Q&A List Reddit AMA Okt 30th 2014

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The list of all questions and answers from the Reddit AMA held on October 30th 2014. Please excuse me if any are missing or if there are any ascetic errors in the text. There are nearly 50k characters worth of text for you so enjoy!

The Devs answering the questions are:
Steve Sinclair, Creative Director. (-SS)
Geoff Crookes, Animation Director. (-GC)
Rebecca Ford, Community Manager. (-RF)
Scott Mcgregor, Design Director. (-SM)

Answers are signed by the dev with their corresponding signature (-SS means answered by Steve Sinclair)

Proof that this AMA was answered by the actuals devs: http://i.imgur.com/2RNQ8Ub.jpg

Lets begin!

Q: Will we ever find a friendly grineer named Clem in-game? If so, can he have 2 grakata?
It's a dream of mine for this to happen.

A: I don't know if it will, but since Nef & Derf are confirmed for seeing the light of day, you never know. –RF


Q: Will Limbo be receiving some tuning? People are very upset by the inability to cancel Banish when its cast on them. And Limbo players are peeved that they have to banish enemies one at a time.

A; We are monitoring him as players learn his play style. Like all Warframes we make adjustment with time. We have made a few slight adjustments to him but don't want to make any knee jerk changes to his core design. - SM
Scott's already been hacking our anims to make him a speedier caster. – GC


Q:Will XP for arch wings be rebalanced? It seems exceptionally long to level them up. Will mod and item drops for arch wing missions be rebalanced? Even uncommon ones are very rare. Will arch wings get some sort of carrier-esque item pull?

A:I think we might have to review the xp distribution. I fear all items are taking a bite of archwing xp while in archwing mode. Will audit this to make sure its correct and fair. –SM


Q: Silva & Aegis
Will it be getting some defensive buffs? That shield can't be just for (a great) show!

A1: I agree and hope so!! There's also a new Sword and Board weapon coming in the near future. - GC

A2: Would be nice to revisit Silva & Aegis along with releasing a new Sword & Board. - RF


Q: Thanks for taking the time to do this AMA! (This one is long, I'm warning you!)
I have a bit of a barrage of questions from both myself and some friends, and I completely understand if you don't have time to answer all of them. Feel free to pick whichever questions seem most interesting!
Warframes
Some frames -- such as Ash, Ember, Hydroid, etc -- bring very little to the table in terms of utility. Many players frown upon the use of some of these frames's abilities, even, because they mess up the flow of the game for everyone else. They are designed around pure damage that doesn't scale well (or at all), making them mostly unusable in high-level content. Can we expect changes that make these frames more useful in endless game modes?
With the introduction of Limbo, the game now has yet another frame that people can abuse to troll others in public games. Obviously there's not much you can do about that, but what are your thoughts on being stuck in some kind of endless game mode with a player who screws it up for everyone else (even when you tell them nicely to please stop)?
Weapons
Many moons ago, the Acrid received a nerf due to how toxin procs work in Damage 2.0. The DoT effect it applies only scales with base damage (and even then, only 50%), which means Hornet Strike, Magnum Force, and Expel mods are the only mods that can improve it. Since Magnum Force royally screws up the Acrid's accuracy, putting it on is out of the question unless you want to use your secondary as a glorified melee. Expel mods also don't help in the Void. The Acrid could be made a lot more useful (while still being reasonably balanced) by making it so that the DoT scales with elemental damage mods, similar to the Torid. Thoughts on this?
A while back, snipers received various buffs in an attempt to make them more useful. While they are certainly better now than they were before, they're still completely outclassed by bows. This does not make sense to me. Logically, a sniper projectile should be able to do a hell of a lot more harm than an arrow. The biggest gripe I have with snipers, in particular, is not having guaranteed crits after putting on crit chance mods. Can we expect this to change?
Certain rapid-fire pistols have a very small ammo pool (200-ish), even though it's almost mandatory to empty a 100-round magazine to kill a dozen incoming enemies. These weapons are not really sustainable for longer game modes like survival, defense, etc. What do you think about upping the ammo pool for these weapons?
This ties a bit into the previous question: Ammo drops and restores currently give a fixed amount of ammo for all weapons. This makes filling up an empty Glaxion or rapid-fire pistol next to impossible. Why not make the ammo returns scale?
It's currently quite difficult to make the Glaive(s) viable even in mid-level content because of how many utility mods have to be put on to get the effect most people want (Power Throw, Quick Return, and maybe Whirlwind). Is there any chance we might see some dual-stat mods that could alleviate this problem?
Mods
Certain melee mods have been in desperate need of a buff for a long, long time now. For example, the boost from True Steel is extremely underwhelming on slow-hitting weapons. North Wind and Shocking Touch and just downright inferior to their dual-stat counterparts. Is this situation ever going to be improved?
The older status chance mods -- Rifle Aptitude, Melee Prowess, etc -- have incredibly low status chance values. I'm not sure anyone would ever want to put these on their weapons as it stands. Will these be buffed?
It's been over a year since Primed Chamber was handed out in the informer event, and there's been talk that you want to reintroduce it. Any news on this subject?
Transient Fortitude currently cannot be used with Blind Rage. I could understand this limitation if it actually gave as much strength as Blind Rage does, but it doesn't. Why exactly is this limitation in place, and can we expect it to change in some way?
With the ability mod removal, you decided to remove two of our frame mod slots. For most people, this didn't matter; they gained one or two mod slots since they had most of their abilities equipped. However, some of us only had one (or even zero) abilities equipped. Further, in U15, you introduced ability augmentation mods which effectively take up the same space an ability mod would. Finally, it was already difficult to justify putting on utility/QoL mods on many loadouts because of the few mod slots we have. Given all of this, why not just let us keep the two mod slots you removed so we'd have more room to diversify our builds?
The two knockdown resistance mods (Fortitude and Sure Footed) do not give a 100% chance to resist knockdowns. This means that even if you sacrifice two (!) mod slots on these, it's still completely RNG whether you'll be knocked down or not. This seems crazy to me, especially given how starved we already are for mod slots in late-game/'endgame' builds. On the other hand, one could also argue that 100% resistance would be too overpowered. Your thoughts on this?
Thunderbolt currently deals a fixed amount of damage, making it hard to justify putting it on a late-game/'endgame' build (except for some very specific Attica builds with Mirage). Could this mod's damage be made to scale as with any regular elemental damage mod?
Archwings
Shield Flux and Thief's Wit appear to work on archwings for some people, while other people cannot get them to do anything at all. Are they actually meant to work with archwings?
Archwings currently use stamina to fuel their boost. While I can understand the logic here, I far too often end up running out of stamina in the most inconvenient situations. Can we expect some stamina max/recharge mods for archwings?
Is a life steal mod for archwing melee in the cards?
Archwing interception rewards appear to include normal mods. Doesn't this seem a bit strange when enemies in archwing missions can only drop archwing mods?
Enemies
The community reaction regarding drahk masters appears to largely be negative. This is similar to when scorpions were first introduced, and when arc traps were first introduced. If I were to go out on a limb, I would say the community doesn't appreciate game mechanics that try to add challenge through cheap tricks that, more often that not, you can't do anything about because you're busy shooting things/not dying. What are your thoughts on this?
The new AI accuracy seems rather unforgiving, especially on Grineer excavation missions. At this point, I'm not sure such missions can be done without Frost/Volt or some seriously massive crowd control. Will the accuracy be toned down a bit?
UI/HUD
A separate 'Aim Weapon' key binding was introduced fairly recently. Unfortunately, it does not appear to work with weapons such as the Penta, Buzlok, etc. These are exactly the weapons I would consider it useful on. Will this be fixed/improved?
A lot of timers on abilities tend to show the time left of the latest use of the ability. This is the case for, for example, Bastille and Electric Shield. I think it would be a lot more helpful to show the time left on the least recent use. What do you think?
It seems a lot of people don't like some of the sniper scopes. Will we ever get a way to disable them?
Syndicates
Sigils purchased for reputation points do not currently award extra reputation. This, as far as I can tell, means that it is extremely hard just to get to the highest rank in a syndicate, let alone getting to a point where you can actually buy something (that isn't your next rank). Is there any chance that this will change, or that some other form of boosting reputation gain will come along?

