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Operation Scarlet Spear is coming this March, and it’s bringing a massive Lore Event that introduces ‘Squad Link’ - now known as ‘Operation Link’. Scarlet Spear will move the stakes of the world forward with a new cinematic. Prepare yourselves, Tenno. The Sentient threat is deploying forces that the Origin System has not seen since the Old War. It will be the first of Warframe’s many major Content expansions this year. But before we dive into the new Scarlet Spear’s launch we're bringing some of the biggest revisions to Warframe to date. In this (extremely long) Workshop, we are covering a broad variety of topics that are all receiving focused Overhauls or ‘Quality of Life’ improvements.
We were originally going to ship the contents of this Workshop with Scarlet Spear, but have decoupled the changes so you would have time to experience the revisions. We are targeting a release early next week on PC. After we’ve iterated on the revisions, you’ll jump into the biggest Operation in Warframe’s history: Scarlet Spear. Here is your guide for navigating what matters to you in this 20 part Dev Workshop!
And if you don’t feel like reading, here’s a quick video of the team recapping this for you:
CTRL + F INDEX:
Prologue: The thread of Reasoning
1) Railjack Onboarding Changes
2) Railjack Bug Fixes
3) Armor / Health / Shield
4) Infested Damage
5) AI Aimbots!
6) Shield Gating
7) Self Damage Changes
8) Excavator Health/Shield Scaling Changes
9) Titania Changes / Vauban Tweak
10) Reward Changes: Nodes.
11) Select UI Changes from Workshop Part II.
12) 100x Restore Blueprints
13) Sentinel Mods: Shared Usage Allowed
14) Arcane Changes
15) Greater than 100% Status having meaning.
16) Status Mod Buffs
17) Grenade Markers
18) Kuva Lich Murmurs / Fixes
19) Deferred Rendering Preview (opt in).
20) Preview HDR rendering (opt in)
BONUS ITEM 21: FOV
Closing: 20 Parts Later.
Prologue: The thread of Reasoning.
When presented with a 20 part workshop that touches everything from specific Warframes to damage systems, you may find yourself asking ‘Why’. Each section will receive a tailored explanation to the change (some deeper than others), but a thread of Reasoning can be found woven throughout this workshop: Warframe always aims to become a better version of itself. Year after year we completely change things - from Melee last year, to Movement years ago, and so on. Enough systems have accrued to make our choice over these past 3 months a simple one: Review, Refresh, and Revise. We aim to refresh aspects of the game that have gone untouched, while addressing fundamental inconsistencies in the mechanics of the game.
Warframe is still about power and you being a destructive force in the Origin System with hundreds of tools at your disposal. Warframes have never been more lethal or powerful than they are in the current version of Warframe - we do not aim to reduce that across the board, but we do aim to let that power stand on consistency in our designs. Keep our guiding reasoning in mind while reading - the three Rs!
PC Players will get a 2x Affinity Weekend following launch.
Consoles will get a 2x Affinity Weekend following launch.
Railjack Onboarding changes:
The Rising Tide Quest gives you your very own Railjack, but the barrier to entry is - conclusively with months of stats - too high. We are releasing a revised series of Blueprints (BP) in the Quest that sees costs reduced between 66% - 75% for Railjack parts, and building time reduced to 6 hours each.
There are 3 situations players may find themselves in:
1) Haven’t started Rising Tide. Anyone just beginning will have fully new reduced BP costs.
2) Has started Rising Tide. Anyone with any progress at all gets 1x Rush Repair Drone, and will transition to new costs on the next Stage. Any old costs will be refunded.
3) Rising Tide Complete. Anyone with a complete quest gets 2x Rush Repair Drone. All cost differences will be refunded.
Why:
Upon Review, stats show truly the only people that saw Rising Tide to completion were our veterans, which was originally our intent to design content for veteran players. However, to sustain the cost of future development and events like Scarlet Spear, accessibility is key and we have to adjust the barriers to entry for Railjack. For those who were early adopters, 2x Rush Repair Drones will be given out. Anyone with the Rising Tide Quest active will receive 1x Rush Repair Drone. For those unfamiliar with Rush Repair Drones: these items can only be acquired via rare drop in the Veil Proxima, as they allow you to instantly complete a given Armament or Component.
