New Planet: Enceladus, the Frozen Sea

[(PSN)MYKK678]

On 2020-08-27 at 8:21 PM, Flamealisk said:

Description: A Frozen Moon of Saturn, the Orokin marked it for terraforming and potential habitation, but never succeed before the Old War. Now, though, as the Grineer begin to search the area for Orokin relics, a new signal has emerged, calling out to the Tenno...

How to access: Junction from Saturn, will leave it to DE to figure out the exact requirements, though I would prefer it happens after Uranus.

New Tileset: Grinner Frozen Seaway.

A Hybrid of the Europa and Uranus Tilesets, the Frozen Seaway is the site of many Grineer Excavations. Most are centered around the thermal vents of the moon, where it is habitable, if only barely. Tileset would require Archwing to navigate the frozen waterways (the planet will give a really easily acquired piece of equipment ot eliminate the archwing speed debuff underwater because holy hell that sucks). Hazards range from bursts of heat to gigantic organisms living under the ice, waiting to attack. The Grineer Occupying the tileset are known as the 'Tundra' corps, and have variations on the Arid Grineer's armor style.

New Quest: Echoes of Enceladus

Description: "Beneath the frozen seas of Enceladus, an new signal has arisen. Seek out its source."

New Faction: The Enceladeans

"An enigma to much of the origin system, the Enceladeans are rarely seen outside of Enceladus, except in specialized, all encompassing suits. Though isolationist by nature, Grineer Incursions have forced them to seek assistance from outsiders."

What are they?

In truth, the Enceladeans are actually an alien race (or rather, collection of alien races) native to Enceladus. They achieved sentience some time during the era of the Orokin, but apparently escaped notice by the Golden Lords. Exposure to Orokin Terraforming Technology altered their physiology, however, making them able to survive in both earth-like environments and the frozen seas that make up their home moon. Visually, they resemble ocean creatures, primarily arthropods like crabs and mantis shrimps.

New Landscape: the Ixiron Archipelago.

One of the few places where Enceladus's frozen sea has thawed, the Archipelago contains forgotten Orokin Terraforming technology, which the Grineer seek to pillage for themselves. Deploying their new Aurora Corps to scour the area, the Grineer are only just starting to realize that the Enceladeans call this region their home.

The primary dangers of the area are not the Grineer, however, but the bizarre creatures that call the region home. Monsters dwelling above and below the ice hunger for food, and the Tenno, Grineer, and Enceladeans all look appetizing. Creatures reminiscent of prehistoric sea beasts from Earth prowl the waves, looking for food.

Lore Fragments/Enceladean Backstory: The fragments of Enceladus would reveal that the Orokin did eventually notice that Enceladus was inhabited. All attempts to conquer it, however, failed, as the region was defended by the Warframe Centurion (this is the one you would get bounty parts from). Supposedly, Centurion created an army of copies of itself in order to repel the Orokin, but the fighting was at a stalemate until something known as the great shadow appeared. The shadow watched as the two sides fought, in particular how the Enceladeans and Centurion worked together to keep the moon free from the Golden Lords. The observation ended when the Shadow sided with the Warframe and repulsed the Orokin for good.

Back to the Quest: The focus of the quest would be on stopping the Grineer from gaining access to the remains of the Orokin Terraforming projects, which would not destroy the Enceladeans, but would reveal them to the rest of the system, and they are nowhere near capable of opposing the Grineer or Corpus. Things would get more complicated when it is revealed that the machines have the apparently fossilized remains of sentients stored within, and some of them seem to be still active. Note: Lotus is unable to scan the surroundings due to interference from the old Orokin tech and other stuff, so she never finds out about the sentient corpses here.

After the quest is completed, exploring the Ixiron Archipelago would revealed that sentient drones are occasionally observing the player, but are impossible to harm.

'Quills' Syndicate: The Kupua

  Reveal hidden contents

After the Player has completed the War Within and met the Quills, they would receive an message telling them to go toward a sealed off part of the Enceladean Settlement, supposedly where the great shadow rests. As soon as they enter the area in operator mode, a cinematic would play:

The Tenno walks into the room, searching for whoever summoned them. They would soon freeze up as a series of doors open up around them, revealing several sentient drones, similar to the ones that had been observing them in the Archipelago. Before the Operator can attack, though, a new voice speaks.

Unknown Voice: Relax. They have no interest in harming you.

As the drones become more passive, a wall in the background fades away, revealing an enormous sentient.

Great Sentient: I have...things I want to discuss with you.

Gameplay resumes at this point, allowing you to walk up to the Sentient and talk to her.

Sentient: Greetings. I am Pele, Matriarch of my kin. I have watched you assist these people...and I am impressed.

