[Updated] QoL Improvements/Suggestions for PoE

[(PSN)Zero_029]

Just to say it.

Thank you for Plains of Eidolon.
It feels like a sequel to be honest.
My friends & I are loving it.

However, there are some QoL changes that Warframe has needed & PoE shines a irrefutable light on them.

I'll be adding/updating this list IF any more issues arise/get resolved during PoE.

Additionally, there is that balance between Fun & Work. Which Warframe has mostly gotten right until PoE.
(Forgive my formatting, I'm using my phone.)

 

1. Universal Vaccuum

At PoE launch a minor 3m Vacuum was added but honestly, Vacuum has needed to go away as a mod & become standard/part of gameplay for awhile now.

I feel PoE marks a good time to retire the mod & give Warframes & Operators Universal Vacuum for all content.

Not only does thos reduce player stress but it makes Companion choice less punishing & encourages folks to consider Kubrows & Kavats.

This is long overdue for even pre-PoE Warframe.

Lets just trim the fat on this.

 

2. Focus 2.5 & beyond

Right now, what was once a fun addition to Warframe & a form of "Talent Tree" is now no longer fun.
Even after the economy changes from PC PoE to Console...the xp gain & requirement is...frightening & it discouraging to newer players.

What was excitement for PoE is now dread amongst my friends & I as the focus cost (and requirement for Brilliant Eidolon Shards) is just astoundingly high.

My suggestions for Focus...

I've somewhat revamped this/found a more to the point explaination.

Focus needs as the saying goes:
"To have the fat trimmed." 

Remove Len's on Weapons. 
Only allow Warframes to equip the lens.
Rank 30 Weapons, Companions should now no longer absorb any Affinity. They are capped. All Affinity henseforth goes to the Warframe & a percentage of that go towards Focus.

Remove the school limitation on focus & lens.
Focus xp should JUST be Focus xp. Now players to distribute it as they see fit.

But, it would be a boom to have different tiers of Lens.

Increase the base Affinity conversion rate. 
Somewhere between10%-25% of Affinity depending on the lens equipped.

At early Focus levels this will allow players to unlock nodes at a reasonable pace & as a result players will actually be able to see, notice, & feel the difference in operator/Warframe gameplay due to Focus' benefits.

Which in turn will push/encourage players into desiring to persue more upgrades, way-bounds, & etc.

For the sake of conversation we'll go with my system...
So lets say that under my system a Greater Lens grants a guaranteed Focus conversion of 25% (Mot under the effects of a Convergence Orb) towards of all affinity gained.
(Note All Affinity gained is going to the Warframe. No more splitting it across Frame, Weapon, etc))

This flat rate may seem high at first but it makes focus xp gain feel tangible, makes running any form of content feel like progress, & makes the high xp costs of focus upgrades & waybounds further down the line feel fair & legitimately obtainable.

Focus hence encourges gameplay in all areas.

Eidolon Shards
I think it's great that they convert to xp. 
But considering the sheer amount of effort required to get Brilliant Eidolon shards is insane, the xp conversion rate needs to be dramatically higher.

Making them a requirement to unlock Way Bounds is downright cruel.

They should be used to UPGRADE Waybounds past rank 3.

This allows players to experience Waybounds & then should they choose to put in the effort seek out Eidolons to grow in power.

As it currently stands, for the average/everyday/standard player (Those who play regularly & clear content without many issues). Eidolons are already brutal & not very fun to fight.

So requiring them to be killed basically flawlessly so that you can get a shard...to unlock abilities designed to allow you to be able to take them down in the first place...is...not fun.
My next topic however suggests a fair fix.

 

3. Operator Movement & Combat
I get that Operators are suppose to be different from Warframes.
But kind of like how the Animus in Assassin's Creed allowed it's users to learn skills. Operators should be the same.

To put it bluntly, Operators need a Parkour 2.0 of their own. 
They should move like Warframes. Rolling, Sliding, Blocking (not to the extent of a Warfrane however impo.)

They should have shields & it's long past due that they should be able to use Mods. Period.
Mods would open up Focus schools to be more about Void abilities, supporting both frames/Operators/teammates, fulfilling combat roles & completing Objectives.

Warframes can Walk Kick & Wall Run. So should Operators.
Warframes can Slide & Roll so should Operators.
Warframes can ledge grab, so should Operators.
Warframes can bullet jump, Void Dash should function as a fancy/flashy Bullet Jump imo.

