Devstream 24

Devstream #24 started on March 7th, 2014, @ 2pm EST

Devstream 24 - Melee 2.0 and Q&A

Transcript

Melee 2.0

Rebecca: Let’s go over it in details since we have you here for the stream, you stopped by last week and gave a delay update, what kind of information do we have today?

Geoff: We feel bad about the delay. We realized it wasn't going to be good enough for what people wanted.

Steve: It starts with equipping melee weapon (hold vs tap). Prior melee button will still do the quick attack. We also have a hit-counter going in that will address the DPS gap. It's traditional but it brings a skill based side challenge that you’ll have to keep it going because it will reset while combining that with hit reactions.

Geoff: When you equip melee you can block, parry, etc. We’ve given you deeper options for how you fight and it's become a significant change to how you play. If you're blocking you’re not losing Stamina, only when its' doing something will it drain. ¹

Geoff: We're offering choice with the kind of attacks. As a base, you'll have the standard attack (mashing E) you'll play the same combo. But each weapon grip will have a moment where you pause; you'll play a new combo. If you don't execute those properly it will just stop and you'll keep going normally.

Steve: When your weapon is whirling in the air it and hits enemies it will feed into your hit counter and combo multiplier.

Steve: You’ll have quick attacks including a break/pause and tap to go into 2nd tier combos, heavy hits/ults which will also have a break and tier of combos. We need to work with what the game is, we have a lot of enemies and melee has to fit with that.

Geoff: I feel bad already that people are waiting; I'm not going to say the 'S' word.

Steve: It's not this week. We talked about releasing bits and pieces of it, but we want to bundle it up and make it a big deal. We're hoping sometime this month. We’ll make sure to let people know when we make a big progress step.

Steve: In regards to higher level enemies, some of these combos are going to give a lot more damage and your hit counter will help with higher level enemies. If you keep the hit counter going you're closing the gap on high level enemies.

Drop Tables

Rebecca: 12.4 took Credits out of Orokin Derelict Defense, what’s next for balancing the lesser rewards with the sought after gear? Some players, after getting 20 Control modules in a mission, feel effort wasted when they see a single control module appear as a reward. Players like Hybridon and Ritchel want to know what the future of the Void Rewards are.

Sheldon: We're looking for ways to still get that good shot at getting the prime parts you want. The timing rewards in Defense and Survival could use some work. Absolutely I see it and read it.

Sizing of Clan emblems

Steve: I see in chat that Clan Emblems are too small. Definitely we've been thinking about with user generated content. The ability to place an emblem larger on your Warframe, or allowing the Warlord to declare a color picker set you can use for better unification.

Lore

Rebecca: Nulyccan and Endevite ask why are lore tidbits only in a few codex entries for Warframes, and not all of them? When will we get to see that?

Steve: A lot of the writing is focused on the Events, and we need to start balancing out more for Quests to help with new players.

Scott: Some stuff get's stalled for big feature events, updates, etc.

Steve: Vor's prize is waiting for some stuff to come online so it fits in. We want to try and make it fit in more of a sandbox thing.

Scott: The expectation for Lore is quite high.

The future of Tenno reinforcements

Rebecca: S.Fayden asks what do you fellows have planned about future Tenno Reinforcements? There has been a lot of disdain in the community about the over-saturation of new weapons that are being adding so frequently, as well as concerns about the growing trend of these weapons being purchasable clantech. I was curious if what you folks thought about this whole situation and what you are all intending on doing.

Sheldon: One would be that Wednesday had no new weapon and currently we're not planning on doing a Tenno Reinforcement next week.

Scott: Basically instead of doing a weapon every week we're taking some of the resources and adding new customization, armor, dangles, etc. So instead of reinforcement, here's the new customization.

Sheldon: At the same time a lot of people like the weapons so we have to balance it out.

Scott: We're branching out and growing the portfolio.

PS4 Prime Access

Rebecca: DA_heef_ asks PS4 Rhino Prime this month?

Steve: I think it's a yes.

Sheldon: That is our goal

Steve: Sometimes there are policy changes and the way their store works is different.

Sheldon: Our PS4 team goes as fast as possible and Sony is working hard too.

PS4 Performance

Rebecca: PS4 Motivated Killer asks as there is still a lot of performance issues on the PS4 mainly with void missions, and survival missions. How is the progression if any going with getting us some stable frame rates.

Steve: We have in-test right now, another big change in optimization that will roll out to PC then PS4.

PS4 Account migration

Rebecca: The last time we commented on Account Migration we said that it was in the final stages of going live, where are we at now?

