Dante Unbound - Dev Workshop: General Quality of Life

Hello, Tenno!

Devstream #177 noted a handful of quality-of-life changes for the upcoming update: Dante Unbound! This Dev Workshop aims to provide you with a written outline of these changes and note some new ones that have developed since the Devstream. Let’s get into it!

Upon downloading Dante Unbound and logging in, all players will receive an Inbox message containing 2x Forma (built) that can be used (at your discretion) towards experimenting with these upcoming changes.

 

LOKI ABILITY CHANGES

Decoy now also draws 15% of the Health and Shield totals of enemies within a base of 15m, scaling with Ability Strength and Range, respectively. This should make Decoy much more useful in higher-level missions, as it can survive a lot more exposure to enemy attacks!

via GIPHY

 

Additionally, Switch Teleport will no longer root you in place after the teleport and will now grant you a short burst of movement speed at 50% increased speed for 5 seconds, scaled by Strength and Duration.

 

via GIPHY

 

 

MIRAGE ECLIPSE & PRISM CHANGES

Eclipse 

After Devstream 176, we asked the community their preference for adjusting Mirage’s Eclipse. As a refresher, Eclipse changes its effect based on the light level surrounding the player, but this effect does not work correctly with GI lighting and open landscapes.

The consensus from players was to change the Light / Dark functionality to a toggle, so that is what we’re doing! Here’s a look at how this manifests for Mirage’s Eclipse:

How it works: 

• Tapping Eclipse provides the Lunar Eclipse buff (Increased Damage Reduction). 

• Holding Eclipse provides the Solar Eclipse buff (Increased Weapon Damage). 

 

Scaling change: 

Since the ability no longer depends on level lighting to determine the buff type, the buffs themselves also no longer scale based on light level. Instead, their previous maximum effect is now the base (affected by Ability Strength): 

• Solar Eclipse now has a base 200% increased Weapon Damage. 

• Lunar Eclipse now has a base 75% Damage Reduction. 

  • We have lowered the Damage Reduction cap to 90% (previously 95%) to bring it in line with other Damage Reduction abilities (Gara’s Splinter Storm, Citrine’s Preserving Shell, etc.).

 

Helminth Diminished Effectiveness Change: 

Eclipse has been one of the most popular Helminth abilities, so by fixing its unreliability related to light sources and making its buffs guaranteed, a rebalance was in order to compensate. This change does not affect the ability for Mirage, only when applied from Helminth.

 

• Solar Eclipse has a base 30% increased Weapon Damage.

  • This was previously 150%, it was reduced to match the Diminished Effectiveness of Rhino’s Roar.

• Lunar Eclipse has not changed. It still provides a base 75% Damage Reduction.

  • The Damage Reduction cap also remains the same at 75%. 

 

You may be asking yourself, why choose to Subsume Eclipse over Roar? 

Roar also affects Abilities and double dips on damage over time. If pure damage is the goal, one would probably choose Roar. Eclipse can switch between defensive and offensive buffs for situational gameplay choices. The idea is they are equal-ish for weapon damage.

 

Prism

In its current form, Prism's damage scaling is affected by environmental lighting at Mirage's position, which poses the same inconsistency issues that Eclipse suffered from. The team has reviewed and made similar changes: 

 

• Remove damage scaling based on environmental lighting.

• Prism now has extrinsic synergy with Eclipse!

  • If Solar Eclipse (Weapon Damage) is active, Prism’s damage is increased by 100%.

  • If Lunar Eclipse (Damage Reduction) is active, then the Energy per second cost of Prism is reduced by 50%. This Energy cost is calculated after Ability Efficiency is considered, allowing it to exceed the normal cap for Efficiency.

 

 

GARA PASSIVE CHANGE

Similarly to the Mirage Eclipse/Prism changes, we realized Gara’s Passive also relied on “standing in light” and, therefore, would have the same issues as Mirage regarding GI Lighting and inconsistent lighting areas. We have removed the scaling with illumination (standing in light) and made the following changes:

When casting an ability, there’s a base 15% chance to radially blind nearby enemies for 10s. Each cast without a blind increases your chances by 20% until it creates a radial blind.

 

NOURISH HELMINTH CHANGE

Nourish is by far the most popular Helminth ability, so we felt it was necessary to reduce its effectiveness slightly for the Helminth version only. Our goal is not to make this ability unusable but to avoid situations where it feels like “you’re playing wrong if you’re not using Nourish.”

 

Nourish when Infused via Helminth now has the following alterations: 

• Energy Multiplier has been reduced from 2x to 1.6x. 

• Viral Damage Buff has been reduced from 75% to 45%. 

Everything else related to Nourish through the Helminth remains unchanged.

In light of the changes, upon downloading the update and logging in you will receive an inbox message containing Helminth Secretion resources. We recognize past resource investment needed to infuse Nourish onto your Warframes and want to provide some compensation. Patch notes will provide the exact numbers!

 

ENEMY BONEWIDOW CHANGES

The Bonewidow finally joins in with the Voidrig in the enemy Necramech changes. 

 

Like Voidrigs, Bonewidows now receive damage anywhere (with damage attenuation) instead of just their weak points. When their weak points are targeted, they’ll receive increased damage. 

• The intent is to ensure Bonewidow fights are less taxing while maintaining a benefit to weak point damage. Since it’s susceptible to all attack points, damage attenuation (maximum damage per instance and per second caps) was added to maintain a level of difficulty and to prevent one-shots

 

Bonewidow weak points had their looks updated to highlight them better. The weak points now appear as vials filled with a liquid substance that can be targeted and destroyed.

