Warframe Concept - Dynamica (Now with Quest)

[MysticalOctopus]

Not fully fleshed out in terms of stats, obviously, but here's what I have so far. As they say, Please Examine And Critique Honestly (PEACH).

Dynamica

“This is Dynamica. The mathematician. The engineer.

Dynamica solves the problems of the multiverse, Tenno. Make sure you aren’t a problem.”

 

Passive (Dynamica’s Theorem of Ballistic Rebound): The first X projectiles you shoot from a clip, where X is the rank of your Warframe, ricochet 30 - X times (minimum one time); for example, at rank 1 the first projectile from a clip ricochets 29 times; at rank 29, the first 29 projectiles from a clip ricochet one time each.

 

Ability 1 (Dynamica’s Algorithm): Each enemy in a radius takes a percentage of their maximum health as damage.

AUGMENT (Multivariable): Each enemy that is killed this way drops a health orb.

Ability 2 (Dynamica’s Inequality): Applies to each teammate; if % of shields lost is less than 50%, restore full shields. Otherwise, grant bonus damage.

AUGMENT (Function of X): Restored shields and health are now based on the actual percentage of shield lost, rather than static numbers.

Ability 3 (Dynamica’s Theorem of Topological Continuity): Channeled ability. You send out a torus (doughnut) shaped projectile in front of you, that slowly spins and moves forward. It sucks enemies into itself and deals damage to them.

AUGMENT (Knot To Be): When you cancel the ability, the torus ties itself into a knot and then flattens into a circle, expelling all enemies from it and knocking them back and knocking them down.

Ability 4 (The Dynamica Paradox): Spawn in specters of each enemy within a radius, allied with you. Specters have reduced health.

AUGMENT (Dynamica's Pet Theorem): In addition, spawn in a full-health specter of your active pet or companion, with the Hold Position status enabled.

 

Quest: The Omnipotence Paradox

Quest Requirements: Completed The War Within quest

To Start: Talk with the Arbiters of Hexis in any relay.

The Arbiters tell you that one of their operatives was close to uncovering the secret of the Tenno's power, which would finally allow all Tenno to access their hidden potential. This operative disappeared. They believe that the Corpus and the Grineer have, in a rare moment of cooperation, have combined forces to prevent this secret from coming to light.

 

You must undertake a mission on Mars, a rescue mission. However, as soon as you reach the extraction point, Corpus troops parachute in and you must undertake a battle with them. During the hassle, the operative is grabbed and taken up to the Corpus ship overhead. The mission ends in a success, however.

Then you must go to Phobos to rescue him again. But this time, partway through the mission, strange symbols begin to fill your vision. After they have completely obscured the vision of the player, there is a bright flash of light, and the player is taken to the Orokin Tower tileset. It is devoid of life, but more of the strange symbols are drawn on the walls. The operative is found inside the tower. He tells the player that he was almost able to find the secret of tenno power, but a mysterious Warframe of entirely white broke into his workshop and stole all his notes. Just a day later, the Grineer showed up at his doorstep to kidnap him.

Just then, it reverts back to the Corpus Ship tileset and the mission continues as normal.

One more mission follows: a capture mission in the Void. The capture target shows up upon precisely 100 enemies being killed; the Dynamica warframe. Instantly spectral versions of the player, their squadmates, and any sentinels or companions they may have appear and begin fighting them, aided by Dynamica. After his defeat, he says that no one should have access to such power, and lights the work ablaze before surrendering. 

To complete the quest, talk to the Arbiters of Hexis once again. This awards Dynamica's blueprint. His parts can be found in the Void, as rare drops from Corrupted enemies.

Edited October 12, 2017 by MysticalOctopus
Added quest

[SpoonyBrad]

The balance could use some taming (not that that has stopped DE before), but I LOVE the concept, and my wife (who actually holds a math degree, unlike myself, but is also currently very asleep) would probably love it more. The abilities (more particularly the proposed augments) seem somewhat over the top, so things like "Each enemy dealt damage this way drops a health orb" would need to be reined in with "has a chance to drop", but again, I am a fan of the framework (erm, accidental pun) you have proposed. My wife, at least, would get a kick out of it if one of the abilities referenced topology or knot theory; the #3 you propose seems like a good potential candidate for replacement/modification, as "channeled ability restoring energy fast enough to never end via murdering enemies rapidly enough" is already such a heavily abused mechanic (I'd love an ability that can literally turn an enemy into a Klein bottle (and make the resulting bottle slowly rotate through itself), but that would be a Hek of a burden to impose on the art team (and rather messy to boot)); I suspect a more blatant visual pun involving knots would be more likely.

Maybe "Dynamica's Unknot" (for those who don't know, "The Unknot" is just a circle), lifting enemies in the targeted area into an airborne ring, perhaps? Then have an augment turn it into an actual knot (raise hands for "Dynamica's Knot" and "Dynamica's Un-Unknot") and deal a DoT to the affected enemies? (or, even better, specifically have them take damage when they slam into each other (because they're not in absolutely mathematically perfect alignment with the knot)).

The proposed ability #4 augment is sort of stepping on Banshee's toes, and I'm not sure how well it goes with the primary effect (which steps on Nyx's toes): if the enemy have already started loudly murdering one another, silencing your own weapons as well seems... excessive?

