[Sotr Concepts] New World: Tartarus, The Infested Dreadnaught (Vectis Revision)

[Siubijeni]

Deep in the Origin System lurks a bastion of the Infestation, nearly as old as the plague itself: a massive vessel composed of ships drawn in and taken by the infestation, gathered over millennia and in close orbit to the sun. There it sits, ruled by an intelligence greater than Lephantis or any lesser golem--beyond any scans or patrols near Mercury, but not so close to the sun as to risk actual harm.

 

In mythology, Tartarus is the name of both the darkest and deepest part of the Underworld and the deity that rules it. It is fitting, then, to in turn give the name to both this Infested Dreadnaught and its controller, a being so vast and old that the ship is as much a part of him as his actual flesh, while the lesser infested that inhabit his ship--and any others in range of his domination of the gestalt infested consciousness--are as indirect extensions of his flesh, tools to be used as he pleases and discarded as his purposes demand.

 

This concept brought to you by LegionVangaurd and I, with contributions from clan member chapodeguezmen.

 

New Tileset: the Infested Dreadnaught

Seeing as the Dreadnaught is made up of ships captured over millennia, heavily infested versions of tiles from the Grineer Galleon, Corpus Cruiser, and Orokin Derelicts would feature. Additionally, a possible addition would be larger, more elaborate tiles that show up more rarely for several Fomorians that were assumed destroyed in Operation Sling-shot but actually fell into Tartarus’ hands. Another possible addition would be a few uncommon tiles for old-Earth ships, because Tartarus is old enough to possibly have some relative few of those. Basically, if it’s space-worthy, Tartarus has probably integrated at least one specimen into his massive Dreadnaught.

 

Those possibilities aside, the cool new addition that we would really like, however, are vacuum tiles. Some of these ships aren’t entirely intact, nor is every ship directly linked to airlocks and such. New double-door airlock rooms that open based on switches, not proximity, would allow Tenno to step out onto the hulls of these ships, where they would traverse the infested hull and tendrils that tether ships together or pass through series of rooms open to space. Another interesting function could be normal tiles with the next door sealing off a hull breach, which you can manually override to access those rooms but vent everything you’ve already passed to space. You’d then go through these rooms and out on the hull, etc, until you came to an airlock that you could use to re-enter the ships. These stretchs couldn’t be too awfully long because they slowly sap your shields and health, but it would certainly be an interesting hazard. However these vacuum tiles and broken-up ship spots worked, t’would be new and exciting.

 

New World: Tartarus

A quick representation of Tartarus with a suggestion for its drop table

Visible as a giant cruiser silhouetted against the sun and stars, inside the orbit of mercury and relatively close to the sun. However, that doesn’t actually tell us how we get to it, as the world and mission map isn’t always directly based upon the starmap. Since Jupiter is the main bastion of the infested, Vangaurd and I selected it to branch off of. Callisto and Elara are the principle candidates for the path to a new world, and for reasons that will become clear we think Elara is the better choice.

Please note that the layout of missions/dots I drew was completely random. It's just to show its location.

 

The names of the missions would be based upon notable prisoners or features of Tartarus, with the first mission being Tityos--he’s the son of Elara, hence why it would be a fitting introduction to a new world from said Jupiter survival mission. Other names include: Sisyphus, Tantalus, Ixion, Danaides, Salmoneous, Tisiphone, Phlegethon, Aloeus, Aornum, Rhadamanthus, Aeacus, and Minos.

 

New Heavy Unit: the Revenants

The Revenants are a pet project of Tartarus, and the result of a Tenno’s infestation. While on the surface, they exhibit more independence than most infested, they are fully under Tartarus’ mental control. They retain the majority of a Tenno’s agility, and are one of the greatest threats of the Infestation because of their mobility and power. They still have access to some of their Tenno abilities, and utilize infested versions of Tenno weaponry they bore when captured (potentially dropped as skins by the four Favored! I’ll get to those guys presently). There are four varieties of Revenant (which might all be labeled as just “revenant” and distinguished by visuals, like crawlers. I like that. But for differentiation in discussion we’ve got separate names here. I like the names too, so if they are actually separately labeled that’s fine by me), as detailed below. The first four Revenants that were created are the Favored of Tartarus, and actually bear names (detailed under their respective class of Revenant, for convenience and clarity).

 

Storm Revenants:

The Storm Revenants are based upon combat with ranged weaponry, and have powers that complement this; the Favored of Storms is called Specter.

Weapons: Latron (75%), Soma (25%)

Specter’s Weapons: Soma (66.66%), Vectis¹ (33.33%)

Abilities: Electric Shield, Tesla, Sonic Boom

Specter’s Ultimate: Cloud Fury, like world on fire but lightning-y

 

Death Revenants:

The Death Revenants are supportive caster units that use side-arms to defend themselves, and have powers that support their allies on the field; the Favored of Death’s name is Lich.

Weapons: Furis (75%), Dual Vasto (25%)

Lich’s Weapons: Dual Vasto (66.66%), Kunai (33.33%)

Abilities: Roar, Shield Polarize², Blessing³

Lich’s Ultimate: Corpse Fury, like shadows of the dead with four random Ancients

 

Bone Revenants:

The Blood Revenants are frenzied melee attackers that can absorb a lot of damage and get right in the thick of things to return it. They have powers that better allow them to take on this role; the Favored of Blood is known as Ghoul.

Weapons: Ether Reaper (75%), Orthos (25%)

Ghoul’s Weapons: Orthos (66.66%), Galatine (33.33%)

Abilities: Contagion, Null Star, Ice Wave⁴

Ghoul’s Ultimate: Battle Fury, like Absorb but retain mobility

 

Soul Revenant:

The Soul Revenants are as ghosts on the battlefield, capable of seemingly fading from existence to harass and attack Tartarus’ enemies. They have powers that help them escape notice and disorient their foes. The Favored of Souls has been dubbed Wraith.

