Slow Down Combat Movement, Add Travel and Park Flight Modes

[DrBorris]

There are still some massive problems with Railjack combat that I do not think can be fixed without some similarly massive changes. Those being...

• Combat is too fast for either Archwings or Gunners to keep up with the Railjack. Enemies are spread out and the meta is shooting pixels.
• The Engineer/Repair role only exists if the Pilot/Gunners are failing their jobs. If the Pilot is doing well than there are no repairs to do, making most investment in Engineering pointless.
• Stopping to do side objectives requires someone to baby-sit the Railjack.

A bunch of those issues can be alleviated by slowing combat down, by making combat slower…

• Gunners can actually target/track enemies.
• Damage to the Railjack becomes inevitable rather than a failure state, meaning Engineers always have a job.
• Piloting becomes more about empowering your squad than being a one-man army.

Unfortunately, this creates a few new issues, those being…

• Getting to new objectives becomes burdensome.
• The Railjack’s fragility will become more apparent as you can no longer dip-n-dodge.
• ... in addition to not fixing the baby-sit issue.

 

Proposed Solution: Flight Modes: Diverting Power to Weapons/Hull, Engines, and Cloak

Rather than try to fix square pegs in circle holes, break apart the roles the Railjack needs to fulfill (combat, travel, and parked) into three distinct flight modes.

• Combat Mode:
  • Greatly increased Hull strength (damage reduction)
  • Slowed movement speed
  • Increased Turret damage
  • (Controversial) Very generous aim-assist for turrets
• Travel Mode:
  • Greatly increased speed
  • Unlimited Boost
• Park Mode:
  • An infinite duration cloak that leaves the Railjack invulnerable
  • No weapon access
  • No movement
  • No Battle Avionics

With the different uses of the Railjack separated into different flight modes each can be tuned individually to fit their role as best as they can. You won’t have to worry about balancing transit times when balancing combat encounters, won’t have to worry about balancing hull strength when trying to make parking possible, etcetera. This also brings back the fantasy of “diverting power to engines” that I think a lot of people missed from the original showcase without the complications of a granular energy economy.

[DrivaMain]

11 hours ago, DrBorris said:

• Combat Mode:
  • Greatly increased Hull strength (damage reduction)
  • Slowed movement speed
  • Increased Turret damage
  • (Controversial) Very generous aim-assist for turrets
• Travel Mode:
  • Greatly increased speed
  • Unlimited Boost
• Park Mode:
  • An infinite duration cloak that leaves the Railjack invulnerable
  • No weapon access
  • No movement
  • No Battle Avionics

This used to exist in development, but DE decided to scrap it because it doesn't go well in the fast paced combat of Warframe and adds too much micromanagement. 

I say DE should bite the bullet and allow multiple Railjacks in missions. Let Command NPCs do the micromanagement stuff.

 

[DrBorris]

18 minutes ago, DrivaMain said:

This used to exist in development, but DE decided to scrap it because it doesn't go well in the fast paced combat of Warframe and adds too much micromanagement. 

I say DE should bite the bullet and allow multiple Railjacks in missions. Let Command NPCs do the micromanagement stuff.

We don't know at all what the development version of this was like. The little we do know from the demo is that it was originally granular, you could have 50% shields, 25% engine, 25% weapons for example. What the above tries to solve is not at all what the demo footage was trying to do. You don't decide how much shield/engine power you want when fighting, you only select the option for fighting. As I mention in the beginning having combat be so fast fundamentally breaks what Railjack is supposed to be. Turning the Pilot into a one-man army not only makes the game boring for the rest of the squad, it also invalidates progression other players have made (Gunnery, Tactical, and Engineering Intrinsics). Unless Railjack is completely upended to just be a giant Archwing the combat NEEDS to slow down.

It is simple logic.

1. Non-Pilot party members literally can't keep up with the speed the Railjack is traveling when in a fight.
   1. Gunners can't track, Archwings are left in the dust, Engineers have nothing to do.
2. Slowing combat allows for better co-op play, but now the Railjack is slow so it can't get from A to B.
3. Adding a completely separate Travel mode allows for fast travel without hurting the combat experience.

These modes shouldn't slow down the pace of combat (slow Railjack does NOT mean slow combat) because you shouldn't be switching modes while in combat. Saying "DE tried it, they did not like it" is not a fair criticism because what is suggested above is fundamentally different from even the tiny snippet we were shown.

[o0Despair0o]

14 hours ago, DrBorris said:

Park Mode:

• An infinite duration cloak that leaves the Railjack invulnerable

 

"Oh crap my ship's 'bout to implode"

*pops park mode*

"Suck it, 2-kilometer-length space warship!"