Devstream 36

Devstream 36 aired on 3 September 2014.
thumb|left|425px
==Overview==
Welcome Tenno, to Devstream Overview, where we recap the latest Devstream. Want to see it for yourself? Watch it in its entirety on our YouTube channel! Now that TennoLive 2014 has come to an end we’re back to streaming from the comfort of our in-house development couch. We want to give a huge hello to our brand new Xbox One Tenno that may be new to the way we do things around here.
If you didn’t already know every other Friday, in addition to our weekly Prime Time, we run a livestream with our developers to talk about all things Warframe. In addition to answering questions from our community our Devstreams tend to focus on the current status of our upcoming Updates, weapons, enemy models and tweaks to game balance.
As one last note, our Weapon Skin Contest is now live! Your chance to make a custom skin for the Dual Zoren, Vectis, AkMagnus is on now until September 19. Be sure to check the link for more information and good luck to all our contestants!
Now that we have the basics out of the way, let’s review what happened on the Devstream. Things started with community questions and wrapped up with first look gameplay of Archwing! Here’s a recap:
===Wyrmius===
Our first question came from Saske92, who wanted to know whether or not Wyrm Prime would be unlockable in our upcoming side-scroll minigame Wyrmius. To be honest it wasn’t really something that crossed our minds, but now that you mention it having Wyrm Prime as a high score reward makes sense. Just expect the score required to be high. Really, really high.
Also, while the Wyrmius teaser looks pretty insane much of that has to do with the placeholder enemies being used in the video. We can assure you that Wyrmius would never harm his brother Sentinels, and that Helios has not yet harnessed the power launch Mod cards or rocket-fuelled barrels at his enemies. Yet.
===Idle Animations===
Community member Loopstricken is really looking forward to those cross-frame animation packs, which is good news because we totally haven’t forgotten about them! The ultimate goal is to allow any Warframe to use any other Warframe’s idle stance in a fair and reasonable way. Our biggest hurdles are finding a way to get this feature implemented in the marketplace and figuring out how it will unlock, but it should be available soon. Your dreams have having a sassy hand-on-hip Rhino are just on the horizon!
===Status Chance===
On a more combat related note KnotofMetal asked us if we would ever be able to get Status Chance over 100% like how we have red critical hits. The answer? We don’t know. The difficulty in designing something like that isn’t really being just get Status Chance over 100% but making that higher number actually mean something.
Having those extra percentiles just convert into damage or duration feels a little underwhelming but we are looking into buffing a few weapon procs to feel more rewarding. Particularly on guns like the Glaxion. It’s the same kind of attention that we’re also bringing to status Mods which are completely overshadowed by our dual stat event Mods at this time.
===Melee===
When it comes to melee, anyone who enjoyed charge attacks is in for some good news! While Melee 2.0 made lighter, faster weapons a lot more fluid heavy hitting weapons did lose a bit of their lethality. That good feeling of crushing a Grineer or the wonderful squelching noise that Infested make under the force of your jet powered hammer just isn’t the same. We’re currently looking for ways to get that satisfying (and effective) feeling of having crushed something to death back on all our heavy weapons.
As a final point on weapons, Stance drop rates are something that we’ll continue to play with based on community feedback. Gemini Cross was our last test, and we’re glad that everyone has enjoyed getting the stance naturally from the event. It’s certainly not the only means we’ll be using to give Mod cards in the future but we are looking at different ways of obtaining Stance Mods instead of just having them be a random drop. Silva and Aegis for example, dropped specifically from Lephantis.
===Cloth Physics===
Archwizard asked about where we stood in creating more realistic cloth physics for our more fabric wearing Warframes. The problem is that any character with cloth needs to have their character reworked to have the cloth properly designed for physics. So far we’ve tried a few things but nothing has really worked to our liking. It is something we want to come back to. It’s a longer task but it’s not off our radar.
===Kubrows===
Finally, to wrap up our Q&A there was a concern from Jeahanne regarding Kubrow defrost time. Turning your pupsicle back into a warm-blooded furry ball of death takes three hours currently, but there have been talks of finding ways around this. Most recently we’ve discussed using Cryotic and Argon for players to craft an item to make the thaw process quicker. We’ll let you know a little more on that as it develops.
Attack commands for Kubrow are also something we can look at, but there are only so many buttons we want players to have to use when trying to play the game. Waypoint is an example of a good usable button, but if it doesn’t flow naturally in use it’s something we don’t really want to do.
