"Warframe is not a hard game"
Vorilex
9,625 views
This is my first time publicly participating in a conversation through a video, and my first video essay-like thingy. ...I'm cutting it close, seeing as Icebind is releasing tomorrow (at time of posting), but I'm excited to share regardless. Thanks for your time and attention!
0:00 Intro
2:30 Forms of difficulty
8:12 "Artificial" difficulty
9:36 When a player says...
12:53 Beyond comprehension
14:55 Expressions of skill
17:42 Distribution of difficulties
22:37 Executive endgame challenge
26:45 Outro
20 Comments
@LordTonzilla 23 hours ago
Not pertaining to specifically Warframe, but I constantly have to remind my friends to check themselves when they say something is "easy" and they're clearly just ignoring all of the knowledge and practice they've had to get to that point.
@heinavaara113 2 days ago
I find the bit about different kinds of difficulty to be a good addition. It gave me some ideas and vocabulary. Previously I've thought of difficulty as mainly consisting of executive difficulty with a bit of strategic difficulty. In my eye strategic difficulty has always been labeled more as the "depth of the game mechanics" and together with comprehensive difficulty as "complexity". Of course in terms of strategy games like Total war, strategic difficulty has had more weight in what I considered to mean difficulty. When you asked "Is Warframe difficult?", I had an immediate answer. "No, but it's incredibly complex." Of course, in my mind complexity did add to the amount of difficulty, but it still mainly consisted of executive difficulty. I thank you for bringing to light this article about difficulty, I can now more proficiently talk about it with people familiar with Warframe and also those new to it, and of course this applies to other games as well.
I think Warframe is really quite difficult in terms of comprehensive and strategic difficulty, but isn't so big on executive difficulty. Warframe has a lot of different overlapping mechanics and tons of different ways to go about strategy. But then executing all of that is generally incredibly easy. About artificial difficulty, I think what elite archimedia does with randomized load outs is artificial difficulty. It doesn't add to executive difficulty, nor comprehensive difficulty. One could say that it adds to strategic difficulty, but I don't think it does it in a healthy way. Limiting loadout options in warframe, is much like limiting unit options in Total war. It is much like saying "Oh you're only allowed to bring infantry units against this anti-infantry army". It artificially makes the game more strategically difficult, by forcing you into a bad strategy. The random modifiers on the other hand; tougher enemies, less shields, that kinda stuff, are a good way to add strategic difficulty to Warframe. It doesn't force you into selecting bad strategic options, but it gives you more things you need to consider.
When I talk about wanting more difficult content in Warframe, I typically mean executive difficulty, because there is not much executively difficult content in the game. Most of that kind of difficulty in Warframe comes through trying to optimize runs, for example trying to do as many tridolons in one night as possible. Eidolons themselves aren't very difficult to execute, but if you want to optimize the hunts, then it starts getting more intense with more muscle memory and skill required. I would like some content, that has executive difficulty beyond just trying to optimize your runs to be as fast as possible.
I think Warframe is really quite difficult in terms of comprehensive and strategic difficulty, but isn't so big on executive difficulty. Warframe has a lot of different overlapping mechanics and tons of different ways to go about strategy. But then executing all of that is generally incredibly easy. About artificial difficulty, I think what elite archimedia does with randomized load outs is artificial difficulty. It doesn't add to executive difficulty, nor comprehensive difficulty. One could say that it adds to strategic difficulty, but I don't think it does it in a healthy way. Limiting loadout options in warframe, is much like limiting unit options in Total war. It is much like saying "Oh you're only allowed to bring infantry units against this anti-infantry army". It artificially makes the game more strategically difficult, by forcing you into a bad strategy. The random modifiers on the other hand; tougher enemies, less shields, that kinda stuff, are a good way to add strategic difficulty to Warframe. It doesn't force you into selecting bad strategic options, but it gives you more things you need to consider.
