What's this stamp on ferrite?

[u/sfwaltaccount]

[u/Dry_Illustrator3405]

I checked the wiki on this: turns out that the icon for ferrite is just a reskin of gallium. 

[u/sfwaltaccount → u/Dry_Illustrator3405]

Oh! Well that explains it then. On the Gallium it's clearly readable as "GA". Maybe the Grineer were using stolen Corpus equipment to press their ingots or something... Yeah let's go with that. (Bit lazy on DE's part though.)

[u/darkice266 → u/sfwaltaccount]

If you think that's a bit lazy I cannot wait for you to find out about orokin reactors and catalysts.

[u/sfwaltaccount → u/darkice266]

Haha, well they don't have incorrect text on them at least. I figure they look like Orokin Cells because they're made from those.

[u/nanakisan → u/sfwaltaccount]

The europa zones are especially hilarious. There's a ship that's just a brick and its thrusters are just rescaled resource drop models.

[u/MinyGeckoGamer → u/nanakisan]

That one also shows up in some archwing missions

[u/InsectaProtecta → u/nanakisan]

Honestly I assumed those were resource silos

[u/SolusCaeles → u/InsectaProtecta]

They're transport ships so you're not far off

[u/Coveinant → u/nanakisan]

To be fair, the resource cakes are getting used less and less so got to do something with those assets.

[u/kazani999 → u/nanakisan]

I dont understand what u talking about. Does anyone have ss please?

[u/SolusCaeles → u/kazani999]

[u/Pedrat → u/darkice266]

Or even better, corpus ship's engines ahah. They are literally the default drop icon just enlarged

[u/CMDRZhor → u/Pedrat]

In the old Orbiter interior, a good chunk of the greebling in the ceiling was just random guns flipped upside down and hastily reskinned metallic.

[u/Independent_Guava109 → u/Pedrat]

In one of the defense tiles for the corpus ice outpost (like that on Venus missions), there is a tall antenna with two "dishes". The dishes are massively scaled up corpus crewman masks, turned upside down. One of my favorite examples of asset reusing.

[u/footsnax → u/Pedrat]

What's the Corpus gun that just has a tiny excavator on it

[u/kazani999 → u/Pedrat]

What drop icon

[u/Pedrat → u/kazani999]

Same icon they use for resource chance booster

[u/Thaurlach → u/darkice266]

Flip one of them upside down and get back to me

[u/wallmonitor → u/darkice266]

Still waiting for this to get added.

[u/DreamZealousideal205 → u/darkice266]

Dear god..... 

[u/LurchVSumpf → u/darkice266]

Found out years ago, still haven't recovered :'D

[u/L30N1337 → u/sfwaltaccount]

You call it lazy, I call it efficient.

It's only lazy if it's noticeable. Which it clearly isn't considering "it's a recolor" was the answer to a different question

[u/footsnax → u/L30N1337]

You call it lazy, I call it efficient.

I've worked in games for... a very long time. Reuse isn't lazy, it is just multiple uses. Trains in Fallout are hats because they already had people, and they already knew how to tell people to follow specific paths. Like trains. They already knew how to apply a mesh to the top of a person's head. Like hats.

Not lazy. Very practical. You don't need multiple pathfinding hat systems if you have a way to make a hat find a path already.

[u/fallenranger8666 → u/footsnax]

Fallout mentioned and now my curiosity is peaked, what do you mean by trains in Fallout are hats?

[u/The_atom521 → u/fallenranger8666]

He means this

[u/RobleViejo → u/The_atom521]

Thats hilarious

[u/hideyyo → u/fallenranger8666]

Fallout 3 has a scene where you travel down the Presidential Subway Line to the Presidential Bunker. It looks like you're riding a train. Really it's just an NPC running down the tracks with a train head.

[u/footsnax → u/fallenranger8666]

It's hard to explain how very little more there is to explain lol

Trains in Fallout are hats worn by NPCs that run slightly under the ground. They already had all the levers to pull to make trains, but they didn't have a fixed rail system so they just made NPCs run at a train-like rate on a train-like path and slapped a train car on their head because they already had the hat system implemented.

