Grineer Hidden Labs: Elevator Survival

[Calayne]

Note: Skip to image if you don't like reading!

 

Blood pools on the floor as four Tenno frantically dashed to the end of the corridor; Pale green lights gently illuminate the room, emanated by giant glass cylinders, arrayed neatly in a row, and filled with a strange liquid. Malformed bodies rest peacefully inside these man-sized test-tubes, oblivious of what transpires around them. The bubbling of various chemicals can be heard, as systems initiate automatic testing sequences.

 

Skidding to a halt before a large, circular room, the Tenno draw their weapons and approach cautiously; Bratons cocked, Magnus primed, blades glinting under the lighting that throws a soft, golden glow over everything. Around them, large, parallel steel tracks spiral upwards around the cylindrical room, reaching far above to what seems like an eternity.

 

One of them activates a control panel located at the side, while the rest moved slowly to the middle of the room.

 

The ground shudders.

 

And up they go.

 

Rotating like a behemoth stirring from its sleep, two large, helical gears strain- groaning and creaking- at the bottom of this moving platform, steam forcefully expelled from the ports located on the sides. An alarm begins to sound.

 

As the Tenno rise with the platform, Grineer begin appearing behind the windows between the gear tracks: Lancers, gunners, ballistas, all arrive to intercept their hated enemies, each declaring their status, and some throwing insults at the Tenno. Cleavers begin jumping onto the platform, rolling as they made contact with the floor. 

 

A bloody skirmish begins, and the Grineer begin pouring from all sides. The Tenno are surrounded.

 

The battle rages as steel meets flesh and lead pours like rain; Blurs of movement and the spilling of blood; Death comes for many, though not for the Tenno. Their victory is assured.

 

But as they approach the end of their journey, a maddened howl is heard; A cry that sounds all too human, yet... devoid of any and all humanity. And just as the echo begins to fade into the darkness of eternity...

 

They come.

 

Pouring from every orifice of the windows, masses of flesh and bone, proportions bent out of shape, lumbering clumsily, yet approaching terrifyingly fast. Their faces all contain the same feature, the same expression: Rage. Endless, unadulterated rage, touched by insane savagery. 

 

Telling and screaming they come as a tide of meat, wielding brutal clubs of ferrite; slipshod, makeshift weapons of as much grace as a one-legged kubrow.

 

But still, they come.

 

They come.

 

And you will never again see the light of day.

 

 

 

The Elevator Survival: A combination between an Escape mission and a Survival mission, ideally done in a new type of tileset for Tyl Regor: The Grineer Hidden Labs.

 

As a scientist, Tyl Regor has access to the highest level of the Grineer Empire's scientific facilities. Toiling madly day and night, his dishevelled appearance belies his ruthless attitude and vast knowledge. It is in this facility that he experiments on his fellow clones: Morbid experiments done for the sake of their greater good, that being reproduceable immortality.

 

However, thus far he has only succeeded in twisting his brethren beyond recognition. Torsos growing madly out of proportion; Extra arms jutting out from strange places; Hidden appendages that, when revealing themselves, sometimes unintentionally tears the clone apart. For all his work, and all his genius Tyl Regor is a madman committing genocide on his brethren.

 

Yet, his infinitely many experiments have created a strange defence for his hidden lab: An army of degenerate degenerating clones. Unable to leave the planet due to their ultra-short lifespans, they stay there as test subjects: Their vitals are monitored, any change is noted, and they stay there, suspended in vats of nutrient sludge.

 

But their true value is realised when invaders take the only way out of the facility available: A slow elevator back to the surface. 

 

The Tenno invade this facility, hoping to uncover the dark, mind-twisting secrets of this establishment and bring it back to their Lotus. 

 

None have escaped.

 

For when the elevator is taken up, an alarm will sound, and all the failed experiments will be unleashed. They will keep pouring from the endless abyss that is Tyl Regor's demented mind.

 

You can come in, Tenno....

 

But you'll never make it back out. 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Okay, so that intro was longer than expected. The concept is simple: A survival mission with a limited time period, with enemies pouring in from all sides before an explosive finale where creatures try to beat you with sheer numbers. 

 

The pacing of this game type should be hectic, balancing between dodging melee units and neutralizing ranged ones, before the Grineer Mutants are released. At that time, it quickly becomes a game of outmanoeuvring your opponents and trying not to get flanked. 