When I talk about wanting more difficult content in Warframe, I typically mean executive difficulty, because there is not much executively difficult content in the game. Most of that kind of difficulty in Warframe comes through trying to optimize runs, for example trying to do as many tridolons in one night as possible. Eidolons themselves aren't very difficult to execute, but if you want to optimize the hunts, then it starts getting more intense with more muscle memory and skill required. I would like some content, that has executive difficulty beyond just trying to optimize your runs to be as fast as possible.
@Densoro 1 day ago (edited)
I enjoyed this! It's kind of amusing, how legalistically Warframe players learn to talk because of all the distinct technicalities in this game haha and you made several good points!
After bashing my head against Icebind yesterday with my go-to squad, I think the game mode's biggest annoyance comes from DE's struggles with readability and information conveyance. For side missions in the first round, we had Signal Chain, Cryothermia, and Lockbox.
The first one was not an issue, but because the entire level was full of Toxin Eximi, it was not remotely clear that we were getting killed through our shields by the Cryothermia canister itself. We just assumed another Toxin aura clipped us while we were carrying it. Our previous experience with Cryothermia had it dealing fire and ice damage, which don't bypass shields, but suddenly this does? I'm not saying this objective is overpowered or unreasonable, just...counterintuitive and poorly-explained lol
Likewise, the on-screen instructions for Lockbox made it sound like a Scaldra cache, except the tokens drop from enemies rather than being hidden around the map like Easter eggs. We'd grab a cipher, run to the box, mash interact hoping to deposit it inside the objective, then run off to grab 'another' cipher, not realizing we were still holding the last one. This objective is not like Scaldra caches. Instead, all six of us need to keep the cipher in-hand, forcing us to use our secondary, and stand within the circle. Switching to operator (even to cast a quick ability) forcibly drops the cipher. Standing still for too long randomly drops the cipher.
Now that we understand what we're looking at, these objectives should become routine, but the first impression was painfully poorly-communicated. I love Warframe, but they really struggle to create encounters where the mandatory encounter-specific mechanic is obvious or logically intuitive.
That's not new. I still see people in Sorties who fail to understand how Lech Kril's invulnerability phases work lol
After bashing my head against Icebind yesterday with my go-to squad, I think the game mode's biggest annoyance comes from DE's struggles with readability and information conveyance. For side missions in the first round, we had Signal Chain, Cryothermia, and Lockbox.
The first one was not an issue, but because the entire level was full of Toxin Eximi, it was not remotely clear that we were getting killed through our shields by the Cryothermia canister itself. We just assumed another Toxin aura clipped us while we were carrying it. Our previous experience with Cryothermia had it dealing fire and ice damage, which don't bypass shields, but suddenly this does? I'm not saying this objective is overpowered or unreasonable, just...counterintuitive and poorly-explained lol
Likewise, the on-screen instructions for Lockbox made it sound like a Scaldra cache, except the tokens drop from enemies rather than being hidden around the map like Easter eggs. We'd grab a cipher, run to the box, mash interact hoping to deposit it inside the objective, then run off to grab 'another' cipher, not realizing we were still holding the last one. This objective is not like Scaldra caches. Instead, all six of us need to keep the cipher in-hand, forcing us to use our secondary, and stand within the circle. Switching to operator (even to cast a quick ability) forcibly drops the cipher. Standing still for too long randomly drops the cipher.
Now that we understand what we're looking at, these objectives should become routine, but the first impression was painfully poorly-communicated. I love Warframe, but they really struggle to create encounters where the mandatory encounter-specific mechanic is obvious or logically intuitive.
That's not new. I still see people in Sorties who fail to understand how Lech Kril's invulnerability phases work lol
@Thannel42999 1 day ago
its kind of hard to introduce content with high executive difficulty bc you are either invulnverable or dead and enemies are either unkillable or die immediately, the damage system has to be changed. I do really like eidos though, those are still to me the only really interesting gameplay in terms of executive difficulty
@Jayare175 1 day ago
I think it's self-evident that you did your homework writing this video.