Weapons: Dual Ether (75%), Dual Heat Swords (25%)

Wraith’s Weapons: Dual Heat Swords (66.66%), Fang (33.33%)

Abilities: Invisibility, Slash Dash, Pull

Wraith’s Ultimate: Blade Fury, like Blade Storm but able to be dodged

 

¹ – Entered new sniper rifle's name, since its released now. If you have not yet seen it:

No idea what its called, so unlabeled. But yeah we think Specter should have this as his heavy weapon.

 

² – Obviously since Infested don’t have shields, the ability would be modified to instead affect the health of the casting Death Revenant and infested around him. The shield-stripping of opponents, in this case us Tenno, could probably be left as is.

 

³ – With all of these, the ability noted is the basis of the effect. In this case, Blessing would be drastically nerfed, enough to merit special notice. There would be a decently small radius of effect, of course, and a fixed healing rate (not full health at mid to higher levels). The invincibility is a momentary effect, perhaps 5 seconds, and affects only those in the newly applied radius.

 

⁴ – Retextured to look like rocks or something? Ice would be random.

 

-Potential- New Units: Spitters and Shredders

The Infested Dreadnaught is old and a bastion of the Infested, and as such it bears defenses the younger drifters lack. These primarily take the form of tendrils of infestation acting as poison spitting turrets or barbed limbs that will strike those that come within reach.

 

These creatures are incorporated in walls, ceilings, and even the hulls of the ships (in the new vacuum tiles, and being purposed for that task don’t take damage there). Often a cluster of Shredders will guard a strategically placed Spitter, or hide just beyond a doorway to ambush those passing through.

 

Spitters would not be particularly well armored or durable, relying mainly on their blending into the heavy infestation for defense. They spit poisonous clouds similar to Lephantis’ Corpus Head or the J3 Golem, albeit considerably smaller and not as dangerous.

 

Shredders blend in almost as well as Spitters when not active, and although they are noticeably sturdier than their ranged cousins, they are still nothing spectacular. They rely on ambush tactics and strategic placement to delay and distract Tenno, allowing the more mobile Infestoids to attack with something approaching impunity.

 

New Assassination Setup: Tartarus Nodes

Tartarus is both the place, and the ruler. However, due to his relative decentralization over the massive Dreadnaught, it can be difficult to find a significant target. Thus, there is no real assassination mission for Tartarus. Instead, the Revenants found throughout the ship have a chance to drop blueprints utilizing Nav Coordinates for keys to three special boss missions. As an occasional random event, one of the Favored could spawn--a harder enemy with a higher chance at the keys and perhaps a chance at alternate, infested skins of the weapons they use.

 

Because you know exactly where on the ship to find these Nodes of Tartarus’ activity, these missions would have a different introduction sequence, in a sort of ante-chamber room to where the boss is. The Tenno would be shown from the front, and walk through a door into the ante-chamber. The door locks behind the fourth Tenno, and the one in the front does the over-the-shoulder glance at the locked door (maybe all of them), then the intro ends and the camera 180s.

 

The boss is in a room directly beyond the ante-chamber, so there is no ‘dungeon crawl’  to find the boss, per se. Instead, these missions have unique extraction sequences, detailed in their individual boss fights.

 

We intend for, rather than dropping the parts for a frame all at once, the frame and two new weapons to be split up across these three bosses, one part of each at each boss. These will be detailed later; for now I’ll just say that the Bosses were designed with our Sanguine frame in mind, and the weapons Agony, Torment, and Desolation.

 

Alternatively, because I know that this is somewhat complicated and DE might not want to do something so extremely different, you could just use the Favored of Tartarus assassination detailed below and (similarly to the phobos dual-mission) split all of the weapon drops between the favored, with the frame blueprint being an end-mission award like all the others… I like having the prints split up between three sort of mini-bosses, but I do recognize that it is significantly more work and complication, which is why we’ve thought about this simpler alternative.

 

Assassination Mission:  Tartarus Node

This Tartarus node would be like a huge tumor on the floor of a gigantic room. The walls are crawling with Shredders and Spitters. Large tentacles are the Node’s primary form of defense, but also the Tenno’s method of attack--you have to run up tentacles to get on top of the node, and attack a vulnerable point at the top. Whenever it is hit, you have ten seconds to attack it before the node pulses and knocks you away. When it does,  Infested will spawn in a wave to attack, including one or two Revenants that hatch from ceiling pods and drop onto the top of the Node, where they will stand guard for your next attack run.

 

We don’t have all that much thought out for this fight beyond that , so contributions are welcome! Our current extraction idea is that Tartarus starts hulling that section of the ship, so even though the extraction is untimed, when Lotus tells you to get out you’d best do so because most of what follows is in vacuum as walls blow out and Tartarus rips off ceilings, etc.

 

This Assassination’s blueprints are: Sanguine Helmet, Torment Bracer, Agony Receiver, and the Desolation Receiver.

 

Assassination Mission: The Favored of Tartarus

The Tartarus node-tumor here is on the ceiling and relatively unobtrusive. It hangs above an arena with concentric tiers, like the coliseum. In a raised alcove opposite the door the Tenno enter by kneel the four Favored (Specter, Lich, Wraith, and Ghoul) in the usual Tenno meditation stance. They cannot be hurt at first. Instead, waves of infested with a relatively high percentage of Ancients spawn until either the Tenno have killed a certain number of waves or until a certain and short time (2:30?) has elapsed. Then one of the Favored (random) jumps down and engages the Tenno with a mini-wave of a few chargers. After the Tenno defeat the Favored (like Stalker, not killed) he jumps back up and more waves spawn. After a number of waves or another short duration, another Favored will engage the Tenno. You don’t kill him, either, and this repeats for the other two. At this point Tartarus is kinda angry that you’ve survived his little mock trial, his games, and sends all four Favored at once. This time, they die as they should (and maybe have a chance to drop prints for the alternate skins of their weapons? Dunno, just something that could reward you, doesn’t need to be there). After you’ve killed all four, Tartarus is pretty &!$$ed, and Lotus warns you to get the **** out of there.

