Devstream 163

Devstream #163 aired on August 26, 2022 @ 2 PM ET
Drop: Forma 3x
This Devstream, there are some newer faces on the couch following our TennoCon announcement. Join Rebecca (Creative Director), Megan (Community Director), Kary (Art Director), Greg (Lead Character Artist), and Pablo (Lead Game Designer) as they dive into details on Veilbreaker! Get news on Kahl’s Garrison, the AOE Weapon Changes, a huge amount of Quality-Of-Life changes, some Warframes, and much more in our overview below.
This includes post-New War content, so spoilers ahead!
==Housekeeping:==
* - Redeem the code “STYANAX” in-game by August 28th at 2pm ET to receive a Styanax Community Display, created by the lovely TBGKaru.
* - There are two Gift of the Lotus Alerts live for 24 hours after the stream! Don’t miss your chance at an Umbra Forma Blueprint or 400 Ducats!
* - To celebrate our 50th Warframe launch, we worked with Passion Paris to make a Styanax Anime Short, which you can watch below:
==WARFRAME - BIGGER PICTURE QUESTIONS==
This stream was primarily focused on everything to do with Veilbreaker, but plenty of Tenno have questions about content that extends past that. Rebecca spoke at the conclusion of this 2-hour marathon Devstream about some bigger picture Warframe topics, which we’ll cover quickly before we dive into the Kahl and Styanax hype.
===Crossplay===
We mentioned at TennoCon that we are close to doing some Community tests of our Crossplay tech and this is still true! Expect news about those tests hopefully soon. Once Crossplay is in a comfortable state, we will be turning our focus to Cross-save afterwards as we roll out these systems in phases.
This is one of our biggest priorities for the team in terms of tech right now, and we are so close!
===Raids / Trials Return===
The desire for a return of Raid-like content in Trials is strong both internally and in the community. We have taken a look at what is needed to bring this content back to the game, but for full transparency we will not be able to commit to this until 2023, once we have fulfilled our promises for Veilbreaker and the Duviri Paradox.
===Public Test Clusters===
If you played in 2020, you may be familiar with our efforts to introduce semi-Public Test Cluster weekends, which allowed a small section of the playerbase to playtest changes before they were released. In the years following, organizing those weekends has become an increasingly difficult challenge as we pivoted to simultaneous platform releases in 2021. These simultaneous releases are a priority to enable Crossplay, but are not an excuse to avoid Test Cluster weekends -- simply another logistical hurdle that we hope to overcome.
We value the feedback that we are able to receive from these playtests and hope to have them return in the future, but wanted to shed some light on their disappearance for those inquiring Tenno.
==UPDATE 32: VEILBREAKER==
Our next update, coming in September 2022, brings a variety of new content including:
*- Veilbreaker Quest (prerequisite: The New War Quest)
*- Return of Kahl-175
*- New Syndicate: Kahl’s Garrison
*- New Weekly Activities
*- Archon Hunts and Archon Shards
After completing the short introductory Veilbreaker Quest, players may notice some changes to their Drifter Camp with the addition of Kahl-175 and a new friend Chipper setting up their own base.
===PLAYABLE KAHL-175===
Players will be able to return to Kahl gameplay with weekly playable missions that help progress Kahl’s narratives and goals. The more missions you complete, the more will be revealed to you and the more will be unlocked in the Kahl Garrison! Some of the wares found in the Garrison with Chipper include Styanax.
In true Warframe style, you will have customization options for Kahl including a variety of eye patches:
Here is an example of some of the gameplay you can expect in these new missions:
===ARCHON HUNT AND SHARDS===
With Kahl’s presence comes new intel about this Post-New War World. Each week, the location of an Archon will be revealed to you, which you can hunt down. These missions are intended to be challenging, so select your loadouts carefully with enemy level in mind -- we’ve also added some extra modifiers for added impact, such as the removal of self-revives, and the addition of a Consumable cooldown.
Once you’ve successfully completed all three missions and taken down an Archon, you will be rewarded with an Archon Shard, which has its own uses. Each Archon gives a different colour of Shard, with a 20% chance of a Tauforged version which has an extra oomph to it.
