Let's Drop Convergence Orbs for Focus 2.0

[Acos]

Convergence Orbs are a game mechanic tied to Focus 2.0 which spawn on somewhat fixed intervals on enemy spawn points and are REQUIRED for the player to grab if they want to level up their Focus trees. They are mostly an annoying aspect of the focus system and break the flow of gameplay by requiring you to drop everything that you are doing in order to go seek out the convergence orb and then return to your objective, except that now you have the added pressure of killing as many enemies as you possibly can during its' brief duration. They can become more frustrating during defense or excavation missions in that they have a tendency to spawn near the end of the wave cycle and then get eaten up waiting for enemies to send another wave after you.

With Focus having a daily cap and Focus 2.0 having a dramatically increased demand for affinity to max out the new abilities I feel that convergence orbs are an antiquated game mechanic that no longer needs to be part of Warframe and would like to see them removed entirely. This would allow the more casual player more access to the new Focus 2.0 powers and alleviate veteran players from having to take advantage of stealth kill bonus mechanics to more quickly max out their daily standing every single day. Instead the player should just gain affinity for their chosen school based on the lens' they have equipped for every point of affinity they earn while in the mission up to their daily cap. Gameplay would be more fluid without having to periodically go hunt down an orb, and Focus 2.0 costs might not seem so unobtainable and daunting as access to Focus 2.0 affinity would become more naturally accessible. 

Thanks for listening, DE~ 

[PlatDaddyPrime]

Yeah, it really breaks the immersion for me since it is the only way to reliably get any focus at all and even do anything further with any of the focus trees.

That and the "pools" they still get way too damn expensive with how many ranks abilities have now.

[HyokaChan]

Bump, because I agree and this deserves attention. Don't believe for a second DE will pay attention to this though.

[Aldisun]

I agree with you OP. I find the convergence orbs very tedious, frustrating, and distracting. Getting focus shouldn’t be so irritating, especially when we need so much of it.

[Kisumaki]

While i do agree i doubt DE would please us.

[Zanefold]

They really need to get rid of that convergence orb, its very frustrating and given the amount of focus needed to actually unlock stuff I think that its safe to say they can do without it with focus 2.0. Hopefully they will come to that conclusion soon, I'm trying so hard to acquire the daily focus limit everyday and its annoying having to leave an objective to get an item that lets you get focus only for a temporary amount of time. Its funny when your doing a defense and everyone abandons it just to get the convergence orb down the other end of the area. Its like "Hey fellow tenno brothers and sisters, lets kick some butt and protect this... oh something shinny! Lets get it. Peace dude/thing we are supposed to protect!" lol Please please please get rid of this silly thing or at the very least make it so that you can still get focus without it and only make it a buff. At the very least that way I could see it pop up and choose to save my friend who went down as opposed to being like "Sorry dude... you understand... the focus orb came up so... yeah you can pick yourself up lol.

 

PS It has to look really funny for new people if they are in a match with 3 other vets doing something like a defense and all of a sudden vets leave the objective behind so they can get the orb that the new people can't see lol.

[(PSN)vinster]

Upvoted and couldn't agree more.  Of all the 'what grinds my gears' aspects of Warframe, I would say this ranks near the top.

I believe this was sounded out way back in Focus 1.0 with both PC and console players, but as others have mentioned, I have no hope of this happening...

[Zanefold]

On 10/22/2017 at 8:12 AM, HyokaChan said:

Bump, because I agree and this deserves attention. Don't believe for a second DE will pay attention to this though.

 

On 10/22/2017 at 12:31 PM, Kisumaki said:

While i do agree i doubt DE would please us.

Come on guys, you know that they listen to people and make changes that the community feel need to be addressed. They are not EA or Ubisoft, they wouldn't be where they are today if they didn't listen to the community. I can understand if they don't make a change on something because it could completely break a mechanic or they want there to be a challenge so that the reward is that much better. In this case its immersion breaking and completely unnecessary and ruins the flow of a match in my opinion.

[Maugre]

They seem to exist for the sole purpose of making grinding just slightly more irritating. Removing them would simply be a QoL fix.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Maugre

[mazzinia]

Totally agreeing.

When they added the orbs it turned too much time consuming ( considering all the rest ) to actually really keep farming focus. People have a life aside this game...

