Will Grineer Commanders ever be fixed?

[Sephryn_]

It gets rather annoying that my Warframe has to first check if their hands are still normal every time a Commander switches places with me.

The switch part is fine, but a 2~3 second stun? No way.

Here are the general complaints surrounding the Grineer Commander.

The teleport:

• Is Unavoidable
• Gives little to no warning
• Once initiated cannot be stopped
• Leaves a player stuck in a nonsensical animation long enough for them to get slaughtered at higher level play
• Disrupts the fluency of gameplay
• Is just really annoying in general

I propose to just remove the stun entirely, and give a little more time between the warning sound and the actual switch, as this will make the game more fluent and enjoyable while still giving us a challenging and unique enemy.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Hannuxis

[Bobtm]

Clearly a Grineer Commander teleported the thread here, blasted things are as crafty and unavoidable as ever.

Anyways, had you asked this question back in December I would have regrettably responded with a simple "lolno" due to how long such a simple yet glaring design flaw has existed.  However, given DE's recent doubling down on refreshing and fixing old content, maybe there's hope they'll polish up what is one of the few genuinely poorly designed enemy units.

[Pro3Display]

2 minutes ago, Bobtm said:

Clearly a Grineer Commander teleported the thread here, blasted things are as crafty and unavoidable as ever.

Anyways, had you asked this question back in December I would have regrettably responded with a simple "lolno" due to how long such a simple yet glaring design flaw has existed.  However, given DE's recent doubling down on refreshing and fixing old content, maybe there's hope they'll polish up what is one of the few genuinely poorly designed enemy units.

well it was okay design back in the day but things had changed

[Xzorn]

1 hour ago, Bobtm said:

Anyways, had you asked this question back in December I would have regrettably responded with a simple "lolno" due to how long such a simple yet glaring design flaw has existed.  However, given DE's recent doubling down on refreshing and fixing old content, maybe there's hope they'll polish up what is one of the few genuinely poorly designed enemy units.

 

What content?

From what I've seen they've just been buffing weapons to intensify Riven trades.

They've actually been further breaking old content with new things. Outside the obvious deletion of Raids they screwed up Grineer AI for PoE. Hopefully they fix it before endless Kuva because Kuva Fortress is the biggest offender of spawn problems. Then again if they don't improve Kuva rewards; no one will play it anyways.

___________

There's been a thread about how broken Commanders are least once a month for 4 years now. I wish you luck, like I have with the others.

[Baerath]

Agreed. Interrupt mechanics are all well and good and the teleporting I could still deal with but the stun just creates unnecissary annoyance after the disruption in the combat flow from the teleport.

[BlackCoMerc]

16 hours ago, Hannuxis said:

It gets rather annoying that my Warframe has to first check if their hands are still normal every time a Commander switches places with me.

The switch part is fine, but a 2~3 second stun? No way.

Here are the general complaints surrounding the Grineer Commander.

The teleport:

• Is Unavoidable
• Gives little to no warning
• Once initiated cannot be stopped
• Leaves a player stuck in a nonsensical animation long enough for them to get slaughtered at higher level play
• Disrupts the fluency of gameplay
• Is just really annoying in general

I propose to just remove the stun entirely, and give a little more time between the warning sound and the actual switch, as this will make the game more fluent and enjoyable while still giving us a challenging and unique enemy.

Just get rid of Switch Teleport and replace it with an AoE buff to nearby grineer. Hence, Commander.

NOTHING about an unavoidable, zero warning teleport is reasonable. Nothing about is fair. No serious game developer would allow this. It's the Hallmark of an immature team throwing stuff at the wall because "hey, we are Indie and QA costs money, woe is us." 

Refusing to remove it is literally trolling your own players.

[BlackCoMerc]

15 hours ago, Xzorn said:

 

What content?

From what I've seen they've just been buffing weapons to intensify Riven trades.

They've actually been further breaking old content with new things. Outside the obvious deletion of Raids they screwed up Grineer AI for PoE. Hopefully they fix it before endless Kuva because Kuva Fortress is the biggest offender of spawn problems. Then again if they don't improve Kuva rewards; no one will play it anyways.

