Update Concept: Depths of Uranus. Swimming, New Open World and More!

[Brinstar7777]

This is a idea for a MASSIVE update to Uranus and any other location with an excess of water. It adds all sorts of things: new mechanics, new enemies, and a new open world. It's WAY past time DE expanded the Warframe universe to the Deep Blue.

Part 1: SWIMMING!

Spoiler

That's right: your warframe has finally figured out how to swim. This is done through an Aquatic Mobility Harness or AMH; this tool replaces the Archwing for the underwater sections. Unlike the archwings, it's much smaller and more compact, though it still uses Archguns and Archmelee. Not sure how abilities would work with it, though right now I'm leaning towards it using the abilities of the archwing you have equipped. This would probably be obtained when you get the Archwing, but it could also be obtained at Uranus as a Rail Reward or through a quest.

Now for how it works; to activate it, you just jump into a body of water; it automatically unfolds and activates; note that the transition between land and water is now FAR smoother: animations no longer pause movement, and are exponentially quicker. To get out, you could either swim up to the rim of the water and climb out, or boost out of the water, leaping up onto land.

Part 2: The Chasm of Beasts

Spoiler

This underwater open world takes place in the Chasm of Beasts: a trench at the bottom of Uranus, untouched by the orokin thanks to it's debt, and home to massive sea monsters. Here aquatic grineer units battle against the hostile sea beasts that the chasm is named after. There are rewards aplenty for the tenno who choose to brave the depths, assuming one of the monsters down there doesn't eat you whole.

This place should be reminiscent of a prehistoric ocean. When designing the place, DE should draw inspiration from sketches of the oceans of Paleozoic-era earth. They should also take a look at Subnautica.

Fishing

In the chasm, you're actually in the water, which makes fishing a tad difficult. Get in range for fishing spears, and the fish spot you and swim away. You're going to need a specialized tool to hunt fish down here. 

Introducing the Speargun!

This thing is like a fishing spear, but launched from a harpoon gun; it has much greater velocity and range, allowing you to snipe fish from a great distance. It was designed for use in aquatic environments, which makes it inferior to traditional fishing spears on land (aerodynamic and hydrodynamic are 2 different traits, people), but below the surface, it reigns supreme.

Mining

The pressure conditions and lack of oxygen should make for some interesting ores. Compressed Gallium, Corroded Salvage, and Aquatic Cryotic are just a few ideas.

Conservation

Down here, the Tranq Rifle won't work: its darts aren't exactly hydrodynamic, and many of the fish down here possess tough scales that the darts just bounce off of anyway. Conservation down here will require something better suited to the deep. Introducing; the Aquatic Tranq Rifle.

This thing fires magnetically propelled darts that are specifically designed to move through the water and pierce tough scales, allowing you to subdue large aquatic fauna for collection.

Field Bosses

For field bosses, the Chasm has Leviathans: massive, tough-as-nails sea monsters that will eat you alive given half a chance. To give you an idea of what one might look like, here's a link to a Pic of an unused Ice Dragon Leviathan from Subnautica Below Zero:

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/subnautica-arctic/images/3/3c/Icedragon4.jpeg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20190127183730

These things should NOT go down easily, but grant great rewards for one who manages to take them down. 

Local Syndicate

Not sure... feel free to post any ideas.

 

[(PSN)chris1pat8twins]

14 hours ago, Brinstar7777 said:

This is a idea for a MASSIVE update to Uranus and any other location with an excess of water. It adds all sorts of things: new mechanics, new enemies, and a new open world. It's WAY past time DE expanded the Warframe universe to the Deep Blue.

Part 1: SWIMMING!

  Reveal hidden contents

That's right: your warframe has finally figured out how to swim. This is done through an Aquatic Mobility Harness or AMH; this tool replaces the Archwing for the underwater sections. Unlike the archwings, it's much smaller and more compact, though it still uses Archguns and Archmelee. Not sure how abilities would work with it, though right now I'm leaning towards it using the abilities of the archwing you have equipped. This would probably be obtained when you get the Archwing, but it could also be obtained at Uranus as a Rail Reward or through a quest.