A:Hey, I just basically copied your points down into a doc, cause it looks like 'veteran player TODO list' so I will just answer with a deep gratitude for sticking with us and knowing the game so deeply. So overview only:
• Warframes: We often are doing passes on older stuff (sometimes for the better even ;)) and we'll look at this. Trolling powers need a look for sure.
• Weapons: Will look at DOT, Snipers and Ammo. I don't love Ammo situation either. I think the Ammo suggestions for restores are a great solution. And if the Glaive is not powerful enough then Scott get no beer.
• Mods: Again, great notes about specific places to improve. What can I say? I agree with all of them - introducing mods that eclipse old ones is cringey.
• The ability removal situation, I can see and I think we were cautious, this could change in the future. Thunderbolt obviously needs to scale!
• Archwings: The mods you wanting are def coming and no the regular ones should not be happening I will chase that down.
• UI: I am not sure about the aim/alt weapon key, will see what's possible. For timers, not sure, argument could cut both ways but I will see what the UI guys have up their sleeve. Disabling scopes? On the fence, as we felt this was some of the sacrifice - we'll buff them first and see!
• Syndicates: Yes, we shipped this 'cautiously' but we have been discussing this today as it seems most people expect that. We went back and forth on it before release.
-SS


Q:Hello DE, I'm wondering a few things and thought I might ask.
Can we have a hint on the next frame? Anything would put my mind to ease.
Will we be able to have renegade followers? As in can we have a Corpus Crewman/Grineer Lancer take the place of our sentinel or kubrow. Maybe give him a different color scheme and let us equip him.
And finally will the Syndicates get any more items for sale and will the expensive sigils increase reputation gain?
Thank you for taking the time to come here and answer questions from fans.

A: Next frame is female, heard she has a thing for pistols.
Syndicates will get more stuff with time, we are always open to suggestions. - SM


Q: How do you feel the accuracy buff has worked out? This thread contains a lot of negative comments towards the change in the accuracy for enemies.
It feels like the enemy DPS went from a reasonable state to overwhelming incoming DPS. At this point, it feels almost pointless bringing anything other than a tanky frame or one who can CC the room to prevent being shot at. Previously it was possible to stay alive, but mobility no longer helps when the enemies are permanently aimbotting.

