Changes In Mind For The Corpus - Unit Requests - Behavior Changes - Diversify!

[Vaskadar]

For the past several major updates, the Grineer have been getting the star treatment in terms of developmental attention and unit diversity, but the Corpus are falling behind, in both unit diversity and behavior. It doesn't make much sense for them to just rush the player since they really can't take a beating. It'd make them more dangerous and more interesting to fight if they would try to keep a distance (the non-melee corpus units, that is) and instead pelt the player from range as the Snipers and Railgun Moa do.

These changes mentioned should improve the Corpus as a faction drastically.

Unit-specific behavioral and aesthetic changes that should be implemented.

-Standard Moa

Now, this is one of the three bread-and-butter units of the faction that should be representative of how the corpus handle as a faction. They currently have the tendency just to rush you and stand in your face while shooting, but not really any threat, even in large numbers due to their nature just to facehug the player. If they were more inclined to skirt and strafe while shooting the player, rarely stopping, they'd be far more threatening than they are right now.

-Shockwave Moa

Fine as-is. Maybe a model update instead of just a different color later on.

-Railgun Moa

Yeah, blue is a nice distinguishing color, but I think something could be done to make them far more different from their counterpart, the shockwave Moa. Mount a larger weapon on its head and make it sit back more. Getting sniped in this game by the Railgun Moa is far more dangerous than what most of the other corpus do.

-Fusion Moa

They're dangerous. That's fine. Not in a cheap way dangerous either, thankfully. Nothing to change here.

-Corpus Crewman

The regular Corpus Crewman doesn't stay mobile as much as he should, considering how weak he (as an individual) actually is. Modifying the AI scripts for the crewman to make him run away from the player while shooting could make him dangerous in large numbers because they spread out a bit more. The tendency to group up in clusters is what makes it fairly easy to decimate crewman and standard Moa alike all in one powerful AOE attack.

-Corpus Prod-man

The last of the most common units isn't much trouble. I think that he should have a little more HP (and something visual to indicate this) than his crewmates. They still carry the old Prova model. Due to their rushing nature, they could also move a little faster and more directly.

-Corpus Sniper

Sits still too often and isn't mobile enough to be dangerous. Should have a more distinguished design, such as a large monocular on his helmet, and perhaps a shroud. What would be really nasty is if these guys could cloak like Nef Anyo, except you'd be able to see their active camouflage.

-Corpus Tech

For the most part, he's fine as-is, except for his model. His model should be replaced with a Corpus crewman standing inside of an armored exosuit. Occasionally tossing a shield Osprey can make him slightly more challenging, but yeah... hopefully his model changes in an update or two. I don't think corpus should modify their people genetically, as it doesn't really make sense given their lore bits. It would be nice to use it as an excuse to obviate the corpus' dependency on robotics.

-Shield Osprey

Not much to change here other than hitbox fixes.

-Mine Osprey

These things are silly and weak. Not much of a threat. Once again, hitbox fixes would be good.

-Leech Osprey

Dangerous. That's fine. Just fix the hitboxes on them.

-Fusion Osprey

Yes, it's dangerous, probably more so than its tiny counterparts, but the hitbox still isn't the same size as the osprey itself. That's problematic.

Unit Requests - Now we're diversifying

Gecko

-The Corpus Gecko does exactly what its terrestrial analogue does. Climbs walls, hugs walls, climbs on ceilings.

-Utilizes ranged weaponry and electronic warfare to interfere with Tenno.

-It should be mobile and able to jump from location to location.

-Should not have much health due to its mobility and reduced size relative to the standard Moa.

-Four-legged

Corpus Jumper Crewman

-The Corpus Jumper utilizes jumpjets to move through the environment rapidly, while pelting the player with ranged weaponry. Can hover in place or utilize jumpjets to ascend rapidly to player positions.

-As a result of the need to fit a jumpjet, his armor and health is less than that of a standard crewman.

-Wears a suit similar to an extra-vehicular-activity suit.

Corpus Breacher

-Corpus crewman with an energy shotgun

-Moves same speed as prod-man

-Has good amount of health

-Rushes player frequently

[Vaskadar]

Makes me sad that this didn't see a single reply, but there are three upvotes.

