ES should be a passive all frames have, with varying degree similar to how much max energy each frame has. But since they don't, equipping ES is almost always mandatory for me. My guns can often do enough damage, or a 22.5% boost won't really be the difference I need anyway. But being at 24 energy when you need 25 to pull off a move to save your butt really sucks. Need the energy.

Edited July 18, 2013 by gell

[crow-k]

After the new change to the aura system where you are PROVIDED mod points as opposed to spending I think opens a lot of interesting abilities.

[Zhoyzu]

After the new change to the aura system where you are PROVIDED mod points as opposed to spending I think opens a lot of interesting abilities.

this was never the issue though. not anymore anyways. and it infact does not open up more possibilities. the limit on mod slotting made people make a decision on what they really valued. now just throw in any maxed aura and you basically got 2 free forma. Auras did break the forma element of the game in a way. not huge but still enough.

[Zhoyzu]

Good thread weighing the pros and cons. This is a lot more useful than the people crying (of varying opinion). I may be someone who preferred the pre-U9 system and only desired tweaks, but you've outlined exactly the issues. We need something to keep the team focus going. If it's not the aura system then something else, but I feel auras are already team-benefitting; they should fully be team-oriented too by allowing quick swaps, and that would probably require them not adding to your energy pool.

 

So I'm not sure what the solution here is aside from keeping the system (too many people love all the extra energy hur hur), but adding some new team stuff, maybe based on mastery (could work with the mastery updates coming later on).

 

Btw OP, I love Energy Siphon still because I feel it corrects a silly design in Warframe: requiring you to hunt down energy by breaking stuff, or by killing enemies (when the enemies run out, that's it for orbs). I like being able to know that if I'm ever in a situation low on energy, I will have some soon. If I'm just a few points away from an ability, I'll have it in a matter of seconds (enemies can sometimes 1-2 shot you depending on level, regardless of what your shields are, so trying to kill some for orbs is not a good solution). And if I'm really messing around, like I was yesterday with repeated usage of Nova's Wormhole, I can get that 75 energy back without leaving the area, especially if I've already killed everything on the map (our group had 2 maxed ES, so it wasn't too bad to wait).

 

I feel like ES should be a passive all frames have, with varying degree similar to how much max energy each frame has. But since they don't, equipping ES is almost always mandatory for me. My guns can often do enough damage, or a 22.5% boost won't really be the difference I need anyway. But being at 24 energy when you need 25 to pull off a move to save your butt really sucks. Need the energy.

The quick swap and Party UI showing the auras i think would make the new system perfect. they are the only and best things that were missing from the old system.

[Zhoyzu]

still relevant