While TennoCon 2024 is now over, Warframe fans have a lot of stuff to look forward to. Not only are we getting Warframe: 1999 sometime this year, but there’s even a meaty title update out in August. Of course, there’s also Soulframe to look forward to as well. Before TennoCon started, we had the chance to sit down and talk to Digital Extremes about Warframe: 1999 and Soulframe.
Answering the questions are:
- Megan Everett – Community Director of Warframe)
- Steve Sinclair CEO of Digital Extremes
- Rebecca Ford – Creative Director of Warframe
- Sarah Asselin – Community Manager Soulframe
- Geoff Crookes – Creative Director of Soulframe
You should also check out our preview of Warframe: 1999 here to see why we’re very impressed with what Digital Extremes has crafted so far.
Digital Extremes Warframe: 1999 and Soulframe Interview at TennoCon 2024:
Q: Steve mentioned Soulframe featuring a large overworld. How large compared to Warframe Open Zone Worlds?
A: The starting island is twice as big as the Plains of Eidolon. There you go. Twice as big. Soulframe is two times bigger than Warframe. The reason we’re kind of avoiding the open world word is that we’re spending a lot more time on density. If you’re in Preludes, Preludes 5 just dropped, a whole bunch of activities and that sort of thing, which is a new system that we just put in.
You’d be wandering around, and then there’ll be almost like a mini quest, There’s a Banneret there! Or there’s some cute little beavers that need to be rescued, and so on. That’s how that works.
Q: The character’s name is Cyte-09, as in Technocyte? (Warframe Question)
A: You better believe it! You better believe it! You better believe it. Someone made the connection. Not subtle.
Q: Can we take the bike to the Plains of Eidolon?
A: Yes, you can take it to other open zones. The Atomicycle will be summonable in all open zones.
Q: If people are intrigued by 1999 but haven’t played Warframe yet, how accessible will this campaign be?
A: We are polishing the new player experience hopefully to launch with this. It will be in the chronology of the story after Whispers in the Wall. We’re thinking of ways to get players in a little early, but we’re not sure exactly what we’re going to commit to yet. But we would encourage, if you’re even remotely intrigued by 1999, we will try and have a preview for players, but also, start playing now. Warframe’s free. Get through the story.
Q: Can you bring 1999 weapons into the Origin System 2?
A: Yes, you can. In the Railjack segment you saw Excalibur using the AX 52 and a special sidearm. It’s going to be integrated into the main game fully.
What you saw was the HEX playable prologue. Wherein at some point everything will be connected. The AX 52 that you get as a Twitch drop, you can obviously just play it in the game.
Q: Will the atomicycles be modular vehicles like past ones?
A: No, they are a way to get around 1999 and open worlds. They’re not going to be modular, we’re making them more of a cosmetic and characteristic thing rather than, you have an engine from so and so and a chassis from someone else to build your own.
It’s very much pick your skin, pick your cosmetics, and zoom around. But you can customize the colors and stuff, right? Of course, there’s even a pizza. Can’t wait for that. There’s a pizza, Mine’s gonna be hot pink, and green, and blue, K. O. L., and pizza. Well, there’s a little pizza sticker.
Q: Can you play 1999 as a standalone story, and do you see it as a good in for newer or lapsed players?
A: Currently, it is a continuation of Warframe’s now colossal and awesome campaign. You wouldn’t really be able to get into it without playing everything that came before it.
It’s a direct chronological reason to continue the story. I’ll say right now. It’s intended to be that, if you played whispers in the walls, you can see how it is deeply intertwined with what we set up in the new era of Warframe.
Q: You said Soulframe would be in some form of early access later this year. Can you provide a bit more details? Beta? Alpha?
A: We are building this game with the community, much like we did for Warframe.
We don’t have any new tricks, we’re just going to use that old trick. Preludes is going to be opened up to everyone we expect in this kind of fall time frame. It does give me heart palpitations to say that’s our intention.
You don’t have to pay to get in. It won’t be like a gated thing at all. Just to set expectations, we probably will have a few paid things early on that are kind of like founders smelling kind of supporting things, so you can get early on. We’ll talk more about that at TennoCon.
It’s going to be really cool. But we’re also exploring ways to make it way less exclusive than Warframe founders ended up being. Excalibur Prime says hi. Tune into TennoCon, you’ll see.
Q: How many different equipment spots are there in Soulframe? (ie. Body, Arms, Lower Body, Helmet, etc.)