 

At the start, lancers and ballistas fire at you from the side, while Heavy Gunners and Cleavers jump onto the platform to engage you, along with any other heavies around. Lancers also sometimes join the platform crew, to add to the mayhem. 

 

5 minutes into the mission, where the difficulty steadily gets higher to a peak point, it climaxes with a blaring alarm and Tyl Regor laughing at the Tenno as he sends all his failed experiments on you. 

 

If you make it out, you're greeted by the Tenno ship which extracts you as you look down and see the swarming mass of flesh disintegrate under the sun. 

 

Mission Complete.

 

 

 

Edit (22nd April 2014): Following some particularly ingenious suggestions from the comments...

 

Cover system:

 

As the elevator soars upwards, occasionally, explosions from the charges set earlier rock the foundation of the labs: This causes chunks of steel panels to fall from the ceiling, and lodge itself on the elevator, which shudders from the impact. With a large surface area and limited health, this presents obstacles for Tenno to hide behind as they're assaulted from all sides. 

 

Alternatively, the Tenno could set the remote charge detonators somewhere in the middle, and whenever cover is needed, the charges may be detonated by any one Tenno, and a series of explosions ingloriously wreck Tyl Regor's hard work, vaporizing it into a billion particles which would make any scientist cry tears of anguish.

 

The Grineer Hidden Labs: Campaign mode:

 

Particularly ingenious suggestion by Mozzo. Done a la notionphil's much-lauded Cell, this is perfect for an early taste. Prior to reaching this mission, you first complete the solar chart in a certain order, like a campaign mode, which tells you the story of the Grineer Hidden Labs:

 

You're a Tenno cell; "Tenno. We've received intel from our covert operatives and double agents regarding an interesting development: The man you know as Tyl Regor has been working on a secret project all this while. His research has grown immense; His funding, limitless. The Grineer have dedicated themselves fully to this endeavor, and the Twin Queens give their full support. If he is not stopped, not only will they have regained the ability to perfect their cloning technique, but they will also have an army of monstrosities. Your job is to destroy his lab, and take out Tyl Regor. Good luck, Tenno."

 

tl;dr version: "The Grineer Hidden Labs". Immediately upon entering Uranus (heh), the first mission is on the planet face: Spy mission. This branches off to a defence, then a survival, where the tile set is on the planet's face. Going to the next node, and all the nodes after, are tilesets and missions dedicated to the Grineer Hidden Labs. Here, the short campaign can be done in a straight line all the way to Tyl Regor's node, and then Elevator Survival is the last node, leading to the next planet.

 

 

The mission starts off with a spy mission, in the planet-face of the Grineer Labs, just along the bases of the outskirts: Your task is to find the access codes to unlock the base. Upon completing this, you'll be able to enter the labs proper. No RNG needed. This is just a part of the story.

 

Entering through the ominous elevator, you reach the interior of the labs: Tyl Regor is still unaware of your presence. Your job now is to make sure it stays that way. Your job is to plant false evidence and reroute their security systems, allowing you to bypass areas on lockdown. 

 

Hidden from the detection of the larger Grineer forces encamped there, you're now free to attempt sabotage: This is a two-pronged approach. First, plant charges in key areas of the lab, where sensitive and important information and experiments will be destroyed. This will be a mobile defense mission, where your Tenno brothers will plant the charges, and you have to protect them. Second, delete all information from the database by destroying the memory cores. This will be a sabotage mission, and you need to find these memory cores and blow them into smithereens.

 

Finally, with Tyl Regor constipating with rage, he'll reveal himself to you. Eliminate him.

 

Oh no. Looks like something unexpected has happened! Tyl Regor, as he lies dying, unleashes his local army of monstrosities and Grineer troops! Get out of there, Tenno. They're coming for you! Elevator Survival mission!

 

As you complete these missions, your task is complete, and you'll be extracted.

 

Good job, Tenno!

Edited April 22, 2014 by Calayne

[anavn]

Sounds cool would a lot of fun it is a bit like the true servival we have been talking about

[ZzVinniezZ]

why are we not funding this???

[Ezard]

Sounds awesome!! :D

[Calayne]

Sounds cool would a lot of fun it is a bit like the true servival we have been talking about

 

Yeah, I really hate that air supply thing! 

