Additional Railjack Gameplay Elements

[Thundervision]

This is something I had in my mind for a long time and was hoping that the latest Railjack update would address it, but... ah well... Here's a couple of ideas that could potentially help to flesh out the mode.

 

BATTLEFIELD

I really like the intensity system that was introduced with the Orb Vallis landscape, and it's strange other places, including the Railjack mode where it definitely makes sense, don't have such thing. For example, it coud go this way:

Disturbance in the sector

1. Calm
2. Low magnitude
3. Medium magnitude
4. High magnitude

Calm
Meaning, enemies haven't detected anything suspicious yet. Fighters are either not deployed or stationed around the carriers/capital ships, sector is being patrolled by Archwing-tier of enemies: Dargyns, Drones. If there are mining bases or wreckages around, both the Grineer and the Corpus have their machinery (Gox, Locust drones, Ogma, Dregs) active simulating some sort of life in the dead space (pun not intended). Bolkors, Firbolgs and Condors transport crew between the sublocations.

Low magnitude
Enemies are detecting someone's presence in the sector. Transport ships deploy additional troops to places of interest. Dargyns/Drones are sent to investigate possible area of disturbance. If the Archwings are spotted, enemies deploy reinforcements in the form of the Archwing-tier enemies, Fighters also start patrolling the area around major objectives. If the Railjack detected from the very beginning, both the AW enemies and Fighters head in its way.

Medium magnitude
Tenno started wrecking havoc. Enemies call in their reinforcements: Crewships and Suppressors. The latter begin reinforcing defenses and deploying countermeasures. For instance, if they are within proximity of any mission objectives they could be forming a forcefield around it:

^{Ships are courtesy of Sean Bigham: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Ev642}

^{* - some little detail to make hijacking something meaningful, even if the enemies acknowledge their ship has been stolen.}

 

Alternatively, the Suppressors could be actively deploying stationary traps:

Zeplens - same as it currently is, with small addition: formed bubble is slowly being filled with oxygen and substances heating up the air, causing DoT damage to the ship, on-board hazards and weapons system overheating.

Tethers (it's time to taste own medicine) - jams radar and ship's system within its proximity, and if the ship is closer, then it fires small devices that, when hit the Railjack, create tractor beams effectively chaining the ship like some dog outside and disrupting all weapon systems. Alternatively, these traps could also be dragging in the ship and detonating on contact with it, inflicting heavy damage.

Both traps can be hacked by smart players and used against enemies (successfull kills also give more affinity). The Suppressor ship can also be hijacked and used by players to deploy the traps themselves, although the number of them carried is limited.

Main weapon is an EMP emitter. While it doesn't deal that much damage directly, continuous fire in the enemy direction fries their systems leading to loss of controls and weapon systems. Basically, bricking any affected spacecraft (including the enemy ones if hijacked).

High magnitude

Situation gets real. If the players. Similar to the Juggernaut mechanics: if players are doubling down on annihilating enemy forces (X kills within X minutes), "a heavy artillery" is being requested: a new class of ships preceding the Galleon class, perhaps some sort of a cruiser/interceptor, warps in with a big party.

 

Always guarded by several heavy fighters and is actively participating in the fight. The ship's presence on the battlefield has a positive influence on the troops, thus increasing their response time and efficiency of maneuvers and attacks (higher speed, evasive maneuvers, overshields or boost to damage), and, similar to the OV system, enemies' level starts ramping up.

Cruiser weapons:

Long range: guided torpedoes (telegraphed by both sfx and vfx, players have enough response time, if they still miss it, it's a 100% critical breach with some destroyed Ordnance and Tunguska shots if they have any);

Medium range: swarm of dumb missiles (quantity over quality, nothing that maneuvering or hiding behind objects couldn't solve);

Close range:  passive systems jam and good ol' autocannons shredding the enemy ships.

 

 

ACTIVITIES / INCURSIONS

Be it a Cruiser, a capital ship or a base, but the Railjack has to distract the fighters while a boarding party will go in either sabotaging them or being contacted by third party (Maroo, Darvo, Simaris, SU, Ostrons, Syndicates) who would like to make a proposition: they are very interested either in the POI, what it carries or something in the neighbor sector, and the Player's involvement sparking an active conflict comes in handy, actually allowing them to execute their plans.

