A most Peculiar workshop.

[bob6784558]

9 hours ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Tenno!

If you participated in this past-Friday's presentation of Peculiarities, you perhaps were perplexed or pumped for a potential offering: Peculiar Mods!


A picture is worth a thousand words. Flowers growing out of an enemy? Talk about adding insult to injury.... and that's the idea. Mods that are simply Peculiar in their offerings, and a little degrading to the enemy.

We teased this back at a Panel (to a limited audience, but some videos spread), and debuted these in last Friday's Devstream. And the reactions have been equally peculiar - genuine excitement, genuine confusion, genuine disinterest. But there's also been genuine discussion on 'what I'd like Peculiars to be'. Which means there's certainly interest in the concept, it's the execution that has people talking most!

And that's the point of this brief Workshop: concept & execution.

We are going to launch with one Peculiar Mod in Sanctuary Onslaught, the 'Blooming Mod' displayed on Stream. An appetizer of the full offerings. Then, we're going to take a closer look at reception of this to determine future concept and execution. We don't want to commit a full offering of Peculiar Mods to an avenue that people invest countless Endo, Credits, and Time into only to potentially change the idea entirely shortly after. But launching with the Mod we debuted allows you to experience and give feedback on the concept and execution, and it allows us to measure engagement!

TL;DR: We're going to launch with only one Peculiar Mod in Sanctuary Onslaught because we might change the execution of idea entirely, trying to stay true to the concept.

Thank you for all the lively debate so far on the topic - Lotus wants her flower power!

 

What about something like a cheats page like in the Lego video games.

[angetrox]

"on a temporary bases... @Pendragon1951 I agree... 

@[DE]Rebecca

I see no reason and it is not the time for this to be explored in the game. I do not feel comfortable with this kind of demeaning humiliation ... I think it could be availed in PVP. I would not lose a slot for something like that. It can be fun in another game module. I do not appreciate for sacrificing the serious look of our battles as I said on twitter I do not mind wearing rabbit ears at a certain time or throwing heart arrows ... but I would like it if the weapon had a peculiar damage like a goo of plasma seen in the GhostBuster movie for example. 

the peculiar mods could change an unexpected damage to a particular weapon, the funny or humiliating effect I do not find interesting but the theme can be explored differently.

[(XBOX)Graysmog]

5 hours ago, GreyEnneract said:

Just make them equipment per loadout similar to the current Arcanes.
Even Simaris widgets can be equipped without wasting slots to upgrade your scanning.
So I don't see why these have to be mods. Making things tied to being mods constantly is tiresome.
These peculiars are truly interesting and have potential, but having to waste a slot for them is very annoying.
Then, like everyone is already mentioning, let people who don't want to see them have a toggle in the options to turn off their effects from others.
 

Got to agree with my fellow Grey/Gray here.

It'd be best to give them their own slot. If we try implementing them into Base Mods, I feel it'd ruin the point of them. Yet if we give them a specific area to be placed, and allow players to ignore them, I see no issue.

The thing about a cosmetic choice is, as long as it doesn't hamper you, people will use it. Take Syandanas for example. Purely visual, and the most they'll ever do is slightly cover your crosshair. It's not like they're forcing you to give up damage or survivability to look cool.

I feel that applies to Peculiar Mods as well. Make them expensive and hard to get, but don't force people to lose out on damage just for a giggle or two.

[Karonuva]

I think this is a great idea!! I love anything that lets you put more personality and flair to your character(s). Honestly, if anything, I'd say go Extra AF with some of these (if possible, it would be bad if there's a lot of visual clutter blinding your teammates).

[Darkvramp]

ya know how there is like alternate appearance stuff for valkyr and chroma? ya just put these in the appearance tab... that way we dont have to  deal with the loss of our mods, NECESSARY or otherwise (maybe bring up the topic of necessary mods) and allows for more options in the options menu itself.

[ljmadruga]

Another aspect of them being mods is that there is no place to put them on an average build.

Let’s take primaries for example. By default, the first thing most players put in is Serration for more damage. Afterwards comes multishot, of which there are 2 multishot mods; Split chamber and vigilante armaments. In the case of critical weapons, then they slot in point strike, vital sense, hunter munitions, and 2 elementals for viral damage.

