Get ready, Tenno. (Warframe)

[rhoenix]

Devstream #30 - in which AI, Enemies, and Animations are discussed.

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- the J3 Golem is coming back.
- the recent Suspicious Shipments mini-event was a foreshadowing for newer Infested stuff. Basically, Alad V gift-wrapped Corpus for Infested to make new and interesting units from - including MOA's and drones.
- more discussion of enemy AI decisions; weighting between giving enemies smarter behaviors and such, versus just how fast players mow them down, and the paradox of enemies "being so smart they're dumb" discussed. Enemies having behaviors to regroup, run for cover, etc. don't help much when they're near-constantly mowed down mid-stride due to how much damage players do.

[rhoenix]

Quick note - beating up on the Grustrag Three (check my post on page 3 of this thread regarding the Brakk) gives a chance of giving you the Natural Talent mod. This, to me, is an excellent reason to beat up on them a time or three besides trying to get Brakk parts.

[Hotfoot]

Let it be noted. THIS is how you rekindle my interest in Warframe:

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[rhoenix]

You know, it occurs to me that after their Flappy Birds joke, someone in the Dev team thought "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we could do something kinda like that for real?"

Since this is a lot like that, and that thought makes me snicker.

That said, this does look like a cool addition, and I look forward to trying it.

Also, A Mirage using a Quanta equals near Nova-level room-clearing explosions.

[Hotfoot]

...Aside from "flight" and "wings" being ostensibly part of both, I don't see the reference. Flappy Birds was a shitty flash game notable only for stealing the artistic style of Super Mario Brothers, controlled by tapping the screen to move the bird up and down through obstacles.

Everyone made fun of it for five minutes because the creator steadfastly denied stealing the art or art style from Super Mario Brothers, then took the game down because "people were playing it too much".

This looks more akin to Strike Vector or Strike Suit Zero.

[rhoenix]

...Aside from "flight" and "wings" being ostensibly part of both, I don't see the reference. Flappy Birds was a shitty flash game notable only for stealing the artistic style of Super Mario Brothers, controlled by tapping the screen to move the bird up and down through obstacles.

Everyone made fun of it for five minutes because the creator steadfastly denied stealing the art or art style from Super Mario Brothers, then took the game down because "people were playing it too much".

This looks more akin to Strike Vector or Strike Suit Zero.

Shortly after the "author" took down Flappy Birds, the Warframe devs added a "Flappy Zephyr" game mode. If you login to Warframe with the username "flappy" and the password "birds," you can then play Flappy Zephyr.

Despite how utterly silly both the Flappy Birds and it's tribute "Flappy Zephyr" are, the art assets and such when playing make me easily think "what if..." with the sort of game mode being teased now.

[rhoenix]

So - after a discussion Hotfoot and I had briefly last night, I wanted to go over two things - the Latron Wraith, and the Kubrows.

1. The Latron Wraith

Compared to the Latron, the Wraith variant is of course better, but does less damage than it's Prime counterpart:

Latron
RoF: 4.2
Mag: 15
Reload: 2.4s
Dmg: 54
Crit%: 10%
Crit Dmg: 200%
Status: 10%

Latron Wraith
RoF: 5.4
Mag: 15
Reload: 2.4s
Dmg: 55.1
Crit%: 25%
Crit Dmg: 250%
Status: 20%

Latron Prime
RoF: 4.2
Mag: 15
Reload: 2.4s
Dmg: 84
Crit%: 15%
Crit Dmg: 250%
Status: 25%

So - does a slight bit more damage than the regular Latron (55.1 versus 54), but not anywhere near as much as the Latron Prime (55.1 versus 84). So, comparing versus standard damage, the Latron Wraith at first glance doesn't look all that great as an Event reward, apart from giving you a free weapon slot.

However, you'll notice that the base crit chance for the Wraith is 25% - almost as good as the Soma's base of 30%. When you equip a maxed Point Strike mod on it, the chit chance will jump up to 62.5%, and with a maxed Vital Sense, you can get the crit damage up to 550%. Yes, 55.1 is less base than 84, but 55.1 critting at 5.5x damage more than half the time quite nicely makes up for it.

