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.

The Datamass: Update 9 Highlights

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?

Hot off the presses at Digital Extremes we have a new Youtube Video with some great stuff being discussed and teased to the community. Let's check it out and look over what it talks about, after the break.

Eyes of the Twin Queens: Grineer Informer Farming

We'll cut right to the chase; the new event is up for the weekend and there are many people with many opinions on how to best farm for kills.

As always, Kappa seems to be the place to go.

90377 Sedna

Kappa - Sedna is one of the first missions unlocked in the Sedna-sphere. It is accessible from Saturn, and requires that you defeat General Sargas Ruk. The level range for Kappa ranges from 18 to 28, making for a fairly accessible mission.

Kappa is a Mobile Defense; requiring the Tenno and their Cell to bring a datamass to several computer terminals and wait for the Lotus to defeat the encryption. During the encryption countdown countless Grineer will assault the Tenno and their Cell, all attempting to destroy the terminal which the Lotus is currently hacking.

After defeating the encryption on both terminals the Lotus will announce a new objective; defend the cryopod (artifact, as she refers to it). This is also a timed defense, with the greatest risk to the cryopod being Grineer Rollers and lieutenants. Bombards, Napalms, and Heavies will all pose a great risk to the cryopod.

The Target

Floating idly by in a firefight, making a strange noise when approached and jamming Tenno radar within twenty meters, the Grineer Informer can be difficult to spot at first. Almost always hovering above eye-level of the Tenno, these Grineer drones are deployed with other Grineer units in order to collect information and disrupt the ability for Tenno to properly acquire targets or navigate through the use of their minimap.

Grineer Informer

Boldly Hiding in the Rafters

So where do we go, to slay these terrible constructs of metal and circuitry?

Our Playground

That's right folks, Kappa. Specifically the two main rooms containing the data terminal objectives of the first part of a Mobile Defense. These rooms allow us to fulfill the criteria needed to spawn Grineer Informers:

• Triggers
• Distance
• Room

The trigger we require to spawn Grineer Informers is the same as any other foe. The Lotus may announce Grineer attackers en route, the timer may be initiated for decryption, or the timer for the cryopod defense may be initiated. As new waves of foes are spawned to attack the data terminal or cryopod, Grineer Informers are spawned in various locations nearby.

Distance is a sphere or bubble around each member of the Cell present for the mission. Grineer will not spawn within this sphere, making it vital that Tenno not spread out too greatly during the mission for fear of suppressing spawns outright.

Room, or rather rooms, are the physical locations which Grineer Informers can spawn. There are various rooms surrounding the data terminals which Grineer can use as cover. Assuming the Tenno are far away enough, Grineer Informers will eventually spawn within them. As the core aspect of this farming method, it requires visual aids to properly convey. The Rhino Camera-Man used all of his acrobatic skill to gather these, as the album shows

Bottom-Level

Central to both data terminals is a squat room with three doors; one of these rooms has a number of containers in-front of it, while the other is clear. Both will spawn one or two Grineer Informers within.

Without Boxes

With Boxes

Grineer Informer Spotted in the With Boxes room!

Located to either side of the squat, central rooms are two additional rooms. The first room is identical on either side of the Mobile Defense map, placed in a corner with an automatic door. These rooms will often be ignored due to the lack of other spawns within them. Grineer do not take cover in them when spawning in other locations, and are thus almost always empty excluding a Grineer Informer.

Opposite these closed-off and ignored rooms are an entryway and a dead-end which sees a great deal more activity from the Grineer as they spawn. Grineer troops will often use this cross-entryway for cover as they approach the data terminal. The location of the Grineer Informer is beyond the cross-entryway shown, floating against the ceiling. Grineer will take cover from Tenno in the cross-entryway, but rarely where the Grineer Informer spawns.

Top-Level

There are three spawn locations on the top-level of this map for Grineer Informers. Two of these are fairly obvious, but we stumbled upon as the Rhino Camera-Man worked his magic.

First we have a fairly simple T-entry room. Grineer Informers spawn within even when defending the nearby data terminal, making it worthwhile for a member of a Cell to occasionally move to the top-level while not lingering for too long. Grineer Informers float here as they do elsewhere, being bothersome and hindering radar for nearby Tenno.

Another T-entry room and another location for the Grineer Informer to spawn, this location is slightly larger than the previous. As illustrated by the picture, it can be difficult to spot the drone without approaching the room and paying close attention to the ceiling. Both rooms on the top-level can spawn multiple Grineer Informers, making them worthwhile to check but not suppress with the presence of Tenno.

I came across the last spawn completely by accident. Or rather, spawns. Either side of the central divider for the top-level can spawn a Grineer Informer, while the opposite side (which the Rhino is facing away from in the picture below) does not seem to spawn anything.

They just float there. Mocking my weight.

And Other Spawns

Entering the juncture between the two data terminal rooms (which also serves as the location of the cryopod), Tenno will see two rooms to either side of the doorway. Both can contain Grineer Informers when initially entering the area, as well as when moving from one data terminal to the next.

The doorway leading out from this juncture also allows Grineer Informers to spawn, with upwards to five spawning in the adjoining room during the cryopod defense alone.

The Right Tool for the Jo- Wait We Used That Already?

A public group will hate you for leaving the data terminals or the cryopod. A public group full of random players (Pick-Up-Group, PUG, pugs, ect...) will not play the objective most of the time, and instead focus on either kills or hunting down Grineer Informers for the sake of their personal objective. This is why it is advisable for you, the player, to do this in a reliable group.

As always, cohesion and teamwork will pay off when attempting to get a personal objective. Teamwork in this case will allow you to hunt down and kill the required twenty Grineer Informers to receive the Snipetron Vandal, without impacting other players and their objectives.

Cohesion and teamwork will also serve to keep you from engaging in conflict with others!  Grineer Informer kills are not shared between players thus-far. I'll say it again:

Grineer Informer kills are not shared with your group!

You only gain credit for the killing blows you land. Your allies do not contribute to your own total. Your Sentinel does not contribute to your own total. Chaos- and Mind Control-affected foes do not contribute to your own total, should they somehow score the killing blow.

Remember this as you cut a bloody swath through the ranks of the Grineer! And be sure to shoot a Grineer Informer right in the recording-device as a message to the Twin Queens. It's going to take a lot more than surveillance devices and some radar disruption to stop a Tenno.