A Proposal For The Future Of Warframe - Visual/auditory Themes Per Planet

[OniDax]

The Future of Warframe Part II - Visual/Auditory Themes For Each Planet

 

    In our first proposal, Arktourus and I presented several ideas for the future of Warframe, specifically the expansion of Syndicates and incorporating them into reworked Invasions. This essay is a continuation of that proposal, furthering ideas about Syndicate-specific content and expanding those ideas to include Syndicate-specific Relays, or Bases. This proposal also continues ideas on Warframe having a specific focus and direction, particularly in aspects of visual and auditory tone/atmosphere that are tailored for each different environment and tileset. As with the first proposal, A Proposal for the Future of Warframe, this essay is merely a grouping of suggestions that could help push the game towards being a finished, out-of-beta product.

 

Visual/Auditory Atmosphere

 

    Currently, Warframe consists of several nodes that use the same tilesets. Sure, Earth, Phobos, Jupiter, Ceres, and Eris now use their own unique tilesets, but even among these planets/moons, the tilesets are the same, differing only as the procedural level generation alters the layout of the rooms. While this may certainly make sense for planet tilesets, it doesn’t make sense for ships. As uniform constructions, ships have particular layouts that stay the same. In exchange for procedurally-generated levels, each Grineer and Corpus ship could have the same layout (Grineer ships have the same layout, and Corpus ships have a different, but identical layout) but doors are locked/unlocked at random. This way, the ships’ rooms maintain organizational integrity, but the players’ access to these rooms changes each time the mission is played.

 

    The larger issue here, however, is that there is nothing outside of the tileset itself. It is just another “map”. To elaborate, ships do not feel like crewed ships, planets do not feel like populated planets, outposts do not feel like manned outposts (and by “feel”, I mean ‘look’ and ‘sound’). These are just maps with randomly spawning enemies with no organization. They are ants coming out of a disturbed bed, bees out of a disturbed hive.

For example, ships should convey the feeling of being on a machine/craft that is being operated by hundreds of personnel. While the ships have security, they also have crews.  The game does not necessarily need a new crewman/maintenance enemy type to convey this feeling, however. There are, instead, other ways to convey this atmosphere: 1) There could be a voice over the internal communications system that issues commands to different sections of the ship (engineering, maintenance, weapons, etc). 2) We see Grineer ships firing off weapons. We could have periodic test fires and cooldown sequences. 3) We could have intercom reports of ships docking, or warnings about Tenno being in a certain area of the ship (this would be doable if all ships had the same layout). 4) We could have patrols moving throughout certain areas of the ship. These things could make ships have a much more appropriate atmosphere.

 

    We can extend that example to planet garrisons, asteroids, and other bases. We could hear Grineer and Corpus commanders and chiefs issuing orders via loudspeaker. We could have roving patrols, sentry towers, the movement of cargo and supplies in and out of the outpost by transport ships and by ground forces. These bases and outposts could have defined borders, demarcated by walls or large fences. Ships could occasionally arrive, dropping off ground forces, and other ships could take off. On asteroid bases and platforms on gas planets, we could have a similar atmosphere as laid out in the previous ship example. Again, these sort of additions contribute to a more lively, more atmospheric experience.

 

Planetary Variance in Visual/Auditory Themes

 

    Visual and Auditory additions improve the atmosphere of the different tilesets, but they have nothing overall that connects them, no overarching context that gives meaning to these maps. Posing certain questions can help illustrate the issue: Who are the Grineer trying to subdue to establish an empire? To whom do the Corpus sell their merchandise? From what populations do the Grineer and Corpus draw their numbers, and where are these populations located? Expanding this topic of visual and auditory tone further, we propose that each planet have its own visual and auditory theme, something that sets it apart from other planets. Each tileset on the planet and the enemies on these tilesets are tailored, visually, to the planets’ theme. Each planet (or all those for which this makes logical sense) has a population with a specific kind of culture, again tailored to that planet. The nodes on each planet would primarily be planet tilesets, as opposed to being ship-based, as the majority currently are on most planets in the game. These visual and auditory themes are not random; they are specific to the particular planet.