Railjack Bug fixes.
We have over 45 bug fixes coming to Railjack in Scarlet Spear including some big ticket fixes:
- Fixed the Intrinsic skill "Tactical Efficiency" (Tactical Rank 6) not modifying the Flux Energy cost of using Battle Avionics in a Railjack mission.
- Fixed the Intrinsic skill “Reflex Aim” (Gunnery Rank 10) not snapping the player's targeting reticle to the nearest enemy lead if using a Railjack hit-scan laser weapon.
- Fixed max Ranked Railjack ‘Tether’ Avionic not tethering up to 6 enemies as intended.
- Fixed inability to use certain Intrinsics during a Railjack mission as the Operator.
- Fixed Railjack Clients crashing aboard the Missile Platform after destroying the core.
- Fixed a loss of functionality for Clients upon loading into a Railjack mission.
- Fixed falling in an endless void after using the Archwing Slingshot as a Client into an exploding Crewship and attempting to leave the ship.
And a whole lot more!
Why: Well, this one is self explanatory! Bug-forum Reviews show the game has caused issues with players ability to enjoy the coordinated missions, and we are focused on fixing them.
Armor Health Shield Changes This section will go over before and after scenarios with our enemy Armor, Health, and Shield changes. Reading this section should give you a conceptual and on-paper understanding of what we’re changing and why, but practical experiences will tell the full story here. You may need to refresh some aspects of your Builds to truly optimize your power against your enemies.
Before: Armor, Shields and Health on an Exponential Curve
After: Armor Shields and Health on an S curve
Damage Changes:
Enemy Damage output should still be close to what is currently on the Live version of the game, but we have made a few changes that will affect how players take Damage in-game.
Damage-Type Changes:
- Slash Status now does not bypass Shields and instead deals damage over time to Shields. Slash Status still bypasses Armor.
- Toxin Damage used to apply to Armor with a 25% bonus. Now it is neutral. For role distinction, Toxin bypasses Shields (but not Armor) where as Slash Status bypasses Armor but not Shields.
Player Changes:
Player Shields, Health, and Armor used to be shared with all AI, so they had all the weaknesses and resistances that their AI counterparts did.
Now Players have their own unique Shield, Health, and Armor type classified as TENNO! These have all weaknesses and resistances neutralized (for now). Player Shields now reduce 25% of incoming damage. Player Shields now recharge with custom player-only logic. Shield recharge delays are based on depleted or partial depleted shields. Partially depleted shields (any amount) is a 1 second recharge delay. Full depletion is a 4 second recharge delay.
These changes to Player shields are in addition to coming Shield Gating changes, which you can read about in our Shield Gating section!
Why: Armor Scaling and enemy Damage Reduction was the nucleus for this change. For years Tenno have had the tools to deal with these things, but the tools were uniform: Use Corrosive Projection, or else. While this is a simplification, it removed the feeling of choice. With these changes, we hope players experience a feeling of variety and choice when taking on enemies. By changing the scaling for Armor, we could consistently change the scaling for all!
Infested Damage:
We did not want to overlook the Infested in our review. Infested are close-range enemies that telegraph most attacks - and now if one of those attacks hits you, it simply does more damage. Stay agile, stay moving, and the mission is as good as won!
Why: Having Infested simply deal more Damage encourages you to use mobility in ways that is not the norm for their ranged counterparts. Rewarding mobility is a key part of Warframe.
AI Aimbots
Up until now in Warframe, the higher the enemy level, the better their accuracy. High-level enemies would be pinned at the best Accuracy they are capable of - not quite 100%, but getting pretty close! Things like your movement and Mods would reduce accuracy, but the potential for bad ‘Aimbot’ moments was too high. We have spread this progression across a greater range of AI now We are decoupling enemy accuracy from level to reduce the overall ‘Aimbot’ like behaviours you face at higher levels.
Why: This change allows us more accurate balancing of foes at higher levels. This change alone would be noticed by simply sometimes ‘getting hit less’, but in conjunction with the numerous other changes we are making to enemies, it is part of a holistic Refresh to the underlying mechanics behind Warframe’s enemies.
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