Plains of Eidolon

[ChaoticEdge]

ok, time place my timing for this, we definally gotta get a mech then for the warframe.  Fight fire with fire...or just get extra power armor that would be useful to begin with....

[Vlada91]

12 hours ago, Myscho said:

Look like giant Transformer

I hope that is not static but it can be curled and rolled And not to be monotonous during the fight 

[Culaio]

14 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

It's not that hard to do. DE already has existing features that could be tailored to work in open world. The key to open world is making it feel active and interactive. That can be accomplished by putting enemy NPCs with movement paths in the environment (your patrols), civilian NPCs doing minor tasks in the environment (moving around, fishing and hunting - essentially an animation), making them run away when shooting happens (use the same alert system that the enemy NPCs currently use), having enemy NPCs spawn at certain locations in the environment, have vehicles in the environment that players can use, have enemy vehicles moving around in the environment, and have dynamic missions (something they've already said they're going to have). All of this is currently possible in Warframe, because all of this exists in one form or another in other modes. It can absolutely be more than just fetch quests.

IMO, this is better than the limited tileset structure. IMO, open world is the first step in solving the number 1 gameplay issue: that the gameplay is too limited and shallow, designed solely around getting loot as quickly as possible. Open world is the first step to solving that problem because open world is about more than just the rewards. It's about the gameplay experience, and the focus of a successful open world is on providing an immersive, interactive, and replayable gameplay experience. Warframe just being a looter is the problem. That's why there is content fatigue - because the gameplay itself is so shallow and so limited that the only thing players look forward to is new content items. And what DE has been doing for the past four years is fighting content fatigue with more content, without addressing the core gameplay issues plaguing the game.

PoE is far from a mistake. I agree that the quest system is a mistake, primarily because 1) it does absolutely nothing to flesh out the gameplay or make the game more complete, 2) the creative decisions for the lore have been missed opportunities, and 3) it's provided DE an excuse to throw in gimmicky features just to make the quests more appealing. Plains of Eidolon, and open world in general, addresses the game's major faults (in my opinion) because 1) it offers a gameplay environment where the player's gameplay experience is key to success, 2) it gives DE the opportunity to integrate and synergize their various mission types and features in a coherent fashion in one gameplay space, in order to offer a holistic gameplay experience, 3) it allows DE greater opportunity to integrate lore into the gameplay space through the key open world element of immersion, 4) it expands the scope of Warframe's gameplay by allowing for gameplay on different scales, such as infantry-based, vehicle-based, and air-based gameplay, and 5) it allows for an expansion of Grineer and Corpus lore by giving them a larger environment in which to use more tools (land vehicles and aircraft, various bases, interaction with civilian NPCs, etc), further fleshing out just how they operate.

All of this is good for Warframe. All of this moves Warframe towards a more complete state. All of this helps give Warframe the structure it so desperately needs. I think Warframe would do well to have an open-world-centric development. Then DE might finally have more of a focus on gameplay experience, and less of a focus on content items like more unnecessary warframes and mods.

Read my OP again. I don't care for fishing either. I don't think that's the kind of activity that PoE should be focusing on.

Those aren't the primary kinds of activities that we should be doing in Plains of Eidolon. Warframe is a combat-focused game, and it should remain as such. The primary activities we should be doing should be combat related and focused on fighting the Grineer and defending the Ostrons. Hunting, mining, and the such could be minor tertiary activities, but the primary activities should be what the Warframes were made for - war. Such primary activities should include:

• fighting the Grineer
• defending Ostrons
• escorting Ostrons from one point to another (a "mobile" defense, really)
• assisting allies (such as Steel Meridian and New Loka) in assaults on the Grineer
• assisting allies (such as Steel Meridian and New Loka) in defending or escorting Ostrons
• capturing HVTs (high value targets)
• assassinating HVTs
• commandeering enemy vehicles for allies (such as Steel Meridian and New Loka)
• raiding enemy bases and convoys for supplies for ourselves
• raiding enemy bases and convoys for supplies for the Ostrons
• raiding enemy bases and convoys for supplies for allies (such as Steel Meridian and New Loka)
• raiding enemy bases for intel for ourselves
• raiding enemy bases for intel for allies (such as Steel Meridian and New Loka)
• fighting the Eidolons

All of these are the kinds of activities that we should primarily be engaged in. These are the gameplay elements that are going to make Plains of Eidolon a replayable, immersive experience.

The only other activity that I would say we should engage in is Excavation, but it'd have to be excavating some object, not mods. Maybe we have to excavate some Orokin or Sentient superweapon to keep out of the hands of the Grineer. That's the sort of "mining" or excavation that should take place. BTW, that Firefall video you referenced is really just excavation.

oh I agree, main activities on plain should be combat oriented but having diverse experiances on plains would help game feel fresh also depending on how the activities I mentioned are made they could also have combat oriented twist, for example like I mentioned the mining by droping extractor and then defending, this would make mining like excavation/defense mission, same can be done with archeology for example you scan ground for objects, once you find it you drop excavator to dig it out while you are defending it and/or after you dig it out you must guard it as it moved to player hub on vehicle(kinda like hijack mission or payload mission in overwatch).

hunting could be integrated into crafting system, you hunt animals for specificstuff from their bodies, I know it looks unlikely that in future we would need anything from animal body to craft weapons/operator armor and so on but we must remember that orokin heavily modifed life around them who knows what they did to them, there could be living creature that accumulates in their bodies specific minerals.

[Marvelous_A]

A wide map is good but without content it's no more than a giant empty void. I hope DE can fill the map with creative ideas, semi-finished products like focus and archwing are not what Warframe need.

[ChaoticEdge]

14 hours ago, Marvelous_A said:

A wide map is good but without content it's no more than a giant empty void. I hope DE can fill the map with creative ideas, semi-finished products like focus and archwing are not what Warframe need.

an't going lie, but agree.  I hate run a maze like a rat every time.  When I play an Open world, like the game call "starbound", terraria, or whatever game has open world with the sandbox.  Yes this is how the game should be for the world to adventure off and explore for man believed how much God's power extend to brink of beyond of space and time.  I say they capture moment how fun should be for hunting fish yes.  Helping the weak and ect stuff.  yea pretty much it sum it up.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

As for that, that sentient giant, look easy take down all we need is relaly ogris shoot the shield then.  Just have ammo regen spot, and couple rhinos, and all they need aim and shoot the blue energy shield and just rampage on it while they murder it.  Lucky enough it doesn't summon sentient minions then it would change subject how I described to be.