 

It's like, it's boring really long, then it gets okay, then it quickly gets hard, and then it stays at too damn hard.

 

Here, at least the really really hard portion is bearably shorter, and ends on a high note, rather than crawling like a meat bag to extraction.

[Calayne]

Maaaaaaaaybe gonna add more concept art to this. The pen and paper drawing looks kinda sh*t, since it's lost most of its detail when you take a picture of it with a handphone.

 

At any rate, Tyl Regor should be the next Grineer up for a rework! After whatever else is done, I really think he needs a nice, long look at! 

 

HUGE potential here, this Tyl Regor fella. He's so non-conformist, he's the Grineer's Grineer.

[(PSN)l-Faust-l]

I want to be in a square room with 4 doors and enemies spawn in the hundreds, but this is good too.

[Calayne]

I want to be in a square room with 4 doors and enemies spawn in the hundreds, but this is good too.

 

That would be a dream come true, man. It's a mission I would play FOREVER. 

 

Once, long ago, I wrote a concept about Survival. Possibly in U8 or U9, I can't remember. The whole concept is to keep shooting and killing and enemies just pour in like freakkin' Black Friday sales day, and you just keep hacking away until you're dead. I really liked the thought of fighting until the bitter end.

 

I called it "The Last Stand", and it was a mission type where you and three other guys' whole purpose in life is to make someone's day as miserable as humanly possible. I was going to draw a comic for it, too.

 

Then, the air supply came in like a bad 80s song. 

 

Oh well. At least the enemy still comes pouring in.

[Phobose]

I would sing this to the high heavens for this to get implemented. I love games that have this type of mod. A gauntlet of sorts. It challenges you to fight even if youre battered and beaten, to unleash your true animal inside of you amd do whatever it takes to get out alive.

Tyl Regor doesnt know that his hidden labs have turned into a massive meat grinder for Phobose.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Phobose

[Praxeti]

Awesome stuff

[theGreatZamboni]

Pretty cool idea and some great concept images, I had a similar albeit more simplistic concept a while back for Tyl as well. I'd like to point out some issues that would have to be fixed first, things like momentum, certain powers and issues with platforms.

 

The way the game transfer's momentum from player movement and how that functions with outside forces moving the player is extremely buggy. Clipping through and being launched from platforms is a regular occurrence with the Grineer Asteroid tileset's moving platforms. Also things like Frost's snowglobe are not relegated to stay in the same frame of motion as the player, if the player is on a moving platform. This can be seen with elevators and again the moving platforms on the Asteroid tileset. The globe will be left floating behind/above/below the player.

 

The Mobile Defense mission with the 3 part objective that also takes place on the Asteroid tileset showcases similar issues. Many people have experienced falling through the trolly the cryopod is on during stage 3. Also, if you look closely, you can see the pod jittering due to the engine not supporting a proper simulation of Newton's first law about objects in the same frame of motion.

 

What this does however do, is give an excuse to fix these issues and create a compelling experience for players in the process. Good idea, but some fine tuning would be required.

[-Mandachordian-Tenno-]

SSS+ good stuff!

[Issun135]

Want nao!!!

and if they do use this it'll be an event with a miter wraith as a reward.

edit: I like my miter :3

Edited April 7, 2014 by Issun135

[natty762]

This must happen.

+1s all the way!

 

(Edit: What about some cover on the rising pad? I can imagine situations where it'd be frustrating to have no shield regen)

Edited April 7, 2014 by natty762

[Blackout751]

The only potential issue is the spamming of ultimate abilities - Molecular Prime is going to make it so much simpler when they all ride in at once, easily slaughtering entire waves per second with Avalanche or Rhino Stomp or World on Fire.

[SomethingCrazy]

Really want this to be implemented. Sounds like an amazing idea. Any idea how fast the elevator would move or how long it will take to complete?

 

Also.....

 

The only potential issue is the spamming of ultimate abilities - Molecular Prime is going to make it so much simpler when they all ride in at once, easily slaughtering entire waves per second with Avalanche or Rhino Stomp or World on Fire.

 

This...

 

But Ults are always game breaking not matter what mission type your in. Although it would be extremely game breaking in this specific game type, I would still love it.

[Phobose]

The only potential issue is the spamming of ultimate abilities - Molecular Prime is going to make it so much simpler when they all ride in at once, easily slaughtering entire waves per second with Avalanche or Rhino Stomp or World on Fire.

