About the first Railjack Hotfix of 2020 and the handling of Fixes and Changes

[GaIaxy]

Hi DE.

I think that I want to show you that the implementation of fixes is not as easy as you think. Maybe this can help you a bit in the future. I will use your first Hotfix of 2020 as an example for this.

I just looked up the first Hotfix Notes of 2020. So I noticed that you can’t get any Intrinsics anymore when you have leveled everything to 10. In my opinion the only thing that this change will do, is that the people who are maxed, have even less incentives to play Railjack, because they are not able to get Intrinsics anymore. People who are not maxed out yet, can still save up Intrinsics for the new Command class, I think. Only level 3 of your classes to 10, so you can still get Intrinsics. Maybe this is unfair? Maybe it’s also unfair that people lost all Intrinsics they got, after being maxed out? You also removed Intrinsic gains when you abort a mission, which is probably okay. The problem here is that you haven’t implemented changes to get a meaningful amount of Intrinsics by actually playing Railjack missions simultaneously. That Ivara method was just used, because of the lack of Intrinsics you can get by playing Railjack normally. That’s the real problem.

I also noticed that you increased the Vidar Reactor MK3 Drop Chance to 4%. That’s a first step into the right direction, but you haven’t adressed the RNG stats at the same time. So now I can basically still get low Avionics Capacity Vidar Reactors, but at a higher chance, which is still bad. Not to mention that the Drop Chance of 4% is still low. Also the Vidar Reactor is optimized for Avionics Capacity and can still be worse than a Zetki Reactor. The range should be like +60-100 Avionics Capacity at least, so every Vidar Reactor MK3 has really more Capacity than a Zetki Reactor MK3. As it is now, it doesn’t make any sense. Now let’s just assume that you can do consistent 6 minute runs on Gian Point with a really good team. So you need 150 minutes at average to drop one Reactor. After that you need to worry about repair costs and RNG stats too. RNG works in other games, not really in yours and you can see the reason for it above. Some people will probably never build anything, because they just have the hope to get better stuff. So they grind for a unhealthy amount of time. For me and many other players it just means to not play, because of all this RNG stuff involved. It feels like working for 8 hours and not getting payed for it.

I also noticed that you have removed Repair Drones from the Market. Okay? But you haven’t really adressed the issue of unbalanced repair costs simultaneously. Doubling the Asterite Drops isn’t changing much at all. I wasn’t able to build anything, because Asterite was always missing before. So if we just assume that my Asterite is doubled, I would be maybe able to build 1 item now, which is still sad. With the Repair Drone we had a limited time offer item, which gave players who bought Repair Drones a huge advantage, to skip unfair repair costs. Now that the Pay to Win Drone is gone from the market, you are forced to play hours to build one part. One part that will probably not be the best in the future anymore, because a better part drops. Is that good balance? But don’t worry, Repair Drones can drop as a mission reward now. The chance is 0,25% as far as I heard. So let‘s just assume 6 minute runs on Gian Point again. Epic, you need 2400 minutes at average to drop one Repair Drone. An entire day has 1440 minutes in total. These Drop Rates are not funny. Looks like it’s not intended to get Repair Drones anymore. Maybe you just missplaced the numbers and the actual drop rate for Repair Drones is 25,0%?

I would really wish that updates can be balanced and enjoyable when they release. So the time your loyal players spend will not be devalued by balance changes in the future. Sadly Empyrean was extremely unbalanced when it dropped and not that much has changed about it until now. And it looks like it’s very difficult for you to adress the problems in a proper way, even with that huge amount of feedback you received from the players. I never expected from you, that you can fix Railjack with the first Hotfix of 2020, because that would be too much work. But the things you changed look a bit weird and rushed out for me. You removed the stealth farm method, but you haven’t adressed the real problem, which is the low amount of Intrinsics you get by really doing Railjack missions. You increased the drop rate of the Vidar Reactor MK3, but you haven’t adressed the issue of RNG stats in any way. You removed Repair Drones from the Market, but you haven’t really adressed the problem with insane repair costs.

There are always two sides on a medal and you only looked at one. Please think a bit more about your changes next time and don’t just rush out a Hotfix, because I don’t have the feeling that Railjack is any better with these first changes of 2020. Sadly the Hotfix was kinda pointless in fixing some major Railjack problems your playerbase have with your game mode. 

I still wish you the best for the future and I hope that your loyal players can get back a Warframe they love. A Warframe without insane next level Grindwalls and RNG factors.   