Warframe used to have more executive difficulty when it was a younger game because there was less cheese for the players to engage in without a coordinated squad. You have infinity revives so you don't respect bleedout or dying far away from your squadmates where it used to be you had up to 4 everyday for that warframe, your movement is so fluid and automated compared to coptering and the mods and abilities to pad out your parkour stats make sure you cover ground fast, damage has been powercrept over the years out the wazoo, etc..
In order for warframe to be executively or mechanically difficult, the devs would have to pull the long rod out of their rear end and finally balance the game around sensible numbers, for all mechanics. Incoming damage and outgoing damage for TTK, player speed and enemy mechanics, the huge multipliers from modding and arcanes, removing overguard and nullys and addressing ability energy economy/CDs. It's probably too late to have the old 2014 feel come back, because they've catered to what in my opinion is the lowest common denominator type of player. How could they have not? An entire decade of backsliding on nerfs or changes so that the game can be in a healthier state, only to be decried by cry bullies that "they're ruining the heckin PVE game it isn't even a PVP game"!
If I were the balance guy, I'd just gut everything until we got back to something sensible but god forbid that happens, people would actually have to play the game. And after all these years, would I even be right to? The player base of today is not the same as last year or the same as the one in the last decade, so I'm not even sure that if there were a good rebalancing of the content, that people would enjoy it. Which is a very scary thought.
Like the reason people clamored for shield gating for example is because health was overwhelmingly better for eating damage at the time, but you could still go down. After shield gating, if you did not have shields, you were automatically worse because you couldn't outscale shield gaters. Well, you just shifted the problem by introducing a new arbitrary mechanic, that does not even address shields being inferior to health and is now the meta way to play for high levels and/or endurance. What if instead you capped the damage of or balanced the enemies who were one shotting shield players? Or buffing shields? Nevermind, I guess. And that's the story that's repeated itself every update or community hullabaloo and I think it's the saddest mismanagement of a game that's had such a great long run. Warframe is a game that had the potential to not only be difficult in these other areas, as you've outlined, yet also in the player's execution in the moment to moment gameplay, resulting in a more engaging and potentially, a more satisfying game. Because if all I am want to do is hit 1 key to clear the whole map, there isn't much to do other than get the dopamine hit of blowing away 30 guys at once. And when that becomes the common and standard, what then? What does DE do after that to make it more engaging other than holding E with my exalted weapon? barely aiming my incarnon? Sitting in something like mesa 4 and flicking my mouse around? How does that amount to anything engaging if it's free, on demand and unearned because you let players solve their energy without relying on one another? Even there, you get frames like harrow is a frame who shows even in this case of intentionally trying to fulfill this role, his implementation handicaps his ability to support his team because his abilities require him to compete with his team for enemies in order to proc his supportive effects. Which isn't easy because rather than value DPS and CC roughly equally, they've killed CC by letting players do damage numbers that the game can't even display properly. How do they fix this? They've accustomed the community to this state of affairs and it probably would be wrong of them to rug pull the player base with a 180 on the balance question.
just my 2cents. It would be interesting to see what DE could cook up in Tau to address these things, because if not the gameplay will suffer in the new content. Yet, the only way to address problems this large is to wipe the slate clean and pretend the rest of the game doesn't exist, so they're probably not going to do that.
Warframe used to have more executive difficulty when it was a younger game because there was less cheese for the players to engage in without a coordinated squad. You have infinity revives so you don't respect bleedout or dying far away from your squadmates where it used to be you had up to 4 everyday for that warframe, your movement is so fluid and automated compared to coptering and the mods and abilities to pad out your parkour stats make sure you cover ground fast, damage has been powercrept over the years out the wazoo, etc..