Ships and Bases:

• Endless RJ Defense: a contractor needs everything that can be extracted from the ship's servers/systems, his team is on it. The Player's task is to ensure no enemy forces board the ship to eliminate the allied team or blow up the ship. The team itself splits into 3 squads (A, B, C) and goes after 3 objectives.
  • Rotations: ABCABCABC etc., for example. Or, depending on how many squads left.
  • If a Crewship docks and sends in a team, the Players will be alerted and will have to board it to, in order to eliminate the threat (within X minutes). 2 mistakes are allowed, a 3rd one will result in a failure for sub-task (meaning that the team won't fail the RJ mission itself effectively losing all the drops and XP from previous successfull runs)
• Endless RJ Hijack: a contractor wishes to get their hands on the captured ship's armory and equipment. The Player will have to provide assistance in ensuring the drops are picked and successfully delivered to an ally freighter. Successful deliveries will result in the player getting their well-earned cut from findings: resources, wreckages, money, BPs for weapons and warframes.
• Set of generated objectives:
  • board the ship/base -> retrieve intel that reveals a person of interest -> find and capture that VIP and then sabotage the place. Meanwhile, in space, reinforcements arrive to escort their VIP. If the target escapes, chase it down outside like we do with the Courier ships;
  • board the ship/base -> do a bit of Mobile Defense -> with the gathered intel, find the artifact and steal it -> then find a prison bay  -> rescue the captives;
  • board the ship/base -> do a bit of Mobile Defense or Spy -> sabotage the ship by hacking its IFF system -> find a VIP target -> assassinate it (Railjack crew may watch some comedy as enemy reinforcements get decimited by their own defenses) -> defend the ship (interior/exterior) until allies arrive (at last!) to take it from there.

etc.

• RJ Excavation: upon boarding a mining base and retrieving information it will be revealed that some asteroids are rich. One of them will be marked and when you approach the target your Landing Craft will fly by dropping a special excavator that will be working like a beacon from the Scarlet Spear operation with some changes: invincible when carried and vulnerable when deployed, so one would have to defend it from the greedy milks enraged by your impudence.
• Spooky ghost ships with no radio comms and/or signs of its crew, reactor is offline, investigate what is going on.

To be honest, I was one of few people who liked Incursions in the Plains and was sad when it was gone. It's the rewards and the lack of scenarios that weren't good. Also, it made the so-called open world feel a bit more alive, because something was happening without the player's involvement. I think, this needs to be brough back in the Railjack mode, after the Player deals with main objective and stays in the sector.

• Random patrols sent to investigate what happened in the sector (see the previous point)
• Freighters aka Treasure Ships, yarrrr! Board the ship hack 1-to-3 terminals to retrieve information, find the cargo bay, escort the cargo to airlock (the more it gets damaged, the less shinnies you get). Rewards could be RJ resources with the Star Chart ones according to the Proxima region + something from the mission's rewards pool.
• Grineer/Corpus convoys with captured colonists, Ostron or Solaris people. Board the ships, eliminate the enemy and/or rescue hostages in a Defection fashion (non endless), capture a VIP target and sabotage the ship.
• Defectors are fleeing from their commanders and are passing through your sector. They throw a SOS hoping you'd help them out. The Railjack crew will have to ensure none of the chasers go after the fleeing ship/fighters:
• Random scavengers or Suda/Simaris scientists ocassionaly pop up to investigate Derelicts or ship wreckages asking for assistance: escorting them through the sublocation and dealing with any consequences of their curiosity that could kill a kavat.
• Cy detects Infestation in the form of X asteroids or meteors going through the sector, those are heading in some colony, enemy base or Earth direction and need to be dealt with no matter what.

The list can go on and on. Ideally, it would be amazing to have another contest for RJ missions and possible scenario of which ideas.

 

 

UNIQUE ENCOUNTERS

• Invasions/Crossfire/Infested Outbreaks:
  • I feel like these would be far more interesting on a bigger scale. Given the amount of time a RJ mission requires, Credits and Resource rewards should also be increased. Perhaps, it would be good to have a chance for a little extra, a relic. Besides, Europa's skybox has an ongoing battle between the Grineer Fomorian and the Corpus ships.

Can we please have this?

