Back from the... Dead?

Rhino Blogger Aeth brings a taste of things to come on The Orokin and the Lotus; assuming Digital Extremes doesn't release a random content patch and muck up another attempt at a Lore column! Whoops, too late!

Man, that was some disappearing act. Everyone was all like "omfg aeth where u go?!" and I'm all like "brbafkbbq" and life turned upside-down.
And by "everyone" I mean like four people that read what I do. Because Reasons.

Coming Attractions Part 2: The Attractioning

No, no lore posts. DE succeeded in giving us more lore than we know what to do with in the last half a year or so. There won't be any theorycrafting of numbers (due to the changes that have come since I was away!) or views of the recent content (since I haven't had a chance to play much of it!), but there will be a lot of work put into getting back on my feet and actually playing some Warframe.

Feature Presentation

I want to focus on streaming once again. Nice and simple, I want to take the time a couple days of the week and get back to streaming content and being a derp in Warframe. Things have changed enough that you can bring almost Anything to Anything to do Anything and have fun with Anyone.

Stalker aside.

And Zanuka.

When do we get an Infested Boogie-Man?

GUYS I KNOW WHAT MY NEXT ARTICLE IS GOING TO BE ABOU-

*Static*

The Cosmic Gallery: Big Plays in '04

The lore behind WARFRAME is extremely dense and shrouded in mystery. Digital Extremes has crafted a unique story with amazing background being released with content that seamlessly ties together a past of ruin with a future of threatened hope. So let's dive in to this cosmic gallery!

And remember folks, it's all theory and opinion!

Space Ninja. That premise alone has been enough to keep players in Warframe entertained as they leap from walls, fire rifles, slice enemies, and generally flip out and kill people. It's a basic sort of wish-fulfillment that makes it easy to ignore or forget that there are a lot of background details in the game.

The 2013 E3 video has been turned into an in-game in-universe tutorial to explain to freshly-liberated Tenno just what is happening to them and what their purpose is in the world. Thankfully for the Tenno, that purpose is the same as it always has been; we're going to flip out and kill people. All across the solar system and in parts unknown.

Lore and a Disclaimer

The lore we have to work with in Warframe is limited, to say the least. The Orokin are a mystery to every faction in the game. The Grineer are a rampant plague of cloned soldiers. The Infested are a sickness absorbing everything they can. And beyond a few specific references, that's the most we have to work with.

So we have to THEORIZE about what we have in the universe of Warframe!

This is where the danger of Lore comes into play for we, the players. We are members of The Internet and susceptible to the influences of Trolling and Flaming, and this is very prevalent in the way lore discussions go. As anyone that has brought up the connection between Warframe and Dark Sector can attest to, there are two camps of people vocal about lore.

• The first responds to discussions of concepts working in either game and the history of both with rage; they do not believe that there is any in-universe connection between the games and MUST be sure to publicly shame those whom disagree.
• The second responds to discussions of concepts working in either game and the history of both with intrigue  they are open to the idea of concepts carrying over and inspiration being derived from one game to the other, as well as one IP to the other.

I am firmly in the second group of people. Digital Extremes has gone as far as to say in their livestreams that they see a lot of the fan fiction as inspiration for what THEY themselves can do and design. The community plays the game; the community should be looked at in order to find out what they want to see and do.

And that's what the Cosmic Gallery is. We're not going to set things in stone, and we're not going to dictate rules of the universe. There will be no attempt at rewriting history. And we won't be insisting our Ember/Rhino slashfic is canon. We're going to discuss what could be, what might be, and what we'd like to see.

And it's going to be fun, damn it!

What Is and Is Not

Dark Sector is a third-person shooter with cover elements and a mild system of upgrades. The story follows a CIA agent that is infected with a virus, causing him to become a mutated monster. He fights Russians and not-zombies with a glaive-weapon and doesn't afraid of anything.

Warframe is a third-person action-shooter-platformer where you flip out and kill people with techno-magical space ninja powers. The story follows the Tenno as they are given tasks by the Lotus. You work with other techno-magical space ninja to kill all the guys and save the solar system.

