So how custom is your custom frame?

cl_ogar0

New Member
Jun 25, 2017
7
12
3
#1
Hello, first post on the forum, hopefully many to come.

Quick introduction, just former firefall player (i guess just like many) reporting in, slowly monitoring progress of the game.
I really like artstyle and direction game is going right now. But i would like to know something about customizability of the frames. Namely, how many options we will have, and if we will be able to make up our own frame that literally breaks the game due to how synergistic abilities work, or will it be maybe guns and some abilities at max.

For example in Firefall, i believe it was patch 0.7 or 0.8, aka just after introduction of perk system (which was controversial but it fleshed out customization a lot, and allowed some nasty builds, like mammoth that teleported around, instagibbed everything with absorb bomb with constant tremor HKM ticking, healing self having 99% damage reduction, or in later patches mobility Rhino frame which was FAR less broken but extremely fun)
For me, as complex as it was (requiring spreadsheet to minmax frame constraints and abilities anyone), those patches were absolute peak of firefall class mechanics wise, if i wanted i could make a frame thats just goes fast and does no damage. If i wanted, i could make a frame that never dies. Or shoots really FAST.

I dont want to be pessimistic, but how developers want to avoid situation where they create systems upon systems that are giving illusion of choice, but actually they are just adding timesink or unnecessary grind (World of Warcraft: BFA azerite system anyone?)

I realize there will be always TOP / META build that most people will use. We players love doing stuff efficiently.
And i would love to throw some money in startup donations. I dropped way too much money on firefall, just to see it die because it seemed like developers (producers? i cant say, i wasnt there) had no clear direction, constantly reworking game every month.

Firefall had great potential and was extremely enjoyable minus few drawbacks. Let us hope Ember can bring us same (or better) experience.
 
Dec 15, 2016
1,132
2,020
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#2
Hello, cl_ogar0. Welcome to the forums. Please, enjoy your stay here. :)
Hello, first post on the forum, hopefully many to come.

Quick introduction, just former firefall player (i guess just like many) reporting in, slowly monitoring progress of the game.
I really like artstyle and direction game is going right now. But i would like to know something about customizability of the frames. Namely, how many options we will have, and if we will be able to make up our own frame that literally breaks the game due to how synergistic abilities work, or will it be maybe guns and some abilities at max.
Omniframe weapons and abilities depend on the light, medium or heavy ones. Mechanics wise, heavy gets to have a shield, medium gets to dual wield guns and light gets to dual wield melee. As far as abilities go, that’s another story. You can also name your frame and the blueprint of it gets to viewed by everyone.

For example in Firefall, i believe it was patch 0.7 or 0.8, aka just after introduction of perk system (which was controversial but it fleshed out customization a lot, and allowed some nasty builds, like mammoth that teleported around, instagibbed everything with absorb bomb with constant tremor HKM ticking, healing self having 99% damage reduction, or in later patches mobility Rhino frame which was FAR less broken but extremely fun)
For me, as complex as it was (requiring spreadsheet to minmax frame constraints and abilities anyone), those patches were absolute peak of firefall class mechanics wise, if i wanted i could make a frame thats just goes fast and does no damage. If i wanted, i could make a frame that never dies. Or shoots really FAST.
I don’t know if Grummz would introduce a perk system like in FF. We had our fair share on that kind of customization. Some were useful while others were not. For me, my minmaxing reached its peak when I was running around one hit killing everything that was not bolted to the ground using a ridiculously overpowered shotgun. Damage wise, it had the same theoretical damage as Tether Field. After 1.6 well, I made a meme for that.

I realize there will be always TOP / META build that most people will use. We players love doing stuff efficiently.
And i would love to throw some money in startup donations. I dropped way too much money on firefall, just to see it die because it seemed like developers (producers? i cant say, i wasnt there) had no clear direction, constantly reworking game every month.
I highly doubt there would be a top meta build or power level requirement. Sure you would say for example, your sniper frame could deliver insane headshot damage but only if you can line up your shots and not take return hits in the process. Also, this isn’t FF where in you have to be at least X amount of equipment power in order to clear out a mission/invasion. That’s power creeping.
 
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cl_ogar0

New Member
Jun 25, 2017
7
12
3
#3
Im aware of frame archetypes.
I could totally see people building around their fantasies like, heavy frame utilising:
"Paladin" Shield + melee, defense oriented, crowd control and aoe damage
"Heavy Turret", pretty self explanatory
"Space Marine" offensive gun + melee

Its up to developers coming up with fun interesting abilities (well, and player ideas if they are willing to listen)
But i want to be able to make a niche for myself within frame archetype and be able to excel at it.
Would dislike if picking a frame would lock me down to role.