These Archon Shards can be installed into your Warframe using the Helminth menu to offer permanent stat upgrades of your choice. These Shards can be removed from your Warframe at the cost of Helminth resources, and be re-used as desired, meaning they are not destroyed upon removal.
Each type of Archon Shard offers a different array of stat bonuses from you to choose from:
*Azure (Boreal) = Defensive
*Crimson (Amar) = Offensive
*Amber (Nira) = Utility
Players will have 5 Archon Shard slots per frame to install and play around with. You will be able to earn these shards via the weekly Archon Hunts, and also from Kahl’s Garrison.
==NEW WARFRAME: STYANAX!==
We’re officially at the 50th Warframe mark! Introducing: Styanax. You may have seen his concept art at TennoCon earlier this year, but now we’re showing him in action!
To celebrate this milestone, Styanax will be available for free to players who log in two weeks following Veilbreaker’s launch. Expect full details once we have a release date!
With that said, let’s take a look at his kit:
Passive: Increased crit chance on weapons based on current shield value.
Ability One: Axios Javelin - Call upon the Axios Javelin. Any enemy Styanax strikes with his javelin is pushed back. When the javelin propels an enemy into a wall, a vortex pulls other nearby enemies.
Ability Two: Tharros Strike - Summon Tharros, the shield of Styanax. Swing Tharros at enemies to push them back and reduce their shields and armor. Styanax regenerates health for every enemy struck.
* this is Styanax’s Helminth ability!
Ability Three: Rally Point - Draw enemy attention to Styanax. His resolve uplifts nearby allies, regenerating their energy and shields. Shield regeneration increases with the number of enemies near Styanax.
Ability Four: Final Stand - Exude might and valor. Rise into the air and throw a barrage of spears. The spears deal damage to nearby enemies wherever they land. Direct hits to enemies deal greater damage.
;ALT HELMETS, SIGNATURE WEAPON, AND PREX CARDS
Styanax has quite a few helmets launching with him, which you can see below:
His Signature Weapon is the Afentis:
Afentis
Speak soft, and carry a big stick. Styanax' signature primary stuns nearby enemies when thrown at a target, and provides a buff to teammates standing near it. Killing enemies within the aura maintains the buff for a time upon leaving.
He is also coming with his own Leverian and Prex Card:
==PROTEA DELUXE SKIN==
Also in Veilbreaker comes the long-awaited Protea Caladrius Skin, designed by the incredible community artist Asturisk.
She will also be coming with a matching Daecret Tonkor Skin and Monitivus Throwing Bombs Skin!
==NEW VOIDSHELL SKINS==
We’re expanding our Voidshell Skin collection with new Skins coming for the following Warframes: Excalibur, Wukong, Nova, and Styanax. We are also introducing new Materials for Voidshell lovers to play around with!
We’re also adding a new Fog of War Ephemera which you can see alongside the Nova Voidshell here:
==AOE CHANGES==
Before we delve deeper, a quick note! With the large amount of content that has been touched in this update (AoE changes, Mod Changes, Warframe changes, etc.), Tenno can expect compensation to help them re-Forma content and more in the update when it releases. Full details will be available upon launch.
Area of Effect weapons are a pretty dominant aspect of Warframe gameplay, especially affected by the removal of self-damage a few years ago. We want AoE Weapons to feel impactful, but we feel their current state needs adjustment.
Before we get into what, let’s talk about ‘WHY’ we change things. In this case, there are 3 core reasons:
1. Can this be automated?
Currently, some explosive weapons and playstyles remove the need to aim, or otherwise care about your surroundings. This doesn’t fit the “automated” category perfectly, but we want such impactful weapons to require more consideration and tactical decision making than currently exists.
Here are some extreme examples of AoE gameplay -- while they may not be how you personally play, these are instances of gameplay we want to move away from:
2. Is this overly dominant?
Warframe is a game full of very powerful tactics, but problems arise when players feel ‘forced’ to use specific choices. The top 5 most popular weapons are all AoE, accounting for 47% of all weapon usage at high Mastery Rank AOE usage stats. In situations where efficiency is important, some would say you aren’t playing ‘correctly’ if you’re not utilizing these choices, which some players don’t necessarily find fun.