Player: (choosing a text option) "...Are you the Great Shadow?"

Pele: That I am. 

Player: "How did you get here?"

Pele: "My kind were made to shape worlds, with our first generation sent to Tau to make it a paradise. I, however, was bred later, and tasked with assisting in bringing this world to heel. In the process, I came upon these creatures, and found only innocence in them. Oh yes, they fought amongst themselves, just as the Orokin did. But the corruption that characterized the golden lords had not taken root in these creatures. There was still a chance to spare them from evil."

Player: "You don't want to kill me?"

Pele: "No, I do not. I thought your kind, at first, to be only servants of the Orokin, determined to exact their judgement upon others. But the one called Centurion proved me wrong - they defied the Golden Lords to protect these people from Empire, dedicating their life to defending those who they had never known. I....didn't understand this, at first, nor did my mate, but further observation ultimately proved the words of my kin from Tau wrong - you are not complicit in the Orokin's crimes. You, and the majority of the inhabitants of this system, should be spared our wrath."

Player: "So why did you call me here?"

Pele: "Ah, yes, that question. My answer: The Grineer's meddling has awakened some of my maddened kin, who's entrapment within the terraformers has driven them mad. However, their developing progeny still dream, and so long as I have a chance to rear them, they could move past the hatred their ancestors wallow in. Thus, I propose a bargain: if you bring me the developing seeds of my kin, hidden away in this frozen wasteland, I will offer you aid in....removing my more deranged kinfolk."

XXXXXXXX

The Kupua are the Quills syndicate of Enceladus, and help protect the planet from intrusions by the Grineer. Pele is their leader. Their overall theme is Polynesian Mythology, but with Hawaiian Mythology as the primary focus. They sell amp parts, as well as designs for a new type of vehicle - the Aumakua. Think of it as a sentient derived necramech, but modified for flying. Amakua have unique idle animations and are unique among the sentients in that they flat out resist void energy - they are essentially controlled through them. 

Enemy forces: Tundra and Arctica Grineer.

Tundra Grineer are the primary enemy on Enceladus. Equipped with new armor and equipment for the cold of Enceladus, their forces also include drill pod troopers, who can use a subterranean version of the Tusk Grineer's drop pods to drop into battle. 

Tundra Grineer have armor designed to keep them cool, manifesting as having a heating pack on their backs. So long as the pack is active, they are immune to cold procs and resist cold damage. Destroying the heating pack will remove these buffs.

Arctica Grineer occupy the Ixiron Archipelago and utilize more variety weapons. They also use Ghoul Augurs to assist in tunneling, and possess two unique vehicles: the Merrow and Selkie, which are icebreaker submarines used to traverse the archipelago. Merrows are analogous to Firbolgs while Selkies fulfil the role of the Bolkor. 

The Grineer Thumper equivalent on this battlefield is the Buggane. Acting as guardians for valuable research sites, the Buggane wields flamethrowers, microwave emitters, and lighting cannons, and is equipped with heavy anti-aircraft guns. However, it has exposed heating nodes that are extremely vulnerable to heat damage. Destroying them not only cuts down on its health, but can cause it to periodically freeze up, giving you free shots at the machine. Destroying more nodes does not increase the duration of the freezing, but does increase the frequency.

New Companion: Astrocarids (modular sentinnels)

"These creatures are....strange, but surprisingly adaptable - even space is of no hinderance to them. They are rather vicious, though. Perhaps they will enjoy your company."

XXXXXXXXXXX

Astrocarids are the modular equipment of Enceladus, being a type of Sentinel (hey, I'm running out of stuff to work with, unless DE starts making modular landing craft). They are creatures that fulfill a variety of roles in the Ixiron Archipelago, ranging from herbivores, to predators, scavengers, and macroparasites. The Grineer have begun to cause population collapses among their numbers, though, primarily due to negligence (the Astrocarids have plummeted around an oil-spill equivalent caused by a grineer ship damaged by a sentient drone. They're tryingto salvage the fuel before it ruins too much of the area for colonization, but the wildlife is suffering). 

Astrocarids are acquired differently from both MOAs and the Deimos companions - their eggs must be harvested from nesting sites, then given over to the Astrocarid breeder vendor to mature and get nice powers. You also need Astrocarid tags to breed them,

Astrocarids come in....four varieties:

Merostom: possessing multiple legs, the Merostom can both fly and crawl across the ground, and is a generalist, though leaning toward a scavenger. Based of of Eurypterids, in particular eurypterus itself.

Anomalos: A ferocious predator, know to crush smaller creatures within its tendrils. Based on Anomalocaris

Artio: primarily a crawling bottom feeder, Based upon Trilobites

Tardiga: An extremely adaptable species, this astrocarid is incredibly common. Based on tardigrades.

