The recent Update 18.13 brought with it a great deal of controversy last week as Digital Extremes delivered the long-awaited reworks for Mag, Volt, and all warframe passive skills. Seemingly as a last minute addition, Rebecca Ford (Live Ops & Community Producer) posted a Dev Workshop on the official forums to go over some additional changes coming with U18.13. The fans recoiled in horror as some of their favorite gameplay elements were obliterated without so much as a warning.

The development cycle for Warframe has always been a turbulent dance of anger and joy for loyal Tenno. One update could bring with it new and exciting additions or changes while another update could strip away the things you once loved. Some updates have even managed to do both in the past. It’s no surprise that any changes, even if they are minor, can lead to a violent reaction from the fans resisting the changes to gameplay elements they enjoyed. The changes brought about in Update 18.13 were major changes and fans were right to have strong reactions to such substantial gameplay and mechanics adjustments which inspired hundreds of posts raining down upon the official forums and warframe subreddit alike.

Our Senior Feedback Correspondent reached to community members for their thoughts on the recent changes.

“It’s just a classic problem with Warframe.” said DSVeggy, MR13, when asked what they thought of the recent update. “Some of the changes went too far, but I think most players can understand why they were made. They should have handled it differently than just forcing it on us.”

“The changes don’t even make sense.” responded Zizyx, MR16. “This was always the elephant in the room, sure, but somehow DE thought a forced change was the solution? It’s ridiculous. It doesn’t look good, either. For anyone. No one could look at this and think ‘oh, that makes sense.'”

Several other Tenno reported similar concerns with the update. Players simply could not accept the changes for Grineer units to yield a Sheev and Corpus with Prova when disarmed. This change, though seemingly innocuous, sent ripples throughout all of Warframe’s balance. Players banded together on the official forums to make their voices heard by the developers. Steve Sinclair, Warframe’s Creative Director, responded to the forum topic.

“Our fans are passionate and opinionated. We love them for that and we appreciate they are willing to stay with us when we try experimenting with new things. We know that not everything we add is going to sit well with them right away and they know that we will always work with them to bring out the best in Warframe. We made these changes thinking they would be cool and fun for the game but we understand your concerns as well. Going forward, we’ll be making improvements to the Sheev-sticks and Prova. We’re committed to the changes we’ve made and we hope we can match your expectations.”

To show that DE is committed to serving its loyal fans, Rebecca Ford posted a followup Dev Workshop (Part 5) earlier this week detailing some of the upcoming adjustments to the Fun Baton™ replacements:

Sheev Combat Training for all Grineer units so they stop swinging daggers like batons.

Sheev Combat Training for all Grineer units so they stop swinging daggers like batons. Credit refunds for all Tenno who purchased Party Pipes™ in bulk for their Loki warframes. We appreciate the effort players have put out to equip enemies with these party favors!

Corpus robotic units will be reprogrammed to make use of their new Prova-antennae.

A small chance for enemies to equip the old fan favorite Beat Sticks™ rather than a Sheev or Prova.

If you felt betrayed by the removal of the Beatdown Bludgeons™, you’re not alone and well within reason. However, keep in mind that Warframe is always changing and the developers do listen to feedback on the issues important to the community. Digital Extremes has addressed and restored some of the power which was lost on Trinity’s Blessing with Hotfix 18.13.2 and it’s plausible they revisit the Sheev/Prova situation and bring about the return of the fan favorite Justice Sparklers™.