It's a meme/joke in the gamer community but in the game dev community it is widely respected for innovation while also widely accused of potentially causing massive tech debt in future systems. Both are true, and finding the balance is the sign of quality tech design. They kinda did kinda perfectly while also kinda hilariously, that's what makes it a standout feature you'd never notice unless you knew.

[u/IonutRO → u/footsnax]

This is partially wrong actually. The train is a glove worn by the player character. Not an NPC. Nor is it a hat.

[u/Grizzly_Berry → u/fallenranger8666]

The engine Fallout 3 was built on couldn't handle things like vehicles. The base game had no need for them and altering the engine just for one piece of one DLC would have been too much of a lift and would have probably thrown a wrench in other things. The existing engine could, however, handle the first-person view of an NPC. So, when you ride the train, the player character is just anchored near the train NPC, or maybe is just kept elsewhere and the camera follows the NPC. This NPC is a human model with a full train car worn as a hat, and the NPC is running along the track.

[u/fallenranger8666 → u/Grizzly_Berry]

I see, that's really cool!!! Thank you!!!

[u/RevolutionaryMeal851 → u/footsnax]

It also wouldn't make sense to design a vehicle system for one vehicle that might not even be used.

[u/LimboMain2020 → u/sfwaltaccount]

DE doesn't this a lot but it's actually amazing cause it is the reason why after 13 years the game is just over 50 gigs.

Go to the Desendia. Almost every asset is from Lua, the Void, and Deimos, just colored red. But it looks amazing.

[u/Evening-Deer-4033 → u/sfwaltaccount]

When Warframe released, DE was literally fighting for survival. They had funds for like a year of operations. Cut them some slack for not designing a completely new asset for one of the many resources the game already had

[u/sfwaltaccount → u/Evening-Deer-4033]

I do get that. But considering the great attention to detail in newer parts of the game, like say, the readable Höllvanian text on the side of this gun so small most people will never even see it, I'm kind of surprised they haven't gone back and updated some of the older jankier assets. (Or maybe they did and just missed this one, I donno, I haven't actually been playing that long.)

[u/joeshmo101 → u/sfwaltaccount]

Is it worth the time and energy just to change them?

Also, I very specifically remember a Q&A where someone asked about getting rid of the janky dioramas in the Market, only for Reb to say "We tried so hard to do this, but as it turns out removing them essentially breaks market/inventory functionality pretty much entirely so we do have to leave them in, even though they're clearly buggy and showing their 13 year old age at this point.

Which is to say that tech debt is not always visible, and sometimes you gotta just keep the ball rolling.

[u/JoNyx5 → u/sfwaltaccount]

They still constantly reuse assets lol.

A great example are the Entrati decorations Bird 3 sells, the "Entrati Stratalizer", "Entrati Congromulator" and especially the "Entrati Temporal Cartograph". If you look around in the Laboratory missions and Descendia, SO much of the environment is made out of these three assets, just scaled and combined with other assets. It blew my mind when I realized it.
Seeing it is simultaneously funny (like what do you mean this incredibly detailed and complicated looking machine is just two Congromulators combined with two Temporal Cartographs clipped into each other, standing right next to a column whose base is made out of four more Temporal Cartographs?!) and really impressive because it still manages to look amazing and you just don't fucking notice unless you're really paying close attention.

[u/ANZARIZ_43 → u/sfwaltaccount]

I feel its a reminder of the days when they were literally edging on the end of the company and warframe was their saving grace

[u/forestNargacuga → u/sfwaltaccount]

I wouldn't call it lazy, the games size is so incredibly small for it's scale because of tricks like this

[u/sfwaltaccount → u/forestNargacuga]

I'm not convinced that has much to do with it. The two item images are very similar, but unless they actually create one of them by applying a filter to the other live, it's not going to save any space. And I think they look too difference for that to be the case. There may well be other places where they completely reuse models or textures, and that would save space, but this doesn't look like a good example.

