Player Ship: Lotus Debriefing After A Successful Mission

[Phaenur]

So much for writer's block! Managed to crank this out way faster than I was expecting to.

 

Since it's so early on, Lotus is the only speaker – you might get bosses, minor faction representatives, or main characters chiming in once you're past Earth, maybe a bit farther. Anyway, I hope I've done a decent job of capturing her voice here.

 

 

 

Upon first arriving over Venus:

“This is Venus. Despite being caught between Grineer operations bases on Mercury and Old Earth, this planet still belongs to their chief rivals: the Corpus. This merchant guild has rallied from a civil war and numerous bloody setbacks to legitimately challenge Grineer dominance in the Origin system. You may have met our Corpus market contacts already when buying new equipment, but be warned – most of them see you as nothing more than a treasure to be sold...or a specimen to be dissected.

 

“I have given you the coordinates of a common Corpus shipping lane around the Cytherean outpost. Board one of their ships and eliminate its security force to train yourself to battle Corpus. Watch out for automated security systems and manufactories – these enemies are not as straightforward as Vor's patrolmen.”

 

 

 

After completing Cytherean:

“It is good to see you return, Tenno. But just as in Mercury, your campaign here in Venus will not be won through force of arms alone. You need the intelligence network I can provide in order to truly weaken the Corpus holdings in this area of space.

 

“If you would prefer to stay here, you have a choice of destinations. The Aphrodite ground station on a nearby asteroid in particular is home to several high-value targets who may prove crucial to preventing the Corpus from developing their weapons technology beyond what we can handle. You will need to be quick and well-armed to bring them down, though, and I cannot say what you will find as you get closer to the planet itself. If you choose to strike out for V Prime instead, be aware that it is used as a transshipment point for political prisoners and dissidents. Move quietly to liberate anyone you can. Every potential ally helps our cause.

 

“To help you pass through the sector, I have collected this artifact to grant your rifle ammunition cryogenic properties. These will quickly strip the shields that Corpus troops favor, and work well in conjunction with the electric rounds I gave you earlier to overload their proxies. There are other combinations, of course, but I leave you to discover their properties yourself. I will be in touch when your efforts bear fruit.”

 

 

 

These first two were extra-long because they form the introduction to the planet, plus a new faction. Well, and also because I'm incapable of writing anything that's not a wall of text.

 

 

 

After completing Aphrodite (before V Prime):

“I see you are here for the duration, Tenno. Thank you. Your captives will be interrogated, but the process will take some time. Until then, press on. Other cells have been alerted to your actions, so you may engage in defense missions with full support.”

 

 

 

After completing Aphrodite (after V Prime):

“Between your captives and the targets from earlier, I believe I will soon have the information I need to pin down the focus of Corpus activity in the sector. I am rallying other cells for our major actions, so feel free to engage in defense missions. You will not be alone.”

 

 

 

After completing Aphrodite (after Fossa):

“Thank you for remaining in the sector, Tenno. We do not yet know how the Corpus will react to the destruction of their prototype. I am sending more cells to Venus to consolidate our gains there. You will have support for defense missions in the future.”

 

 

 

After completing Unda (before V Prime):

“The captives from earlier have provided me with the information I need to decode this intelligence, but it will still take some time to collate. Continue your work with my blessing, Tenno. I have given you another Redirection mod; use it to empower any you already have before you press on.”

 

 

 

After completing Unda (before Fossa):

“I believe this data combined with the information you have already uncovered will allow me to identify the Corpus's main goals in Venus space. We are in the endgame here, Tenno. Take an additional Redirection mod; use it to enhance any you already have before deploying again.”

 

 

 

After completing Unda (after Fossa):

“If the Corpus are true to form, the data files you collected will allow me to determine how they intend to proceed after Jackal's destruction. You are nearly through with this planet for now, Tenno, and I will give you an additional Redirection mod before you leave. Use it to enhance any you already have before moving on.”

 

 

 

After completing Venera or Vesper:

“Your fellow Tenno have deployed Solar Rails of their own beyond this node, leading into the unexplored Dark Sectors on the system's fringe. I cannot recommend that you pass along one of these now, but I cannot stop you either. Remember, Tenno, there is no shame in retreating from an enemy you cannot yet match.”