As an additional bit of amusement, getting enough tags from wild ones will net you the option to get an Astrocarid nest as a decoration. Placing it in your orbiter will lead to some funny scenes, since it actually has astrocarids in it.

Example scenes: a domestik drone may attempt to clean the nest, only to get harassed by three astrocarids, while an inquisitive Kubrow or Kavat will get scared off by an angry sentry. Helminths, predacytes, and vulpaphyla, however, will send the sentries packing.

Other Notes: A larger astrocarid is available as a Max Rank offering from the Astrocarid breeder, and acts as a Landing Craft. Its air support ability is corroding film, which immobilizes enemies in a certain area and makes them more vulnerable to all damage types. This one resembles spriggina.

New Sabotage Variant: Laser Drill Sabotage

The Grineer are attempting to tunnel into Enceladus's depths. Disable their drills without destroying the ice.

This sabotage variant involves disabling a laser drill by rerouting its coolant supply to the drill's main portion much earlier than expected, freezing it over. Afterwards, start the drill to cause it to shatter.

New Tokens: Enceladean Pearls

Occasionally found in missions in the Frozen Seaway, the tokens Pearls are another way to rank up with the Enceladeans. 

Its a good concept. The world sounds very fleshed out which is great.

The only thing bringing this down is the impossible backstory. Terraforming planets would wipe out all life. Period. So unfortunately the idea of the Orokin Terraforming just mutating an indigenous species doesn't make a lot of sense. Also if the species only gained sentience during the Orokin Era, they would have been discovered. Either before gaining sentience or during that period. Sentience can mean different things to different cultures around the world but generally its self-awareness. Without self-awareness theres no fear, and without anxiety or fear theres no defense mechanism, such as the need to hide. Wouldn't take much to fix those 2 details though.

Oh and there has been water discovered on moons before so don't worry about that. Hell the M3 brought us infrared photographic evidence of Ice on the Poles of our own moon in 2018, so your idea is very possible. Not sure what "speculation" they're talking about

[Flamealisk]

3 hours ago, (PS4)MYKK678 said:

Its a good concept. The world sounds very fleshed out which is great.

The only thing bringing this down is the impossible backstory. Terraforming planets would wipe out all life. Period. So unfortunately the idea of the Orokin Terraforming just mutating an indigenous species doesn't make a lot of sense. Also if the species only gained sentience during the Orokin Era, they would have been discovered. Either before gaining sentience or during that period. Sentience can mean different things to different cultures around the world but generally its self-awareness. Without self-awareness theres no fear, and without anxiety or fear theres no defense mechanism, such as the need to hide. Wouldn't take much to fix those 2 details though.

Oh and there has been water discovered on moons before so don't worry about that. Hell the M3 brought us infrared photographic evidence of Ice on the Poles of our own moon in 2018, so your idea is very possible. Not sure what "speculation" they're talking about

...Warframe has played VERY fast and loose with science. I’m sure this could happen.

[(XBOX)Fluffywolf36]

I'm a sucker for Open World concepts - especially if they involve existing moons, or nodes which have the names of moons (Ganymede is a MOON, not a location on Jupiter! Or a gas giant! WHY IN THE-) and expand the Warframe universe by 

On 2020-08-27 at 3:21 PM, Flamealisk said:

A Hybrid of the Europa and Uranus Tilesets, the Frozen Seaway is the site of many Grineer Excavations. Most are centered around the thermal vents of the moon, where it is habitable, if only barely

This sounds super fun.

On 2020-08-27 at 3:21 PM, Flamealisk said:

In truth, the Enceladeans are actually an alien race (or rather, collection of alien races) native to Enceladus. They achieved sentience some time during the era of the Orokin, but apparently escaped notice by the Golden Lords. Exposure to Orokin Terraforming Technology altered their physiology, however, making them able to survive in both earth-like environments and the frozen seas that make up their home moon. Visually, they resemble ocean creatures, primarily arthropods like crabs and mantis shrimps.

 

I have some mixed feelings about them being aliens, on account of that just... not being a thing WF does. I like having another group of warped "civilians" of Warframe, but I'm just not sure if "aliens" makes sense here.

Maybe they could be an Orokin attempt to create a race (from humans, obviously) to live on planets midway through terraforming, but without Orokin to apply gene therapies or whatever, the mutations went out of control. 

On 2020-09-15 at 3:18 PM, GrayArchon said:

Interesting. Two of the most frustrating, yet (to me) interesting tilesets. I'm glad thought is being put in to resolve the issues players have with these areas.