A:We will review the aiming changes, with the addition of Archwing a few AI bugs that got fixed up that may have ended up changing the way the AI aim at players. We totally agree the way to play the game is to be a space ninja. Will audit for sure thanks for bringing it to our attention. – SM


Q:1) First and foremost, what direction do you see Warframe taking?
• Can we expect a deeper exploration of the lore, like the Codex entry for the Ember/E.Prime frames?
• Will Warframe always be a four-player-oriented co-op title, or might we see some expansion into larger, raid-like fights with multiple groups of four?
• Can you drop any hints about ideas currently in the works that are being kept secret?
• It's been almost two years. Why doesn't the rush cost of personal items decrease over time? ;__;
2) How the hell do Tenno work? My current, personal theory revolves around placing the operator's spine and brain in the frames whenever they're switched out, which is why all of the frames - from memory - have their spine exposed in some fashion. Is this similar to your own ideas, or am I way off?
• Assuming you have any at all, what are your opinions of the more... Eh... "Seedy" fanart?
• From where do you draw inspiration for frames, their abilities and weapons? Do you worry about running out?
3) Is The Lotus an organization, or a single "person"? A lot of the recent information points towards the latter, but it was more towards the former back in the day. Why do the Tenno trust The Lotus? I had an immediate distrust for the whole "Oh, your memories were wiped, but that's okay you can trust/work for me" situation, and it's been bouncing around in my head for almost two years.
4) On Valkyr, how did you make her claws sound so... Malevolent?
5) Not sure if you have access to this metric or not; What's the net playtime of all players across all platforms?

A: 1) -Direction: More and better stories. Fix the stability of quests. Open up the world more. Make missions more interesting.
-Yes, I have another lore entry ready to roll out soon! Rhino Prime.
-We have this in the queue, no promises for when. Its on wishlists that fly around here.
-Hubs is not so secret, that's a big one ATM. I am working on a little Hub game that Scott thinks I'm crazy for trying.
-We have the code almost done for this, soom (tm)
2) -You are kind of close but not quite and as coincidence the Rhino Prime entry gives more hints.
-Its often the most popular wallpapers but no one will admit. A saw a New Loka one that made me spit coffee on the screen.
-No worry of running out - you guys have a million more ideas to draw from. We draw inspiration from mythology, steal from other games, and often from our community.
3) -This needs to be addressed in game for sure. She is a single entity, but with a dash of omnipotence which blurs the distinction. She can be trusted!
4) -I think we tortured Megan for some of those sounds. Canadian law prevents me from saying more.
5) -The stats guy laughed at me when I asked this... sorry - if I get this later I will.
-SS


Q:1. How do you feel about/have you internally discussed the removal of stamina? I personally think it would make the gameplay flow a lot smoother and in the spirit of warframe to never stop being a ninja. From a dev and balancing standpoint, I know this requires a look at stam usage of weapons and stam totals of warframes, but overall I think it would move the game forward.
2. Void puzzles are AMAZING!!! I've only seen a handful, but, oh, my, god. Dropping down shafts dodging lasers, wallrunning and flipping across chasms to slide under a door indiana-jones style, perfection. The only problem is no one gets to play these since we are ninjaing to extraction! Please add something worthwhile to make groups say "Let's look for a puzzle to get X mod!" Something akin to the corrupted mods from vaults would be perfect. As it stands these puzzles are awe-inspiring, incredibly fun, and markedly Warframe, but don't really reward you.
3. Untradeable Elytron parts, bug or intended?
4. Archwing. It's my new favorite thing. Archwing stands out to me as one of the best space shooters/dogfighters I've ever played, so thanks for that.
A few things here:
The minimap needs some real work. Showing distance/scale, more enemy range, the works. Not even sure where I would start here so good luck! That's why we pay you the big bucks :P
Mods in space: Jesus H Christ. Flying around looking for shinies in deep space should not be a thing... Look at Destiny. Your shiny drops, and if you don't go get it, it's mailed to you. Boom. Please give us space drops direct to our inventory.
Or at the very least, fix mods having inertia. I've chased down at least two mods that were on their way to reentering the Earth's atmosphere, and one was one I needed. Mother of god. What if I had missed it? Beating the RNG is supposed to be the hard part :(
On a final note: Love you guys in the streams. Even if you didn't showcase new/upcoming features, it would be worth the watch. You guys all ooze dedication, happiness, and passion for Warframe and its community.

A: -Not sure about that one, something Scott and I would have to argue about. When we're looking at differentiating things or adding trade offs, we often want stat options. You have a point, for sure.
-Agreed about incentive here, we can take a look for sure. Glad you dig them!
-Pretty sure this should be tradeable (made a note)
-Really happy to hear this. So much more to do with it! :)
-Yes map is very basic now, Glen was ranting at me Monday about it (using much less polite phrasing than you)
-Mods in space are going to get fixed, def. At the very least the inertia and locating them.
-Final note: Right back at you, I loved your comments and I can tell you're passionate too. The growth of the game has lead only pushed us harder through the parabola of 'omg this better work or were out of a job' to 'oh shit, its working, now we gotta make it awesome'. - SS

A2: Has there been any consideration to revisiting the differences between Prime frames and their normal counterparts? For example, Rhino Prime has extra move speed, Nyx has more armor, and Loki has extra energy. Will older Primes receive similar buffs?--- This has been brought up a few times and it's never been taken to the 'we should do it' level, and right now I'm not sure if it will anytime soon. But anything can happen – RF