That’s 8 slots. There is zero room for a peculiar mod.

In the case of status weapons, after players slot in damage and multishot, they normally put all 4 damage and status chance elementals. Afterwards, they are left with one slot.

Here, you could slot in a peculiar mod, BUT-

You can literally toss in any other mod. Fire rate, reload, draw rate, you name it.

[SasoDuck]

Please just give us an option to disable them client-side. That's all I ask.

[Rapid]

Aside from the reward dilution aspect I am more concerned about the when jokes / memes effect game design. Putting extra mods that essentially do nothing from a gameplay standpoint doesn't sit well for me. It's like a joke chess piece on the board. I would be fine with be a cosmetic item much like how the EOS Arrows are. Make that a cosmetic but do not put gimmick mods into the game.  

[Leliana_Ray]

Definitely going to echo the disabling option idea, as someone who currently has a GPU on it's deathbed. I don't forma my gear to the max 95% of the time despite being mr24, but  the mods taking a ton of capacity means I probably would start doing it, just for the memes entertainment value. Also the idea of being a guy who wastes capacity on these mods is very appealing. 

There is also very little content actually needs you to have the maximum build on your gear so do you really need that extra bit of damage? Also fashion frame is the true endgame, so who's really not min maxing in this situation?

The effects of these mods has potential for amazingly enjoyable moments, particularly audio ones(imagine one that says HEADSHOT every time you get one, with an activation interval.)

tldr I want cool effects that will make me cackle maniacally whenever someone whines I'm wasting mod slots in a sortie. 

[Cazzzz]

My biggest concern is that there are just going interfere with other drops that may actually serve some purpose.

I like the idea of a good meme, but if it's going to take mod slots and time to obtain, as well as get in the way of other things, there's just about as much purpose for them in the game as there is for a sword made in the 1500s.

[Finedaible]

I'm not too keen on the idea of these Peculiar mods, but if everyone really wants to add these cosmetic effects to weapons, i think they should be an extra, dedicated mod slot of their own for this purpose. Others have expressed that these mods could also lead to drop table bloating, which is a concern i share.

There's also the question of how this affects the game's immersion or atmosphere. Warframe has mostly had a pretty dark theme to it over the years. Sure, there are already some wacky stuff in the game (Octavia), but I keep thinking some new player is gonna start up his first public mission and see a bunch of flowers sprouting from an enemy and probably wonder wtf is happening.

Maybe Devs had more ideas than just flowers? I'd be interested to know just what other kinds of effects they had in mind.Maybe some cool effects?

[45neo]

I think it would be interesting if peculiar mods also had peculiar effects... minor but still there... I.E. for every flower on an enemy, their accuracy reduces by x%

[(XBOX)FawnKinkajou27]

I know this post is mainly about peculiar mods but I first want to express my concerns about Khora

Keeping in mind Khora hasn't been released yet, it would be cool if her strangledome ability actually strangled her victims for some DOT because as it stands, her 4 looks like harrow's chains, but in a dome. I think the DOT would help her stand out in lower levels where armor is not as much as a problem. If you wanted to take it one step further you could let the damage ignore armor and deal finisher damage. Also, I understand that it was a dev build when you showed this off, but the range on the strangledome seemed far to short and as it stands this range will not be sufficient to be a useful crowd control ability. It would be nice to see Khora covering an entire room with her 4 and slowly strangle all of the enemies inside. Besides this, I am greatly looking forward to the release of this update on console and cannot wait to try Khora out. 

Also I am excited for the future of peculiar mods, but i would rather them be like a cosmetic item instead of having to sacrifice a mod slot. As it stands I do not think these mods will see much light as one mod spot can make or break a build. Another solution would be letting us fuse a normal mod into a peculiar mod and combine the two. Doing this could cost new recources that could be part of the reward table for the new mode. I also agree that their should be a switch to turn on and off the visuals (or sound effects) for the peculiar mods. If these mods are implemented right I could see them making their way into warframe slots, but ONLY if they are done right. The bulletjump mods are a good example of this i.e. firewalker, toxic flight. I have literally seen firewalker being used once in a public squad, granted, I have not played as long as some of the veterans, but they are still far underused. The idea would have been better if they had their own cosmetic slot and only added the fire left behind. I do not want to see the same thing happen to the peculiar mods and i think it is a good approach to only release one at the moment.

