Anthem and what Warframe can learn from it

[Corvid]

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot about Anthem's setting that interests me. The idea of a "world without microprocessors", where the power armour you wear had to be crafted by hand because your society is pre-industrial sounds like it has a lot of potential. I just don't think the designs do the concept justice.

41 minutes ago, rune_me said:

Not much in the world of sci-fi that aren't generic these days.

Seems to me like you've got a fairly skewed definition of generic, if I'm being honest. Warframe does a fair few interesting spins on existing tropes, and that's what makes it stand out, not the creation of new ones. The psychology of audiences means that there are a finite number of "new" ideas that actually lead to interesting settings or narratives.

[rune_me]

2 minutes ago, Corvid said:

Seems to me like you've got a fairly skewed definition of generic, if I'm being honest. Warframe does a fair few interesting spins on existing tropes, and that's what makes it stand out, not the creation of new ones. The psychology of audiences means that there are a finite number of "new" ideas that actually lead to interesting settings or narratives

Like I said, I do not think it does any interesting spins. Maybe if I bothered to read through all the lore I would change my mind, but I tried and just found it to dumb to care about any of it, if I have to be honest. 

Like I also said, what is and isn't a good story, a good setting, etc, is very subjective. Like what is good music or a good movie. If we all liked the same thing there would be no need for different genres and tropes and styles. I have no problem with people liking the lore and story of Warframe, it's just not for me. Maybe I have just read and watched too much sci-fi in my life and grown a bit disillusioned with the genre.

[Corvid]

1 minute ago, rune_me said:

Maybe I have just read and watched too much sci-fi in my life and grown a bit disillusioned with the genre.

Funnily enough, I seem to recall us basically having this exact same discussion about a year ago, so... deja-vu? Perhaps this very conversation is becoming generic. ^_^

Not sure what I can suggest other than perhaps comparing media with its peers rather than its forefathers to see what's actually generic for a given period. As I said previously, everything becomes generic if you boil it down enough, and the "Seinfeld is Unfunny" effect means that said forefathers are eventually perceived as generic after decades of imitation and iteration, even though they were pioneers (you yourself alluded to this with your list).

Furthermore, I submit the notion that an expertly crafted execution of a genre can be what it takes to stand out in the market (whether or not Warframe is this is up to the reader to decide for themselves), even in absence of something truly unique. Conversely, doing everything possible to break conventions and set a new subgenre can just as easily languish in obscurity.

Forgive my slightly incoherent longwindedness, it is rather difficult for me to keep a train of thought in my current state, but I felt it was prudent to give a prompt response.

[rune_me]

1 minute ago, Corvid said:

Funnily enough, I seem to recall us basically having this exact same discussion about a year ago, so... deja-vu? Perhaps this very conversation is becoming generic. ^_^

Not sure what I can suggest other than perhaps comparing media with its peers rather than its forefathers to see what's actually generic for a given period. As I said previously, everything becomes generic if you boil it down enough, and the "Seinfeld is Unfunny" effect means that said forefathers are eventually perceived as generic after decades of imitation and iteration, even though they were pioneers (you yourself alluded to this with your list).

Furthermore, I submit the notion that an expertly crafted execution of a genre can be what it takes to stand out in the market (whether or not Warframe is this is up to the reader to decide for themselves), even in absence of something truly unique. Conversely, doing everything possible to break conventions and set a new subgenre can just as easily languish in obscurity.

Forgive my slightly incoherent longwindedness, it is rather difficult for me to keep a train of thought in my current state, but I felt it was prudent to give a prompt response.

Lol it's all good. We may have had the conversation before. I do agree that a standout execution can set even a generic work a part. Game of Thrones is hardly original, but because it's a well crafted world full of great characters, it stands out above the sea of other generic fantasy (the books that is, the tv-show also stands out but more so for it's cast of great actors and it's high production values). But Warframe just doesn't do that for me. I can't for the life of me look at it as well-crafted or well-executed. What does stand out for me in Warframe is the extremely engaging gameplay and it's very large arsenal of weapons and frames that keeps growing (I mean Anthem ships with 4 javelins, while Warframe have 30+ frames, that's impressive even for a game that's 5-6 years old). These are the things that keeps me coming back to the game, not because there's a new story quest released or more lore to read in the codex.

I know this may sound negative, but I have nothing but love for Warframe. You obviously don't invest 1000 hours into a game, if you aren't having a good time playing it. 

