Digital Extremes announced today that later this year Warframe will be enhanced with a number of highly requested new features.

The first of these innovations is a social space named Cetus which will contain a number of merchants as well as other non hostile characters, and players will be able to meet other Tenno as they explore this new location. Up to fifty people can fit in each instance of Cetus.

Gamers may also exit this safe zone and visit a wide open area full of caves, hidden camps and interesting new quests. A day/night cycle is also in effect (and it will affect the types of enemies that we’ll have to face on our expeditions) and new resources can be found in this landmass, such as fish (spear fishing is an option). Co-op oriented players will be able to form four member parties, and, in a very nice touch, we’ll even be able to equip our Archwing craft and provide aerial support for our buddies who choose to stay on the ground.

Aside from the big open world reveal, the team at Digital Extremes also shared that they have been working on weapon crafting, a highly requested feature that will let players create (and name) their own weapons from modular parts. This won’t be a cosmetic only upgrade, as the different parts that constitute each weapon will have their own stats.

On the tech side, Warframe’s rendering system has been completely overhauled in order to support the massive draw distances associated with open world areas.

This new expansion will see the light of the day in late Summer 2017.