Inspiration vs. Canon

As of the writing of this, the lore in Warframe does not officially include any other game as canon. The lore in Warframe is what Digital Extremes has on the official site and the Lore tab in-game. Bits and pieces of information have been mentioned in the Livestreams which Digital Extremes does for the community, but for the vast majority of canon lore we must look to what we are given in the game its self.

In order to approach the lore of Warframe we must look at the influences present in the game and the story, as well as the development process and the parallels present between game mechanics and the in-universe reality. The discussion of how these things influence one-another and the way they need to be interpreted is going to be a very drawn-out discussion, so we will start with what is an inspiration in Warframe, and what is canon to the story.

Dark Sector, dark development

The inspiration taken from Dark Sector is clear once the source materials are looked at and the development cycle of the game is better understood. Not putting too-fine a point on the matter, the original concept for Dark Sector should look very familiar to Warframe players, while completely different from the aesthetic present in the release of the game.

Simply put, the original concept for Dark Sector was panned by investors and publishing companies and cast aside as something that would never work in the market. It was compared to other first-person and third-person shooters of the time and the market was not favorable. With the release of Halo 2, Far Cry, and the mounting success of Battlefield 1942, the publishing-side of the industry desired no risk or true innovation. And with the powerhouse of Halo and Halo 2 on consoles making a case for simpler game design for a greater market share, pushing a new intellectual property through such as Dark Sector would have been a nightmare.

Digital Extremes has quotes across the internet on the issue, with shots fired from J.J. Abrams on the issue of the Star Trek game being a "big disappointment." So it can be understood that through development, some ideas had to fall to the wayside and some art assets (read: almost all of the original concepts used in Warframe now) had to be discarded. What resulted in Dark Sector was a bland story that didn't do much more than tell us about a CIA operative with seriously bad luck and handlers that suffer TV Tropes-like cliches.

Looking Ahead

Now that we have the baseline issue out of the way of what Dark Sector is, we'll take a look at what Warframe is and how we can look at the lore. There is going to be a great deal of interpretation involved in the next step, as the Orokin didn't leave us with a road map of their efforts and history; no one else in the solar system has much desire to learn from their mistakes if we can judge how the Grineer and Corpus act to be true-to-faith.

Next up is the simple question and lengthy evaluation of the situation in the solar system and how society tends to fall so easily from grace; and where it will lead to next.

Coming Soon(™)!

Rhino Blogger Aeth brings a taste of things to come on The Orokin and the Lotus; assuming Digital Extremes doesn't release a random content patch and muck up another attempt at a Lore column!

Let's thrown on that Iron Skin, buff everyone with Roar, and Rhino Stomp our way through Outer Terminus! Time to take a look at what's coming next for all you Space Ninja, here with the Orokin and the Lotus!

Coming Attractions

I've been meaning to get a Lore Post done for a while now, and keep having to push it back with every Livestream and Content Update. Since they introduce enough to shift theories and ideas from one point to the next. Also DE keeps dropping hints about inspiration coming from Dark Sector (DISCLAIMER: Yes I know they openly state that they pulled a lot of inspiration from Dark Sector. DE_Steve tends to phrase their inspiration as being either in-universe or not). That makes it hard to get a solid theory out there!

I've also been meaning to do a comparison of Damage Types, and their influence in seeing new weapons in the future. It's a simple, number-heavy discussion that I'm going to do my best to make less number-heavy. But that's not a promise I am sure I can keep.

Somewhere down the road I want to look into Mission Types as well, but only after they release the new Mission Types. We're going to see some missions replaced with versions that DE feels players will want to do. We're all looking at you, Sabotage.

And finally comes the post I dread to do; Defense Mission Discipline Void Edition. Yeah. After listening to my girlfriend rage over public groups killing themselves with the laser defense system, something may need to be done to illustrate their use and the general set-up of defending against threats in the Void.