Edited August 4, 2017 by ChaoticEdge

[AperoBeltaTwo]

15 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

It's not that hard to do. DE already has existing features that could be tailored to work in open world. The key to open world is making it feel active and interactive. That can be accomplished by putting enemy NPCs with movement paths in the environment (your patrols), civilian NPCs doing minor tasks in the environment (moving around, fishing and hunting - essentially an animation), making them run away when shooting happens (use the same alert system that the enemy NPCs currently use), having enemy NPCs spawn at certain locations in the environment, have vehicles in the environment that players can use, have enemy vehicles moving around in the environment, and have dynamic missions (something they've already said they're going to have). All of this is currently possible in Warframe, because all of this exists in one form or another in other modes. It can absolutely be more than just fetch quests.

I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert, but this sounds like a lot -- and I mean A LOT -- of work. Designing the environment, designing new models, coding, animating, reworking gameplay mechanics, coding new mechanics, writing quests and actions, laying out the paths of each and every enemy\enemy team, playtesting etc. It sounds a lot like making a whole new game from scratch.

15 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

Those aren't the primary kinds of activities that we should be doing in Plains of Eidolon. Warframe is a combat-focused game, and it should remain as such. The primary activities we should be doing should be combat related and focused on fighting the Grineer and defending the Ostrons. Hunting, mining, and the such could be minor tertiary activities, but the primary activities should be what the Warframes were made for - war. Such primary activities should include:

• fighting the Grineer
• defending Ostrons
• escorting Ostrons from one point to another (a "mobile" defense, really)
• assisting allies (such as Steel Meridian and New Loka) in assaults on the Grineer
• assisting allies (such as Steel Meridian and New Loka) in defending or escorting Ostrons
• capturing HVTs (high value targets)
• assassinating HVTs
• commandeering enemy vehicles for allies (such as Steel Meridian and New Loka)
• raiding enemy bases and convoys for supplies for ourselves
• raiding enemy bases and convoys for supplies for the Ostrons
• raiding enemy bases and convoys for supplies for allies (such as Steel Meridian and New Loka)
• raiding enemy bases for intel for ourselves
• raiding enemy bases for intel for allies (such as Steel Meridian and New Loka)
• fighting the Eidolons

All of these are the kinds of activities that we should primarily be engaged in. These are the gameplay elements that are going to make Plains of Eidolon a replayable, immersive experience.

The only other activity that I would say we should engage in is Excavation, but it'd have to be excavating some object, not mods. Maybe we have to excavate some Orokin or Sentient superweapon to keep out of the hands of the Grineer. That's the sort of "mining" or excavation that should take place. BTW, that Firefall video you referenced is really just excavation.

 Yes, it sounds great on paper. I agree with that. But please understand that it took Hideo Kojima's team almost seven years to make a game with half of the content you had just listed. They had bigger budget, more staff as far as I know, and didn't have to constantly update the existing open beta game. I'm not gonna completely rule out the possibility of DE actually pulling this off, but as of now I don't see it happening. What I see is another year of overall gamer expierience quality decline, while devs are away building castles in their own little sandbox. That will eventually end up the same way TWW did - as a dissapointment that had to be hastily put together at the last minute. Or in case of PoE it's gonna be a huge empty map with randomly spawning low-lvl enemies on the way and fetch quests - tied to a day\night timer cockblock where you won't even be able to play whatever you want whenever you want.

15 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

All of this helps give Warframe the structure it so desperately needs.

Oh, structure. The main problem of the current gameplay is the lack of relation between effort/time put into the game and reward for that time. Basically lack of a working gameplay loop that would exist on its own without additional content. And the farther we go, the less time we spend in the missions, the less time we play - or I should say, "allowed to play". Since half of the game is locked behind some sort of daily timers or design issues, and the other half isn't motivated at all by anything except the subjective "fun", that you're for some reason are obliged to bring on your own.

 Yeah, I don't see how PoE is gonna solve this problem, honestly. It doesn't seem to be offering a gameplay loop even if done perfectly. Even at its best, PoE could only amount to one small map of gameplay that ends when you finish all the written quests and kill all the monsters, clear all outposts etc. Again, same as regular quests we had so far, it's a gameplay portion that a lot of effort to make but expires rather quickly. And you can't build online games on something that expires quickly - I'm sure you understand that. There has to be a loop or even an ascending spiral of gameplay that would keep the players occupied for years and years while you build up new sections on the foundation of the existing gameplay. DE never did that. They change the foundation and seem to star designing the game from scratch again and again while completely abandoning what was already there...

[TallanSketch]

On 8/4/2017 at 2:23 AM, AperoBeltaTwo said:

Many, many words

I can see it happening. Maybe not right away, but once they've got what they're wanting implemented and more or less done, It's easier to go back and fine tune everything. Of course, they'd still be updating, fixing bugs, yadda yadda, but they could also be expanding on this as they do. It'll take a long while, but with how much people love the idea of PoE, It'll be a good idea on their part to expand on it with these ideas before taking the game out of Early Access. I personally don't care if it takes many, MANY years afterwards to add this all in. if we as the consumers have patience instead of wanting new content now, we'll get better quality stuff in return. It's where most AAA games fail now. THey're given a deadline, and are more or less forced to make incomplete games because their higher ups are greedy Cykas.

Edited August 7, 2017 by TallanSketch

[AperoBeltaTwo]

6 hours ago, TallanSketch said:

I can see it happening. Maybe not right away, but once they've got what they're wanting implemented and more or less done, It's easier to go back and fine tune everything. Of course, they'd still be updating, fixing bugs, yadda yadda, but they could also be expanding on this as they do. It'll take a long while, 

When was the last time DE "went back" and "fine tuned" anything? They almost never revisit old mechanics and gameplay elements, and whenever that actually happens it's not a "fine tuning" it's a rework top to bottom that breaks more than it fixes.

6 hours ago, TallanSketch said:

but with how much people love the idea of PoE

It's just a hype, man. TWW was also hyped a lot at the beginning. But later it was just "lets release it and leave it behind us already".

6 hours ago, TallanSketch said:

I personally don't care if it takes many, MANY years afterwards to add this all in. if we as the consumers have patience instead of wanting new content now, we'll get better quality stuff in return.

