Last year at TennoCon the community was shocked and excited to finally be able to venture into an open world to shoot, bullet jump, and fly like a ninja without being constrained to a hallway. In 2018, Digital Extremes went all in with creating better open-worlds. Even though the new open-world, The Orb Vallis might appear to be similar to Plain of Eidolon, it has a more refined experience.
The new expansion coming this fall is called The Fortuna Expansion. Like last year when Plains of Eidolon (PoE) was revealed, the details are not always concrete, but like PoE the dev team seems to always change things for the better. Right now, The Venusian landscape is about five times the size of PoE. Unlike PoE, The Orb Vallis is not mainly rolling plains. The landscape is a frozen, mountainous planet filled with Copus and giant robotic ticks from hell. Actually, go watch Starship Troopers and you will be ready to transverse Venusian with vengeance. Sky Marshal Dienes said it best from Starship Troopers:
“We must meet this treat with our courage, our valor, indeed with our very lives to ensure that Tenno civilization, not robotic insects, dominates this galaxy. Now and always!”
The Fortuna Expansion
Key Features in Fortuna Include:
- The Orb Vallis, The New Open World -- Building on the success of Plains of Eidolon’s earthen Landscape, The Orb Vallis is Digital Extremes’ massive new Landscape. Volatile, mercurial clouds of blue and orange loom over a sci-fi terrain populated with seascape flora, giant mushrooms, alien rock formations, rare creatures, and more.
- Solaris United and Fortuna -- The cyborg Faction Solaris United live in the Blade-Runner-esque Debt-Internment Colony, Fortuna. Similar to the gathering bazaars of Cetus in Plains of Eidolon, Fortuna is an underground hub city that serves as a factory to clean coolant rivers and doubles as a trading hub for the region.
- New Combat Experiences -- The Corpus occupiers, led by the profit-obsessed Nef Anyo, bring new technology and warriors to bear. Alongside new Corpus ground troop variants, monstrous new Spider Bot enemies of all shapes and sizes will challenge players to face their fears when they explore The Orb Vallis and face-off with the prophet of profit.
- Ride a Hoverboard -- Blaze across the wide-open Venusian landscape by piloting the Bondi K-Drive. Call up this handy customizable hoverboard and quickly glide, jump, and trick across a variety of terrain.
- Join the Conservation Movement -- Switch your mindset from blast-happy mercenary to friendly savior. The strange, wonderful animals of the Vallis are going extinct. Explore the new world of Fortuna and apply your new skills to track, lure, and capture them for relocation.
- Musically -- The talented sound team at DE has engineered an alien-tech soundscape of eerie effects and ominous music that set the sonic tone for an incredibly rich experience, and they are joined by renowned sound composer Keith Power who has returned with an upbeat, hum-out-loud musical intro of Fortuna, unlike anything you have heard before.
The Fortuna update is expected to drop in 2018 with a tentative date closer to fall. But wait, there is more…
Digital Extremes believes in the strong bond they have built with their community over the years, with that comes the transparency they have constantly shown. Not all announced weapons or features go live, but that transparency builds and open communication between the players and developers that help take ideas to the next level. Codename: Railjack, is that next level. Railjack is not going to be released in 2018, but with the help of throwing the concept out to the fans, Railjack can become an amazing experience to help build a living star map and galaxy players can fight and explore. Railjack will not only bring the star map alive, it will finally bring all the elements of what we believe a “Space Ninja” is.
Codename: Railjack
Digital Extremes’ newest expansion is part of a grander vision. In addition to the open-world expansion of Fortuna, a separate future update takes Warframe down a totally uncharted path. ‘Codename: Railjack’ will enable 1-4 players to board a warship on land and ascend into space to explore and fight!
Players will coordinate responsibilities across the military spacecraft to engage in PvE combat against hostile enemies. The full space experience grants extensive player freedom with options to launch Archwings into space to board, infiltrate and destroy enemy ships during battles. This future update looks to create a cohesive gameplay experience between Warframe's open Landscapes, procedurally generated levels, and a new outer-space freedom in a unique sci-fi world.
Key Features in ‘Codename: Railjack' include:
- Fly Seamlessly into Space -- All new to Warframe, Digital Extremes’ Codename: Railjack gives Tenno a trans-planet warship to band together with other friendly Tenno and seamlessly transition from the open Fortuna landscape to space combat!
- Coordinate Your Space Crew -- Pilot the ship and over the whole battle, man a turret, manage the shields, make repairs, and work as a team to capture and conquer other hostile spacecraft.
- Archwing Attack: Go on the offensive by dispatching Archwings for onboarding attacks. Take out enemy cannons and board enemy ships to confront and eliminate swarming soldiers. Take out their core reactors, eliminate their crew, and emerge victorious!
If that doesn’t get you excited for the future of Warframe, I don’t know what will. This being the fifth anniversary of Warframe Digital Extremes has gone all out at TennoCon to show their community how much they appreciate and care for them. Like every TennoCon, Digital Extremes donated $200,000 CAD to their charity partner, Canada Learning Code. Canada Learning Code is dedicated to teaching digital skills to women, girls, people with disabilities, indigenous youth, and newcomers.
