Empyrean NEEDS interplanetary trade

[Captain_Fronk]

Warframe already took the right path by moving away from simple "non-stop run-and-gun kill everything that moves, get new guns, repeat" kind of content and with every new update that adds fishing, new items, ores and plants it continues to build this amazing sci-fi world that is actually BELIEVABLE and immersive. And one way to connect all those colonies, ships, levels, all those different gameplay layers - is space trade. And of course nothing else says TRADE better than Railjack.

There are so many goods to trade! Imagine trading gems, ores, food, plants, ANIMALS (including FISH), orokin tech, corpus tech, grineer tech, zaws, hell even kitguns! Farming would not be just "farming for the sake of more farming" not just accumulate more stuff untill your eyes bleed out, not just "reach your daily standing limit and quit" but it would actually mean something, have an alternative.

Each colony has its own unique resources, right? Cetus has fruits, spices, wisps, eidolon shards, etc. Fortuna has ores, servofish, giant freaking shrooms and so on, you know it. Too many things to list here, you get the idea.

You could simply trade for credits or some other new universal "space trade" currency like ducats or something.

Prices differ from colony to colony. Buy low, sell high. Spend time, get profit.

You could buy/mine all these new Empyrean resources like asteroid ores for example (I'm sure there will be more) and sell them at space stations (relays for example) or at land colonies for even higher prices.

You could do delivery missions.

Or (for those who want more GUN in TRADING) become a pirate and raid ships for all these goods, not just typical crafting stuff like polymers, rubido and scrap. So much potential here.

But still, no matter how you look at it, this whole system requires actual TRADE. Otherwise it all becomes just another "oh look another hundred blueprints. And what do we need them for? Craft more weapons? Great. What a game changer."

There are some great examples: Space Rangers (what a great little gem that is), EVE Online, No Man's Sky (especially after all the latest updates), SPAZ, Star Wolves etc.

Prices may even adjust itself based on supply and demand but that's not something DE MUST definitely do. This whole system may exist even without it, prices may be fixed but still that's something interrestting, something to explore and play around with. Something that may bring even more life to Warframe's stunning universe.

Mission rewards may include these tradeable items too (because yet again everyones tired of same old rubido/polymers/mutagen over and over again). Let's say you're raiding a derelict ship or doing a rescue/capture mission. You look for hidden caches where you find a Void Gem or something. And when you come back to your Railjack you think (now this is a long one but bare with me it's worth it) "hmm that's something I can definitely sell for credits/ducats/"new special trade currency" in Cetus OR I could travel a little further to an NPC in Fortuna and get some even more profit out of it. Then I'll purchase some railjack upgrades/cosmetics/decorations/crew or maybe even mods for my warframe/guns/operator OR I could just buy even more goods with those money I got from selling it and then go sell them somewhere else at Sedna for example and get EVEN MORE profit". Whatever you do it's gonna pay off. Then you travel to location of your choice, sell/provide it, wander around relax a little bit, get distracted in so many ways (like maybe you'll dicover something new and unexpected to do, maybe buy some new goods to trade, or accept a bounty or something) and then go back to railjack gameplay. IMHO Warframe needs more of this kind of activity instead of being just a repetitive grindfest.

EVEN WHILE YOU'RE FISHING you may then be thinking "hmm I really don't need this Cetus standing anymore but I like fishing and travelling between worlds. So when I'm done fishing I should go see the prices at Venus for this fish I got. Maybe they'll be higher than usual so I'll get that upgrade for railjack and I'll finally be able to kill that Kuva Lich." THIS would be another game changer imo.

So yeah I think it definitely should be in the Empyrean update. Your thoughts?

Edited July 11, 2019 by Captain_Fronk

[(XBOX)Skippy575]

Need is probably a bit of a stretch, BUT, I do like the idea.

Now OP, to be clear, is this just us the player trading resources with NPCs?

[(XBOX)Knight Raime]

I would agree and stretch this sentiment a bit further.  Railjack and what it stands for needs to be involved in every aspect of the game.  it shouldn't be a stand alone thing that is a one off content wise like open worlds have been.  DE seems to know this and is trying to avoid that but I can't shake the feeling that it's really just a second attempt at arch wings.  I would also push to say that because railjack actually has roles for people to play and objectives/things to do go beyond "make enemies irrelevant" they NEED to extend that to the base game.

The time for mindless slaughter to go has long passed and railjack is the perfect stepping stone towards warframe moving away from that as a whole.  I hope they recognize this and at least bring those aspects to more parts of the game.

[Oreades]

Sooooo essential an Index mode (invest x credits, get y credits back) but in space, I'd be surprised if they didn't. 

That said I'm not sure if I'd make it a dynamic buy/sell system because that seems like it would end up being aggravating and end up with situations where players specifically don't play the game because they are standing at the NPC waiting on the trade value to cycle. Unless they made things expire BUT that leads to more issues where people will end up angry because they spent a bunch of (insert credits) on X resource and it expired/spoiled meaning that all those credits are just gone forever. Plus it's just that many more loading screens and needless NPC interactions.... sooo seems like it's a KISS situation. 