Basic movement also needs to be less clunky. 
Operators should be fluid & smooth like Warframes. Period.

Adding Mods makes Operators significantly more manageable, customizable, & fun.

Typically the Warframe mantra is:
"Want to do ___? Mod for it."

If players want survivable Operators, then they should be able to mod an Operator version of Vitality & Redirection, Steel Fiber, etc.

Want more Void Beam, Void Mode, & Blast? Mod Flow.
Stronger Beam & Blast? Mod Intensify.

It's basic how to Warframe 101 imo.

This opens Focus to be more about the Void based powers.
Vazarin can focus on healing & etc.
Zeneruk can focus on resource generation.
Madurai on DPS.
Etc, etc.

Focus schools become more I daresay magical.
While Mods do what they have done since day 1 of Warframe. Customize, improve, & diversify.

 

4. Archwing in PoE

Why does this require charges? Fishing is needed for so much in PoE, why does Orokin tech meant for deep space need Fish Oil?

Why do we have charges to use our own tools?

Archwing should have a summon/cast time (to prevent abuse mid-combat). Not limited uses/charges.

Addendum: Never have we needed charges on other planets. Take underwater gameplay on Uranus for example.

 

5. Standing with the Quills

So the requirements to rank up & craft items from the Quills is excessive.

Seeing as the very point of the Quills is to make gear to defeat Eidolons...requiring players to defeat Eidolons to rank up is...well to put it bluntly wrong.

I admit there is no sentient to challenge players between the Volvalyst & Teralyst so a middle tier solution seems out of reach.

Much like with the Way-Bound Focus nodes, requiring a "Perfect" Eidolon kill is too much.

Content should be challenging. The grind for the Quills exceeds challenge. It's just plain tedious for the sake of being tedious/time consuming.

As I looked at the blueprint requirements, along with the Standing Sacrifice requirements. I just shook my head.

Like Focus costs & much of the economy aspects of PoE Quills standing needs to be looked at and retuned.

At bare minimum, the sacrifices shouldn't require any Eidolon drops until the player is properly geared/supplied from the Quills enough to consistently take down/have a fighting chance at taking down an Eidolon "Flawlessly".

That's all I got for now.

 

6. Fishing & Ocean Fishing

Weirdly, Fishing when fishing players have to swap bait & spears often. Yet, whenever we switch everything resets & needs to be requipped/selected.

This mainly applies to bait. It's a minor issue but very irritating.

Not much to suggest here. Bait should stay selected when changing spears.

Fishing Lakes, Ponds, Rivers, & etc need some sort of appearance on the map. Even if it's just a little fish icon once a player discovers them. Fishing hotspots should have a steamy fish.

Right now locating proper fishing spots is kind of annoying.

Ocean fishing could use some love.

Currently there are no true good areas by the coast that "look" designed for fishing. A few small rocks but not far out enough to allow tolerable/proper range for "Hot Spots". Overall ocean fishing isn't very fun due to how the game forces the player to be in really bad positions for spear throwing.

There should fishing boats/platforms we can summon/craft/place for ocean fishing.

 

7. Bounty Rewards

(This has somewhat been resolved.)

The Bounty reward pool is WAY to oversaturated.

Having common mods, a couple thousand credits, 100 or less Endo as rewards is very discouraging.

In my opinion a quick fix is to reduce the loot pool but have rewards that matter for the player at their present progression point. IE: Rewards that scale/have drop rates that vary depending on equipment & progression.

For example:

Level 5-15:

10,000 Credits in addition to one of the below rewards:

- 500 Endo

- Lith Relic + 25 Void Traces

- Either: 300 or 500 of either: Plastids, Polymer, Circuits, or 1-3 Morphics

- Choice between: Gara Part Blueprint or PoE Set Mod (Augur, Vigilante, etc)

 

Level 10-30:

25,000 Credits in addition to one of the below rewards:

- 1000 Endo or Ayatan Treasure

- Meso Relic + 50 Void Traces

- Either: 300 Oxium, 2 Gallium, 2 Neurodes

- Either: 5 Cetus Wisp, 1 Exceptional Sentient Core

- Choice between: Gara Part Blueprint or PoE Set Mod (Augur, Vigilante, etc)

 

Level 20-40

50,000 Credits in addition to one of the below rewards:

- PoE Set Mod (Augur, Vigilante, etc)

- Focus Lens (of the Player's Choice. Already built.)