The downside is that to get this gun to the point where it can equal or exceed the usability of the Latron Prime, you'll probably have to Polarize it twice, to get two additional V polarities. The setup I'd be going for once it has a total of three V polarities is Serration, Split Chamber, Shred, Wildfire, Infected Clip & Stormbringer (for Corrosive damage), Point Strike, and Vital Sense. I'd keep that setup for Void, Infested, and Grineer, and just swap out the Infected Clip for a Cryo Rounds (for Magnetic damage) against Corpus.

With either of those setups though, the damage that gun would be able to cough up would be very impressive.

Another option is to replace the Stormbringer with a Hellfire, and replace the Infected Clip with a Hammer shot. This would make all the elemental damage Fire (with extra shots per clip thanks to Wildfire), but would bring the crit damage from 5.5x to 7.0x. Given the gun's high crit chance, this is also a very seductive idea.

- - -

Now - Fun With Kubrows.
- Yes, their health and loyalty both drop per day, requiring feeding and petting.
- Yes, you have to buy DNA Stabilizers (at 75,000 credits each), each of which only has 6 uses to restore it's health.
- Yes, you have to spend way too much time and effort to collect the mods from Earth missions (from Wild Kubrows), and time breeding the Kubrow properly.

However, I found out that if you're willing to put up with all of that, the Kubrow can be a truly fearsome companion, more so than the Sentinels available.

The reasons for this are two-fold:

First, the Kubrow's base bite damage is 120 (slashing), with a 10% crit chance, and 160% crit damage. That's really not bad.

Second, the defensive mods the Kubrow uses work differently than a Sentinel's does. With a Sentinel, the mods work just like the mods do for your Warframe - they add a percentage of the base being modified. With a Kubrow however, the mods not only add a percentage of your Kubrow's health/shields/armor, they also add your Warframe's total as well. For example: the Link Shields mod, when maxed, adds 110% of your Warframe's total for the Kubrow. This means that if you're on a Frost with maxed Redirection and Vigor, your Kubrow's shield total will be 1794, assuming you have a maxed Frost, a maxed Kubrow, and maxed mods for both.

Now, the downside to these mods is that if you're using a Warframe with tissue paper for Armor (such as the Ember, with a grand total of 10), adding a Link Armor mod to the Kubrow will add 110% of tissue paper for its armor value. However, on a Warframe with a decent shield & health total, the Link Shields and Link Health mods can make your Kubrow very durable.

Next, we get to special abilities. Kubrows don't really get any other weapons to use other than their bite attack, but the Bite and Maul mods for the Kubrow add a large damage bonus, and a large crit chance/crit damage bonus as well. Of the nine additional abilities, eight are restricted to particular breeds of Kubrow (Hunt, Stalk, Howl, Protect, Ferocity, Savagery, Unleashed, and Dig).

- Hunt (Huras breed only) gives the Kubrow another attack option that causes knockdown, and can affect multiple targets at once, though does less base damage than a normal attack.
- Stalk (Huras breed only) allows the Kubrow to cloak itself and the player, much like the Shade Sentinel can.
- Howl (Raksa breed only) affects nearby enemies the same way as the Nekros' ability Terrify does; lowering defense and making affected enemies run away for a short time.
- Protect (Raksa breed only) recovers a Warframe's shields similarly to the Sentinel's mod Guardian does, except that the Kubrow version works consistently, as long as your Warframe's shields aren't already full.
- Dig (Sahasa breed only) allows a Kubrow to get free items (ammo, health orbs, energy orbs, credits, or mods) for you every 15 seconds.
- Ferocity (Sahasa breed only) allows a Kubrow to use finisher attacks on prone enemies.
- Savagery (Sunika breed only) works exactly the same as Ferocity (allows a Kubrow to use finisher attacks on prone enemies)
- Unleashed (Sunika breed only) knocks down a VIP target (the targets in Capture missions) for easy capture.
- Scavenge (any breed) works much like Master Thief does for your Warframe, in that it allows a Kubrow a chance to walk up to a red locker and break it open. Better yet, Master Thief gives a max of 40% to break open a locker, whereas Scavenge goes up to 90%.