On 2020-09-14 at 8:22 PM, blazinvire said:

You too, huh?

I like the sealab, I like them both, but Sharkwing has... issues... and Europa is cool but for all the little ways it feels phoned in. I feel like Europa just.... doesn't tell us enough.

On 2020-08-27 at 3:21 PM, Flamealisk said:

Tundra Grineer have armor designed to keep them cool, manifesting as having a heating pack on their backs. So long as the pack is active, they are immune to cold procs and resist cold damage. Destroying the heating pack will remove these buffs.

 

Reminds me of the Chimera from Resistance. Mayyyyyybe take a page from their book, have visible cooling rods on the backpacks so you don't have to get behind them to make them immune?

On 2020-08-27 at 3:21 PM, Flamealisk said:

The Grineer Thumper equivalent on this battlefield is the Buggane. Acting as guardians for valuable research sites, the Buggane wields flamethrowers, microwave emitters, and lighting cannons, and is equipped with heavy anti-aircraft guns. However, it has exposed heating nodes that are extremely vulnerable to heat damage. Destroying them not only cuts down on its health, but can cause it to periodically freeze up, giving you free shots at the machine. Destroying more nodes does not increase the duration of the freezing, but does increase the frequency.

 

...I'm liking it. Sounds a bit like a Thumper/Exploiter Orb hybrid! I dig. Thumpers are fun to fight, cause they're one of the few things that genuinely do make me feel challenged. 

On 2020-08-27 at 3:21 PM, Flamealisk said:

(hey, I'm running out of stuff to work with, unless DE starts making modular landing craf

Aaaaaaaaaaaamen to that brotha.

Me, I was thinking of modular Ospreys for sale awhile back :P 

On 2020-08-27 at 3:21 PM, Flamealisk said:

New Companion: Astrocarids (modular sentinnels)

 

Wait. A thought occurs. Do these swim underwater, and if so is there an underwater tranq gun we use on them?

 

On 2020-09-11 at 8:13 PM, Flamealisk said:

Artio: primarily a crawling bottom feeder, Based upon Trilobites

Tardiga: An extremely adaptable species, this astrocarid is incredibly common. Based on tardigrades.

 

I like trilobites. And horseshoe crabs. You're winning me over bit by bit!

I like how you've included references as to the animals that inspired them! In my case, I'd probably be like "This is a mafadet, it's kind of like a LION SNAKE" and leave it at that. The animal references really add a lot.

On 2020-09-11 at 8:13 PM, Flamealisk said:

Placing it in your orbiter will lead to some funny scenes, since it actually has astrocarids in it.

Heh.

 

Overall, I really like this! There's only a few things I'd disagree with, but those are pretty subjective. Great job!

On 2020-09-26 at 5:04 PM, Unus said:

Heh, reminds me of my very own Restless Depths concept, but, much more modernized and scaled down to a sleek and modern style with flavors injected in from Deimos and The Plains for good measure and a weeeeee sprinkleing of Jurassic Park sprinkled in for good measure.

 

Juicy. Cold and wet and Juicy sir/mam.

I'm here because of YOU :P

 

 

[OggerAZ]

On 2020-09-15 at 2:22 AM, blazinvire said:

As much as I don't want to distract DE, Enceladus is practically my favourite moon

who has a favourite moon

[(XBOX)Fluffywolf36]

7 hours ago, OggerAZ said:

who has a favourite moon

You'd be surprised. There's a lot of moons to like in the Solar System. Personally, I'm a fan of Titan, Enceladus and Ganymede!

[blazinvire]

23 hours ago, OggerAZ said:

who has a favourite moon

Enceladus is in a unique situation where it possesses enough water on its surface, and in a close enough orbit to a giant like Saturn that the sheer pull of gravity from Saturn actually shifts some of Enceladus's mass around, causing friction and ultimately heat.

Enough heat that it can melt ice under the right amount of pressure, allowing water to exist in a liquid state underneath a thick layer of ice, enabling the evolution of single-cell organisms and ultimately life.

Normally, liquid water is only found in the Goldilocks Zone around stars like the Sun, where the planet is close enough to melt ice -something Mars is struggling with, but not so close as to vaporize it -something Mercury is struggling with.
So that means life can exist in places outside the Goldilocks Zone, which the ramifications are insane since that dramatically multiplies the chance of sentient life and alien civilizations.

And also, because of the pressure and the shifting of ice on Enceladus, water frequently explodes through the ice layer like a geyser, but due to the depressurization the water immediately re-freezes and it turns into a geyser of ice instead, and said ice is often traveling at escape velocity -escaping Enceladus's gravitational well.
But that ejected ice doesn't escape Saturn's gravitational well, and instead orbits Saturn just like a moon -billions of ice cubes flying around Saturn, forming the rings.