- Neo Relic + 75 Void Traces

- Either: 1000 Oxium, 5 Neuro Sensors, 5 Orokin Cells, 1 Nitain Extract

- Either: 5 Cetus Wisp, 1 Flawless Sentient Core

 

Level 30-50

75,000 Credits in addition to one of the below rewards:

- PoE Set Mod (Augur, Vigilante, etc)

- Axi Relic + 100 Void Traces

- Eidolon Focus Lens (of the Player's Choice. Already built.)

- Either: 1000-3000 Kuva, 2 Nitain Extract, 5-10 Synthula

- Either: 5 Breath of the Eidolon or 2-3 Eidolon Shards

 

Level 40-60

100,000 Credits in addition to one of the below rewards:

- Eidolon Focus Lens (of the Player's Choice. Already built.)

- Either: 3500-5000 Kuva, 3 Nitain Extract, or 10 Synthula

- Either: 5 Breath of the Eidolon, 5 Eidolon Shard, or 1 Brilliant Eidolon Shard

Just to clarify. When I say "Either". I am saying that the Bounty Board should should show 1 of the rewards listed. NOT all of them.

While not perfect a reward pool like the above creates & fosters motivation, makes bounties rewarding, properly rewards the difficulty of the Bounty, & offers a slower path/window of progression for all players.

 

8. Operator Animations

I saw another thread on this. But a nice & small QoL change would be an Operator animation toggle.

The hunched over animation is...horrible.

Perhaps we can equip some Frame animations? Ash, Excalibur, Mirage, Rhino come to mind.

Heck, some animation options we could purchase would be nice too.

 

9. Grineer/Enemy Detection/Aggro Radius

The range/radius of enemy detection desperately needs tuning.

Especially with Grineer & their encampments start firing at players LONG before players are even in line of sight. They start attacking from 500+ away.

It's very tiring, as players get attacked when they are past/at the limit of Sniper range.

Even animals & rarely Cetus Wisps detect players long before the player can have a chance at getting close/near them.

The aggro/detect needs some retuning.

 

10. Cetus Wisps

I think these are super cool. A unique resource if there ever was one.

However, they need a slightly more reliable method of acquisition. Currently they have set spawns, but spawn in very low numbers. They really need a node/harvest mini-game to catch or a method to spawn them.

 

11. Extraction in PoE

This one may take work.

But there should be a Extract to Orbiter feature in the field.

I would be 100% fine with it being like yhe archwing launcher.

We place a beacon  & Ordis picks us up  or...

We use a beacon then an extraction waypoint (no more than 200-300km away) spawns. After reaching it the player & nearby players at the waypoint extract.

The Saya's vigil already provides this animation so it should be possible.

Also, a Waypoint to Cetus would do wonders as many in the comments have expressed.

 

12. Replay Cetus Intro

Can there be a toggle in options to replay the awesome "Welcome to Cetus" intro we got upon our first visit?

Alot of work went into that & I loved seeing my ship fly in, land, & etc.

 

13. Zaws (& Amps)

Given the standing cost. Zaws & Amps should not be "crafted" in our ship. They should simply be bought & then forged together.

For Zaw's, Hok is a Blacksmith. His wares should be available as he makes them for a living.

No blacksmith has the customer make the item parts then he/she just glues them together.

He should request you have the materials on hand. (Ex: 20 Copperun, 10 Azurite, etc)

Then he make it for you.

The blueprint, then orbitor, then hok system feels bloated.

 

As for Amps. This is "new" tech for our Operators. Why are we making tech we don't understand?

Amps are part the Quills "Secrets" so how can we just run off & make em flawlessly?

Like Hok, the Amp parts should be available immediately upon purchase.

 

14. Arcanes

I think the Cetus Arcane system is just what the doctor ordered.

I expect flak for this but perhaps the old Arcanes could find their way into the current Syndicates?

Possibly as a reward for completing ALL 3 of their daily missions?

Edited December 14, 2017 by (PS4)Zero_029
Updates over time.

[(XBOX)Trippul G]

I'm not terribly far along in the game yet (been playing off and on for a little over a year now, I'm only MR 8 and still haven't even done the Second Dream quest), so most of the stuff you mentioned, I don't really have anything to say about. 