In order for warframe to be executively or mechanically difficult, the devs would have to pull the long rod out of their rear end and finally balance the game around sensible numbers, for all mechanics. Incoming damage and outgoing damage for TTK, player speed and enemy mechanics, the huge multipliers from modding and arcanes, removing overguard and nullys and addressing ability energy economy/CDs. It's probably too late to have the old 2014 feel come back, because they've catered to what in my opinion is the lowest common denominator type of player. How could they have not? An entire decade of backsliding on nerfs or changes so that the game can be in a healthier state, only to be decried by cry bullies that "they're ruining the heckin PVE game it isn't even a PVP game"!
If I were the balance guy, I'd just gut everything until we got back to something sensible but god forbid that happens, people would actually have to play the game. And after all these years, would I even be right to? The player base of today is not the same as last year or the same as the one in the last decade, so I'm not even sure that if there were a good rebalancing of the content, that people would enjoy it. Which is a very scary thought.
Like the reason people clamored for shield gating for example is because health was overwhelmingly better for eating damage at the time, but you could still go down. After shield gating, if you did not have shields, you were automatically worse because you couldn't outscale shield gaters. Well, you just shifted the problem by introducing a new arbitrary mechanic, that does not even address shields being inferior to health and is now the meta way to play for high levels and/or endurance. What if instead you capped the damage of or balanced the enemies who were one shotting shield players? Or buffing shields? Nevermind, I guess. And that's the story that's repeated itself every update or community hullabaloo and I think it's the saddest mismanagement of a game that's had such a great long run. Warframe is a game that had the potential to not only be difficult in these other areas, as you've outlined, yet also in the player's execution in the moment to moment gameplay, resulting in a more engaging and potentially, a more satisfying game. Because if all I am want to do is hit 1 key to clear the whole map, there isn't much to do other than get the dopamine hit of blowing away 30 guys at once. And when that becomes the common and standard, what then? What does DE do after that to make it more engaging other than holding E with my exalted weapon? barely aiming my incarnon? Sitting in something like mesa 4 and flicking my mouse around? How does that amount to anything engaging if it's free, on demand and unearned because you let players solve their energy without relying on one another? Even there, you get frames like harrow is a frame who shows even in this case of intentionally trying to fulfill this role, his implementation handicaps his ability to support his team because his abilities require him to compete with his team for enemies in order to proc his supportive effects. Which isn't easy because rather than value DPS and CC roughly equally, they've killed CC by letting players do damage numbers that the game can't even display properly. How do they fix this? They've accustomed the community to this state of affairs and it probably would be wrong of them to rug pull the player base with a 180 on the balance question.
just my 2cents. It would be interesting to see what DE could cook up in Tau to address these things, because if not the gameplay will suffer in the new content. Yet, the only way to address problems this large is to wipe the slate clean and pretend the rest of the game doesn't exist, so they're probably not going to do that.
@chupika6464 1 day ago
I think map based difficulty could help a bit, the Janus Vor laser hallway is a great example. Helping guide players up to mr 25 with halls of ascension taught me that people can have trouble with content in this game, as long as it requires something other than kill/survive/follow-yellow-marker. The problem is that tileset dev-time takes a lot longer than modifier/number-change dev time.
If we make the players interact with the tileset they're on, they'll have an entire new axis of difficulty to contend with, attention demand. It's the reason SP interception is so hard, and why (high-level) people struggle on things like archon spy or cavia alchemy, it's really hard to multitask complex objectives and staying alive. Unfortunately most players deeply hate these modes, due to them feeling unfair or non-congruent with other content difficulty (survival, kills, basic objectives)
If we make the players interact with the tileset they're on, they'll have an entire new axis of difficulty to contend with, attention demand. It's the reason SP interception is so hard, and why (high-level) people struggle on things like archon spy or cavia alchemy, it's really hard to multitask complex objectives and staying alive. Unfortunately most players deeply hate these modes, due to them feeling unfair or non-congruent with other content difficulty (survival, kills, basic objectives)
@WondrousWilly 11 hours ago
I've watched a whole 4 minutes and instantly subscribed because of the honest clarity and presentation of your thoughts and opinions
@2thre3 7 hours ago
I think we easily forget what running for 10 miles continuously is like when we are now built for 24.
