Can we have good railjack missions please

[Sweg178]

First of all, I love Railjack. It's a refreshing change after a long day of Grineer massacre. However, there are a few areas where Railjack could be improved to enhance the experience and potentially revive interest in it. Here are some suggestions:

1. Introduce missions that don't require ground boarding: Everyone loved playing Gian Point. Sure, it was a loot cave, but Digital Extremes missed the mark on why this game mode was so popular. It was because we didn't have to leave the Railjack. Even if they removed all the great loot, Gian Point would still be a worthwhile node if it were still available.

2. Implement a smooth transition between the pilot seat and the heavy artillery seat: It’s incredibly frustrating to have to get up from the pilot seat and move to the artillery seat every time I’m playing solo. A seamless transition would significantly improve solo play.

3. Create engaging game modes: Nobody wants to do a spy mission in Railjack or spend just 30 seconds piloting the ship before jumping into another survival mission in a Grineer base like most of the game. How about a Railjack defense mission where we protect an objective from waves of enemy ships and crewships? That would be much more exciting!

Railjack, as it stands, could be a lot better. Digital Extremes only just managed to fix it after years of bugs, and now it’s being neglected again, as usual. :(

[Zakkhar]

26 minutes ago, Sweg178 said:

Create engaging game modes: Nobody wants to do a spy mission in Railjack

Actually, I love to. Even better if it was completely new Archwing/RJ based spy mission. It doesnt need to rely on stealth, it can rely on puzzle solving. If you do not like the mission type, do not run it, taking away that option from others is selfish.

26 minutes ago, Sweg178 said:

Implement a smooth transition between the pilot seat and the heavy artillery seat: It’s incredibly frustrating to have to get up from the pilot seat and move to the artillery seat every time I’m playing solo. A seamless transition would significantly improve solo play.

Not really frustrating for me, but from lore/mechanics perspective it is kinda wierd it isnt there. It would be an option. I am all out for options.

Edited September 1 by Zakkhar

[PublikDomain]

Just now, Zakkhar said:

Actually, I love to. Even better if it was completely new Archwing/RJ based spy mission. It doesnt need to rely on stealth, it can rely on puzzle solving.

I would really prefer Spy missions that actually use the PoIs, instead of a totally separate Spy mission embedded inside a Railjack mission the way it is now. We already have some PoIs that are rather Spy-like, like the one where you steal the Grineer crewship. 3 PoIs, 3 vaults, easy peasy. Railjack maps can be pretty big, too, so there's even room for the Railjack itself trying to be undetected as it approaches the points. Avoiding patrols, taking down comms relays, etc. It could even use the same vaults, just in a PoI.

[Zakkhar]

2 minutes ago, PublikDomain said:

PoIs

I am not familiar with that abbreviation.

[TARINunit9]

46 minutes ago, Sweg178 said:

Implement a smooth transition between the pilot seat and the heavy artillery seat: It’s incredibly frustrating to have to get up from the pilot seat and move to the artillery seat every time I’m playing solo. A seamless transition would significantly improve solo play.

This is clunky on purpose. Railjack was designed from the ground up as a multiplayer mode (and there is a long list of reasons why), that's why solo play was delayed for so long and then awkwardly shoved in Ticker's "merchandise" emporium

First you have to convince DE that allowing a single pilot to solo EVERYTHING even without AI crew mates is a good idea 

[PublikDomain]

6 minutes ago, Zakkhar said:

I am not familiar with that abbreviation.

Sorry, Point of Interest. The various interior side objectives you need to leave the Railjack to go do. Dunno if that's a term used ingame but it's how I've always seen them called externally.

Edited September 1 by PublikDomain

[drakefrostex]

53 minutes ago, Sweg178 said:

It’s incredibly frustrating to have to get up from the pilot seat and move to the artillery seat every time I’m playing solo.

🙄 Meanwhile, moving between pilot ship and enemy crewship here…

28 minutes ago, Zakkhar said:

If you do not like the mission type, do not run it, taking away that option from others is selfish.

This.
Actually, I’d opt for more “open” node unlock (for both performance issue and connection), which separates between Grineer and Venus Proxima unlock (except Earth), which means allowing Earth -> Saturn -> Veil (Grineer) and Earth -> Venus -> Neptune -> Pluto -> Veil (Corpus).
Veil is unlocked past Tempestarii anyway.

8 minutes ago, TARINunit9 said:

allowing a single pilot to solo EVERYTHING even without AI crew mates is a good idea

Letting new nodes for it is fine, but for existing node, please no.
 

