Get ready, Tenno. (Warframe)

[rhoenix]

So thanks to a friend, I decided to try the beta for the game Warframe. In it, you play as a space ninja Tenno.

What, you want more? Fine - it has 3rd person view cooperative shooter play, in procedurally-generated levels (meaning it's never the same twice), with different "frames" you can choose from and buy that offer various abilities in addition to the normal sidearm / main gun / melee weapon loadout. The frames range from the Excalibur that focuses on high-speed melee murder; the Volt that offers strong electrical attacks; the Ember, which focuses on fire-based crowd control (and burning - lots and lots of burning); to the Frost, which offers ice elemental attacks and defenses to supplement being a tank.

You run, jump, climb, and run across and up walls like a ninja, explore levels for rare blueprints or materials, and slaughter hordes of enemies. You can either play with up to a group of four, or roll solo - the difficulty is the same, which means if you roll solo, you have just as many enemies to get through as if you went in with three other space ninjas Tenno. The character designs are anime-ish, but not quite silly.

There are many overall areas in the solar system to explore, and each planet / area of interest has between several to many areas to unlock and explore.

So far, I've been impressed with the game. It's not really a large download, either.

[youtube][/youtube]

[rhoenix]

Recently released open beta trailer - dramatic intro for Excalibur (the one that uses a sword the most), Loki (the one with horns that look like a hammerhead shark and teleports), Mag (the smaller green one with a polished faceplate), and Rhino (the big tan one that uses the axe) frames.

[youtube][/youtube]

[rhoenix]

FYI - this game is available for free through Steam.

I can say that ME3 multiplayer began to get stale after a while - it was all basically 11-wave defense missions with random additions - but they never really variated beyond map and which of the four factions of enemies you took on.

Warframe addresses these problems quite well. There are many missions per area (each of the eight planets, plus a few additional moons and such - and it's looking suspiciously as if they might add more), and they range from Spy missions ("sneak" into a ship, steal info from a few data terminals, and leave), Capture missions (run through a ship, locate a crewmate, and abduct them), Rescue missions (locate an allied operative on an enemy ship, rescue them and escape), Deception missions (rerouting an enemy ship's course), Raid missions (get onto a ship and blow the power core), Extermination (KILL EVERYTHING), and of course, Defense & Mobile Defense missions as well (defend an area against a certain number of enemies or enemy waves). Through it all, you'll be smashing containers and raiding lockers for loot, in true RPG style.

Moreover, as has been mentioned before, every time you play a level, it's procedurally generated. Yes, certain areas within a level will be the same, but how they're laid out won't be. The game devs added ice world maps with the last update, and I can only assume they plan on adding others as time goes on.

There are three distinct factions of enemies here, and all three operate very differently, as they should. Grineer are armored clone soldiers you enjoy disliking, the Corpus are... creepy Borg-ified people and machines complete with indoctrination centers, and the Infested you'll likely see as a public health violation in need of a thorough cleaning with nuclear fire.

As you level up your frame, and your frame's weapons, you'll collect mods for your weapons & frame through these missions - mods make your weapon stronger or frame more resilient. You can purchase blueprints for weapons and such, and by collecting the raw materials necessary through missions, you can craft items yourself. The crafting system isn't as sophisticated as say, Guild Wars 2 or LotRO, but it works well for the game in which it functions. Additionally, the devs have stated that the most powerful stuff you can acquire in this game is stuff you'll end up crafting yourself.

Personally, I feel that this game is worth $50 spent on a new game, and after a few days of playing, did so, despite it still being in beta. Hotfoot worked out how you can only spend $25 and get pretty much all the necessary stuff you really need (frame & weapon slots, and the Orokin items needed to supercharge weapons and frames).

Your mileage may vary, of course - but this game offers pretty much just the sort of gameplay I was looking to find for quite some time now.

[rhoenix]

FYI - if you build a new frame (not buy), you do get all four ability mods free, though at base level. I've just confirmed this after finishing my Mag.