Feature Presentation

Coming Soon(™) will be MUCH MORE STREAMING. Yes. Streaming. Over on Twitch.tv I'll be doing daily streaming in Warframe around the reset for Daily Log-In Rewards. I'll be tinkering with the presentation, the audio and music played, and generally trying to find a good happy medium to make the Warframe audience happy. I've got every intention of making it something fun for viewers, and running groups during the day to get some of those problem-missions people may need to unlock or run keys for.

Getting back on that Space Horse!

Real Life Rears Its Ugly Head

It's been almost a month since a post, update, or much of anything from the Rhino Blogger; real life keeps coming in and making it difficult to worry about anything but Meatspace things.

I've been going through (and still am going through) some difficult times in life for a good year now. Making this Blog and attempting to do streaming on Twitch has been one of the things I've aimed to do in order to combat the problems of losing my business and livelihood, and it's been a great diversion from the troubles of Meatspace. It's also made me feel pretty good, just as a general feeling of helping the community and providing people with something Warframe-related to sink their teeth into.

So I'm getting back on the Space Horse, getting my Space Shotgun and Space Skana, and am embarking once again on my Space Journey towards being the best Space Ninja teacher I can be.

One wave at a time!

Defense Mission Discipline: Toxicity

There are many different goals in WARFRAME, with Endless Defense missions being the introduction to the "end game." Every game has an end game, and with the end game comes guidelines to success and the pitfalls which lead to failure. Whether you're running a quick Xini for a chance at Tier III Orokin Tower Keys, or Pluto's Outer Terminus to aim for Wave 100, Defense Mission Discipline is required to succeed.

I'll just get this out of the way immediately; it took me about a day to level my Nova from unranked to 30. I spent the majority of this time doing Endless Defense missions, making use of the new function of the Aura slot to immediately slot Molecular Prime and a few other Mods to ensure I would not simply be a burden to the team. After doing Xini for a single day and collecting Mods for Nova, I feel as though it was successful.

Everything but Energy Siphon and Molecular Prime was farmed on Xini.

And while doing my run through the horror and terror which was Public Xini, I watched as many Tenno did their bodily-best to get themselves killed.

Repeatedly.

To things they could very easily avoid.

We really need to fix this problem.

Last Time On Defense Mission Discipline

We touched upon Time-To-Kill on a previous installment of Defense Mission Discipline, but it's worth reiterating.

All weapons have a Time-To-Kill, or TTK. TTK represents the time which a weapon is able to bring a single target from alive to dead, and is modified by variables such as the clip size of a weapon and its accuracy. Higher-damage weapons have the benefit of a shorter TTK, with the durability of the opponent factoring in heavily. A level 20 Corpus Tech can be taken down by a lightly-Modded Paris with ease, but a level 50 Charger can require multiple shots or heavy investment in Serration and Piercing Hit/Bane of Infested.

There is another aspect of TTK that has a great impact on Endless Defense, and this is the ability to dispatch multiple targets in a period of time. With waves on Xini requiring a great deal of damage to clear, it becomes necessary to output the most damage in the shortest period of time. Warframe abilities such as Excalibur's Slash Dash can do this in smaller areas, while Ember's World of Fire can persist in an area to damage many more targets over a period of time.

Making It Rain

So what works best for the average Tenno? Anything properly Modded can perform in an Endless Defense, but some weapons perform in their role better than others. The Hek stops almost anything where they are shot, allowing you to clear a group with enough front-loaded damage. Kunai, Hikou, and Despair can all bring a target down quickly with little delay between shots, with the Despair in particular being able to pass through multiple targets. The Boltor and Bolto/Akbolto can strike targets and send them flying, dealing further damage to nearby foes while removing corpses from your line of fire. Various heavy two-handed weapons such as the Scindo, Gram, Fragor, Bo, Orthos, and Amphis can easily crowd-control multiple targets and deal damage as they do so.

But weapons lose their effectiveness against multiple targets as the difficulty increases in Endless Defense, and ultimately the danger to lone Tenno fighting on the field becomes too great to risk heroics. This is where Courage, from the Bushido code, comes into the discussion.