I do however, totally agree about your Archwing comment. It's apparently this ancient bit of adapted Orokin technology, that we've previously always been able to use on demand...just fire up an Archwing mission and off we go. Now, we suddenly need to research a special "launcher" for it before we can use it in the Plains? Why? What's wrong with whatever device we had been using to launch it previously? 

And then to limit its use by making this advanced Orokin technology dependent on fish-based consumables...which can only be obtained in the Plains...not only does it not make any sense, but gameplay-wise, it feels like DE are just gating things off for the sake of gating things off. If we've already got an Archwing, let us use it for Pete's sake. If you're worried about people overusing it in the Plains, give it a cooldown and/or limit its amount of "onboard fuel" so that it can only go for 20 seconds at a time before needing to land and cool down or whatever. Making me spend a consumable that I have to pay for makes the cheapskate in me not want to use the Archwing at all in the Plains, which I'm pretty sure is not the reaction you guys want people to have. 

[(XBOX)CannyJack]

Archwing should be an always-available, no-cost option for travel and combat on the Plains. Trigger it from the gear wheel and leap into the sky. Trigger it again to shut off. No cooldowns, no fuel, no limitations. It's about time for the Archwing to be an actual advantage to the game, don't you think? 

In other words, Digital Extremes: if I want to fly, just let me fly goddammit.

 

[(PSN)marshb863]

The fish stuff makes sense in that Earth has obviously been modified a lot biologicaly, heck, a lot of Orokin tech is biological. It makes sense that resources were created and or modified throughout the gamut of Orokin life. 

Life is the original nanotech!

[(XBOX)CannyJack]

Sure, anything can be justified in the lore -- but there's no valid gameplay justification to hamstring Archwing use in the Plains of Eidolon. 

[(XBOX)Kavriel]

7 hours ago, (Xbox One)CannyJack said:

Sure, anything can be justified in the lore -- but there's no valid gameplay justification to hamstring Archwing use in the Plains of Eidolon. 

Especially when the thing appears out of nowhere whenever you fall into water on some other maps. It has never cost anything to summon before, why now?

 

Also, just having that launcher blueprint from the start of the game before even learning what an archwing is is borderline horse-armor cheese.

[(PSN)Zero_029]

On 11/20/2017 at 12:43 PM, (PS4)marshb863 said:

The fish stuff makes sense in that Earth has obviously been modified a lot biologicaly, heck, a lot of Orokin tech is biological. It makes sense that resources were created and or modified throughout the gamut of Orokin life. 

Life is the original nanotech!

Heh. I suppose you have a point.

But even then...we've never needed it on the other planets.

What about Earth forces it to need some form of fuel/device.

On Uranus & other planets it appears when we fall in water & etc.

[(PSN)Zero_029]

Bump due to all those edits I made.

I hope DE sees this. 

[(PSN)w1drose]

On 11/19/2017 at 9:23 AM, (Xbox One)CannyJack said:

Archwing should be an always-available, no-cost option for travel and combat on the Plains. Trigger it from the gear wheel and leap into the sky. Trigger it again to shut off. No cooldowns, no fuel, no limitations. It's about time for the Archwing to be an actual advantage to the game, don't you think? 

In other words, Digital Extremes: if I want to fly, just let me fly goddammit.

 

Great idea, but knowing DE, they'll ignore it.

[(PSN)Zero_029]

On 11/19/2017 at 5:23 PM, (Xbox One)CannyJack said:

Archwing should be an always-available, no-cost option for travel and combat on the Plains. Trigger it from the gear wheel and leap into the sky. Trigger it again to shut off. No cooldowns, no fuel, no limitations. It's about time for the Archwing to be an actual advantage to the game, don't you think? 

In other words, Digital Extremes: if I want to fly, just let me fly goddammit.

 

The more I read this the more I agree.

I also understand the development side.

They want to prevent Archwing Abuse, but at the same time...the enemies can already shoot Archwings out the air with frightening precision, so we can abuse them if we even wanted too.

Hell we're lucky to run away in an Archwing. The moment one gets summoned the Grineer go all Diehard on us. So the Archwing should just be free imo.

@DE Rebecca

Where are you?

[(PSN)Zero_029]

Shameless bump

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_IGN]

-The load time while transitioning between Cetus and PoE is unbearably long....