Now for how it works; to activate it, you just jump into a body of water; it automatically unfolds and activates; note that the transition between land and water is now FAR smoother: animations no longer pause movement, and are exponentially quicker. To get out, you could either swim up to the rim of the water and climb out, or boost out of the water, leaping up onto land.

Part 2: The Chasm of Beasts

  Reveal hidden contents

This underwater open world takes place in the Chasm of Beasts: a trench at the bottom of Uranus, untouched by the orokin thanks to it's debt, and home to massive sea monsters. Here aquatic grineer units battle against the hostile sea beasts that the chasm is named after. There are rewards aplenty for the tenno who choose to brave the depths, assuming one of the monsters down there doesn't eat you whole.

This place should be reminiscent of a prehistoric ocean. When designing the place, DE should draw inspiration from sketches of the oceans of Paleozoic-era earth. They should also take a look at Subnautica.

Fishing

In the chasm, you're actually in the water, which makes fishing a tad difficult. Get in range for fishing spears, and the fish spot you and swim away. You're going to need a specialized tool to hunt fish down here. 

Introducing the Speargun!

This thing is like a fishing spear, but launched from a harpoon gun; it has much greater velocity and range, allowing you to snipe fish from a great distance. It was designed for use in aquatic environments, which makes it inferior to traditional fishing spears on land (aerodynamic and hydrodynamic are 2 different traits, people), but below the surface, it reigns supreme.

Mining

The pressure conditions and lack of oxygen should make for some interesting ores. Compressed Gallium, Corroded Salvage, and Aquatic Cryotic are just a few ideas.

Conservation

Down here, the Tranq Rifle won't work: its darts aren't exactly hydrodynamic, and many of the fish down here possess tough scales that the darts just bounce off of anyway. Conservation down here will require something better suited to the deep. Introducing; the Aquatic Tranq Rifle.

This thing fires magnetically propelled darts that are specifically designed to move through the water and pierce tough scales, allowing you to subdue large aquatic fauna for collection.

Field Bosses

For field bosses, the Chasm has Leviathans: massive, tough-as-nails sea monsters that will eat you alive given half a chance. To give you an idea of what one might look like, here's a link to a Pic of an unused Ice Dragon Leviathan from Subnautica Below Zero:

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/subnautica-arctic/images/3/3c/Icedragon4.jpeg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20190127183730

These things should NOT go down easily, but grant great rewards for one who manages to take them down. 

Local Syndicate

Not sure... feel free to post any ideas.

 

What I picture is a new gear item that allows for the use of warframe Abilities and stats while underwater in Archwing mode. Health, shields, mods, all that is the same as if you are walking on dry land. Range could be increased to fit the wide range map. Like maybe by 5x. So like if 50 meters is the usual maxed range, and your ability is 30 meters, then the Archwing would increase your range to like 150 meters while under water. Any charge or dash type abilities would simply apply to Archwing animation. Imagine being Gauss using Mach Rush in Archwing mode. Melee and primary would be Archwing weapons. 
 

Maybe gain the gear item to use grounded arch-melees. Not just be limited to arch-guns. Arch-melees would be easier to use vs arch-guns. Won’t be nearly as heavy nor hinder movement as much. 
 

Maybe to add a little realism into it, fire type abilities are less effective while underwater. Where as frost and electric type abilities are amplified. By how much, is up to DE. Maybe add such to hydroid’s abilities where his abilities can soak enemies and make them not only take increased frost and electric damage, but grants a 100% status effect. Enemies hit by ice status would become frozen solid. His puddle ability can have electricity and frost status applied by abilities or weapons to deal increased damage as well.  
 

Could see Necramechs being summoned under water too for certain mining and such. But to transfer, you have to be looking directly at it. Unless they decide to make an underwater diving suite for tennos. Allow them to do more than be limited to the dry ground. 
 

Could see a group of people but not sure how all that would work. Kind of picturing amphibian looking people. Like their population size has been greatly reduced due to Tyl Regor and his minions. Maybe some new experiment was used on the amphibian survivors to create an army of grineer that can breath under water. But they became sort of ghoul like and are not very pleasant. 
 