3. Is this playstyle disruptive to other players?
A majority of sessions are played co-op, so ideally everybody gets a chance to play. We’ve reached a point where players are asking us to change these weapons, because they leave so little for others to do.
With our motivations clear, let’s get into specifics. We approached this change in a multitude of ways:
*- Ammo Pick-Up Changes
*- Radial Damage Headshots Removal, and New Headshot Multiplier Buff
*- Primed Fulmination and Primed Firestorm Rebalancing
===AMMO PICK-UP CHANGES===
We understand the power fantasy of these weapons is very popular for some, so our first approach was to keep them powerful, but limit how often they can be used.
For starters, we’re making sweeping changes to Ammo Drops:
*- Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, Sniper/Bow, and Heavy Ammo Drops have been simplified into three Ammo Types: Primary, Secondary, and Heavy.
*- Ammo drop rates have been halved, but the amount of ammo received has been doubled. This means weapons with a high ammo maximum will remain mostly unaffected, but those with smaller ammo pools may have to be used more tactically.
Certain weapons will have “override” values, changing how much Ammo you can get from a single pickup. This mostly applies to AoE weapons, in hopes that players will become more deliberate with their aim to make the most of their Ammo pools. Expect more details in our Patch Notes.
With these changes to Ammo, we have buffed Holstering Speeds to make weapon swaps faster as well:
Existing Holster Speed Mods will be adjusted, but no specifics were offered at this time.
===HEADSHOT DAMAGE CHANGES===
We’ve revisited certain AoE weapons’ ability to headshot, making it so radial damage will no longer gain extra headshot damage or trigger headshot conditions. This is primarily targeted at the Ignis Wraith - as a “flamethrower” weapon, it’s hard to imagine a blanket of elements being precise enough to target weakpoints specifically. Explosive projectiles themselves can still land headshots, so there is still a reason to aim with most weapons for maximum damage.
Furthermore, we’ve increased the base damage multiplier on headshots from 2x to 3x. This means precision weapons are more rewarded for skillful usage, leveling the playing field even further!
===MOD REBALANCING AND CHANGES===
Finally, we’re changing the effects on a few specific mods that increase explosive radius. The mods Primed Firestorm and Primed Fulmination both offer a 66% increase in explosive radius, which is being reduced to 44%, matching the increase offered by other Primed mods. Primed Mods traditionally offer around double the value of the base Mods, but these two offered tripled value. This change is reflective of the Primed Mod standard.
Additionally, while we were reviewing Mods, a few others were touched as well:
*- Amalgam Furax Body Count’s bonus is being changed to increased Secondary fire rate
*- Tactical Pump is being increased to 60% Reload Speed
*- Reach is being increased to 1.5+ Range
===FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS===
This AoE discussion on-stream was very lengthy and concluded in a conversation about other changes we considered, but that are not slated for Veilbreaker. We will be monitoring community feedback and the general roll-out of the above AoE rebalancing to see if we will continue with these:
Sure Footed and Primed Sure Footed
These mods were originally meant to negate enemy knockdowns, but found expanded purpose when we replaced self-damage with self-stagger and knockdown. We may eventually return these Mods to their original purpose by limiting knockdown resistance to enemies only. Alternatively, we are considering having the Primed version only reduce the intensity of self-stagger, reintroducing some amount of risk to close range explosives.
Again, these changes are not happening at this time, but were discussed on-stream as possibilities in the future.
Line of Sight
The next involved AoE weapons ignoring line-of-sight. Right now you can shoot enemies on the other side of walls and floors using large radial blasts. We have tested a change where only enemies close to the source of the explosion would be affected by the attack. That means if you shoot a Kuva Bramma at a wall with enemies behind it, only enemies within a certain range of the point of impact would be damaged.
Once again, this change is not in Veilbreaker! We will continue observing player behavior and make future changes accordingly.
