Create a sense of a Solar System that actually has human settlements out there

[Leo.doodling]

What I understand from the Lore is that us Tenno are there to help the Human settlements/colonies/cities from conquest by Grineer and basically something similar from the Corpus.

Except the thing is - I don't really feel like there are any human settlements/colonies/cities out there besides Cetus. Once that was introduced it did feel like a place that can be said is 'lived in' but no where else in the game do I get that feeling. The game I play feels divorced from the story behind it here. It would be nice to see signs of human settlements as you play the game.

One colony you do interact with during the Glast Gambit has the Mycona. But that really didn't feel like a colony, it felt more like just a bunch of people visiting since the environment didn't feel 'lived in'.

Another was early on in the game, as I recall, you visit like a mining colony but the Grineer had killed everywhere there. But that place was just a normal Grineer map with nothing to make it look like a lived in place. I remember feeling really let down by that.

I know making places like cities/settlements takes crazy long time. But I think a lot of assets in the game already could be used to enhance places already in the game. Like the stuff that we can place with-in the Dojo or decorate our ship with. A lived in place usually has like shops or places to sit. There is art on the walls or fountains in a courtyard type place. There can be music playing from people's homes. And sense of where people sleep or eat.

For example the Mycona there could have plants and sculptures around, banners and other artistic things hanging on the walls. A shop seller could be there that sells basic little things (so basically worthless, just there for creating a feel of a place). They could have an alter based off their beliefs in one room.

Another thing could be traders coming to the relays or Cetus. Not ones we interact with, just people walking around. Right now the relay is just the party pad for Syndicates. I vaguely remember seeing ships flying outside a window on a relay...

One example of where a 'lived-in' place is inside the game is on the Grineer maps you can come across a room with beds and such, like a little place where Grineer soldiers sleep. I thought that was great.

I do know this takes time to create/implement and that takes time from game play stuff. I just would like to feel more like a vibrant solar system is out there, not just this rather sterile experience we have now. We are the Tenno that protect some unknowns out there somewhere. Anyways, just my thoughts...

[Omega-Shadowblade]

So lore thing here: there are colonies of civilians, but 99% of the time we have absolutely no reason to visit them with our frames of war. The Tenno faction doesn't want to invite trouble by visiting populated areas if they can avoid it. Cetus has the Eidolon plains being invaded by  the grineer and plagued by the zombie sentients, and Fortuna has Nef anyo with another Mad scheme, so we actually have reasons to visit these colonies.

Having culture come to us on the other hand, I would definitely love to see added to the game.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

What do you think Cetus and Fortuna are trying to do?

[NinthAria]

Not to sound dismissive, but this is something DE is most definitely aware of. Cetus is probably the biggest push towards this initiative so far, but there's been little stuff like the Mycona, Iron Wake, relays, etc. that help give the universe that fleshed-out feeling. Rest assured though, they're not done; Fortuna and Railjack both seem to be built on the same principle of making the solar system feel like more than a set of loosely connected mission nodes.

Not all of that has to do specifically with colonists, mind you, but it definitely seems, to me at least, like they're being very mindful of these kinds of details as they work on new stuff. So I'd say rest easy.

[Leo.doodling]

47 minutes ago, Omega-Shadowblade said:

So lore thing here: there are colonies of civilians, but 99% of the time we have absolutely no reason to visit them with our frames of war.

Yeah that's why I mentioned more how we already interact with them, like the quests that felt a bit empty. It isn't something exactly easy but seeing at least from afar and maybe seeing ships flying around would add something to it all.

44 minutes ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

What do you think Cetus and Fortuna are trying to do?

I straight up mention Cetus but also give examples of how other quests don't fulfill what I am talking about. Also if there are just two places we need to defend then why not just defend those two places? My examples were about bringing some of the human society out of just the background but not just having big-o-cities.

24 minutes ago, NinthAria said:

Not to sound dismissive, but this is something DE is most definitely aware of. Cetus is probably the biggest push towards this initiative so far, but there's been little stuff like the Mycona, Iron Wake, relays, etc. that help give the universe that fleshed-out feeling. Rest assured though, they're not done; Fortuna and Railjack both seem to be built on the same principle of making the solar system feel like more than a set of loosely connected mission nodes.

Not all of that has to do specifically with colonists, mind you, but it definitely seems, to me at least, like they're being very mindful of these kinds of details as they work on new stuff. So I'd say rest easy.

I do get the feeling they have some ideas. But it still feel a bit empty out there. And like I said they could add some stuff to places we already have in the game now to help against the feeling of emptiness in the solar system.

[VoxGray]

OP, you said yourself that these things take time. Right now, DE is taking that time. Fortuna isn't going to be the last settlement, or even the last open world region. We'll be seeing much more of this expansion into the living world of Warframe in the future, given the new resources and tech DE has available. It's just a matter of waiting and seeing what they bring to us.

[Leo.doodling]

I guess I didn't explain myself quite well enough, so I'll try to add a little addendum here.

I'm not asking for a ton of open world maps or for them to stop everything and focus more on the societies we are supposed to be defending. I am asking that DE take some time while creating new things to keep in mind ways they can add in bits of the greater world outside the war fighting & for them to look back at the places we already have to add in (sometimes using assets they already have created) a sense of lived-in spaces.

To give a clearer example of the example I had of the Mycona colony - I actually came across some pics I had taken when organizing a folder yesterday:

This is a place already in the game where supposedly there is a settlement of humans that has been going on for generations. But from the looks of it all it just feels like any other Corpus map. Like that 2nd one shows an IV needle looking tree so you can put together this is a medical bay but not really anything else.

How about taking some of the items we ourselves can put in our ships for decoration and using them to decorate this place up a bit? For a place where people have lived in for generations they seem to have no decorations, nothing that says people are here.

So take some plants and place them around. Take some banners or art and put them on the wall. Maybe even have some stuff from Cetus to show they trade with Cetus. Not like overflowing with junk but for DE to use their inner Sims or Animal Crossing side to make it feel like I'm not just in another Corpus map.

Another suggestion was to add in NPCs to the relay that don't look like just the Tenno allies or the Synicate hat clubs.

Here they could have some people walking around carrying like a backpack full of goods. Or people talking to those syndicate folks about their pointy hats in the background.

And even if DE said that QuatroLeo with his dumb name has a point - I still wouldn't expect any changes for a long long time. It just feels like this is a very disconnected world of what the game says we are doing and what we actually see in game. And maybe in the future some bits here and there can be done to make it more smooth.