___________

There's been a thread about how broken Commanders are least once a month for 4 years now. I wish you luck, like I have with the others.

Well said.

Four to five months, nothing but weapon tweaks and cosmetics. And we still can't get QoL stuff like this.

But on the Positive side, no doubt the Venusian Nullifier infested No Fun Land is doubtless close to release...(I hope I'm wrong about what high level Venus will look like...)

[(PSN)Aerik93]

I just now ran Simulacrum with Commanders and had a little fun. Here’s what I found:

-They do it from a seemingly infinite range. Their teleport range seems to only be limited by their Full Alert aggro range.

-They can use it the very instant they make direct, eligible line of sight to a Tenno.

-They have literally no telegraphing or warning. The only thing they do is make a Michael Jackson Thriller stance for the shortest moment, AFTER teleporting.

-They are not stunned or limited after teleportation, becoming immediately capable of opening fire the moment they teleport a Tenno - even being able to unload on the very same Tenno they warped.

-They can teleport Operators and empty Warframes. To the point where they are able to teleport Operators in Void Mode, and the very instant the Operator reveals themselves.

-They can do the same to Operators as to Ivara when she Prowls. Same probably goes for any invisible frame.

-They can teleport Tenno on zip lines and dashwires.

-They don’t care where they will end up when they teleport so long as they do. Evidenced by the fact that multiple Commanders actually switched with me and killed themselves because I was above no ground, falling into the endless void of the Simulacrum.

-Whether a Tenno is five metres or five light years away, they will teleport. This only works if the Tenno is within their cone of vision which even when aggro still has a certain distance limit.

-They glitch Warframe abilities if they had been cast the moment the teleport occurred. Such as Ivara’s Prowl and Artemis Bow, and Mag’s... literally everything.

-They can do it to invincible Tenno. Unless Simulacrum invincibility is different to, say, ability invincibility or respawn invincibility, they are able to teleport Tenno that can’t take damage.

 

Yes, Commanders are broken.

For a little added fun, spawn in 20 Commanders and see how you go.

But still there needs to be so many fixes made to Commanders. If you run a Sortie and are unfortunate enough to even get two, they have the potential to permanently stunlock your Warframe.

Granted they do seem to have... some level of cooldown. I didn’t bother checking that out but at least they can’t constantly spam it.

But when it comes to their teleport... they’ll fire it off faster than a max fire rate Twin Vipers (100+ fire rate is the highest I’ve seen).

Edited March 25, 2018 by (PS4)Aerik93

[MirageKnight]

I want Switch Teleport yanked from Commanders. Completely. It's bs and it doesn't suite them at all.

Instead, I'd like to see Commanders be...actual commanders. Have them grant passive buffs to nearby Grineer (faster CC / melee, better accuracy) and allow them to rally troops within a wide radius to their position and call in reinforcements. In addition, give them smarter AI, double the armour of Lancers and perhaps a third more HP than a Lancer. Replace the Grakata with a Quartakk and let them use grenades. I want Commanders to be high priority targets that are credible threats (directly and indirectly) as opposed to being more annoying versions of Lancers with better health.

Commanders should be treated as Grineer that have moved up through the ranks due to their skills in battle and leadership capabilities. That said, they deserve better combat gear and to be given skills / abilities appropriate to a platoon commander.

Edited March 25, 2018 by MirageKnight

[BlackCoMerc]

4 hours ago, (PS4)Aerik93 said:

I just now ran Simulacrum with Commanders and had a little fun. Here’s what I found:

-They do it from a seemingly infinite range. Their teleport range seems to only be limited by their Full Alert aggro range.

-They can use it the very instant they make direct, eligible line of sight to a Tenno.

-They have literally no telegraphing or warning. The only thing they do is make a Michael Jackson Thriller stance for the shortest moment, AFTER teleporting.

-They are not stunned or limited after teleportation, becoming immediately capable of opening fire the moment they teleport a Tenno - even being able to unload on the very same Tenno they warped.