Which also makes me picture underwater infested and such as well. Picturing some creepy things you would find in some resident evil game. Like fighting some giant infested Kraken that opens up a mouth with Grineers inside. See some kind of animation where it tries to eat you and the grineers inside try to pull you further and further in and you have to tap buttons to use the parazon to cut yourself free. 🤢😱 
 

Could see more sea life as some Ichthyologist wants you to collected living specimens to study and breed to try and repopulate the under water creatures that have become nearly extinct due to the Grineer land poisoning the waters. May find some crazy carnivorous fish try to attack you. Some probably mutated either by infested or grineer chemicals. 
 

Last I picture a carnivorous fish type Warframe. Who specializes in summoning vicious land or water fish to attack and swarm. Maybe even summon them into Hydroid’s puddle to inflict additional damage. Could even inflict electrical and toxic damage similar to other fish/amphibians. And has the unique ability to swim underwater without the need of an Archwing. Could maybe even swim in ponds and lakes from other open worlds(which may require some editing). Maybe can even make itself invisible while sitting still or moving very slowly while under water. But such invisibility can only last for a little bit. Like maybe 15 seconds tops. And require traveling some meters for it to activate again. Like maybe for every 100 meters traveled, you gain 1 second of invisibility to a maximum of 15. Once you reach 1,500 meters, you can’t gain anymore. To avoid abuse. 
 

There’s more but way too much to type in. Can only hope that what I have provided can open the door to more imaginations. Definitely don’t want another open world that feels like a repeat. 

[Brinstar7777]

12 hours ago, (PSN)chris1pat8twins said:

What I picture is a new gear item that allows for the use of warframe Abilities and stats while underwater in Archwing mode.

This is going to be difficult to put in practice. Many warframe abilities are designed wih land combat in mind. For example, Hydroid's ultimate would be nearly useless in some of the more open archwing maps merely because of a lack of surfaces for the tentacles to spawn.

Quote

Unless they decide to make an underwater diving suite for tennos. Allow them to do more than be limited to the dry ground. 

Well, the AMH is meant to be exactly that: a means to allow tenno to more easily navigate aquatic regions.

Quote

Could see Necramechs being summoned under water too for certain mining and such. But to transfer, you have to be looking directly at it. 

One other thing this update copuld include is a variant of operator form for archwing. As for the necramechs, I think that they'd have limited use in the chasm, as they have no ability to easily navigate water and would likely sink like a stone.

Quote

Could see a group of people but not sure how all that would work. Kind of picturing amphibian looking people. Like their population size has been greatly reduced due to Tyl Regor and his minions. Maybe some new experiment was used on the amphibian survivors to create an army of grineer that can breath under water. But they became sort of ghoul like and are not very pleasant. 

Maybe old orokin experiments in making sentient and sapient aquatic life? Seems like a nice start of an idea. The idea that grineer are trying to wipe them out is also a good one, though I don't know why Tyl Regor would want water-breathing troops, as they already have Draga troops that can operate underwater. That being said, a group of genetically altered grineer who breathe water instead of air is a good contender for the Chasm's Syndicate.

Quote

Which also makes me picture underwater infested and such as well. Picturing some creepy things you would find in some resident evil game. Like fighting some giant infested Kraken that opens up a mouth with Grineers inside. See some kind of animation where it tries to eat you and the grineers inside try to pull you further and further in and you have to tap buttons to use the parazon to cut yourself free. 🤢😱 

The Grineer are meant to be the dominant faction in this open world, but a Plague Star-esque event could introduce infested into the Chasm. Imagine what the infested could do if it infected a Leviathan...

Quote

Could see more sea life as some Ichthyologist wants you to collected living specimens to study and breed to try and repopulate the under water creatures that have become nearly extinct due to the Grineer land poisoning the waters. May find some crazy carnivorous fish try to attack you. Some probably mutated either by infested or grineer chemicals. 

Yeah, sounds good! We're told that the grineer facilities have the potential to pollute the enviornment, but we haven't seen the consequences of that pollution yet. Fish mutated by grineer chemicals and species driven to the brink of extinction by the grineer presence in the Chasm would be a nice way to show that.

