New Dark Sectors And Solar Rails Concepts

[Latronico]

Hi,

What we actually know about Dark Sectors is:

- they're hidden places of the Solar System that can be reached only via Solar Rails. 

- they're Orokin artifacts that were damaged. They've been recovered quite recently.

- they're used by Tenno, but are also matter of interest for Corpus and Grineer. 

 

So, there's a bit of background already. The fact is that it's a bit too little and, however, in terms of gameplay, Dark Sectors are nothing more then regular missions with Infested and a bit more Experience, Credits and Resources. And are available only in two kinds (Defense or Survival). 

 

So, here's my suggestions (flanked by lore explanations). 

 

Lore (from Orokin Era)

 

The Orokin was building Solar Rails to reach habitable places in nearby star systems.

The purpose of building such great artifacts was to be able to colonize relatively far places in the rest of the galaxy. As we all know, when a civilization become such advanced in technology, the first thing they try to do is to explore the unexplored. So, Solar Rails are nothing more then instruments created by Orokin to expand their Empire. 

 

Unfortunately, during the development of Solar Rails, Sentients came and the great war started. So, the Soral Rails project was abandoned, to concentrate all the Empire energy to the new threat (in fact, Orokin never passed through the borders of Solar System). . 

As we all know, during this war, in an attempt to try to overturn the war progression, Orokin create the Technocyte Virus first, and then the sub-race of Tenno, created to fight for them against Sentients. 

Unfortunately (again) Orokin lost the war, we betrayed them for unknown reasons and fall into the cryosleep, Infested began to multiply and Sentients, always for unknown reasons, disappeared. 

 

Millennia passed (source: Lephantis assassination mission, quotes from The Lotus) untill present in-game days. 

When we woke up we found that the Solar System was completely changed. The ancients rulers (Orokin) replaced by a militaristic Empire (the Grineer), with only a bunch of 'free people' left (the most important of which is the Corpus merchants guild, followed by the Red Veil resistance movement). 

Of course, all these factions try to put their hands on Orokin technology and derelicts, Solar Rails too. Someone of them try to use this technology to acquire more power (Grineer) or more money from deals (Corpus). 

 

So we came. We rebuilt all the Solar Rails and took care of them (both against other factions, both against rival Tenno clans and alliances). 

In our assignment to maintain the balance into the Solar System, we decided to resume the ancient Orokin projects of Solar Rails (for unknown reasons: maybe to be able to discover new resources to gain more power to fight, maybe to trying to restore our leadership into the system et cetera). 

 

Solar Rails and Dark Sectors

 

So, as I wrote, Soral Rails are nothing more then 'highways' built to reach new undiscovered near places into our galaxy (Milky way). 

 

Every Solar Rails has its own destination. Someone is built to reach a particular place in a nearby star system, someone else is still in the development phase*. 

 

*A Solar Rail need and generate an enormous amount of energy. An unstable system is very very dangeous.

So, Solar Rails with unknown destinations can be very dangerous because trying to use them could both became a trip to an unknown place into the Galaxy or turn into a giant accident with great explosions able to pulverize all nearby planets, asteroids and planetoids. 

 

'On the other side' of a Solar Rail, explorers can find undiscovered alien worlds, both with or without life; from worlds completely covered by ice (of water, or methane, or nitrogen and so on). from rocky worlds without an atmosphere, completely devastated by meteorites and covered by craters, from worlds with an huge amount of forms of life, both vegetables and animals. 

 

A 'trip' through a Solar Rails to a new undiscovered world can be a very profitable thing. Explorers could find new resources, discover new ancient technologies or alien form of lifes that guarantee an enormous advantage in the war into the Solar System. 

For this reasons, Dark Sectors are really important places for all the factions at war (Grineer, Corpus, Tenno). In fact, it's not rare to see someone trying to stole the control of a Rail (a different Tenno clan, or a Grineer expedition and so on), to be able to reach those undiscovered places. 

 

It's not rare to see Grineer military units trying to raid a Solar Rail, or trying to use it (or, in the worse case, able to use it and reach that new world), or a Corpus expedition stucked in a new world, not able to return home or, again, and Infestation able to reach those new worlds thanks to one of these two factions (Corpus or Grineer). 

 

So, the fights to maintain the control on Dark Sectors aren't only a matter of control or superiority, but are an important tile to take an advantage in comparison with other factions or other Tenno clans. 

Usually, the 'owners' of a Solar Rail that reach a particular Dark Sector, if are Tenno, allow other Tenno clans or alliance to use the Rail (sometimes and only if they pay a certain tax) for a limited amount of time. 

In this way, every Tenno, thanks to this informal contract, is able to make at least a short 'raid' into one of those new worlds to collect resources, or to explore, or to hunt a particular prey (a Grineer team, or a Corpus expeditionary mission, or Infested that reached that place, or an alien animal race and so on).

 

That's all. I hope you like it. Devs too, of course. Because I think this could be a good idea both to reinvent Dark Sectors, and give them more importance and variety, and both to be able to free imagination, creating a lot of new worlds, animals, plants and so on, with just the limit of own creativity.

All of them, of course, with a lore explenation (see above). 

Edited September 28, 2014 by Latronico