[Orfeusz]

I 100% agree with you, we should obtain good amount of focus just by playing game, making mission and so on... + in the current state it take too much time to max all focus trees or even just one.. 

[[DE]Rebecca]

We'll be discussing this on tomorrow's stream!

[Brynslustafir]

Just now, [DE]Rebecca said:

We'll be discussing this on tomorrow's stream!

Yes please.

[Archwizard]

Just now, [DE]Rebecca said:

We'll be discussing this on tomorrow's stream!

I don't know how to feel about this - I want to be hopeful that they'll get dropped, but after today's hotfix it feels like there's no plans to...

[Cyborg-Rox]

12 hours ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

We'll be discussing this on tomorrow's stream!

I've made numerous well-reasoned topics in the past arguing about this, glad to see it's finally being addressed.

Edited November 3, 2017 by Cyborg-Rox

[Orfeusz]

2 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

We'll be discussing this on tomorrow's stream!

Wow, you are here ! OMG ! Yes, DE opened their eyes ! They listen to us ! xD Btw. You added me to friends on your warframe account for some ungodly reason.. or maybe you just accept every invitation.. <_< No, I am not your psycho-fan, but I must say that you are doing good job ! And I think you are better than @[DE]Megan 

[AdunSaveMe]

10 minutes ago, Archwizard said:

I don't know how to feel about this - I want to be hopeful that they'll get dropped, but after today's hotfix it feels like there's no plans to...

Given how other stream discussions have gone in the past (and the comments on Scott's twitter, who seems very resistant to removing it) I find it difficult to believe it will be fruitful. Often things have been brought up on devstreams and quickly buried.

There is no reason to have the orb. With it, there's still insane affinity farming (which you actually need in order to make use of the orb). Without it, insane affinity farming might be SLIGHTLY better, but you won't be punishing people who are playing the game normally.

Honestly, they seem glued to the idea that focus needs to take months to grind. It should not. It isn't important enough or impactful enough and doesn't change gameplay enough for that to be worth it. On top of this, the grind is designed for people to farm affinity efficiently for days to make progress, which punishes people who want to play the game normally, since they have no way to earn it without mindless Akkad spam.

And then you throw a randomly spawning booster orb into the mix? No, there's no point. It's just annoying, and it's holding the system back, just like balancing around the most hardcore of affinity farmers is holding the system back.

Why it needs to be based on affinity to begin with is beyond me.

Edited November 2, 2017 by AdunSaveMe

[leadwolf1]

I understand what you are saying, however you bring up a point that I think they should tip in veterans and primary game players favor. if you are casual ok have a good experience , however if you do not bounce around from game to game and are focusing on playing warframe there should be an extra gifting or receiving of special mods or something, and if you want it you should have to play for that long. not just log and leave or let  your player sit or go play 2 to 5 other games and only visit this game once a week for play time (other than logging for reward). example would be maybe give us plains standing  refresh 3 times a day, and casual players get once . for they only play once in a while anyway. or create a mod and award it  like the infamous primed chamber, give it out to players that have a certain amount of hours played and no resale allowed so if someone wants it they need to focus on warframe more than other games they play, call it a dedication award.

[Kinetos]

6 minutes ago, leadwolf1 said:

I understand what you are saying, however you bring up a point that I think they should tip in veterans and primary game players favor. if you are casual ok have a good experience , however if you do not bounce around from game to game and are focusing on playing warframe there should be an extra gifting or receiving of special mods or something, and if you want it you should have to play for that long. not just log and leave or let  your player sit or go play 2 to 5 other games and only visit this game once a week for play time (other than logging for reward). example would be maybe give us plains standing  refresh 3 times a day, and casual players get once . for they only play once in a while anyway. or create a mod and award it  like the infamous primed chamber, give it out to players that have a certain amount of hours played and no resale allowed so if someone wants it they need to focus on warframe more than other games they play, call it a dedication award.

Daily Tribute already exists and gives out primed mods.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Kinetos

[Maugre]

26 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

We'll be discussing this on tomorrow's stream!

I love you

[leadwolf1]

1 minute ago, Kinetos said:

Daily Tribute already exists an gives out primed mods.

I am talking beyond the daily log for anyone can log and go play other games.

