[Mission] Evacuation – You Want To See Colonists? Save The Colonists (Think Endless Hijack)

[Morec0]

“The Grineer have decided that extermination is the best way to deal with the colonists under their watch here.  You must save them.  Free them from their house arrest and escort them to extraction.”

 

“The Corpus here have long-exploited the colonists here, leaving them in a state of unlivable destitution.  You must save them.  Free them from their house arrest and escort them to extraction.”

 

-Lotus

 

Cephalon Cordylon once said that Lotus doesn’t let us near Origin’s colonies because of the danger it would pose to them – and that makes sense.  The Tenno leave Void Shadows wherever they go, unemotional marks of their passing, one it’s been established that the Grineer and Corpus have the technology to detect; it stands personally reasonable that, given how much the former HATES the Tenno, that if they had ANY reason to suspect the colonists might be cavorting with the Tenno they wouldn’t hesitate to purge them.  So, it’s safer for us to keep our distance where we don’t have a strong and fairly-continuous presence (read: Relays).

 

But what if the enemy forced our hand?  What if they were planning to do thing that would put the lives of the colonists in danger anyway, or perhaps are putting them through conditions that are slowly starving them to death?  In such a case, I can see the Lotus giving us the a-okay to go in and get them out.

 

That's the concept behind this mission: get in and free the colonists from their oppressors.

 

 

--Mission Objectives--

 

“The colonists are locked inside.  Hack the console to release them”

-Lotus

 

The mission will begin with you and your team being dropped off by your Liset as-per usual, at this point you’ll head into a larger single-room tileset (as-per the example in the section below this) where the mission will take place.

 

Lotus will instruct you with… basically the above quote: the colonists are locked in the homes and can’t get out on their own.  It’s up to you and your team to head to one of the occupied homes marked on your minimap, open the doors, and free the colonists from lockdown.  Once released the colonists will immediately make a run for extraction in the middle of the map, and you will have to keep up with them and defend them while they make their way to the extraction point (sort of like Hijack).

 

All the while enemy units will spawn (the rate quickened when you're escorting colonists) in on you and attempt to kill the civilians… I’m not sure if you should be able to pick the colonists up or not, but either way you DON’T have to get ALL of the colonists in a run to the extraction, and not getting any to it from a run WONT result in an immediate game-over.  Rewards are given to you once you reach a certain quota of colonists you will be given an item from rotation… Let’s say (just in example) that every 9 civilians you get an item, and every building has 3 colonists in it; once you get 9 colonists to extraction you get a reward, whether you get in from 3 runs with all civilians surviving or 4 runs because you lost one or two in previous ones.

 

You extract like you do during Survival or Excavation – getting all of your squad to the extraction room (on the opposite side of the man from where you spawned in.

 

 

--The Colonists--

 

"I've redirected your shield systems to protect the colonists. As long as you are by them with active shields you will take the damage intend for them."

-Lotus

 

The colonists are basically the people of origin not affiliated with either the Grineer or Corpus or any of the Syndicates or even trying to push for some independent work (i.e. Maroo or Darvo).  They're the nobody's, the commas on the page of the history book, but they're still people being oppressed and murdered by the Grineer and extorted and forced into poverty by the Corpus.  They need help.  They need to get out.

 

Escorting the colonists to extraction is like escorting the tram in Hijack - only instead of one big thing you have a multitude of small ones, each with their own health and shields.  But don't worry, you can still defend all of them fairly well - as the above quote says as long as your shields remain active, all Tenno in an area around them will provide them with protection, absorbing damage meant for them; and you'll need to stay close to the colonists because, while they do follow a set path, they'll move faster or slower depending on how many Tenno (with active shields) are around them protecting them - the more there are, the safer they'll feel, the more inclined they'll be to hustle.

 

Art By evergreenmind

 

 

--Map Layout--

 

“The colonists will make a run for extraction, defend them until they are safely there.”

-Lotus

 

 

Now the above is just a poor example of how a mission COULD be laid out, a very simple one too.  There could easily be z-axis levels to travel on, or more maze-like corridors.  Mostly I wanted a visual to demonstrate that the Colonists WOULD follow a set path (as long as Tenno are nearby), rather than follow the Tenno like they do in Rescues, and that this WOULD require a tileset room all to itself – much in how Hijack does.