Heck, the ice cubes flying around Saturn might even have tiny frozen lifeforms in them.

All because of Enceladus.

It is a damn cool moon.

[(XBOX)Fluffywolf36]

9 hours ago, blazinvire said:

Enceladus is in a unique situation where it possesses enough water on its surface, and in a close enough orbit to a giant like Saturn that the sheer pull of gravity from Saturn actually shifts some of Enceladus's mass around, causing friction and ultimately heat.

Enough heat that it can melt ice under the right amount of pressure, allowing water to exist in a liquid state underneath a thick layer of ice, enabling the evolution of single-cell organisms and ultimately life.

Normally, liquid water is only found in the Goldilocks Zone around stars like the Sun, where the planet is close enough to melt ice -something Mars is struggling with, but not so close as to vaporize it -something Mercury is struggling with.
So that means life can exist in places outside the Goldilocks Zone, which the ramifications are insane since that dramatically multiplies the chance of sentient life and alien civilizations.

And also, because of the pressure and the shifting of ice on Enceladus, water frequently explodes through the ice layer like a geyser, but due to the depressurization the water immediately re-freezes and it turns into a geyser of ice instead, and said ice is often traveling at escape velocity -escaping Enceladus's gravitational well.
But that ejected ice doesn't escape Saturn's gravitational well, and instead orbits Saturn just like a moon -billions of ice cubes flying around Saturn, forming the rings.

Heck, the ice cubes flying around Saturn might even have tiny frozen lifeforms in them.

All because of Enceladus.

It is a damn cool moon.

That is indeed damn cool.

[Flamealisk]

Also, some railjack stuff (not putting it into the main portion because this is still WIP)

The Enceladus railjack/archwing maps would be set inside the ejecta cloud of one of its volcanoes. The Ice field is the center of several grineer research stations, which need to be destroyed to prevent them from finding out about the Enceladeans. Occasionally, there will be an Enceladean trapped in one of the stations, who needs to be rescued by the Tenno. Periodic ice storms inflict the Frost proc on crewships, railjacks, and fighter units, though these are primarily caused by frost clouds, which can be avoided. One mission would involve capturing a large piece of ice so that it can be sent to a colony and processed into useful supplies....while also denying the grineer those resources (which likely includes a large supply of cryotic).

[(XBOX)Fluffywolf36]

15 hours ago, Flamealisk said:

Also, some railjack stuff (not putting it into the main portion because this is still WIP)

The Enceladus railjack/archwing maps would be set inside the ejecta cloud of one of its volcanoes. The Ice field is the center of several grineer research stations, which need to be destroyed to prevent them from finding out about the Enceladeans. Occasionally, there will be an Enceladean trapped in one of the stations, who needs to be rescued by the Tenno. Periodic ice storms inflict the Frost proc on crewships, railjacks, and fighter units, though these are primarily caused by frost clouds, which can be avoided. One mission would involve capturing a large piece of ice so that it can be sent to a colony and processed into useful supplies....while also denying the grineer those resources (which likely includes a large supply of cryotic).

That sounds fun. Railjack stages can feel a bit.... samey.... so I like it.

[Flamealisk]

1 hour ago, (XBOX)Fluffywolf36 said:

That sounds fun. Railjack stages can feel a bit.... samey.... so I like it.

Thanks.

There'd also be a periodic mission to retrieve a sentient component the Grineer have unearthed before they can do something stupid with it. Inactive Eidolon lures can be found aboard the transport carrying the fragment, and you can even get a heap of sentient cores from one of the rooms on said transport.

[(XBOX)Fluffywolf36]

13 minutes ago, Flamealisk said:

Thanks.

 

You're welcome, dood.

 

13 minutes ago, Flamealisk said:

There'd also be a periodic mission to retrieve a sentient component the Grineer have unearthed before they can do something stupid with it. Inactive Eidolon lures can be found aboard the transport carrying the fragment, and you can even get a heap of sentient cores from one of the rooms on said transport.

....that sounds really fun to play around with. I like it! 

Is it possible to accidentally spawn Sentients on this mission?

[Flamealisk]

1 minute ago, (XBOX)Fluffywolf36 said:

You're welcome, dood.

 

....that sounds really fun to play around with. I like it! 

Is it possible to accidentally spawn Sentients on this mission?

Yes. Most will be conculyst/Battlysts, but there may also be a friendly sentient that will be an escort target. As for how there is a friendly one....check the spoilers.

[(XBOX)Fluffywolf36]

48 minutes ago, Flamealisk said:

Yes. Most will be conculyst/Battlysts, but there may also be a friendly sentient that will be an escort target. As for how there is a friendly one....check the spoilers.