Additional useful mods are:
- Pack Leader (heals your Kubrow with a percentage of damage dealt by your Warframe's melee attacks)
- Fast Deflection (faster shield regeneration for your Kubrow; obviously useful)

So in conclusion, though a Kubrow requires quite a bit of time collecting the right mods, and breeding the right species of Kubrow, the Kubrow can become a very powerful companion, as you can see. If I started my Kubrow project, I'd probably go for a Raksa breed, for it's Howl and Protect abilities. If you're on a Warframe with good health and shields, your Kubrow can become a very tanky companion indeed.

Note, however, that the only ways to restore a Kubrow's health in a mission are health orbs, you using melee strikes while the Kubrow has the Pack Leader mod equipped, and the Rejuvination aura - note that Health Restore items, Team Health Restore items, and even an Oberon Warframe's Renewal ability will not work to restore the Kubrow's health.

So finally, a comparison:

Advantages of Kubrow vs. Sentinel:
- Much larger maximum health, shields, and armor (especially with Link mods equipped, and using the right Warframe)
- Can self-regenerate (by eating health orbs, or with Pack Leader)
- Immune to laser traps
- very high single-target attack power (especially with Bite and Maul equipped)
- Attacks enemies independently of player (even ones the player cannot attack due to obstacles)
- Can be revived if downed
- Breed abilities are used more often and more extensively (such as Protect; Protect procs nearly constantly, compared to the Guardian mod for Sentinels which procs only when your shields entirely drop)

Disadvantages of Kubrow vs. Sentinel:
- Very expensive maintenance (requiring daily upkeep, and DNA stabilizers to keep at peak performance)
- Highly dependent on Warframe for base health, shields, and armor (due to Link mods, using a Loki will result in a less resilient Kubrow than if you use a Frost, for example)
- Effectiveness restricted by terrain (as the Kubrow doesn't fly, unlike Sentinels)
- Attacks are all melee-only (which means it can't attack flying enemies), and reduces efficacy against enemies with ranged attacks
- Attacks only deal slashing damage, and you cannot add elemental damage (as there are no elemental damage mods for Kubrows)
- If the player dies after the Kubrow does, and the player uses a Revive, it will not resurrect the Kubrow
- Slow at attacking targets or changing targets, making them less effective against groups of enemies
- Slow attack speed, despite high damage, means it likely will do less sustained DPS than a properly-outfitted Sentinel
- Suffers environmental damage (such as toxin clouds, frozen areas, or fire), whereas Sentinels do not, because they fly

[rhoenix]

Quick aside here. The new slashing damage mods have actually made me rethink certain weapons. Namely, the Flux Rifle, Dread, Drakgoon, Orthos (Prime), and Dragon Nikana. I'd consider those mods for the Dual Zorens, but the crit setup I use for those axes means I have no room for additional slashing damage shenanigans.

The old slashing damage mods plus the new ones give a maximum bonus of +210% slashing damage for a weapon if you have both of them equipped. That's horrific.

[Hotfoot]

Digital Extremes now owned by Chinese Chicken Company.

Well, it's the Majority Shareholder, at least.

[rhoenix]

Digital Extremes now owned by Chinese Chicken Company.

Well, it's the Majority Shareholder, at least.

No terrible puns about this? I'm surprised and appalled.

[Hotfoot]

I didn't want to drum over the article's strengths, but if you want to buffalo me into it, I suppose I could wing a few.

[rhoenix]

Update 15 will be arriving soon. The big takeaways:

- No more Warframe ability mods.
This means that two slots on your Warframe will be removed, giving you two extra mod slots, while your abilities do not take up total available energy for mods. The bad news is that the Warframe abilities themselves will level based on direct use, so if you never really used a particular ability on a frame you have, it'll likely not be very high when the Update hits. The best part though is that Ability mods won't drop from enemies anymore.

