Damage 2.5: Puncture and Impact

[Rurik-Vaeringjar]

I've been thinking about the problem of the two underdog damage types for some time now. It's not exactly an easy thing to solve really. There is the game balance that needs to be taken into account. A bigger concern is how the proposed change will feel within the greater context of Warframe itself. More than that, and a concern I've not seen many consider, is the impact a proposed change might have on the the hardware. Now that's not an insubstantial problem, and one of the reason I'm very much against the idea of puncture procs causing weak spots. All it'll take is a few rapid fire high status weapons on the map to fry a potato with the sheer number of collisions and weakspots being calculated. I've been mulling these concerns for the last several days and I think I might have come up with something to really consider.

In regard to puncture, rather than procs causing weakness or ignoring armor or some such.. I think it would make sense for puncture procs to cause two general effects, collectively referred to as Pierce. The first effect of Pierce is a minor damage multiplier that functions like a body part multiplier. It wouldn't need to be a large multiplier at all given how body part multipliers combine multiplicatively with weapon crits. Even 1.1x to 1.2x for the body part multiplier, and body crit multiplier, would be enough to just give puncture procs that little edge (though the multiplier might need to be upwards of 1.5x if the proc only affects the weapon's puncture damage). Pierce's second effect, and I personally think the better of the two effects, is an automatic punch through of the current target (within reason.. it shouldn't punch through massive enemies). In essence, a puncture weapon without any punch through (or that has run out of punch through) would Pierce through the target on a proc in addition to gaining the aforementioned body part multiplier. To balance that, each time puncture procs, the chance that it will proc Pierce again on subsequent targets is reduced. Note: Weapons with punch through remaining would only gain the body part multiplier effect from Pierce and not the punch through or status reduction effects.

In regard to impact, I feel like we're missing a huge opportunity to expand on something that already exists. There is a little known effect of impact procs, really it's a side effect of knock down, that causes an enemy to lose focus and eventually become unaware. Now, it's not easy to get this awareness reduction side effect from impact procs to actually cause an enemy to become totally unaware, and therefore open to stealth finishers and the like, but it is already possible. Why not expand on that? Turn the Impact Proc into something like Concuss. Allow it to continue to have the stagger effect, that's totally fine, but make it so that the awareness reducing effect on the enemy is more pronounced. Make it so that the enemy increasingly loses their senses for a very short period of time (a second or two max, not counting the time it'll take for the enemy to find the Tenno again). It would become a very powerful crowd control effect. It could open enemies up to stealth finishers with enough strong procs or even allow you to avoid detection in the event that you've only just been spotted.

At least that's what I've been envisioning whenever I think about puncture and impact effects. I'm open to discussion and criticism though. If anyone else already presented ideas like these I don't know about them, but by all means let me know as I'd like to compare the concepts or at least give credit were credit is due.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Rurik-Vaeringjar

[DarkDrakeDrakus]

no. The stagger affect from impact is a huge pain to deal with for most of the community as high impact damage and high status weapons are disliked for their reason of making you need to shift your aim slightly back when aiming for the head. So complete removal of stagger would be nice as it wouldn't disrupt accuracy.

[-DG-ShadowPrime]

3 hours ago, DarkDrakeDrakus said:

no. The stagger affect from impact is a huge pain to deal with for most of the community as high impact damage and high status weapons are disliked for their reason of making you need to shift your aim slightly back when aiming for the head. So complete removal of stagger would be nice as it wouldn't disrupt accuracy.

I think you're mixing that with ragdoll 

It is not that hard to continue headshotting an enemy who only staggers backwards a few inches

[Rurik-Vaeringjar]

1 minute ago, DarkDrakeDrakus said:

no. The stagger affect from impact is a huge pain to deal with for most of the community as high impact damage and high status weapons are disliked for their reason of making you need to shift your aim slightly back when aiming for the head. So complete removal of stagger would be nice as it wouldn't disrupt accuracy.

That's a fair criticism, perhaps not a full stagger then? Something akin to being prevented from moving forward with a slight jolt or push.

[CryoSpecter]

32 minutes ago, DarkDrakeDrakus said:

no. The stagger affect from impact is a huge pain to deal with for most of the community as high impact damage and high status weapons are disliked for their reason of making you need to shift your aim slightly back when aiming for the head. So complete removal of stagger would be nice as it wouldn't disrupt accuracy.

If the stagger opened for finishers though... or even stealth multipliers... I'd say those are potential gains. Granted, no idea where DE is going with the changes rn, so maybe it will get removed for something better.

[DarkDrakeDrakus]

6 hours ago, ShadowExodus said:

I think you're mixing that with ragdoll 

It is not that hard to continue headshotting an enemy who only staggers backwards a few inches

Naw stagger is annoying when they inch a bit back. Sleight aim change (I'm lazy k).