Railjack Intrinsics: Feedback and Suggestion

[ErikaFurudo]

I'm not 100% certain this is the right section for this, but I cannot identify a better place for it.

Having seen screenshots of the RJ revisited PTS, I see that the Intrinsic skills remain unchanged. Having gotten quite familiar with them, I feel obliged to break down their abundant failings and the positive aspects of them. As a general theme there are two major problems with Intrinsics that serve to dissuade the average player from participating in Railjack content: Firstly, a number of Intrinsics are things that should be accessible to every player from the very beginning.  Secondly, a number of Intrinsics are hugely unrewarding for the amount of effort to acquire them. 

I will be breaking down the currently existing skill paths and offering reformulated alternatives in turn. Spoilers per section because this is a wall of text.

Tactical

Spoiler

 

Rank 1: lets you open the map and use mods you installed
Our first Intrinsic on the chopping block: Firstly: the player should be told about the tactical menu and it should be available from the second they first load into a RJ. Having basic situational awareness is important in public games, knowing you've been boarded etc. Secondly: tactical avionics are tied to both mods and skills. Nothing else in the game is like this and frankly if you don't have Tactical 1 you likely don't have Tactical Avionics anyways.

Rank 2: Warframe Power Support
This is a very good fundamental idea. It is both cool and potentially useful. There are some problems that still need to be ironed out with the execution and balance of available Warframe powers, but the idea is cool at least. A "tagged" Warframe would be nice rather the frame you bring in mission though.

Rank 3: Command Link
This is super useful, only problem is the clunkyness around bringing up the tactical menu ie: not during animations, while moving, etc.

Rank 4: Omni Warp
The reason you specced into the tactical tree to begin with. Unbelievably important, especially to new players who do not have minmaxed archwing gear and players stuck solo. The only problem is that this skill is so deep in the tree when it should be the first intrinsic rank

Rank 5: Sightjack
When I first saw this, I was appalled at how garbage it sounded. It is actually useful in combination with power support, because it lets you drop support on players loaded into different parts of the map. This is a communication failure, a better description and cost adjustment would make this fine. Adding more use cases for it in normal RJ content would be nice as well.

Rank 6: Railjack Flux Efficiency
This is okay if underwhelming, really feels like it should be an avionic but they are overcrowded as is.

Rank 7: Tactical Mod Cooldown
Also okay if underwhelming, bearing in mind that the bulk of tactical avionics just aren't worth their avionics cost. Shares the same problem as the Engineering cooldown intrinsics.

Rank 8: Blink Cooldown
This is nice to have. I don't know why it is in Railjack, but it is nice to have,

Rank 9: More Mod Cooldown
Still okay, but massively overpriced for what it is.

Rank 10: Crew Teleport
This is a pretty good capstone. Lets you be all over the place when needed. It is not super useful during normal RJ gameplay due to mission structure, but more mission variation would help here. It is also super useful when solo.

 

Piloting

Spoiler

 

Rank 1: Boost
This really should be build into the RJ. I know you've provided a major boost to base speeds in the PTS, but a weaker form of the basic "sprint" analog should be available from the get go.

Rank 2: Dodge
This really should be build into the RJ. A weaker form of the basic "dodge roll" analog should be available from the get go.

Rank 3: Dodge works
This really, really should be integral to dodge.

Rank 4: Collision Damage reduce
This is pretty bad. Collisions with enemies do very little damage as do collisions with environmental objects. Unless you are ramming into stuff to farm resources, you are unlikely to hit environmental geometry anyways.

Rank 5: Drift
This is a super useful skill. It should probably be earlier in the tree due to how useful it is and it would probably have gone a long way to making players complain less about how slow RJ is.

Rank 6: More boost
Its okay. Nice to have, kind of weak as a whole node.

Rank 7: More maneuvers
Same again, nice to have but overpriced.

Rank 8: Faster Archwing
Its great to have but still weird.

Rank 9: Boost damage reduce
10% DR is basically nothing. Especially for 256 intrinsics.