- Factions will be a thing.
Reputation of different smaller factions, and what items they give you for doing stuff will be introduced, and added to.

- The Archwing will arrive.
Apparently it will have it's own weapons to equip and select from, and given the vast numbers of other weapons already, I expect the available Archwing weaponry to also be added to over time.

[rhoenix]

Archwing gameplay teaser:

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[rhoenix]

Update 15 is here.

First, is the Archwing. You have to access it through your Codex, in the Quests section. This is a good approach, if you ask me. Anyway, you then have to undertake a mission to find the mcguffin, and then a subsequent mission to get all the blueprints for its parts. Then, you have to actually build the parts in your Foundry (similar to a Warframe, or a Prime weapon), and then assemble the Archwing itself. Mine's still making, and it won't be done for another day, so I have no experience playing it yet.

Second, is factions. Factions are now a thing in Warframe, and increasing your reputation with one faction will lower it with another; all of them have their allies and enemies among the other factions. Though none of them like the current state of affairs in the Sol system, they disagree rather strongly about what should be done about it, and what to bribe Tenno with to help them.

Yes, this is where you get Augment mods - mods whose job is to augment how a weapon (such as adding +200% multishot for the Hek), or Warframe ability functions (such as allowing an Ash's Smoke Bomb to also conceal nearby allies), besides being able to make certain Tier IV keys, and other re-usable recipes for consumable items, as well as badges, depending on the faction. There are six factions, and grinding your rep with one will lower it through the floor with other factions that consider the one you're with their enemy. If your rep gets too low, they might send people to jump you in-mission, joining the Stalker, Zanuka, and now the Grimstag Three as random mission-crashing trolls.

Third, is your Warframe mods slots. You now have eight slots plus your Aura, just like the setup for weapons. Abilities no longer use mods, and are instead checked by clicking Abilities in the Arsenal screen, a button next to the Loadout Options button at the lower right. Sentinels did not get this treatment, and still use mods for their abilities, however.

[rhoenix]

Two things.

Syndicates - once you join a particular Syndicate, you then have to wear that Syndicate's sigil to earn reputation with them. Go to your Arsenal, and go to Appearance for your Warframe. The section labelled Regalia has a space for a front sigil and a back sigil, though you can only wear one or the other. Once you have it equipped, a portion of affinity you earn during missions will go toward reputation with that Syndicate.

Archwings - in a word, fun. Three dimensional space fighter combat at different ranges, with the addition of dramatic slashing of spacecraft with swords. What's not to love? Interception missions in an Archwing are much more interesting, I have to say.

[B4UTRUST]

Just starting to play Warframe. Just finished the Vor's Prize quest set. Trying to figure out where to go from there or what to do really. So I figure I'm a long way off from the archwing or anything else you're discussing.

[rhoenix]

Just starting to play Warframe. Just finished the Vor's Prize quest set. Trying to figure out where to go from there or what to do really. So I figure I'm a long way off from the archwing or anything else you're discussing.

You're not as far off as you think - you have to be of Mastery Rank 2 at least to start collecting the parts for the Archwing and building it, and I imagine you're quite close. Just keep trying out new weapons, make sure to get each one to 30 before deciding to keep or trash it. Getting it to 30 will get you the full Mastery XP available for that weapon, and at level 30 you can usually tell whether or not you want it in your inventory.

For now, just clear the planets, one at a time. Running the Apollodorus survival mission in Mercury is good for XP, as well as getting your hands on some good mods early, such as Redirection, Vitality, Continuity, Intensity, Serration, Split Chamber, some of the elemental mods, and the four ammo mutation mods for the various weapon types. If you don't get them by the time you start clearing Venus, please make sure you have those as soon as you can - my advice would be to have them by the time you face the Jackal in Venus. By that point, you should be at least MR2, and likely higher.

As for Sentinels, I'd suggest just getting the Carrier and making it when you can.

[B4UTRUST]

I don't think I'm anywhere near mastery. I think I'm level 8 or 9 across the board for my guns, sword and frame. I took the full auto rifle, standard pistol and katana for my starting gear and haven't really upgraded beyond dropping a few mods in. I think I do have one of the weapons mutations. Think it's for my secondary, I believe.

