Solar Rails, will they ever return?

[Noralen]

Every time I go to meditate in my Dojo's Garden's, I cannot help but remember the days when the Orokin lab was utilized for the construction of solar rails.

I understand that most Tenno feel no desire to test their blades against each other, but I find a certain enjoyment in pitting my skills against that of another, equal, and perhaps even better opponent.

I've lamented the loss of the Solar rails, and the battles between clans that would occur from them, and I cannot help but ponder a way they might return, or if they even could.

[lowgrav]

i could be fun and if DE didnt want the clans to claim it they could rig it to be a PVE thing like this node has below avarage drops but if your clan claims it by building a solar rail you can increse the drops but the grineer and corprus will try to wreck it

as each clan can claim the same node there will be no taxing other clans (like the 100% tax) so the thing would be like a event for your clan only (defend your clan rail) and while small clans will most likely try to hold a few nodes large ones will try to get em all so there will be more rail under seige events as each one would have an inderpendent timer (and multiple can pop at once

DE would have to do something like this as previously if one of the big clans got it nobody was taking it from them due to more players and players in different time zones able to retake the node when you log off so they would have to turn it into something like razorback or formorian where if you defend it you keep the node and there is a cooldown before they can re atempt if you dont the corprus or grinner remove your rail and you will have to rebuild it and there is a time limit of a few days to react so its not like aww you were not able to log in for 1 day well now you have to build a new rail coz a big clan took the advantage

or is the idea that all players join up to the big clans you know the ones that kicked alot of people out to minimise the build requirements 2 years back

[(PSN)DoctorWho_90250]

Doubt it.

[0_The_F00l]

Most likely not ,

I was relatively new when these events existed, but I was told how some of the clans got so competitive and toxic that DE decided to just stop it.

Assuming it is not direct competition it might return , but I jave no hopes for it.

[trst]

The system as it was, most likely never. A new PvP system like it, probably too little PvP interest for it to be a serious consideration.

It would be neat for (both versions) the system to be put back in as standalone gamemodes without the associated mechanics that made it toxic. But given how unpopular PvP is to begin with just for DE to even mention that they spent time putting it back in would be met with backlash on top of it likely still remaining unpopular.

[--SA--Demmodor]

Lets first go back to the reason why they got removed.
Solar Rails got removed from the game because only some clans had full control and the rest was nothing, DE was getting death threatens because of the competitive idiots playing it. 
This gamemode was fun, but broken in terms of balance and clans power.
And right now DE is removing the research for those who dont have it, so i thin Solar Rails wont return and Railjack will be our only space flight ever from now on.

(EDIT: forgot a phrase)

 

[BloodKitten]

oh i remember solar rails, just people with invisibiliy cheesing things with ground slam, was the most boring game type.

i wouldent mind a game that is against AI specters but when you put player vs player, it gets pointlessly toxic.

[Paradoxity]

Not as they were. Maybe we'll see something called solar rails come back in the future, but it won't be the same as the junk they removed. 

[(PSN)robotwars7]

7 hours ago, Noralen said:

I've lamented the loss of the Solar rails, and the battles between clans that would occur from them, and I cannot help but ponder a way they might return, or if they even could.

I wouldn't waste any more time lamenting, because they aren't coming back. gotta get up and move on, you know?

the Orokin lab is terribly neglected though. being able to research or trade ducats for Vaulted Prime parts would make it useful again. 

[Noralen]

On 2021-02-09 at 7:29 AM, (PSN)robotwars7 said:

I wouldn't waste any more time lamenting, because they aren't coming back. gotta get up and move on, you know?

the Orokin lab is terribly neglected though. being able to research or trade ducats for Vaulted Prime parts would make it useful again. 

Or perhaps tie it to that idea they had for giving clan specific versions of railjacks, the galleon ones they were talking about way way back when they were still talking about railjack at all.

[PublikDomain]

Solar Rail Conflicts were cool. Broken, but cool. And all of the problems with them are now solvable:

• Balance: We now have Conclave loadouts and rulesets we can use.
• Not enough room/race to click first: We now have the ability to swap to entirely new Starchart overlays and pick from multiple missions on the same node. Make most nodes in the game contestable, and add rules like "you can't invade a node you don't have territory next to, if you control any territory". Then we can have hundreds of nodes and reasonable rules which should provide plenty of space for groups to spread out in.
• Taxes: Limit the tax, and don't tax players. Instead tax the NPCs that "live" on the node. It's basically the exact same as before, just you don't actually lose any of your resources if you play on a taxed node.