I remember :P

[(NSW)Gamer-Steve]

All of this would make for an amazing mainline update someday! It sounds like Enceladus would have a bit of everything (Star chart-wise), which is a good thing in itself in my opinion (More missions for Railjack and Archwing included!).
 

That said, it's not impossible that some Tenno may say the phrase "Content Island" when that time comes (I really like the various locales myself!). But, I thought of some ways to possibly fix that.

I remember on one of the past Devstreams (If not the Railjack reveal), it was mentioned that Railjack would basically be a way to connect everything, so I'm not sure if this was specifically mentioned in detail or not. Very much like how you can go from mission to mission in the various Proxima from Earth to the Veil (& eventually Corpus Proxima too), I think that your Railjack should be able to access every Open World location from the standard star chart as well (Unless more stuff is visually / functionally added to when you visit each star chart node, it'll be hard to do that for non-open world areas). Accessing Tenno relays should also be possible (Especially considering how the Scarlet Spear Flotilla relay looked from the inside) as well!

 

So, some possible scenarios with Open World areas:     (This will appear for those who have constructed their own Railjack)

From the HUB area:

• On the pause menu, similar to how you have a fast travel, you can call Cephalon Cy to basically auto-pilot (Unless you have an NPC aboard at the helm, whichever works) the vessel to where you are, at which time you will jump into the ship as if you were at the Dry Dock. At this point you can look out the windows and see the sights, etc. too. You can access your arsenal here too, since that's in the middle of the ship, and check the forge as needed!
   
  • The location of the Railjack would depend on the HUB that you're at. It could be just above the water off the coast of Cetus, and might be visible near Otak at the Necralisk. But I'm not sure if it'll be visible from underground at Fortuna. In that case (Unless there's a massive underground cavern / transportation network for the ship to fit into), the ships windows could just be blacked out, as though it's in an off-the-books / overtaken-by-Solaris parking garage, waiting to be deployed into the field.
     
    • However, if someone in your squad calls their Railjack, then you could either go into their Railjack at the same time they do, or watch theirs fly in (At Cetus or the Necralisk, not sure about Fortuna), and then run over there and enter it personally from the outside.  If a bounty is started by the squad leader, you'll probably jump right in automatically, similar to when a Space Team mission starts during the Scarlet Spear event.
       
  • While in the HUB area, none of the ship's weapons will be active (For safety of the locals of course!), but navigation will be accessible. Just like in-between Proxima missions, you can access the normal and Railjack star charts from here, and start off on a new mission elsewhere if you want! A small cutscene may play based on which HUB location you're leaving from.
     
    • If a bounty was started beforehand however, that will be canceled (However that works, unless it just does that anyway as if you're going to the orbiter), and a transmission will play from whoever you spoke with (I.E., Eudico saying something like: "Oh, well alright Sparky. We'll be ready when you get back.") as that cutscene plays out (It can be skipped a bit).
       
    • If for some reason you select the same HUB location that you're already at (To tie up all the loose ends), either nothing will happen, or your Operator could say "We're already here. (Thinking to themselves) What to do next...", etc.
       
• If you have a bounty to do, you can get in the pilot's seat and start it from there. Considering the load times (Especially on the consoles before PS5 and the new XBOX consoles), I think it'd be best to have a loading screen that shows the Pilot moving the Railjack in-between cannon / other artillery barrages (Like those explosions in Dogfights) based on which faction is the occupying force, and you can move the ship a bit just like you could with the landing craft! Once the map is done loading, it'll black out, and fade back into the map.
   
  • The point of view would be a little similar to that camera's direction. In this case, it'll be a little ways outside of the cockpit, looking in. Not sure how far it should be zoomed out, but I figure that could segue into the Open World instance nicely!
     
  • The exact starting position of the Railjack would depend on which Open world you're at. For the Plains, I imagine you'll be above the gates of Cetus, and above Fortuna in the Orb Vallis. For Deimos, perhaps you'd be outside of the Necralisk, just off of the mainland of the Cambion Drift (That place would be a tad small for how fast the Railjack is though).

 

Now at the Open World landscape:

• The Railjack can be piloted just the same as it could in a Proxima mission (Although perhaps it's speed could be toned down a tiny bit based on the size of the Open World), and the forge / weaponry can be used normally. The Archwing slingshot could be used the send Tenno into the fray quickly, and if aimed at the ground below or into a mountainside, it may cause a shockwave to ragdoll / knockdown nearby enemies (Including the Raknoids, considering how fast that would be)!
   
