Hail, Tenno!
Right now, our dev team is working hard to deliver the Plains of Eidolon. But as we create and play within this open space, the change of scenery has had us looking at some of the systems that Warframe has been built upon over the last five years.
One of Warframe’s biggest appeals is the diverse selection of weaponry. Even within the subclasses of rifles and pistols, there is huge variety to be found, such as the distinction between projectile weapons (firing physical projectiles which move through space, like the Boltor) and hitscan weapons (firing draws an imaginary line between the gun and the point aimed at, doing damage instantly to whatever it hits, like the Soma). For obvious reasons, hitscans are very effective at long distances - this has never been an issue with Warframe’s tileset-based gameplay, but as we shot enemies from a kilometer away in the plains with our pistols, we knew something had to be done.
With the release of Plains of Eidolon, most weapons will have a form of damage falloff added, to reduce their effectiveness at extremely long distances. But don’t panic! This damage falloff will only be noticeable at extreme ranges (greater than 300m). Across all of our current tilesets, we were unable to find an unobstructed line of sight longer than 300m, so that is the point at which damage falloff will start. Even some of our largest tiles do not cover that distance corner-to-corner:
Based on our assessment of all existing procedural tiles we’re extra confident that our current tileset-based gameplay will be largely unaffected. It is also worth noting that snipers will be able to fire 600m without experiencing falloff, to give them more of a purpose in this wide open terrain where long range weapons should thrive.
As always, we are listening to your reactions and feedback - hope you’re as excited for Plains of Eidolon as we are! If you find unobstructed distances in our current tiles that concern you, post them here!