@gendor5199 1 day ago
Before hearing the assumed "What do they mean by hard/not hard" I wanted to write my thought.
Warframe is "Hard" in the same way that some Roguelikes can be, if you rush everything, you will have a bad time, but if you spend 1000 hours picking things up (or in roguelikes: You get every perma-upgrade) you will not struggle as much.
So Warframe is "hard" in the way that it breaks due to bugs, even in your best builds it can blindside you with a grenade you didn't see, and while there may be "No Meta" there absolutely is at least a dozen Metas out there, some can be mixed and matched, but there 100% are builds that just work.
And there even are solutions for people who say "I don't want to play that way", it just requires a different Meta, but its still a form of Meta.
Warframe is "Hard" in the same way that some Roguelikes can be, if you rush everything, you will have a bad time, but if you spend 1000 hours picking things up (or in roguelikes: You get every perma-upgrade) you will not struggle as much.
So Warframe is "hard" in the way that it breaks due to bugs, even in your best builds it can blindside you with a grenade you didn't see, and while there may be "No Meta" there absolutely is at least a dozen Metas out there, some can be mixed and matched, but there 100% are builds that just work.
And there even are solutions for people who say "I don't want to play that way", it just requires a different Meta, but its still a form of Meta.
@Idokle 1 day ago
I don't remember the last time i have left a comment on a youtube video, but i have to say, this level of quality has made seeing it was posted by an account with less than 100k followers very surprising. I enjoy good talks about game design. I hope we get to see more soon
@sir-qu 1 day ago (edited)
Warframe kinda has issues with challenges. Most content isn't really that challenging, and i would love to have more puzzles in game. I kinda liked Icebind because of it forcing you to do side work. (Wish the bonus objectives were harder but whatever) I still think H-09/Exploiter Orb (Also i despreately want a superboss variant for the orbs tbh.) is the best designed boss in the game, and i hope we get more like it. I hate most of the "hard content" being stuff like:
"Shoot enemy with lots of health. It can instakill you."
"Survive enemies that cant really hurt you, but you cant hurt it because fuck you you have to use this random weapon i picked."
"You can't use energy- wait why are you picking Hildryn"
All of what i just mentioned just makes the mission longer, not harder.
I want more puzzles. Make a boss that requires you to stop shooting for a second and do extra objectives. I was severely disappointed when JS constellations came out and i saw the dead orb instead of a way to actually fight it. A lot of people say the playerbase is stupid, but lack of explanation is also a thing. (Quinn yapping about a critical cascade when all exolisers are up and everything is dead for example) Most of the transmissions are just a character yapping about lore. Hell, even in Icebind this happens while trying to do bonus objectives. "6 stood against him years ago, 6 stand here now" Cool can you explain the objective type so i can do it, I can't see shit with the purple text on the screen while i'm in the Kuva Fortress.
TLDR: the UI needs an update, and we need puzzles and less yapping on transmissions.
"Shoot enemy with lots of health. It can instakill you."
"Survive enemies that cant really hurt you, but you cant hurt it because fuck you you have to use this random weapon i picked."
"You can't use energy- wait why are you picking Hildryn"
All of what i just mentioned just makes the mission longer, not harder.
I want more puzzles. Make a boss that requires you to stop shooting for a second and do extra objectives. I was severely disappointed when JS constellations came out and i saw the dead orb instead of a way to actually fight it. A lot of people say the playerbase is stupid, but lack of explanation is also a thing. (Quinn yapping about a critical cascade when all exolisers are up and everything is dead for example) Most of the transmissions are just a character yapping about lore. Hell, even in Icebind this happens while trying to do bonus objectives. "6 stood against him years ago, 6 stand here now" Cool can you explain the objective type so i can do it, I can't see shit with the purple text on the screen while i'm in the Kuva Fortress.
TLDR: the UI needs an update, and we need puzzles and less yapping on transmissions.