Nobody's gonna wait that long. Warframe won't be a thing that long. It's not a game designed with enough addictive capacity to keep people occupied that long. The second something better and f2p appears on the market, Warframe is gone. Permanently. It's primary selling feature is the fact that it's the only f2p game of a kind.

7 hours ago, TallanSketch said:

It's where most AAA games fail now. THey're given a deadline, and are more or less forced to make incomplete games because their higher ups are greedy Cykas.

And DE are in a different position how exactly? Except the fact that DE aren't a tripleA studio that is, and Warframe is a game that's out for four years already, meaning there wouldn't be much of an additional funding. 

 We'll see anyway. I'm not gonna say what DE could, or couldn't pull off. I'll say "I told you so" only when I see so.

[OniDax]

8 hours ago, AperoBeltaTwo said:

When was the last time DE "went back" and "fine tuned" anything? They almost never revisit old mechanics and gameplay elements, and whenever that actually happens it's not a "fine tuning" it's a rework top to bottom that breaks more than it fixes.

It's just a hype, man. TWW was also hyped a lot at the beginning. But later it was just "lets release it and leave it behind us already".

Nobody's gonna wait that long. Warframe won't be a thing that long. It's not a game designed with enough addictive capacity to keep people occupied that long. The second something better and f2p appears on the market, Warframe is gone. Permanently. It's primary selling feature is the fact that it's the only f2p game of a kind.

And DE are in a different position how exactly? Except the fact that DE aren't a tripleA studio that is, and Warframe is a game that's out for four years already, meaning there wouldn't be much of an additional funding. 

 We'll see anyway. I'm not gonna say what DE could, or couldn't pull off. I'll say "I told you so" only when I see so.

I actually agree with what you're saying. The only place we really differ, from what I can tell, is that I think open world is the way Warframe should go. I think that, for what Warframe offers in terms of its concept and gameplay, open world is the best way to fully integrate and take advantage of Warframe's various features and mission types. So I think Warframe should be more of an open world/open "landscape" game with larger gameplay spaces and open-world-style environments, with AI designed for open world (the things I've described in the OP). I would prefer static maps (like PoE) to procedurally-generated tilesets because I think static maps (like a standard layout for the Grineer and Corpus ships, individually) make more sense lore-wise, and they allow for a more structured experience, again, particularly when it comes to ship-based maps (that way they feel like actual ships). I'd also prefer this for the Corpus gas city/refinery (Jupiter, and hopefully Neptune in the near future). The procedural design is fine for the Grineer Asteroid, Derelict, and Void Tower tilesets. But for the terrestrial locations (Earth, Lua, Venus, Mars, Ceres, Europa, and hopefully, eventually, Titan, Ganymede, Eris, and Mercury), I'd want DE to take the landscape approach, where it's one large map.

So I'm fine with them refocusing on landscapes and trying to integrate Warframe's various mission types and features into the Landscape system. I think that'd be good for Warframe, and I think they can do this while they also go back and revisit old features (such as Dojos, and Focus, and companions, and animations, and the like). That said, I do agree with you that DE's past practice, to their detriment, has been this unwillingness to fully develop features while they're new and fresh. They very often get bored of working on something recently released, and immediately move on to something new.

IMO, that is the result of three problems: 1) they get bored quickly, much like a small-time modder who quickly gets bored working on their little mod and never finishes, so they never follow through with their features,  2) they've never had a solid, structured vision of what player experience the game was supposed to offer, and that's in terms of both story and gameplay, which is why they've added various features and game modes (including archwing, Conclave, Rathuum/The Index, and the Rocket-League-like Lunaro) that don't mesh well, and 3) they are not at all familiar with the first/third person shooter/action game genre, so they don't know how to develop for the genre or what features work for games in the genre, meaning they look for inspiration from games like Diablo III, Rocket League and Hyper Light Drifter instead of games like Halo, Battlefront, Crysis, and Assassin's Creed, which are all much more comparable to Warframe than the previously-mentioned games.

I made this thread, and have pushed for DE going all in with PoE, not because I want the rest of the game to suffer, but because I think the open landscape system is the best place for DE to fully develop their features and to focus their efforts. I think open world allows DE to integrate all of the features that are currently segregated in the game. I believe that open world can provide a much more structured gameplay experience, something that Warframe desperately needs; new players shouldn't be lost because there's no structured order to progression in this game (that's just unacceptable imo). I think open world is an appropriate gameplay environment to structure progression and gameplay features. I believe open world is the best place to fully integrate story into Warframe's gameplay, because open world involves more moving pieces, from enemies to civilians to bases and diverse locations. It's the best place for Narrative Design to occur.

So that's why I'm pushing this thread and I'm wanting DE to fully flesh out Plains of Eidolon now. I don't want DE doing with Plains of Eidolon what they've done with almost every other feature of this game (the things you mentioned). I don't want it to be another half-finished section of this game. Warframe is a game that has the potential to rival AAA games, but it does not right now, and that's because of DE's (quite frankly) inadequate development process. If they don't change that, then absolutely, Warframe will only remain alive as long as there isn't another direct F2P competitor, most likely made by a AAA studio, that comes along and does what Warframe does, but better. The moment that happens, Warframe starts losing players. The moment that happens, Warframe begins the downward slope towards becoming extinct. And Destiny is not a direct competitor to Warframe, despite what anyone says or thinks. The moment a F2P, AAA, third person shooter/action game, blending gunplay, melee gameplay, and vehicular gameplay, with an expansive and well-developed story, comes along, Warframe is done.

So this thread exists because I want DE to avoid that. And I think that if they focus on making Plains of Eidolon a full gameplay experience, and they can then take that approach to their future landscapes, and to the game as a whole, then Warframe can survive. It can endure. It can succeed.

[13QZXXTTX]

Depend on what you want for a game, you are not FORCED to stay in a game, but because your let yourself get sucked in. 

So you want DE to be GAME-CHANGING? Cool, but to let you know, DE just reveal they were working on PoE, and to be a "Game-Changer" that literally keeping DE + Community Steer in the right paths for like 2~5 Years Plus!

What could went wrong:, Land-building, Animal raising, Guilds Massive Kingdom overtake that you SHOULD expect in a REAL (FULL) MMO-RPG (Sword+Magic) Games (yet I don't see one, just Fictional story ).