Courage

The concept of Courage in the Bushido code refers not simply to the will and fortitude to do something, but also the understanding of that action and the acceptance of it being correct. There is a sense of finality which is similar to Rectitude, but differs in the conscious and unconscious mind. Rectitude refers to completing a course of action, such as striking with a sword and not hesitating before or upon impact. Courage is knowing that you must strike with the sword; or knowing that you must not.

Two abilities used by Warframes are the focus of Courage in this discussion. The first is Pull, as used by the Mag. It is the lesser offender, but one which I personally experienced multiple times defending the Cryopod in Xini and was victim of. Pull can allow a Mag to easily group a set of enemies together for quick dispatch through the use of cleaving melee weapons or allied abilities and fire, but it will also deliver upon the user and anyone nearby toxicity.

A Toxic Ancient grabbed by a Mag becomes a threat to the group. The clustering effect of bringing a foe which was safely at range into melee before it would have reached its target makes for a dangerous situation, as many Tenno will not expect such a deadly foe to be expedited towards them.

Secondly we have Vortex, as used by the Vauban. Vortex is an ability which is used far more often and by a greater number of Tenno in Endless Defense, which makes the threat all the more dire. When used correctly Vortex allows a group of foes to be removed from the fight completely, ensuring that your fellow Tenno are able to focus their attention on other threats. It also allows for the precise placement of area-of-effect abilities and traps, as clustered foes can be cut down with ease when using the right tool.

Vortex alters the space around it to better attract foes, but Tenno are also affected by the brief change in physics. Finding themselves weightless and unable to control their trajectory with any accuracy, the Tenno becomes easy prey for any Toxic Ancient which has been entrapped in the Vortex effect. The Vortex effect does not dispel previous Toxic Ancient clouds left upon their demise, and thus can make avoiding unnecessary damage extremely difficult. This is compounded when a Tenno falls in the effect of a Vortex; I have personally witnessed an ally fall in a Vortex to a Toxic Ancients cloud, only to watch as my two remaining allies leap into the Vortex field and themselves succumb to the cloud.

Thus we return to The Role of the Tenno and the Pod:

• The safety of the Cryopod or Reactor is the primary objective; losing it loses the mission and your progress.
• The safety of your fellow Tenno is below the primary objective; you must not do things which will lead to their death.
• Your own safety is important; a wasted life is worthless.

Time-To-Kill... Toxics?

Your Time-To-Kill when doing an Endless Defense on Xini or any other difficult mission should be tempered with caution and planning. Tenno must have the Courage to know when to fight and where, and keep Rectitude in mind when taking an action.

Reviving a downed Tenno only to fall yourself shows neither Courage nor Rectitude.

Leaping upon a threat with the intention of defeating it soundly only to be defeated yourself is a waste.

Tenno have no time to waste when the Cryopod could be destroyed in a matter of seconds.

Or you could just Molecular Prime and Chaos. =|

The Datamass: Update 9's New Tutorial

WARFRAME is developed and published by Digital Extremes, the same development house that helped create Unreal and the Unreal Tournament line of First-Person Shooters. Digital Extremes doesn't disappoint its fans, releasing content at a break-neck pace that leaves their Creative Director Steve Sinclair and Lead Designer Scott McGregor with more and more ambitious projects after every release! So what's up with this update?

I recently had the chance to play Firefall, as it went into Open Beta at the start of the week. It was an interesting experience for a Free-to-Play game, and I certainly can appreciate what it is trying to do. I saw a lot of similarities between what Firefall is doing and some of the content in Warframe; especially the naming conventions and aesthetic of some of Firefall's "Battleframe" abilities.

But I'm not looking to point fingers at tropes of a science fiction genre. Instead I want to take a look at the new Warframe tutorial which was released with Update 9, and draw comparisons between two Free-to-Play games and their forays into teaching new players.

Doing it Right: Immersion

Right from the start, you're given a classic introduction to the situation you're in. It's a set of scrolling text with interference as it moves. It says a lot, without overwhelming the player with needless technobabble. Important nouns are either capitalized at their start or the entire word is capitalized to signify how important it is. This lets you understand that the Old War is important; but TENNO and WARFRAMES are paramount.