[TARINunit9]

5 minutes ago, PublikDomain said:

Sorry, Point of Interest. The various interior side objectives you need to leave the Railjack to go do. Dunno if that's a term used ingame but it's how I've always seen them called externally.

Cy calls them "priority targets"

[Liberator_Numen]

I'm surprised that the gameplay modes from Archwing were never properly integrated into Railjack, because that adds some level of variety. Most of my frustration with Railjack comes from the "divided focus" approach DE utilized in their last update. We've enough normal missions on-foot to last a lifetime, but not nearly enough unique ship missions to justify the Railjack's existence, and that half-and-half approach in the Corpus missions tells me that DE has no idea what to do with the Railjack. Invasion dogfights, sector defenses, interceptions that make use of the Railjack & Archwing, vessel/captain capture missions, actual Fomorian boss fights; there's so much more that they simply choose not to do, and it feels like they've learned nothing after all of these "ambitious updates" over the years.

[RyllusPurple]

YEss. TNw had that great railjack segment where you had to use cover to avoid the exploding murex, and that needs to be an endless game mode. Can we please get a railjack excavation where we blow up asteroids for good loot, it's already so fun to do with shatter burst.

[RyllusPurple]

My big issue with railjack spy is that it doesn't make sense. We showed up and bombed their warship, and they aren't expecting us to board and steal things? Huh?

[GEN-Son_17]

14 minutes ago, Liberator_Numen said:

I'm surprised that the gameplay modes from Archwing were never properly integrated into Railjack, because that adds some level of variety. Most of my frustration with Railjack comes from the "divided focus" approach DE utilized in their last update. We've enough normal missions on-foot to last a lifetime, but not nearly enough unique ship missions to justify the Railjack's existence, and that half-and-half approach in the Corpus missions tells me that DE has no idea what to do with the Railjack. Invasion dogfights, sector defenses, interceptions that make use of the Railjack & Archwing, vessel/captain capture missions, actual Fomorian boss fights; there's so much more that they simply choose not to do, and it feels like they've learned nothing after all of these "ambitious updates" over the years.

Nah, this isn't true, from every point you made.

Not sure if you played the original Railjack but some of the Grineer missions were mostly ship combat. As usual, some players didn't like how "difficult" and involving the Empyrean style Railjacks were (or, to be real with everyone: players wanted a shortcut, as usual, to get the Shedu, intrinsics and best weapons. YouTubers, who offer cry about wanting harder stuff, cried about how "annoying" it was to not easily solo a mission...thus destroying the co-op vibe.). The update, to me, made the ship flow and perform better, but it made RJ too simple.

As for the missions, I really enjoy the option to play any mission type I want. Why remove a completely optional mode? And, again, the players asked DE to "add more Warframe missions in Railjack". DE listened and, voila, we have the (really damn good) Corpus style missions.

I do think RJ should get the full Steel Path treatment, applying the values to the enemy ships and increasing their numbers. Other than that, I love RJ and only want more of it. It looks like 1999 will grant that request but we shall see. 

 

[FulfillMyWill]

The missions could've become more engaging if instead of/in addition to the gunner turret players could pilot a small and fast fighter with its own set of mods/abilities. Maybe even with the option of ejecting from it in a ramsled to board objectives/crewships.

As it stands right now, gunners are at a mercy of a pilot to go where they want to. Archwing isn't a good option either because of its slow speed and weaker firepower.

[Vaml77]

I would say that Railjack was completely destroyed by DE. The energy link with Warframe was ridiculous (forgive my strong language). I highly doubt that DE will look at Railjack again. Warframe is now a game at the end of its career and can no longer hold a good audience. The lack of care and coherence of the DE team is very sad.

[(PSN)TONI__RIBEIRO]

9 hours ago, Sweg178 said:

First of all, I love Railjack. It's a refreshing change after a long day of Grineer massacre. However, there are a few areas where Railjack could be improved to enhance the experience and potentially revive interest in it. Here are some suggestions:

1. Introduce missions that don't require ground boarding: Everyone loved playing Gian Point. Sure, it was a loot cave, but Digital Extremes missed the mark on why this game mode was so popular. It was because we didn't have to leave the Railjack. Even if they removed all the great loot, Gian Point would still be a worthwhile node if it were still available.

2. Implement a smooth transition between the pilot seat and the heavy artillery seat: It’s incredibly frustrating to have to get up from the pilot seat and move to the artillery seat every time I’m playing solo. A seamless transition would significantly improve solo play.

3. Create engaging game modes: Nobody wants to do a spy mission in Railjack or spend just 30 seconds piloting the ship before jumping into another survival mission in a Grineer base like most of the game. How about a Railjack defense mission where we protect an objective from waves of enemy ships and crewships? That would be much more exciting!