For example picking light frame implies you are more about dishing out damage and avoiding incoming damage, thats obvious. But i still should be able to build defense / support (imagine avoidance light tank vs beefy damage sponge tank characteristics)

In my opinion most abilities shouldnt be even bound to frames altogheter, just few of them unique to frame archetype (like the active avoidance thing that mitigates big hits altogheter vs something like heavy plating that reduces all small hits by fixed amount rather passivelly) and on top of that base stats like movement speed, hp(little bit like firefall was)
You could apply same logic to offensive abilities. Or support abilities, if im able to make a medic frame i would like to be able to use light frame and heal from distance, and providing absorb shields to prevent damage, but also up in your face heavy frame with shield, dispenser style aoe healing and reducing incoming damage for group

Tldr
Please do not limit our ability to come up with own playstyles
 
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Maven

Kaiju Slayer
Max Kahuna
Philanthropist
Jul 26, 2016
262
1,197
93
#4
@cl_ogar0

In Firefall, the abilities of the base frame type were available for all advanced frames of that type. For eg. the Tigerclaw or the Firecat could use abilities from the Base Assault. But the Firecat could not use the abilities unique to the Tigerclaw and vice versa.

The system planned for Em-8ER is a slightly more relaxed version of the Firefall system. Think of the archetypes as a basic template for you to build upon. They provide a starting point for what you would like to build. The archetypes are planned to have unique mechanics associated with them:

From Grummz:
Also, each frametype has a unique mechanic. For example, the heavy can absorb damage, kinetic and energy, and store it to power up special abilities.
Abilities will be drawn from a common pool as well as a set that is unique to each archetype. These can be mixed and matched as required to create your own build that suits your playstyle.

So basically you'll be able to choose from a pallete of abilities that you craft, Each Omniframe type has a mix of shared and unique abilities
Also each frametype has its own unqiue abilities as well as being able to slot the common abilities
You can choose what wepons and abilities you want to slot in your light/med/heavy frame
The plan is to have extensive customization to effectively build your ideal frame.

In fact Grummz has set up a thread where the community can create their own builds for frames:

https://forums.em8er.com/threads/omniframe-build-types-post-your-ideas-here.1186/

Meta/FOTM builds are something you can never avoid, to be frank. There will always be that one combo that just facerolls content. The onus lies on the devs to ensure that there are no outright broken setups that trivializes content.

I dropped way too much money on firefall, just to see it die because it seemed like developers (producers? i cant say, i wasnt there) had no clear direction, constantly reworking game every month.
That was indeed one of the issues with Firefall. The constant reworks effectively drained the coffers and The9 ensured a swift death by trying to rework Firefall into WoW with guns. With Em-8ER however, there is a structure and plan set out. The devs cannot afford to rework endlessly since the project is entirely community funded. Plus, they have a very clear idea of what made Firefall such a hit with the community. This ensures they know exactly what to work on to ensure a fun experience in the vein of Beta Firefall. True, there have been delays in meeting the targets but that would largely be down to having part-time team members and the complexity of the project.

It's been about two years odd since the project went live, and over this time the devs have been extremely candid about their plans, the work that goes into the project and the progress being made.

I'd suggest being part of the discord community where the devs often hang out and discuss the game and it's future.
 

Torgue_Joey

Kaiju Slayer
KAIJU 'SPLODER
Jul 27, 2016
1,123
2,703
113
Germany
#5
HELLO AND WELCOME TO OUR BADASS COMMUNITY!

I'LL START WITH THE WEAPON. WHO DON'T LIKE BIG ASS WEAPONS, RIGHT?
THIS IS THE CONCEPT FOR WEAPON CUSTOMIZATION
i0mhnq6f7riuue9mqxyw.jpg
THERE WILL ALSO BE SKINS TO MAKE IT MORE BADASS!

NOW LET RIP AND TEAR THE OMNIFRAME CUSTOMIZATION!

COSMETIC CUSTOMIZATION IN CONCEPT:
HEAD
SHOULDER
ARMS
TORSO
LEG
FEETS

MIX AND MATCH WITH SKINS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR BADASSERY!