We go through the introduction shown at E3; an important Grineer figure usurps one of their cronies discoveries, which is introduced in a fly-through of the area you have to eventually force your way out of. The camera can be controlled during the fly-through, which is a great touch.

I am the Lotus

You're introduced to your "operator" immediately upon waking from what she refers to as cryo-sleep. The Lotus will be a familiar voice as you go through the game, and does a good job at being no-nonsense in the situation while explaining things to the poor new Tenno woken in the cold.

You go through the basics; Health, Shield, your weapons, ammunition. The tutorial is very no-nonsense and obviously intended only to familiarize you with the functions of control and basic UI elements instead of teaching you how to Flip Out And Be a Space Ninja.

The Lotus summons quick holo-projections for you to target with abilities and weapons, before the Grineer break through the glowing space-door which had been protecting you. This leaves you, the Tenno, to have to fight your way through and "get to extraction," a phrase which alludes to a great deal of your activity in Warframe.

The Grineer in charge is an asshole, however. He zaps you when you come out, only for three other Tenno appear and usher you to safety.

You choose your Warframe shortly after this, and are sent right into the Solar Map to continue your journey.

And So Can You

I broke the Tutorial a couple of times unfortunately, as I paused to take screenshots and save things for future use. Often I was able to cut the Lotus off in her text-prompts which came with the audio queues for what to do and what she was explaining, which made for some interesting Drunk Lotus visuals.

The setting which Digital Extremes used for the tutorial is obviously the raw scenery from the E3 video, as there is an area to the right of where you begin that doesn't have any back-texturing. If I hadn't been well-versed in Flipping Out Like a Space Ninja I would have been stuck inside of this area, so it's something to be aware of and fixed in the future.

I see Paris, I see France. I see the doodads underpants.

This is a good tutorial. It's quick, it doesn't go too far into the lore to lose new players, and it explains quickly enough in a controlled environment without expecting players to be God-Tier.

And the most important aspect of the tutorial is that it wasn't just made for existing players and their friends joining. Unlike what I experienced in Firefall, I wasn't bombarded with techno-slang and new lingo while trying to get a feel for things that were only being explained in an in-setting tone.  The Lotus explains things well. Rebecca Ford, the voice of the Lotus and Digital Extremes Community Manager, expresses things crisply and concisely. Whomever wrote the script for the Lotus did a good job of expressing things without overwhelming the player or straying too much from the In-Character/Out-Of-Character line.


They did a great job. I can start introducing more of my friends to the game now without worrying that the introduction will be off-putting. And Digital Extremes needed to give us that bit of credibility.

The Datamass: Update 9 Patch Notes

WARFRAME is developed and published by Digital Extremes, the same development house that helped create Unreal and the Unreal Tournament line of First-Person Shooters. Digital Extremes doesn't disappoint its fans, releasing content at a break-neck pace that leaves their Creative Director Steve Sinclair and Lead Designer Scott McGregor with more and more ambitious projects after every release! So what's up with this update?

There's a lot to go over in this update, so while we patch let's take a look at what's in store for us in Update 9!

WHAT'S NEW?

• New Weapon – Grineer Shotgun “Sobek”
• New Weapon – Tenno Throwing stars “Hikou”
• New Clan Research Weapon – Corpus Pistol “Spectra”
• Added first phases of Lore UI (click your in-game profile and look for the tab!)
• Grineer Galleon Map Expansion (now supporting Mobile Defense, Spy, Deception, Capture)
• Series II Warframe Alt Helmets: 14 new Warframe Helmets (1 for each Warframe including NOVA)
• Avatar packs for all Season II helmets.
• Clan & Dojo Management Improvements (MotD, Clan size restrictions)
• New star map functionality with Cinematic dioramas.
• Aura mod system is here! The Artifacts system has transformed into a new system and has merged with the Aresnal UI. The new “Auras” can be fused just like mods, and they have their own slot! Auras are powerful, but also come at a cost to equip.
• 12x new Mods: Faction "Bane" (melee, pistol, shotgun, rifle)
• Nightmare Game Mode. Are you tough enough to survive Nightmare mode?
• 10x Dual Stat Mods rewards (awarded in “Nightmare” game mode challenges only)
• Sneak preview of new UI in the Foundry!
• New Boss on Europa! Look out for the Corpus Raptor!
• New Tutorial added, look out for Captain Vor!
• New Infested Ancient enemy has appeared in the solar system, be alert.
• New color picker for the French Holiday!
• Clan Emblems have been added as an option to the game. Warlords, check the warframe.com/user/page!
• New Resource and Credit bundle options added to the Market.