I understand what you mean there NOW WAY DE have time to build a MASSIVE MMO Games, yeah we all know that, so LET CHANGE THE GAME! (literally Game-Changer). 

Come up with Long-time Solutions that would HELP IMMERSION, and Game Boost, to say a "Vritual" World?

Fishing Targets(Capture Targets), Archwing Speed Racing (in Open Sky). Long Range Sabotage to stop Grineer/Corpus Movement?

I mean DE can take another 5 yeas and we have to see. I can see what you mean WarFrame should not be another Copy. BUT, what is WarFrame based of? From the Basic, Tenno and the Orokin, so I hope Plain of Eidolons will be a GREAT STORY telling or Adventure of each Tennos' OWN Adventure?

Just thoughts processes.

 

Edited August 7, 2017 by DesFrSpace

[GrayArchon]

4 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

I actually agree with what you're saying. The only place we really differ, from what I can tell, is that I think open world is the way Warframe should go. I think that, for what Warframe offers in terms of its concept and gameplay, open world is the best way to fully integrate and take advantage of Warframe's various features and mission types. So I think Warframe should be more of an open world/open "landscape" game with larger gameplay spaces and open-world-style environments, with AI designed for open world (the things I've described in the OP). I would prefer static maps (like PoE) to procedurally-generated tilesets because I think static maps (like a standard layout for the Grineer and Corpus ships, individually) make more sense lore-wise, and they allow for a more structured experience, again, particularly when it comes to ship-based maps (that way they feel like actual ships). I'd also prefer this for the Corpus gas city/refinery (Jupiter, and hopefully Neptune in the near future). The procedural design is fine for the Grineer Asteroid, Derelict, and Void Tower tilesets. But for the terrestrial locations (Earth, Lua, Venus, Mars, Ceres, Europa, and hopefully, eventually, Titan, Ganymede, Eris, and Mercury), I'd want DE to take the landscape approach, where it's one large map.

While I am excited about the future of Landscapes in Warframe, I want to say that I'm against open world absorbing/replacing procedurally-generated content. That was one of my favourite aspects of Warframe as a new player, that each mission was different every time I played it. It makes it seem (to me) like you're part of a larger operation, capturing (for example) different targets in different locations instead of doing the exact same thing over and over. It can make the same node feel like completely different events, at least for a new player who isn't focused on speedrunning to get the end-of-mission reward. I'd like to see open world on all the planets, and expand on the gameplay in a big way, but I'd still like the procedurally-generated missions to remain as well, to complement them. After all, no open world is going to cover the entire surface (or equivalent, eg Jupiter/Uranus) of an entire planet.

Which leads into my other point: lore-wise, it makes less sense for the missions to have static maps. Do you think the Corpus outposts on Jupiter are so small that the entirety of them can be rendered in a static map? Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, and I imagine the number and size of the gas refinery installations reflect that. The procedurally-generated maps reinforce the notion that, each time, you're going to a different outpost, or a different sector, to take part in a solar-system-wide conflict that is so much larger than you can grasp. It would be (more) boring, and kind of immersion-breaking (in my opinion), if you did every Jupiter mission on the same outpost, on the same tile. And obviously this extends to other terrestrial environments. I can see static maps for the ships, possibly, but even so I imagine the Corpus and Grineer capital ships to be the size of cities, which I think is still reflected in the procedural generation of map tiles for those environments. But a PoE-style 3x3km map would fall within my suspension of disbelief.

Lastly, I'll admit that my ideas are mostly based on immersion and my understanding of what is or isn't realistic (for the setting). My focus is on how lore shapes gameplay, and I realise that often doesn't lead to good game design. So I understand that open world, and its intersection with current content, probably won't fulfil my every hope.

[OniDax]

57 minutes ago, GrayArchon said:

While I am excited about the future of Landscapes in Warframe, I want to say that I'm against open world absorbing/replacing procedurally-generated content. That was one of my favourite aspects of Warframe as a new player, that each mission was different every time I played it. It makes it seem (to me) like you're part of a larger operation, capturing (for example) different targets in different locations instead of doing the exact same thing over and over. It can make the same node feel like completely different events, at least for a new player who isn't focused on speedrunning to get the end-of-mission reward. I'd like to see open world on all the planets, and expand on the gameplay in a big way, but I'd still like the procedurally-generated missions to remain as well, to complement them. After all, no open world is going to cover the entire surface (or equivalent, eg Jupiter/Uranus) of an entire planet.

Which leads into my other point: lore-wise, it makes less sense for the missions to have static maps. Do you think the Corpus outposts on Jupiter are so small that the entirety of them can be rendered in a static map? Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, and I imagine the number and size of the gas refinery installations reflect that. The procedurally-generated maps reinforce the notion that, each time, you're going to a different outpost, or a different sector, to take part in a solar-system-wide conflict that is so much larger than you can grasp. It would be (more) boring, and kind of immersion-breaking (in my opinion), if you did every Jupiter mission on the same outpost, on the same tile. And obviously this extends to other terrestrial environments. I can see static maps for the ships, possibly, but even so I imagine the Corpus and Grineer capital ships to be the size of cities, which I think is still reflected in the procedural generation of map tiles for those environments. But a PoE-style 3x3km map would fall within my suspension of disbelief.

Lastly, I'll admit that my ideas are mostly based on immersion and my understanding of what is or isn't realistic (for the setting). My focus is on how lore shapes gameplay, and I realise that often doesn't lead to good game design. So I understand that open world, and its intersection with current content, probably won't fulfil my every hope.

Thing is, the procedurally-generated content does not make each mission feel different. Why? Because 1) tiles repeat all the time, making them less special, and 2) there just aren't enough interesting, unique tiles for every mission to feel unique. It's the same rooms with a different configuration. It's not unique or varied at all. So I just don't buy this notion that DE's procedural generation approach accomplishes what it sets out to do. And since it doesn't, there's no point to have it. Not only that, but there are problems with that process, mainly that it restricts how DE can design them. Since each tile has to fit like a puzzle, you can't have fully open-air spaces, so each tileset is an enclosed space with a bunch of corridors, which ultimately makes each tileset feel like either a base or a cave. Open world offers more freedom in that regard. You can have as much space (horizontal and vertical) that you want. If you want open air spaces, you can have that. If you want enclosed spaces, you can have that.