-They can teleport Operators and empty Warframes. To the point where they are able to teleport Operators in Void Mode, and the very instant the Operator reveals themselves.

-They can do the same to Operators as to Ivara when she Prowls. Same probably goes for any invisible frame.

-They can teleport Tenno on zip lines and dashwires.

-They don’t care where they will end up when they teleport so long as they do. Evidenced by the fact that multiple Commanders actually switched with me and killed themselves because I was above no ground, falling into the endless void of the Simulacrum.

-Whether a Tenno is five metres or five light years away, they will teleport. This only works if the Tenno is within their cone of vision which even when aggro still has a certain distance limit.

-They glitch Warframe abilities if they had been cast the moment the teleport occurred. Such as Ivara’s Prowl and Artemis Bow, and Mag’s... literally everything.

-They can do it to invincible Tenno. Unless Simulacrum invincibility is different to, say, ability invincibility or respawn invincibility, they are able to teleport Tenno that can’t take damage.

 

Yes, Commanders are broken.

For a little added fun, spawn in 20 Commanders and see how you go.

But still there needs to be so many fixes made to Commanders. If you run a Sortie and are unfortunate enough to even get two, they have the potential to permanently stunlock your Warframe.

Granted they do seem to have... some level of cooldown. I didn’t bother checking that out but at least they can’t constantly spam it.

But when it comes to their teleport... they’ll fire it off faster than a max fire rate Twin Vipers (100+ fire rate is the highest I’ve seen).

Thank you for this.

Of late, several enemy abilities have been dialed up to "troll the player base" settings:

Commander Switch Teleport: obviously

 to Ancient grappling hooks: they don't need to see you, be facing you or even extend an arm any longer. On multiple occasions, I have had them catch me while they were both facing and MOVING AWAY from me. 

Infested Screen Obfuscation: want to troll a squad? Take Nidus to high level Infested Survival. Within ten minutes, I'd wager most people are just button mashing, due to a complete inability to discern anything from their screen. The visual noise is so bad, it's often headache inducing.

Someone at DE thinks they are challenging us. They aren't. It's just annoying.

[MirageKnight]

Welp...they "fixed" Switch Teleport for Commanders.

Quote

 

• Increased the Commander Switch Teleport cast time to 2 seconds instead of being almost instant, and added a casting sound indication.
• Both Grineer Commander and his target will glow orange during his Switch Teleport cast.
• Bullet Jumping or dodge rolling can now break you out of the Switch Teleport. Previously the only way to avoid being Switch Teleported is to kill the Commander while he is casting. 
• Switch Teleport now delivers a Knockdown Status debuff after being teleported (unless Modded to avoid or minimize Knockdowns).

 

Which is what we wanted...right? Only took them a couple of years to get around to this...

This is nice and all DE, but how about making Commanders behave and function more like actual commanders instead of relying on a cheap copy of a Warframe power to make them "interesting" and "a challenge"?

[Unagi604]

I think the easiest solution is to remove the confusion stun.

We are the player. You don't need to simulate being confused from being teleported somewhere, since we're already living it.

[BL4CKN0ISE]

I don't mind the teleport, but the stun is ridiculous. It's one of those things devs do when they forget how a game works. We're not AI, so we don't need an animation to prove how disoriented we are. It's just something we experience, so there's no reason to separate us from our Warframe just to make a point. It's so stupid because it's not actually a stun. We only think of it that way because we can't move. It's literally DE saying "You're confused!". Instead of just letting us be confused for a sec. It's terrible design and needs to be fixed. Sometimes you can get juggled by multiple Commanders and it feels like an endless loop. It's just not gameplay and I hate when stuff like that is in games.

[o.0-]

The Switch Teleport from enemies feels like it fits Manics so much better, that it's a missed opportunity here. And they have that laugh and random movement.

I agree with the idea that Commanders should have some sort of buff for fellow Grineer, and with that recognizable hat, suddenly facing a hail of angry Grineer gun fire from a noticeably resolved group of Grineer could be an interesting change of pace in the process.