===Ancients===
Finding new ways to kill enemies is only half the battle. We also need to create enemies that inspire a healthy mix of fear and respect. Like a deadly muse these new Ancients will wander the battlefield; opening their own chest cavities to vomit out smaller, kind of adorable baby Infested. Either that, or they’ll be a shambling mess of repurposed guts.
This is, of course, in addition to the shambling chest-cracking Ancient (official name pending). Both join a long list of Infested models that are coming together for a future event featuring tentacles, newly corrupted MOAs, and whole ship’s worth of Infestation.
===Focus System===
There have been a lot of questions on our Focus System, particularly in the wake of Update 15’s Archwing announcement. What’s the status of the Focus System? When will it be implemented? Why isn’t it already live?
The short answer is: It’s not ready yet, but we haven’t given up on it.
To give something a little more in depth, our Focus System is meant to be an accent to Warframe Mods. Deeper character customization that will let players do something with experience gained after a weapon hits lv 30.
It’s meant to add further specialization into a particular fighting style that’s connected with Tenno lore as well as provide bonuses that cannot simply be emulated by a Warframe power, ability, or Mod card. The particularly astute will remember that each polarity symbol is connected to an ancient Tenno house, so it’s really critical that we have each branch of the Focus System really shine on its own.
We haven’t given up on it. Our Focus System is something we want to make sure is done right.
===Archwing===
The big talk of the town for Update 15 has been Archwing, but it’s not the only major content change we have planned. Player Hubs will introduce a social hub for Tenno to hang out and chat with other players and participate in upcoming quests. Our goal is to get the foundation of Hubs set by Update 15, with future Updates further expanding on features.
Ever want to open up a post where your clan can show off those fancy event trophies? Have a means of recruiting players with some in-game visual aid? Want to meet NPCs that share quests or contribute small bits of lore? Make dozens of other Tenno cringe at that purple, orange and green Nekros you made? Our goal is to have player Hubs cover all that and more, and we’re excited to share details as we inch closer to its release.
Project Birdlifters is a go, and we’ve got plenty of details on how Tenno will be taking the fight directly to the Grineer Balor Fomorian ships. Our biggest and most exciting confirmation is that Archwing is not an on-rails adventure, and to that effect a majority of the stream was spent showing off some of freedom Tenno will have in space combat. A LOT of points were covered, but since I know you guys enjoy some no-nonsense details here’s a quick breakdown:
* Archwing, will likely require a quest. We’re deciding on how we want players to obtain the technology. The quest may be prior to Archwing’s official release, but don’t want to hinder anyone.
* Enemies in the Archwing gameplay footage are going to be redesigned, these current ones are placeholders.
* We may include fully explorable space areas in the future, specifically for resource gathering. Making Archwing a part of the world is a big goal for us.
* Archwing provides oxygen and propulsion for a Tenno while in space. Each Archwing has a unique name. The one from the video is the Odonata. 
* There will be multiple Archwings to choose from and each will work on any Warframe. It functions like a sub arsenal. You can choose the wing, the heavy weapon and a heavy melee weapon.
* Weapons in Archwing mode will be customizable. The chaingun’s name is Imperator and we currently have a railgun in development. 
* You won’t be able to use your powers but you’ll have four different powers that you can use. Some examples are deployable shields, missiles, and a stasis field as replacement powers. Your Warframe becomes the energy source for the Archwing.
As for the Balor Fomorians? We’ve name dropped the incredibly powerful Grineer warships in the past, but what good is a menacing enemy if you don’t get an opportunity to fight them head on?
Players will start the Archwing mission on a Corpus ship under siege, struggling against a mix of Corpus and Grineer troops as the vessel starts to succumb to external damage. Eventually the entire ship will be put at risk, and with space as your only means of retreat...well, you know the rest. Tenno will need to take down hordes of Grineer fighters while keeping hidden from the direct firing path of the Balor Fomorian.
The Lotus is a little sketchy on how you’re supposed to take down something that big, but my bet is probably on getting close and stabbing it. Probably twice.
While other game modes will take advantage of the Archwing will launch with this new event as a stand-alone. We’ll continue to provide you all with more information as we get closer to Update 15, and of course be sure to tune into the next Devstream, Sept 19th at 2pm EDT for more information on future developments in Warframe.
Category:Livestreams
Category:Videos