Plains of Eidolon Distances & Weapons!

[[DE]Rebecca]

Hail, Tenno!

Right now, our dev team is working hard to deliver the Plains of Eidolon. But as we create and play within this open space, the change of scenery has had us looking at some of the systems that Warframe has been built upon over the last five years.

 

One of Warframe’s biggest appeals is the diverse selection of weaponry. Even within the subclasses of rifles and pistols, there is huge variety to be found, such as the distinction between projectile weapons (firing physical projectiles which move through space, like the Boltor) and hitscan weapons (firing draws an imaginary line between the gun and the point aimed at, doing damage instantly to whatever it hits, like the Soma). For obvious reasons, hitscans are very effective at long distances - this has never been an issue with Warframe’s tileset-based gameplay, but as we shot enemies from a kilometer away in the plains with our pistols, we knew something had to be done.

 

With the release of Plains of Eidolon, most weapons will have a form of damage falloff added, to reduce their effectiveness at extremely long distances. But don’t panic! This damage falloff will only be noticeable at extreme ranges (greater than 300m). Across all of our current tilesets, we were unable to find an unobstructed line of sight longer than 300m, so that is the point at which damage falloff will start. Even some of our largest tiles do not cover that distance corner-to-corner:

Based on our assessment of all existing procedural tiles we’re extra confident that our current tileset-based gameplay will be largely unaffected. It is also worth noting that snipers will be able to fire 600m without experiencing falloff, to give them more of a purpose in this wide open terrain where long range weapons should thrive.

 

As always, we are listening to your reactions and feedback - hope you’re as excited for Plains of Eidolon as we are! If you find unobstructed distances in our current tiles that concern you, post them here!

[-AoN-CanoLathra-]

How about buffing snipers and removing scope sway so they can actually be useful at 600 meters?

Also, will this damage falloff be affected by Flight Speed the same way it is for hit-scan shotguns? If so, it could affect a lot of weapons on normal tilesets, due to riven mods.

[blackheartstar_pc]

Makes sense and sounds good to me.

[Nidaria]

Thank you so much for this info, Reb <3

I think this needed to be done.

[phoenix1992]

Waiting for PoE - yes.
Concerned about which weapon had  efficient range over 600 meters in order to cause such kind of change and how it will play out in future - also yes.

[-UCPP-]

As long as my sniper tigris isn't nerfed

[-YoRHa-]

I like this change. I honestly wouldn't mind if you make the damage falloff range for non-sniper weapons smaller than 300m as well. Also gives weapon categories a more distinct personality outside of their looks, stats, and firing methods like in Titanfall 2(been using this as an example a lot).

For those wondering, the weapon categories and effective ranges are:

 

Assault Rifles

Sub Machine Gun

Light Machine Gun

Sniper Rifle

Shotgun

Grenadiers and Pistols have variable ranges.

[Duduminador]

Sounds fair enough. 300 units range for average weapons and 600 snipers really only should have an impact on Plains anyways.

To be fully honest, I was worried that far away mobs wouldn't even be drawn on screen. If it needs a falloff damage cap. That's actually very good news. Cuz it means very far mobs will be visible.

[Neofaucheur]

Will projectile based weapons be affected the same way as hitscan? (Mostly bows)

[-AoN-CanoLathra-]

Just now, Neofaucheur said:

Will projectile based weapons be affected the same way as hitscan? (Mostly bows)

If you can hit a target at 300+ meters with a bow, then I don't think you will have much to worry about.

[Cyborg-Rox]

Good stuff. Glad you guys are considering the difference in our gear's performance in this new gameplay space. 

I can't stand Projectile weapons even in normal Tilesets, so I hope you guys can make some changes to make those weapons more attractive in PoE as well.

[Vlada91]

Ok ok so update is coming in????

[Koldraxon-732]

Would the sniper archetype get a better passive (i.e, headshots or shots that land any critical damage deal finisher damage) in order to allow them to be of any use in high-level missions/areas? Some enemies aren't going to be finished in a single Vectis Prime round from within that meter range.

[[DE]Grzegorz]

3 minutes ago, Neofaucheur said:

Will projectile based weapons be affected the same way as hitscan? (Mostly bows)

Bows should fall under Sniper category, but at 600 meters you have more pressing issues.

Let's be real, people will rarely engage beyond 100m.

[Neofaucheur]

1 minute ago, -AoN-CanoLathra- said:

If you can hit a target at 300+ meters with a bow, then I don't think you will have much to worry about.

I was actually thinking the feat would at least deserve to not be ruined by damage falloff making it irrelevant ^^

[Valiant]

Think I'm more interested in the Focus 2.0 dev workshop thread at the moment.

[ZiG.y]

I think sniper rifles should have an effective range higher than 600m. closer to 800m-1000m.

[tnccs215]

13 hours ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

It is also worth noting that snipers will be able to fire 600m without experiencing falloff, to give them more of a purpose in this wide open terrain where long range weapons should thrive.

This is rather good, it's impossible to deny that - but could you please remove the awful and pointless sway they have, so that we can actually hit sometimes further than 100 meters away?
Well good thing @-AoN-CanoLathra- got here before me, and everyone else

[[DE]Rebecca]

13 minutes ago, -AoN-CanoLathra- said:

How about buffing snipers and removing scope sway so they can actually be useful at 600 meters?

There is another thread coming soon TM on Sniper changes.

[OscargamersB]

When PoE ?

[Archistopheles]

18 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Based on our assessment of all existing procedural tiles we’re extra confident that our current tileset-based gameplay will be largely unaffected. It is also worth noting that snipers will be able to fire 600m without experiencing falloff, to give them more of a purpose in this wide open terrain where long range weapons should thrive.

Similar to Archwing, right? Where weapons have extreme distance drop off?

Sounds good to me. Snipers should have their niche on the plains.

[Domesticon]

1 minute ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

There is another thread coming soon TM on Sniper changes.

Excellent, thanks Reb.

[Trizion]

I would love to see snipers being able to shoot for more than 600m without fall off if you could change it to around 700 - 800m I think it would be a lot better off that way since snipers need a lot more loving than what they are getting now. Removing the scope sway would also be nice and also buffing snipers, in general, to be more useful.

[tnccs215]

3 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

There is another thread coming soon TM on Sniper changes.

yeeey? Well I hope I'll finally give some use to my rubico.

[Ceryk]

My question is how will this effect Ivara's Navigator? Because you can keep that going for well over 300m...