Ideas to add replayability and possibly address some common complaints.

[UkyoSonoda]

In this topic I'm primarily going to touch on the Alerts system currently in game that for the most part is quite lacking although I have ideas for possible additions to the player mastery rank system in the game. We'll start with the proposal I have for a possible alert system overhaul which in theory should make alerts in general more desirable and in the long run more rewarding to play rather than the current system that seems to run completely on random number generators in the hopes of a ? reward that is worthwhile showing up. The issue with the current alert system is players see no point in doing them at all unless its a ? reward they want.

So the idea goes as follows and the changes should they like it and go with it are most likely going to be far more than making small tweaks to pop in as a hotfix.

I liked a suggested idea that completing alert missions earned a new token type currency only obtainable by completing an alert and a special redemption page that only dealt with these tokens in the market. However I never saw a token earning system suggested that I felt was good for the game.

So what I propose is that a token system which could be called something along the lines of "Tenno Favor" is implemented for alerts. Now in terms of how much Tenno Favor is earned from an alert I propose a system that bases a total reward from location, max enemy level, and difficulty spawned, divided by number of players at the end of the match.

The reason for these parameters are as follows.

Location in a game seems to have a large effect in determining what type of heavy or elite units spawn in a level

Max enemy level simply because higher level effects difficulty.

Difficulty rating because it seems to effect how often and numerous elite and heavy units spawn along with how numerous normal enemies spawn as well.

This would all calculate to a final "pool" of Tenno Favor at the end of a match which would then be divided by number of players at the end to equate individual reward with fractions being rounded up.

The formula for this that I came up with was [(Location value X Diffictulty Value) + Max enemy level] / Number of players

Now one of the issues with this that crossed my mind though was that because the reward is divided nearly everyone would be doing these alerts solo including high level assassination missions or defense missions on say Pluto until they succeed. To help somewhat encourage players to play alerts co-op with others I think with this system it would be good that you would only be able to attempt an alert once. Meaning once you start the mission it dissappears from the selection screen win or lose. While players with better equipment will most likely be able to easily solo low to mid level alerts the rewards on those will still be lower than say trying to assassinate a lv 87 jackal on a difficulty 5 pluto alert. And the favor reward for these high level, difficulty alerts should get players to atleast attempt them rather than sit around waiting for mercury or venus. At the same time it encourages use of max level gear since you only get 1 chance at a given alert so players are less likely to mess around leveling up other equipment during an alert.

What could you redeem this Tenno Favor currency for?

Well this is somewhat where we hit a little bit of a hitch simply due to the lack of content we have currently. However one of the things I would make available for atleast a decent amount of favor is orokin reactor and catalyst blueprints. This currently seems like one of the most glaring things that people complain about in regards to non plat acquisition in game and by setting the required favor to buy one of these blueprints high enough it allows a reliable method of getting them without making it quick or easy to do so. Having a tangeble goal to get one sits far better with people than hoping and relying a pure luck. Also I think people would be more inclined to buy reactors and catalysts for platinum because they didn't want to wait on the foundry or work at saving up tokens rather than do so with the random chance setup we have currently.

Another idea of something to add to the favor shop would be frame refinement blueprints. These blueprints would be locked by player rank and allow refining of a lv 30 warframe. Refining would take the lv 30 frame + the 3 components that were used to build the original frame (helmet, systems, chassis) and produce a lv 1 enhanced version that would feature slightly improved base stats and better gains on the static circular nodes in the upgrade tree.

Additionally there could be a set of cosmetic skins and helmets available in the favor shop for those that want some sort of visual "badge" to show others how much they play the game when they join groups.

A final though on this favor shop was a couple actual frames or weapons specific to the favor shop. Though how this would be recieved is something I'm not 100% sure of.

With this system alerts can still keep the random appearing ? rewards. However now players have an incentive to play every alert mission and not just wait for the ones with special rewards.

Next I'll take a bit of a swing at the Player mastery rank system in game currently. In it's current state increasing your player rank really does nothing other than make a small amount of weapons avaiable in the game. While 2 of said weapons are highly desirable by players which are the gorgon and hek it appears many players are put off on the rank requirement because of the time needed to reach rank 3 and 4 due to lack of any other real benefit. Others seem put off due to attachment to gear usually frames that they leveled to get their ranks. One suggestion I'd give on this is possibly have it so players are given a choice of either 1 extra frame slot or 2 extra weapon slots per player rank advancement.

The reason I suggest this really is a few factors. The first being that I'm sure more weapons and frames will continue to be added to the game which is going to compound the already frequent complaints of lack of inventory space. Another being that it could add a bit more fluidity to player advancement especially with mastery point requirements to level up increasing with each player mastery rank. Additionally it adds a little more meaning to advancing your rank. Which would add more incentive to level up more weapons and frames. And potentially lead to more slot purchases due to player psychological attachment to items and not wanting to sell them. Especially if you continue to keep bringing us new frames and weapons to play with.

