Stratum - Spatial Manipulation Warframe

[Colyeses]

I have a habit of doing this. I enjoy creating concepts, usually for MOBA characters, but Warframe uses a similar system in terms of abilities, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I initially wanted to do a light based warframe, but couldn't think of a good kit, so I came up with this instead.

 

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Name: Stratum (Alternatives: Ianus, Rip, Apollo)

Theme: Spatial Manipulation

Class: Destruction/Control Caster

 

Now, our current best destructive warframes are mostly female (Nova, Ember, Mag) so I figured it'd be best to keep Apollo as male.

 

Stat Summary: Apollo would feature decent to high shields, low health, low armor, high energy and decent to high movement speed. This to facilitate a lighter, frailer warframe that is more oriented towards aggression than defensiveness.

 

Lore: With the war on the Sentients looking bleak, the Orokin were left with few options. The technological genius that had managed to break into void technology was largely incapacitated by the Sentient's ability to assimilate alien technology. But two inventor brothers had come up with another potential way to annihilate their armies, ironically with a form of technology that was, up until then, even beyond the Orokin. Their suggestion: Temporal assassination.

Their goal was to create a warframe that would be able to go back in time and annihilate the Sentients before they could become a threat. The two brothers put their minds to work and found two different means of achieving their goal.

 

Many of the Orokin protested. If this kind of technology fell into the hands of the Sentients, it wouldn't just damage their own reality but others as well. But in secret, the brothers were smuggled into their individual workplaces, kept hidden from the Sentients, even kept hidden from most of the Orokin.

The eldest of the two brothers was imaginative. To him it seemed impossible to fight against the timestream, so his solution would be to create a warframe that would expand his horizons. If this timestream wouldn't take him where he needed to go, he simply needed to break into a space-time continuum whose timestream would. And ultimately, he succeeded. Stratum became a reality, a warframe with the ability to shatter the barriers of dimensions. But before it could be perfected, the workplace was found and attacked by the sentients.

Nothing remained. All research was destroyed. The silver lining to this very, very dark cloud was that the Sentient were still there. Somehow, Stratum had escaped them. It had been a close call, and the incident was covered up. Stratum and his inventor would be forgotten, the secret of how the megalomania of an Orokin inventor had almost spread the sentients like a virus.

 

Acquisition Quest: Across the Border

The acquisition quest for Stratum would require the player to have completed the acquisition quest for Huyn. It is started by crafting Orokin ciphers into an audio log. The Lotus will be able to translate, and send the translation to your inbox. It's a journal kept by the inventor, detailing some of the complexities of the Stratum warframe, and speaking of a test that will take place at a location, which is where the first blueprint can be acquired. The corpus are already at this location, and have set up a portal device. The Lotus picks up on the trail of the Stratum, but is worried that the corpus will be able to recover the technology. Ordis interjects, stating that he's been contemplating the inventor's words, and he may know of a solution. He instructs the player to run an extended sabotage routine on the device, not only breaking it down but also destabilising the location's dimensional structure, making further digging impossible. The player has to extract within the timelimit.

The first blueprint is acquired and contains another audiolog. The inventor is alone, lost and stranded. The Stratum has allowed him to break dimensions, but it's unstable, and instead of taking him to a space-time continuum with a conflicting timestream, it has teleported him over a vast distance. He contemplates on the possibilities of this travel, and states that he will be looking for a power source to try and get the Stratum to run again, and after surveying the area, he estimates his current location. The mission will repeat here, although this time, the player will have to carry a datamass to the portal device in order to sabotage it.

The second blueprint is acquired, along with another audio log. The inventor is audibly frustrated that another test has failed. Once again he's lost, but he's devised a way to make the system work. He states that he will be crafting a rudimentary stabiliser and try again, once again forced to estimate his current location. Once more the player will have to carry a datamass with Ordis' devised routine to the portal device, and has to leave within the time limit. The Lotus comments that it feels like the Stratum is close.

The third blueprint is acquired, and in the accompanying audiolog, the inventor states that he's going to do one more test. He sounds sorrowful as he explains that he made a grievous oversight: For all the control over space that Stratum possessed, he hadn't prepared it to weather different timestreams. He knows that his next jump will be the most dangerous yet, and that he most likely won't make it out alive. He comments that at least the Stratum will be out of the Sentients' reach, safe, even if he himself won't be.

His last words are a farewell to his beloved brother, telling him that everything will be all right and that even if he didn't succeed, he's still proud of him.

 

(The following is an alternative conclusion to the Huyn-Stratum story)

The Lotus is upset at the likely outcome, but Ordis remains hopeful. He states that by using the combined technological efforts of the two brothers, it might be possible to recover the both of them. The Lotus protests that the mission is too dangerous, but leaves the decision to the player. The player can now craft a second Temporal stabiliser and can craft a Spatial stabiliser. Once both have been constructed, a special tower sabotage mission becomes available. The player is required to deliver a datamass to the portal room, where Ordis will reconfigure the portal using lingering temporal and spatial data on the audiologs. The player can then pass through the portal to slip into a different dimension where he has to deliver the temporal stabiliser to Stratum, and the spatial stabiliser to Huyn, before escorting both back through the portal, and out to safety.