Simple solution, lotus mentions the use of ground based abilities will damage the integrity of the elevator, use them wisely.

Restrict the player to face his enemies with basic abilities and buffs aswell as his weapons.

[Xiphium21]

YESSSSS

[Calayne]

Pretty cool idea and some great concept images, I had a similar albeit more simplistic concept a while back for Tyl as well. I'd like to point out some issues that would have to be fixed first, things like momentum, certain powers and issues with platforms.

 

 

 

Yeah, I can see that being a big, big problem, now that you've pointed it out! You're right in that it'll be a good reason to begin development on overcoming the bugs, though. I personally find it quite irritating when you fall through the Cryopod tram in Kappa as well. A load of other buggy cases, but I think you know what's going on with regards to that! Here's to hoping that DE improves on all the big-small things like this.

 

As for Ultis, I can understand why some might think that's an issue. I'd like to say, though, that this probably won't be too bad of one. You can either keep spamming it and run out of energy at the later part when enemies are literally falling from the sky, or you can save it for one glorious burst to the finish at the end. Either way, it's really satisfying to just use all your energy right at the end of a mission. Kinda like Mario, giving it one glorious jump onto the flag.

 

As for the duration, I'd say it should go a minimum of 5 minutes. This definitely isn't going to be endless, but it should be a challenging burst of activity; Sorta like a sprint. The elevator moves slowly at first, but picks up speed; In the end, it should be going pretty fast, though not fast enough to totally disorient the player. 

 

I personally would enjoy this sort of mission, as Phobose points out, because of its inherently faster pace, and a somewhat claustrophobic feel, where enemies just pour in incessantly, never giving you a breath. I wanted to add cannons, to be honest. In that case, the targeting of the shells can be seen via laser pointers, and it'll shell that area, so you'll have to avoid it to prevent from being flattened. But that may be a little too nuts. 

 

Even if I could spam ultis, though, this mission type is an excuse for me to do one thing: Go crazy with a sword. I've always loved melee. Melee 2.0 is just begging to be used.

[Calayne]

 

(Edit: What about some cover on the rising pad? I can imagine situations where it'd be frustrating to have no shield regen)

 

 

Oh, yeah. That does sound like a good idea. Cover is always nice to have. Just need an idea on how to implement it without making it overly relied on or utterly useless.

[Blackout751]

Simple solution, lotus mentions the use of ground based abilities will damage the integrity of the elevator, use them wisely.

Restrict the player to face his enemies with basic abilities and buffs aswell as his weapons.

 

Elevator integrity would be an interesting concept to add to it, yeah, but it'd be difficult to implement linking powers to integrity.

 

As for Ultis, I can understand why some might think that's an issue. I'd like to say, though, that this probably won't be too bad of one. You can either keep spamming it and run out of energy at the later part when enemies are literally falling from the sky, or you can save it for one glorious burst to the finish at the end. Either way, it's really satisfying to just use all your energy right at the end of a mission. Kinda like Mario, giving it one glorious jump onto the flag.

 

Even if I could spam ultis, though, this mission type is an excuse for me to do one thing: Go crazy with a sword. I've always loved melee. Melee 2.0 is just begging to be used.

 

...What about energy orbs from melee units dropping in? You should be able to farm them for enough time to get several ultimates, if it's a long enough elevator ride.

 

But yeah, I love the idea of saving ultimates for last and dealing insane amounts of damage whilst swarmed by Grineer mutants, then walking out into the sun like a boss.

[Lactamid]

I'll just put  +1 on this and come back later, haven't read all but it seems nice :) Reminds me of TMNT2 from GAME BOY :D

[Ardorax]

I like this idea, it reminds me of a lot of those classic fighter games.

 

The room keeps spinning and the enemies keep on comming!

[Blackout751]

Oh, yeah. That does sound like a good idea. Cover is always nice to have. Just need an idea on how to implement it without making it overly relied on or utterly useless.

 

Easy. Pieces of the walls or ceiling are destroyed and fall onto the elevator - damaging integrity, if that idea's put in - and provide cover from the Grineer sharpshooters. They are destroyed by excessive damage from anything, but can stand several strong hits to provide all but the highest-capacity shielding a chance to return to full strength.

[XenoFant]

I can see something....

 

This is the future.