 

The extraction sequence for this one is untimed, but waves of infested will constantly spawn to chase you towards extraction. These will be of increasingly high percentages of ancients, and after a few waves Revenants will start spawning with the ancients in increasing numbers as well. In other words, you can fight, but after a while there will be so many revenants that it’s not a very good idea. It’s a good idea to take Lotus’ advice, in this case.

 

This Assassination’s blueprints are: Sanguine Chassis, Torment Handle, Agony Barrel, and the Desolation Barrel.

 

Assassination Mission: Alpha Operative

The basic premise that one of the elite Alpha Operatives we provide the distraction for during Survival Missions was isolated by Tartarus and in a bit of a bad spot. Unfortunately, Tartarus has managed to partially infect him with the Revenant virus. While as a total bad*** he’s not really too bad off yet and can still be saved thanks to his resistance, it has gotten to him a bit. He’s gone a bit loopy with hallucinations and the like (Tartarus has some mental access, a slight foothold in his mind), and doesn’t trust his senses. In other words, he doesn’t believe that you’ve come to rescue him and thinks that you’re really Revenants and a trick by Tartarus. We’re thinking at the moment that Alpha is an Excal Prime with Skana, Lato, and Braton Prime. But as more primes get added, Alpha could be a randomly selected prime frame (with any set of prime weapons?).

 

So this boss is a little different. Rather than trying to kill the boss, you’re actually trying to protect him/her from the Infestation. The infested will be doing their utmost to kill both him, and you. He’ll be doing his utmost to kill both them, and you. You have to avoid his attacks without hurting him too much, because otherwise the Infested could get him, and you have to keep the infested from overwhelming him. All the while, you’re trying to get behind him and press ‘X’ to sedate him. The Infested will keep attacking him while sedated, so you shouldn’t do this to early even if you can manage it—the infested waves die down over time, so the longer you wait the easier this first part of extraction will be.

 

The extraction, then, is getting Alpha out. The way I picture it is that the Tenno walks backwards with a hand hooked under each armpit and a little hunched, dragging him along while looking back over their shoulders. You can’t use weapons like this, naturally, but if you have two people on Alpha you can drag him faster at the expense of firepower (maybe you’d be able to use side-arms with restricted fire/aiming arcs, with two carriers?). You have to make your way through the level like this, so it wouldn’t be horribly long, but countered by the necessity to protect both yourself and Alpha as you make your way along. Do you sacrifice firepower for speed and put two people on Alpha? Do you play it safe and have only one member drag Alpha? In difficult moments you can lay him down and have all your weaponry available, or one of the two draggers can let go to help defend if necessary. I think it would be a very interesting extraction.

 

This Assassination's blueprints are: Sanguine Systems, Agony Stock, Torment Claw, and the Torment Blade.

 

The Drops: Sanguine, Agony, Torment, and Desolation

Sanguine is a Blood Fanatic frame Legion and I also designed. He is an offensive caster focused upon a high-risk/high-reward theme, with the abilities Sacrifice, Splinter, Parasite, and Bloodlust. Obviously, he'd be built with the three parts found on the three bosses. You can find more on him here: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/109138-sotr-warframes-part-1-changeling-era-and-sanguine/

 

Agony is designed to be a dual-wield primary (built with the stock, receiver, barrel, and 10 neurodes), and is a pair of compact, lever-action infested shotguns. Every time you click, it fires one of the shotguns, after which the wielder will do a little spin-lever cocking action. It’s hard to describe, but it’s similar to this video (thanks to Chapo for finding this reference:

). It alternates which shotgun you fire, and you can’t fire during the levering, of course. Agony is fairly typical of shotguns: high damage, with a relatively tight spread. However, it’s clip size is not stellar (perhaps 8-10?) and it has slightly less than average max ammo for a shotgun (100 or so?), nor is its range anything like the sniper-shotguns in that MW2 video… it is a shotgun, after all. I was thinking that it could be 'sheathed' at the small of the back round the waste, something like this:

It's Eddie Kenway :P

 

Torment is a melee weapon composed of a clawed gauntlet on the right arm and a curved knife held in a reverse-grip in the left hand. Thus, it is built with the bracer part, the handle part, the blade part, and 1-2 claw parts, plus 3-5 neurodes. It’s normal attack is fairly fast and average damage, composed of sweeps with the knife and punches/swipes with the claws. Charge attacks are composed of uppercuts and jabs with the claws, and wider swings/stabs of the knife. Torment’s main advantage is not high damage, but a good crit rate with serrated blade as the damage type for all attacks, coupled with a speed that is better than average, but not quite the level of Zoren or Ichor. The Claws would slide-backwards when not in use, to be out of the way. The knife could be sheathed on the underside of the bracer, or on his right shoulder, or anywhere really.

Just a quick concept model of the claw, untextured because science.

 

Desolation is basically a dual-wield mini-Torid, built with the receiver, barrel, and 4 neurodes. The grenades it fires are significantly less damaging than Torid, with less range and a smaller cloud, but the clouds linger slightly longer and the firing rate, which is somewhat faster, allows Tenno to spread larger clouds of the stuff. In other words, this is a poison-based carpet bomber, focused on area denial rather than a more direct weapon.

 

DE's Platinum Gimmick: The Four Horsemen Pack!