Beyond terrestrial locations, I just prefer static maps because I want ships to feel like ships. Right now, most of them don't. There's no sense to them, especially since tiles repeat. It'd be different each mission only featured one of each tile, so that truly, each configuration was unique, and each room was unique. Besides that, if DE would make actual maps for their tilesets, then there could be a proper inside and outside to the location we're in, whether it's a Grineer Galleon or Corpus Obelisk or Void Tower or Orokin Derelict. Even if they keep the tileset structure, if they'd order and structure the tiles so that each feels unique, then each mission would feel varied. Also, 9km² isn't a small size for a map. That's quite large. So, a Corpus outpost of that size would be huge. DE could do any size between 1km² and 9km². Regardless, the most important thing imo is that terrestrial locations have open world maps, and ships be static (because Galleons and Obelisks shouldn't be diverse; they're particular classes of ship, so they should all be the same). This is what would be immersive imo.

And beyond the open world spaces, it'd be nice if terrestrial tilesets were more open air and less cave-like. Earth is a good example of a terrestrial tileset done wrong. It's not a forest like DE claims. I'm assuming they've never seen a forest before, because the "Grineer Forest" is a freaking cave. I would absolutely be ok with DE replacing the terrestrial tilesets with large maps. It doesn't even have to be 9km2; it could be 1km² or 4km². And if they did make smaller maps like that instead of tilesets, then instead of DE making 10 different tiles for a tileset, we could get like 5 different maps that are all unique from one another. Imagine a Grineer Forest map, and a Grineer Jungle map, and a Grineer snow map, and a Grineer tropical map, and a Grineer desert map, all on Earth at different locations. And imagine different areas of each map being accessible depending on the mission type. That'd be so much more varied of an experience than the current tileset system they have, where you get like 5 of the same tile in one mission. Then each mission at a particular location is unique, and that is a much more immersive experience.

[AperoBeltaTwo]

13 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

The only place we really differ, from what I can tell, is that I think open world is the way Warframe should go.

 We agree here as well. I understand that in the long run for the mechanics Warframe has, open world is the best media to flourish.

The only real difference is that I don't have any faith to give DE. My glass is half-empty in their regard. I don't believe that by doing exactly the same thing they did all the time - this time they would get to a different place. Abandoning old gameplay systems, not fixing or revisiting mechanics, not playing their own game as an active member of the community would, DE not gonna suddenly rock and deliver on PoE. When they failed in a far less dire situation before with TWW and Void 2.0. And especially when I see that the lessons weren't learnt and the mistakes weren't realized and fixed. When you have a game where gameplay doesn't integrate the use of 90% of the existing gear and missions barely have enough gameplay for a single person. When effort-reward system in the game is pretty much non-existant, rendering mods and building system obsolete while introducing these stupendous difficulty spikes with hordes of invincible enemies. When the biggest source of difficulty are invincible enemies and QoL being forcefully taken away from the players. When the only endgame we have is a set of 3 missions that collectively rarely last longer than 20 minutes while being locked behind a 24 hour timer. With all this, DE go on another shady enterprise that doesn't seem to be aiming to solve any of the problems the game has right now... ugh.

 I just don't have faith in DE, man. I don't like when people lie to me and take me for an idiot. I don't like when people publicly say one thing and then go on doing something completely different. I don't like people being incompetent and not being able to admit it. I don't like people only listening to the praising voices. It's just stupid. It all came down to me when I saw Steve play the game on twitch like he sees it for the first time. I realized that they probably don't want to hear 90% of what people are saying just because it's not sugarcoated and wouldn't listen to the rest of the 10% if there's any critique at all, or if it doesn't allign with what they already have in mind. That's the impression I get from the current DE, and I have no faith to give them.

Edited August 8, 2017 by AperoBeltaTwo

[OniDax]

7 hours ago, AperoBeltaTwo said:

 We agree here as well. I understand that in the long run for the mechanics Warframe has, open world is the best media to flourish.

The only real difference is that I don't have any faith to give DE. My glass is half-empty in their regard. I don't believe that by doing exactly the same thing they did all the time - this time they would get to a different place. Abandoning old gameplay systems, not fixing or revisiting mechanics, not playing their own game as an active member of the community would, DE not gonna suddenly rock and deliver on PoE. When they failed in a far less dire situation before with TWW and Void 2.0. And especially when I see that the lessons weren't learnt and the mistakes weren't realized and fixed. When you have a game where gameplay doesn't integrate the use of 90% of the existing gear and missions barely have enough gameplay for a single person. When effort-reward system in the game is pretty much non-existant, rendering mods and building system obsolete while introducing these stupendous difficulty spikes with hordes of invincible enemies. When the biggest source of difficulty are invincible enemies and QoL being forcefully taken away from the players. When the only endgame we have is a set of 3 missions that collectively rarely last longer than 20 minutes while being locked behind a 24 hour timer. With all this, DE go on another shady enterprise that doesn't seem to be aiming to solve any of the problems the game has right now... ugh.

 I just don't have faith in DE, man. I don't like when people lie to me and take me for an idiot. I don't like when people publicly say one thing and then go on doing something completely different. I don't like people being incompetent and not being able to admit it. I don't like people only listening to the praising voices. It's just stupid. It all came down to me when I saw Steve play the game on twitch like he sees it for the first time. I realized that they probably don't want to hear 90% of what people are saying just because it's not sugarcoated and wouldn't listen to the rest of the 10% if there's any critique at all, or if it doesn't allign with what they already have in mind. That's the impression I get from the current DE, and I have no faith to give them.

Ah, ok. So we actually do agree. I definitely understand that perspective, and it's one that I share as well. I'm a little more optimistic only because I honestly had so little faith in them that I didn't think they'd ever attempt open world due to the disparaging comments they said about it in the past. I still can't say I trust them to do well with Plains of Eidolon, but I at least wanted to put this out there, so that if they choose to fail with Plains of Eidolon (and it would be their choice to ignore good suggestions for PoE and to fail miserably as a result), then they have no excuse for their failure. For me, PoE is the last straw in that regard. The fact that they're going semi-open-world gave me a renewed sense of hope that there's light at the end of the tunnel, that they just might try to improve. But the more I've seen of PoE, and just how lacking it's going to be, and just how limited in scope DE's vision for it is, the more that pessimism and skepticism has been returning. If they look at the ideas in this thread, and other threads, then there's a chance they could learn from it about what a complete (no longer half-finished) Warframe might look like and how that would be best for them. But for me, it all depends on how PoE turns out. And, again, I'm not satisfied with what we've been shown. For me, if they aren't willing to do the work necessary to make Plains of Eidolon - the feature that is probably the most hyped about and most praised (by players and outside observers) upcoming feature in Warframe's history - a full, fleshed out gameplay experience, then they aren't willing to do that for anything else in the game. If Plains of Eidolon fails due to DE's unwillingness to listen to sound advice, then my faith in DE will completely fail as well. If DE fails to deliver with Plains of Eidolon (again, they fail if they choose not to listen to the suggestions from people who know open world games), then Warframe will be dead to me.

