Warframe’s next content update has hoverboards. Honest-to-gosh trick flip, Back to the Future 2 style decks that float. The Fortuna expansion takes players to Venus and gives them the opportunity to skim over the surface of the planet and even do tricks on a customizable board. Auto-inflating Nike sneakers not included.
Digital Extremes removed a microtransaction from Warframe based primarily on one player’s behavior. Studio manager Sheldon Carter explained in a Noclip interview that the team disabled an “insanely profitable” in-game option to change the fur pattern and color of an animal companion when they realized it enabled gambling. For a little less than a dollar, players could push a button that randomly mixed the appearance of a pet kubrow, a sort of alien dog. The team observed one player that spent over $137 almost immediately in an effort to get his perfect cosmetic mix, which brought the team to an uncomfortable realization.
“Oh my dear God, what have we done? We’ve created a slot machine.”
It took the team a couple of days, but they rolled back the change and disabled the cosmetic mixing button. According to Carter, the behavior was not desired because they’d rather have players support the free-to-play game with transparent and non-predatory purchases.
Digital Extremes has announced Landscapes for Warframe, hand-crafted open world instances with an MMO-style hub town with NPC quests and a day and night cycle. The first such area to be added to the game, Plains of Eidolon, features the village of Cetus where up to 50 players can freely roam, team-up, and take on Ostron scavenger quests in the surrounding countryside.
Players will be able to fly and fight from their Archwings and battle normal enemies in the wilderness during the day, but at night the colossal Eidolons rise from the ground to destroy Warframes. These giant baddies ape MMO boss monsters in that they will require coordinated groups of folks plinking away at their bodies to defeat them. Hit the giant enemy crabs in their weak spots!
