Defend mission

[SwimmingRock]

I'm new to both Warframe and Beta testing, so I'm not sure this is usefull or in the right forum, but here goes.

I just played my first Defend mission and noticed 3 issues I thought could use improvement:

1. No clear indicator on minimap where the Cryopod was. Yes, if you actually look around the room a bit, it's pretty hard to miss. However, I thought at first that the Cryopod was in the room I'd just come from, so I stayed near the door for the first wave and didn't even notice it until after clearing wave 1. The minimap markers went until the room with the Cryopod. Maybe make one last marker for the pod itself and start the waves once players have moved near it?

2. No clear indication when enemies were attacking Cryopod. You have a health bar for the pod, but that only shows health and not shields. Maybe it's meant to be this way and players have to be vigilant, but I expected Lotus to warn me when enemies were damaging the pods shields. Maybe this happens once the shields reach a certain level? Alternatively, the health meter could also show shields over it like with ally and enemy health bars.

3. The cryopods shields were too strong. Even when I didn't notice it was being attacked and enemies got to shoot at it for a while unopposed, the shields never got lower than about 90%. I was playing Solo, so drawing minimal fire. It's possible that's only the case because it was the first Defend mission and they get harder later. If so, perhaps consider giving Cryopods in earlier missions less shields. Once I realized how strong the pods shields are, I stopped worrying about protecting it at all.

I hope this was helpfull.

[NoirProxy]

Originally before Patch 5 the pod's shields depleted way too quickly. It usually took one Grineer to take it down within 10 seconds and if you were fighting multiple enemies from different areas of the map then you were screwed when playing solo. I think it would make more sense to have a certain type of enemy that goes for the pods. Like an engineer class that all the other soliders protect but it has heavy armour and so you need to focus fire on it. Having everything swarm the pod is stupid, frustrating and a dated game design.

Edited January 1, 2013 by NoirProxy

[Spiffmeister]

Also the pods shields should recharge but HP shouldn't.