[AperoBeltaTwo]

6 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

Ah, ok. So we actually do agree.

5 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

For me, PoE is the last straw in that regard. The fact that they're going semi-open-world gave me a renewed sense of hope that there's light at the end of the tunnel, that they just might try to improve.

I see it as "raising stakes" in serialized fiction. At some point you end up saving the world because there's nowhere else to go. Open world is the same thing for videogames in general and for DE in particular. All DE have been doing for the past year I've been with this game is fighting content fatigue with more content. And PoE in my eyes is a continuation of that. Instead of striving for structure and replayability of the existing content, DE add more bigger guns, more warframes, more quests. Refusing to realize that in general these portions of new content don't even provide half as much a gameplay time as went into development. PoE is probably going to be the same thing. At its best I see PoE as a huge tile with all regular missions on the map instead of a planet (or something along those lines). 

6 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

then Warframe will be dead to me

I'm just an addicted idiot at this point. It often takes me years to drop games that don't do anything for me anymore.

 There's one question I would want to ask DE guys and especially Steve:
"Do you have an active personal account that you've played since year one of your involvement with the game?" - without console commands ofcourse. 

 It's just a lot of the problems the game has, could be explained by the lack of first-hand gameplay expierience. Same problem, btw, with some of the youtube partners. There's a reason why Tactical Potato chancelled his DayOne pack agreement. Youtube partners don't farm new gear. At all. Meaning troubles like the infamous Hema don't feel like a real problem for them. And the more optimistic they are in the videos, the louder and more agressive they get on a flip side (you probably know who I'm talking about). But I digress. The point is that if even just the DayOne pack messes up the perception of the game so much, how would Devs themselves look at the gameplay when they can pretty much type anything into existence for when they need to test something, while avoiding the actual game entirely? You need personal discipline to force yourself play the game you're creating every day, but that's your job requirement... and if you fail here, what's to even expect of you? 

 This is getting too salty. I'll stop now or I'll be accused of bashing DE. Which wasn't at all my intention. But I guess any critique could be considered "bashing" by people of "leave if you don't like something"-kind of moral constitution.

[13QZXXTTX]

Dear @[DE]Steve,

Writing to your beloved DIGITAL EXTREME Teams, and if you were looking for Ideas on to improve Plain of Eidolons even further.

Then I have some reasons that Boost what you might be missing. Past Game Experience: Minecraft,SS13, LoZ:OoT, dozen online MMOs.

Topics:

• Environment: Awesome Graphic (Looking Good with PoE Trailer) +PLUS+ Stealth Extra UI (Indicators) (MGS-PhanPain, Hitman, HZD) = An Experience matching of Tennos Specials Powers.
• Plains of Eidolon +++: Weather Visibility(Player have to discover/Explore Area(LoZela Navigations) (Eidolons Graves are not active during Day). with Underground Facility (1~4 Bunkers/Shelters hidden and contain Random NEW Mods/Rare
• Gravity Defying Mega Structure (Orokin/Sentinel even), \Fantastic/. (Also includes at least ONE Factions Ships Invaders to be available of "Friendly Tennos Visit".) 
• Music/Song: High Pleasant to the Ear of KP's immersive Orchestrations. Music Momentum keep and changes when switch to different elements of Gameplay.
• Life of NPCs: Move inside/cover/safety when Weather Strikes, SCREAMS, RAGE, BUSY BUSTLING LIVE BREATHING Civilizations, Socialize. (Musics compliment Environment, NOT drown out Game-Play).
• COMBAT(Dark Soul, HellbladeS, Witcher3): Passive Voids Weapons on Arm-Guards can be used alongside any Weapon Combinations *fixes* <WARRIOR OPERATOR> (For the Tennos) of course! 
• WAR: Battles between Corpus/Grineers/Sentinel/Syndicates Squads.
• Dark Sector Struggles: Taking a ARMY of Specters Along, OR Hire Local Mercenaries for . Additional Specters:  THE CLEM SQUADS (obtainable through doing Darvo Level 50~150 Survival).
• R.N.G.: drop Rates are scale of 3.5/5 Star, Want it, Grind it or Pay Access. #NoHema.<<<  We all Friends of RNG, but we don't want salts from  RNG every time with new Contents leading to Hiatus because of impossible frustrations).

 

PS Check out @[DE]Rebecca Twitter, I think the Vacations outdoors experience do help step closer to PoE Experience.

https://twitter.com/rebbford/media

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Edited August 9, 2017 by DesFrSpace

[OniDax]

34 minutes ago, DesFrSpace said:

Dear @[DE]Steve,

Writing to your beloved DIGITAL EXTREME Teams, and if you were looking for Ideas on how to MAYBE go with Plain of Eidolons.

Then I have some reasons that might work or help resolved Fatigue.  Experience: Minecraft,SS13, LoZ:OoT, dozen online MMOs.

Topics:

• RNG drop Rates are scale of 3.5/5 Star, Want it, Grind it or Pay Access. #NoHema.
• Plains(upcoming too)  with Weather Visibility(Player have to discover/Explore Area(LoZela Navigations) (Eidolons Graves are not active during Day). with Underground Facility (1~4 Bunkers/Shelters hidden and contain Random NEW Mods/Rare Caches!).
• Taking a ARMY of Specters Along, OR Hire Local Mercenaries for . Additional Specters:  THE CLEM SQUADS (obtainable through doing Darvo Level 50~150 Survival).
• I have to say it, FLOATING HOUSE, yes Floating City, \Fantastic/. (Also includes at least ONE Factions Invaders to be available of "Friendly Tennos Visit".
• Finally, NPC emotions. 
• COMBAT(Dark Soul, HellbladeS, Witcher3): (Dual Wield of) Voids Secondary + Melee Combat especially, (For the Tennos) of course! 
• Stealth: Awesome Graphic (Looking Good with PoE Trailer) +PLUS+ Sneaky UI (Hitman, HZD) = An Experience That standards of Good Games.