Similarly to how Banshee and Nekros have both had packs with their 'favored equipment,' like Banshee's signature Paris, we've thought of a way Sanguine's could work in the market.

 

Twould draw parallels between these things and the four horsemen. Sanguine is of course Death (he loves to kill things and is quite good at his job), Agony would be War/Strife (Lots of big blasts and spread, chaos, damage, etc), Desolation is Pestilence (it does poison damage, after all), and Torment is Famine (its a melee weapon for when you've run dry of bullets).

 

So it would be a Four Horsemen pack for Sanguine and his 'signature' infested weaponry.

 

I think that’s about it. Lotta stuff. If something doesn’t make sense, like there’s a hole or something I forgot to put up, just lemme know and I’ll do my utmost to fix that. If you’d like to see frames other than Sanguine that Vangaurd and I have designed, here are links to our three threads:

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/109138-sotr-warframes-part-1-changeling-era-and-sanguine/

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/110176-sotr-warframes-part-2-hawk-ordnance-and-shaman/

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/114048-sotr-warframes-part-3-twinframe-chimera-and-hybrid/

 

Thanks, and we look forward to seeing the community’s thoughts!

Edited November 1, 2013 by Siubijeni

[ErudiusNacht]

Hmmm, very very nice.

 

Can't say any negative thing on this concept as it is Really Unique and very fine detailed.

 

You, who know so well my writer nature, can already assume I'm wrapping up my brain to make up a background story for Tartarus. I'm already asking you in advance if I can use him/her/it for my Light Novels. I think a power battle for the dominion over rulership of the infested can be interesting if we pit Tartarus against Baphomet (https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/105211-baphomet-%E2%80%93-the-betrayer-merihem-new-dual-infested-boss-concept-weapon-new-color-art-10313/).

 

Having two distinct species (or strains) of Infested would be a good addition since we cannot expect anyone from beyond Outer Terminus. LiveStream 16 told us they do not plan for another system. We're stuck here so let's just spice it up.

 

P.S.

Dude, how'd you do the spoiler within the spoiler?! Spoiler-ception!

Edited October 22, 2013 by ErudiusNacht

[Siubijeni]

Haha, we have a kind of back-story for him, but cut it out because it was made the first post too long:

Long story short, he was a product of one of the first infested ships from Old Earth (perhaps a terraforming ship headed to Venus or Mercury), and when some ship found the derelict the infestation by luck managed to successfully fight them off and even kill/capture the entire crew. Its already been implied that the mass of an infested entity is directly tied to its sentience in the Lore tab entries, so as he assimilated this mass and grew in intelligence and conciousness, he had an unexpected tactical advantage on other ships coming to exterminate him: he has a sort of telepathic domination of the gestalt infested pseudo-conciousness that allows him to control lesser infested nearby. The tendrils present on the outside of the Orokin Derelicts prove that some variants of the infestation are vacuum-hardened, and it makes sense the ships could be tied together that way. By gleaning half-thoughts from assimilated minds and studying the ships through his minions, he even learned to control his ships.

Once he had three or four ships, his personality was developed enough to want more, to covet more. He took his frigate into a more active area of space to hunt. After claiming one more victim, military units finally took this new infested threat seriously rather than as a fluke, as a failure by an ill-prepared decon team. They moved a fleet in to annihilate the new threat, dubbed the Tartarus, and since he had moved to a more active area of space it wasn't too hard to find him. Outnumbered and outgunned, Tartarus fled. With his sheer engine power, he was able to pull away but not before sustaining engine and control damage, along with some hull damage. With several engines locked on and maneuvering crippled, it was calculated his path would take him into the sun, and the chase was abandoned.

They underestimated his will to live. He pulled his minions into the core ships of his fleet and disabled the one malfunctioning core engine(violent-like), and sent small teams out to set the other malfunctioning ones supercritical. By blowing away a lot of mass, although he saved as much of himself as he could, and nullifying the undesirable effects of a damaged control/thrust system, he was able to insert into an orbit around the sun beyond patrols and scans from Mercury and expansion efforts, but not too close as to risk significant harm. And so he hid, drawing in the drifting derelicts that are the end result of a ship-side infestation through his control of the infestation.

His growth was slow at first, but as he grew that telepathic range expanded and he was able to draw in drifters from further away, seizing control of their new 'crew' and directing the ships to him. Sometimes, when an epidemic broke out on a ship within his range, he was even able to provide the budding hive with tactical direction, leading them to success where they may otherwise have failed. And all this while, his mind and body grew over millenia, while no one in the System suspected his survival or hand in events both recent and not so recent.

His experiments with the Tenno and Revenants are, of course, a more recent endeavor starting when he found a small cache of concealed Tenno. Several of them died, but the four who survived became his Favored. They are considerably more independent than any other infested entity in Tartarus' arsenal, and considerably more powerful as well--save perhaps Lephantis, for it is unknown if Tartarus had contact with the ancient golem or not (although it is likely his relationship would have been considerably more mutual, as Lephantis was himself a separate entity and could not be so easily dominated.

Whether you use that exact back-story or not, s'fine if you use Tartarus in your story. Just make sure you portray him right :P He's ancient and unfathomable, so convinced of his own infallibility that on some level, all of this is just a game to him. He toys with his enemies and tries to make us fall victim to his tricks and ourselves. This is why the Favored boss is a mockery of Tenno honorable combat in the dueling arena, with the Favored striking that same kneeling meditation pose we do. It's also why he lets you know where the Alpha Operative is, as he knows he is crazed and thinks he can make you kill him. Tartarus is also used to get his way, though, and a bit childish in that regard. Thus, when we prove a match for his favored in honorable combat, he loses patience and sics them all on us... and when we kill them, he throws a fit over losing his favored pets and sends his armies in a murderous rage, intending to capture us and make that squad his new Favored. And thus, when we actually manage to capture the Alpha intact, he tries to kill us and him and stop our extraction.