Ammo Drop Changes
We also mentioned the possibility of making enemies killed by AoE weapons exclusively not drop Ammo for that weapon type -- so Bramma kills would not drop Primary Ammo -- thereby incentivizing you to use your full kit.
Should the current Ammo changes not be significant enough in impact, we will consider this system in the future as well.
==STEEL PATH FISSURE==
With this overall consideration of healthier gameplay and ensuring players of multiple skill levels can enjoy the co-op experience, we are looking to offer alternatives to Tenno who want to pit their Loadouts against more challenging content.
That’s why we’re working on Steel Path Fissures. These high level Fissures have the usual Steel Path modifiers and Acolytes, with an additional reward of Steel Essence for each Relic you open!
==QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES==
===WARFRAME KIT CHANGES===
As mentioned during TennoCon, we are revisiting our Starter Frames to offer general improvements to their kits and make them new-player friendly. We won’t go into the nitty-gritty of stat changes, but Pablo did do a pass on many of the abilities with the same mindset of our Arcane tweaks.
In short, instead of all Ability stats scaling per rank, certain Ability stats will now be at the maximum value regardless of rank to ensure a more consistent gameplay experience. As Pablo said, we’re raising the floor, but keeping the ceiling in place. Expect full details in the patch notes!
====EXCALIBUR====
Slash Dash
*- The dash speed is increased
*- Added a Slash Proc to his hit
*- Added ability cancel by jumping
Radial Javelin
*- Removed enemy cap
*- We’ve also added some animation polish, including making the Javelins larger, and ensuring they aim closer to your foe’s chest.
====VOLT====
Shock
*- Reduced casting cost to from 25 to 15 Energy
*- Changed Ability Range to be the maximum across all Ranks
Speed
*- Slightly increased Speed buff
*- Slightly increased Duration, and the Duration is unified across all ranks.
Shield
(Note: all changes are for the carrying mechanic!)
*- Removed speed reduction
*- Removed energy drain
*- Removed secondary weapon restriction
Discharge
*- Changed Ability Range to be the maximum across all Ranks
====MAG====
Pull
*- Creates a mini-vortex in front of, so enemies are pulled directly in front of you instead of them ragdolling past you. The Helminth version of this ability was tweaked slightly for balancing.
*- Pulls Polarize Shards towards you.
Magnetize
*- Shards from Polarize are pulled into the Magnetize bubble
*- Shards orbiting Mag are pulled into the Magnetize bubble
Polarize
*- Shards are significantly larger and hover above the ground, making them much easier to see and make use of.
*- Shards within 3m of Mag orbit her, dealing damage to nearby enemies.
Since these changes have more of a visual aspect, here they are in action:
====WUKONG - CELESTIAL TWIN CHANGES====
Following the mindset we applied to the AoE rebalancing, we are making some changes to Wukong’s kit, focused mostly on Celestial Twin.
Celestial Twin changes:
*- Celestial Twin damage is halved. Marking enemies with your Ability Key will still offer increased damage against their target.
*- Celestial Twin is vulnerable to self-stagger from its own weapon. As your Twin shares your Wukong’s Mods, this can be bypassed by adjusting your loadout accordingly if you wish.
*- Celestial Twin will properly use the ammunition of your weapon when firing, and collect Ammo on its own when appropriate.
Here is an example of gameplay that these changes are aiming to negate. This does not represent all Wukong players, but the mere possibility of this type of play being available in-game is not healthy, and therefore we are making changes to bring it to a healthier place:
As always, we will be keeping tabs on player feedback once this launches, so please do share your experiences with us once Veilbreaker is released!
====REVENANT - MESMER SKIN CHANGES====
The addition of Overguard has affected the efficiency of Mesmer Skin, as rapidfire Overguarded enemies would melt through their Mesmer Skins and remain unaffected by the incoming sleep effect.
To bring this ability closer to its original intention, Mesmer Skin will now grant 1 second of invulnerability after a charge is consumed. This gives players time to react to these powerful units before taking their full damage.