Q: 1. As a big fan of the Lotus, will we get to see/interact with her at some point in the future?
1a. You guys get asked this every devstream, but any major lore coming anytime soon? (I love lore. It brings me closer to the game)
2. Trader hubs, can you give us some teaser information/pictures and any guesstimate on when we can expect it?
3. Balor Fomorians. When can we blow these up?
4. Any new enemy factions in the works?
5. Will you be releasing different archwings like warframes or will they be released with less frequency?
6. As a huge supporter of DE, I've been playing since Operation SlingStone and I have the badge to prove it. My last question is, is there any chance in the universe/Heaven/Hell/Void I can somehow acquire Excalibur Prime and/or Founder Status? At the time, I was but a wee tennoling with no way of buying these but my god did I really want to. So now that I have the means to pay for it, I gladly would. It would be like my video game dream come true (seconded to working at DE of course).
And one more question on behalf of my clan mate who couldnt be here: Will you introduce the ability to build multiples of the same item or atleast line them up so its automatic building once one is finished?

A: (5) Probably less frequent than Warframes but more coming. Already one in the works. - GC
A2: 1- Yes! We have a mission for this in the works... 1a Syndicates are part of this increase and we're going to keep at it! Appreciate your interest!
2- Though we did show some early Hubs WIPS we haven't got a ton to show that's ready... here see a WIP concept piece though: WIP
3- Very soon, future epic mission in the works!
4- Nothing substantial to reveal... yet.
5- What geoff said
6- Hmmm... Hmmm... we get this question on and off. I think we'd have to be very respectful of our Founders and protect their status but you clearly are an amazing supporter and we'd be sunk without you. So thank you and sorry for the 'maybe' answer :( - SS


Q: 1 - With Kappa Sedna and Baal Europa gone, could you recommend any oxium farming spots?
2 - This question is for DE_Rebecca : What has been your favorite update so far? Now that the long-awaited U15 is here, what are you most excited about in WF's future?

A: 1. In the short term I can't but I'd like to see Kappa return as a Oxium den so I'll probably advocate for that before accepting defeat.
2. For me probably the update that brought Nyx Prime. Or the brief update that allowed us to rename planets... I'll never forget that. It was hotfixed out immediately though. -RF


Q: In U15 you guys changed the basic standing and blocking animations (along with various others) of the Blind Justice Nikana stance. As somebody who favored the old standing and blocking animations, I wasn't exactly pleased, but I want to know, are you guys going to change the animations for other stances as well? Decisive Judgement feels clunky for example, especially since traditionally two-handed stances for katanas are never drawn from the sheathe.
• Will Stalker ever stalk us in space with an Archwing of his own?
• Will the Vala Sugutra that comes with the Targis Armor Set bundle get reworked? There have been a few complaints about it.

A: 1- Yeah one of the animators got really ambitious for that stance-his inspiration was Zatoichi-The Blind Samurai, so he wanted all his anims to be looking away from the enemies. I really liked how it gave a unique feel to a shared melee grip- Its a lot of content but we are open to revisiting stances and making these additions to them.
2- We have been talking about this in the studio but there was an amazing bug discovered just before we shipped. GIANT STALKER....wonder if we have a pic....
3-I'm sure he'ss aware but I will pass this feedback onto Kary (weapons lead).
-GC.


Q: 1. tl;dr: More combos in stances? Launcher attacks? Juggling? Regular timed blocks that reflect projectiles and consume less stamina than normal blocks? Brief periods of invulnerability during rolling?
4. tl;dr: Details on overarching plot and questlines?
7. I really enjoy the addition of Dark Sectors and how they help create a larger sense of persistence, similar to an MMORPG. However, I'm wondering what else is in the plan for Warframe? As mentioned by other people, will be get badass bosses that require several squads simultaneously to defeat? Will we get larger scale missions and invasions (maybe raiding a large corpus base or something)?

A: 1) I don't think we will be adding combos past 3 per stance, but there are Stance mods out there that fall short and need to have combos added to them. Dual Daggers stances should be getting updated shortly. Very cool ideas- a summary answer of "probably" hehe, always open to expand on gameplay if it fits. - GC
4) More are coming- specifically quests are being worked on for after the tutorial quest to introduce players to our enemy factions better. - GC
7) There are a few "larger scale" things in the works. An event coming soon that will have a large sense of scope. For bosses i think they have been evolving really well and are getting much more ambitious in design. Some crazy stuff in the works
It very cool you like and want more of that sense of persistence the Dark Sectors have brought- Steve is working on stuff for the Hubs that should enhance that feeling....right Steve? - GC

A2: Yes. – SS


Q:When creating dialogue for the various characters in the game, what is your general stance on breaking the 4th wall and addressing the player directly?
Is it something you avoid, something that needs a good reason, or do you have no issue having NPC's speak to the player in ways that have no real meaning in-world?
Here is an example, in the recent Limbo quest Ordis tells us:
Operator, I think I know why we're finding Limbo parts scattered throughout the system. His final rift walk was a miscalc... disaster. Well, perhaps when you occupy the frame, you will use more... caution

A: It's been suggested that this is intended to be a 4th wall break addressing the player and has no meaning in-world, whats your opinion on that?
I don't like doing this at all but I know there are some lines have slipped in that do this. That line example might get an edit to remove that ambiguity. – SS


Q:STEALTH
I await your response.

