New Game Mode Proposal - Tau System Assault

[StreetRonin]

TL;DR Summary

Create new game mode that permanently consumes your warframe, all equipped weapons, and mods (along with all endo used in the creation of any equipped mods. This creates both demand for items/endo in the economy and creates a game mode that addresses the following issues frequently mentioned by Warframe players:

1.)    (Veteran resource stockpiles) Game mode allows veterans to use their vast stockpiles of resources, warframes, and weapons to their fullest extent.

2.)    (No true, “hard but fair” difficulty) Game mode can be accessible to both High Skill & moderate skill players alike:

a.       High Skill Players: Commits to using lowest cost combat viable Warframes & weapon loadouts. 10+ Forma Prime Warframe & Weapons, with maxed primed/corrupted mods, and Catalyst & Reactor loadouts are extremely time / resource inefficient. “Farming efficiency” is far more dependent on skill & teamwork rather than having a top tier combat setup that took 20+ hours to complete (plus 2 weeks’ worth of forma building to max out).

b.       Moderate Skill Players: Chooses specialized warframe loadout with higher mod & endo investment for each mission start. As players get better, they can get better mission results with less resources / time investment.

As a side benefit this game mode offers veterans new layer of strategy for warframe & weapon loadouts. This also has the side effect of placing more importance on optimizing the acquisition of said warframe & weapon loadouts.

This new game mode would also stimulate real economic demand for platinum purchases by drawing endo, credits, and resources out of the in-game economy permanently. Prices for prime warframes, prime weapons, mods, and endo would rise as players spend less time perpetually accumulating these items if this game mode becomes extremely popular.

Caveats: I realize it would suck to lose a committed warframe / weapons set to a DC, but that’s why players shouldn’t commit anything they can’t afford to lose to this game mode.  There should be a small, progression based barrier to entry (starchart completion, minimum MR level, and/or story quest lock), and a VERY clear warning that you will lose all equipped warframes, weapons, vehicles, mods, and endo when you start the mission (at least for the first 10 times).

Edit: Credit to my clanmate, CrystalSpark.

Rewards for this mode could be aura forma, universal weapon / warframe forma, and or forma that doesn't reset your weapon / warframe level. All of these also fit the theme of Sentient adaptability.

 

Story/Lore Outline for New Game Mode

The New War is upon us. The Sentient invasion fleet is vast and more come pouring out of deep space every day.  Unable to strike at their supply lines, the collective forces of the Grineer, Corpus, and the Infested are being slowly driven back while the Sentient war machine continues to establish footholds through the Sol system. The dogged efforts of both Steel Meridian and the Perrin Sequence to evacuate refugees to safe havens throughout the system are becoming increasingly desperate. Although the Tenno continue to launch assaults at destroying these new Sentient footholds, it is only a matter of time before sentients overwhelm all remaining resistance and exterminate all organic life in the system.

Through our fragile alliance with Alad V and his experimentation with Amalgam Sentient elements, the Alad V has created a portal capable of bridging the gap between the Sol and Tau systems.  This portal is extremely unstable and requires material that only exists naturally in the Tau system.  The material required to power the first of these portal connections to the Tau System came from the harvest of Sentients who originated in the Tau system. The remains of dozens of Eidolons and thousands of Battlelysts and Conculysts had to be carefully dissected, processed, and refined to create the fuel used to power the Sol-Tau portal in a top-secret research facility hidden deep within Jupiter’s gravity well.

Telemetry from our initial reconnaissance drones indicate that we have linked with one of many networked portals in the Tau system. The area surrounding the portal looks to be the remains of a dormant Sentient mining & manufacturing facility.  When you step through the portal, your mission will be to scan for this special resource unique to the Tau system, protect the automated miners we will send to retrieve the special resource, and escort them back to the thru the portal.

Keep in mind Tenno, this will be a one-way trip for any warframes, weapons, vehicles, or companions you commit to this mission.  When our initial reconnaissance drones returned from the Tau systems, we found that they began malfunctioning within hours of returning through the Sol-Tau portal. It seems all material originally created in the Sol system, organic or inorganic, gets exposed to some form of unique radiation or exotic energy via the Sol-Tau portal technology or by being within the Sentient base in the Tau system.  While Sol-Based materials started breaking down at the molecular level within hours, all materials & samples brought back from the Tau system did not.

Our most recent tests have indicated that the somatic-transference link that the Tenno employ to merge with their warframes affords you protection against this most deleterious of aftereffects.

We need this resource Tenno, to both give Alad V a chance to perfect his Sol-Tau portal technology, and to create more Sol-Tau portals to strike at the Sentient supply lines to get them off balance for the first time during this war. When Alad V has perfected his portal technology to protect against molecular degradation, we can construct more portals to more areas and perhaps establish Tenno footholds of our own in the Tau system.  Eventually, we might be able to create portals large enough to allow Tenno Railjacks to enter the portal for larger scale scouting and sabotage efforts. This all depends on the success of the first teams we send through the portal. Good luck.

Edited June 6, 2019 by StreetRonin
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