 

    For example, Mercury would be too hot, and too cold, to have an open-air tileset, so there would be some ships and bases on the surface. Because the surface is similar to the Moon, a new moon-base tileset could be introduced to represent Mercury’s landscape, and a separate-but-similar tileset (with the addition of the Earth in the backdrop) could be introduced for the Moon as a new “planet” (Phobos is a current example of a moon tileset). Venus would also be hot and dry, marked by slab-like rocks and volcanoes, and maybe even rivers of lava due to volcanism. Because of the intense pressure, presence of carbon dioxide, and lack of oxygen, there would be ground bases on a new volcanic tileset. There would be no old Corpus ice planet tilesets here. Venus isn’t an ice planet. Grineer enemies here would have protective, heat-resistant suits/armor. Instead of having what look like large, green roots covering the planet, Earth’s tileset could be a landscape overgrown with large plants, modified by the Orokin. The tileset could be a forest/jungle tileset, with bases being clearings in the middle of canopied forests. There could be modified creatures here, as well, in addition to the Kubrows. There could be Jaguar-like creatures that use the animations of the Zanuka Hunters. There could be snake-like creatures that slither through the grass. There could be large trees that act as natural staircases and other natural barriers. One or more of the Colonies could be on Earth, and therefore there would be some civilian presence (civilian NPCs, homely structures, etc) Mars could use Phobos’ tileset, while also having some additional ice tilesets, representing the ice cap on Mars. This could also be the site of one or several of the Colonies, like Earth. Phobos could also be similar to Mars, also having a civilian population and settlements. Ceres would be much like how it currently is, with Grineer garrisons, but it should have ice in addition to rock, and a lot of water vapor. Ceres would be the home of the Grineer, and therefore, the highest level Grineer tileset. The Queens would lead the Grineer Empire from here. Ceres, therefore, would be host to Grineer cities, which would be a new Ceres tileset; the Grineer would draw their numbers from these cities, which would be very industrialized and militarized, with many Grineer civilian NPCs, roving patrols, sentry towers, and weapon emplacements. In short, these cities would be heavily fortified. These four planets, with Phobos and Ceres, would all be Grineer tilesets and constitute the Grineer domain.

 

    Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are all gas planets, and as such, would have the Corpus gas city/refinery tileset. Jupiter would feature Corpus city tilesets and would serve as the Corpus home, manned heavily by Corpus security. These cities would have Corpus civilian populations (civilian NPCs could be in the open, and run and hide as Tenno move through a tileset). Auditory and visual atmosphere could be represented in the form of different advertisements and marketing billboards, emphasizing the commercial culture of the Corpus. When the Tenno are on a gas city, refinery, etc, Corpus security could issue audio and visual (via billboards) warnings to the populace and crew there. Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune would be home to the Corpus refineries, which would be similar to the current Jupiter tileset. In addition to the Corpus ship tilesets (it’d be nice if the Corpus ships were more like the Infested ship tilesets, but without the Infested and destroyed nature of the tileset), there could be Corpus space station tilesets that could be factories and laboratories for the Corpus, much like some of the Corpus concept art. Europa would be much how it currently is, although a more icy appearance and less snowy white appearance. Some large water vapor plumes occasionally erupting could provide some realistic atmosphere for the moon that would be visually different than the other planets/moons. It would still be a Corpus-controlled base, very much the same as it is now.l Pluto would be rather dark and cold, having a Corpus facility or base there. This could use a similar tileset as the moon-base one proposed for Mercury and the Moon, or it could have a new tileset – but it should not be an existing one. The current Corpus ice planet tileset does not make sense in context of the actual surfaces of the Solar System planets. These planets would be under the control of the Corpus. These planets would be Corpus tilesets and constitute Corpus sphere of influence. Eris would be an Infested tileset, with the current Infested Corpus ships and an Infested landscape. As with the other planets and moons, the tileset would be based on scientific data. Again, the current ice planets make little sense when researching what the surfaces of these planets actually are.

 

    These visual and auditory themes, based on actual scientific data, would help differentiate each planet/moon/tileset and give “personality” to each. The presence of lively culture, in the form of some NPC civilians to convey the sense of a populated solar system, on Earth, Mars, and Jupiter would breathe new life into Warframe, giving it a rich atmosphere and flair.

Edited February 7, 2015 by AntoineFlemming

[Jackel7]

respect, this does look like a GOOD idea I hope you get some level of backing

Edited January 5, 2015 by Jackel7

[Jahadaya]

+1 all the way!!

[DesecratedPoop]

First of all, Europa has a unique tileset.

 

Unlike your previous thread, I actually personally agree with this suggestion. That doesn't justify it as anything other than a mere opinionated demand towards DE though.