I hate bumping, but I'd hate to copy/paste this thread's original post to create a new one, unnecessarily adding another thread to the already massive list of threads.

Please, help me expand upon what could be done to the corpus to make them more interesting and challenging as a faction.

[Paradoxbomb]

I do hope DE gets around to updating them someday, though I do think the standard MOAs charging into battle is an okay strategy as it is (except for when they run RIGHT by you), it forces you out of hiding if theres a bunch and since you can't stun them outright because of their shields, you either have to run or ult. them. It's more threatening on higher levels though.

 

Some enemy concepts I'd like to see include:

 

>Shifter Osprey: An outpost miniboss, this large osprey has experimental Orikin teleportation devices concealed in it's wings, and will teleport in small groups of enemies every so often. It is extremely well armored and has lethal proximity missile attacks, as well as fusion rays for long range engagement. The quickest way to destroy it is to kill the enemies it brings in, and then shoots it's wings when they open up to summon more enemies.

>Ogris MOA: A late game enemy that, obviously, is a MOA with a rocket launcher in place of it's laser gun. Slow to fire but deals extreme damage on contact. Worse of all, if it is not killed with a headshot, it will deploy an Ogris Osprey, a weaker though airborne and just as powerful foe.

>Corpus Defender. Very similar in design to your suggestion for Corpus Techs, utilizes an exosuit and has very durable metal plating on his helmet, arms, and legs, making his torso his only real weak spot. Attacks include a prototype flux rifle, enhanced agility and strength (can jump incredible distances and has a slow but powerful punch), and can deploy portable turrets, much like the ones activated by cameras, abeit with a very strong shield and heavier damage.

 

Of course, Corpus is fine as is for the most part, so long as they get their AI changed eventually.

[Madotsuki]

Most people don't bother replying to these enemy suggestion threads, since they don't have much to add on to it, so they just give a +1 and leave. Hell, most internet-goers won't even bother reading such threads due to wall-of-text syndrome.

Well, MOAs are supposed to be proxies with no sense of self preservation, which is why they just bumrush to get as close as possible and then stand there to blast you. They're essentially turrets with legs, they don't really need strafing programming. Railgun Moas SHOULD be staying further away from you though, and should have a different gun design. Maybe they should move slower than regular moas and must stand still to fire due to their more powerful weaponry.

As for Crewmen, they shouldn't be moving around too much neither. Crewmen are mostly engineers and so forth, not fighters with military training, it would be more fitting if they hide behind cover and attempt to take potshots at you instead of running all over the place out in the open.

Prod Crewmen though need a major aesthetic change. As said before, crewmen aren't supposed to be soldiers with no fear like the Grineers, so why would some of them be so suicidally brave as to bumrush the Tenno with stun prods? While the enemy itself seems okay, the prod crewmen should be replaced with droids instead, or at least give them some armor plating and more health.

Sniper Crewmen as they are are completely obselete due to the presence of Railgun Moas. Just replace them with elite-class cloaking snipers with flashbangs. The cloaking shouldn't be perfect of course, and players should still be able to see their silhouette or something.

The main problem with Mine Ospreys is that their bombs are actually VERY unresponsive. I can step right on one and it won't detonate. Their mines need to be more powerful and explode on contact with players (with maybe one to half a second of delay, with rapid beeping on activation or something), as well as be remotely detonate-able with gunfire. The mines should just expire and fizzle away after a time limit though instead of auto-exploding, the explosion noises get REALLY annoying.

As for your new enemy suggestions, the Gecko seems a little too hard to program into the game, though they sound cool. The Jumper and the Breacher don't really fit the Corpus theme though.

Edited July 23, 2013 by Madotsuki

[Vaskadar]

Most people don't bother replying to these enemy suggestion threads, since they don't have much to add on to it, so they just give a +1 and leave. Hell, most internet-goers won't even bother reading such threads due to wall-of-text syndrome.

Yeah, it's a shame. I tried segmenting it so that it'd be easier to digest.

 

Well, MOAs are supposed to be proxies with no sense of self preservation, which is why they just bumrush to get as close as possible and then stand there to blast you. They're essentially turrets with legs, they don't really need strafing programming. Railgun Moas SHOULD be staying further away from you though, and should have a different gun design. Maybe they should move slower than regular moas and must stand still to fire due to their more powerful weaponry.