The last thing I want to take a poke at is player complaint over credits piling up. While some of this can be taken care of with additional content coming out being purchasable via credits. It still seems like we need still some effective sink to burn these off. I think the most effective answer currently would be a sort of mod lottery system that would consume both excess mods which players are selling off to build these large bank accounts as materials and credits to actually combine them. However I don't think such a system should allow players to control the stat outcomes. Instead it would be a simple process of something like any 5 white mods +10K = random green mod specific to one of the pieces of equipment you are currently wearing at that particular item's level. Then something similar with 5 green mods and say 25K = random blue mod with same item specifications. And possibly add a new Purple tier mod with a possible 3 different bonuses. 5 blues + 100K = random purple mod with same item specifications.

This way it will always give you a mod for an item you own. However you still gamble on whether the mod is actually useful or not.

Anyway these are just my thoughts on ways to improve the game and build up the community size and overall happyness as I view that as 1 of the major things to make or break an online game.

[Cakes]

The ideas are pretty neat.

The concept of farming a second set of blueprints to improve a frame (and it's base stat nodes, that's gold right there) is a sound idea. The only downside being that it extends the farming, rather than expanding it. As to how to expand replayability I have not put enough thought into that quite yet.

The tokens for alerts, seems you've put some serious thought in it. At this moment the only thing that nags at me is the dividing of tokens between players. On one hand, it intices some players to go into a mission with less than a full team, properly rewarding those who take a greater risk by facing steeper odds. On the other hand, it picks at a larger question of how Warframe wants players to do alerts, as I still am not quite sure if the alerts are designed for solo (assassinations/sabotage makes sense for a single Tenno to slip in/slip out) or team (exterminate seems more of a squad's job).

Other than that, some good ideas in there.

[UkyoSonoda]

Well the frame upgrade I would hope would coincide eventually with the addition of stronger higher rank requirement weapons and eventually normal "end game" is missions with nice rewards exclusive to them. As like my example of the lv 87 Jackal. I had this appear in a pluto alert mission. The thing soaked a ridiculous amount of damage to kill it. I envision at some point there being missions were the normal enemies are in the lv 80-85 range with bosses hitting lv 100 or so.

Though other thoughts on replayability things I recall some online co-op games that did things like keep records of fastest time on a particular mission or map, or high score on a specific map, etc.

From observations on how alerts are going as they are now. I've been running all of them when they become available. I hardly ever have anyone join my game on an alert mission unless it's one with a ? reward where it usually fills within a minute. At which point they just rush it for completion to get that ? reward then leave.

[UkyoSonoda]

Another thought with alerts that crossed my mind at one point last night. Mission types that only appear as alerts. Possible examples.

Save Tenno Ship (New tile set would be nice.)

Enemy has assaulted a Tenno vessel.

I'm thinking this as a real rush mission with multiple objectives. A 10 or 15 minute self destruct timer would be active at the start of the mission. In that time you need to find the ships main console and deactivate self destruct. However there is a hitch. Enemy has also taken out the ship reactor causing the control room to lockdown. So you will need to bring replacement rods to re activate the reactor first.

This thought had crossed my mind after doing a deception mission that had self destruct 5 minute timer activate when the datamass was delivered and lotus told me I needed to kill the reactor before leaving.

Survival. This mission type would never appear labeled as survival but as any other mission type in the game. The intel was false and you fell into a trap. Enemies will continue spawning and attacking non stop and it's your job to survive until someone is able to retrieve you.

[Voracious]

Seems like you want them to give A LOT away. Some of these ideas are great, but also some would remove the need for ever buying platinum at all, which = less money for DE. They need something left for players to even consider buying platinum for. If you get free slots and cosmetic items, platinum's value decreases. Just thoughts. Your mod idea is interesting though!

Edited February 6, 2013 by Voracious

[Archade]

Nothing has to be platinum exclusive, just make it hard to get. Take potatoes for example. They could be twice as easy to get as they currently are, but if i want one and don't have one, im buying one, because 20 plat is not a lot compared to me getting my potato now.

There are plenty of microtransaction based games who do not have any cash exclusivity, only cash convinience.

[UkyoSonoda]

Yeah its not so much as them just giving things away with this alert system. In regards to the catalyst/reactors if the token cost was something like 10K and you earned an average of say 50 per alert it would make getting them a bit of work however people for the most part wouldn't complain as much due to not being forced to rely on a random luck element. At that point it would be time farming alerts to get tokens. getting blueprint. getting mats for blueprint. waiting for blueprint to build and then getting your reactor or catalyst. Or you can skip all of that and just buy them for 20 plat. One of the problems I see with these complaints over those 2 particular items is that people feel like they're being forced to buy them with plat which in most cases actually works against getting people to pay for them. In games like these people are more likely to resist something they feel they're being forced to buy but more apt to buy what they feel is a conveinence.

As for the item slot suggestion on player rank increases. The mastery requirements per level increases with each level. I'm not sure what the table intervals are atm possibly Ced has them up to rank 7 or 8 but those totals get up there a ways so after rank 2 or 3 it becomes a bit of work to actually increase your player rank. Because of this I feel getting a choice of one slot expansion or the other at a rank up seems feesable. But again this is with the assumption that we have many more frames and weapons coming out for use in the future

Edited February 6, 2013 by UkyoSonoda