Taken far out of their timezones and thankful to even be alive, Huyn and Stratum decide to quit their research, having to come to terms with living in a new timezone.

(Suggested: Huyn and Stratum become Baro Ki'Teer's associates, with Huyn and Stratum selling some of Ki'Teer's previous finds again)

 

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Abilities & Augments

 

Ability 1: Meteor Shot

 

25 Energy

 

Apollo opens a small wormhole, which fires a meteor at target location, and another half a second later. Upon impact, the meteor deals blast (50/100/150/200) damage in an area, only dealing full damage at the epicenter.

Power Strength: Increases blast damage

Power Range: Increases the radius of the blast
Power Duration: Adds additional meteors (max 3 additional, 5 total) over the next two seconds

 

Ability 2: Spillgap (Alternative: Dumphole)

 

50 Energy

 

Apollo opens up a Spillgap over the target location, which showers the area in debris. Debris deals (75/125/175/225) impact damage upon contact with an enemy.

 

Power Strength: Increases impact damage

Power Range: Increases the radius of the Spillgap

Power Duration: Increases lifespan of the Spillgap

 

Augment: Recycle. Adds a chance for a Spillgap to spawn a health orb, energy orb or resource drop.

Ability 3: Pitfall

 

50 Energy

Apollo opens a pitfall at target location. Enemies that fall into it are forcefully cast out when the ability ends, launching them upwards and causing (125/225/325/425) impact damage when they collide. If a Spillgap is active, warframes can enter the Pitfall to re-emerge from the Spillgap.

Power Strength: Increases expulsion force, and consequently, the impact damage
Power Range: Increases radius of the Pitfall

Power Duration: No effect

Augment: Hammerspace. Health and Energy orbs can now be swallowed up by the pitfall. Orbs that have been swallowed up by a Pitfall will reappear from the next Spillgap.

 

Ability 4: Singularity
 

100 Energy

Apollo creates a singularity at target location, which gradually pulls enemies towards it. Enemies that come too close to the singularity are consumed by it, leaving the battlefield entirely. At the end of its lifespan, the Singularity implodes, dealing (500/650/800/950) impact damage to all enemies trapped in it and expelling survivors and drops. Enemies killed by Singularity become additional debris for the next Spillgap.

 

Power Strength: Increases impact damage
Power Range: Increases pulling radius and pulling strength
Power Duration: Increases lifespan of Singularity

 

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Design notes

 

Visuals still under construction, don't have a good idea for a visual theme yet.

 

Specific numbers are never definitive. Balance is a tricky thing, and I do not know all the figures. I modeled Apollo's numbers on Limbo's and Ember's.

 

The meteors from Meteor Shot would have a very high projectile speed, but there would be a short delay after casting before the first meteor fires.

 

The combo of Pitfall and Spillgap would create a potentially very accurate teleport, at the expense of additional energy.

Pitfall's duration doesn't get increased in order to both limit its control efficiency and keep enemies in the fight. Keeping enemies out of the fight is Singularity's job.

Singularity would become a fountain of loot if it swallows sufficient enemies. It might be a good idea to have it gain pulling power as it swallows more enemies.

Singularity's pulling effect would be similar to the pushing effect of voidgates in Tower Sabotage missions. No knockdown, unlike Mag's pull, to limit the control effect.

 

Governing syndicate would be Cephalon Suda and perhaps the Perrin Sequence.

 

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Edits

 

Edit1: Renamed from Apollo to Stratum.

Edit2: Added lore and acquisition quest.

 

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And that's about it for now. Let me know what you think!

Edited April 11, 2015 by Colyeses

[-Mandachordian-Tenno-]

good overall but a little ironing would be in order, like

Singularity is a bit like Vortex, same CC but would just unused in high tiered missions, as 950 impact wouldnt really "impact" the HP of stronger enemies, and takes them out of the game then gets back while there were more spawning enemies. needs to scale for it to have some uses, but still a bit like Vortex, so would like it to change into a spherical wormhole(think interstellar)
and doesnt suck although big enough for enemies to get sucked (good place to plant it is on long corridors, would also function as bullet wall as shooting at it would absorb the dmg and damages all it sucked.

[Colyeses]

I hadn't even thought about Vortex... But Vortex is a control ability, and Singularity is a mixture of control and damage. The numbers can be adjusted, of course, these are just suggestions, and of course power strength would greatly benefit the collapse damage on Singularity.

If you strip away the pull effect, it'd just become pitfall.

[Colyeses]

The opening post has been updated to include background lore and an acquisition quest. I am not very up-to-speed on Warframe lore, so if there's inconsistencies, let me know.