[rhoenix]

For those of you who get irritated by wall jumps, as of update 7.7.2, there is now a new option in gameplay controls:

Added an option in controls to toggle wall run to a tap instead of holding jump.

[rhoenix]

Upcoming in update 8, coming out 8pm this Friday:

New weapons:
- Dual Ethereal Blades
- Twin Viper SMG's (instead of just single)

New map tiles:
- two more defense outdoor corpus sets
- five/six more grineer mining sets

Other additions:
- Jupiter GOLEM Boss being replaced (no longer will be just a super-Ancient)
- Better boss AI, and random bosses to missions being added
- new helmets for all frames being added
- Clan members can now share resources with one another (e.g. Rubedo)
- anti-rusher measure - half the team will need to be in extract zone to trigger extract countdown
- Clans will build their own personal Dojo
- will include throwing weapons (throwing glaive will be coming in a few weeks)
- Sentinel customization will begin to be available either this Friday or next Friday


- It came out that one of the reasons for the new Mod system going in place was the groundwork for Warframes to have a pool of more than four abilities to choose from, though only four will be active at a time. This will not be implemented yet, but is planned.


Sidenote: seeing all four of the devs feign complete ignorance when someone asked questions about the Stalker was hilarious. That was a nicely executed troll move.

The full recent livestream is here:
[youtube][/youtube]

[rhoenix]

As of right now, there's an Alert mission on Vesper, in the Venus sector for the next 9 hours that gives money, and an Orokin Catalyst as a reward.

[rhoenix]

The Warframe devs setup the Alert Server to be tied in with Facebook and Steam, so you can get Alert notifications for missions on your Facebook page. That's kind of awesome.

[rhoenix]

Update 7.8.1 is live, which includes lots of new artwork, and a strong server upgrade (for those of you with connection issues before). And PROPER MOD SORTING. FINALLY.

Livestream video for the update:

[youtube][/youtube]

And for newer players, here is a fan-made series of videos detailing gameplay basics, an overview of each Warframe in the game presently, and he's currently adding weapon overview videos as well.

[youtube][/youtube]

[General Havoc]

I'm afraid it has fixed none of my issues.

[rhoenix]

Damn. Well, if you ever feel like troubleshooting further, I'll be happy to make inquiries and do research for you. Our Tenno murder squad needs a Havoc. Otherwise, I'll keep playing WoT with you.

[rhoenix]

Update 7.9.0 is live. Many new graphics, some fixes, and it introduces the first throwable melee weapon: the Glaive.

[rhoenix]

New Livestream #5 from the developers, regarding Update 8, Clans, Orokin sets & Prime Warframes, and more.

[youtube][/youtube]

[rhoenix]

New patch 7.11 has been released, which will likely be the last patch before update 8 (which will include Clan Halls) hits. Patch 7.11 fixes numerous network issues, includes new graphical sets, and the new Warframe Vauban. Vauban blueprints will currently be available only through Alert missions, though is expected to be anchored to a new region at some point in the future.

Official Vauban info:
[youtube][/youtube]

[rhoenix]

Update 8 has been released. Early preview:

[youtube][/youtube]

- Clan Dojo building is now available, adding Research & Manufacturing rooms as well as a 1v1 Dueling room. Costs are fairly impressive, an incomplete list is available here.

- New Sentinel, the DethCube has been released.

- Several new mods have been released (10 total).

- Stalker now has a chance to drop schematics for his bow (Dread), Throwing Knives (Despair), or Scythe (Hate) if you kill him.

- 20+ new weapons available now, 9 of which are only available through research & manufacturing within a Clan - this includes energy weapons.

- Orokin areas are now available. If you're part of a clan (which if you play Warframe and heard about it here, you should have an invitation to LibriumArcana, if you haven't already accepted - if you didn't get one, let me know). Once you're part of a Clan, you can craft a Clan Key, which will give you access to the clan's home base, called the great and powerful LibriumArcana Dojo.

- Void Keys are found as a rare drop from enemies, and are necessary to access a hidden Orokin area, from which you can gain Forma (used to add or change polarity slots on your Warframes & weapons) as well as other Orokin blueprints for Warframes (currently only the Frost Prime), and weapons (the Latron Prime).

