I've just started playing this (only a few hours in) and I'm still not sold just yet. The controls seem a little... unintuitive. I'm willing to give it more time though :smile:
Andy - the controls (at first) - are, well, what can I say? Utter dogshit.
They seem to have an obsession with setting a key to map every bloody function when one isn't needed. I scroll down on the mouse wheel to select the weapons and scroll up to select the power skills. Yet the game still wants me to assign a key for each individual power. Why? Its silly - and I just end up setting them to some key in a far-flung corner of the keyboard. I play with a gameboard (the Logitech G13) and mouse and they seem to complement the game quite well.
At the start - you die.... a lot. The ranking system is heavily biased towards swapping out both your Warframe and your weapons in order to progress. Sticking with the same kit all the time does little to progress your overall rank - but it does make you more potent within the game. So there's clearly a trade off.
Both the Warframe and weapons and your sentinel (a hovering drone companion) max out at level 30. The more difficult the planet or moon that you attempt a mission on - proportionally the better the loot and mods you find. The balancing act is that you only get 4 'lives' per level - so if you're getting nailed quickly - there's a good chance that you won't see the level out! Once you hit level 30, you can use forma to reset your Warframe or weapon back to unranked, but you get to apply a forma bonus to one of the slots. This halves the point requirement for that particular slot - amongst other benefits.
All kit starts off with 8 slots in which to apply mods. There are literally hundreds of mods out there - Piercing Hit, Heavy Calibre, True Shot, Serration, Power Throw..... the list goes on. These are weighted in points - bronze mods being the lower pointed ones, through silver and gold being the highest, most potent mod. Each mod can also be boosted using fusion cores - making them yet ever more potent, but in turn requiring more points to occupy a slot. Say you had a level 5 SMG with 16 points available to it - you might have a couple of mods ready to be fitted. Do you fit four mods at 4 points a piece and make it more worthwhile across different mod criteria? Or do you attach the single Ice Storm mod to it, that might take 15 points itself - but add 40% cold damage and also increases the mag capacity by 40%?
Although the top four slots are open to any mod, they are particularly useful for status mods. These are direct element affects on the weapon itself - that increase heat, cold, electric and toxic damage. Further, status effects can be combined by placing the mods side-by-side. So putting a cold and heat mod next to each, gives you a blast bonus from the weapon hitting the target. Likewise, cold and electricity offers you a magnetic damage bonus and combining heat and toxin, gives you gas bonus.
It all sounds very complex, but it isn't really! Once you have a dabble for a few games, everything starts to gel and make sense. In comparison, the likes of The Division are extremely hollow and do not have the customisation or unlock paths that make your Warframe totally unique. You'll also get a small bonus if you log into the game every day - literally login and logout and you'll get it.
By all means, let me know when you're on and I'll happily team up with you. Show you some of the varied game modes and what does what....