And ummm... I put the spoiler tags inside of spoiler tags? I wasn't aware that was such a big deal?

Edited October 22, 2013 by Siubijeni

[ErudiusNacht]

Haha, we have a kind of back-story for him, but cut it out because it was made the first post too long:

Long story short, he was a product of one of the first infested ships from Old Earth (perhaps a terraforming ship headed to Venus or Mercury), and when some ship found the derelict the infestation by luck managed to successfully fight them off and even kill/capture the entire crew. Its already been implied that the mass of an infested entity is directly tied to its sentience in the Lore tab entries, so as he assimilated this mass and grew in intelligence and conciousness, he had an unexpected tactical advantage on other ships coming to exterminate him: he has a sort of telepathic domination of the gestalt infested pseudo-conciousness that allows him to control lesser infested nearby. The tendrils present on the outside of the Orokin Derelicts prove that some variants of the infestation are vacuum-hardened, and it makes sense the ships could be tied together that way. By gleaning half-thoughts from assimilated minds and studying the ships through his minions, he even learned to control his ships.

Once he had three or four ships, his personality was developed enough to want more, to covet more. He took his frigate into a more active area of space to hunt. After claiming one more victim, military units finally took this new infested threat seriously rather than as a fluke, as a failure by an ill-prepared decon team. They moved a fleet in to annihilate the new threat, dubbed the Tartarus, and since he had moved to a more active area of space it wasn't too hard to find him. Outnumbered and outgunned, Tartarus fled. With his sheer engine power, he was able to pull away but not before sustaining engine and control damage, along with some hull damage. With several engines locked on and maneuvering crippled, it was calculated his path would take him into the sun, and the chase was abandoned.

They underestimated his will to live. He pulled his minions into the core ships of his fleet and disabled the one malfunctioning core engine(violent-like), and sent small teams out to set the other malfunctioning ones supercritical. By blowing away a lot of mass, although he saved as much of himself as he could, and nullifying the undesirable effects of a damaged control/thrust system, he was able to insert into an orbit around the sun beyond patrols and scans from Mercury and expansion efforts, but not too close as to risk significant harm. And so he hid, drawing in the drifting derelicts that are the end result of a ship-side infestation through his control of the infestation.

His growth was slow at first, but as he grew that telepathic range expanded and he was able to draw in drifters from further away, seizing control of their new 'crew' and directing the ships to him. Sometimes, when an epidemic broke out on a ship within his range, he was even able to provide the budding hive with tactical direction, leading them to success where they may otherwise have failed. And all this while, his mind and body grew over millenia, while no one in the System suspected his survival or hand in events both recent and not so recent.

His experiments with the Tenno and Revenants are, of course, a more recent endeavor starting when he found a small cache of concealed Tenno. Several of them died, but the four who survived became his Favored. They are considerably more independent than any other infested entity in Tartarus' arsenal, and considerably more powerful as well--save perhaps Lephantis, for it is unknown if Tartarus had contact with the ancient golem or not (although it is likely his relationship would have been considerably more mutual, as Lephantis was himself a separate entity and could not be so easily dominated.

Whether you use that exact back-story or not, s'fine if you use Tartarus in your story. Just make sure you portray him right :P He's ancient and unfathomable, so convinced of his own infallibility that on some level, all of this is just a game to him. He toys with his enemies and tries to make us fall victim to his tricks and ourselves. This is why the Favored boss is a mockery of Tenno honorable combat in the dueling arena, with the Favored striking that same kneeling meditation pose we do. It's also why he lets you know where the Alpha Operative is, as he knows he is crazed and thinks he can make you kill him. Tartarus is also used to get his way, though, and a bit childish in that regard. Thus, when we prove a match for his favored in honorable combat, he loses patience and sics them all on us... and when we kill them, he throws a fit over losing his favored pets and sends his armies in a murderous rage, intending to capture us and make that squad his new Favored. And thus, when we actually manage to capture the Alpha intact, he tries to kill us and him and stop our extraction.

And ummm... I put the spoiler tags inside of spoiler tags? I wasn't aware that was such a big deal?

 

I've actually found a role for her in the novel. I was hoping to dispose of another Tenno antagonist, and this fits her well. The antagonist is female as you have noticed, and would be a great contrast to the male Baphomet. I can even use the earlier background you cut out since it could also fit in the story. Lephantis even has an explanation in my novel, so I think it would make sense. I'll use her in my upcoming chapter 6. Nice timing!

 

 

Thanks!

[Siubijeni]

Ummm... you're saying making Tartarus female? Uhhh... technically its genderless... and I'm really not sure that fits very well... we refer to it as 'he' simply because his more vicious nature and some of his mannerisms are more masculine. And 'it' is just not so fun to say...

[LegionVangaurd]

I've actually found a role for her in the novel. I was hoping to dispose of another Tenno antagonist, and this fits her well. The antagonist is female as you have noticed, and would be a great contrast to the male Baphomet. I can even use the earlier background you cut out since it could also fit in the story. Lephantis even has an explanation in my novel, so I think it would make sense. I'll use her in my upcoming chapter 6. Nice timing!

 

 

Thanks!

Mmm, NO, tartarus is not a he, not a she, tartarus is an it, tartarus is a mass of ships from every faction, it is a living amalgamation of biomass, it does not even have a real form besides the ship anymore, so i reiterate NO!!

[ErudiusNacht]

Ummm... you're saying making Tartarus female? Uhhh... technically its genderless... and I'm really not sure that fits very well... we refer to it as 'he' simply because his more vicious nature and some of his mannerisms are more masculine. And 'it' is just not so fun to say...