-As soon as we finish a bounty mission the mission end screen should pop up with our rewards and stuff instead of having to hoof it back to the gate.   Do we even get our rewards and mastery xp if we quit after finishing??   When your out on the plains they toss more missions at you so its really confusing what you are suppose to do.   Some people want to leave and take on new bounties but others would like to stay and screw around,  but if the people who want to leave goto the gate then it warps everyone back there!!    So Bounties shoud have more of a hard ending.   The group should be disbanded,  then the people who want to leave can and the people who want to stay can....

 

-When you are out on the plains the gate for Cetus should be marked on your minimap AT ALL TIMES.   

 

-I wish things in this game were better explained.   There are vendors in Cetus who have things I have no idea what the purpose is or where im suppose to go to get the items it takes to get them.   Your given the Kubrow quest line super early on but you really cant do it until you can start farming Nano Spores which isnt until Saturn.... So I finally got there and baught the power core for the incubator and stuff made a Kubrow...mission over....the end....   Jack squat about how Kubrows will die and how to stabilize their DNA,  Nothing about breeding,  nothing about making Kavats.     External information is crappy information..       The news feeds are awesome,  you click on an article and it opens the browser and shows you a web page with information.   It would be nice if you went in and linked everything in the codex to a wiki page or something and or youtube vid tutorials. 

[(XBOX)FOCHOCLTstrfish]

The only thing I want changed/added is quill standing change, absolutely hate everything about quills right now.

[(PSN)DurianX]

Show the extraction location marker on map or mini map when you complete a bounty. Just like in normal missions.

Edited December 2, 2017 by (PS4)DurianX

[(XBOX)Dark Shidara]

Agreed; Quill standing looks like it was just implemented 10 minutes before the release of PoE, it's like:

Onkko: "Hey Tenno wanna Kill a Sentient?" 

Tenno: "Hell Yeah! Teach Me! Make me Powerful!" 

Onkko: "Go Kill a Sentient and Bring me the Spoils" 

Tenno: "The Fu..."

[(PSN)Zero_029]

On 12/2/2017 at 7:26 PM, (Xbox One)FOCHOCLTstrfish said:

The only thing I want changed/added is quill standing change, absolutely hate everything about quills right now.

Quill Standing & Focus is overkill atm.

[(PSN)haseo_the_adept]

The easiest way to find your way back to cetus? Look for the big sentient corpse thats always when looking towards cetus to the right of it, look to the left of that and theres the big orokin tower visible from every area of the plains, height of player allowing of course for line of sight, and just slightly to the left of that is the gate to cetus

Edited December 6, 2017 by (PS4)haseo_the_adept
*sigh* language used as descriptive not being allowed

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_IGN]

Discovered I could not get to Lv2 Standing without fishing and mining so was forced to start doing those things.   I fished in the long thin "river/stream" thats straight ahead of the Cetus gate.  I fished in some of the smaller ponds.   I also fished along the ocean. 

Overall I had alot of fun fishing but there were two huge drawbacks.  The first is the freaking constant assault by infested unless you find their stupid spawn pod and take it out(or more than one).  Grineer patrols arent that bad but if you get bored and run a random mission out on the plains then it feels like it takes forever for them to leave you alone again.  Second huge drawback is just the reflections off the water making it damn near impossible to see anything under the surface,  and the natural lighting at night making the water pitch black.   The shimmer on the water is a major eyesore.  Even if you have your back to the sun or its the middle of the night its tough to see into the water.  Being higher up helps.   Trying to fish at ground level from the shore is extremely difficult and for along of the ocean thats your only option.   

I turned all my little fish into materials and I donated all the medium and large fish I had caught which got me 2k in standing to show how much I fished.   I was using the Lanzo spear.   No baits,  no dyes.   

All that fishing and mining I did took real life hours.  I can probably get 3k standing in 15 minutes just from running the first two bounties (Im Mastery 8).   And most of that is just standing around with my thumb up my butt waiting for fish to show up or the right time of day so I can see into the water.   Its a time sink and not the fun kind.    I spent the majority of my time fishing but I have turned in all the rocks I have gotten from two mining trips now and compared to fishing... I think mining gems should be worth 10x the standing as they are now and thats just to break even with fishing.   It would be nice if both of those were then doubled.   Or find some way to make the time spent doing the not fun activities multiply how much standing you get.     You fish or mine for materials or standing and its just to slow at the newbie end.   I want to be out shooting faces and slicing bodies in half not squinting at water for 2 hours or drawing circles around rocks. 