All fixed. Now we have a meaningful clan v clan PvP endgame to chew on for a while. And if you don't like PvP in any form then you don't have to play. And if you don't have a big clan or alliance then you can still participate as a mercenary for either side like before. We don't need to worry about dedicated servers, either, because player-hosted dedicated servers have existed in Warframe since 2016.

[Noralen]

2 minutes ago, PublikDomain said:

Solar Rail Conflicts were cool. Broken, but cool. And all of the problems with them are now solvable:

• Balance: We now have Conclave loadouts and rulesets we can use.
• Not enough room/race to click first: We now have the ability to swap to entirely new Starchart overlays and pick from multiple missions on the same node. Make most nodes in the game contestable, and add rules like "you can't invade a node you don't have territory next to, if you control any territory". Then we can have hundreds of nodes and reasonable rules which should provide plenty of space for groups to spread out in.
• Taxes: Limit the tax, and don't tax players. Instead tax the NPCs that "live" on the node. It's basically the exact same as before, just you don't actually lose any of your resources if you play on a taxed node.

All fixed. Now we have a meaningful clan v clan PvP endgame to chew on for a while. And if you don't like PvP in any form then you don't have to play. And if you don't have a big clan or alliance then you can still participate as a mercenary for either side like before. We don't need to worry about dedicated servers, either, because player-hosted dedicated servers have existed in Warframe since 2016.

Oh... OH this I like a lot!

[TARINunit9]

Last time DE talked about solar rails, it was the prototype for Sanctuary Onslaught. For context, there was more to the Onslaught prototype than just "kill everything", there were also area control and mobile defense and other side objectives. Their idea at the time was Competitive PvE, where the alliance who completed the most objectives would take over the solar rail

The fact it just turned into Sanctuary Onslaught should give an idea how much they care about solar rails

[Noralen]

I'll grant you that the PvP aspect of the game is neglected, but that's a problem with the player base not the game itself I think.

Most of the people who play this are just looter shooter gremlins who only want to run around and kill everything.

One of my favorite things to do with my clan is host duel tournaments. There is NOTHING in this game that gives as much challenge as going up against another player, who has all the same mobility and capability as you do.

The Solar rails could be a way for DE to bring in a sort of Make your own Mission type deal. We've already seen that this community LOVES to create wacky as hell dojo's, why not let them use that creativity to create "gauntlets" as a friendly challenge from one clan to another to see who'se better at making a "dungeon" so to speak.

They could even do a sort of betting thing with it, a credit or resource buy in that let's you go in and do the mission, and if you succeed you get a mutiplied return, plus random stuff DE might throw in like riven shards or something.

[Tesseract7777]

They would have to greatly revamp it. 

I was barely around for the tail end of it, and too noob to really participate, but old enough to know the stories...

It created a long term mess with dark sectors and greedy clans and the whole system was ripe for exploitation and the not so nice and friendly kind of competition. It was toxic, cutthroat and brutal. 

I'm all for some version of it coming back, but not in the original form it was in. 

[Slayer-.]

I remember doing the money run on Pluto Hieracon going in you had to pay so much to the Clan controlling it, didn't bother me because back then was the best way to get fast credits, better faster ways now if you have the capital up front.

[TARINunit9]

2 hours ago, Noralen said:

There is NOTHING in this game that gives as much challenge as going up against another player, who has all the same mobility and capability as you do.

Which was originally the logic of putting Teshin in the game.

Unfortunately the idea of "facing an actual skill-based challenge = training for fighting the Sentients" turned out to be completely wrong

[JackHargreav]

Let's hope they never come back.

Or at the very least let's hope they won't come back in a pvp setting.

I remember how totally bullS#&$ that game mode was. It was totally unenjoyable in every way possible. And at this point we have more than enough ways to earn money anyways.

[bad4youLT]

Solar rails had brought up community toxicity and were prone to "DDoS" attacks , I doubt we will ever seem them return.