 

 

Mmm, NO, tartarus is not a he, not a she, tartarus is an it, tartarus is a mass of ships from every faction, it is a living amalgamation of biomass, it does not even have a real form besides the ship anymore, so i reiterate NO!!

 

Uhhh, just in the background story! If you read the novels, I explained the reason for the sentience of the Golems. The infestation starts out as a female Rogue Tenno and ends up as an infested ship with sentience.

[Siubijeni]

Ummm... yeah, well, go ahead and do whatever you like, cause I'm not one to cramp on creative expression, but I do protest (and word of warning, Vangaurd might do so a little more vehemently). The infestation didn't start with anything to do with the Tenno, Hayden likely formed the Tenno in direct response to it, so your causation is backwards (which causes me some measure of distress). Even if you intended Tartarus to be male in said story I would object to him having ever been a Tenno... it does not make any sense. Yes, the Golem says they are our flesh, but that is a reference to a sort of kinship in that the Tenno are a more cultured and controlled product of the same nano-virus as the infestation, or at least that is what Dark Sector and every other evidence indicates.

 

More, the lore behind the infestation implies that the infestation has a sort of hive mind, with the "greater whole exhibiting signs of coordination" despite the ferocity of individuals. And Lotus' commentary on the Golems indicates that their sentience and individuality is directly connected to their assimilation of biomass to come larger and more of a locus of the hive pseudo-conciousness, which is why the revised Golem (Lephantis) is so huge compared to other infested. So even though it is a little bit speculative to bring about something as advanced as Tartarus and his dreadnaught, its not much of a stretch and even a fairly reasonable and linear projection...

[ErudiusNacht]

Ummm... yeah, well, go ahead and do whatever you like, cause I'm not one to cramp on creative expression, but I do protest (and word of warning, Vangaurd might do so a little more vehemently). The infestation didn't start with anything to do with the Tenno, Hayden likely formed the Tenno in direct response to it, so your causation is backwards (which causes me some measure of distress). Even if you intended Tartarus to be male in said story I would object to him having ever been a Tenno... it does not make any sense. Yes, the Golem says they are our flesh, but that is a reference to a sort of kinship in that the Tenno are a more cultured and controlled product of the same nano-virus as the infestation, or at least that is what Dark Sector and every other evidence indicates.

 

More, the lore behind the infestation implies that the infestation has a sort of hive mind, with the "greater whole exhibiting signs of coordination" despite the ferocity of individuals. And Lotus' commentary on the Golems indicates that their sentience and individuality is directly connected to their assimilation of biomass to come larger and more of a locus of the hive pseudo-conciousness, which is why the revised Golem (Lephantis) is so huge compared to other infested. So even though it is a little bit speculative to bring about something as advanced as Tartarus and his dreadnaught, its not much of a stretch and even a fairly reasonable and linear projection...

 

Well, if there's that much of a protest, then I will forego the use of your concept. I apologize if I have caused any misunderstanding and or offense and will not reproach the subject of using Tartarus again.

 

Just to clarify in the story that I made, yes, the infestation started out exclusively of the Tenno. The Technocyte virus even predates the Tenno, but in my story, a certain Tenno creates another strain of it (Chapter 1 and Chapter 4). I also made lore that coincides with Lotus' explanation of Golems in that they do assimilate matter and their use in the war (Chapter 5). I actually thoroughly researched and played Dark Sector myself. I was hoping to integrate another plot twist in my upcoming Chapter 6 by creating/revealing an antagonist that eventually gets what she deserved and becomes Infected by another type of technology; a technology that incorporates both Golem and Technocyte virus control that disfigures her (and eventually creates a colossal controlling mass of Infested).

 

I hope that explains my motivations, and I do sincerely apologize for any duress or offense I may have caused. Thank you for your time.

[Siubijeni]

I'm not offended, no worries. I apologize, I perhaps overstated my case... the distress comment was supposed to be a joke on kind of continuity or lore nazi-ism, which I know I have a tendency towards... jokes are hard online cause tones don't always come across right. I try not to be a jerk, but sometimes it happens :(

 

I realize that your story is different and not entirely following canon, and I don't mind if you use a premise very similar to Tartarus. Just if you're going to make it female, I would ask that you not actually use the name Tartarus, because that is a little bit of a stretch to consider them the same character in that circumstance.

 

It explains your motivations just fine, and I apologize in turn for being a little harsh--it was never really my goal to shoot down your usage of the basic concept, but I didn't really get my point across very well. I can't speak for Vangaurd, obviously, but as for me I say go ahead with what you were planning, bar the name Tartarus. Don't worry about what I said about portraying the character right earlier, either, since it is in effect a new character in a sort of alternate continuity.

[ErudiusNacht]

I'm not offended, no worries. I apologize, I perhaps overstated my case... the distress comment was supposed to be a joke on kind of continuity or lore nazi-ism, which I know I have a tendency towards... jokes are hard online cause tones don't always come across right. I try not to be a jerk, but sometimes it happens :(

 

I realize that your story is different and not entirely following canon, and I don't mind if you use a premise very similar to Tartarus. Just if you're going to make it female, I would ask that you not actually use the name Tartarus, because that is a little bit of a stretch to consider them the same character in that circumstance.

 

It explains your motivations just fine, and I apologize in turn for being a little harsh--it was never really my goal to shoot down your usage of the basic concept, but I didn't really get my point across very well. I can't speak for Vangaurd, obviously, but as for me I say go ahead with what you were planning, bar the name Tartarus. Don't worry about what I said about portraying the character right earlier, either, since it is in effect a new character in a sort of alternate continuity.

 

Well the thing is, Tartarus really fits because the character is named Medea from Greek mythology (oh I hope I didn't spoil the suspense). LOL. The woman, immature, is a playah, playing with boys and chooses favorites also. That why she fits.