I feel like the non fish wildlife really got the short end of the stick with this expansion.   The fisherman NPC should be changed to fish and wildlife.   Birds, small/medium/large game should have been things we could hunt for standing too.   We could make special bows or guns to hunt animals with.

--In terms of getting around the plains of eidolon I think our tenno should get hover boards or hoverbikes that cruise along at ground level.  A piece of gear you only have to craft once, that goes in your gear wheel, that you can pull out whenever you want or need.  

--I am not cool with the cooldown on bounties.  We should be able to run those non stop for standing.   Put a cap on how much we can earn a day or whatever but whats up with letting us do them for 0 standing?   Even when I flip flop between the first two bounties I can lose out on standing.   Besides alerts.   Every other type of mission in the game lets you do them repeatedly.    Im trying to raise my standing and its just taking waaaaay to long.   Even though I want to be doing Cetus bounties I get sick of waiting and go back to my ship and run alerts/missions that actually helps me.

-There is one mission segment on PoE that is on the same level of annoyance to me as Spy missions....  You get tasked with finding 3 supply boxs and your only clue is a giant search area.   I've even tried using my normal scanners to look around for their highlights.   I have seen the clock run down on that event a few times as nobody in the entire group could find the damn things.    That mission segment needs changed.    Highlight them on the map but make them defended or give some audio clues when we are near/far from them.  (And then also think about totally reworking spy missions...)

[(PSN)haseo_the_adept]

As for the caches now that plague star has opened the cave systems, sometimes the cache will load down in the caves, sometimes 2 above ground amd 1 down below sometimes all 3 down below sometimes 3 above ground, who knows its a guessing game now

[(PSN)Zero_029]

Bump due to updates

[(PSN)NicolaiBM]

I'll be honest, only read until your suggestion on focus and I think you need to jump by the wikia and learn how focus is calculated in warframe. The weapon focus lens is capable of generating far more focus points than if installed on weapons and if you could only install it on a warframe, you only viable option of farming focus points would be something like banshee on hydron, which is horribly inefficient. Done right your 250k focus points is earned in 2-3 exterminates on Sedna, done wrong and you're sitting with a banshee on hydron for hours.

As for the rest of your post, I'll leave it up to you to go through it and revisit some of the points, I'm sure there's lots of suggestions to make the game easier and reduce the grind.

[(PSN)Zero_029]

17 hours ago, (PS4)NicolaiBM said:

I'll be honest, only read until your suggestion on focus and I think you need to jump by the wikia and learn how focus is calculated in warframe. The weapon focus lens is capable of generating far more focus points than if installed on weapons and if you could only install it on a warframe, you only viable option of farming focus points would be something like banshee on hydron, which is horribly inefficient. Done right your 250k focus points is earned in 2-3 exterminates on Sedna, done wrong and you're sitting with a banshee on hydron for hours.

As for the rest of your post, I'll leave it up to you to go through it and revisit some of the points, I'm sure there's lots of suggestions to make the game easier and reduce the grind.

The point of my Focus suggestion is to "trim the fat" & simplify Focus.

We can both agree that Focus has ALOT going on in it. PoE has introduced me to swarms of new players & Focus has consistently been a point of confusion, & serious turn off for them.

I sat down & explained it to many folks. But the grind for it, the quills, just ran them off.

Don't get me wrong they weren't lazy players. But the grind was too steep.

That said Focus needs ALOT of trimming. We have too many Lens'.

Should just be a universal Experience/Affinity pool of (PC recently had Pools become universal/shared. So we're getting there.)

While yes you can equip 3 lens at the present. It feels overdone when 1 should suffice.

Focus should encourage gameplay, and the warframe is our character. So focus should promote playing as said character. Not force you into 1 locked loadout (if you're maximizing focus xp).

 

As I said once on the forums. Banshee is helpful but lets be blunt.

Banshee on Hydron is a "cheese"/"exploit".

I'll play Devil's Advocate.

If say...tomorrow DE patched Banshee & Hydron so Banshee's Quake didn't wipe the map. EVERY veteran player would immediately start revolting for a Focus xp change because without that exploit the mountain for Focus is too steep.

 

Now none of my suggestions are meant to make the game instant gratification.

They are meant to reduce is some areas, while simplify others.