Sheldon: It works BUT it needs approval from Sony. We're waiting.

Hub system

Rebecca: Startos117 asks when I asked Steve about the Hub System, he said that you were working on a deployable alpha build, any ETA on this?

Steve: It's advancing on the technical side. We'll be rolling out a stress/bandwidth test because it's something we've never done before. It's being shared with Badlands, Proxy, etc.

Focus

Rebecca: Mythblaze asks can you go into further detail on the Focus system?

Steve: For those that don’t know once you reach rank 30 you can install a lens that will send you down 1 of 6 focus paths. Those will gives you special ways of boosting your entire arsenal; improving your Tenno. We've gone through 4 iterations so far. I put a solid 2 days into Focus on the design/interface side; it's advancing. If you're not interested in badlands then focus will really interest you.

Stealth

Rebecca: Chaotic TW asks with the introduction of the ability to turn off the alarms, are there going to be any more emphasis on stealth, rewards, challenges, or mission types?

Scott: We're looking at environmental hazard stuff. Some of the stuff went out and hated I’m sorry we'll tweak it. Stealth is a consideration but it’s very small changes.

XP

Rebecca: BRad_Skirata ask what happened to the XP adjustments... or maybe XP 2.0? Ever since that one thread got a bit of negative feedback, nothing has come up.

Steve: We decided we weren't going to do proportional because we thought of melee 5.0. We also included XP fixes for Sentinels.

Reputation System

Rebecca: Underfiend asks when will the reputation system be introduced and how will it work? This pertains to the first question as I've seen the reputation menu voting come up on mission end screens there is a reputation listing in our profile, but no way to interact with it.

Steve: It was very mixed about the abuse of vote kick. We have a positive only reputation system. But we need UI for that and that's not ready. We're not quite happy with that system. Personally melee/ending/quest/lore is trumping reputation. I apologize that reputation isn't in there yet, there are just brighter fires right now. It's absolutely important.

Frost

Scott:  Frost will get a look at along with Snowglobe.

Kubrow

Scott: We have two Kubrow versions, one is faction-less, and then you’ll see the more armored gross one where the Grineer have taken these as pets. In certain Grineer tiles you will see that version. ²

Scott: This is your own Tenno version. Potentially players will be getting a version of the Kubrow. This will be released in stages. ³

Concept Art

• Infested ship concept art
• Infested ship concept art
• Infested ship concept art
• Tenno ship concept art
• Gun emplacement concept art
• Scarves concept art
• Scarves concept art
• Hub concept art

1/8

Steve: When Infested return to the star chart in a permanent way they’ll have their own art set. In this set you'll see a fully infested ship over the centuries. You’ll learn more lore, who created them, etc.

This is early work of a Tenno ship. These are not guarantees but it's where you'll begin.

Gun emplacements, coming soon to Design Council! ⁴

Scarves

Steve: These are new Syandanas. There is more cosmetic stuff that we're doing outside of Syandanas as well. ⁵

Hub

Steve: This is an early concept of what the HUB will look like. ⁶

Scary leaders

Rebecca: Jrkong asks are we going to see scarier leaders in the future. While they're an entertaining gimmick they aren't really that scary for veterans.

Scott: Yes we’ll be focusing effort on AI customization (Leaders) to give them more character/ own transmissions. The Leader versions that players have now are proof that it works.

Tethra's Doom

Rebecca: PC Players overall are saying Tethra’s Doom is, well, easy. That Vay Hek doesn’t seem threatening, that really, the event is too easy. What are your thoughts?

STREAM INTERRUPTION

Summary

Credit goes to BuildMyPaperHeart on Reddit.

Melee 2.0

• Hold vs. Tap: Hold weapon switch button to pull out Melee.
• HIT COUNTER! Begins to help the DPS divide, but is not our only solution!
• Combo chain damage multipliers; reset on combo loss.
• Hit reactions, multi-hit visualization.
• Attack choice: each weapon grip has special combos based on timing of melee button input!
• Crazy attack animations ARE HAPPENING!
• Mods will also affect combos! Single damage, crowd control?
• AI should improve overall, not simply change behavior based on Melee 2.0
• Stamina drain only when actively parrying.
• Melee enemies with more robust attacks (Corpus, Grineer).
• Wish we could've released it, but it's not ready! We're anxious too!
• Sometime this month? "Quantum Leaps" in progress will be announced!
• High skill level combos will do more damage, as well as damage combo multipliers, will even the playing field.