SKILLZ, PERKS AND SH*T:
ALL FRAMES SHARE A COMMON POOL TO RESEARCH AND UNLOCK.
EVERY ARCHETYPE ALSO HAVE THEIR OWN POOL TO UNLOCK

WHAT BADASS STUFF THEY HAVE IN POOL, THAT IS STILL TO BE ANNOUNCED.

MODULAR CUSTOMIZATION PROTOTYPE:
(I'm too lazy to find it so I'll just scratch my brain abit)

(these are just example to understand things more)

HEAD MODULE: BETTER SCANNING; AIM ASSISTANT; NIGHT VISION;
SHOULDER MODULE: MOUNTED WEAPON; ARMOR PLATING;
ARM MODULE: BETTER SERVOS; RECOIL DAMPENERS; MORE ARMOR PLATING;
TORSO MODULES: BETTER CORE REACTOR; JETPACK; SHIELDING; EVEN MORE ARMOR PLATING;
LEG MODULE: EXTRA STABILITY; FASTER SERVOS; EXTRA EXTRA ARMOR PLATING;


THERE IS ONE OFFICIAL MODULE:
THE ENERGY DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT OVERRIDE MODULE!
WHERE YOU CAN FINE TUNE THE ENERGY DISTRIBUTION BETWEEN OFFENSE/DEFENSE/MOBILITY.

EACH FRAME ARCHETYPE CAN HAVE DIFFERENT AMOUNT OF MODULES.
EXAMPLE:
LIGHT FRAME HAS 12 SLOTS
MEDIUM GET 10 SLOTS
HEAVY HAS MEASLY 8 SLOTS

UNOFFICIAL CONCEPT: CHARACTER SKILLS
LIKE GETTING IN AND OUT OF FRAMES FASTER
BEING A BETTER PILOT
CARDIO TO RUN FASTER OUTSIDE OF FRAME

ALSO
MAVEEEEEEN! *wave fist around*
 

cl_ogar0

New Member
Jun 25, 2017
7
12
3
#6
Thanks for clarifying bros.
That sounds indeed really nice.
Ill check the thread out.

I dont really care about aesthetic customization of frames whole lot, just different paints is often enough if the provided model is good enough. And i really like the concept art.

But i love games where you can come with weird fun builds (even if they are straight up subpar to cookie cutter builds)
As long as gunplay / combat will be satisfying, ember will succeed.
I remember days of group farming mobs for xp near south part of copa with multiple thumpers deployed. Or playing my op mammoth frame that got nerfed 2 days after i posted video on forums.

Good days
 

Krhys

Commander
Jul 26, 2016
184
338
63
#8
I do hope that there will be vast amounts of customisation options available to players. Firefall was heading in the right direction at many points during beta, then, instead of balancing things they just changed the system completely and were back at square one. Then go-live hit and well, you all know the disaster that ensued...

Cookie cutter frames are fine but they should really be standard layouts for those who do not want the hassle of customising and are not the perfect OP build everyone goes for. If you need to get into the fight ASAP, you can quickly load out with the 'standard military issue' spec for your frame with the click of a button in the garage. Customisation should enhance certain areas at the expense of others, so we don't end up with 'orange' gear chasing from grinding the same old 'dungeons' over and over again (e.g. THE BANE).

Good luck Devs!

BTW - nice gun design, Joey.
 

Pandagnome

Kaiju Slayer
Fart Siege
Welcome Wagon
Happy Kaiju
Jul 27, 2016
7,730
10,079
113
Island of Tofu
#10
SWAPPIN' WEAPONS!
I do hope that there will be vast amounts of customisation options available to players. Firefall was heading in the right direction at many points during beta, then, instead of balancing things they just changed the system completely and were back at square one. Then go-live hit and well, you all know the disaster that ensued...

Cookie cutter frames are fine but they should really be standard layouts for those who do not want the hassle of customising and are not the perfect OP build everyone goes for. If you need to get into the fight ASAP, you can quickly load out with the 'standard military issue' spec for your frame with the click of a button in the garage. Customisation should enhance certain areas at the expense of others, so we don't end up with 'orange' gear chasing from grinding the same old 'dungeons' over and over again (e.g. THE BANE).

Good luck Devs!

BTW - nice gun design, Joey.
In warframe again it has 3 customization tab options to change in the spaceship, what if we could assign a hotkey to switch from say a, b,c cycle through each one when we wanted but not during a battle?

Though to change the weapons/mods type etc would need to be in the garage or perhaps the dropship too?

How many customization tabs could we have would this include the standard spec too?
 
Likes: Krhys