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Warframe dev will remain "creatively independent" following Tencent buyout

Earlier this month, Tencent revealed that it's purchasing Leyou Technologies, which you may recognise as the parent company of Warframe developer Digital Extremes among other studios such as Splash Damage, King Maker, and Radiance. Now, in a message to players, Digital Extremes has moved to assure fans that the developer's creative independence will remain intact despite the change of parent company.


"We will continue to create great content for Warframe, and we will remain creatively independent," the studio says. "Our focus will remain on listening to you, our community, upgrading Warframe based on your feedback, and developing the kind of great stories, gameplay, and incredible new space ninja action you've come to expect from us. Tencent is well known for respecting the creative decisions and integrity of its studios, and for giving them the autonomy and independence to experiment, innovate, and thrive."


Digital Extremes further explains that this isn't really isn't much of a change at all. Leyou purchased majority shares in the studio back in 2014, and in the six years following the studio has remained creatively free to do what it believes is right.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

Warframe's next Operation swaps warframes for chonky mech battles

Warframe heads to Epic, but the only exclusive is this Unreal Tournament bundle

Warframe's Deimos: Arcana update comes to PC this week

Operation: Orphix Venom is Live



The Sentients are back. Armed with weaponized pulses cleverly designed to disable Warframes, they're staging a takeover of enemy vessels. Deploy your Necramech or borrow one from Father for the Operation to fight off oncoming hordes. Survive for as long as possible to earn Blueprints for Lavos, the newest Warframe, plus much more!

Operation: Orphix Venom is a limited-time event and ends on January 18 at 2 p.m. ET on PC.



[h3]WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW[/h3]
With your Warframe compromised, you’ll need to rely on your Necramech to defend enemy ships against a total Sentient takeover. If you don’t yet own a Necramech, you’ll find some scattered throughout the Operation level that you can use via Transference!

Aboard the ambushed Grineer and Corpus vessels, be prepared to face new Sentient adversaries. The Orphix are insidiously engineered to interrupt transference and wreak havoc. You’ll need to take them out with the strength of your Necramech and Operator, along with the venomous Orphix Resonators, and keep the Sentient Control meter below 100%. Last as long as you can to earn Phasic Cells to exchange for Rewards and stave off the invasion!

Avoid defeat at all costs, Tenno.



[h3]WHAT YOU NEED TO DO[/h3]
Operation: Orphix Venom will not be easy and requires preparation. You must have completed both the “Heart of Deimos” and “The War Within” Quests in order to begin.

There are 3 tiers of Operation: Orphix Venom. Progress through each to encounter the enemy at Easy, Medium and Hard difficulties and earn different Rewards along the way!

[h3]EVENT REWARDS[/h3]
Visit the Necralisk on Deimos and talk to Father, who’s eager to demonstrate the power of his Necramechs against the Sentient threat. He’s hoarding a stockpile of special gear that he’ll trade for Phasic Cells, including the Blueprint for the master experimenter and newest Warframe, Lavos, plus Necramech Mods and more!



You’ll also earn a number of Rewards just by playing the Operation, including Lavos! It’ll be up to you if you want to save your Phasic Cells for Lavos and other items, or get lucky and earn them within the Operation!

  • Lavos Blueprint & Parts (found in the Operation!)
  • Cedo Blueprint & Parts (found in the Operation!)
  • Cryptanaut Necramech Helmet
  • Necramech Mods
  • Archgun Skins for the Cortege and Morgha
  • New Ayatan Sculpture
  • Plus, returning Rewards from Operation: Scarlet Spear, including the Ceti Lacera Blueprint, the Basmu Blueprint and more!
SCORING

Each Orphix has an initial value of 100 points in the first Operation Mission. As your fight evolves, so will the Orphix, awarding you more points at a greater difficulty. Orphix will be worth 200 points at the hardest difficulty (Endurance) and scale up from there! The higher your score, the more Phasic Cells you’ll walk away with. Try to survive for as long as you can - 36 Orphix will be the maximum amount in the Endurance mission, so once you’ve hit 36, it’s time to extract! The first two Operation missions have a limit of 24 Orphix only, so players looking to maximize their score should head to Endurance!

