Digital Extremes has released the first images of the new open-world map of Warframe. The new open area will be on the planet Venus, and the Corpus faction roams here. The new map seems to lean heavily towards Cyberpunk and industry.
In the Devstream 107, Digital Extremes unveiled the first images of the new open-world map on Venus. This will go in a completely opposite direction compared to the free map on Earth: the Plains of Eidolon.
In the Plains, players find themselves in a large natural area with plenty of water, hills, sunshine, and a day-night cycle. The new map on Venus, however, will be colder and greyer, focusing on a large industrial area inhabited by the Corpus. Instead of a day-night cycle, there will be regular ice storms on Venus that make it difficult for players to traverse the map.
There will be an industrial city underground on Venus
During the Devstream, the developers talked about their plans for the new open-world map. The Orokin performed terraforming on Venus to make the planet habitable for them. The Corpus faction populated Venus when the Orokin fell and continued their work. There is a coolant on Venus that maintains a low temperature on the planet.
On Venus, there remains a civilization that lives underground. They are called “Solaris United” and are unfortunate laborers of the Corpus. They are responsible for processing and refining coolant for use on the surface of Venus. The cold on Venus then causes ice storms.
Here is an initial teaser film of the new open-world city:
This concept drawing is meant to give a good idea of the direction the industrial underground city will take.
A floating glacier is set to crash into Venus
Above Venus, there will be a floating island that is an icy glacier. Originally, the Orokin placed a golden orb here, around which ice formed. The current plan is for this glacier to crash into Venus and shatter here. The lower GIF shows the formation of the glacier.
It is conceivable that Digital Extremes is planning something similar to what they did with Operation-Plague-Star back in the day on the Plains. Here, a comet crashed into the Plains of Eidolon, bringing infected enemies to the Earth.
The lower concept drawing shows the glacier on Venus.
The free terrain on Venus will be even larger than the Plains
The Plains of Eidolon consist of an area of 5 square kilometers with hills, mountains, gorges, valleys, and bodies of water. The developers promised that the open-world map on Venus will be significantly larger than the Plains.
In order to implement the larger areas, the developers have likely used a new technique that allowed them to better design free terrain.
The lower concept drawing shows what it should look like outside on the open-world map. It appears that this is covered in snow.
Here, Digital Extremes provided insights into the new terrain technique on Venus.
What else was discussed in Devstream 107?
The new open-world map was the dominant topic in the Devstream. However, there were several other interesting pieces of information:
- The new “Corpus-Spider” enemies have their own attack patterns and different sizes. It is conceivable that they are native to the new open-world map of Venus. After all, it belongs to the Corpus, and one of the spiders seems to be growing so large that it hardly fits in the corridors of the closed maps. But that’s just my assumption and not officially confirmed!
- The new Warframe Khora has no release date yet. Khora is already getting a rework before she is even released.
- Dark Sectors will be something completely new and renamed. The Dark Sectors are currently undergoing a rework. This has adjusted this mode so significantly that Digital Extremes wants to create something new and standalone from it. At its core, it will be a leaderboard-based arcade mode with a speedrun feel.
- No new information on Umbra.
- Captura, Warframe’s photo system, will be expanded and can now display text overlays.
For those who want to see more images of the new open-world map of Venus, they can find them in an Imgur album:
What do you think of the first images of the new open-world map? Do you like this industrial cyberpunk atmosphere, or would you have preferred something different?
The first open-world map of Warframe has recently received new content. There are new world bosses:
