The Orbiter Obsolete and Railjack space experience (+a neat idea).

[(XBOX)Architect Prime]

Expect a messy post.

Between Dojos and Railjacks and Relays, what's the need to always end up back at the orbiter? You could say that the orbiter has the invisibility, but why do we need an orbiter when we have all these other things that seemingly exist just fine in the warframe world? Why isn't my railjack capable of the full functionality of the orbiter? 

Now imagine that in the middle of each planet on the railjack starchart (The multiple starchart situation is janky right now btw) sits an open zone node. Depending on the planet (area) you're in, your orbiter will be in that node, making your tethered railjack invisible inherently. But if you go into your railjack, you can detatch and traverse the railjack area as you would any other mission. The difference is that this zone would be treated like plains of the orb in that, if you happen upon something, you'd get the bounty like any open zone. I should point out that this wouldn't require DE to actually make a big new area, but they could and it still wouldn't be that crazy to place some floaty bois. Does that make sense? Then you could simply retether to the orbiter if you need to for some reason (even though the railjack should almost completely replace the orbiter once you have one). Also there would be no performance concerns I can think of since you would NOT need to make the orbiter one of those environments-inside-environments since it would never be seen or interacted with on the outside (it's undetectable). And I almost forgot: I don't always wanna be forced into a bunch or objectives that must complete in every situation of outright fail the mission. I'm a fan being able to choose my battles. There's already a whole starchart of linear, high intensity missions. 

I'm not claiming to be super right about all this. This is just my honest feedback about how I feel things should be. Railjack stuff is still cool, I'm just putting this out there. 

Edited January 22, 2020 by (XB1)Architect Prime
Addition

[NekroArts]

Let me see if I got this correct:

• Create a "station point" where your orbiter will be place, Railjack will follow you like a pet on a leash.
• You can go into your Railjack and explore the area you're stationed in.

This where I get confused

12 minutes ago, (XB1)Architect Prime said:

The difference is that this zone would be treated like plains of the orb in that...

What do you mean "plains of the orb"? Are you referring to Plains of Eidolon or Orb Vallis? 

14 minutes ago, (XB1)Architect Prime said:

if you happen upon something, you'd get the bounty like any open zone.

You're gonna have to be more clear on "happen upon something". What triggers the bounty? And are the bounty like what we get from our current open worlds? 

[(XBOX)Architect Prime]

1 minute ago, NekroArts said:

Let me see if I got this correct:

• Create a "station point" where your orbiter will be place, Railjack will follow you like a pet on a leash.
• You can go into your Railjack and explore the area you're stationed in.

This where I get confused

What do you mean "plains of the orb"? Are you referring to Plains of Eidolon or Orb Vallis? 

You're gonna have to be more clear on "happen upon something". What triggers the bounty? And are the bounty like what we get from our current open worlds? 

Something like that and yeah like how plain bounties will pop up once in a while while you explore. For some reason I thought that the orb was like that too in that moment. 

[NekroArts]

1 minute ago, (XB1)Architect Prime said:

Something like that and yeah like how plain bounties will pop up once in a while while you explore. For some reason I thought that the orb was like that too in that moment. 

Ah, so the same mechanics of additional bounties that aren't tied to a npc but just appears whenever. Plains I remember having spontaneous bounties showing up, but I don't remember that for Vallis.

[Rawbeard]

the orbiter is the main menu. kinda hard having a game without it

[Tarak]

So, the Orbiter is a physical menu system. It used to be that you would log into Warframe and the first thing you would see was the star chart and a set of buttons to access your Arsenal, mods, and foundry. However, DE wanted to improve immersion in the game by adding a physical space for us to interact with when not in a mission, rather than just a menu. You also have to note the separation of the Liset, Orbiter and the Railjack as three individual things that have three individual purposes.

That said, I absolutely feel that the Orbiter and the Liset still have a place in the game, however I feel they could use a functionality overhaul. The Orbiter is our Base, our operational center, and the Railjack and the Liset have very different and specific purposes. The Liset is a stealth incursion craft, designed specifically to get us to a mission area undetected, and get us out safely. In addition, Ordis is the pilot of the Liset, it doesn’t need us to pilot it, The Railjack on the other hand, is piloted by us, so lore wise, using the Railjack to deploy on missions doesn’t really make sense, as you’d be leaving your railjack unattended just hanging out above the enemy base or floating alongside the enemy ship.