A:YES. (Ok well - yah you know we pick away at it, have trouble to people racing and not respecting other player's intent, we give XP bonuses and have some mission types where we reward this. We do want more and we have played with this in Mastery tests as well. Do we need MOAR, yes.) – SS


Q: Is the archwing prime from the mag prime lore going to appear on a quest? something like, "Memories of the past"?
Are you planning on adding a stabilize button on the archwing? so that the camera starts looking the objective or at some direction?
Are the Hubs going to be server hosted? and if they are, how much time would it take to have server hosted missions?
Are you going to add special mission triggers at some point? for example, after doing a certain type of mission on ceres, you will get the quest that will point you to the way of creating the Vay hek keys and defeating him, this would be more dynamic and player friendly
After watching how the archwing guns works, are you going to put a slight homing bullets mod? (something like the angle of the bullet changing to the direction of a enemy when they are 10m or something like that)
these are my questions for now... Hoping to get the answers!! :D

A: -That would be awesome to see! (scribbles notes)
-That is a great idea also (more scribbling)
-Hosted yes, but not in the same way as mission hosting works. Hubs are glorified chat server with 3D information exchange. I think we want to try to improve dojos with the same approach but no promises for actual missions with gameplay/AI/etc.
-That could be cool, if you're finding accuracy a problem we do have more tuning to do for sure.
Thanks! - SS


Q: What's Ordis's deal with Kubrows?
Will we ever know more about Lotus?
Where on the Liset is there room for the arching customization area? (seriously, that room is huge)
As a side note, thanks to all of you guys for making an awesome game that has kept me occupied for a lot more time than is probably healthy. You've done a great job.

A: Ordis has allergies.
There is a character that is being worked on who will provide some more insight into the Lotus...maybe even a different perspective?
The Idea of the Liset is that it Docks onto a much larger unit that internally we joke as "the trailer". We haven't been able to really make that clear to the player as the content was really complex and took ages to finish. Hopefully soon there will be a loading screen for going back to the Liset that will show you docking to it.
Thanks! - GC


Q: Aloha from Hawaii DE! I'm really into voice acting so this is pointed more towards Rebecca. When getting into character, what is your routine? Thanks in advance!
The interesting thing about doing Lotus VO is how completely unpredictable recording times are. Sometimes George (Sound) will message me at 9 AM, sometimes it'll be at 10 PM during one of our late night stints, and sometimes it'll be after a spicy lunch. But I always am ready to be Lotus on demand, and I have to do it with no professional training.
My routine is listen to past takes with George, understand the intent, then deliver them until George is happy.

A: I think all this is possible because the support dev has offered in helping me improve. Even if the performance is still an amateur pile, it's something I want to improve. I'm sure I'll ask George one day if we can re-record everything fresh, because 2 years ago if you had asked me if I was still Lotus I would have said 'no', because that was never really the plan. - RF


Q:How did the Stalker, Alad V, and Vay Hek get my contact info? What kind of sham of a security system are you guys running?

A:Lotus lost her cellphone and they found it. Sorry.
-RF


Q: Some of the prominent Archwing footage you teased leading up to Update 15 was of the Tenno attacking a Balor Formorian in what would be a Grineer "Sabotage" mission. This mission was not included in Update 15, so is there an ETA on when it will be ready?

A: Archwing update lays the ground work for these future epic missions. - SM
A2: I heard it'll be here by Christmas or sooner, I think that's a safe window - RF


Q:Hello DE!
Do you plan on fixing the Archwing Interception rewards to include mods that help the wings and weapons themselves? Right now all that seems to be dropping are mods for the regular Warframe weapons.

A: As a player I would like to see this happen and will advocate as such right now! –RF


Q: What are your plans for the current state of weapon balance? Recently you've started buffing a number of weapons that have long been considered very poor, and I'm sure a lot of people appreciate it, but overall the relative strengths of weapons means that only a handful are widely considered truly viable for "endgame", i.e. long runs in high tier endless missions.
Is it intentional that some weapons fall off very early? Are you happy with different "tiers" of damage output in weapons? I've occasionally seen the argument that X weapon is performing poorly because it's a low mastery req weapon, is this something you consider when determining stats?
Finally, "blocs" of equipment like clan tech or prime weapons also suffer from being wildly different in terms of performance (mainly damage output), is this also intentional or were they ever intended to be consistent "tiers" in terms of weapon performance with all weapons of a specific type (i.e. "all prime weapons" or "all clan weapons") being similarly viable?

A:Weapon balance is always in a state of change and I think entire categories of weapons still need another look but overall I think its getting better. "Tiers" of weapons exist this is sort of the point of the Mastery Rank system. We want players to find new weapons and ways to play the game. Not every weapon will be considered the "End game" weapon. I think in the end its about providing options to all levels of players. New players should have a wider enough selection they feel like the have options that fit their play style. End game players should feel the same way. – SM


Q: Are there any plans to allow default, non-prime skins on their prime counterparts? I ask out of severe dissapointment that the day of the dead skins don't work on my paris, glaive, or orthos primes. And frankly the gold bling can ruin the cosmetic "feel" of some of my loadouts

A:I'll bring it up with the art guys. The reason this doesn't work is we change the Prime meshes and texture layouts which sadly break compatibility (it would look like a scramble). – SS


Q:Did you guys plan the potato alert to happen during the AmA?

