[Suggestion] Plains of Eidolon

[TaigenRaine]

So, I have no idea if this is even plausible in Warframe's engine, but having 4 person squads and the typical 'mission' conditions for PoE (and subsequent open world areas) seems to not be the best format for these areas.  For bounties and Eidolon hunts, sure, but it would be great for drop in, free form roam if we could have more like a hub situation, with players coming and going on their own terms (if they leave, they just get their mission results screen, and the rest of the players keep going as normal).

Since bounties have a connecting mission thread, that probably still is best to be squad based, but Eidolon hunts could exist in both formats.  If a bunch of people currently in free roam mode want to gang up on an eidolon, great.  Could be fun to see more than 4 people take one on even, but you could still have the bounty for getting a group together to focus hunt them still.  I don't know if the hardware is there to handle real, MMO style open areas like this yet, but the current implementation, while fun, doesn't feel like it's quite up to it's potential.

[SDGDen]

the server doesnt actually handle the map. thats all handled by the hosts computer. so it all depends on the host. and good news, more than 4 players is possible. as was seen in trials before they where cut from the game (with good reason IMO). now the host needs a pretty powerful pc to host an mmo style freeroam mission but 8 player eidolons are more than possible. maybe even 16 player eidolons... (although having 16 players in one mission would be way better in other scenario's. for instance when invading a heavily armored fortress. or if there ever is a mode in which multiple eidolons spawn at once.)

 

[(PSN)Hikuro-93]

You're right on the account of the engine and servers, they really can't support all of this. However they were meant initially for a small game, small team. Apparently when Warframe was created DE didn't take measures that would account for today's situation, meaning high popularity and a large playerbase, as well as new reworks, core mechanic changes, etc.

I do hope someday DE fully adapts to the new world state tech-wise, like with the recent Nvidia GPX Particles, but on a large scale. Imagine, a game with more players per squad, crossplay, account data migration (crossave), better graphics everywhere, new core mechanics and content (we didn't have open worlds and railjack until recently, so I'm hopeful for the future), etc.

This, if it ever comes (or if it comes in a new DE game after Warframe expires in 10 years or so), will surely take a lot of time, and we still have to factor in corporate greed, like Sony's right now, or Xbox's last gen. Let's just hope for the best being prepared for the worst, I say!

[TaigenRaine]

I think the hubs are on DE's computers though, and that is what I am wondering about in terms of making the open area 'free roam' more MMO like.  Have these areas hosted on a powerful computer on site at DE that can handle larger player counts, and if you instead start a bounty it would load it up on your own PC like it does now.  At the very least though right now, they could make the current free roam squad free to drop in and out for players.  I absolutely hate it when I forget to toggle off public play when I want to go out fishing or gathering, cause once that first player joins, I have to either be a jerk and not help them do whatever missions they want to take, or I have to go back to the gate and force the session to close (or if more people join, get blocked from being able to do so), or just abort and put them through a host change and all the problems that can entail (and forfeit my progress).  Free roam really needs to be drop in/drop out, even if it stays at the 4 person max.  A little off subject, but drop in drop out would be nice for survival missions too... so when that one person wants to leave, they can and not either get blocked by the rest of the squad or force the mission to be over for others who want to keep going.

[peterc3]

Relays are hosted by DE. Missions and the Plains are hosted by the players. Nothing currently in the game is designed for more than 4 players, more would obliterate any kind of challenge that exists.

[MageSkeleton]

i'd like to think that DE were intending to raise the player cap for the PoE but the problem is just as mentioned:

7 hours ago, SupremeDutchGamer said:

the server doesnt actually handle the map. thats all handled by the hosts computer. so it all depends on the host. and good news, more than 4 players is possible. as was seen in trials before they where cut from the game (with good reason IMO). now the host needs a pretty powerful pc to host an mmo style freeroam mission but 8 player eidolons are more than possible. maybe even 16 player eidolons... (although having 16 players in one mission would be way better in other scenario's. for instance when invading a heavily armored fortress. or if there ever is a mode in which multiple eidolons spawn at once.)

 

And so my point being they may be limiting the "squad" max to 4 players for either lore reasons or because when you enter the PoE it's really no different than loading into any other mission, just instead of seeing walls everywhere it's a more open map and really it's just amazing that i can't go to Uranus to get fish or Pluto to mine minerals/gems.

 

Though i'm more inclined to think it's "lore reasons" because the entire story arch so far (since Sacrifice) puts you in a situation where your the only "living tenno" other than "the man in the wall" so the fact that you can party with 3 other players might be telling but the quests show you what your tenno was setting out to do as his/her own "quest". While it would make sense to have more than 4 players in a place like PoE it seems like according to "warframe lore" there "aren't many tenno" (read Ember's codex entry).