Quote

Last I picture a carnivorous fish type Warframe. Who specializes in summoning vicious land or water fish to attack and swarm. Maybe even summon them into Hydroid’s puddle to inflict additional damage. Could even inflict electrical and toxic damage similar to other fish/amphibians. And has the unique ability to swim underwater without the need of an Archwing. Could maybe even swim in ponds and lakes from other open worlds(which may require some editing). Maybe can even make itself invisible while sitting still or moving very slowly while under water.

Nice concept! I haven't thought of a Warframe for this open world; I was considering reworking Hydroid and moving the means to acquire him from the Vay Hekk boss fight to the Chasm, but the above idea could work. Maybe have the above warframe borrow elements from both Ivara and Grendel?

[(PSN)chris1pat8twins]

6 hours ago, Brinstar7777 said:

Nice concept! I haven't thought of a Warframe for this open world; I was considering reworking Hydroid and moving the means to acquire him from the Vay Hekk boss fight to the Chasm, but the above idea could work. Maybe have the above warframe borrow elements from both Ivara and Grendel?

Possibly. Don’t want it to be too similar to the frames. When Gauss first came out dudes wouldn’t stop narrowmindingly comparing him to Volt despite their huge differences. There are quite a few abilities that I pictured. Spent the last year trying to figure out how to make them unique and sync up with each other. I try to think of abilities that are good on their own while also being able to synergize with each other. But the closest I picture to Grendel without being the same is her(figured female) charging like a giant shark. Grabbing all the enemies with her before slinging them away. Inflicting puncture damage and status. Would be creepy to turn around and see your teammate charge towards like that. Not sure of the animation effects. Giant shark like mouth, some spiritual/energy shark like jaw projection, idk. 
 

When it comes to the necramech mining, I was picturing there being an actual floor under the water. Like we are very deep. And there are areas where we can’t explore, similar to the drop offs on other maps. And similar to space where we can’t fly outside of the map. Seeing things like sunken ships from grineer, corpus, orokin, etc. etc. so swimming through the waters would be like flyjng through the sky in the other open worlds. The sea floor would be like the land in the other open worlds. And then there would be certain areas or potholes/pitfalls that we can’t explore. We go/fall down them, we will respond as if we fell in the lakes/ponds in the other open worlds. Basically picture the other open worlds but the air/sky is water instead. Switch the trees and bushes with sea plant life. Etc. 

 

The infested part, I mentioned only cause we see infested everywhere. And figured it would be nice to see something a little different and unique for such a unique open world/map. Feel like infested need more members. Not just alternate variants. I even made an infested assassin concept multiple times. The most recent being a Kuva Infused Infested Assassin. Something to make the infested more interested and keeping players on their toes. Figure making underwater infested could be another route. 
 

Tyl Regor is a mad scientist. Imagine having an army that can breath under water without the use of a suit. Gaining the speed and agility of a fish/amphibian. Figured he would be the kind of person to make such experiments for such a goal. Which would allow us to fight a different breed of grineer. Different from the usual and different from the ghouls. Something actually new. The ghouls were the only legit new grineer they added. Figured do something similar with a more aquatic theme to them. 
 

Last for the abilities like Hydroid, just figured he could summon it where he floats. With his range increased, he would be able to hit enemies all around him. I’ve seen glitches where the kraken and the tentacles were floating in the air. Figured it shouldn’t be too hard to simply make them appear where hydroid floats. Or while charging you can aim how far from hydroid you want to release it. Like doing so would lock hydroid into place. While one analog stick allows you to turn, the other controls how far or close you can place it from hydroid. Maybe show like an orb where it will spawn. Certain field abilities like Oberon could effect enemies without direct contact. Be like if the radiation from his plants can spread through the water. So they don’t have to be directly touching. Or the parasites from Nidus can swim. I’ve seen abilities get placed in position by warframes and Archwings. Like the Amesha’s giant bubble. Doesn’t need a ground to use. Figure similar changes can be made towards warframe abilities during such underwater travels. I’d even go as far as to redesign them to look very different while under water by that might require too much implementation. Like imagine Nidus creating a giant infested bubble while underwater. That might be too much though. So figured just creating a normal field where they float with a longer/wider hit box would be easier. 
 