 

I am relieved to hear that you're not offended, but still, I really feel bad when I use somebody else's material if they don't like it. I'll take the concept off the story, but I'll set it aside and it'll still be on the table.

 

With or without Tartarus in mind, I do hope you find the time to read the story. I've put some time on it and I hope it would let you understand the story better.

 

Thanks and Cheers!

 

EDIT: Gotta finish Chapter 6 before the event! LOL!

Edited October 22, 2013 by ErudiusNacht

[Siubijeni]

Tartarus might fit mythology wise, but the thing is its very definitely a masculine name :P I'm not sure I see the connection between her being a player with favorites and Tartarus... but meh, I might get around to reading it some time and realize I'm just getting confused about stuff.

 

Whatever you'd like. Mostly I don't like the gender swap because it doesn't really fit with Tartarus' character and role, and my lore Nazism acts up at the tenno origin... but obviously on both counts your story is an alternate continuity and really a different character with a slightly similar origin and role. And seen in that light, I've no creative objections to it.

 

Glad that got sorted out, cheers! Any idea when the event is? I'm kinda waiting on the edge of my seat. I've been waiting to team up with Corpus for far too long :D Either way, hope 'tis soon.

[ErudiusNacht]

Tartarus might fit mythology wise, but the thing is its very definitely a masculine name :P I'm not sure I see the connection between her being a player with favorites and Tartarus... but meh, I might get around to reading it some time and realize I'm just getting confused about stuff.

 

Whatever you'd like. Mostly I don't like the gender swap because it doesn't really fit with Tartarus' character and role, and my lore Nazism acts up at the tenno origin... but obviously on both counts your story is an alternate continuity and really a different character with a slightly similar origin and role. And seen in that light, I've no creative objections to it.

 

Glad that got sorted out, cheers! Any idea when the event is? I'm kinda waiting on the edge of my seat. I've been waiting to team up with Corpus for far too long :D Either way, hope 'tis soon.

 

It's this Wednesday, I believe. Updates are Wednesdays anyways. In the latest Livestream they stated that the Corpus and the Grineer are finally gonna go at it, and that there would be a community bar on which side was winning. They even showcased a test mission where the Corpus was shooting alongside the player. Steve further commented on how it was awesome to have a Shield Osprey boost your shields. The other guys then mentioned having Bombardiers as bodyguards would be nice. I believe it's a clan thing. Your clan will be aligned to a specific faction or whatnot, so I guess you ought to talk to your Warlords ASAP.

 

They explained that it will change the game dramatically. For example, if a conflict was happening within a Corpus controlled system, let's say Venus, and the community bar that time reaches Grineer Victory, the system, Venus in out example, would become Grineer missions. Cool right? Dang I hope Sedna becomes Corpus. I dunno what will happen to the bosses though I believe they'll be introducing Alad V as well this time as a Boss.

 

Also, as a side note, they'll be releasing Halloween skins. Yay!

[Siubijeni]

Convenient, that ;P I am the warlord. Or well, co-warlord. Or well, co-Imperator. And dang, that would be intense to switch factions for a world.

 

Yeah, I saw the video with the test play with Corpus. The osprey's and tech's seem a boon, and having those powerhouse Drones on your side is no laughing matter. They have a point with Grineer heavies being good bodyguards, though... I'll have to see what my clannies think, not that there's more than 20 of us to consult lol.

 

I'm not sure the full event will be this wednesday but I could be wrong. I got the impression that this was a little more of a long term announcement, like for maybe next week. But you're right, they mentioned halloween weapons so those at least will have to come out this wednesday in order to be on time for Halloween. I guess we'll see what all comes in that package in a couple of days!

 

On that note, we've strayed a little off-topic... perhaps we'd best return... I'm curious, what do you think of splitting up the BP's across multiple bosses? We worried it might make them too hard to get, but it's an original idea at least. And what's your opinion of the weapons we came up with, in particular Agony and Torment?

[ErudiusNacht]

About the multiple BP's, yeah why not? Bring some variety to the table! Honestly, I liked the idea of scattering prime parts in the void, if only it wasn't that grindy. But since the BP's are very much limited to this particular Boss(es), sure! And I think the players will like having to work on specific bosses instead of praying to the RNG gods again for a specific bp drop. "If I wanted this particular BP, I got to this boss. This one for that one." Simple. Honestly, I still haven't built Nekros due to bad luck!

 

Torment, I'm not so really hot on this one. The time gap between shots may mean life or death for you, specially for a high-level defense. I think you'd need to play support while sporting this gun. The novelty of a double primary, much more double shotguns, is great, but I believe it would benefit more for close range combat with a wider spread and simultaneous shots so you can do crowd control instead. This might not be ammo efficient, but smaller shotguns do tend to have wider spreads.

 

Agony - Again, I like the variety, and it's about time that we get some claws. We're ninjas dangit! This should be speed based and serrated edge, much like the blades that Ash releases from his arms in Bladestorm. One press of the button should execute a flurry of attacks like a dagger pair.

 

Desolation - In my understanding, they shoot alternately right? The idea is to carpet a large area with a lot of gas. Why not create instead a cross between Ballistica and Torid? Having dual weapons always gives the risk of dying while reloading, and remember that sidearms do not have that much ammo like primaries. If you cross Ballistica with Torid, you automatically get 4 points of gases in one click blanketing a large area. If you charge it, you get the Torid charge instead.

 

Hope I was helpful!

Edited October 22, 2013 by ErudiusNacht

[Siubijeni]

Was a little confused at first cause you mixed up the names a bit: Agony is the shotties and Torment the claw, not the other way around haha. As for your Desolation suggestion, I find it most interesting. I'll have to bring it to the attention of Vangaurd and Chapo... perhaps as a little mini-burst launcher-cannon?

