We Need Difficulty Progression.

[whitejackale]

The current "hard mode" difficulty that is pretty much another alert system needs to be replaced with the following.

 

This is how hard mode should work: Click on mission, get difficulty options from easy, medium, hard, very hard, and nightmare, do your mission and be rewarded according to the difficulty.

 

The following is how progression should really work: You must complete every mission on easy difficulty before you can move on to medium difficulty, then you must complete every mission on medium difficulty before you can move on to hard difficulty, et cetera. And of course, as the difficulty increases, so should the rewards. 

 

There should be special keys similar to void keys that allow you to unlock certain missions with extreme modifiers such as movement impairment, enemy damage increase, damage decrease, revive removal, friendly fire, no abilities available, et cetera. There should also be a crafting system that allows players to merge this keys together to continue to create higher difficulties. The more negative modifiers that you craft, the better that the rewards should be.

[Archistopheles]

The current "hard mode" difficulty is T3 defense.

 

Nightmare is a test to add randomness to levels.

[jpvi1207]

nightmare modes arent hard, they are just frustratingly slower

[LalaLuck]

nightmare modes arent hard, they are just frustratingly slower

Yep.

[Estred]

The current "hard mode" difficulty is T3 defense.

 

Nightmare is a test to add randomness to levels.

And Nightmare modes are awesome. They take longer because you can't plow through them and you get a bonus mod to boot. I welcome the random effects. I hope we see more that are more attuned to planets themselves or even planetary maps.

 

 

nightmare modes arent hard, they are just frustratingly slower

As I said, because you can't Roflblow through them. I will admit though getting "No Shields" and "Energy Drain" at the same time royally sucks and really shouldn't happen. Granted it made my team have to slow down and strategically take the maps as we revived each other. Was really fun actually.

[litlit]

And Nightmare modes are awesome. They take longer because you can't plow through them and you get a bonus mod to boot. I welcome the random effects. I hope we see more that are more attuned to planets themselves or even planetary maps.

 

 

As I said, because you can't Roflblow through them. I will admit though getting "No Shields" and "Energy Drain" at the same time royally sucks and really shouldn't happen. Granted it made my team have to slow down and strategically take the maps as we revived each other. Was really fun actually.

I disagree. Nightmare mode as it exists is a monument to poor gameplay design. Give us challenges that are interesting problems with a variety of possible solutions, not tedious modifiers that only serve to remove the elements of gameplay that make it engaging.

 

Warframe is fun because movement is fast and fluid; it's an arcade-y shooter. Modifiers like no shields, energy drain, and low gravity only detract from this -- it forces players to adopt a non-rushing playstyle, when what should happen instead is to present problems that reward players for dealing with them in ways other than rushing past them.

 

It's difficult to overstate just how utterly backwards Nightmode mode is right now. The only reward for doing Nightmare mode is obtained by mission completion. The reward encourages a rushing playstyle, but the mechanics punish it. Furthermore, since 2 of the mods have an incredibly low drop chance compared to others, it requires players to grind already-stale content with a bunch of tedious baggage attached to it. It's garbage, throw it out already.

Edited August 9, 2013 by litlir

[litlit]

Estred, I just realized that my post was incredibly dismissive towards you. I do stand by what I said about the design of Nightmare mode as it currently exists, but I think it's worth noting something.

 

You said you had fun on Nightmare mode. Despite my harsh criticism, I had a few fun experiences on Nightmare mode too, for the same reasons you did: for once, I was playing a non-defense mission type where the whole team stayed together, without one person in a super-maxed loadout rushing to the objective and exit 30 seconds after the mission started.

 

As I said I stand by my previous criticism; I think Nightmare mode as it currently exists is awful. But cooperation between players outside of defense maps is definitely something we should encounter more of.

 

One way of doing this is on-topic for this thread: players should be challenged in a way that fosters cooperation. Simply inflating the stats of enemies as they level up doesn't cut it; that makes enemies bullet sponges, and bullet sponges are boring. It's hard to think of other ways to increase difficulty, though, because when a single player can use a Warframe ability to kill everything in a room instantly, it doesn't matter how strong, smart, or varied the enemy is. Plus, it doesn't foster player cooperation -- I never need help on my Vauban, because I can throw a 24 second Bastille down (many of them, if necessary) and kill or run past everything at my leisure.

 

Along with this, the reward system for non-defense missions needs to be reworked. There should be some mechanic in place that gives players an incentive to explore maps, stay with their squad, and help each other instead of simply running straight to the exit.