But ultimately such a gear item would be 100% a choice for the player. If they feel Archwing abilities are better and prefer them, then they can just dive on in without activating the gear. Or click again to deactivate the gear and return to the arch-wing abilities. So DE would still have time, feedback, and chances to fix any issues. 
 

I’m sure there would be a lot to consider and adjust. But that’s the point of the forums. People should discuss ideas and figure out how to make them work. Support ideas. Help and encourage DE to add such new content. But unfortunately most just dis or criticize unconstructively. I usually discuss things with other people I know in person before posting. If they think such concepts should exist, only then do I post them. And we be discussing the layouts and such. 

[Brinstar7777]

On 2021-06-19 at 10:28 PM, (PSN)chris1pat8twins said:

Possibly. Don’t want it to be too similar to the frames. When Gauss first came out dudes wouldn’t stop narrowmindingly comparing him to Volt despite their huge differences. There are quite a few abilities that I pictured. Spent the last year trying to figure out how to make them unique and sync up with each other. I try to think of abilities that are good on their own while also being able to synergize with each other. But the closest I picture to Grendel without being the same is her(figured female) charging like a giant shark. Grabbing all the enemies with her before slinging them away. Inflicting puncture damage and status. Would be creepy to turn around and see your teammate charge towards like that. Not sure of the animation effects. Giant shark like mouth, some spiritual/energy shark like jaw projection, idk. 

Do you know what would be interesting? If the mouth had a Damage-over-Time effect where it would 'chew' enemies. And swallow them if they were killed by the DoT effect.

Quote

When it comes to the necramech mining, I was picturing there being an actual floor under the water. Like we are very deep. And there are areas where we can’t explore, similar to the drop offs on other maps. And similar to space where we can’t fly outside of the map. Seeing things like sunken ships from grineer, corpus, orokin, etc. etc. so swimming through the waters would be like flyjng through the sky in the other open worlds. The sea floor would be like the land in the other open worlds. And then there would be certain areas or potholes/pitfalls that we can’t explore. We go/fall down them, we will respond as if we fell in the lakes/ponds in the other open worlds. Basically picture the other open worlds but the air/sky is water instead. Switch the trees and bushes with sea plant life. Etc. 

That's roughly accurate, except when I imagine the Chasm, I imagine a 3D space where the greatest focus is on the space above the seafloor. You know how Deimos had caves, but they were less of a focus than the surface? The same thing would be true of the seafloor of the Chasm.

Quote

The infested part, I mentioned only cause we see infested everywhere. And figured it would be nice to see something a little different and unique for such a unique open world/map. Feel like infested need more members. Not just alternate variants. I even made an infested assassin concept multiple times. The most recent being a Kuva Infused Infested Assassin. Something to make the infested more interested and keeping players on their toes. Figure making underwater infested could be another route. 

Yeah, we could use FAR more infested variety. How about a animate, Mutualist Javlock that uses it's thrusters to turn itself into a missile sound?

Quote

Tyl Regor is a mad scientist. Imagine having an army that can breath under water without the use of a suit. Gaining the speed and agility of a fish/amphibian. Figured he would be the kind of person to make such experiments for such a goal. Which would allow us to fight a different breed of grineer. Different from the usual and different from the ghouls. Something actually new. The ghouls were the only legit new grineer they added. Figured do something similar with a more aquatic theme to them. 

Yeah, but make them smarter and less inclined to serve their masters. A group of part-amphibian grineer defectors, unable to link up with Steel Meridian because they breathe water instead of air, instead trying to carve out a life in the abyss would make for an interesting Syndicate for the Chasm.