ODD and Credit Rewards

• Removing the credits shows our direction, but removing all intermediary rewards isn't what we want (Prime Parts shouldn't drop at every wave).
• We're continuing tests. Sheldon working with Glen on ideation and design.
• Suggestions are awesome, but be sure to thank Sheldon and the Community Team for listening!

Clan Emblem is a tad small. Clan skins?

• Sounds cool! Moar user-gen content!
• Emblem on front of Warframe, or special Clan ColorPicker set.

Vor's Prize, events, codex entries... what's the scope of lore development?

• No Rhino lore entry because parts of the team didn't even know Rhino vs. Loki Prime!
• Working actively to add lore! Ryan, George, other writers and creative team.
• Diverted lore into a new Quest system (mission replay?)
• Some of this stuff might be stalled or affected by future features (Hubs, Badlands, Proxy Wars, MELEE 2.0)

What do you fellas have planned for Tenno Reinforcements?

• We're working on the next wave of items, hotfixes too!
• People want more skins, armor, helmets, so we're working on that now! Melee weapon Danglies!
• Tenno Reinforcements will be more than just weapons from now on.
• "The number of weapons is too damn high!" -Scott

PS4 wonders: A) Will 12.4 hit this month? and B) Game glitches!

• Sony Cert is tough, but we're hoping this month.
• Sometimes interface/policies change, or we screw up; issues with "proxy" services.
• As soon as we release a PC patch, the PS4 team takes it and codes it ASAP!
• We know about the glitches (loadtime, framerate, screentear). Optimizations rolling out soon!

PC-PS4 Migration?

• It 110% works! We only need approval now!

Dojo Garden Room Bug?

• Work in progress art that was ported on accident!
• Official Dojo overhaul coming later.

HUB System? Deployable Alpha build?

• Livestream 22 was our first reveal; advanced technical side, "lots of balls in the air," but right now it's just a social hub.
• We'll probably roll out a bandwidth/stress test at some point!
• This is being developed in tandem with the Badlands, Proxy War, etc.

What about those other endgame features you just mentioned?

• Focus on Focus Special ways of boosting many attributes, improving the Tenno, not the gear.
• "Beast Mode" - No longer once per day power up.
• DE loves INTENSIFY INTENSIFIES, and the "Warframe Codex Preview" video!
• If you're not interested in Badlands or Proxy War, focus on Focus!
• When we have a concrete plan, we'll put it on Design Council.

Melee 2.0 and the Glaive?

• It'll work!

Alarm Reversion state, are there more stealth rewards coming?

• It's not a single silver-bullet feature; one of many features coming that will make stealth more viable.
• We're tweaking these features; stealth is iterative.

What happened to XP adjustments?

• Got a lot of negative feedback, so we've scrapped that idea: required Melee weapon use, began Melee 2.0 ideation.
• "We're gonna hold that!" "Sure".

Reputation System? AFK votekick?

• Last time we discussed this, very mixed reception. Abusive use of votekick.
• "Positive Only" Reputation System. Still not happy with current build.
• Melee, Lore, Quests are trumping player importance currently. "Brighter fires" to maintain.
• We've moved some servers from DE to New York, in order to improve performance!

Concept Art Time!

• Wild Kubro! Two versions: jungle tileset wild, and "Armored" Grineer attack dogs
• TENNO KUBRO! LOOK AT THE SPACE DOGGY. Possible Sentinel Replacement. THEY CAN WALLRUN. "They went to Tenno Camp".
• "Dojo Petting Zoo room?" -Rebecca's suggestion
• Steve and Rebecca lose it upon cuteness overload!
• "When the Infested return to the StarChart in a permanent way..." INFESTED TILESET! Learn more about the Infested, why they were created, what they become. New enemy types, new obstacles. "Invasive" presentation.
• TENNO SHIP INTERIOR! Lotus shaped windshield.
• Why doesn't Rhino have a gold codpiece? EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW.
• All of this is "Aspirational" type content for now. "Lotus shower room" -Scott/Steve trolling. Rebecca disapproves.
• Grineer Gun Emplacement ideas! Design Council voting opens next week!
• Syandanas and other cosmetics coming soon! Syandana concepts, "others" are hidden for now.
• Early Concept for player Hubs, watch Captain Vor and badguy news broadcasts!

Bosses are not scary!

• The first version of Leaders are for confirming mechanics. Future leaders will get more flavor, abilities!

BOSSES AREN'T SCARY! Adjustments for Tethra's Doom?

• VAY HEK TRANSMISSION

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