Eh, Warframe's not an MMO, and I'm not sure DE should be drawing much influence from MMOs.

I'm not sure what you're saying about RNG, but I just want RNG to be reasonable. I'm not sure if certain farmable items (such as Ostron weapon parts) should be purchasable or not.

While weather is nice, I don't think it's a priority. It'd make the Plains more immersive, but I'd be concerned that it would negatively impact performance. As for various areas to explore, I don't care much for underground, cave/dungeon/labyrinth-like areas. There could be a few in the Plains, but I hope there's a whole lot on the surface. Not only that, but I do want DE to take full advantage of elevation; the Plains could offer a lot of verticality through great changes in elevation. The 9km² map could end up being a sort of 27km³ map if DE makes good use of changes in elevation.

As for Specters, I honestly want DE to overhaul the entire system. That's a topic for another discussion, but I envision being able to build up Clan and Alliance armies by recruiting NPCs to fight for the clan/alliance. For Plains of Eidolon, though, if we had syndicates like Steel Meridian and New Loka, then we could request aid from them, and could also find them doing things in the Plains. I think that'd be best for Plains of Eidolon (refer to additional comments on the matter in the OP).

With regard to a floating house or city, I think that'd be a bit much, and I'm not sure what the point of that would be.

Considering NPC emotions, I would like to see some kind of moral system introduced where certain enemies (not all, but like Grineer Butchers) would run away after their fellow enemies are killed. I think that'd be cool.

As for Combat, I think the current system is fine. I don't see a need for dual-wielding melee + Void powers, unless it's a kinda Force-like thing. Even then, though, that would make Operators obsolete. I don't know whether that'd be a good thing or not, but it'd have to be more effective than the current Operator system. For combat, what I mainly want to see is: 1) motion-captured movement animations, 2) an improvement to the gunplay in the game, including being able to toggle raising our weapon (much like traditional first/third person shooters) or lowering it (how Warframe currently is when we move), 3) being able to hop into and use vehicles such as Dargyns and Ogmas, and 4) being able to control our Sentinels and Kubrows/Kavats and use them to recon areas (essentially using them like drones).

With regard to stealth, I really wish DE would design AI for stealth, but I'm not gonna ask for that because I honestly think that's a bit too ambitious for DE to handle. Being able to use our companions as reconnaissance drones would help stealth gameplay a whole lot though.

[13QZXXTTX]

16 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

Spoiler

 

Eh, Warframe's not an MMO, and I'm not sure DE should be drawing much influence from MMOs.

I'm not sure what you're saying about RNG, but I just want RNG to be reasonable. I'm not sure if certain farmable items (such as Ostron weapon parts) should be purchasable or not.

While weather is nice, I don't think it's a priority. It'd make the Plains more immersive, but I'd be concerned that it would negatively impact performance. As for various areas to explore, I don't care much for underground, cave/dungeon/labyrinth-like areas. There could be a few in the Plains, but I hope there's a whole lot on the surface. Not only that, but I do want DE to take full advantage of elevation; the Plains could offer a lot of verticality through great changes in elevation. The 9km² map could end up being a sort of 27km³ map if DE makes good use of changes in elevation.

As for Specters, I honestly want DE to overhaul the entire system. That's a topic for another discussion, but I envision being able to build up Clan and Alliance armies by recruiting NPCs to fight for the clan/alliance. For Plains of Eidolon, though, if we had syndicates like Steel Meridian and New Loka, then we could request aid from them, and could also find them doing things in the Plains. I think that'd be best for Plains of Eidolon (refer to additional comments on the matter in the OP).

With regard to a floating house or city, I think that'd be a bit much, and I'm not sure what the point of that would be.

Considering NPC emotions, I would like to see some kind of moral system introduced where certain enemies (not all, but like Grineer Butchers) would run away after their fellow enemies are killed. I think that'd be cool.

As for Combat, I think the current system is fine. I don't see a need for dual-wielding melee + Void powers, unless it's a kinda Force-like thing. Even then, though, that would make Operators obsolete. I don't know whether that'd be a good thing or not, but it'd have to be more effective than the current Operator system. For combat, what I mainly want to see is: 1) motion-captured movement animations, 2) an improvement to the gunplay in the game, including being able to toggle raising our weapon (much like traditional first/third person shooters) or lowering it (how Warframe currently is when we move), 3) being able to hop into and use vehicles such as Dargyns and Ogmas, and 4) being able to control our Sentinels and Kubrows/Kavats and use them to recon areas (essentially using them like drones).

With regard to stealth, I really wish DE would design AI for stealth, but I'm not gonna ask for that because I honestly think that's a bit too ambitious for DE to handle. Being able to use our companions as reconnaissance drones would help stealth gameplay a whole lot though.

 

 

Well yeah they are things learned from other Games, and DE get most things right for WarFrame.

Depend on how you see things, I am talking about ORIGINAL Good Old School successful MMOs+RPG, not the online that get a pass and copy. 

I do not like having MANDATORY Guild of War 2 (Guild Strategically placed OUTPOST > Dojo in Plains (bad idea)).

Floating Structures can be refereed to Orokin Technologies, otherwise you be seeing LARGE Invading Forces (Grineer/Corpus/Infestation/????).

NPC Actions and Reactions is VITAL to play in the Environment of Future PLAINS Gameplay (Iron Wake has QUITE the Good NPC, but you can not talk to them T.T ).

I see what you mean, what I meant for COMBAT is When blocking with say Melee or Shield, you don't take damage (Weapons Deflect, and you don't take Damage). >>> OPERATOR WARRIOR <<< Dual-Wield Void Weapons Combinations (Secondary? GAMMACOR?) + ANY Melee (Bioshocks, Witchers, Dark Soul, PREY, HB, more...)     Rethink Note: Because the Focus Weapons HOPEFULLY be hand-free, you can Use any Weapons, even Dual Wield.

Stealth in particular is easily displayed from Well Crafted Metal Gear Solid: Phantom Pain, literally you can run Loki anywhere and undetected like Tech Ninja.