 

 

 

After completing Linea:

“Tenno, I realize that the spacelanes to Old Earth are just before you, but I must ask you to stay in the system for a little longer. The intelligence you've gathered, the prisoners you've taken and those you've saved, I have drawn a disturbing conclusion from it all. The Corpus have an advanced factory in the region, which is testing a new and far heavier proxy. This Jackal robot is much larger and better protected than any MOA or Osprey you've encountered, and I cannot let you oppose it unprepared. I have two artifacts ready for you – they will be expensive and time-consuming to enhance, but the payoff will be worth the wait. Each will directly enhance the firepower of any primary or secondary weapon, regardless of type, by a significant degree. Use them well, Tenno.

 

“Now, before I send you and your cell against the Jackal, I need you to sabotage a major manufactory keeping it supplied. Proceed to the Tessera outpost, and from there to the factory cruisers in the Fossa region. End this threat.”

 

 

 

After completing Fossa (before Venera):

“You have done your fellow Tenno a great service, and preserved the balance of power between the Grineer and Corpus in the system. You are free to proceed to Earth whenever you desire, with a gift of twenty thousand credits added to your account. However, there are still Corpus artifact hunts unearthing other Warframes on the asteroids past the Aphrodite Outpost. I cannot compel you to stay, but it would be helpful to us and a profitable experience for you. Go freely, Tenno.”

 

 

 

After completing Fossa (after Venera):

“Your service to our cause has been exemplary, Tenno. You have saved several of your frozen kin from the Corpus excavation sites, filled in many of the holes in my intelligence network, and eliminated a major threat before it could destabilize the system any further. You are free to move on to Earth whenever you wish, though with the Corpus in such a state of instability now it may be for the best if you remained and continued raiding their operations in the sector. Do what you think is best – thirty thousand credits and a reclaimed Morphic from Mercury have been transferred to you for your diligent work. Congratulations, Tenno. Go freely.”

 

 

 

It's pretty text-dense still, I guess, both in each scenario and in the proportion of debriefings to nodes, but it's also the second planet. I also hope my tutorial bits weren't too blatant – hopefully it was clear that there'd be a Stormbringer mod provided at some point in Mercury, probably before running Lares, and of course there's Redirection from the tutorial. It's still up to the player to figure out how to use the foundry and such, but if nothing else the various conversations here should make it clear that dual elements and mod fusion exist.

 

Also, yay, guaranteed Serration and Hornet Strike before players get shoved into Jackal/Earth! Ideally there'd be a free Toxic element at the start of Earth like with the Cryo Rounds one here, letting them combine Viral or Corrosive damage to deal with the adorable fluffy Kubrow and the decidedly less pettable Frontier elites.

 

For veteran players, I feel like I'll just do a separate post of potential mission stages, arranged like “Start,” “After Rescue,” “After Survival,” “After Defense,” and so on. These would apply to any sector easily enough, even ones that change hands because of invasions, and be totally RNG-able. It won't be comprehensive, of course, but it's a start.

 

EDIT: I think the biggest weakness right now is the imbalanced reward offered for clearing Fossa, since I gave no hints that there would be a bonus for clearing the whole sector first.  Not sure how I want to fix that...probably an addendum to the post-Cytherean debriefing.  "If you pursue every objective around Venus, or any future planet, you will be rewarded for your diligence.  We can never be too prepared, and our handful of allies will certainly be grateful for your help."  For that matter, future sectors could mix up the formula a bit - Darvo might pay you more for just taking the most direct path to the objective so he doesn't get into even more trouble with Frohd, for instance, or the Red Veil might reward running every Rescue but no avoidable sabotages, to keep collateral damage to a minimum.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Phaenur

[ndantony]

+1 me like

[Casardis]

snip

 

Well that was a fun read. I can't say I have much to add to it, unless I really wanted to stretch my nitpickiness for no reason. I especially like how you thought of having progressive/dynamic feedback from the Lotus depending on the completed missions. The only remaining question I have is whether she'll say those audiologs only once, occasionally, or all the time. I guess depending on the decision, there could even be an option to review audio logs from her reports so far.