[Corvid]

2 minutes ago, rune_me said:

 

I know this may sound negative, but I have nothing but love for Warframe. You obviously don't invest 1000 hours into a game, if you aren't having a good time playing it. 

Obviously. I'm glad we can both find our own ways to enjoy this marvelous thing. I personally am rather engrossed in the ongoing narrative (as I'm sure you have guessed).

[EmberStar]

2 hours ago, Corvid said:

I can't think of many other settings that use this techno-organic aesthetic.

Bio Booster Armor Guyver, Zeiram the Animation, the original Bubblegum Crisis (especially when the Boomers were in full-on berserk mode.)  Maybe a bit of Battle Angel Alita's designs.  The manga and related anime, not the upcoming movie.  Mostly the Berserker body, although I think some of the off-world tech in the Last Command series might count.  (Not sure, never got all the books and now I can't afford them.  "Oh, it's out of print.  I should increase the price by at least a factor of twenty."  - everyone selling a copy on Amazon last time I looked.  😞  )

The Guyver suits and Zeiram especially have some similarities to some of the original Warframe designs.  Enough that you could probably come up with decent "cosplay" setups for Excalibur, Nyx and Loki.  Mag and Nova could probably pull of the look of the Bubblegum Crisis hardsuits with some of the Tennogen available.

Guyver:

Spoiler

https://solarisjapan.com/products/bio-booster-armor-guyver-guyver-i-figma-231-max-factory

Female Guyver cosplay:

Spoiler

 

Zeiram:

Spoiler

https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Zeiram

Zeiram and the bounty hunter Iria:

Spoiler

https://imgur.com/gallery/kTw31

Bubblegum Crisis hardsuits:

Spoiler

http://www.zimmerit.moe/neon-never-fades-bubblegum-crisis/

Bubblegum Crisis Boomers:

Spoiler

https://www.writeups.org/boomer-robots-bubblegum-crisis-androids/

Battle Angel Alita:

Spoiler

https://battleangel.fandom.com/wiki/Imaginos_Body

 

[Kyneidos]

2 hours ago, rune_me said:

Nah, it's every bit as bland and generic as Mass Effect. Except for the Warframes themselves (which I already stated I like) there's really nothing at all that stands out in the visual department.

Just about everything in Warframe "stands out in the visual department." Like classic Star Trek and Star Wars, it has the invaluable quality of every object, weapon, vessel, structure, armour and so on and so forth not only having a distinct and immediately recognizable silhouette, but one that is congruent with the other products of its specific faction. That's quite a feat, from a visual design point of view, and one of the reasons that I love the game so much.

[OniDax]

4 hours ago, Kyneidos said:

Just about everything in Warframe "stands out in the visual department." Like classic Star Trek and Star Wars, it has the invaluable quality of every object, weapon, vessel, structure, armour and so on and so forth not only having a distinct and immediately recognizable silhouette, but one that is congruent with the other products of its specific faction. That's quite a feat, from a visual design point of view, and one of the reasons that I love the game so much.

I can't believe you just tried to compare Warframe to Star Wars and Star Trek. I respect that it's your opinion, but I would bet that the majority of people in the world do not share your opinion, otherwise Warframe would be much more popular than it is.

Edited February 10, 2019 by A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n

[D1sTrust]

5 hours ago, Kyneidos said:

Just about everything in Warframe "stands out in the visual department." ...

Agreed, maybe except for the enemy designs.

Imo Anthem`s design couldn`t be more genic. Javelins cover the range from fat Ironman to slim Ironman.
The environment looks nice, but comes with the worst lack of variety I have ever seen in a AAA title. I was actually wondering why they kept showing the same region over and over again on promo videos, until I realized that`s all there is. On the demo, once I took the first step into the world I felt like I have seen it all, no mystery, no desire to explore.

Warframe on the other hand, when I started watching some videos I didn`t even know where to put it, it just looked crazy. Tbh. I only grabbed it because it`s free, and didn`t expect to spend more than an evening on it.
But once I was in, the design quickly grew on me. It is indeed crazy, but in a good way. It`s scifi, fantasy, wuxia, clinical tech, alien, ninja, biomech all in one place, and somehow it works.
After about a month of playing it, it still feels strange and mysterious. Plus it has some humor as well, it doesn`t take itself too serious.

