The Empyrean update brings massive space battles to the MMO shooter Warframe. During a media tour, community manager Rebecca Ford explained that these would be a way for the developers to give all players a fresh start.
What’s currently happening in Warframe: The developers at Digital Extremes are preparing everything for the big Empyrean update. With the expansion, players can take their spaceships into space and experience massive PvE battles. The spaceships are called Railjacks.
Players operate the ships in groups, and everyone can join the battle together, regardless of their progress in the game.
The update is currently being rolled out in 3 phases:
- The first phase has already been released on PC.
- Players can now build a spaceship in their “Drydock”. However, it is currently just sitting there.
- In the second phase “Take Flight”, players will be able to launch, fight against the Grineer faction, and modify their ship.
- The third phase is still unknown.
Empyrean brings a “Soft Reset”
We at MeinMMO had the opportunity to participate in a virtual media tour. Here, community manager Rebecca Ford showed us a mission from Empyrean in a live environment. She explained how the large space battles work.
The gameplay showcased was roughly what had already been shown in the last developer livestream. The stream is embedded here, and the section with the space battles starts at 14 minutes and 20 seconds.
There was hardly any new information about the gameplay during the tour.
This will be the “Soft Reset”: Rebecca Ford mentioned during the presentation that Empyrean would be a way for Digital Extremes to give all players a fresh start. When asked to elaborate, the community manager explained that in Warframe, each update has always been about making your character stronger.
Other games work with seasons that reset everyone back to the same status after they expire – such a thing does not exist in Warframe. Empyrean is supposed to be the answer to that.
While players retain their progress in the rest of the game, with their earned and leveled weapons, pets, equipment, and resources, these do not matter specifically in space battles.
All players, regardless of mastery rank 2 or mastery rank 30, must earn the modifications, the weapons, and also a specific role on the ship from scratch. However, it will be possible for everyone to play together on a ship with different progress.
If I, as a junior player, do not have the resources to build my own spaceship, I can still fly on another player’s ship. How this will ultimately work in practice remains to be seen.
The space battles require good coordination between the one operating the cannons, the one steering, and the one manually shooting enemies. This coordination will likely be easier for an experienced player.
The challenge of providing new incentives
What’s behind this: Warframe had its big breakthrough in 2017 with the open-world expansion Plains of Eidolon. Players appreciated that Warframe now offered more than linear levels. The developers want to build on that success and are now continuously creating an open world for every planet in the system – most recently Fortuna, on Venus.
Digital Extremes confirmed in 2018 to MeinMMO that they could not imagine a Warframe 2. Warframe is meant to grow bigger forever and provide new content. However, there is also a certain danger that it becomes increasingly difficult and intimidating for new players to join the game. Veterans lack fresh incentives to progress in the game – they quickly exhaust everything with each expansion.
The significance and also the technical challenge of Empyrean will be comparable to the first open-world expansion in 2017.
When will we hear more about Empyrean? During the Game Awards, taking place on December 13th, Digital Extremes will have an appearance. What they plan to announce that night remains unknown.
A release date could be conceivable for the phase in which the Railjacks can take off. But it could also hide an announcement for the next open world behind it. Or it might be something we’re not even thinking about yet.
Disclaimer: The images and the embedded video in this article come from a developer build. What is shown here may differ from the release version.
Do you believe that Empyrean will trigger another hype in Warframe like the first open world did?