 

[BlueSabre]

 

Thank you Digital Extremes for [DE]laying Khora and this update until now, so that we could have a more polished update and much thanks for the weapon changes we got earlier this year. I'm not particularly interested in Peculiar Mods at the moment, but the steps you are taking to bring this idea to life will surely make for a better product in the end.

My biggest criticism of Warframe is that as a whole the game is amazing, absolutely beautiful, but when you start to look at its parts you realize that some of them are in disrepair. Things like Channeling and Pets come to mind, yes I am aware that at least one of the aforementioned are actively being looked at, but that's not the point. My point is that [DE] needs to improve the life-cycle of their content in Warframe, they need to be better at keeping each new adventure they add to the game updated. If Void Onslaught is the spiritual successor of Dark Sectors then that doesn't bode well for any of the other gaming modes in Warframe, especially the recently removed Raids, as parts of the game that we've come to enjoy are removed.

On a side note I think that Raids and Sorties are the same conceptually, but one is executed better than the other

[(PSN)Filthy113]

As long as I can disable the function of seeing and hearing these mods then I’m okay with them but if I have to see them or hear them I’ll be extremely disappointed with this. 

Im on PS4 so way I see it hopefully we won’t have to deal with these mods by the time it reaches us. 

[Vypor]

     I am late to the topic, but have been of the mind that I don't really see the point of them. If there's one thing I've learned in playing Warframe, it is that there will always be the vast majority people who will only use what is most powerful/popular for no other reason than that is what is the most powerful/popular. (See: Tigris Prime / Akstiletto Prime / Atterax) So with the advent of peculiar mods, I foresee that the only popularity the items will garner is within the first week or two, then people will go back to their standard super modded build because it actually kills things faster.

 

     However. Allow me to propose an idea.

 

     I have for some time now, been thinking about The equivalent of Exilus Adapters for weapons. Where only mods such as reload speed, silence, and other non-damage-affecting weapon mods can be equipped. Why not add something like that for peculiar mods, allowing people to theme their weapons to their fashionframe. Give people the opportunity to further personalize appearance through not only their frame, but combat as well. (Without cost to actual combat effectiveness that is) and the reception will likely be FAR more positive.

     As it stands, the primary cause for concern is people looking at the mods and thinking. "I'm sacrificing ACTUAL DAMAGE for the possibility of spawning flowers on an enemy I hit. Even though I'm going to be immediately moving on to shooting the next enemy instead of taking time to stop and quite literally 'smell the roses' over a dead corpse before moving on with the mission." Let people use it not as an alternative to actually being effective, but as further visual customization.

 

[(PSN)NnCrusader3]

Mogamu has it right- these mods should not waste a mod slot, or else they won't work. they need to substitute in for our stats (meaning the same or better) as well as being peculiar. Mogamu's example was point strike. still have the mod grow flowers out of the enemy but keep the 150% crit chance

[Urlan]

I feel that limiting the selection in this mode at first is a good call if the system is not yet nailed down. I do worry that such mods have no place in the already limited mod-slots, and as cosmetics costing progression to use, I don't feel that this will lead to growth in the game or incentive as a reward. I do hope you are successful in getting the mod, and am sure it will be a goofy addition to stuff like prime times.

It comes to me that the old arcane slots on cosmetics would probably work as an alternative to taking mod slots. As the biggest complaint about enhancements being on cosmetics was tying function to cosmetics - and having to change them for those with fickle fashion-frame -but peculiar mods are cosmetics already trying to pretend to be mods, so by tying them to cosmetics it allows for function to remain in use for progression and cosmetics to remain cosmetic.

[Evanescent]

TBH, rather than peculiar mods, I'd rather have Peculiar weapons.

They should have huge advantages and weird mechanics, and do these wonky things like talk back to you or make flowers shoot up on enemies.

Have them be achievement rewards for completing difficult onslaught tasks from Simaris.

Bonus: they come with installed snarky cephalons! 

