Hexagonal Mod Tiles - A Jumping-Off Point On The Road To Unique Builds

[Lumireaver]

Basic idea:

 

The above image suggests a purely visual change. In the long run, mods can be made to have enhanced effects/hidden abilities which activate depending on adjacent mods. Different weapons could have different shaped tile-sets, allowing for more/less opportunities to touch. The relationships between mods on different pieces of equipment in addition to the varying tile-set shapes should encourage more experimentation.

 

Idea is rough. I forgot an aura slot, and deliberately excluded sentinel/sentinel weapon mods.

[Gregio]

Exquisite idea. It'd add an extra level of combinations and customization. I like it.
Coming up with balanced effects for these combinations would prove interesting, I'm sure.

[Saavedro]

Highly interesting! A system like this could have a lot of potential if done right! My only concern would be people figuring out the best placement of mods and it'd become the only setup ever to have.

[GamingEntity]

Works out very well.

Aura's can be seperate as always, unless it stands in the middle and connects to all of them...then that would allow interesting side effects of aura mod; in turn making them more powerful.

 

 

Anyway good idea.  I hope this will pass through.

Edited August 20, 2013 by GamingEntity

[Lumireaver]

Highly interesting! A system like this could have a lot of potential if done right! My only concern would be people figuring out the best placement of mods and it'd become the only setup ever to have.

 

The hope is that, at the very least, different tile-sets will make the "optimum build" for each weapon slightly different.

For example, you wouldn't be able to get as many cross-equipment bonuses with these sets:

 

 

Works out very well.

Aura's can be seperate as always, unless it stands in the middle and connects to all of them...then that would allow interesting side effects of aura mod; in turn making them more powerful.

 

 

Anyway good idea.  I hope this will pass through.

 

Thanks. I'd imagine auras could be slotted into an unlinked hex, but  making them have global effects on all of the tiles would be interesting too. It'd have to be handled carefully though.

[ArcSynder]

I love it. So much potential if executed properly. 

[GamingEntity]

Question: would the Hex slots be moveable or fixed?  I was under the impression that the hex slots were fixed.

 

Your second slides shows that you can move them.

[Lumireaver]

The idea is to design a (somewhat) unique tile-set for each piece of equipment. So while a Fragor might have more tiles touching Warframe slots, a Scindo might have more tiles touching other melee weapon tiles.

 

Using the same tile-set for everything would be fine too, but it might sacrifice the experimental/explorative builds the system is designed to promote.

[FLSH_BNG]

This is extremely interesting, I'd like to see more!

 

Would different frames also have different tile configurations? Allowing certain ones to be able to more easily specialize in melee, or ranged fighting?

 

And could it be arranged so that certain weapons would have a type of tile synergy with other weapons to make them all more compatible?

 

What would happen if a frame and all the weapons were Prime variants and more or less "perfectly compatible?"

 

How about if auras were connected only to a certain sector, providing a bonus only to either a weapon or the frame?

[notlamprey]

This one will be strong on the plow!

Seriously though, cool idea.

[Liminal]

I like hexagons.

Also, this idea is freaking genius.

[Ganpot]

The idea itself is quite nice (and visually striking).  Unfortunately, the odds of it being completely unbalance-able are 99.9%.  Balance is already Warframe's weak point, and if the devs are unwilling (or unable) to balance mods when they don't have a million potential interactive effects, then there's no hope for this system.  

[PaperAlien]

Holy sh*t

*head explodes*

[Lumireaver]

This is extremely interesting, I'd like to see more!

 

Would different frames also have different tile configurations? Allowing certain ones to be able to more easily specialize in melee, or ranged fighting?

 

And could it be arranged so that certain weapons would have a type of tile synergy with other weapons to make them all more compatible?

 

What would happen if a frame and all the weapons were Prime variants and more or less "perfectly compatible?"

 

How about if auras were connected only to a certain sector, providing a bonus only to either a weapon or the frame?

 

Thanks. Giving each Warframe a different configuration might be possible, if a bit tricky. In my head I've organized it like this: 

 

(The semi-transparent tiles represent all of the tiles a primary/secondary/melee weapon could occupy.)

 

In this way, there would be no conflicts whenever two tiles want to exist on the same location. That said, if DE wrote up some code to dynamically shift a tile to an adjacent one it could work.

 

Crazier ideas could definately work, but I've tried to keep things fairly conservative to get the idea across.

 

The idea itself is quite nice (and visually striking).  Unfortunately, the odds of it being completely unbalance-able are 99.9%.  Balance is already Warframe's weak point, and if the devs are unwilling (or unable) to balance mods when they don't have a million potential interactive effects, then there's no hope for this system.  

 

Balance is always tricky, but never impossible.

 

Also that's why we're here. To complain about buff/nerfs. :)

[Aizeol]

Brilliant idea! This seems to be a revamp that helps both players and developers craft interesting and fun as well as balanced builds and ideas for warframe. Bravo sir, bravo!

[raian78]

Love it.

[LeoAtKnight]

Wow. Just wow. Amazing. Simply amazing.

So I have to ask, what's your thought on bringing mod power into this idea? Does it work the same way as it does now? How does it fit into the UI?

I feel like if they took out the wrench icon on the weapon/warframe slots they could make this whole hex tree accessible through the "Mods" button in our Arsenal. The Hex Tree would cover most of the screen, and our current mods could be in a slider on the right, with an option to enlarge the slider so we can fuse, transmute, etc. Mod power would most likely work as it does now, it works well enough. No reason to change it, right?