On 2021-06-19 at 10:28 PM, (PSN)chris1pat8twins said:

Last for the abilities like Hydroid, just figured he could summon it where he floats. With his range increased, he would be able to hit enemies all around him. I’ve seen glitches where the kraken and the tentacles were floating in the air. Figured it shouldn’t be too hard to simply make them appear where hydroid floats. Or while charging you can aim how far from hydroid you want to release it. Like doing so would lock hydroid into place. While one analog stick allows you to turn, the other controls how far or close you can place it from hydroid. Maybe show like an orb where it will spawn. Certain field abilities like Oberon could effect enemies without direct contact. Be like if the radiation from his plants can spread through the water. So they don’t have to be directly touching. Or the parasites from Nidus can swim. I’ve seen abilities get placed in position by warframes and Archwings. Like the Amesha’s giant bubble. Doesn’t need a ground to use. Figure similar changes can be made towards warframe abilities during such underwater travels. I’d even go as far as to redesign them to look very different while under water by that might require too much implementation. Like imagine Nidus creating a giant infested bubble while underwater. That might be too much though. So figured just creating a normal field where they float with a longer/wider hit box would be easier. 
 

But ultimately such a gear item would be 100% a choice for the player. If they feel Archwing abilities are better and prefer them, then they can just dive on in without activating the gear. Or click again to deactivate the gear and return to the arch-wing abilities. So DE would still have time, feedback, and chances to fix any issues. 

Yeah, having certain abilities change when underwater might work. Not sure about the gear item, since it would, in effect, temporarily give the player a second set of abilities while active. I think a better option would be to give the player the ability to change whether it uses Archwing or Warframe abilities in the Arsenal menu.

[(PSN)chris1pat8twins]

7 hours ago, Brinstar7777 said:

Do you know what would be interesting? If the mouth had a Damage-over-Time effect where it would 'chew' enemies. And swallow them if they were killed by the DoT effect.

That's roughly accurate, except when I imagine the Chasm, I imagine a 3D space where the greatest focus is on the space above the seafloor. You know how Deimos had caves, but they were less of a focus than the surface? The same thing would be true of the seafloor of the Chasm.

Yeah, we could use FAR more infested variety. How about a animate, Mutualist Javlock that uses it's thrusters to turn itself into a missile sound?

Yeah, but make them smarter and less inclined to serve their masters. A group of part-amphibian grineer defectors, unable to link up with Steel Meridian because they breathe water instead of air, instead trying to carve out a life in the abyss would make for an interesting Syndicate for the Chasm.

Yeah, having certain abilities change when underwater might work. Not sure about the gear item, since it would, in effect, temporarily give the player a second set of abilities while active. I think a better option would be to give the player the ability to change whether it uses Archwing or Warframe abilities in the Arsenal menu.

The chewing could be the ability during the charge where as it’s charging forward all enemies suffer continuous damage over time until they die or the ability is canceled. Maybe enemies killed with such would grant a little health restore.
 

God, now you got me fully visualizing a giant mutated shark chomping on all the enemies in its path. Making me imagine a quest where some “enraged creature is wreaking havoc everywhere” and it’s that warframe in the shark mode chasing after us. Us trying not to get eaten while trying to calm it down. Be like a scenario where we are being chased and have to outrun it and lead it somewhere else away from others. And all I can hear is the loud chomping as it closes in on us. Like a combination of rhino’s roaring and Grendel’s gulping. 

The mutalist Javlok makes me picture an infested spear that pulls enemies towards it before exploding. Or it targets an enemy and grabs them, maybe pend them and not only drains them but uses them as a power source to debuff others before exploding. Imagine throwing it on a boss and weakening it. Sure it wouldn’t pend a boss down but at least weakening it would make taking them out easier. 
 

I only mention the ability stuff as a gear item cause that’s the route DE is going with their mode cross overs. Can’t use an arch wing without one in open worlds. Can’t use an arch-gun without one. So if they ever decide to add grounded arch melees or grant us the ability to use warframe abilities while in Archwing mode, then they will most likely use the repeated gear method.

 

If they don’t then awesome. Less issues to deal with. Granted the last several gear items were summoning methods. Not like you’re summoning the ability to use warframe abilities in Archwing. So I would assume the option to use warframe abilities in Archwing should be a simple Arsenal change. And if most they do is add range and maybe damage to the abilities while in Archwing mode, then it shouldn’t be too complicated to implement. 
 

I mostly try to provide multiple options cause I don’t know the route DE would go. So not all my suggestions are absolute but simply an alternative option for DE to ultimately decide.