Phasic Cells can be earned in any Operation Mission, but remember - Endurance gives the most points per Orphix, so you’ll earn the most Phasic Cells there. While this Operation is possible Solo, best results will come from coordinated Squads!

[h3]CLAN LEADERBOARDS AND CLAN TROPHIES[/h3]
We will be turning on Leaderboards after 1 or 2 Hotfixes to ensure the competition begins after key issues that players report are resolved. We will advise all Tenno when Leaderboards come online!

Clan Scores are determined based on the sum of all participating members' best scores. We balanced this around about 50% member participation for Gold Tier trophies.



[h3]TWIST INTO THE ACTION AS LAVOS[/h3]
Discover new and exciting ways to fight with Lavos, the master experimenter! A manipulator of the physical realm, imbue Elements into his Abilities at your command. Lavos is also the first Warframe that consumes no Energy, relying instead on a cool-down system to replenish his Abilities.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
OPHIDIAN BITE
Lash out with a toxic serpentine strike, consuming the target to heal Lavos. Hold to imbue all Abilities with Toxic Damage.

VIAL RUSH
Dash forward, crashing through enemies and leaving an icy trail of broken vials. Hold to imbue the next Ability cast with Cold Damage.

TRANSMUTATION PROBE
Launch a probe that converts Health and Energy Orbs into Universal Orbs that provide both, and Ammo Pickups into Universal Ammo Pickups. The probe shocks enemies in close proximity. Each electrocuted foe reduces Ability cooldowns by one second. Hold to imbue the next Ability cast with Electric Damage.

CATALYZE
Catalyst Probes erupt from Lavos and douse combatants in a fiery gel. Damage is doubled for each element afflicting an enemy. Hold to imbue the next Ability cast with Fire Damage.

PASSIVE
Energy and Universal Orbs give Lavos status immunity for 10 seconds. Hold any Ability to imbue the next cast with additional Elemental Damage and Status.


[h3]LAVOS COLLECTION[/h3]
The Transmuter emerges from the seething smoke, the forgotten master of a much-misunderstood art. The full collection includes the Lavos Warframe, Cordatus Helmet, Transmutation Probe Decoration, Vitam Syandana and Shotgun, as well as 3-Day Affinity and Credit Boosters.



Transmute your generosity into Rewards! To honor the spirit of giving, gifting Lavos Collection to another player in-game means you’ll receive the Transmutation Probe Decoration!

[h3]NEW NECRAMECH SKIN[/h3]

Rediscover the brutal power of the earliest Necramech designs with this Skin. Brunstpar is - in Father's words - ‘not out to play nice and make friends.’



Operation: Orphix Venom is a limited-time event! Visit the Forums for more information, and show the Sentient invaders what Necramechs are really capable of, Tenno!

Warframe's next Operation swaps warframes for chonky mech battles

Warframe, Digital Extremes' free-to-play action-RPG game, is in for a brand-new Operation soon. Called Orphix Venom, the upcoming limited-time op will put a bit of a different twist on Warframe's previous offerings, dropping the, er, warframes in favour of a full-on battle between the shooter's chonky mechs.


As announced by Digital Extremes as part of a big dev update livestream, Operation Orphix Venom is "coming soon to PC", and is essentially an all-mech co-op event you can tackle either solo or in teams of two to four players. The eponymous Orphix are essentially sentient AI baddies that can disable your Tenno's warframes' power, making them useless. That means you're left to battle them by buckling into the hefty, undead, armoured war machines, Necramechs.


To obtain a Necramech, you'll need to complete various steps, such as completing the Heart of Deimos quest and War Within quests, as well as hit the Clearance: Modus rank with the Necraloids Syndicate and get crafting its component parts (there are various guides online if you're keen to find full how-tos). When you're at the helm of your own Necramech, you'll be tackling droves of Orphix foes.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

Warframe heads to Epic, but the only exclusive is this Unreal Tournament bundle

Warframe's Deimos: Arcana update comes to PC this week

What does Warframe's next-gen cross-save and crossplay mean for PC? (Nothing, apparently)

TennoGen Round 20 Deadline

Hi Tenno,

The holidays are upon us, so we felt it was appropriate to continue the tradition of announcing the first TennoGen deadline of 2021 before the year comes to a close. This should hopefully allow our artists plenty of time to balance (safely) seeing their families while also putting the finishing touches on their creations!