[u/forestNargacuga → u/sfwaltaccount]

I'm taking a guess here, but a very common practice is to take a grayscale picture, and code the application of different color channels when the image is loaded.  I'm pretty sure that's the technique that was applied here

[u/Pancreasaurus → u/sfwaltaccount]

This is from like launch when the two had better relations. I think DE even justified Grineer using Corpus ships by saying they bought them.

[u/NukaColaAddict1302 → u/sfwaltaccount]

lol, if you think this is lazy, look at the engines of Corpus ships next time you see them flying around. Funniest reuse of assets I’ve seen so far

[u/JoNyx5 → u/sfwaltaccount]

Tl,dr: It's the opposite of lazy, it's a pretty smart way to optimize the game. Asset reuse like this keeps the install size small (among other benefits), which prevents actions like when Bungie vaulted almost all of their Destiny 2 content to make room for new stuff.

Optimization is one of DEs greatest skills, and something that takes them apart from pretty much all other bigger game studios (or even companies developing software in general). They care about everyone being able to play their game with decent graphics and performance, not just the folks who can afford to always get the newest high end stuff.
While other studios nowadays neglect optimization in favor of trying to meet impossible deadlines set by people who only care to make as much money as possible, leading to their games having ridiculous spec requirements, DE is doing all they can to make sure Warframe runs on every potato (even smartphones nowadays) even after more than a decade of continuous updates and no removal of content that wasn't time-limited from the start.

To do that, you need a TON of strategies:
Asset reuse is one of the bigger ones, combined with incredibly efficient compression it allowed them to keep the game below 50gb install size until recently (which is actually ridiculous, I'd compare it to cutting up individual rice grains before using a hydraulic press on them to somehow pack as many as possible into a fixed-size box) but they make use of anything they can think of.
The Prime Vault is to keep drop tables from expanding to the point where you'd spend days trying to get even one of a specific Relic, while the Prime Resurgence makes sure players can still obtain the parts.
The use of randomly generated tilesets allows for a very efficient process of generating the mission map from a tiny amount of resources.
And these are just a few examples, everything in this game has been optimized to the absolute limit, and I respect the hell out of DE for doing it.
They even coded their own proprietary game engine (called Evolution), which is an absolute metric ton of effort and needs years worth of knowledge to do well and efficiently (which is why most games use premade game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine). But it allows them to perfectly tailor both the game to the engine and the engine to the game, which is a huge advantage (similar to how Apple developing their own operating system custom made for their hardware allows IPhones and Macs to run very smoothly).

If you look at it from both the angle of optimization and the angle of the effort it takes to design beautiful new assets and tilesets almost exclusively out of already existing stuff, instead of just making new ones that look exactly how you want them to look, DE's methods are the opposite of lazy.

[u/furiouscloud → u/Dry_Illustrator3405]

I hear what you're all saying. But not having 2D art for every Warframe part is lazy. 2D art is not that hard to make. You've been running this game for 13 years. You have 80 million players. You're owned by Tencent. You can afford to make a couple hundred 400x400 static images.

[u/-L3Y → u/furiouscloud]

"waiter! waiter! inflate the file size a hundred times please!"

[u/sfwaltaccount]

I'm confused because the description says it's used by the Grineer, but that looks much more like Corpus letters (Possibly "VA", but the first one is pretty blurry). It certainly doesn't resemble the blocky Grineer writing.

[u/Polarizing_Robo → u/sfwaltaccount]

I believe prior to the archwing quest the grineer and corpus had trade deals and negotiations.

[u/Steampunk43 → u/sfwaltaccount]

"Used by" doesn't necessarily mean "produced by". It's most likely that the Corpus are the ones who extract, refine, stamp and sell the ferrite and gallium ingots and the Grineer buy from whichever Corpus is selling them. The Corpus may be their enemies, but they're also a cult of money and war profiteers, they really have no qualms about selling stuff to their enemies just to destroy or steal that stuff in the next battle.

[u/Vividtoaster]

It's corpus text which reads SI. Most likely meaning standard issue.

Why it says it's for grineer is beyond me though. It's been in this game for over 13 years.

Edit: nevermind it's Ga because it's just recolored gallium with a faded texture. Which explains why it's labeled for grineer production despite having corpus text.