[peterc3]

1 hour ago, Captain_Fronk said:

space trade

How does this fit into the core gameplay loop, though. Railjack is not Warframe becoming a fully fledged space flight sim ala E:D.

1 hour ago, Captain_Fronk said:

But still, no matter how you look at it, this whole system requires actual TRADE. Otherwise it all becomes just another "oh look another hundred blueprints. And what do we need them for? Craft more weapons? Great. What a game changer."

Your complaint is Warframe is Warframe, not Star Citizen.

[Captain_Fronk]

11 minutes ago, peterc3 said:

Your complaint is Warframe is Warframe, not Star Citizen.

Maybe for you it's warframe. But for me Warframe now is a totally different (and a very diverse) beast from what it was 6 years ago. And that's a good thing. There's a trend and it will continue that way. And when railjack comes out...

Quote

How does this fit into the core gameplay loop, though. Railjack is not Warframe becoming a fully fledged space flight sim ala E:D.

And apparently you don't see any problem with that. That's exactly what we're discussing here - how space trade makes it all connected.

Edited July 11, 2019 by Captain_Fronk

[peterc3]

2 minutes ago, Captain_Fronk said:

how space trade makes it all connected.

For this to have any weight, there needs to be a trade off. X being worth Y on Relay1 and being worth Y+15 on Relay2 only makes sense if you need to take time to move that item from one place to another. Loading into Relay1, backing out and near instantly going to Relay2 is not worth anything. This is not an open space sim where you have to wait minutes to make 14 jumps between star systems and therefore has the illusion that you're doing something to justify the game handing you X Credits vs X+15.

[IntheCoconut]

I like this suggestion. It would certainly give more value to the things we can collect in the game. It would be interesting to give usefullness back to some of resources that have run out of a purpose. With that said, one potential problem comes to mind which is what happens when players have millions of a particular resource stockpiled just from playing the game for years? I know I am in no short supply of most materials.

[Captain_Fronk]

Just now, peterc3 said:

For this to have any weight, there needs to be a trade off. X being worth Y on Relay1 and being worth Y+15 on Relay2 only makes sense if you need to take time to move that item from one place to another. Loading into Relay1, backing out and near instantly going to Relay2 is not worth anything. This is not an open space sim where you have to wait minutes to make 14 jumps between star systems and therefore has the illusion that you're doing something to justify the game handing you X Credits vs X+15.

You do realize it's a bit more complicated than just X and Y+15, do you? Cmon use your imagination, play some space sims, share your experience. Don't just say "it can never change because it is what it is", that's just dumb.
 

Quote

This is not an open space sim

DUDE it's not even OUT YET.
And yes, it's pretty damn close to an open space sim. Steve himself said he wants Warframe to be like an open space sim. Empyrean is a completely new direction for warframe. DE themselves called it "Sea of thieves in space". So in this case I'd say "set your hopes high, please do". Otherwise it will end up as just another archwing mode that everyone plays for a day or two and then forgets it like a nightmare. That's not what it IS right now, not yet. But it's something to avoid and pay attention to for sure.

[Aldain]

1 hour ago, Captain_Fronk said:

You could do delivery missions.

Can I deliver space pizzas?

[Captain_Fronk]

Just now, Aldain said:

Can I deliver space pizzas?

And space potatoes?
And space salad?
Space salad will probably have a very short timer tho.

[Aldain]

Just now, Captain_Fronk said:

Space salad will probably have a very short timer tho.

What if I play Frost and leave it in a Snow Globe?

[Captain_Fronk]

Just now, Aldain said:

What if I play Frost and leave it in a Snow Globe?

Just don't touch it with Nidus....

[krc473]

14 minutes ago, Captain_Fronk said:

set your hopes high, please do

This is a recipe for disappointment. Long ago I discovered Warframe was best when you had very low expectations. That way when DE does something well it is even better, and if they don’t do it so well you are not disappointed.

1 hour ago, Captain_Fronk said:

You could buy/mine all these new Empyrean resources like asteroid ores for example (I'm sure there will be more) and sell them at space stations (relays for example) or at land colonies for even higher prices.

What would we get for them though? For me, your idea seems fairly pointless. I am having a lot of trouble with the point in your proposal. If you could provide some explanation about what we get, and why we want that I might change my mind. But based on what I have seen I really don’t think we need this system. I think it will be a lot of work for DE and add almost nothing of value to the game.

• Basically, why should we care about this system if it were to be implemented?

14 minutes ago, Captain_Fronk said:

You do realize it's a bit more complicated than just X and Y+15, do you? Cmon use your imagination, play some space sims, share your experience. Don't just say "it can never change because it is what it is", that's just dumb.

I have played many space sim games. I don’t think this kind of system will be very useful in Warframe. Usually the point in it is to make money (credits), why bother when it is so easy with the Index? The other issue is size, we have far too few locations for it to be that great.

• My assumption is you are talking about a cargo/freight trade system (broadly).

[(XBOX)Skippy575]

48 minutes ago, Aldain said:

What if I play Frost and leave it in a Snow Globe?

Mhmm, what about using a container with cryotic? Didn't Baro do that with Martian jellyfish or something?