I hope my critique was constructive; I am absolutely a fan of your concept, fellow Tenno.

[MysticalOctopus]

Thanks for the feedback! Addressing the points:

 

- RE: Ability 3: Yeah, this was the one that I was the least happy with in design. If I keep it as an aura or similar, I can probably squeeze in a topology joke about the overuse of toruses (tori?) in topoplogy.

- #4 Augment: I think I might remove the increased drops section from the normal ability, and make it the augment.

- #1 Augment: I think if I changed it to "Each enemy that is killed by this ability drops a health orb" it would be more balanced.

[SpoonyBrad]

4 hours ago, MysticalOctopus said:

Thanks for the feedback! Addressing the points:

 

- RE: Ability 3: Yeah, this was the one that I was the least happy with in design. If I keep it as an aura or similar, I can probably squeeze in a topology joke about the overuse of toruses (tori?) in topoplogy.

- #4 Augment: I think I might remove the increased drops section from the normal ability, and make it the augment.

- #1 Augment: I think if I changed it to "Each enemy that is killed by this ability drops a health orb" it would be more balanced.

Happy to PEACH to the choir, Tenno (man, but that was a bad pun).

A topology joke (please not the one involving a coffee mug and a donut; it's been done to death and I'm afraid most players wouldn't get it anyway) might work too; the effect would not need to be much different than the idea I proposed (just a different name/description). I might be on board with the idea of "Dynamica's Coffee Cup" ("A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems", so a nested joke), just because I can't resist that sort of thing (and it'd be a nice Easter egg for the portion of the players who did get it), or if you come up with an alternate suggestion for either the ability itself or its description, I'd love to hear it. (And yes, technically in classical Latin, that would be "tori", though the math world can be just a smidge different; there's also the confusion potential with Torii (the big red gates at the entrances to Shinto temples), though a pun on that would not be entirely out of line).

For the proposed #4, I think moving the increased drops to an augment would be an improvement, and no longer having the silenced effect (sure, some mathematicians are quiet, but some are very, very loud, and it is kinda overkill to both make enemies fight each other and also make your own weapons silent).

For #1, I agree; dropping health just from damaging enemies is a bit much, so either making it a chance or only on kill would be better, I think. I'd give a partial exception if the frame has neither shields nor health regeneration of its own; in a well-coordinated team, the other players could protect the nerdy mathematician and benefit from the health recovery enough to make it a bit OP, but soloing higher level content would be tricky. Thematically (and themes are sort of what drive the warframes), though, I think it makes more sense to have a lot of shields but very little health or armor.

Your draft idea was already excellent (something tells me that it wasn't posted until you'd put a lot of thought and revision into it); I think the overall concept is sort of like Oberon: a mix of crowd control and team support (only nerdier!). I'd be delighted to see this implemented in game.

[MysticalOctopus]

All right, I edited the frame. I like this new version of the Ability 3 better.

[SpoonyBrad]

I do believe I have been out-punned, sir or madame; "Knot to be" is a killer. Please, DE, make this happen.

[SpoonyBrad]

Oh, and I liked the revised ability concept too. Forgot to mention that part.

[SpoonyBrad]

On 9/24/2017 at 12:22 AM, MysticalOctopus said:

 

Passive (Dynamica’s Theorem of Ballistic Rebound): Your projectiles bounce off objects and enemies a number of times equal to one plus your rank; however, with each successive rebound they deal less damage.

One concern I would have with this as a passive (why yes, I am something of an insomniac): for weapons with a high rate of fire, this could be severely lag-inducing to track, at least if the host is on an iffy internet connection. I tend to setup my loadouts for what makes thematic sense with the frame, so I wouldn't use something like a Boar with Dynamica, but if someone did choose to, that could get ugly. Maybe put a limit on how frequently it could trigger, so that it favors deliberation over spamming tons of shots? That would also help reinforce the theme of the frame, at least in my book.

Edited September 25, 2017 by SpoonyBrad
Hit "submit" before I'd finished typing

[SpoonyBrad]

Actually had an idea occur to me in the wee hours of the morning today: "Dynamica's Pet Theorem" (in case it wasn't obvious, I am a total sucker for puns ("pet theory"), especially when sleep deprived) - an active ability that essentially duplicates your active pet (be it sentinel or companion) as a specter temporarily, or as a channeled ability (I lean towards channeled, but dropping a pseudo-specter with the "hold position" status and a definite time limit would also be cool). It's an ability no other frame has and enhances the ability to control an area (especially if my suggestion regarding putting a cooldown on the Theorem of Ballistic Rebound is taken, making Dynamica favor slow firing, heavy damage weapons like sniper rifles, having an extra pet around to trash the trash mobs would be valuable). (While on the subject, I'd love to be able to pop out a Banach–Tarski knife, but that joke's way too obscure to make explicit)

I haven't thought of a well-balanced augment to go with it, but perhaps somebody could chime in.

[MysticalOctopus]

A bit of a late reply, but I updated the passive, changed the fourth ability and added in the Pet Theorem augment.

[MysticalOctopus]

Update: Added questline.

Edited October 12, 2017 by MysticalOctopus