How would you justify that this is optimal?
Start with
what's in the vision book, and build from there. Also the
Omniframe build type thread's first post where
@Grummz gives insight into possible changes, particularly the lack of passive preferences in the community builds thread, and the addition of a shoulder weapon. Also note that the vision book implies that the reactor is not a slot, but everything else is. So you must have a reactor, but other slots can be left blank (Implied, not stated), thereby offering potential benefit to Em-8ER's single frame constraint, power cost.
But back to those abilities. And those passives.
I'm personally hoping that the shoulder weapon is the equivalent of a HKM. An ultimate ability. One which helps define the players archetype build, and doesn't always need to be a weapon as we otherwise think of them.
Beyond that, two base abilities allows you to expand on the frames intended play-style, without giving the player the ability to become a jack-of-all-frames. This in turn prompts the player to have more omniframes with specific play ready loadouts. More frames means more potential sales for fashion frame customizations. That in turn needs to happen to help fund the games ongoing running costs, in addition to BTP income and the existing fundraising. So this becomes a case of "less is more".
I say this as a former Firefall player who paid for custom faces, hairstyles, and frame paints with Red Beans, not to mention custom reactor and servo models (Arsenal). And when I did, I looked around a saw that most of the players did not. They sure did howl long and loud on the forums that these items should be free however. A lot of these items did eventually become free, as The9 gave away their own potential revenue streams.
As far as passives are concerned, what passives did Firefall have, and what function did they provide?
Early on in the games beta time, you had one single passive. Like the Recon's Stock Accord Regenerative Plating for example. Not a good example as it did nothing to really define the archtype play-style of the frame, but others did. But they were later taken out and replaced with perks, and you got a lot of them. And they were massively OP.
Let's avoid massively OP. In fact, let's avoid anything that plays the game for you without you (or a team mate) doing anything. And if we are going to have such things, then let's put them where they belong. Anything you can put in a passive ability would be better served becoming part of a slot item upgrade that unlocks as the world level increases. let's say that again.
Anything you can put in a passive ability would be better served becoming part of a slot item upgrade that unlocks as the world level increases.
We don't need passives.