 

Furthermore note that number of colonist homes DOES NOT mean there are only THAT many times you can run the thing. After a certain period of time buildings that had people evacuated from them will be "recycled", so to speak, and become available again. There's two ways of going about this:

 

1) Have a set number of rooms at any time marked on the minimap for players to traverse to, open, and then escort the inhabitants of, the marks disappearing while you escort the colonists and then reappearing once they are safely at extraction/have all died.

 

2) Have all buildings available for Tenno to rummage through and free the inhabitants of, and after every 5th run or so (purely in example) have the earliest of those five put back into the rotation as one of the available dwellings that you can get people from; after the 6th run the second-earliest building will become refilled, and so on and so forth.

 

"The colonists will be safer off-world. Well done."

 

"Tenno, Extraction is available, or you may choose to try and rescue more colonists."

 

Other Possible Maps:

 

 

--Possible Planets--

 

“Tenno?  Here?  Trying to steal our slaves away?  GRINEER! STOP THEM AT ONCE!”

-Vay Hek

 

Earth and it's Frontier Installation is the first thing that comes to mind for me, after all it’s the first planet where Lotus ever tells us there should be colonists located – although when we go to find them in Vor’s Prize we encounter the Grineer who have killed them all off.  I imagine this place as being very mud-hut style oriented, without any REAL housing for the colonists

 

But I think it’s no stretch to assume the Grineer would try and keep some around – they’re god slaves, after all, and good slaves will always have a use – but should they start to prove problematic the Grineer would be the first to jump to the idea of executing the lot of them, making for a very clear-cut motivation to get them out of there.

 

And you’ll note that I used a Vay Hek quote – I think it would be cool for the boss of the planet (or at least some character) to shout things at you while you rescue the colonists would add a little flavor.

 

"NOOOO! GRINEEEEER! The slaves are not permitted to LEAVE! THEY ARE ONLY PERMITTED TO WORK!"

 

~

 

“Heretics!  Devils sent here to lead my flock astray!  Brothers and sisters, stop these foul monsters before they corrupt the minds of the impoverished!”

-Nef Anyo

 

The Corpus Outpost settlement on Mars also strikes me as a perfect place for such a mission to occur.  It’s wilderness enough to lend itself to some cool run-down slum ideas, but also civilized enough to give it an identity all its own.  I’m picturing either a very lean-to-shanty sort of look or some kind of tenement-style housing for the colonists here, something that shows the Corpus style of housing the colonists under their care while not really making it seem that much better than the Grineer’s standards of living for them.

 

"The wolves have robbed the flock! Brothers and sisters, protect the rest of our lambs from these demons from the Void!"

 

~

 

“Grineer rule these colonists!  Grineer decide if they stay or go!”

-Lieutenant Lech Kril

 

And, of course, Phobos' Grineer Settlements tileset would have one as well.  Obviously this setting lends itself the most of all to the idea, so I won’t extrapolate on it any further, housing for them would be fairly average-looking old-stone-and-sand structures that are already commonplace in the area…

 

Although I WILL say I stand by my sentiment that Kril should be the one-and-only boss of Phobos while his presence on Ceres should be replaced by a new character, just to clear up story and lore headaches.

 

"You can't rescue them all, Tenno. The ones left behind will suffer."

 

 

Now of course there should be at least one more Corpus one as well, but I’m not sure what tileset it should be on.  None of the current Corpus tilesets aside from the already-mentioned Outpost really lend themselves to the idea of people living there, so it may just be that we have to wait for an update to another Corpus planet before we could say.

 

If I had to give what I think it should be, though, I think it should go with a Neptune-based Gas Metropolis – like Jupiter’s Gas City but less of foundry-and-creation-center sort of vibe and more of a “no, this is a city where people live, work, and pray and whatnot”.  That would make for a cool vibe and a very different one compared to the outpost.

 

 

Thoughts?

Edited November 26, 2015 by Morec0

[lxMattAranxl]

Thoughts? This sounds amazing!! Plus would reveal what colonies the Steel Meridian protect and such! Great idea, bro!