I believe that having the Railjack tethered to the Orbiter was a neat idea, but that it could be expanded on. Allowing us to return to the orbiter between Railjack missions for instance, and adding a Railjack terminal that allows us to access the dry dock customization terminal’s function from our Orbiter for instance could help to tie the game together in a better way.

 

In addition, showing us the Orbiter would help to solidify its place and purpose in the game. When we start a mission, it could show our landing craft disengaging from it before cutting to the loading screen, maybe show the railjack uncoupling from the tether before making the void jump. Show the Orbiter itself in-game to solidify it as our personal base of operations.

Also, they could expand the orbiter into a proper base of operations, for instance, overhauling the simulacrum into a customizable shooting range/testing ground and allowing us to access it from our orbiter (Perhaps through the arsenal, a button right next to the captura one would work just fine) would centralize more potential combat prep in the orbiter itself.

 

As for the ‘free roam’ idea, while it could be interesting, it would actually require them to create new open space areas for each planet and add bounty systems for each of them. I doubt their going to put in the effort to add all that and try to find a way to isolate it from the Orbiter without a loading screen (which would very much undermine the purpose) just to add in something that doesn’t really expand the game in any meaningful way or add a new type of content. We’d likely be collectively bored with it as a community after a couple hours of play time.

[(XBOX)Rez090]

Don't forget, only the orbiter contains our operator's transference station.

[(XBOX)KayAitch]

14 hours ago, (XB1)Architect Prime said:

Between Dojos and Railjacks and Relays, what's the need to always end up back at the orbiter

You don't, missions started from dojo or relay end at them too.

But yeah the Orbiter is the default because everyone has access to it.

When I started on X1 Earth didn't even have a relay, and you don't start with a dojo or railjack either.

14 hours ago, (XB1)Architect Prime said:

You could say that the orbiter has the invisibility,

It's all confusing, but there are 3 ships:

The drop ship - this is the thing you see between missions. It can turn invisible and hangs about nearby. It's short range. You never see the inside of the drop ship, but it's just that rotating coffin you step in to at the end of missions.

The orbiter - you never see the outside of this, but the inside is your base. It's much larger than the drop ship. The orbiter can only travel using rails - these are what you unlock as you progress the star chart. Every star chart node you can travel to is close to one of these rails.

The railjack - this is smaller than the orbiter, but has its own rail-engine. It can go anywhere, not just where there are solar rails. The proximas are close to the planets, but bit the solar rail stations, so the railjack can get there but the orbiter can't.

14 hours ago, (XB1)Architect Prime said:

Depending on the planet (area) you're in, your orbiter will be in that node, making your tethered railjack invisible inherently. But if you go into your railjack, you can detatch and traverse the railjack area as you would any other mission

This is a good idea, but I think that's where the drop ship can get you to missions.

I would like to see more regular missions in railjack, not just galleons and asteroids with fixed tilesets. We need every mission type as a sub mission that helps the railjack fight outside.

So, close to solar rails:

- Orbiter rides in on the rail

- Dropship invisibly sneaks past all the crewships and fighters and gets you straight to the mission

Away from solar rails:

- Railjack takes itself in

- No dropship, now you have to fight your way through to the objective.

[(XBOX)DA ZACHYZACHY]

On 2020-01-22 at 8:19 AM, (XB1)Architect Prime said:

Why isn't my railjack capable of the full functionality of the orbiter?

Because lore wise they weren’t built for Tenno, they were made for off the rails travel, and combat.

Anyway, you can get to your Railjack instantly in the back of your ship (outside Helminth, the Focus room and your personal quarters) or in the pause menu in your orbiter.

[(XBOX)Architect Prime]

6 hours ago, (XB1)DA ZACHYZACHY said:

Because lore wise they weren’t built for Tenno, they were made for off the rails travel, and combat.

Anyway, you can get to your Railjack instantly in the back of your ship (outside Helminth, the Focus room and your personal quarters) or in the pause menu in your orbiter.

Yeah, it's not a huge deal or anything. But I thout I'd bring it up.