[concept Eris] Sea of the Buccaneers - open world

[Umbriellan]

Hi !
I know I may be too late for this, as DE probably worked a bit on the Infested Open World, but I wished to share my concept of it.

The inspirations: the Breton's myth of the City of Ys (or Kêr-Is); the nordic culture & the buccaneers.

Story:

Révélation

 

The dwarf planet of Eris was one jewel among many under the Orokin Empire. A celestial body this important, this far away would means an easier step toward the Void of Space and what's awaiting further.
Multiple cities, spaceports were created. Life brought to once a dead surface, atmosphere and gravity were artificialy created.
But being so distant was creating a spirit of independence, of autonomy among the People of Eris - used to grow without any involvement of the Orokin politics.

Things started to change inside one of the major city; deep underground the Orokin started to cultivate what would become the Infestation...
The War finally reached Eris. But very lately, as this meanigless dwarf planet lost most of its value when the Orokin fleet fled away years ago. The People of Eris tried to make their own weapons, used all the ressources nearby to build, to maintain a fleet of makeshift vessels. All in vain.
With no signals from the Orokin, no way to flee, there was only the choice of hopeless defense.

Trying to find more and more technologies left underground by the various labs, a group of explorers found a giant, sealed door. After few attempts, they succeed to open it.
Was it worst than the Sentient extermination ? Was it a cursed imposed to Eris ?
When the surface of the dwarf planet was on fire, a flood from within was released.
An agressive, devastating flood burst out of the once magnificient City of Eris; devouring all its Past, its Present, its Future...

The Sentients lost only a few, but they had to retreat from this now-cursed land. No one will survive... no one could.

But strangely, few of the makeshift vessels were still there. Even tired of a first fight they couldn't win, this second war was fully taken in charge. 
The terrifying lands were left to take refuge in the skies ; but then even the atmosphere was corrupted. Only the Orbit in space was secured.

And they tried to survived there, spectators of a once beloved Planet, turning into a nightmare. It was impossible to reach other parts of the Solar system as those poor vessels, now spacecrafts, weren't designed for long-travel. No way to communicate, but no one to contact first; the threat of the Sentients' return in mind.

Years and years passed ...
The People of Eris adapted to their conditions, accepting homeless & exiled people from outside.

3 main tribes appears :
- the Brethren of the stations : they maintain the various space stations orbiting Eris, connect all the tribes & scrap the space-debris in hope to find some usable ressources;
- the Buccaneers of the dead sea : the surface of Eris is now somekind of a sea of flesh, spawning horrifying creatures, but all of this could be hunted - gathered - cleaned and reused or even consumned. It is a tough job, but with their flying vessels, their personal armor, they can bring thefight;
- the Adventurers : fewers than buccaneers, they can't accept the situation on Eris. What brings the Infested came from underground; if there is a solution, then it must be there, underground... They search when they can, and are the only People of Eris to accept to put a single foot on the deadly surface.

And then came the Corpus & Grineer...
Too few and secluded to be relevant to these massive forces, they kept their distance. And used the demise of these strangers for their benefit: new debris, new ressources, even some technologies !
Using a newly found strengh, the Adventurers reached the home-station, right above the ancient City where the Infested originate from.

As things never could be simple... Arlo made his move. Not only the surface of Eris is of flesh, it is now starting to move. A corrupted storm is rising, running all over the surface.

Following the track left by Arlo's zealots, the Tenno, with their Railjack, find the People of Eris...
- the rest will be your story.

 

Q: What will bring this concept of Open World into warframe, compared to the Plains of Eidolon & Orb Vallis ?
A: It will not be 1x open world, but actually 2x of them = (1) the orbit of Eris, where you will be able to play with your Railjack; (2) the "sea" of Eris, which could be both considered as a living-organism/ocean and a treacherous field to explore.
In space, you will find very different missions (protection, relay capture, capital-ship sabotage, capital ship vs capital ship from the 3 main factions (grineer, corpus, infested), etc... ).
On Eris, there will be 2x major variant, between the Buccaneer's quests (which involve the craft & modification of your own Erisian flying-ship) and the Adventurers' quest (which imply to explore more deeply Eris, the ancient City, and other surprises).

On the difference for the surface: the Plains are... an ocean coast; the Orb Vallis are mountains in winter. The Sea of Eris would have a distorted paysage with different locations for points of interest - this paysage will be changed (a bit) randomly every end of a cycle (you will need to log-out and log-in back to see the change). Why this change ? At each end-cycle there will be an infested storm reaching the area. Dangerous things would happen (on foot, mobility decreased; on a vessel: aboarded by stronger enemy, maintenance required - giant creatures would appear). Of all things from the paysage, one thing will not change: a part of a giant tower emerging from the Sea with a giant-antic bell on top.
All point of interest would be entirely made by RNG, to give the impression of a "moving on surface and underground"

Q: If there are two open-worlds, how do you connect them ?
A: 3 nodes; the home-station, orbit of Eris & transition-station to the surface. The last one is necessary as you will be asked what you wanted to do on Eris (quests, outside with or wiithout the vessel & it will show the current level of danger).
But i'm still not sure. The Railjack (initialy) wouldn't fit for the Eris' surface.

Q: Will it be an other isolated island of content ?
A: The Erisians are lacking in many ressources, maybe they will have some needs that you could take care of.
Plus... they are craftsmen, maybe they would be happy to experiment with ressources they never saw before ?

Q: What will it bring to the common content of Warframe ?
A: New weapons & cosmetics (for warframe & hoping for operators); new upgrades for the Railjack (a grapling-hook to aboard crewships, catch a prey ?); maybe it will help to introduce new enemies here and there (mostly in the late part of the star-chart).

Q: Any new boss on the surface ?
A: a Lephantis variant could appear in group; some zealots could also appear randomly; giant things would also try to wreck Erisian's vessels and have some weakness that the vessel's weapon could use.
The idea is to put some idea of "Lost Planet" with vicious and big creatures spawning.

Q: What would be the art-style of the People of Eris ? Ostrons are homeless beach-people; Fortuna has blue-mechanical people.
A: Like the Ostron, these People wouldn't have bio-mechanical modifications; I see them have wearing somekind of a mixt outfit between Metro 2033 & Dead Space's armors - too look makeshift and protecting from the void of space.

Hope I gave you a good view of my idea; don't hesitate to comment (I'm not even sure to be clear myself after all).

Edited January 30, 2020 by Umbriellan