[Dalimir]

I love it, allows for a new, dynamic mission type while also giving the world of Warframe a sense of larger population beyond the factions and syndicates. I also agree with your stance on Kril. The war hero should be a one time encounter in the sands he has conquered, not watching over the shipyards of Ceres.

 

In fact... maybe Ceres could be where Borril comes in.

[Morec0]

I love it, allows for a new, dynamic mission type while also giving the world of Warframe a sense of larger population beyond the factions and syndicates. I also agree with your stance on Kril. The war hero should be a one time encounter in the sands he has conquered, not watching over the shipyards of Ceres.

 

In fact... maybe Ceres could be where Borril comes in.

 

Well, I have my own wants for the boss of Ceres...

 

Either way, I'm glad to see this idea wasn't IMMEDIATELY shot down. Escort quests are always a fairly iffy thing, but I've never had a problem with them and feel that I've made this sufficiently interesting and simple to make it fun.

[Krion112]

So essentially like a variation on Rescue to make it endless, and with colonists that can't be given weapons and that don't follow the player? Sounds alright, but I'm not entirely sold that it's fitting for Warframe. It'd not only have to be somewhat slow, but it's also an escort type mission.

If it'll play well with Warframe's existing mechanics, though, then I'd find it to be an excellent addition.

 

For freeing the civilians, it may need to function somewhat differently. Instead of going block to block, perhaps the tilesets could feature several compounds across a map, and these compounds would be huge structures that you cannot enter, but also cannot see the entirety of. This way, the size of the structures would match the infinite number of runs that could be made, so as to make sense of the endless mode.

 

Mars should also not be dedicated to the Corpus, it should be a mix of Grineer and Corpus as the world seems to be in a state of war. As such, the colonists here would need to be evacuated due to the escalating conflict between the Grineer and Corpus. There are supposed to be cities on Mars in Warframe, especially considering the Crewman Lore, so it's not that far fetched that it's a tileset that is not dedicated to either Corpus or Grineer.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Krion112

[Morec0]

So essentially like a variation on Rescue to make it endless, and with colonists that can't be given weapons and that don't follow the player? Sounds alright, but I'm not entirely sold that it's fitting for Warframe. It'd not only have to be somewhat slow, but it's also an escort type mission.

If it'll play well with Warframe's existing mechanics, though, then I'd find it to be an excellent addition.

 

For freeing the civilians, it may need to function somewhat differently. Instead of going block to block, perhaps the tilesets could feature several compounds across a map, and these compounds would be huge structures that you cannot enter, but also cannot see the entirety of. This way, the size of the structures would match the infinite number of runs that could be made, so as to make sense of the endless mode.

 

Mars should also not be dedicated to the Corpus, it should be a mix of Grineer and Corpus as the world seems to be in a state of war. As such, the colonists here would need to be evacuated due to the escalating conflict between the Grineer and Corpus. There are supposed to be cities on Mars in Warframe, especially considering the Corrupted Ancient Lore, so it's not that far fetched that it's a tileset that is not dedicated to either Corpus or Grineer.

 

I see it more a variation of Hijack, myself, which is itself an escort-mission-style mode. This is just a touch more fast-paced and wont suffer from the issue I see people have with Rescue: the dumbass rescue target trying to fight back instead of just running for it.

 

And that's also a possibility, but I kinda find the allure of having a single MASSIVE tileroom with this sort of thing in it to be a touch more visually interesting, as well as taking out issues of RNG rooms and pathing problems that ALSO come up for NPC movement (which is the SECOND issue I see people have with Rescue targets). It's hard to get a grasp of scale from this, but I imagine it being PRETTY massive, like Hijack-path style massive (but bigger).

 

And while I like that idea, a mix of the Corpus outpost and Grineer settlement, the fact that Phobos is most likely going to continue to use the Grineer Settlement tileset kinda kills that idea in-part. If I had my way I'd make Phobos the dedicated Grineer Asteroid planet and make Mars a completely Grineer planet (moving the Corpus Outpost to one of Neptune's moons... Triton, I think) but I chose to work within the confines of what we currently have for this particular idea.

[Morec0]

Thoughts? This sounds amazing!! Plus would reveal what colonies the Steel Meridian protect and such! Great idea, bro!

 

It would add to the flavor of the world indeed, and that would be great for adding contexting, opening up the general kind of worldcrafting of Warframe, and getting people a little more invested.