A lot of that comes from small things, e.g. that neck-parasite, including the room related to it, which is such a contrast to the place around.
Some of it is also game design. E.g. when I found out about Octavia I was like "Who the hell came up with that? Who decided to go the extra mile coding a sequencer instead of a simple skill-fx?". I don`t even have her, but knowing something like that is in the game makes me happy. 😉

Of course it`s just opinion, but imo Warframe feels like a game someone wanted to design, while Anthem feels like a game someone had to design as a job.
 

[Unus]

3 hours ago, D1sTrust said:

Agreed, maybe except for the enemy designs.

Imo Anthem`s design couldn`t be more genic. Javelins cover the range from fat Ironman to slim Ironman.
The environment looks nice, but comes with the worst lack of variety I have ever seen in a AAA title. I was actually wondering why they kept showing the same region over and over again on promo videos, until I realized that`s all there is. On the demo, once I took the first step into the world I felt like I have seen it all, no mystery, no desire to explore.

Warframe on the other hand, when I started watching some videos I didn`t even know where to put it, it just looked crazy. Tbh. I only grabbed it because it`s free, and didn`t expect to spend more than an evening on it.
But once I was in, the design quickly grew on me. It is indeed crazy, but in a good way. It`s scifi, fantasy, wuxia, clinical tech, alien, ninja, biomech all in one place, and somehow it works.
After about a month of playing it, it still feels strange and mysterious. Plus it has some humor as well, it doesn`t take itself too serious.

A lot of that comes from small things, e.g. that neck-parasite, including the room related to it, which is such a contrast to the place around.
Some of it is also game design. E.g. when I found out about Octavia I was like "Who the hell came up with that? Who decided to go the extra mile coding a sequencer instead of a simple skill-fx?". I don`t even have her, but knowing something like that is in the game makes me happy. 😉

Of course it`s just opinion, but imo Warframe feels like a game someone wanted to design, while Anthem feels like a game someone had to design as a job.
 

Your last bit right there. It's one of the few clear and solid opinions I have about comparing Anthem to Warframe. Thank you for putting it so succinctly.

 

Sure, Digital essentially lives or dies on Warframe until (or if) they find a supplementary/alternate source of revenue, but, Goddem are they having fun with it along the way.

[rune_me]

12 hours ago, Kyneidos said:

Just about everything in Warframe "stands out in the visual department." Like classic Star Trek and Star Wars, it has the invaluable quality of every object, weapon, vessel, structure, armour and so on and so forth not only having a distinct and immediately recognizable silhouette, but one that is congruent with the other products of its specific faction. That's quite a feat, from a visual design point of view, and one of the reasons that I love the game so much.

Like I already said, I disagree strongly. I rather think that except for a few weapons and most (but not all) of the frames, nothing at all stands out. Most of the props and assets look more or less identical to 75% of the "sci-fi" asset sets you can buy on Epic's asset store. Here's your sci-fi crate. Here's you sci-fi corridors with your paneled floors. Etc, etc. It's not bad art design. It's just not good either.

[Otaiken]

1 hour ago, rune_me said:

Like I already said, I disagree strongly. I rather think that except for a few weapons and most (but not all) of the frames, nothing at all stands out. Most of the props and assets look more or less identical to 75% of the "sci-fi" asset sets you can buy on Epic's asset store. Here's your sci-fi crate. Here's you sci-fi corridors with your paneled floors. Etc, etc. It's not bad art design. It's just not good either.

Since I'm terribly free at the moment I took the time to go through 20 pages of sci-fi assets on the Unreal Marketplace and found your claim to be complete and utter bs. And that is not a matter of opinion, that is a fact.

At the very best you could claim that some of the enviroments look kinda sorta similar to Corpus enviroments but there's nothing even remotely similar to Grineer, Orokin or Sentient designs. If you disagree with that you are free to provide your own examples with links.

This is the one design somewhat similar to Warframe: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/modular-scifi-interiors The ONE in 23 pages.

Edited February 10, 2019 by LocoWithGun

[rune_me]

15 minutes ago, LocoWithGun said:

Since I'm terribly free at the moment I took the time to go through 20 pages of sci-fi assets on the Unreal Marketplace and found your claim to be complete and utter bs. And that is not a matter of opinion, that is a fact.

At the very best you could claim that some of the enviroments look kinda sorta similar to Corpus enviroments but there's nothing even remotely similar to Grineer, Orokin or Sentient designs. If you disagree with that you are free to provide your own examples with links.

This is the one design somewhat similar to Warframe: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/modular-scifi-interiors The ONE in 23 pages.