Edited August 9, 2017 by DesFrSpace

[--GZ--Cegorach]

On 7/27/2017 at 10:56 PM, eragon748 said:

U think it will be free??

 

It's not Activision Blizzard or Bungie to sell updates.

[OniDax]

So what do you guys think about what was talked about/shown yesterday? Miscellaneous activities like mining are neat and all but they can't replace combat-related activities. So I'm still waiting to hear from DE what combat-related activities (i.e. dynamic side missions) we'll be able to do in the Plains outside of NPC-given quests.

[MisterUltimate]

10 hours ago, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

So what do you guys think about what was talked about/shown yesterday? Miscellaneous activities like mining are neat and all but they can't replace combat-related activities. So I'm still waiting to hear from DE what combat-related activities (i.e. dynamic side missions) we'll be able to do in the Plains outside of NPC-given quests.

I don't want to mine for resources. I wouldn't mind escorting a group of miners and protecting them from a variety of hazards & enemies in exchange for a percentage of their haul. Or credits. I also take credits.

Edited August 19, 2017 by MisterUltimate

[OniDax]

Just now, MisterUltimate said:

I don't want to mine for resources. I wouldn't mind escorting a group of miners and protecting them from a variety of hazards & enemies in exchange for a percentage of their haul. Or credits. I also take credits.

Same. All this dev excitement for fishing and mining reminds me of Lunaro. The devs were equally excited about Lunaro, praising the addition of this non-combat-related game mode to the game. And they ended up being out of touch with their player base who didn't care for it because it was just an attempt to imitate Rocket League. Trying to copy Minecraft is just going to end up the same way. Why? Because it's a feature that really has little to do with Warframe, and doesn't expand the scope and scale of Warframe's gameplay at all. It's a distraction from the main game. The open world Plains of Eidolon has the potential to expand the scope and scale of Warframe's gameplay, but only if it offers a rich, immersive, and interactive combat-related gameplay experience. Without such a focus, Plains of Eidolon will just end up being another distraction from the main combat-based gameplay. Plains of Eidolon shouldn't be a distraction from combat-based gameplay like Lunaro. It should be an expansion of the core combat-based gameplay.

[Culaio]

7 hours ago, MisterUltimate said:

I don't want to mine for resources. I wouldn't mind escorting a group of miners and protecting them from a variety of hazards & enemies in exchange for a percentage of their haul. Or credits. I also take credits.

well like I mentioned before in this thread mining can be done in combat oriented way, like in firefall game you drop extractor and then defend it from hordes of enemies.,

In game:

 

[OniDax]

2 hours ago, Culaio said:

well like I mentioned before in this thread mining can be done in combat oriented way, like in firefall game you drop extractor and then defend it from hordes of enemies.,

In game:

 

That's just one activity, though, that is essentially Excavation. I'm fine with Excavation side missions when we come across a deposit or something. But that's not what DE suggested. I want Plains of Eidolon to feel alive. I want there to be activity among the NPCs (i.e. they're moving around in the Plains, doing things). I want to be able to run into, say, a patrol of Grineer and have to option to take them out as a side mission. I want to be able to run into, or fly into, or drive into a moving convoy of Grineer and raid them for supplies as a side mission. I want to be able to run up to a Grineer base and that gives me the option to steal intel, steal a vehicle, exterminate everything in the base, or capture or assassinate an HVT. I want to be able to come across Grineer attacking Ostron civilians, or Steel Meridian, and have the option to assist, and possibly escort & defend, them as a side mission. That's the sort of side mission activity I'm talking about. Not fishing. Not prospecting. Not mining for gems, Minecraft-style (the reference DE specifically made in the devstream).

Edited August 20, 2017 by A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n

[Culaio]

On 20.08.2017 at 3:15 AM, A-p-o-l-l-y-o-n said:

That's just one activity, though, that is essentially Excavation. I'm fine with Excavation side missions when we come across a deposit or something. But that's not what DE suggested. I want Plains of Eidolon to feel alive. I want there to be activity among the NPCs (i.e. they're moving around in the Plains, doing things). I want to be able to run into, say, a patrol of Grineer and have to option to take them out as a side mission. I want to be able to run into, or fly into, or drive into a moving convoy of Grineer and raid them for supplies as a side mission. I want to be able to run up to a Grineer base and that gives me the option to steal intel, steal a vehicle, exterminate everything in the base, or capture or assassinate an HVT. I want to be able to come across Grineer attacking Ostron civilians, or Steel Meridian, and have the option to assist, and possibly escort & defend, them as a side mission. That's the sort of side mission activity I'm talking about. Not fishing. Not prospecting. Not mining for gems, Minecraft-style (the reference DE specifically made in the devstream).

I just wanted to show that "gathering" type activites can be turned into combat ones that fit game much more.

I really like your ideas, it would be great if that stuff was in game :).

There are other things in firefall that could help make landscapes more interesting, yeah I know I mention firefall a lot and you may think its weird that I look for inspriation in game that shut down pretty recently but actually game was really interesting and many people agree, reason why it got shut down is because it was horribly mismanaged by its devs, not being able to decide on progression system(eventually oversimplifying it), removing stuff from game that people actually really liked(which happen because of oversimplifying the game), speding money on needless stuff, like for example this:

responsible for most if not all problems of game was CEO  of the studio who evnetually got removed but it was too late.

But back on topic, in firefall you have on map main player hubs, outposts and watchtowers, I dont remeber if main hubs could been attacked but both outposts and watch towers could been attacked and taken over by enemy faction(non-player faction), players were informed during attacks and had chance to defend them or regain them if enemy was able to capture the location.

But there are other important reasons for wanting the outposts and watchtowers to be under control of good guys, here are some of them:

-outposts and watchtowers work like respawn points so if you die you respawn at closest one that is under control of good guys so if if enemy occupied all close ones to where you were going you will respawan far away which sucks.

-outposts and watchtowers have facilities that help you, including healing and ammo supply.

-you can travel between main hub and outposts with drop ship which makes traveling world map much faster

-watchtowers offer you "gliders" that speed up your travel temporarily.

-and most importantly outposts and watchtowers have radar area that show you random events(which work like mini missions) that are happening in the area, like gathering thumper parts to fix it and send it back for reward and so on

so yeah protecting outposts and watchtowers is really important to all players in game.