A:No but that probably means I missed it :( - RF


Q:Why haven't you acknowledged or even advertised the brilliant parkour in this game, to me its the number one thing that keeps me playing. Coptering and wall launching should be officially accepted and advertised (tutorial), why you keep adding stairs and removing parkour little by little instead of adding some launchpads or parkour only areas to further enhance the amazing mobility this game offers. TY

A: Thanks for saying....and yeah, maybe we should get better pointing it out. But as for Parkour it is something we intend to polish up and improve (Steve was just nagging me this morning). – GC


Q:Which games do you guys and gals like to play in your free time?

A: Anything. Video Games: Currently wrapping up Shadows of Mordor, started Bayonetta 2. I am looking forward to Super Smash WiiU as well.
IRL Games: I now have more MTG cards than I know what to do with (working at DE got me addicted), and I am enjoying D&D5e. -RF


Q: You seem to communicate with your fans very well, a task that is seemingly very hard for other companies. How do you pull it off that well?

A: Thank you for saying this! Rebecca gets much of the credit for this obviously but I can say for the rest of us - all of our leads are heavily invested in making the game great and know that doesn't work without respecting and collaborating with our players (even the angry ones). We just try to set aside our ego and wounded pride, be real about the criticisms, and do out best to make it right. - SS

A2: A lot of effort is spend to make sure the players are a part of this games development. Reb Meg and the rest of the community team work long and hard to make sure the Dev team knows the current hot topics and areas of concern brought up by the community. Without the community there would be no game, I think this is a lesson we learned very early and have embraced. I can't answer why other Devs don't follow suit. - SM

A3: Just to add to Scott's answer- working on a "live" game is such a huge change in development for all of us- for years we made games that when shipped we would see feedback from players and wish we were able to implement. Working on Warframe it's really rewarding for the team as a whole to make changes and read player reaction immediately. Cant imagine ever working "the old way" again - GC.
Yeah, it's something the whole team has embraced. -SM


Q: Hey guys, thanks again for doing this, it really honors us that you're taking the time to see us!
I have three questions for you guys today:
• How are future augments going to be introduced? Will they be added to existing syndicates? Or will there be NEW syndicates to work for?
• What ever happened to dynamic weather effects on maps? WAY back when the Phobos tileset was teased, you briefly mentioned the idea of things like sandstorms, or blizzards (for the ice planet). Also, will day/night cycles expand to other maps? Will we ever see things like this in the future? Be it for aesthetic (like rain) or gameplay purposes (like sandstorms)?
• What's the secret behind THIS? Did you REALLY BELIEVE you could sneak in prototype barrel tech into the game. This. EASY?

A: More Augments will be introduced to the current Syndicates. - SM

A2: Future Augment Designs will be coming from the players as well, if you have access to the Design Council stay tuned early next week. - RF


Q: The new UI has been a pretty significant change in the aesthetic department but a number of my friends have left Warframe recently because the menu movement causes motion sickness for them. The screen shake in Archwing missions has driven off another couple. I'm lucky enough not to have the same reactions but it's even affecting my play time - when the friends I regularly play with are unable to join me in game I'm less likely to play.
You've mentioned before that we would have the abilities to disable these features in the future. Any idea on when they might be implemented?

A: We are working on an option to hopefully fix this and the screen shake. I know we just toned down the Archwing sprint and gave it time falloff. I hate reading what you wrote so we'll get on it and move it up the priority list. Thanks for the kick. – SS

Q: I guess I have to ask this:
Since cosmetics were recently pulled from container drops, are there any plans to introduce new cosmetics (like skins and armor currently only available for platinum) into drop tables and/or alerts in the future?

A: Sorry about that, that was hotly contested here and I made the unpopular call to rip it out to preserve the value of people to gave us their money. For future drops, I think if we do some cosmetics there we will make it clear to people so it doesn't feel as bait-and-switchy to me... if that makes sense. So its clear to them they have the option to hunt or buy up front. – SS


Q: Any new frame-specific customizations incoming? Like Valkyr's bonds or Nekros' syndana. ZEPHYR BIRD WINGS WHEN?
Barring that, are we going to get any new skins for frames in general? I like most of the Immortal skins, but more options are always welcome!
Also, Halloween color pack coming up? I hope?
Thanks for your wonderful game, it's really been a blast to play it and honestly just a unique experience all-around. You guys are great devs, I've never seen another company so heavily invested in the opinions of their community. Each update brings something new and fun to the game, can't wait to see what's next!

A: Trinity is still lacking an immortal skin and IMO we should get that made and out before anything else, poor Trinity.
Colour Pack for Halloween you say?? MUAHHAA stay tuned.
Thank you for playing - RF.


Q: What are the long term plans for archwing?
Right now it feels like I'm playing a different game. I want to play warframe and use all that i've collected and upgraded in all aspects of the game. I can't do that in archwing content basically.

A: Its definitely going to keep growing, there's a few gametypes in the works. One thing that we are going to try that I'm excited about is going back into a ship from space. So you could see some mission's where you hop from Ship->Space->Ship. We'll have to adjust the transitions to give it a nice flow. –GC


Q:I like the picture in the proof.
Right, short question. Are you planning on ever adding a tangible reward to Codex Scanning such as Mastery?