[Mousarchy]

I still think the peculiar mods should be made to be just "captura/troll" mods.
like the flower mod you could JUST as easily make it a % chance to apply a flower and each flower gives you a %HP Regen/drain. kinda like a leech seed of sorts.

[Atekron]

interesting idea, but I will not waist mod slot on it

[I.V.A.R.A]

I'll say, as to the tune of most people, I pray that they will not be in any way affecting my rewards. But on the other hand, it won't be any different from all the 2,000Cr. & 80 Endo rewards we get for completing the hardest stuff in game so really, who cares. 

 

I know it's not going to work this way, but I'd much rather not have my frametime quadruple in the arsenal when hovering over a Zaw or switching to attachments of melee weapons that has been a problem for months now. I'd like Gara to not be broken (submitted bug report and video proof weeks ago; been a problem more than month now). I'd like Nekros' shadows to be summoned after being forced to take a 300+m sightseeing tour of the Kuva fortress while trying to farm Kuva (submitted bug with video proof weeks ago, again). I'd like my weapons to reload on the plains since I'm forced to do things there and really don't want to be there.

I'd rather development time be spent on making the parts of the game that are atrocious, be fun to do. Like Rivens and the hysterical joke that they are in every way, especially dispositions. Where I have to waste hours upon hours just to see "+zoom" 5 times in a row... which with a booster that's probably 3 hours worth of farming for nothing.

I'd rather development be spent on the melee rework so that a prime (Fang) weapon isn't worse than starter weapons and I actually have a use for all the other Rivens I've earned from all the common dropping (once every 3 weeks) I get from sorties. 

I just don't see why you'd burn any manpower at all on something like this when there's game-breaking bugs (IE- unusable warframes in Warframe....). I don't know why there can't be some leniency like that which was lied about in the documentary, how you don't want something to take 2 weeks to grind.... have you ever done the math on Ducats? Seriously. 90% of the time you'll get something worth 15 ducats... doesn't matter whether you're radiant/solo/axi/endless.... then along comes Baro with one thing that costs 600. It's just insanity.

I'll say what I always do; you will not see the player base and size and popularity you so desperately yearn for if you do not start rewarding people for the time they put in. This week alone I've turned the game off so many times because of how bad the RNG is and how it has to be EVERYWHERE... if you would just take a month to test out an event that had guaranteed rewards instead of "maybe, might, probably not but here's 2,000 credits" you would see your numbers go through the roof. People hate it, I hate it, listening to Meg/Danielle stream and they hate it. I'm MR21 and still don't have Despair lol... but guess what the first riven I unveiled in weeks was? Yup. Despair. Which is so fitting because that's all I feel anymore when playing. 

[NotHexadecimal]

I am all in for peculiar mods as long as it does not eat a hell lot of mod space, because most of my weapons are unforma'd so there is slot left (like 3-6) but nothing to do with it, some fun mods like these if they're a decent 5 mod slot, i'd sure use it.

[Firetempest]

I find no problem losing a mod slot for a weapon effect. People can do survival for 10 hours. I think we are broken enough to sacrifice a slot for fun and still be 'competitive' even though thats not even the point of them. I want to be farming Venus with a peculiar who on crit deaths make people dissolve like capture targets, thats fun. I will still be one shoting them with one less mod up to sortie lvls. So why not.

But I wouldn't mind something in return. even if it was a single digit % increase to focus or xp earned from that item with the mod. In most games, you are at least rewarded in some way if you purposely make it harder on yourself. Like a Halo skull to turn off weapon hud gave you more points. I could see a nightmare Peculiar which takes off your hud, or replaced it in some way so you know what you did to yourself like the dragon key icons.

I know people hate losing power for specific flair, thats why we cant possibly have arcane helmets anymore. But its not really the same. We have plenty of power, and we aren't forced to use a particular visual over another visual for a min/max power. Its the opposite problem. We have to choose some power for any effect. And I feel we have plenty of power to spare.

I could also see them mixed into Rivens as a random 4th or 5th stat. But I'm sure people would complain about have the perfect riven but your muzzle flash is glitter. While at the same time, add the extra options to not see or hear peculiars would quelch those complaints.

[CroqueMortTime]

I like the idea : more fun, less meta

(although, obviously a new game mode won't survive with that kind of rewards alone... )