The same generic sci-fi design we've seen a million times before:

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/scifi-asset-pack

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/modular-sci-fi-environment-engineer

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/sci-fi-case-pack

I certainly was too lazy to go through the whole store, so this is just from the first 2 pages. Point is, if you took the assets from Warframe and sold them as a package on the epic store, there would be nothing that separated that packaged from the dozens and dozens of others at all. Nothing that would make you say "whoa, that's something different." At all. 

Like I said earlier, this is not a problem with Warframe, but with sci-fi in general. As a genre it's grown stale and too reliant on tired tropes: paneled floors, pipes on the walls, LED lit sliding doors, the same crates and barrels in every game and movie. Of course you very occasionally gets something actually original that stands out and genuinely looks new and different. But for every Bioshock there's a dozen Warframes and Anthems that's just more of the same old, same old.

And again, the Warframes themselves don't fall into that category There's certainly quite a few of the frames that are genuinely well designed in my opinion and that did make me say "yeah I've never seen that before".

[Otaiken]

7 minutes ago, rune_me said:

The same generic sci-fi design we've seen a million times before:

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/scifi-asset-pack

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/modular-sci-fi-environment-engineer

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/sci-fi-case-pack

I certainly was too lazy to go through the whole store, so this is just from the first 2 pages. Point is, if you took the assets from Warframe and sold them as a package on the epic store, there would be nothing that separated that packaged from the dozens and dozens of others at all. Nothing that would make you say "whoa, that's something different." At all. 

 Like I said earlier, this is not a problem with Warframe, but with sci-fi in general. As a genre it's grown stale and too reliant on tired tropes: paneled floors, pipes on the walls, LED lit sliding doors, the same crates and barrels in every game and movie. Of course you very occasionally gets something actually original that stands out and genuinely looks new and different. But for every Bioshock there's a dozen Warframes and Anthems that's just more of the same old, same old.

 And again, the Warframes themselves don't fall into that category There's certainly quite a few of the frames that are genuinely well designed in my opinion and that did make me say "yeah I've never seen that before".

As I said, kinda sorta looks like a Corpus crate if you squint a little. That's all you have? That's your 75% of the stuff in Warframe is generic? (Btw the third link is completely off the mark, that one is in any way similar to WF just in you head.)

Also, where's Grineer, Sentient and Orokin stuff? We get it, Corpus are THE clean sci-fi aesthetic faction, where's the rest?

Actually, just show me a sci-fi character with that typical box head on the store. It's easy to write hyperboles but hard doing the legwork, am I right?

Edited February 10, 2019 by LocoWithGun

[rune_me]

2 minutes ago, LocoWithGun said:

As I said, kinda sorta looks like a Corpus crate if you squint a little. That's all you have? That's your 75% of the stuff in Warframe is generic? (Btw the third tlink is completely off the mark, that one is in any way similar to WF just in you head.)

Also, where's Grineer, Sentient and Orokin stuff? We get it, Corpus are THE clean sci-fi aesthetic faction, where's the rest?

Actually, just show me a sci-fi character with that typical box head on the store. It's easy to write hyperboles but hard doing the leg work, am I right?

It also looks like a grineer tileset, since the grineers crates, the grineer tiled floors, the grineer pipes on the walls and ceiling, are just as generic and plain as the Corpus tilesets. While I would agree that the Orokin tilesets are more original and more ambitious than the rest, it's still not something that stands out. 

The 3rd link by the way, is just a collection of generic sci-fi crates and boxes. The same generic crates and boxes you can find scattered throughout all of the tilesets in Warframe. And in every other sci-fi game you play.

[SneakyErvin]

17 hours ago, Corvid said:

Most of those either 1: are aesthetically biotech rather than techno-organic, or 2: don't use it as the main art style for the poster faction. Several of them also aren't as mainstream as Warframe is.

You didnt specifiy you were looking for a certain parameter for it. Which doesnt really matter because techno-organics are very present in all of those settings. And one of those I mentioned arent mainstream, Warzone.

 

[Otaiken]

37 minutes ago, rune_me said:

It also looks like a grineer tileset, since the grineers crates, the grineer tiled floors, the grineer pipes on the walls and ceiling, are just as generic and plain as the Corpus tilesets. While I would agree that the Orokin tilesets are more original and more ambitious than the rest, it's still not something that stands out. 

The 3rd link by the way, is just a collection of generic sci-fi crates and boxes. The same generic crates and boxes you can find scattered throughout all of the tilesets in Warframe. And in every other sci-fi game you play.