A: Yes, we have been discussing this for a while and we agree a fully scanned enemy should be beneficial. We've talked about it improving what it drops or giving you a bioshock-esque boost against it. – SS


Q:Hi there!
i got a question about Void Tower drop tables, specifically T1.
Would it be possible to remove tower keys as rewards from T1 Capture, Exterminate and Mobile Defense missions?
But keep them in Defense and Survival.

A: I ran about 50 T1 Capture keys with a friend of mine and all we got was T2 Capture, T1 Defense and Boar prime receivers. I'd say about 75% of the 50 rewards were keys.
The key for a key reward has come and gone, and now that it's back I'm seeing a lot of what you're saying. The tables always seem to be in a state of flux as more gets added and moved around (U15 brought Sabotage) I'll bring this up as something to try and improve in some way- RF.


Q: Hey guys, thanks for the AMA! I wanted to say good job on U15 as well, I'm pretty impressed with the release! You did great, is what I'm trying to say. There's still some stuff to straighten up, but all around a good performance on such a big update!
• Will you ever pass by Montreal? I'm too broke to go to mysterious lands like NYC and Germany with you guys.
• Steve said of the recent investment in DE that it would put an "Orokin Reactor" on Warframe. Can you explain, without going into details (unless you want to), how that will help you guys? As a player, it's hard to appreciate the value of these kind of investments.
• Do you guys have a doom clock counting down the time left to implement Focus before the end of the year? You totally should have one in the office.
• Are you guys happy with invasions as they are?
• What's up with "Balance" as a Tenno/Lotus ideal? Is that still a thing or we are 100% free-roaming mercenaries now?
• Last one, I swear: I understand DE had a hard time around the launch of Warframe. At what moment could you tell that things were looking up for you?
Thanks again! I'm looking forward to the next step in Warframe!

A: -Hmm I love that city - definitely open to going to an event there in the future. I just remembered I didn't tip enough in Old Montreal at some steak&fries place and caught hell from the server. "What did I do wrong" "Ummm nothing, here take my wallet!"
-TL;DR: means hiring more people to make Warfame more awesome. Advertising a bit more. Stuff like that!
-I should. Syndicates was kind of like that. Ship this now or never, get the lead out!
-Nope.
-As the complexity has grown, and seeing how players generally view reward/incentive through utility lens this has become a bit muddy. It's still a thing in my mind but expressing this in the game has certainly become more difficult. I tried to bring this idea to Syndicates that there is no evil/good ones, rather ones with competing ideas.
-It was grim. The moment I knew things were looking up was when I saw someone we had laid off sitting at their desk again, doing wicked animation. Oh, and I guess DDOS attacks in a sort of ironic way.
-SS


Q: Could you give us a quick explanation on the visual changes that happened to Dark Sector that led it to what is it now? What caused you all to eventually go independent and start working on Warframe?

A: We had trouble with publishers who wanted to fund 'anime scifi tentacle space opera' so we reset the idea as a present day thing. When we were looking at doing something independent we wanted to get it running quickly so we unshelved the wacky ideas. Here we are! - SS
To add to Steve's answer- the player base deserves a lot of credit to the growth of Warframe's scope. Thanks for pushin us. – GC


Q: Is there a fix in the works to bring back the bright, shiny, deep, cool looking channeling effects back?

A: Probably, I saw a forum thread on this before the AMA and I'll send it to our FX master. –RF

Q: • Will the clipping issues with cosmetics be ironed out with the buyable animation sets? Some are unusable due to the sheer amount of crazy clipping(i.e rhino prime with targis and limbo agile animation.)
• Why do precepts like "vacuum" or the attack precepts drop when they're the same as abilities in that you get them when you get the pet and can't get rid of them? We get so many saying so "for duplicates" doesn't really mean much seeing as i could have maxed hundreds of them by now.
• Will archwing mods be made less irritating to get? Seeing as there's a lack of a proper defense/survival mode where there could be lots of enemies, and things still "drop" in space meaning it's easy to not get mods that do drop.
• With the nerf of baal due to the map revamp, oxium is in a pretty bad state right now seeing as it's harder than ever to get. Can something be done? Needing 500 when you get drops of 1-2 at most is ridiculous, especially when there aren't many missions that spawn the ospreys consistently.

A: -Yes, after we stop laughing at the gifs of Rhino with Limbo agile, we'll have to see what we can do about these.
-This needs to be fixed, agreed.
-Dropping mod in space is super bad bug, will be fixing... as well as getting those modes you want.
-Oxium is on the fire board too! (Captain excuses but thanks for raising these)
-SS


Q: My question is to the Lotus:
What do you think about your Tennos, who goes to a mission and just stands there and do nothing, while the other hard working killing machines do their job?

A: I think if Tenno find other Tenno not contributing to a mission, they should sent the stats of the End-of-Mission results screen via Screenshot to support.warframe.com. We can handle AFK reports there! – RF


Q: Why can't we cancel something that is building in the foundry?
Yes, we get a confirmation box and what not but sometimes crap happens. Just curious why this isn't here, even if you wanted us to lose all the resources just to cancel it.