The reason I suggested it, though you provide a good counterpoint, is to change how they function as enemy units and make them more challenging. I would think that large bird-like robots would be exceptionally quick and agile. Any smart business owner knows that throwing away assets like these by the thousands is hugely counterproductive to profit (if we're taking that lore angle to the reasoning), so they'd probably program them with some level of self-preservation programming.

 

As for Crewmen, they shouldn't be moving around too much neither. Crewmen are mostly engineers and so forth, not fighters with military training, it would be more fitting if they hide behind cover and attempt to take potshots at you instead of running all over the place out in the open.

Once more, I'm somewhat ignoring lore here, as the corpus are still the easiest faction to defeat, even in large numbers if only because they have a tendency to throw their life away. I would think they shouldn't bumrush the player, but instead try to maintain distance to play to their strengths: their ranged weaponry.

 

Prod Crewmen though need a major aesthetic change. As said before, crewmen aren't supposed to be soldiers with no fear like the Grineers, so why would some of them be so suicidally brave as to bumrush the Tenno with stun prods? While the enemy itself seems okay, the prod crewmen should be replaced with droids instead, or at least give them some armor plating and more health.

Hmm... I would think a fast melee unit with some level of armor should have a sidearm to attack with. Corpus prod-men just don't really fit within the corpus faction's emphasis on ranged technologies and weaponry, whereas the Grineer are vicious and tend to play close-quarters.

 

Sniper Crewmen as they are are completely obselete due to the presence of Railgun Moas. Just replace them with elite-class cloaking snipers with flashbangs. The cloaking shouldn't be perfect of course, and players should still be able to see their silhouette or something.

Agreed. Seeing their silhouette would make them slightly more challenging than no cloak whatsoever, but not frustrating to the point of "ARGH WTF!". They are hugely obsolete right now.

 

The main problem with Mine Ospreys is that their bombs are actually VERY unresponsive. I can step right on one and it won't detonate. Their mines need to be more powerful and explode on contact with players (with maybe one to half a second of delay, with rapid beeping on activation or something), as well as be remotely detonate-able with gunfire. The mines should just expire and fizzle away after a time limit though instead of auto-exploding, the explosion noises get REALLY annoying.

I kinda just skimmed over it by using a blanket statement, but yeah. Their bombs are weaksauce to say the least. Their detonation requires that you step through the giant obvious orbs. They're little more than annoying, whereas leech ospreys do mean business.

 

As for your new enemy suggestions, the Gecko seems a little too hard to program into the game, though they sound cool. The Jumper and the Breacher don't really fit the Corpus theme though.

As far as Geckos go: it's not the hardest thing to program if someone who claims they're an amateur modder can get it done in Unreal Engine 2.5 on Killing Floor. Killing Floor Mod - Arachnophobia

Or... the Xenomorphs from Aliens vs. Predator, or even Mass Effect 1's Geth Hopper, an electronics warfare platform that would snipe the player from various angles.

Jumper would make sense to me, especially in some sort of low-gravity environment, they'd be able to utilize their jump jets to tremendous advantage. I'd imagine the artificial gravity on the space vessels of the Warframe universe isn't the strongest. They could normally go about their day repairing the Corpus vessels or dropships at the corpus outposts, but be equipped for semi-short range combat, utilizing the Spectra and hopping from one platform to another.

I'd thrown together the Breacher's description for the sake of variety in the corpus world.

All in all, I just want to find an alternative to "RAISE THE NUMBERS MORE FOR FALSE DIFFICULTY INCREASES!"

[fatpig84]

Corpus are possibly worth trillions or quadrillions in assets, given that they have the know how and can afford to repair Outer Terminal which links outside the Solar systems.

 

I think the losses of a few thousands of suicidal walking turrets that cost a few grand (it's the future and they are fodder so mass production would have drove cost down) are of no matter to them. 

 

But a slight change in looks for each Moa would be nice instead of just colour.

At least Fusion Moas look pretty different from their more common counterparts.

Edited July 23, 2013 by fatpig84

[Vaskadar]

In the end, it's up to the devs as far as what they do with the corpus, but ultimately, I hope they make them far more interesting than they are now.