Rank 10: Ramming Speed
Why.
Fightercraft die when they run into your ship anyways and are a pain to intentionally hit unless you bait them into streams. 
2000 damage is scratch damage to Crew Ships and it can't kill them even if you pile on the scratch damage.
A single particle status is roughly 7% bonus damage, you are unlikely to stack more than 2 with repeated rammings so it doesn't hugely buff the Forward Artillery  vs CS or anything.
This is a contender for the single worst intrinsic. If it was the first Pilot Intrinsic, it would be considered a filler node, that it is the capstone is a slap in the face after all that grind.

 

Gunnery

Spoiler

 

Rank 1: Lead Indicators
Now, I read the patch notes that said "everything is a projectile weapon now", most players will not. For years hitscan weapons have had visual tracers, except now RJ+Archwing is exceptional now. 
Beyond that inconsistency, this is another thing that should be baked into the turrets/the player; not behind a skill tree and certainly contributes to weapons feeling weak as a new player.

Rank 2: 360 Degree Side Guns
A decent skill all things considered. Definitely makes gunning more comfortable, but the firing arcs are generous even if the sight arcs are not. Could do with some benefit for the pilot though.

Rank 3: Archwing Slingshot
It is cool, but in the time it takes you to go to the slingshot, load into and fire you could have gone most of that distance using a normal exit.

Rank 4: Archwing Slingshot Warhead
Lets you pop tough fighters in one shot and board Crew Ships. It is okay but seriously inferior to:

Rank 5: Forward Artillery
One shot kill on crewships by hitting the engines, unmodded till a halfway through Veil Proxima. Kudos to whoever programmed the boost/interrupt interaction between the FA and the pilot; it makes pub coordinate much easier than it could be.
That being said, the FA seems to be the way DE wants us to be killing CS with. It takes entirely too long to unlock which just further pushes players away from actually using the Railjack in Railjack content, since they have to abandon ship minimum 2 times a mission to hurt CS which will destroy their Railjack while they are mucking about boarding.

Rank 6: Cooler Guns
This is okay. Boring but fine.

Rank 7: Shorter Overheat, Long Range Slingshot
The shorter overheat is boring but fine. The slingshot range is cool but basically useless.

Rank 8: Archwing Power Boost
This is a pretty great bonus. Kind of weird to have it in Intrinsics, but I'll take it.

Rank 9: Combat Drift
It's a cool idea in theory, but hitting a moving target while drifting is a pain; in theory this dovetails into the next skill:

Rank 10: Snap Aim
This is a great capstone skill that really makes a number of high burst damage weapons (ie Zetki) viable, as well as lets the Apoc series compete with Cryophon in damage and Photor for ease of use.
At least it would if the skill actually worked the way it claimed to. Instead, the actual aim point lags a fair distance behind on craft not coming towards/going away from you meaning outside of short range/wide projectile Cryophon series weapons where the imprecision doesn't matter, Snap Aim is completely useless for actually hitting targets you'd have trouble aiming at.

 

Engineering

Spoiler

 

Rank 1: Faster Omni
I didn't notice if this skill sped up the "minigame" for fixing breaches or just the total hold time. Boring and doesn't even really introduce the Engineering tree.

Rank 2: Bake Flux
Undoubtably important, but a new player putting their first 3 points into Engineering is seeing basically no value from this till they get power drops worth using or unlock the tactical tree.

Rank 3: Bake missiles
Missiles are nice. There are relative balance problems between the weapons, but this is okay and a new player has a use for it.

Rank 4: Larger batches of cookies
Both of these skills are fine, but the added yield means a player without the skills can lock you out of three forges making the stuff it would take you two forges to make.
A new player trying to be helpful should absolutely never be a detriment at a mechanical level like this.

Rank 5: Bake FA Ammo
The FA holds 5 shots in total. There are 6 CS spawns in most missions.

Rank 6: Fast forge CD
Same problem as Rank 4: boring but fine only a player without the skill effectively locks you out of the forges for that extra time period. 

Rank 7: Even more cookies
Same as Rank 4, but it costs more.

Rank 8: Tougher Archwing
Arguably the worst Archwing bonus, but still acceptable and still weird.