[Zarlockk]

Never thought about that but I do agree. In fact, I find focus farming extremely grindy right now. Unless using Equinox sleep, it is close to impossible to reach the cap. And even then affinity booster is needed to do it a lot faster. AB more than double the amount you get per run. %affinity turned into focus needs to be increased for all lens types imo.

[lookinerator]

Totally agree.

Currently there are no many ways to progress through Focus but to do Adaro farm or Hydron with Banshee.

But  do not forget that Adaro farm relies on the fact that you gain 500% AND Convergence Orb to boost a percentage of affinity converted to focus.

Without these 2 things gaining enough focus is nearly impossible during normal gameplay.

Let's say someone plays 2-3 hours a day after work/school and does not do Adaro / Hydron farm with Banshee - they will gain 20k-30k tops - not nearly enough, everyone should be able to reach daily cap in that amount of time.

Basing Focus on Affinity is fine, thing is numbers are just not there.

And if you'll say that Adaro farm will be even more rewarding if conversion percentages are boosted, well, power-farmers will reach daily cap no matter what, but those that don't do power-farm will be able to progress through Focus system.

Now they simply can't.

P.S. And do not start with "Focus is an end-game system" argument.

There is nothing end-game in it - maxing it easy, but tedious and annoying. And daily cap exists to ensure that power-farmers will not max it in a couple of days.

[PsiWarp]

Hmm, considering today's change to the orb it's likely to be staying as a pickup. I hope there are better, incentivized ways to earn Focus outside of Affinity mongering and more in line with what the Focus system is all about now: the Operator and our choice of School.

Specifically, make the choice of School matter in our day-to-day Focus farming. Following the philosophies and implied playstyles of the Great Schools, player actions outside of earning Affinity that align with said styles should also contribute toward earning Focus points. However, don't lock this Focus gain to the specific schools, instead providing neutral points toward any of the Lenses we equipped on our Warframes, weapons and Amps. The key goal being to unbind Focus point gain from Affinity (at least, for these actions below).

For example:

• Madurai as primary school - gun kills, Operator Amp-assisted kills, and Operator ability-assisted kills gain Focus points.
• Vazarin as primary school - teammates protected (players, AI and companions, giving them buffs like dmg reduction and invulnerability), teammates healed/revived, and objectives protected gain Focus points.
• Naramon as primary school - melee kills, finisher kills, and executing melee Stance combos on enemies gain Focus points.
• Unairu as primary school - team damage taken, enemy damage resisted (via armor, damage reduction, and invulnerability periods), and Status Effects inflicted gain Focus points.
• Zenurik as primary school - Warframe/Operator ability-assisted kills, melee channeling kills, and enemies debuffed (CC and other negative effects) gain Focus points.

What this means is that if I equipped an assortment of Lenses on my loadout, lets say all 5 schools, and I made Madurai my primary Focus... I would gain Focus points for performing gun kills, Operator Amp-assisted kills, and Operator ability-assisted kills toward all 5 schools due to me playing with my Warframe, weapons, and my Operator (his Amp gilded and Lens-ed). These actions are "focused" toward certain types of playstyles that are relatively common in everyday Warframe gameplay across most gamemodes, letting us enjoy the game while also earning Focus doing what we do best.

How does Convergence fit into this? It would also amplify the gain from each school's required actions.

[AdunSaveMe]

28 minutes ago, PsiWarp said:

• Madurai as primary school - gun kills, Operator Amp-assisted kills, and Operator ability-assisted kills gain Focus points.
• Vazarin as primary school - teammates protected (players, AI and companions, giving them buffs like dmg reduction and invulnerability), teammates healed/revived, and objectives protected gain Focus points.
• Naramon as primary school - melee kills, finisher kills, and executing melee Stance combos on enemies gain Focus points.
• Unairu as primary school - team damage taken, enemy damage resisted (via armor, damage reduction, and invulnerability periods), and Status Effects inflicted gain Focus points.
• Zenurik as primary school - Warframe/Operator ability-assisted kills, melee channeling kills, and enemies debuffed (CC and other negative effects) gain Focus points.

Alternatively, have ALL of these grant focus to ALL schools, with a bonus if it matches your school's theme.

That way you're not roped into only ever doing melee channeling with debuffs to get focus if you happened to pick Zenurik, but are still rewarded for specifically doing so.

Edited November 3, 2017 by AdunSaveMe