 

However, if we were truly going to be accurate to the real life solar system, then we would also have to add a lot more "worlds" (think Mario). If Europa is a moon, but exists as a separate "world" from Jupiter, then it would only make sense for the major moons of all other planets to be separate. Phobos should not exist apart from being a node on Mars, as it is only a plain asteroid the size of a large city captured by Mars in its orbit. However, some of these moons are bigger than things that we already have as "worlds" (Saturn's moon Titan is bigger than Pluto) so it wouldn't make sense to exclude less significant objects such as dwarf planets. All in all, we would end up with this massive list of "worlds" to make consisting of all the major moons and named dwarf planets in the solar system:

 

The Moon

The rest of the Galliean moons: Ganymede, Io, Callisto

Saturn's largest moons: Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus, Titan

Neptune's largest moon: Triton

Uranus' largest moons: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon

Pluto's moon: Charon

Varuna

Quaoar

Orcus

Ixion

Haumea

Makemake

Salacia

Varda

Chaos

Huya

 

 

 

If all of these worlds were added with their own unique tileset, then there would be no doubt that Warframe has become the most awesome game in the world. I will also personally drink champagne out of DE_Steve's shoes. However, both are unlikey.

Edited January 4, 2015 by DesecratedPoop

[OniDax]

Certainly, I don't want to see literally every moon as a separate "planet". Don't even need some of the big ones, like Titan. And I'm not saying that the layout of the navigation menu should include nodes and "planets" for every object in the solar system, just that there should be planet tilesets that realistically (or as close as possible) reflect the surface of the planets. That's all. I think it'd be cool if we could have tilesets for places like Venus or Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn. I think I confused Eris for Europa though :/. Anyway, I just want to see each of the existing planets and moons be as unique as possible, with assets that expand the atmosphere and universe of Warframe. I just think it'd breathe a breath of fresh air into Warframe. And, the reason I'm suggesting this, and suggested my first "proposal", is because while, yes, it is just an opinion (a suggestion isn't a demand, by the way), I want DE to focus on trying to make the game more of a complete game that isn't in beta forever. I don't think more events, game modes, and content will help push Warframe out of beta if they aren't somehow building up Warframe in the areas in which its lacking, namely lore/story and atmosphere/environment. I think that something like that could make Warframe a better game. While DE doesn't have to listen to any suggestion in the Feedback Sub-Forum, the point of the sub-forum is to offer opinionated feedback. I still think Warframe needs its content to be connected to a specific theme/focus/direction for the game, though. I think that, if you look at other completed games that have gone gold, they all have some theme, some focus, some direction that every asset in the game is connected to. So I think that that's part of what makes a completed game. That it's not just a bunch of game modes, features, events, and content, but that all of those things are connected to some kind of a story or background context. The other thread merely offers a suggestion that Syndicates be made a larger part of the game than what they currently are and that Invasions get revamped. This one suggests that tilesets be reworked to include elements of these much-talked-about civilians and colonies.

 

EDIT: Edited the first post with corrections for Eris and the addition of Europa.

Edited January 4, 2015 by AntoineFlemming

[Circle_of_Psi]

Wow, you got my vote!

[DesecratedPoop]

 

EDIT: Edited the first post with corrections for Eris and the addition of Europa.

Both Eris and Europa have unique tilsets. Just so everyone is clear on this, these are the unique tilesets currently:

 

Earth: Jungle

Phobos: Desert (that looks like Mars)

Ceres: Shipyard

Jupiter: Gas City

Europa: Ice Planet

Eris: Infested Ship

[OniDax]

Yes, I am aware. I am suggesting that the Grineer asteroid base, Grineer galleon, and Corpus ship not be the majority tilesets on some planets and moons, that the old Corpus ice planet tilesets be retired or moved,to eris, that there be more unique tilesets on Venus and Mercury, that Neptune, Saturn, and Uranus have the gas city/refinery tilesets, that more Corpus and Grineer tilesets be added that include civilian populations. That Eris not only have infested ship tilesets, but some surface tilesets as well. These are not unreasonable requests, nor is there anything wrong with players offering their opinions on the game and suggesting additions/changes. I honestly do not understand what you hope to accomplish with your post, DesecratedPoop. It really contributes nothing to the original post.

For the planets that have unique tilesets, as well as those that don't, I'm suggesting additions/changes for them. More foliage on earth, more forests and jungles, with grineer structures appearing in clearings in these forests/jungles. I'm suggesting new tilesets for certain planets/moons that have civilian npcs. I'm suggesting that each planet/moon have unique surface tilesets, and that there be more surface tilesets than ship tilesets. So it's not merely a request for unique tilesets, but that each planet have it's own unique look and tilesets that show the player more of Grineer and Corpus societies.

 

EDIT: Just realized I didn't finish a sentence in my original post o.O. Added that the Grineer on Venus would have protective, heat-resistant suits/armor.

Edited February 7, 2015 by AntoineFlemming