Rank 9: 10% more forge
Some background for those who aren't aware of how the forge works. 
4 of the resources you pick up in Railjack go into bins in the back of the ship. These bin resources can be turned into energy or ammo. The bins are capped at 200 of each resource. At any time, you can dump the bin resources into the squad's inventory, giving whatever is in the bin plus 20% to each play in the squad, affect by individual boosters. As an example, if you have 200 Cubic Diodes (the max for that bin) only and you empty the bins, everyone in the squad gets 240 Cubic Diodes.
This skill adds 10% to that 20% bonus, for 30% total meaning that this single skill, which is half the grind of the whole Engineering tree; gives you a grand total of 20 extra Cubic Diodes in that example. With quad resource drops, that isn't even a single percent of the Cubic Diodes needed to build a mk3 House item.
Bearing in mind that those 4 resources that this affects drop pretty freely and you will have more than you can spend by the time you unlock this skill, I can only ask "how did this get placed at rank 9".

Rank 10: Remote Repair
This is a great capstone skill. It lets Engineering synergize really well with other jobs on the RJ, takes slightly longer than a player doing the minigame would but lets you repair in two places at once.
Only real problem is that it prevents teleporting with Tactical 3 while repairing, damage icons can overlap with warp locations and aforementioned arbitrary use limitations on the tactical map. A revolite counter on the map would be nice.

 

Having stated my problems with the current Intrinsics system, I would like to propose a set of refined skills, since finding a problem is easier than finding a solution.
These suggestions are as conservative and easy to implement as possible and try to retain the general degree of power each path has currently

Tactical Improved

Spoiler

 

General changes:

The map is unlocked automatically and the new hotkey is explained in a tutorial. I've met multiple players in Veil Proxima who didn't know that L opened the tactical menu because of the poor explanations for Railjack.

Cooldown reduction is based on the highest ranked person in the squad.

Tactical Avionics have no avionics cost and don't require an intrinsic. The 4+ minute cooldown is bad enough for how underwhelming and micro intensive most of them are.
The avionic "Form Up" is given to every single player and absolutely has its cost reduced to 0. This avionic currently functions as a glorified /unstuck, especially on marginal host-client connections.

Rank 1: Omni Warp
Simply put, everyone outside of the first mission node should have this available. It is primarily a tool of convenience and makes being in the Railjack more appealing the just clearing Railjack missions in Archwing.

Rank 2: Command link
Again, super useful for everyone in a squad and makes being on the RJ more attractive.
Permit the L menu to be opened in more situations, like while moving.

Rank 3: Warframe Power Support
Alrighty, 7 points invested and now you've got the first dedicated Tactical path skill. Rank 3 is where you unlock Saturn Proxima and seems like the best place for the path to start rewarding specialization.

Rank 4: Sightjack
Same as the current skill, but explain that it allows you to drop support on other players. 10% reduction to Avionics cooldown.

Rank 5: Flux Efficiency
25% cost reduction, lets the player use support more often but also desirable for everyone using RJ Battle Avionics.

Rank 6:
Halved Omni/Crew Warp warm up, further 10% reduction to Tactical Avionic cooldown speed.

Rank 7:
Allows the tactical menu to be used in regular missions, serving to integrate Railjack with the normal game. Flux forging being unavailable in mission means the support potential is limited. This potentially gives a role to bonus flux reactors. Maybe add an efficiency penalty to planetary support if it is too much.
10% further reduction to Tactical Avionics cooldown

Rank 8: Blink Cooldown
All the rank 8 skills are weird but fine.

Rank 9:
Further 10% cooldown reduction on tactical avionics.
Cooldown synergy: if one or more players in the squad have this skill, every player with a Tactical Avionics cooldown reduction skill adds a further (smaller) reduction, say 2% per player per additional skill (24% max bonus for a total 64% reduction if the three other players have Rank 9 Tactics as well.

Rank 10: Crew Warp
A fine skill, just give us more reasons to use it. Maybe do a cool radial blast/knockdown energy wave upon warping in? 