===SYNDICATE PLEDGES===
We have removed Reputation earnings from Syndicate Sigils, and have added the ability to “Pledge” to a specific Syndicate via the Syndicate Console. You can easily swap which Syndicate you earn Reputation with as you wish.
Syndicate Sigils now are cosmetic-only, and the percentage of Standing you earn is now based on the Rank you have achieved within that Syndicate -- ex: Rank 5 would have 15%, same as the top-tier Sigil.
===ARMOR STRIPPING CHANGES===
Armor Stripping is a very common tactic for many Tenno, and plenty of Warframes have armor-stripping built into their kits. The majority of Armor Stripping Abilities strip Armor from the existing Armor pool vs the total Armor Value. For example, if you use a 50% Armor strip Ability against a foe with 100 Armor twice, you’d reduce their pool to 50 Armor on the first cast, and then to 25 Armor on the second (taking 50% of 50 = 25).
We are changing how ALL Armor Strip Abilities work so that they take the percentage from the total Armor Value instead. Meaning two casts of a 50% Armor strip Ability will now reduce their Armor to 0%.
Some Abilities with this mechanic are getting a buff. Pablo did not have a list of specifics, but he did mention that Banshee's Sonic Fracture Augment will now have permanent Armor Reduction instead of being duration-based. Expect more details in the patch notes!
===RIVEN SYSTEM CHANGES===
As mentioned in Devstream 162, we are making changes to newly-obtained Veiled Rivens to increase the amount of Rivens that players can own without needing to purchase more Slots.
In short, Rivens will have three states:
Veiled
All new Rivens obtained via Rewards, Palladino, etc. are Veiled, but the definition of this type of Riven is changing. These Rivens are stackable and will not take up Riven Slots, but they do not display any details about the Riven Challenge itself and cannot be equipped to weapons in this state.
Sealed
This is what current-build Veiled Rivens are now. They take up slots, they can be equipped to weapons with the goal of unlocking them, and you are aware of the Riven Challenge needed to unlock it.
Unveiled
These are the Rivens whose Challenges have been completed and whose stats have been revealed. You can see the Stats and invest Kuva in them to re-roll them!
The core system of Rivens remained unchanged, but this new stackable type of Riven is aimed to remove the pressure to purchase that can come when players have filled up their Riven slots and want to play modes like Sorties, etc. Existing Veiled-soon-to-be-Sealed Rivens (i.e. those with Riven Challenges listed) will continue to take up Slots once this change launches, only new Rivens obtained after the update will be stackable
===OTHER NOTES AND QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES:===
*- Modular Equipment (Zaws, Amps, etc.) will now have final “Gilded” stats upon being built. Gilding a weapon will now allow players to achieve Mastery on it, but the improved stats originally locked behind Gilding will now be immediately available upon weapon creation.
*- Part two of our Augment Refresh is coming for Warframes from L - R. Loki fans to Rhino fans (and everyone in-between) rejoice!
*- The teleport time between zones in the Drifter Camp has been significantly reduced.
*- Xaku Deluxe is slated possibly probably maybe for the end of the year.
*- Last Gasp meter now starts at 0% instead of 50%, but there is no initial drain. Instead, drain will set in after a few seconds of not getting any kills. Each kill now fills the meter by 1/3, and Eximus kills refill the meter instantly.
Source: https://www.warframe.com/news/devstream-163-overview
----
Tenno!
Following up from our TennoCon announcements, join us on August 26th at 2 p.m. ET via twitch.tv/warframe to get a more in-depth look at Warframe’s next update - Veilbreaker. Learn more about what new gameplay you can expect and even get a peek at the quest in Veilbreaker. Styanax, our 50th Warframe, will also be making an appearance and we will be taking a first look at his gameplay. 
Additionally, we’ll be re-running The Duviri Amphitheater experience in-game on all platforms for everyone to witness its full glory during the Devstream.
There will be Twitch Drops - watch to earn yourself a 3x Forma!
See you over at twitch.tv/warframe Friday, Aug 26th at 2 p.m ET!
Source: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1320047-coming-soon-devstream-163/