@OkamiAmmy 5 hours ago
I like your commentary on this.
I am a high level 'Veteran' Player who has played a whole lot, over 2000 days logged in. I sometimes play with an intermediate player who doesn't have all the same things that I do, while not having the same comprehensive knowledge that I do. To him, Steel Path is an insurmountable challenge that he can't handle, mostly because he doesn't have the tools and he forgets things that could help him start his way through Steel path. I find Steel Path to be a non-issue unless I find I've fucked up one of my builds. He thinks that I'm just better at the game then he is. It's more that I have spent more time with it, and I work to get better at the controls as new things are added. (For example, in Perita Rebellion, he has to use a Zephyr Prime kitted out with movement mods to keep up with my Shock-Everything-To-Death Gyre Prime.)
I am a high level 'Veteran' Player who has played a whole lot, over 2000 days logged in. I sometimes play with an intermediate player who doesn't have all the same things that I do, while not having the same comprehensive knowledge that I do. To him, Steel Path is an insurmountable challenge that he can't handle, mostly because he doesn't have the tools and he forgets things that could help him start his way through Steel path. I find Steel Path to be a non-issue unless I find I've fucked up one of my builds. He thinks that I'm just better at the game then he is. It's more that I have spent more time with it, and I work to get better at the controls as new things are added. (For example, in Perita Rebellion, he has to use a Zephyr Prime kitted out with movement mods to keep up with my Shock-Everything-To-Death Gyre Prime.)
@SocraTetris 5 hours ago
Marvelous video! Thank you for it, And i hope you'll make more videos like this moving forward!
@Chibiruda 5 hours ago
Take breaks, try all sorts of builds, prioritize the missions and grinds you like, occasionally try a new thing, saveup on resources, aside from Argon crystals, everything lasts. Find your routine, find your playstyle, adapt your tools. Beware ego, frustration, inadequacy and ignorances that make you stray. Above all... find your fun, and if you're lucky enough to do so. Share in it.
@snowpoint720 14 hours ago
The hardest part of Warframe is finding a YouTube video to listen to while playing.
@wolfy2469 20 hours ago
The way I see it, Warframe is not difficult in a meaningful way, at least for me. Once you learn the strats and builds the game becomes a cakewalk, but if you don't it'll feel like banging your head against a wall. The overinflated damage numbers on both the player and enemy side doesn't help this either. Why bother engaging with a boss when you can chunk it in one second?
In order to obtain "Meaningful Difficulty", Warframe needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, because the issues have become so ingrained into the game that simple fixes won't solve this. The issue is that this game is so old that upending old mechanics will cause a riot no matter how much they're liked, and lead to a cascade effect onto other parts of the game. You can't tear apart the foundation without bringing everything else crashing down.
In order to obtain "Meaningful Difficulty", Warframe needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, because the issues have become so ingrained into the game that simple fixes won't solve this. The issue is that this game is so old that upending old mechanics will cause a riot no matter how much they're liked, and lead to a cascade effect onto other parts of the game. You can't tear apart the foundation without bringing everything else crashing down.
@Centias 1 day ago
See, while I don't think EDA or ETA are particularly hard, I agree that they are a very appropriate kind of challenge for Warframe. I actually enjoy being pushed to use kind of niche weapons I haven't used in a long time to make a build that sort of works. The problems I have with it are mostly a) when the randomizer decides to give me weapon choices full of weapons so old and so weak, specifically the ones without Incarnons, like Acrid, that they just cannot be expected to kill enemies at that level, and b) some of the modifiers turn off some of the CORE, ESSENTIAL gameplay features of Warframe, or are just tuned too harshly, like removing companions, blocking Transference, limiting ammo too severely, or reducing energy by 75% (most frames can't even cast their 4 with this kind of reduction), reducing ammo by 75% (some guns are already "balanced" around having so little ammo that this leaves them completely dead).