Sorry if my english is bad. It's not my main language.

Edited January 12, 2020 by Afterburner_X
guzmantt1977 mentions. My formulation was irritating. Never really meant it in a super short term.

[kapn655321]

1 hour ago, Afterburner_X said:

you can’t get any Intrinsics anymore when you have leveled everything to 10

Suppose further level progression were not an option... What could the extra intrinsic go to instead that would satisfy these players? Like, x amount of resources used in Railjack missions maybe? Thinking along the lines of Nightwave.. where extra levels = nightwave credits. Would like to know your thoughts if there's something comparable that would be genuinely appreciated or useful to players in that strata. Perhaps those repair drones? Time based repair cost reducer buff (like a backward drop chance booster)? What would you suggest?
 

1 hour ago, Afterburner_X said:

RNG

I'm running a risk of being considered spam for how many different threads I've suggested this in.. but I might have a solution to this for the drop pools that inspire an undue amount of ire from the player base: Each time you successfully roll the drop table, each item that does not drop improves by 0.5% drop chance. Additive/cumulative each time, resetting to original value once it drops,. this ever so slowly reduces the chance of repeat drops, and makes relentless grinding an investment rather than a exercise in futility. ...that's a rough draft idea, but would restore our player's sense of agency, instead of feeling like each run is attempting to make us the fool, who runs it forever and never gets the drop.
 

 

1 hour ago, Afterburner_X said:

low amount of Intrinsics you get

1 hour ago, Afterburner_X said:

you can’t get any Intrinsics anymore when you have leveled everything to 10

I think this traffic jam might just explain itself. Even with distressingly low intrinsic coming in, people are completing it way faster than they can develop. There's a chance I'm not seeing the whole picture on that one.. perhaps you can understand where I'm coming from on this one. Not sure how it's both too much and not enough, but I can't know for sure as I haven't gotten into railjack content yet.  Not saying you're wrong at all, just saying I'm unclear on how both are inherently mutually exclusive, but still valid. By all means, let me know. Genuinely hoping to be more well informed on these matters.

Edited January 12, 2020 by kapn655321

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

1 hour ago, Afterburner_X said:

Now let’s just assume that you can do consistent 6 minute runs on Gian Point with a really good team. So you need 150 minutes at average to drop one Reactor. After that you need to worry about repair costs and RNG stats too. RNG works in other games, not really in yours and you can see the reason for it above. Some people will probably never build anything, because they just have the hope to get better stuff. So they grind for a unhealthy amount of time. For me and many other players it just means to not play, because of all this RNG stuff involved. It feels like working for 8 hours and not getting payed for it.

I also noticed that you have removed Repair Drones from the Market. Okay? But you haven’t really adressed the issue of unbalanced repair costs simultaneously. Doubling the Asterite Drops isn’t changing much at all. I wasn’t able to build anything, because Asterite was always missing before. So if we just assume that my Asterite is doubled, I would be maybe able to build 1 item now, which is still sad. With the Repair Drone we had a limited time offer item, which gave players who bought Repair Drones a huge advantage, to skip unfair repair costs. Now that the Pay to Win Drone is gone from the market, you are forced to play hours to build one part. One part that will be probably bad soon, because a better part drops shortly after. Is that good balance?

OP complains about how long it takes to get anything good to drop, compares it to working 8 hours without pay. 

OP then complains that now that the drones are gone, they will not want to repair anything, because after they repair that part, they're just going to get a better drop soon after. 

Could you please decide which it is and stick to that? Because this is exactly why we can't have nice things. 

[(XBOX)BINHO KZ RETURN]

repair by drone if the player does not want to.  simple, do not buy, go to the farm and stop crying.  This is a cosmetic farm skin game are what make the company pay for dlc, unsupported games and crumb crumbs in one free game.  Let me say first and first.  congratulations DE for the railjack revolution

 

Edited January 13, 2020 by (XB1)BINHO KZ RETURN

[R14X]

God bless you OP
keep fighting the good fight
you are helping us all out by continuing to speak out and make sure that these issues are seen

Edited January 16, 2020 by R14X

[zhunGamer]

I think Empyrean is an absolute chore. Everything costs 8+ hours of play time even with resource booster. Then what you get is actually garbage.

 

If they brought rush drones back, I would buy 100 of them for 5000 plat just so I don't have to farm resources. 

 

I don't like Empyrean so far, haven't even touched it for a month.

Edited January 21, 2020 by Zhuinden