Edited December 14, 2017 by (PS4)Zero_029
Typos

[(PSN)NicolaiBM]

On December 14, 2017 at 8:56 AM, (PS4)Zero_029 said:

The point of my Focus suggestion is to "trim the fat" & simplify Focus.

We can both agree that Focus has ALOT going on in it. PoE has introduced me to swarms of new players & Focus has consistently been a point of confusion, & serious turn off for them.

I sat down & explained it to many folks. But the grind for it, the quills, just ran them off.

Don't get me wrong they weren't lazy players. But the grind was too steep.

That said Focus needs ALOT of trimming. We have too many Lens'.

Should just be a universal Experience/Affinity pool of (PC recently had Pools become universal/shared. So we're getting there.)

While yes you can equip 3 lens at the present. It feels overdone when 1 should suffice.

Focus should encourage gameplay, and the warframe is our character. So focus should promote playing as said character. Not force you into 1 locked loadout (if you're maximizing focus xp).

 

As I said once on the forums. Banshee is helpful but lets be blunt.

Banshee on Hydron is a "cheese"/"exploit".

I'll play Devil's Advocate.

If say...tomorrow DE patched Banshee & Hydron so Banshee's Quake didn't wipe the map. EVERY veteran player would immediately start revolting for a Focus xp change because without that exploit the mountain for Focus is too steep.

 

Now none of my suggestions are meant to make the game instant gratification.

They are meant to reduce is some areas, while simplify others.

Focus as it is right now is in a good place, it gives many useful options and all focus schools have something to offer to some degree. If it's too steep to sit down for half an hour with your focus schools open and read through your options and learn what you can get, then yes, you're a lazy player and focus just isn't for you and therefor the benefit isn't available. I'm sorry to be so blunt but that's just it, sit down and read and it becomes simple, just like anything else in warframe. The only "problem" is the lack of explaining warframe have for mechanics, everything have to be found externally (this does not apply to region chat, because that's as useful as just guessing and hoping for the best).

And as for Hydron/Banshee cheese, I'd dare to say, if you're a veteran using that option, you don't know your cheeses very well. It's a mechanic used by newer players who see it done because it's easy, not because it's effective.

[(XBOX)BigLithuanian]

I agree with everything that you said except for removing focus lenses from weapons

[(PSN)Voidkraken]

I've stared at this thread for a while, and wanted to drop some of my own thoughts on the same topics in case they merit inclusion in the original suggestion list.

1. Universal Vacuum

Nothing to add here except agreement with your proposal.  By making vacuum a universal ability, perhaps even with range dependant on equipped Warframe rank (so that it's more consistent and there's still need to move around to look for and collect) you remove the pressure on this being a "mandatory" mod to slot and upgrade and promote choice of the unique attributes of the sentinel or companion over "needing" vacuum as a mod slot and allowing DE to focus on the companion bit of companions/sentinels

2. Focus gathering

I feel the core issue here is focus gathering, rather than costs/usage, so we should consider how this could be improved while still making for fun gameplay. We know (read: I am sure I read somewhere) that DE's intention was to make the convergence orb force a change of gameplay to encourage users to go after it to gather focus, but it feels like in order to gather focus you must do this to the exclusion of all else.

The second issue with Focus (in my opinion) is that acquisition of new lenses, and thus schools, is too heavily RNG based. This discourages experimentation and exploration after your initial school choice, and so limits variety.

In both cases, I propose we focus on the following core ideas:

• Focus gathering must still make use of convergence orbs
• Focus lenses must still be necessary for some aspect of Operator based gameplay or focus gathering
• Focus gathering should not be 90% dependant on use of convergence orbs
• Making it possible to experiment at low/zero cost to self with new focus schools is a requirement (this does not mean maxing out a focus school, but at least unlocking it)

So with this in mind, here are some specific suggestions that I would personally like to see:

• Base focus gain increased to x2 current rate
• Base focus gain is a universal XP type which may be used by ANY school and node, but at double the cost (this makes it possible to open up new schools without a lens, but makes it expensive to try and max one out this way). In other words, 1 Focus XP = 0.5 (any) School XP
• Convergence orbs reduce their multiplier to x3 or x4, and only appear if a Focus lens is attached to an equipped warframe or weapon
• Convergence orbs generate Focus XP for the equipped lenses by the existing method (i.e. focus XP that is school specific). This is your primary means of ranking up a preferred school or schools
• Lenses added to more standing shops (At the very least, the Quills standing should have basic lenses available). This will encourage Focus lens installation of the user's choice instead of purely based on RNG, and lead to more Focus acquisition naturally (more lenses = less of a tendency to only fit them to "farming" setups)

On the surface, this would look like a reduction in Focus gain by the existing methods - but at the heart of it is expanding how you can acquire lenses and the addition of "universal" Focus XP (per the OP's original idea). This opens up more of the school options for experimentation while still requiring the use of lenses and convergence orbs to perform the role they were meant to perform and let a player specialise/work on a specific school (or schools).