Heh. Sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself, but actually, I'm pretty ecstatic about this idea, and a little jealous I didn't think of it myself.

I really hope this gets considered.

Edit:

The above image suggests a purely visual change.

Whoops! Didn't notice that line lol. A little embarrassed to be honest..

Ignore my comment about Mod Power. xD

Edited August 21, 2013 by ProfessorSnow

[Hayden11121]

 Sadly, DE will create the "Porma" which is now like Forma, but for Hexagon slots, removing any customization and forcing power creep, yet again!

[-Kittens-]

Definitely an interesting concept, with some nice avenues for customization but I'm not really sure how this would avoid stacked builds and encourage experimentation honestly once all the combo iterations are youtubed and datamined, same as now.

[Rottae]

I love this idea! It should be... implemented ASAP. 

More player builds is always good and having mod strengthen and weaken when connected to the right or wrong type of mod would be top notch. Making the choice and location of mods very important and every player could consider how they wanted to fit their frame.

Also it could greatly add to teamplay (putting your cursor above someones name in party shows you a dropdown picture of his entire build (and how things are slotted), this would also help new players as they would be able to look at it and check out other players build easily and a veteran can help by building a "suggested" build for someone else and then showing it off. (Sending a pic of a build to a friend would be doable in one screensave to!)

+1 Man, hope this gets implemented!

[gell]

Calm down, folks. The OP didn't actually suggest anything. He's come up with a visual change and I like it, but it has no "genius" or amazing thinking just yet. That part needs to be fleshed out. I'm not putting down the OP; I think it could be the start of something great (although I may be biased as I've designed a system similar to this where different classes had different shaped layouts).

 

This is where ideas are thrown around so we can see what would fit.

 

As the OP suggested, adjacent mods could affect each the other mods. Any suggestions on how? Does a gun's fire rate mod next to a warframe's Focus do anything? Do matching polarities benefit each other and all other polarities use 1 extra energy?

 

People suggesting this be implemented immediately are way off though. There's nothing here yet, and the OP knows it too. This is a scrap of a design, and it must be fleshed out before anything gets done in code. Could be real good, but right now it's like suggesting bread should be cut up before being sold, but no one has figured out how to cut it yet (i.e. we haven't resulted in sliced bread yet).

[LeoAtKnight]

Calm down, folks. The OP didn't actually suggest anything. He's come up with a visual change and I like it, but it has no "genius" or amazing thinking just yet. That part needs to be fleshed out. I'm not putting down the OP; I think it could be the start of something great (although I may be biased as I've designed a system similar to this where different classes had different shaped layouts).

 

This is where ideas are thrown around so we can see what would fit.

 

As the OP suggested, adjacent mods could affect each the other mods. Any suggestions on how? Does a gun's fire rate mod next to a warframe's Focus do anything? Do matching polarities benefit each other and all other polarities use 1 extra energy?

 

People suggesting this be implemented immediately are way off though. There's nothing here yet, and the OP knows it too. This is a scrap of a design, and it must be fleshed out before anything gets done in code. Could be real good, but right now it's like suggesting bread should be cut up before being sold, but no one has figured out how to cut it yet (i.e. we haven't resulted in sliced bread yet).

I could argue that the idea itself is in fact genius in itself, even if it isn't fully fleshed out.

But yes, this idea isn't anything more than what we have right now but if we keep this topic alive and keep thinking we can make it so much more.

This thread is our think tank, so let's get thinking!

[Rottae]

Hmm... I think mods that do essentially the same thing, should lower the effect of any nearby identicals (redirection and Vitality for example) but if a polar opposite of it is nearby it is increased, especially when there is a polarity. (So a Hornet Strike next to a Vitality would buff both, Yin and Yang thinking)

Polarities should strengthen the buff/debuff to a mod.

 

[Aizeol]

One suggestion to help the designers, don't have any current mods interact with eachother. Let that be left to Mods Season 2. This would allow the design to be implemented quickly without having to re-write the behavior of all the current mods.

A second suggestion to flesh the idea out more: have mods that interact begin by having attributes that become more powerful or less powerful based on the polarity of the mods around them, not individual mods themselves.

Example: Have a +Health mod become more powerful with every adjacent "Defensive" mod around it.

Example 2: Have a damage mod become less powerful for every mod adjacent, regardless of polarity.

In both cases, where it is slotted becomes as important, if not more important, as what other mods are also equipped.

[Hayden11121]

One suggestion to help the designers, don't have any current mods interact with eachother. Let that be left to Mods Season 2. This would allow the design to be implemented quickly without having to re-write the behavior of all the current mods.

A second suggestion to flesh the idea out more: have mods that interact begin by having attributes that become more powerful or less powerful based on the polarity of the mods around them, not individual mods themselves.

Example: Have a +Health mod become more powerful with every adjacent "Defensive" mod around it.

Example 2: Have a damage mod become less powerful for every mod adjacent, regardless of polarity.

In both cases, where it is slotted becomes as important, if not more important, as what other mods are also equipped.

One thing I can only imagine is the power creep coming off of that.

 

Now everyone stacks the same polarity streamline has, and now everything is next to spammable...

 

Or, in Loki, Vauban's, Trinity's, etc's case, people stack Continuity polarized mods next to Continuity.

 

Some balance would need to come out of that... that was worse then Pre U7 way of working..