[Krion112]

-snip-

If that's the case, then why don't we just say no civilians, just an evac transport that would move along a 'rail', and just make the mission a variant of Hijack and drop the endless tag, instead of dedicating all these resources to making the civilians, their AI, etc which may potentially result in an undesirable game-mode?

Lore-wise, it'd make more sense as well, as being in the transport would prevent the civilians from being exposed to the Tenno. All around, a variant of Hijack sounds more appealing than escorting a swarm of non-combatants through a firefight to an extraction site. Plus, the Hijack game-mode already exists, whereas the code for this would likely require more to create.

 

I assume DE intends to make the Mars have a city tileset that is neither Corpus nor Grineer, and is entirely civilian constructed. I do see you throw out that Mars should use the tileset that Phobos has, instead of the Corpus Mountain Outpost, but I honestly don't think Mars is at all a wasteland anymore in Warframe, so therefore eventually it should be given its own tileset. The humans of Warframe have had ample time to terraform Mars, so to them it's probably the new Earth, given the state the Earth is in during the game.

It's also already been suggested that Mars is hospitable, as it was stated that the executor, Ballas, was living 'cozy' on Mars.

 

Just my arguments and thought process, anyway.

[Morec0]

If that's the case, then why don't we just say no civilians, just an evac transport that would move along a 'rail', and just make the mission a variant of Hijack and drop the endless tag, instead of dedicating all these resources to making the civilians, their AI, etc which may potentially result in an undesirable game-mode?

Lore-wise, it'd make more sense as well, as being in the transport would prevent the civilians from being exposed to the Tenno. All around, a variant of Hijack sounds more appealing than escorting a swarm of non-combatants through a firefight to an extraction site. Plus, the Hijack game-mode already exists, whereas the code for this would likely require more to create.

 

I assume DE intends to make the Mars have a city tileset that is neither Corpus nor Grineer, and is entirely civilian constructed. I do see you throw out that Mars should use the tileset that Phobos has, instead of the Corpus Mountain Outpost, but I honestly don't think Mars is at all a wasteland anymore in Warframe, so therefore eventually it should be given its own tileset. The humans of Warframe have had ample time to terraform Mars, so to them it's probably the new Earth, given the state the Earth is in during the game.

It's also already been suggested that Mars is hospitable, as it was stated that the executor, Ballas, was living 'cozy' on Mars.

 

Just my arguments and thought process, anyway.

 

Because the idea IS to give it an endless ability, or at least I have really settled on that thought now, to ALLOW for people who like the Hijack tag to play it as an Endless mission. I see endless mission as making up the HEART of Warframe, and would love to every mission type to have a variation of itself in endless as we kinda do already for some - Endless Exterminate = Survival, Endless Mobile Defense = well, Defense, one could even argue Endless Capture might even Interception.

 

Are they all perfectly lined up? No, but hence me calling them variations. Jerk around in Exterminate or MD or Capture for a bit, but when you really want a challenge you go to the endless missions. And I'd LOVE endless Hijack, and I think this is a GREAT way to go about it while opening the lore of the game up.

 

The issue I see with making this just "take the tram to civilians" is then that you HAVE to make the rooms big enough for the tram, which takes away from any kind of clustered impoverished-shaty-town feel. It makes it seem like a regular city, detracts from the idea that these civilians are living in CRAP conditions. You'll lose out on the backalleys and narrow paths that could be there and you could travel through, and while those wont be the ONLY path they should make up a part. Potentially the thing could move above the buildings, but then that takes away from the Hijack feeling as you noted.

 

It's the same principle even with 3-or-4 non-combatants, they move and you keep up with them and defend them as you push onward. I suggest they move at their own pace to have the players keep up with them, because I think that would make for a more interesting challenge, but it could very easily be coded that they move based on how many Tenno are around them - the more the faster, just like Hijack.

 

 

I honestly don't see any update to Mars coming, though. Even the Crewman Synthesis talks about the city going down, as though it was built into the ground, rather than up, which is what we already have with the Grineer Settlement tileset. I'd MUCH rather see, as I said, Nepture get the metropolis look by means of the Corpus... and, of course, we have the Orokin Moonbase coming, which looks to be fairly city-like.