  • The unique Empyrean damage types may be a little difficult to handle however. I'm thinking that either they could just add to / be treated as overall damage against various enemy factions just like how secondary combined elements are in Empyrean, revert to their non-Empyrean damage types, or (This might need the most work) have certain new status effects implemented depending on the type of enemy targeted, for every Empyrean damage type. That'd be up to DE, I'm not sure what the new effects would be hypothetically.
     
    • But for option 2, Empyrean --> normal damage conversion:
      
      Ballistic goes back to Impact,
      
      Plasma goes back to Puncture,
      
      Particle goes back to Slash,
      
      Frost goes back to Cold,
      
      Ionic goes back to Electricity,
      
      Incendiary goes back to Heat,
      
      and Chem goes back to Toxin. It stands to reason that these now-normal damage types would inflict their regular status effects upon the enemy. This damage conversion could be a fair (& possibly logical) trade-off for using a Railjack for Open World missions, since for the other way around, these damage types become Empyrean instead.
       
    • Either way, standard foot soldiers for the Grineer & Corpus (& Infested enemies), etc. might only be able to suffer status procs similar to the Empyrean damage types (Unless it also just goes to normal status effects), and Open World bosses may or may not be able to take as much damage from Empyrean things as they would from non-Railjack weapons (Namely the Profit-Taker and Eidolons without their shield, as possible examples).
       
    • Considering how Archguns are powered-down during Empyrean missions (From what I read), I'm not sure if the Railjack's weapons should be powered-up by the same or slightly-lesser scale in return, while used outside of their usual area, or not. I think they'll need to be however, if used on the Steel Path (Due to the enemy levels being much higher than even Veil Proxima, in addition to the armor and health increases). The Tunguska Cannon (Forward Artillery) may not perform as well vs shielded Corpus enemies, but we'll have to see how that works in the Corpus' Empyrean Proxima missions.
       
• Avionics and Flux Energy:
  
  The Railjack's avionics likely could function very similar (If not identically) to how they do in Empyrean missions (Apart from the damage-type thing above), but without being able to find Empyrean-specific resources, it could be hard to replenish the flux energy needed to unleash them. One way to fix that would be having it regenerate over time (Either on it's own or with an avionic, but on it's own would be much better to manage), and another solution could be that attacking enemies on the ground with the Railjack's weaponry could add to the flux energy, or drop pickups for the away crew to pick up that replenish the ship's energy (Like energy orbs for the Railjack!) immediately.
   
  • Some avionics might be really useful against certain enemies, such as Particle Ram vs a full horde of Corpus in front of the Temple of Profit (Like if you're trying to spawn a Jackal Eximus to scan, but can't handle the enemy's firepower), but in order for them to work, the size of some of them should be scaled down to cover the front of the ship (Like having a massive Facemask, something very close to shield the ship (In Particle Ram's case!). Void Hole might need to be scaled down by half (Or up by half, not sure how Archwing sizes work off the top of my head), but like all damaging avionics and weapons, it may need to be buffed in damage while in use on the planet's surface.
     
• Navigation & the star chart from Open World landscapes:
  
  While a bounty mission is going, navigation probably cannot be used (That might cause a lot of issues, wouldn't want the ship to take off without you!), so wherever the standard extraction is, someone who needs to leave can wait there perhaps. Or if they can stay, maybe they can manage the Railjack while everyone stays ground-side. Either before a bounty is started, or after one is finished, you can use the Navigation to head back to the local HUB area (Starting another planetside Railjack loading screen!), or go off onto a new mission in the star chart. That and the HUB actions might be the cornerstone of connecting Empyrean and the Railjack with the most-visited places in the Star Chart!
  
  However, Extraction from a regular star chart mission will still need some fine-tuning (Not all tilesets are made to have a massive Railjack show up where the landing craft might be, aside from certain Earth (Not the Proxima) missions). However in those cases, like a Grineer Galleon, it could simply switch from the regular non-Empyrean tileset to the Empyrean version, which does have a proper Archwing extraction near the end of the ship!
   
  • ^ This part kinda makes me want to make this into a whole thread by itself, so I might do that in the near future just in case :)
     
• Planet-side Hull Breaches:
  
  Depending on which Open World you're at, certain enemies may be able to fly up into the Railjack (Like an enemy's version of the ground team), in which case they could still cause a Hull Breach. But I'm not sure if that's as big of an issue considering that there's oxygen on the Plains of Eidolon and Orb Vallis. Not sure about the Cambion drift though, a Hull Breach could still leak oxygen there.
   
  • Perhaps shooting enemies with the Railjack's weaponry could still make them drop pickups for the away crew, that can be used to replenish Revolite to repair the breaches and put out fires, etc., considering the issue of Empyrean resources and whatnot. Alternatively, enemies that board the Railjack from the ground could double as sources of revolite, so that Tenno on-board can take them down with regular weapons without worry!