"The pipes are generic."

Ok... I honestly can't present an argument that would make that statement look dumber than it already is.

I suppose the only way to make a space station look non-generic is to have it be made of bricks. Maybe give it a white picket fence as well. All of the boxes in the space station need to be round and prevented from rolling around via magnetic field. And the pipes are gonna be... the pipes... there will be no pipes. Fluids will be teleported around or something. And no doors will have any lights on them, the locked ones are gonna be indicated by having a tie around the hande.

Edited February 10, 2019 by LocoWithGun

[DeMonkey]

3 minutes ago, LocoWithGun said:

"The pipes are generic."

Ok... I honestly can't present an argument that would make that statement look dumber than it already is.

I suppose the only way to make a space station look non-generic is to have it be made of bricks. Maybe give it a white picket fence as well. All of the boxes in the space station need to be round and prevented from rolling around via magnetic field. And the pipes are gonna be... the pipes... there will be no pipes. Fluids will be teleported around or something.

That actually sounds pretty interesting tbh.

At the end of the day though, it's their opinion. They've said it themself, they've seen so much Sci-Fi that it all looks generic now. You aren't going to change their perception, so I'm not entirely sure what your goal is.

[Otaiken]

1 minute ago, DeMonkey said:

That actually sounds pretty interesting tbh.

At the end of the day though, it's their opinion. They've said it themself, they've seen so much Sci-Fi that it all looks generic now. You aren't going to change their perception, so I'm not entirely sure what your goal is.

I'm not sure what my goal is at this point to be honest. But I did amuse myself  by "designing" this weird space station.

I kinda want to see it now.

[D1sTrust]

I think it`s a bit pointless to compare scifi environment/architecture design.
We all seem to agree there isn`t a ton of room for really new ideas. There are only so many variations to designing a crate.
In terms of landscapes, it usually takes an extra moon in the sky to tell us we are not at home.
Comparing the games we are comparing here, Warframe at least has a nice variety of settings, which I am missing on Anthem.

In terms of characters, weapons and general world-building (how the single parts are glued together) I adore Warframe, it`s the most surprising scifi stuff I have seen in a while.

[rune_me]

34 minutes ago, LocoWithGun said:

"The pipes are generic."

Ok... I honestly can't present an argument that would make that statement look dumber than it already is.

I suppose the only way to make a space station look non-generic is to have it be made of bricks. Maybe give it a white picket fence as well. All of the boxes in the space station need to be round and prevented from rolling around via magnetic field. And the pipes are gonna be... the pipes... there will be no pipes. Fluids will be teleported around or something. And no doors will have any lights on them, the locked ones are gonna be indicated by having a tie around the hande.

I think you are just not understanding my point. It's not about things looking exactly the same. It's about using the same tropes over and over again. You're saying "How can I make a space station look non-generic?" But I think what you should be saying is "How can I make a sci-fi setting without including a space station?" 

Think about the old wizard in his magic tower in fantasy. It doesn't matter what the wizard looks like. It doesn't matter if the tower is made of glass or brick or whatever. It's just the idea itself, of a wizard in a tower, that is unoriginal. How can you make good fantasy that doesn't involve elves in the woods, wizards in towers, dwarves in mountains, dragons in piles of treasure. When China Miéville wrote Perdido Street Station he proved it could be done. That book is absolutely a fantasy book, yet there isn't a trace of Tolkien to be found anywhere in it. It is entirely original. And a really, really good book.

Bioshock is a good example of sci-fi that stands out. Surely it borrows ideas here and there, but it still comes off as something very original and entirely its own thing. They solved the "what do we do with the space station" problem by saying, "screw the space station, let's just put the whole thing under water instead of in space". That's clever, in my opinion, and immediately gave you a sci-fi setting that was very much sci-fi, but also very different from everything else in sci-fi at the time.

[Reifnir]

34 minutes ago, rune_me said:

"How can I make a sci-fi setting without including a space station?" 

You don't. Science Fiction means people exploring the outer space, outer space means you either get spaceships or space stations. But the thing is, you can get creative even there. Protoss warships, biotech H.R.Giger-esque designs, Art Deco of Prey, wh40k Necrons and the like are not that generic, and a good art designer could make it even more distinct. Dock a station just at the border of a black hole's Schwarzschild radius, like in Fred Saberhagen Berserker series. Place it on a planet with seas of liquid with weird surface tension. Or leash it to a comet. Or, if all else fails, try to come up with an original idea. Space stations aren't bad by default. Bland ideas are bad. 