 

For Torment, yes, the idea is that it is based upon its speed and agility. It is designed to resemble, at first glance, a sub-par Zoren or Ichor, save two things--it has a crit even higher than them and deals serrated blade on all attacks, not just charge. It makes sense that a claw and dagger would have the versatility and agility to hit at the places that hurt in order to make the most of otherwise laughable wounds. So this is meant to be a good loki/ash spam weapon :P

 

As for Agony, you have a point. But I was mostly trying to emphasis that it would not be the OPness that was in the reference vid for the lever-action. It was designed with Sanguine in mind, to be to him what Paris is to Banshee--a sort of signature weapon. Taking into account your notes, I'm thinking it should be a high damage with a good cqc spread, but with enough damage fall-off to make shottie-sniping not an option. The idea is this is very much a rush-in-there and spread-some-serious-giblets weapon, and the lever delay was something you would have to take into account--but it wouldn't be too big a deal because of its massive damage output and the fact that there are two you can fire in sequence. You can rapid both your shots into a foe, or you can time the shots a little apart to put up a pretty consistent fire pattern. Either way, you've got some impressive DPS at close range countered by the need to watch yourself and the lever-delays in between shots. Because it has that built in lever mechanism, I was thinking it wouldn't have much worse reload time than a normal shotty despite being dual-wielded--its been optimized for this sort of work.

 

Plus, little infested sawed-off shotties is just BA. So you were indeed helpful, Nacht. Thanks for the input!

[ErudiusNacht]

Was a little confused at first cause you mixed up the names a bit: Agony is the shotties and Torment the claw, not the other way around haha. As for your Desolation suggestion, I find it most interesting. I'll have to bring it to the attention of Vangaurd and Chapo... perhaps as a little mini-burst launcher-cannon?

 

For Torment, yes, the idea is that it is based upon its speed and agility. It is designed to resemble, at first glance, a sub-par Zoren or Ichor, save two things--it has a crit even higher than them and deals serrated blade on all attacks, not just charge. It makes sense that a claw and dagger would have the versatility and agility to hit at the places that hurt in order to make the most of otherwise laughable wounds. So this is meant to be a good loki/ash spam weapon :P

 

As for Agony, you have a point. But I was mostly trying to emphasis that it would not be the OPness that was in the reference vid for the lever-action. It was designed with Sanguine in mind, to be to him what Paris is to Banshee--a sort of signature weapon. Taking into account your notes, I'm thinking it should be a high damage with a good cqc spread, but with enough damage fall-off to make shottie-sniping not an option. The idea is this is very much a rush-in-there and spread-some-serious-giblets weapon, and the lever delay was something you would have to take into account--but it wouldn't be too big a deal because of its massive damage output and the fact that there are two you can fire in sequence. You can rapid both your shots into a foe, or you can time the shots a little apart to put up a pretty consistent fire pattern. Either way, you've got some impressive DPS at close range countered by the need to watch yourself and the lever-delays in between shots. Because it has that built in lever mechanism, I was thinking it wouldn't have much worse reload time than a normal shotty despite being dual-wielded--its been optimized for this sort of work.

 

Plus, little infested sawed-off shotties is just BA. So you were indeed helpful, Nacht. Thanks for the input!

 

Haha, sorry for mixing them up. Was paying the pizza guy in-between typing.

 

As for Desolation, if you want a mini-burst launcher cannon, maybe you can take a look at a weapon in SR3 called the GL G20. Basically, it empties grenades in a blanket format. Though the SR3 GL G20 throws mild HE grenades, you can replace them with Torid Cartridges.

 

[Siubijeni]

Interesting... perhaps, but I was thinking something a little bit smaller lol. We'll see though, I'm consulting Chapo and Meow on their opinions now.

 

Haha, Pizza. Good choice.

[ErudiusNacht]

Interesting... perhaps, but I was thinking something a little bit smaller lol. We'll see though, I'm consulting Chapo and Meow on their opinions now.

 

Haha, Pizza. Good choice.

 

Yeah, Pizza!

 

Anyways, about the size, that GL G20 is only about the size of Ignis. It's actually relatively small! (Should've included a character for reference.) If you notice, the distance between the trigger handle and barrel grip is just about 5-6 inches. players could even use this single-handedly. Recoil is bummer since it constantly churns out grenades, but aim this at a general area and that area would have a blanket of grenades. I believe it would have about the same length as Acrid but not longer than Balistica.

 

Here are better vantage points:

 

 

 

YUP IT'S DOUBLE BARRELED!

Edited October 23, 2013 by ErudiusNacht

[Siubijeni]

Oh, well, that's a lot smaller than that other picture looked, then :P It would have to look a little more infested but that is a great first concept, thanks!

 

Double Barreled haha, wonderful. We can keep our dual-theme with Sanguine's "signature" equipment.

 

ZOMG I FORGOT TO ADD OUR IDEA OF A PACK FOR SANGUINE LIKE THOSE ONES FOR BANSHEE AND NEKROS! TO THE EDITOR!

[LegionVangaurd]

you dodo brain that was one of the main things we discussed before uploading this concept.

[Siubijeni]

Hey I got sidetracked doing all the lore and awesomness and concept and stuff. It's not my fault I forgot to mention the "Four Horseman Pack" at first. So get off my case, Vangaurd!

[Siubijeni]

So now that the Vectis sniper rifle has been released I was able to put that into the description for the favored Storm Revenant, Specter! Now it's not a nameless weapon that had yet to be released with a picture! Yay!

[ErudiusNacht]

Hmmm. Didn't use Tartarus for my Ch6, used Lephantis for that. Can I still use "it" for another guy? A guy this time. (Okay, easy now. *hands up*)

[Siubijeni]

Haha, yes of course. I'm sorry we were so... uh... vehement last time. But yes, feel free to use Tartarus in your story.