CHANGES:

• Enabled Clan size caps. This cap is Phase One of making the shift to the new Alliance System. With this change also comes the new scaled resourced per Clan Tier . Please see this post to see where you and your clan fit in: Clan Caps Coming
• Added toggle for “gore” in Options Menu. Gore enabled by default.
• Added friendly system message in EU Region Global chat reminding players to “take a break” every hour they play.
• Changed a variety of blueprint recipes in the Marketplace.
• Refined the tint options on the Burston, Viper, Gram, Furis, Afuris, Dera, Furax, and Boltor.
• Revisions to Snipetron Vandal sounds.
• Mobile Defense: Adjusted number of active enemies allowed during defense stages - more for solo & increase numbers slightly in stage 2 & 3 to make them more epic.
• Enemies will storm the defense targets, which makes them much more aggressive towards it.
• Improved sprint animations for throwing weapons movement set.
• Prevent players from entering missions once a build update has been detected.
• Improved color tinting on Ash’s smoke armband—more subtle.
• Mobile Defense – Release lockdown when going into a defense wave. NPC’s abort running to panic button during defense wave.
• Weapon skins selector now supports displaying more than 7 skins.
• Added arrow trail to Dread projectiles.
• Show Squad count when hovering over nodes.
• Disabled mantle/wall run on decorative trees to prevent players from getting stuck in them.
• Burston - damage and fire rate buff.
• Dera - projectile speed increased (doubled flight speed).
• Flux Rifle – damage and fire rate buff.
• Lanka – damage and damage type (serrated) buff.
• True Steel mod buff (doubled).
• Pressure Point mod buff (20% base).
• Reaper Prime buff – a bit more speed, damage, and charge damage.
• Shield Lancers now use Grineer Viper instead of Tenno weapon.
• Sniper Mods can now be applied to Lanka
• Increased the drop rate for Control Modules, Alloy Plate, Neural Sensors, and Gallium.

FIXES:

• Fixed Acrid DOT numbers not showing up on capture target, and death affect not replicating.
• Fixed a case where exterminate missions could be left with non-zero enemy remaining count, but no enemies would spawn.
• Fixed Rhino's Iron Skin being removed by other players causing damage to it.
• Fixed ability effects for Nyx to be consistent on host/client both in terms of what is created and what colour it is.
• Fixed Rescue mission from being completed without freeing the prisoner.
• Fixed some reported navigation and cover issues AI were having in Grineer Defense.
• Fixed Volt’s Speed ability not making you jog faster.
• Fixed player sliding issues.
• Fixed host migration issue in Grineer Galleon Sabotage where the target would be missing after migration.
• Fixed health regeneration in PvP dueling.
• Fixes to prevent objective related triggers being re-enabled after host migration.
• Fixed Volt’s Shock ability to chain properly off turrets and cameras.
• Fixed Supra - shots from the Supra will now correctly line up with the target reticule.
• Fixed weapon attachments (Kunai/Despair holsters) that would detach from player while using a sniper rifle.
• Fixed/removed off-hand flashlight when using Despair.
• Fixed Capture target hostage AI not following player after host migration.
• Fixed icon for default Frost helmet.
• Fixed issue where Bladestorm would get “stuck” on clients.
• Fixed various reported level issues (clipping, AI nav, level holes).
• Various crash fixes.