 

48 minutes ago, rune_me said:

China Miéville wrote Perdido Street Station he proved it could be done. That book is absolutely a fantasy book, yet there isn't a trace of Tolkien to be found anywhere in it. It is entirely original. And a really, really good book.

It's hardly fantasy, IMO. It's a subspecies of steampunk with magic, sorta like Shadowrun is a subspecies of classis gibsonian cyberpunk. And while it's certainly an entertaining read it's a bit too gloomy/brutal/obscene more often than not throughout the entire Bas-Lag series. Maybe he was trying a tad too hard to avoid the happy ending chiche, who knows. 

[rune_me]

22 minutes ago, Reifnir said:

You don't. Science Fiction means people exploring the outer space, outer space means you either get spaceships or space stations. But the thing is, you can get creative even there. Protoss warships, biotech H.R.Giger-esque designs, Art Deco of Prey, wh40k Necrons and the like are not that generic, and a good art designer could make it even more distinct. Dock a station just at the border of a black hole's Schwarzschild radius, like in Fred Saberhagen Berserker series. Place it on a planet with seas of liquid with weird surface tension. Or leash it to a comet. Or, if all else fails, try to come up with an original idea. Space stations aren't bad by default. Bland ideas are bad. 

Science Fiction shouldn't mean about exploring space. That would invalidate great sci-fi masterpieces like Blade Runner or the entire Cyberpunk genre. I'm a big believer in J.G. Ballards statement that "science fiction shouldn't be about distant planet a thousand years into the future, it should about this planet and the next 5 minutes." To me, that's always when sci-fi is at its best. Neuromancer is interesting because it has a lot to say, not about the future, but about the 1980's when it was written. 1984 isn't about outer space, it's about the world and the political climate Orwell lived in at the time.

But of course I agree you can have great sci-fi stories set in space and on space-station. It all depends on the writer/director/artist. 

30 minutes ago, Reifnir said:

It's hardly fantasy, IMO. It's a subspecies of steampunk with magic, sorta like Shadowrun is a subspecies of classis gibsonian cyberpunk. And while it's certainly an entertaining read it's a bit too gloomy/brutal/obscene more often than not throughout the entire Bas-Lag series. Maybe he was trying a tad too hard to avoid the happy ending chiche, who knows. 

I would definitely consider it fantasy. It checks all the boxes for me. Different races, magic, etc. Yeah it borrowed a lot from steampunk and cyberpunk, but it still felt like a fantasy setting. I liked the gloominess of it. The sequels were not at all that same high level of quality, but Perdido Street Station is extremely well done for my money's worth. 

[Rakosta_Kai]

2 hours ago, rune_me said:

The same generic sci-fi design we've seen a million times before:

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/scifi-asset-pack

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/modular-sci-fi-environment-engineer

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/sci-fi-case-pack

I certainly was too lazy to go through the whole store, so this is just from the first 2 pages. Point is, if you took the assets from Warframe and sold them as a package on the epic store, there would be nothing that separated that packaged from the dozens and dozens of others at all. Nothing that would make you say "whoa, that's something different." At all. 

Given DE's history with Unreal and Epic I don't find this particularly surprising or notable tbh.

It's, also, not particularly distinctive from the bulk of existing modular, pre-fab design, living units or prototypes for harsh environments...Just more sci-fi.

It's ikea...But for space.

As a sci-fi fan myself, I understand your point but don't entirely agree with it as I do see a lot that I view as distinctive in the game.

I can understand if one has become numb to it all though and fresh perspectives are nice. 

[rune_me]

1 minute ago, Padre_Akais said:

Given DE's history with Unreal and Epic I don't find this particularly surprising or notable tbh.

It's, also, not particularly distinctive from the bulk of existing modular, pre-fab design, living units or prototypes for harsh environments...Just more sci-fi.

It's ikea...But for space.

Yeah I agree entirely. That was actually the point I was trying to make. That if you packaged all the props of Warframe and put it up on Epics marketplace (or Unity's for that matter), it would look very similar to all the other sci-fi props packages there. Barrels, crates, pipes, floor tiles, bulk doors, etc. 

3 minutes ago, Padre_Akais said:

As a sci-fi fan myself, I understand your point but don't entirely agree with it as I do see a lot that I view as distinctive in the game.

Like I said for me that's mostly for the design of the frames and some of the weapons.