[rhoenix]

I don't think I'm anywhere near mastery. I think I'm level 8 or 9 across the board for my guns, sword and frame. I took the full auto rifle, standard pistol and katana for my starting gear and haven't really upgraded beyond dropping a few mods in. I think I do have one of the weapons mutations. Think it's for my secondary, I believe.

Then you're just fine equipment-wise to start.

My best advice is to just play Apollodorus a time or two, and stay until the enemies start getting too frisky. If you can stay at least until the 15 minute mark, you start getting a good chance of getting very useful rare mods that will help you deal more damage, or take more punishment.

Ideally, you'll want to stay until you have the Split Chamber and Serration mods for your rifle, and Redirection, Vitality, Continuity, and Intensity for your Warframe, as having those will make moving through the map after Mercury much more straightforward, and less frustrating. The bright side is that by the time you have them, you'll likely have ranked up at least one item to 30.

Once you're MR2, we can invite you to the Clan, and I can give you stuff, such as a Shred mod. I guarantee that Shred will make your rifle a happy rifle.

P.S. I have the rest of this week off from work, so if you see me on Skype or in Warframe, send me a message. I'll be glad to help you out.

[Hotfoot]

Honestly most mastery levels past 2 don't matter that much. They limit a few guns here and there, they let you put down more collectors, but beyond that, it's bragging rights. You'll eventually get so many pieces of gear that mastery will come just by trying out new frames and weapons. This also means that even if you have a shit weapon you hate, eventually you'll equip it just to get it to 30 and sell it for the mastery XP if you want some of the higher end weapons.

The baseline gear should serve you well for a while. Which Frame did you pick?

[B4UTRUST]

Excalibur I think it was called. I've gotten a couple of mods put in but nothing real serious yet. Finished up Vor's Prize mission set and started back on Earth to go through missions to grind out stuff unless someone has better suggestions.

[Hotfoot]

Ah, good. That's probably the best starter frame all around. The others can be collected relatively early on, but that one can only be picked up at Pluto (rather bizarre decision, that).

The only advice I can think of for the moment is figure out what frames and weapons suit your playstyle, and start building the resources and parts you need for them now. The warframe wiki is pretty good for that information.

[B4UTRUST]

I kind of like the excalibur frame but without being able to try out the other ones I'm not sure how well I'd like or not like them.

I like trying to pick people off at a distance, not as comfortable yet with the close in melee. And I wish I could melee faster for when I get mobs sneaking up on me or attacking me in packs like those dogs(not sure what they're called.. Kelbos?). So I guess a support/distance fighter would be a good option as long as it did have some decent close range defense. Any suggestions?

[Hotfoot]

Latron rifle and some sort of dual short weapons for melee, with a machine pistol in reserve. Also either the Loki or Ash frames.

[rhoenix]

I like trying to pick people off at a distance, not as comfortable yet with the close in melee.

You'll be happy to note that there's a large variety of weapons that do so. There's even a melee weapon you can throw at people, like a bladed frisbee of death. And doom.

And I wish I could melee faster for when I get mobs sneaking up on me or attacking me in packs like those dogs(not sure what they're called.. Kelbos?). So I guess a support/distance fighter would be a good option as long as it did have some decent close range defense. Any suggestions?

Excalibur's Radial Blind is great for those times - for other times, I'd say just practice melee a bit more if it appeals to you. Personally, I have the Scroll Up on my mouse set to change between pistol and longarm, and Scroll Down changes from whatever weapon I was on to melee. You don't have to do this, but I find it easier. You don't have to change to melee to get some good strikes in; you just won't be able to perform Channeling attacks, and that's fine; you don't really need to unless you mod for them.

For melee weapons, try getting your hands on the Dual Heat Swords, or another dual-weapon set. Not only does every strike have the potential to hit multiple targets, it hits pretty hard on its own, and can make a cool fire wave effect if you perform a ground slam with them. Just make sure to get your good ol' trusty Skana to 30 eventually.