A: Idol, Pact, Helm, Cura, leggings, Weapon. Right now there’s just primary impact and idol.Sarah, Spawned it when she killed the enemy already. Each pact comes with its own unique idol, and those idols are kind of like the weapons that have to charge up to be activated. They are swappable with different pacts.
Play as a caster that has a lightning cannon, for example. If you want to kind of mix up your builds in that way.
There has been talk to explore how to do primary secondary, but right now, we’re still kind of playing with that. Loadout.
Q: Will these infested liches come with their own selection of lich weapons you can unlock in 1999?
A: Yes, you’ll get a whole bunch of them. We will be giving you a series of technocyte weapons to grind out. Just like the Kuva Liches have Kuva weapons, the Sisters of Parvos have Tenet weapons, there is now going to be an infested series of weapons for you to earn and play.
Q: Soulframe, will ranged weapons be a main able thing in Soulframe, or is it a more balanced around melee?
A: We actually had a bit of a conflict about what to show today, because we had the Fabo, Idol, but we have a bow and arrow set that is, a primary weapon,and it’s pretty cool, so instead of the mechanic where you throw your sword and call it back, that swaps to firing arrows, and then the bow and an off handed arrow function as a melee weapon for close range combat.
It has pretty rad finishers as well.
Q: Will these new Warframe 1999 music tracks be coming to Spotify?
A: Party of Your Lifetime, will be fully released after TennoCon and TennoLive. You’ll be hearing a lot more from online leading up to the 1999 launch this winter. Stay tuned for Party of Your Lifetime, meet the band, Zeke, Packet, drill bit, hard drive.
Q: Obviously 1999 is a very different feel for Warframe of high sci-fi. How has it been to make sure it still has that Warframe vibe in a more grounded setting?
A: That has been a key pillar. Like we really want it to feel like Warframe in 1999.
So what is Warframe? Super fast, bring all your gear, and run around and kill things really quickly. We really thought that 1999 would be a fun change of scenery, so to speak, but we wanted to go all in and make it authentic. It is a procedural world for us, where we’re building all these very era appropriate, but other earth versions of a world that seems familiar.
The vibe of keeping it grounded is iterative for us. We’re really trying to make sure that the enemies And the density of them will feel Warframe, and of course, when the update itself launches, you’ll see just how deep the rabbit hole goes for how much Warframe you can bring there. The vibe, I think it really just comes down to like, the team has worked together for so long, we kind of know what core Warframe should feel like, and what you saw today is a piece of a very long quest.
So that was just the HEX version of the quest, the mission that allows you to meet these six proto frames and where you come into the story, you’ll certainly begin to recognize just how dense the 1999 content is.
Q: Will Soulframe have a similar mastery rank progression system as Warframe, or are you keeping things a little bit more traditional RPG?
A: It actually does have a very similar mastery rank system. You have your envoy, which is your character, and then you have your pact, which is your cursed armor.
Your pact is a class that you can level up. And then, for every pact you level up, your envoy gains a level. And then they have three RPG stats, that are what we call the virtues.
And that feeds back into the system as well. So it’s a kind of almost like the focus school of the operator meets mastery rank.
Q: Will the 1999 quest be as long as the New War and will it lock you out of other content until you beat it in the same way?
A: We are currently not intending to lock you out. Lengthwise, New War we clocked in at about I think four and a half to five hours.
It’s actually a little longer if you take all aggregated playtime. I don’t think it’s going to be that long. I don’t want to put a time on it yet because it’s not finished. So I don’t know. But I know how long we intend it to be, but I don’t want to say just yet.
Q: The term soul has a bit of a preconceived notion attached to it these days. Do you worry about people who aren’t familiar with Warframe’s model going into the game expecting a soul’s-like for Soulframe?
A: We had a pretty, internal battle. About Committing to that name for that very reason. It just hit the themes that we want to explore so well. We want to really kind of lean into the sister project of Warframe. Which is why the frame is there.
It had to be something frame. Iit is something we are very mindful of.
Q: Will the 1999 Syndicate be a similar scale progression to something like Fortuna and Trotty, etc.
A: That is our intention, but of course there’s an entire romance system on as well, so. Which is optional, you can be friends too. Friends you can kiss. Or you can kiss. Up to you. New Years.
Related Reading:
- Warframe: 1999 is Introducing a Badass Motorcycle That You Can Customize and Use in Any Open World Zones
- Soulframe Starting Island Is 2x Bigger Than Warframe’s Plains of Eidolon; Features Similar Mastery Rank System
- Warframe: 1999 Releases Winter 2024, Gameplay and New Features Blast Out