 

Piloting Improved

Spoiler

 

General changes:

Boost, dodge and drift are available by default but only work at half their current speed/efficiency.
Dodge breaks locks by default.

Rank 1: Full Speed Boost
Unlocks the equivalent to current boost.

Rank 2: Efficient Dodge
As current.

Rank 3: Gliding Drift
As current,
A player who specs into piloting and goes to Saturn has all the basic tools unlocked.

Rank 4: 
25% reduction to collision damage
25% longer boost

Rank 5:
10% reduction in damage taken while moving (same logic as the PTS Particle Ram)
25% reduction in collision damage (25% more than the original)

Rank 6:
25% reduction in Dodge/Drift cost.
25% reduction in collision damage.

Rank 7:
50% damage reduction while stationary and the Forward Artillery is charging.
This is a big change from the original path, but I think it encourages desirable teamwork.

Rank 8; Speed Boost
Still kind weird, but cool.

Rank 9:
A further 15% damage reduction while moving. 
Still kind of a filler node.

Rank 10:
Afterburners/Core Vent 2.0/Space Chemtrails
Boosting, dodging and drifting leave a particle field that deals 1-5% of the enemy's HP as particle damage with a forced proc every second (causing the damage to ramp up). The trail lasts for 5-10 seconds at most.
Kind of stepping into Fiery Phoenix's territory, but matches the spirit of the original rank 10 skill while actually making it useable.

 

Gunnery Improved

Spoiler

 

General changes:
Lead indicators by default.
FA is accessible by default but operates at half strength/charge speed.
Archwing Slingshot is also accessible by default.

Rank 1:
360 degree side guns.

Rank 2:
FA doubled to the current rate.
Half strength shots should still oneshot crewships in the engines on Earth, Gives incentive to use the FA avionic as well.

Rank 3: 
FA damage doubled to current value.
The player specced into Gunnery is useful in this role when they unlock Saturn now.

Rank 4: Slingshot Warhead
Still not mechanically great, still cool.

Rank 5: Cold Trigger
Reduce Turret Heat Accretion by 20%
Reduce overheat duration by 50%

Rank 6:
Double Slingshot range
Double Slingshot velocity
Still not great, but the velocity improvement would make it feel better

Rank 7:
Shrapnel Warhead: Archwing inflicts a large (>100m) radius particle or plasma proc on impact with target fighter/CS/coming to a halt in space.
(The idea being to make the archwing slingshot more beneficial to your team)

Rank 8:
Same archwing power buffs.

Rank 9: Combat Evasion
In addition to causing a 50% reduction in heat buildup, drift or boost both cause the overheat timer and heat bar to cooldown 50% faster.
This is further encouragement to regularly manuevering in combat.

Rank 10: Snap Aim
Seriously, great skill; just make it work as described and it will be excellent.

 

Engineering Improved

Spoiler

 

General changes
Faster Omni is baked in.
Yield/refinement/cooldown bonuses take the the best in squad for all player so the squad doesn't have to fight for forge time when a new player tries to help.

Rank 1: Bake missiles, 10% refinement yield.

Rank 2: Bake domes, further 10% refinement yield.

Rank 3: Bake flux, further 10% refinement yield.
(at this point, the player specced into Engineering unlocks Saturn and can do the basic engineering things)

Rank 4: 25% more forge yield

Rank 5: 25% faster forge speed

Rank 6: 25% more forge yield

Rank 7: 
Engineering synergy: Every additional player in squad adds 3.3% refinement, 4% yield and 5% forge speed per skill.

Rank 8:
Same archwing buff it is right now.

Rank 9: Remote forge
Access the forge from the tactical menu, view current resources in the tactical menu.

Rank 10: Remote repair
Same as current, add a revolite counter in the tactical menu and improve the implementation regarding other items on the tactical map.

 

I hope those ideas aren't too terrible. Thanks to anyone who actually made it through this whole thing, I really hope someone at DE see this feedback because reworking improving Intrinsics would greatly improve the new player experience with Railjack.

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_]

tag so I can read later.

Theres alot of room for improvement with pilot and gunnery in general.