I don't know how you properly introduce Aspirational Executive difficulty in Warframe where you properly challenge an individual player, but part of that is because the ways they keep finding to attempt to do that are things like a) you die instantly for messing up, and then have to restart the entire mission, and that feels awful (Super Bosses), b) they block Warframe abilities, detracting from what makes Warframe WARFRAME (also Super Bosses), c) they almost always coincide with making enemies unreasonable in one way or another - way too tanky or long invulnerability phases, enemies that move way too fast, enemies that do too much damage (kinda goes back into point a).
Good Aspirational Challenges need to not just completely demolish the player and kick them back to the Orbiter if they make a mistake so they can actually try again and learn, but they also need to sort of be something you can do reasonably fast once you know the mechanics pretty well - more like Eidolon Hunts, where once you know what you're doing you can do each one in a couple minutes, and less like Super Bosses where they have way overtuned damage attenuation, no way to strip their armor, shields that regen way too easily and way too fast, way too much health, no way to reliably get ammo back during a long fight. I don't think they're particularly bad at designing boss fights that are engaging and demand Executive skill, but they are definitely bad at BALANCING those bosses so they don't just feel cheap, or completely remove a core mechanic of the game because a SINGLE frame makes that a problem. I'm not saying the super bosses are bad challenges, but I AM saying they feel bad and are just not very fun because they feel completely out of place in this game.
I don't know how you properly introduce Aspirational Executive difficulty in Warframe where you properly challenge an individual player, but part of that is because the ways they keep finding to attempt to do that are things like a) you die instantly for messing up, and then have to restart the entire mission, and that feels awful (Super Bosses), b) they block Warframe abilities, detracting from what makes Warframe WARFRAME (also Super Bosses), c) they almost always coincide with making enemies unreasonable in one way or another - way too tanky or long invulnerability phases, enemies that move way too fast, enemies that do too much damage (kinda goes back into point a).
Good Aspirational Challenges need to not just completely demolish the player and kick them back to the Orbiter if they make a mistake so they can actually try again and learn, but they also need to sort of be something you can do reasonably fast once you know the mechanics pretty well - more like Eidolon Hunts, where once you know what you're doing you can do each one in a couple minutes, and less like Super Bosses where they have way overtuned damage attenuation, no way to strip their armor, shields that regen way too easily and way too fast, way too much health, no way to reliably get ammo back during a long fight. I don't think they're particularly bad at designing boss fights that are engaging and demand Executive skill, but they are definitely bad at BALANCING those bosses so they don't just feel cheap, or completely remove a core mechanic of the game because a SINGLE frame makes that a problem. I'm not saying the super bosses are bad challenges, but I AM saying they feel bad and are just not very fun because they feel completely out of place in this game.
"Warframe is not a hard game"
Vorilex
9,625 views
This is my first time publicly participating in a conversation through a video, and my first video essay-like thingy. ...I'm cutting it close, seeing as Icebind is releasing tomorrow (at time of posting), but I'm excited to share regardless. Thanks for your time and attention!
0:00 Intro
2:30 Forms of difficulty
8:12 "Artificial" difficulty
9:36 When a player says...
12:53 Beyond comprehension
14:55 Expressions of skill
17:42 Distribution of difficulties
22:37 Executive endgame challenge
26:45 Outro
Jackal Executive Difficulty: Avoid the death walls.
Comprehensive Difficulty: Understand Overguard gates and energy efficient build craft.
Strategic difficulty: Bringing Styanax to the Jackal fight with a build that infinitely generates overguard and energy for the entire team.
Updated executive difficulty: Periodically pressing Rally Point and Nourish before pressing 4 and putting your crosshair in the general direction of the slow moving boss, allowing your entire team to face tank the death walls.
The super bosses ironically face the exact same issue. You can complete at least the murmur super boss by taking an aim glide tanking build and hovering in mid air while you light the boss up with the latum.
This is the true issue with veteran players saying the game isnt hard. Once you understand the tools you have available to you, you can remove what little executive difficulty there is.