 

• An actual Kuva Fortress:
  • Basically, like a Sentient Anomaly, with own side-objective, or a set of. Something like, intercept a Kuva cargo. Hijack the ship carrying it and sabotage it, scavenging the precious resource, or board it, poison the Kuva tank and hijack a newly delivered one. Fight off several Fighter waves and get out of their big guns range (assuming the Fortress has 'em).
• Infested / Active Fomorians:
  • Could be an unmarked encounter you'd only discover upon entering the sector. This would mean much more enemies of higher level with extra rewards for difficulty.
• Mycona Colony:
  • Asking you to help them out with collecting samples, or dealing with some malfunction.
  • Being a special trading hub with unique goodies in exchange for components and stuff of the Infested origin.
• Abandoned freighters that were transporting resources from the Plains or Orb Vallis, but where ambushed by pirates,

 

 

MECHANICS

Tactical Menu and Intrinsics in the regular gameplay

So far we have the regular game being brought to Railjack, not the other way around (Archwing/Mech stats boost doesn't count). We have Tactical menu in the Railjack, why don't we have it in the regular game as well? Endless opportunities to have fun: hack turret or energy field systems, cams, make Roombas unload dirt, hack into something causing a malfunction somewhere distracting enemies. Finally, add elements to Defense missions (both Starchart and RJ) that players can interact with: deployable turrets, drop some cargo container with pickups (ammo, HP, energy etc.) from time to time they can use or leave to AI, hack an airlock that will suck enemies out.

Command intrinsic could also affect one's Specters EHP and Damage values, providing a boost to both, or simply multiplying their base level.

Regarding the Player's crew, I feel like having always 3 members + liches would be a better way. The latter could be a B-boarding team you would either keep in case of Ramsleds or send to non-crucial objectives. That would just be longer and, perhaps, would give no affinity. The liches are conquering regions after all, so a bit of fetching shouldn't be a problem to them.

Having a crew consisting of the people from the same or allied Syndicates could also give a small bonus to either Combat or Endurance, since they woud have a much more friendlier and warmer environment to work in and fight for.

 

Syndicates

Also, we have crew members consisting of Syndicate members. Good. Now, why don't we have Syndicates willing to provide own RJ armaments, components and paintjobs?

Regarding the weapons:

Steel Meridian could be selling blueprints of Grineer weaponry. Something unique or, for example, repurposed turrets from the Plains: seeking-missiles and miniguns.

Suda or Simaris could be following their energy -cor weapon designs, with the Simaris one completing scans on kill.

Red Veil could provide some ugly-looking Infested-affected weapons.

Arbiters of Hexis - some ancient yet effective weapon systems, like an arc-cannon. Hold to charge and fire two beams that would be arcing between each other jumping on nearby targets.

The Perrin Sequence could help with providing the Corpus-made weaponry or even stolen weaponized Corpus+Sentient tech.

etc.

 

Exctractor Drones

Do you remember these Extractor Drones that passively collect loot in planet regions while the player does something else?

They are probably collecting dust for many players, even the Primed Extractors. And this part of the game was always bugging me, it was a perfect idea for another mini-game or companion app with the same effect - gather more resources. And now, with the Railjack mode, this is another perfect opportunity to reincorporate the drones in some actual gameplay/activity, not just tapping a hotkey once in a while.

The idea basically is to add either the «Command» effect to some of its level or having a Tactical mod (could only be equipped if the Player has at least 1 drone) using which will launch drones off the ship to collect dropped resources with a chance of finding some extra ones. Just like the Forge, it would obviously be having a cooldown, so if you get more loot dropped when the drones have just returned, you'll gotta either wait until they become available again or send someone to collect it/fly out on your own, so this feature doesn't remove «collect the loot» activities from the players.

• Ability use:
  • Reach Rank X of the Command intrinsic to unlock this ability;
  • When in the Railjack, open the Tactical/Command menu and select «Drones Dispatch»;
  • Drones are launched to start gathering dropped loot for X-duration.
  • If their time expires or, for example, they get damaged enough to be recalled by Cy, they return to the ship to dump collected resources and receive maintenance.
  • This is when their Cooldown kicks in, so if some additional loot was generated during or after their recall, the player is free to disembark to collect it on their own or wait until the drones repair is over to send those instead.

 

Now, as for effects, there is no need to reinvent the wheel:

• Titan Extractor: just collects available resources for X-duration.
• Titan Extractor Prime: just collects available resources for doubled Titan's duration.
• Distilling Extractor: collects available resources as well as has a chance of finding Uncommon and Rare resources for X-duration.
• Distilling Extractor Prime: collects available resources as well as has an increased chance of finding Uncommon and Rare resources for X-duration.

Perhaps, the prime ones could have a bit higher Health value, too, or just slightly faster repair rate. And as for their number, there are only 4 Drones in total at the moment, so make it just 4 drones.

[-AncientWarrior-]

Damn thats a big post :)