A: This is one of the questions that's as old as the Foundry itself. On the list of 'functionality requests', we've just crossed off mod searching on PC with U15, so I'll bring this up as an increased priority request! I'm sure there is some technical hurdle in the way, but hopefully it can be considered and implemented (I know I'd love it) – RF


Q: What do you feel are the three biggest challenges facing Warframe at this time?

A: 1) F2P Games seem to have notoriously short lifespans. We have to Update to survive. Getting content out and keeping things together is a big challenge (8 hotfixes in to U15).
2) Balancing the new with the old. Similar to the above for reasoning.
3) The bandwidth to come up with ideas vs. execute on them. Sometimes an amazing idea just simply has to wait because there are a very finite number of people capable of implementing things. It's a huge challenge to look at an area that's lacking content and know there are so many good ideas for it, we just have to wait to see them come. AKA Dojo Shooting rooms.
-RF


Q: When will the Clan Tech UIs get an overhaul? If you're buying a weapon from the market you get all of the stats, but if you get it from clan tech you just get a short description of the weapon until you have it built.

A: Hope so, the overhauls are rolling out piece by piece. Considering how important Clans are I think this would be nice to have done soon and will advocate for that! – RF


Q: Can we expect any new gamemodes for archwing?

A: Yes I believe there is a quite gigantic Fomorian Sabotage gamemode coming - RF.


Q: PS4 player here. I absolutely love the game and can't wait for Archwings and Syndicates to get added!
I was just wondering if you would ever consider adding in splitscreen co-op with dual sign in (similar to Call of Duty: Ghosts)? I would LOVE to be able to run missions with my husband instead of competing for play time on the system.

A: Sadly splitscreen will not be something coming anytime soon, I'd love it too, it's just a massive architecture change that we don't have as a priority at this time. – RF


Q: What kind of beer do Steve, Geoff and Scott prefer to have around for DevStreams? Rebecca just got old enough to drink, but she seems to prefer grass and leaf pizza.

A: They drink whatever's in the fridge or nearby, often it's Mill Street Organic or something along those lines. I was joking about just being old enough to drink, though. –RF


Q: Are you guys planning on buffing/fixing the heavy melee weapons. Right now they aren't very impressive

A:Scott's agreed to buff their damage and we have a few stances in the works . - GC

A2: Yes, now that the Update is out of the way it'll happen soon. -SM


Q: What city(s) are the Warframe servers located?

A: Some of it is in California, and some of it is here in London, Ontario! – RF


Q: If it only refunded Plat we'd spent on ourselves, would you consider adding in optional account resets?

A: We had Optional Account resets live during the summer of 2013 I think, and there are no plans to return them. Sorry. - RF.


Q: When Can we expect an xbox build of update 15? If you cannot answer do you guys know how close you are to submitting the X1 build?

A: I think we'll be able to submit console builds in mid November, but we'll have facts in a Status thread when we've got more information – RF


Q: You guys seem to favor grineer a lot, is this intentional?
They have a much more diverse unit types and are much more threatening in comparison to corpus or infested. They have access to strong heavy units and LOTS of knock-down. They even trump all other factions in fire power as well.
Are there plans to buff the corpus faction? as I currently feel they are the weakest group and lack unit diversity.

A: I dont think we intentionally favour the Grineer but they were our first enemy in the game so they've recieved a bit more attention.
There is a really really big infested enemy update in the works with lots of new types and behaviours. Some Corpus updates have been getting prototyped but they will be coming out after the Infested. - GC


Q: So with you all being involved in the gaming industry what do your friends and family think of your jobs?

A: family: what you doing for work?
me: I make games!
family: oh your a programmer?!
me: uh nope
family: oh what do you do?
me: designer!
family:whats that..?
me: uhh.. I make the game fun.
family: so you do all the art!
me: oh god never mind.
-SM

A2: My mom is probably Warframe's biggest fan and she's never missed a Devstream. She is very happy that my childhood hobby has turned into a career. –RF


Q: Shall we begin with the most important question?
What's your favorite food(s)?

A: Ironically potatoes - GC.


Q: • What's it like working on one of the most popular F2P games in the world? It's gotta range from "omg this cheese is delicious" to "the nightmares...they won't stop!"
• I love the way the Tenno use the Nikana Iaijutsu-style. Are there plans to release other weapons that are drawn from sheathes to strike, such as a more classic-style ninjato on the shoulder or at the base of the back?
gen geleden

A: 1. While we have moments of nightmare here and there, the cheese is very delicious. Its been 2 years and its just as fun to work on as when we started....that's pretty rare.
2. We currently don't have any of those weapons in the queue but I'm pretty sure you can count on seeing more of them in game. Speaking from the animation side traditional weapons like that are really fun to work on as there is so much reference to build from. And I really love the contrast of the sci-fi setting with traditional weapons. You didn't mention nunchaku in your question....I would have loved to tell you they will be coming eventually, but I guess I can't ...
- GC

A2: Working on this game has been amazing! Love the fact we can continually build on the game while going back and fixing the problems. Best work experience of my career! – SM


Q: Are you guys going to take a look at the level of reputation required for ranking up in Syndicates at all? A large portion of the community seems to feel that this is excessive, so I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

A: I've seen a lot of numbers floating around on 'what it actually takes' to increase standing and will continue these discussions with Dev to see what's coming. I know the essential philosophy is it exists for a lengthy progression, not done in a day sort of thing. – RF

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