Enemy Bonewidow’s Shield Maiden ability has similarly seen some changes! We’ve improved the hitbox of its Shield, so shooting and destroying it is easier. Additionally, new VFX will appear when you damage the Shield to improve readability when it’s near breaking, and Bonewidow will stagger when its Shield is broken.

 

DISRUPTION ACCESSIBILITY CHANGES

Disruption is receiving changes to better accommodate audio issues!

While players engage with Disruption, we know there have been requests to de-emphasize the audio element that dictates where the Demolyst is originating. So, with accessibility in mind, Disruption is receiving the following changes:

• When the Demolyst beeps are heard in-game, an enemy marker will fade in and out in the direction of the Demolyst

  • The closer you get to the Demolyst, the more permanent the enemy marker becomes.

  • Within line of sight, the enemy marker stays permanent.

• The red Conduit is now yellow to better prompt visual clarity between the icons and Demolysts.

 

Our intention is to better support those who may struggle with audio cues by improving accessibility and gamemode design.

 

ARSENAL QOL CHANGE: CUSTOMIZATION FOR “INVISIBLE” WARFRAMES 

Warframes now have Invisibility customization—no longer will you have to be strictly transparent!

Warframes with Invisibility abilities (Loki, Ivara, Ash, Octavia, and Voruna) will now find customization options within their Auxillary Attachment menus! Instead of Invisibility being strictly see-through, players can customize it from being more translucent/semi-transparent to non-transparency with an Energy glow gleaming from your character. 

Invisibility colorization is affected by the primary Energy color of your Warframe, should you select a choice that is affected by coloring. 

 

Option A: Semi-Transparent

 

 

Option B: Non-Transparent with Glow

 

 

NETRACELL DROPTABLE ADJUSTMENTS 

Netracell Drop Tables are being adjusted as part of Community feedback from Whispers in the Walls that the high-value rewards (Archon Shards) were too rare and potentially realistically unobtainable. We’re removing all non-exclusive Arcanes from the Drop Tables, and the remaining items will have their drop rates adjusted accordingly.

The Official Warframe Drop Table site will be updated accordingly with Dante Unbound to reflect these adjustments.

 

OMNIA VOID FISSURES

A new variant of Void Fissure has appeared! Found on Star Chart Nodes previously untouched by Void Fissures, a new, powerful Omnia Fissure will appear, allowing Tenno to crack Lith, Meso, Neo, or Axi Relics, whatever they choose! 

 

Just like other Fissure types, there will be one Omnia Fissure available at all times on both standard and Steel Path difficulties. Tenno must have access to the respective node on the Star Chart in order to access the correlating Omnia Fissure, including any Quests necessary for the node:

• The War Within Quest for Lua

• Angels of the Zariman Quest for Zariman

• Whispers in the Walls Quest for Albrecht’s Laboratories 

 

Omnia Fissures can be found on:

• Lua: Yuvarium (Conjunction Survival)

• Lua: Circulus (Conjunction Survival)

• Zariman: Everview Arc (Void Flood)

• Zariman: Tuvul Commons (Void Cascade)

• Albrecht’s Laboratories: Cambire (Alchemy)

• Albrecht’s Laboratories: Persto (Survival)

 

THE STEEL PATH: ZARIMAN & ALBRECHT’S LABORATORIES BOUNTIES 

The Steel Path arrives to the Zariman and Cavia Bounties alike. Accessing the Steel Path variants is possible through a selection UI when speaking to a Bounty Giver.

With Steel Path Bounties you’ll earn more Standing from The Cavia bounties, while The Holdfasts will net you more Voidplume Quills.

 

This list is not exhaustive, there is much more QOL planned for Dante Unbound to look forward to, such as New Player Path Improvements, changes to UI selection screens, Orbiter Fast Travel,  Corrupted Jackal changes (Circuit), Melee Slam Changes, and much more! Official patch notes will provide full details.

 

Thanks, Tenno!

Edited yesterday at 06:52 PM by [DE]Megan
fixed decoy text

18 minutes ago, SteveCutler said:

I think you accidentally a word?

Was this supposed to be "15% of enemies armor"?

No, this references the amount of enemies (15%) that Decoy will essentially aggro within that range by drawing their attention. 
Fixed wording: Decoy now also draws 15% of the Health and Shield totals of enemies within a base of 15m, scaling with Ability Strength and Range, respectively.

Edited Wednesday at 06:58 PM by [DE]Megan
edited my comment

6 minutes ago, Voltage said:

Maybe this is just worded weird, but this sounds like a huge nerf for Decoy for those who understand the current aggro strength. Plague Star makes great use of the current functionality :(

Apologies - I've clarified the post! Nothing has changed with Decoy's aggro. 

2 hours ago, -AoN-CanoLathra- said:

Does this mean that Prism no longer scales up its damage over time? Or that it only scales up while Solar Eclipse is active?

The way Prism works in the live game, Prism base damage goes up after each hit by an amount that includes how 'bright' the light is at your current location.  As previously indicated, this doesn't work reliably on Landscapes or in tilesets that use our new global illumination technology,  and even when it did work it would require that you search out and stand on a bright spot (which doesn't always LOOK like a bright spot) to actually work.

The updated Prism will increase the base damage after each hit by a static amount that is equivalent to "partial light", and that scaling factor is doubled if you have Eclipse active in "Light" mode.