(fixed with updated info)

[rhoenix]

Livestream #6:

[youtube][/youtube]

This mostly concerned upcoming content, and the developers addressing the Forma & Void Key drop rate issues.

[Karrick]

I've got a Tower Exterminate key and a Tower 2 Exterminate key. Anyone up for running those and maybe getting enough Forma to finally build our first hallway?

[rhoenix]

Just FYI - since Update 9 hit, Clan Dojo stuff costs quite a bit less, and the Clan LibriumArcana Dojo is coming along nicely.

My personal goal is to get the Raptor (in Europa) to cough up the Nova Warframe blueprints I want. Because Nova is all about causing massive explosions, and that idea makes me happy.

Nova Profile:
[youtube][/youtube]

Nova Crash Course:
[youtube][/youtube]

Yes. Now you see why I'm repeatedly mugging the Raptor for parts.

[rhoenix]

Nightmare mode. Don't be scared, now!

[rhoenix]

Livestream #11: Sounds, Music, and related Q&A:

[youtube][/youtube]

[rhoenix]

Livestream #12: Addressing endgame content, long-term focus; u9 review, and u10 preview.

[youtube][/youtube]

[rhoenix]

Nightmare Mod weekend, everyone. Starting today until 12pm EST on Monday, Alerts will be popping up with dual-stat mods as rewards. The missions will all be Nightmare missions, with the usual random penalties and effects.

It is currently unknown whether the new dual-stat mods from the recent Arid Fear event will be included in the Alerts this weekend.

[rhoenix]

The Survival Weekend Event will be held from Friday, Aug. 30 @ 12pm EDT to Tuesday, Sept. 3 @ 12PM EDT.

The Lotus is leading a group of Tenno called Alpha Team, to raid hidden valuable supply caches elsewhere in the sector and needs your help to provide support by distracting enemies.

As your enemies advance they will attempt to cut off life support to the sector by draining the ship’s oxygen supply by the second. Fear not, the Lotus will drop supplemental oxygen supplies to buy you time. Enemies also carry personal oxygen supplies that drop as you eliminate them and will help replenish the sector’s oxygen level.

Your objective is to activate oxygen capsules to maintain the sector’s oxygen levels for as long as possible. If oxygen levels expire before the first supply cache is raided-or all players die, the mission fails. After each successful raid of a supply cache by Alpha Team, the Lotus will distribute wealth in the form of mods, resources, credits and other valuable items. Enemies get progressively difficult the longer you survive. Fight your way through three tiers of enemies to obtain rewards, survive even longer to earn Leaderboard status.

Rewards

These awards will be handed out after the event ends. More information on the Equilibrium mod and individual award tier requirements will be revealed on Friday.

Survive 5min: Participation Event Badge
Survive 10min: New Mod – Equilibrium
Survive 20min: New Weapon -- Strun Wraith
Gold Statue for first ranked Clans

It's once again go time.

[rhoenix]

[youtube][/youtube]

So... yeah. I'm really not sure how I feel about a Necromancer-themed Warframe, but whatever - it lets you punch someone in the soul. Could be fun.

[rhoenix]

FYI - WhiteHaven and Hotfoot did some calculations with the new gun Soma, which I have tested over the past few days.

This gun's base damage of 10 is unimpressive, but it starts with a 35% critical chance, and a 3x crit multiplier. And two V polarity slots.

So:
- Maxed crit chance mod for rifles, at +150% crit chance, calculates out into making this gun's crit chance 87.5% total.
- Maxed crit damage mod for rifles adds +120% to crit damage.
- Maxed Hammer Shot adds another +60% to crit damage.

With those three mods, you have a 87.5% crit chance, and a 7.8x crit damage multiplier.

Raise the base damage enough with Serration, add multi-shot and armor-piercing, and this gun is just a beast. The only downside is that if you like it enough to add a Forma to it, you'll probably have to add two before you see any real benefit point-wise, if you have maxed or near-maxed mods.