 

Thanks for sharing~

[Phaenur]

My thought is that sequences like the one I laid out above would be a good way to expose new players to the setting, while giving them at least a few of the tools needed to survive outside of Mercury.  There'd be more procedurally generated snippets for veterans, offering moderately large rewards for a short sequence of missions.  Again, these could be made fairly generic so they could apply to any planet and still work, or they could be specialized for each planet and even each faction at the cost of a lot of branching dialogue and conditional statements - not too hard to code, absolutely evil to write (well, unless you're Bioware).

 

I originally thought these would tie in very nicely with the setup you proposed in the OP, but I'm regretting that idea now that I've had a chance to think about how many conditional branches that would be before you even got to the first stage.  As awesome as it would be for Lotus or whoever to remind you of something you'd done earlier in the day when giving you a new mission, that's really impractical even for someone with far too much free time on his hands (me), let alone DE's already pressured writing staff.  Probably for the best if every day or two you get a random root that stands on its own.

 

As for making these public...I don't know how ships work right now, but I feel like the system I've got in mind is meant to be personalized - it's not a mini-event that involves the community, just something Lotus sends you to deal with.  Still, if it's possible to invite friends aboard to share the briefings, I feel like they should be invited along on your mission as well as whatever they've got queued up.  To that end, each node in the potential mini-story has its own associated reward component, added to the queue as you complete that step and delivered all at once at the end.  If that seems too harsh, they could also just be treated as alert missions, maybe with a stacking bonus for each mission you're involved in.
 

Ah, what the Ruk, I feel like doing some more writing.  Sticking to Lotus for now, since I'm kind of asleep in my chair and don't want to juggle her, Darvo, Ruk, Frohd, the Red Veil guy, and any other possible contacts just yet.  Also, this is extremely long, and it's just one possible story branch coming off of an Exterminate mission.  This is arguably a major strike against the idea, but then again I managed to cobble all of this together in about three hours after a long day, so I see it more as a proof of concept.  After all, there are thirty-nine termini in this one, branching out from the exterminate mission and three possible follow-ups, and it could honestly be applied to anywhere past maybe Earth with no real issue.  Still, you want more, I'm going to have to start asking for a paycheck.

 

Since this is all starting to overwhelm the actual thread, I've put this wall of text over in the Fanwork forum and linked that page here.  Sorry for the confusion, but seriously, this is about ten pages in my Word document, and it could easily have been even longer except I treated the dialogue snippets more like things Lotus could say at the start of a mission than something she could corner you with on your ship.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Phaenur

[Casardis]

Bumping this.

 

With the arrival of U14 and player ship, I think this is relevant again. The radio transmission in the ship can certainly be used for further use, but our suggestion here can also be implemented in some ways.

 

Lotus has established to be a much more personal being, especially considering her dialogues in Vor's Prize and Hidden Messages. I think that the Tenno would feel a bit closer if they can interact with her a bit more, and not just seeing her through a "screen" that appears on the left side.

[Clawbo]

I adore this idea. I'm not much of a lore hunter but I do enjoy being immersed in a well-written story. Something that a game like The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing has failed to do, miserably so.

 

The lore is sadly underappreciated in this game. Hell, I'd even to volontary work in writing out Warframe background stories, should the devs fill me in with the general gist of things.

 

All in all, incredible idea, mihi placet, +1, based DE pls

[Ruffian]

+1

[Casardis]

Bump.

[Phaenur]

I completely forgot to revisit this thread when U14 rolled out, and that's despite following it!  Personally, I'd like to see the "police scanner" radio aligned with alerts in general or other events going on in whatever sector you're in.  Each mission type, blurb, and faction of the alert has maybe three different statements (yes, I know, that's a lot of voice work and voices usually aren't cheap, but still), and there's also combat chatter for Invasions and Infested incursions - just a few statements amid a hash of encryption is all it would probably take.  Something to really make it seem like you're in the same sector as something pretty important.

[Casardis]

I agree, that could really increase in terms of immersion, which seems to be one of the things DE wanted when they brought upon us the death of the star chart!