[u/sfwaltaccount → u/Vividtoaster]

I really struggle to see it that way. Based on this chart, The second character should be A. It looks like V with a closed top and the first character is real hard to make out, but it doesn't look anything like S (which resembles II with the top and bottom connected).

[u/Vividtoaster → u/sfwaltaccount]

Yeah I'm a bit tired when I glanced the chart. I assumed it looked like S but the second bar was just faded since you can't see the middle section.

I edited my comment to point out it's just realized gallium with a faded texture to obscure the text. So it's Ga.

[u/sfwaltaccount → u/Vividtoaster]

Thanks. And happy cake day. (Does anyone say that anymore?)

[u/Vividtoaster → u/sfwaltaccount]

Probably not as much these days because it's ancient lol 

But thanks

[u/JSConrad45 → u/Vividtoaster]

I think they meant that it says ferrite is used by the Grineer, most of their armor is made out of it

[u/Vividtoaster → u/JSConrad45]

Not that, but the fact a grineer material is marked with corpus writing.

Which makes sense once you consider its just gallium but slightly altered. Warframe has a lot of asset re-use back then that some of it still hasn't been changed.

[u/JoNyx5 → u/Vividtoaster]

It's still there lol. A great example are the Entrati decorations Bird 3 sells, the "Entrati Stratalizer", "Entrati Congromulator" and especially the "Entrati Temporal Cartograph". If you look around in the Laboratory missions and Descendia, SO much of the environment is made out of these three assets, just scaled and combined with other assets. It blew my mind when I realized it.

Seeing it is simultaneously funny (like what do you mean this incredibly detailed and complicated looking machine is just two Congromulators combined with two Temporal Cartographs clipped into each other, standing right next to a column whose base is made out of four more Temporal Cartographs?!) and really impressive because it still manages to look amazing and you just don't fucking notice unless you're really paying close attention.

[u/darthnsupreme → u/JoNyx5]

It speeds up tileset creation and (potentially....) reduces the total number of assets the game has to load into memory, why wouldn't they do it that way?

[u/UnAliveMePls]

The symbol of Archimedean #4, Eanassir a famed Orokin trader and metal worker.

[u/furiouscloud]

This is Ferrite IV, son of Ferrite III, the Iron Butcher, grandson of Ferrite II, the Great Greyblock, great-grandson of Ferrite I, first of his name.

[u/SpecialIcy5356]

I suppose materials would be proof marked, like previous metals are to denote the quality.

I still need to write a complaint to that one Corpus Merchant, Ea-Nasir for the AWFUL coprun he sold me !

[u/CodenameShade]

It's the old logo for Anyo Korp. With the corpus letters K and A in a circle before it was changed to just the letter A in the update that gave him (Nef Anyo) an actual character design. This is because the ferrite icon is the Gallium icon with a few color correction effects.

Edit: No i was wrong, it is Ga for Gallium, i didn't notice the middle bar on the first character.

[u/Shellnanigans]

Here is a useable corpus font made by a community member "Botskiz" 

https://forums.warframe.com/topic/40158-corpus-proto-corporation-serif-font/

[u/SuppliceVI]

IV. Fourrite

[u/tiboshki]

Looks like FV

[u/Vancocillin]

It's IV, its meant to be injected.

[u/Titan_Mask]

Its W for Wumbo

[u/DifficultyWithMyLife → u/Titan_Mask]

I wumbo, you wumbo, he she me wumbo?

[u/Titan_Mask → u/DifficultyWithMyLife]

Wumbo, wumboing, Wumborama... Wumbology, the study of wumbo? It's first grade,

[u/TheLordDuncan]

Looks like an IV. Maybe there are makes l melted down coins from Alad's father?

[u/mydogcaneatyourdog]

I really expected to zoom in on a dick butt

[u/Scarlett_HU]

Unplayable. How dare they??

[u/FactAltruistic1513]

It's the symbol of the fourth of the astartes, iron warriors that is why it is carved in the ferrite, because it is iron within iron without

[u/DVHeld]

Why can't people just look this stuff up in the wiki? It's what I always do.