 

As for Mar's hospitality: ever make note of the buried Orokin structures within the mountains? They're there, they're just consumed by the centuries. Or it could just be reference to whatever Tower Ballas was ruling from having its real-space connection on Mars - though the former thought makes more sense.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Morec0

[Morec0]

Based on some feedback I was getting elsewhere I've tweaked some of the elements - particularly in regards to how one defends the colonists and how they move - in order to bring out more of the intended endless Hijack feel.

[Morec0]

A singular bump.

[(XBOX)gnashermaster97]

I love the idea, but my only conflict with this is that the corpus as it stands would not have need to imprison their citizens in house arrest. I think a better case would be to have the corpus maps based around a prison, where the citizens captured and contained there were jailed due to inability to pay taxes or other such minor offenses.

Thoughts?

[Morec0]

I love the idea, but my only conflict with this is that the corpus as it stands would not have need to imprison their citizens in house arrest. I think a better case would be to have the corpus maps based around a prison, where the citizens captured and contained there were jailed due to inability to pay taxes or other such minor offenses.

Thoughts?

 

Well, think of it as a very sorta Jim Jones kinda situation. The Colonists would want OUT of the Kool Aid, Neffy's not gonna let them - by FORCE if need be. At least that's how I'm kinda seeing it - as well as a potentially mixture of it with "stay here, work, earn money for us we can TAX THE HELL out of you", a very wage-slave-esq situation.

 

But you're not wrong that there definitely IS room to tinker around with the ideas that could show up in the designs of the rooms and the little doodads that are all throughout it - the Corpus ones could have this very kinda "Taxation Proclamation" and "Serve Profit! Serve the Void!" propaganda setup while Earth could be just sort of this "this slaves are being forced to try and clear the land" almost lumberyard-like place, and Phobos could be a more classic incarceration camp - all of which would be mixed with the slum vibe to create a full picture of degradation, dehumanization, and just quiet suffering that needs to be escaped from.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Morec0

[Puddles404]

This sounds very similar to the new mission/acquisition method i suggested for my Warframe concept, Langusta, except without the "defend the evacuation vessel"/split the party mechanic and my placement suggestion of tying it into the regular Invasion cycles.

 

Still like the idea.

[Morec0]

This sounds very similar to the new mission/acquisition method i suggested for my Warframe concept, Langusta, except without the "defend the evacuation vessel"/split the party mechanic and my placement suggestion of tying it into the regular Invasion cycles.

 

Still like the idea.

 

Oh, there IS no defend the evacuation vessel mechanic in this. Did I say something that suggested there way? ALL you have to defend are the people moving TO the vehicle.

[Puddles404]

Oh, there IS no defend the evacuation vessel mechanic in this. Did I say something that suggested there way? ALL you have to defend are the people moving TO the vehicle.

 

No, the idea i had was that you'd also have to defend the evacuation vessel WHILE other members of the squad would be escorting the civilians. 

[Morec0]

No, the idea i had was that you'd also have to defend the evacuation vessel WHILE other members of the squad would be escorting the civilians. 

oooh, okay, misread. My bad.

[Catnomnom]

Missions like this will show that the Tenno are actually the saviors of the system instead of looters of the system. I really like this idea!

[Vadrigos]

We needed this five updates ago...

[Morec0]

Missions like this will show that the Tenno are actually the saviors of the system instead of looters of the system. I really like this idea!

 

Happy to hear it ^.^

[Phobonaut]

 

First thing that came to mind when I read your idea.

 

I like it.

[Rhekemi]

Nitpicks on location, mechanics, feasibility aside, I like the idea overall. 

 

A new mode is sorely needed.

[Morec0]

Nitpicks on location, mechanics, feasibility aside, I like the idea overall. 

 

A new mode is sorely needed.

 

Aye, a number of tweaks are always open (in particular with that map idea, as I said it was a poor one) but I feel that the basic concept of "escort a small group of civvies like you would the Tram in Hijack missions" is overall a workable and fun idea. I'm glad you like it.

[Jotaro_Kujo]

This absolutely needs to be a thing.

Edited October 15, 2015 by Jotaro_Kujo

[Max7238]

Yes, please, thank you. +1