Arguably, this point stands outside Plains of Eidolon QoL improvements, but with the Plains focus on operator use, I agree it's valid to raise here.

3. Operator Arsenal

Again, I agree with the core idea the OP presented: equip our Operator like we do our warframes.  The Arsenal interface already gives us a method (awkwardly hidden on console, admittedly) to access our Archwing loadout, so why not expand the concept to include an "Operator loadout" option too?  From here, using the same basic principles present already apply as for Warframes.  At a minimum, use of the Suit/Amp selectors solve a lot of UI issues here, without adding Mod support.  I take the propsal a couple of steps further and suggest that we no longer choose a "primary" (active) school, but rather we choose - for EACH Operator power - which school we have unlocked and have nodes in, applies to that power. This would let us have more complexity and strategy to our choice of individual school powers, and promote more use of more trees and interaction choices as Operators...as well as fitting more completely with the existing UI and selection process for other aspects of the game.

• Suit
  • Change operator appearance (suit and operator)
  • Equip mods to the suit (maybe!)
• Amp
  • Select and equip an Amp from your inventory
  • Equip mods to the amp (maybe!)
• Passive School
  • Select which Focus school (from those unlocked) the Passive tree is drawn.
• Dash School
  • Select which Focus school (from those unlocked) the Dash power tree is drawn
• Void Mode School
  • Select which Focus school (from those unlocked) the Void mode tree is drawn
• Void Blast School
  • Select which Focus school (from those unlocked) the Void blast tree is drawn

I'm less focused on Mods as a key component here because the expansion of Focus schools and choices could provide the degree of flexibility and choice we hope for in our Operator combat loadout, so mods as a feature could follow later if appropriate to do so. However, this approach encourages expansion of the individual focus school branches to provide more options instead of mods doing it

Further, the proposal above can stand separately from the proposal for Focus gathering - they tie in together, but don't need to

4. Archwing in PoE

Again, I agree with the OP's core proposal not to keep the Archwing use in the plains as a consumable, as the current method just doesn't make Archwing use in the Plains fun or indeed a thing which is desirable to use.  Instead of being a method to quick hop back to Extraction or get to your goal, it's a cost/benefit decision that leads more often than not to "don't bother using it".  Instead, if the goal is to limit how often it is used.  but we can keep the existing mechanic and build on it:

• New "Archwing Launcher Upgrade segment blueprint", available from a high (?) level of Ostron standing.  This provides:
  • Unlimited uses once built
  • Once activated, there is a cooldown that prevents re-use within the time limit (Ordis can only collect and make your crashed Archwing available again so quickly)

This approach preserves what's built right now and lets players get into the Archwing early on, but makes Ostron standing a real and valuable thing if the unlimited Archwing is a goal and reward from it.  There is also a degree of precedent: Cephalon Simaris' Sol Battery widget is basically this feature but used for his special scanners (i.e. "use of Archwing Launcher no longer consumes charges").

Why no "casting time" to prevent use in combat?  Verisimilitude with existing mechanics means no changes at the core.  Further, you can reasonably expect if being hammered from all sides that using your archwing to escape combat will probably involve you being shot down instead of escaping, so "abuse in combat" is limited by individual skill, timing, and a little luck - restricting it in this way doesn't seem necessary.

5. Standing with the Quills

Ultimately the problem here feels to me like one of "not enough ways to gain standing" - the reliance on core drops is so narrow that, at first, it's very hard to gain enough to make a viable dent in the standing and rank up.

Actual Quills bounties that involve tasks related to Eidolon hunting (doesn't have to be "take down a Teralyst", there are plenty of activities one could take countering the Grineer activities in the Plains that relate to the Eidolons and Lures, etc), would give a meaningful way for players to enjoy working for the Quills while gaining standing.

 

I'm not going to comment on the items beyond this one, I think the wall of text above is prob ably enough to kill most people for now anyway :)