For this round, we’ll be looking at new content types: more landing crafts, melee weapons, and shoulder armor!

Without further ado, the TennoGen Round 20 deadline is February 15, 2021 at 2pm ET! After that, we will be reviewing all items submitted or updated after July 20th, 2020.

If you have an item that has been in the workshop for a significant amount of time (over a year), we strongly recommend resubmitting to avoid any chance of us missing the updated version. In general, having a fresh submission for items uploaded before July 20th is always recommended to ensure it gets reviewed, but we do our best to catch as many updated pieces as we can.

There are some texture file name changes and general texture optimization changes that should be considered in your pieces prior to submission.

[h3]Texture Name Changes:[/h3]

Tintmasks should be renamed from “FilenameTintMask_d” to “Filename_t”.

The TennoGen tool exporter was updated in early November to export Tintmasks with this file name format, but we recommend double checking just to be safe! If you have items exported before November 5 2020, you will have to rename the Tintmask files prior to the submission deadline.

[h3]Texture Optimization:[/h3]

With Update 29.3.1, we released part two of our Great Ensmallening, which involved changes to our texture compression. This affects TennoGen artists, and we want your pieces to perform the best that they can. As a result, we are offering the following recommendations to include in your workflow (if they do not exist already):

  • Test all of your textures at in-game resolution, and make sure you test them together at this resolution. You can see final resolution numbers in the Final Submission Checklist available here or in the file download.
  • Optimize your UVs to get the most out of your limited resolution. Good UV mapping practices go a long way in helping your piece look its best, so check out online resources on how to improve this important skill.
  • Avoid adding micro-details to your normal maps. These can get incredibly busy and messy once they are added in-game. If you want to add micro-details to your piece, you can request that we use our own internal atlas detail in your submission’s readme document.

Our texture guide has been updated to include these tips (and the naming convention changes) for future creators!

Additionally, we are requiring the inclusion of one clearly marked in-game resolution screenshot of the full item for your submissions to ensure that artists and the community have a better idea of what the item will look like if it makes it into Warframe! All screenshot guidelines can be found below:

[h3]Screenshot Guidelines[/h3]
All creations must be submitted with the following screenshot guidelines, so we can properly judge your creation. We reserve the right to reject items without proper screenshots, due to our inability to properly review your item.

  • Please make sure to include a tint breakdown.
  • Have at least one well-lit screenshot on a 50% grey background and uncoloured lighting.
  • For Skins and Syandanas, make sure the colouring in your screenshots matches the colouring in the files you uploaded.
  • For Warframe Alt-Helmets, please be sure to match the base colours of the Warframe in your files and in one of the screenshots!
  • Make sure your screenshots are all up to date! If you have comparison shots for previous versions, please indicate which screenshots are of the current iteration -- aka the ones we should be evaluating!
  • NEW: Include one full view screenshot of your creation at in-game resolution that is clearly marked (ex: text in the corner that says “IN-GAME RESOLUTION”). Just the front view is fine, but if you want to include multiple angles, that is more than welcome.
  • Finally, provide both back, front and side views of your creation so we can see the whole picture. These views should not be partial -- we need to see the FULL item from all sides.

That's about it! Lots to go over this time, but it’s all in the name of making TennoGen items the best they can be.

Happy creating, Tenno!

Today: Devstream #150!



It’s almost time for Home Devsteam #10, also officially known as Devstream #150!

First - don’t forget we moved the date and time. You can join us TODAY, December 16 at 11 a.m ET for the stream.

We will be at the usual place (twitch.tv/warframe) with the Devstream crew of Reb, Steve, Sheldon, Geoff and Scott.

We have a lot to talk about. We have even more to show. We are yet to group up on a stream and go over our 2020 Wrap up post. When it comes to content - we’ll be spending time going over Lavos and his Serpents, what a Necramech can do across the Origin System, and much much more. From Corpus Railjack to Corpus 'Queenpins'. And perhaps there's a ... Command-ing... presence compelling you to the Dry Dock? What could this mean!

Don’t miss it - and look forward to a very special Gift of the Lotus Alert after!