 

In the event all this was implemented, I think that could resolve the "content island" issue! At least by quite a bit. The only other way I thought it could work is if you could use an occupying force's escape pod or ship to fly off into another Open World HUB area, but I believe the Railjack would serve much better and then some. Not to mention it would be an interesting personal form of transport to and from places.

 

Pertaining to Enceladus though, for the longest time, ever since I first set foot on Europa (Especially after having been to the Orb Vallis long before), I seriously wanted to explore the long-stretching icy Tundra in the distance, and see what forgotten Corpus fleet ships were out there (It really stands out from other planets). In addition, I've been hoping someday for an Ocean-based Open World area on Uranus (It'd probably involve a lot of Sharkwing / K-Drive usage in that case, to go to those) too, and it sounds like Enceladus has the best of both (Unless I'm mistaken on the Underwater part)!

 

It'd be really great to see Enceladus come to fruition some day. This should probably be suggested further to DE somehow (Devstream threads or @mentions, but that'd be up to the author), if there was something more than the forums (I dunno how often they look at things on Twitter though; I don't have a Twitter account). I hope for Enceladus and the other open worlds, my input on Railjack integration helps.

[Flamealisk]

Also, in regards to how the terraforming process did not wipe them out, the effect was closer to the Oxygen Catastrophe, where most living things died out but the survivors came out much stronger, while simultaneously accelerating evolution by quite a bit. Also, Rap tap tap.

[(NSW)Gamer-Steve]

@Flamealisk, I thought I should let you know that I referenced my above post in a new thread for it, so I ended up inadvertantly linking your thread with it. Was that alright? If not, I can remove the link within that thread.
 

 

[Exos.]

This looks interesting. I hope something comes of it.

[(NSW)Melee-all-the-way]

i like the idea not sure if DE will use it tho

[Flamealisk]

On 2020-12-08 at 12:30 PM, (NSW)Melee-all-the-way said:

i like the idea not sure if DE will use it tho

One can dream, no?

[(NSW)Melee-all-the-way]

7 hours ago, Flamealisk said:

One can dream, no?

very true. i belive in you getting this idea to DE and it being added just like something from TennoCon

[(NSW)Melee-all-the-way]

On 2020-11-29 at 6:46 PM, (XBOX)Fluffywolf36 said:

I remember :P

ummm ples tell me i did tww if that helps

[(XBOX)Fluffywolf36]

17 hours ago, Flamealisk said:

One can dream, no?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamen to that brotha. I know it's habitual for every creative to toot their own horn at times like this, but I do everything on my personal thread with the intent that it's something that could enhance extant lore. I'm not in the business of trying to use the thread to pretend a better Warframe exists (there is no surer way to make yourself hate something) but I'm using it to say "Hey, this would be cool."

6 hours ago, (NSW)Melee-all-the-way said:

ummm ples tell me i did tww if that helps

It was some spoilered stuff from earlier here.

[(NSW)Melee-all-the-way]

15 hours ago, (XBOX)Fluffywolf36 said:

It was some spoilered stuff from earlier here.

which was? please quote it

[Flamealisk]

On 2020-09-29 at 10:00 PM, (XBOX)Fluffywolf36 said:

I have some mixed feelings about them being aliens, on account of that just... not being a thing WF does. I like having another group of warped "civilians" of Warframe, but I'm just not sure if "aliens" makes sense here.

Maybe they could be an Orokin attempt to create a race (from humans, obviously) to live on planets midway through terraforming, but without Orokin to apply gene therapies or whatever, the mutations went out of control. 

The Enceladeans are mostly meant to be rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things - they exist, and are truly alien beings, but aside from the stuff they give you, they have no real presence in the grand picture of the system and are deliberately choosing to be isolationists so that the major powers don't decide to knock on their doors.

I just find the idea of an actual alien civilization in warframe being treated as something completely beneath the notice of the powers of the Origin System to be highly amusing.

[(XBOX)Fluffywolf36]

3 minutes ago, Flamealisk said:

The Enceladeans are mostly meant to be rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things - they exist, and are truly alien beings, but aside from the stuff they give you, they have no real presence in the grand picture of the system and are deliberately choosing to be isolationists so that the major powers don't decide to knock on their doors.

I just find the idea of an actual alien civilization in warframe being treated as something completely beneath the notice of the powers of the Origin System to be highly amusing.

I gotta admit, that is pretty funny. I've toyed with writing other societies in Warframe that get the brunt of both powers, but I gotta respect how that's so different. :P