Railjack, as it stands, could be a lot better. Digital Extremes only just managed to fix it after years of bugs, and now it’s being neglected again, as usual. :(

You want the old railjack, it was more fun.

[RyllusPurple]

9 hours ago, RyllusPurple said:

My big issue with railjack spy is that it doesn't make sense. We showed up and bombed their warship, and they aren't expecting us to board and steal things? Huh?

maybe it can be changed to a big self destruct timer that goes off when we enter, so we have to beat both the self destruct and the vault security on all the vaults and then actually clear the blast zone. At the same time, I would like an actual stealth railjack mission, where we need to steal a ship to pass checkpoints etc.

[dwqrf]

Infested Railjack coming soon with On-Lyne ? SP Railjack may be possible somedays too.

[drakefrostex]

3 hours ago, Vaml77 said:

The energy link with Warframe was ridiculous

Eh, I don’t think so.

1. Some frames have workaround for this. Even for normal frames, there are energy regen mods.
2. Energy is craftable
3. Having limited energy lets those turrets be actually useful (instead of spamming plexus).

[Venus-Venera]

vor 13 Stunden schrieb Sweg178:

First of all, I love Railjack. It's a refreshing change after a long day of Grineer massacre. However, there are a few areas where Railjack could be improved to enhance the experience and potentially revive interest in it. Here are some suggestions:

1. Introduce missions that don't require ground boarding: Everyone loved playing Gian Point. Sure, it was a loot cave, but Digital Extremes missed the mark on why this game mode was so popular. It was because we didn't have to leave the Railjack. Even if they removed all the great loot, Gian Point would still be a worthwhile node if it were still available.

2. Implement a smooth transition between the pilot seat and the heavy artillery seat: It’s incredibly frustrating to have to get up from the pilot seat and move to the artillery seat every time I’m playing solo. A seamless transition would significantly improve solo play.

3. Create engaging game modes: Nobody wants to do a spy mission in Railjack or spend just 30 seconds piloting the ship before jumping into another survival mission in a Grineer base like most of the game. How about a Railjack defense mission where we protect an objective from waves of enemy ships and crewships? That would be much more exciting!

Railjack, as it stands, could be a lot better. Digital Extremes only just managed to fix it after years of bugs, and now it’s being neglected again, as usual. :(

Actually, a lot would be possible with Railjack if it actually stayed with Railjack. Because I don't need boring hack missions or pointless ship repairs.
And there are enough action games for space. So the devs should just copy the mechanics. So there should be slow and deadly projectiles and the pilot should dodge. Very large and deadly enemies that should damage both gunners. Artillery should remove shields or shoot at crit points. And and and....
Because Railjack is, as has been said so often, just a taxi at the moment... an absolutely pointless thing.

[PublikDomain]

1 hour ago, drakefrostex said:

Eh, I don’t think so.

1. Some frames have workaround for this. Even for normal frames, there are energy regen mods.
2. Energy is craftable
3. Having limited energy lets those turrets be actually useful (instead of spamming plexus).

But...

1. That just means that the few frames with a "workaround" are the best, like Protea.
2. Why craft Energy when workarounds like Dispensary gives it to you for free?
3. I'm already spamming abilities with my infinite Energy, so on my ship turrets are already redundant.

[Liberator_Numen]

14 hours ago, GEN-Son_17 said:

Nah, this isn't true, from every point you made.

Not sure if you played the original Railjack but some of the Grineer missions were mostly ship combat. As usual, some players didn't like how "difficult" and involving the Empyrean style Railjacks were (or, to be real with everyone: players wanted a shortcut, as usual, to get the Shedu, intrinsics and best weapons. YouTubers, who offer cry about wanting harder stuff, cried about how "annoying" it was to not easily solo a mission...thus destroying the co-op vibe.). The update, to me, made the ship flow and perform better, but it made RJ too simple.

As for the missions, I really enjoy the option to play any mission type I want. Why remove a completely optional mode? And, again, the players asked DE to "add more Warframe missions in Railjack". DE listened and, voila, we have the (really damn good) Corpus style missions.

I do think RJ should get the full Steel Path treatment, applying the values to the enemy ships and increasing their numbers. Other than that, I love RJ and only want more of it. It looks like 1999 will grant that request but we shall see. 

 

I was there, it was buggy, the grind to get a Railjack took a small chunk of time. The Shedu grind never mattered to me, the grind for weapons, reactors, generators & more took priority. I got into it even more after the first major post-launch update. We got a statue, like every other clan, to commemorate the initial launch.

There are times I feel as though most players don't actually know what they want until the content is right in front of them. If I wanted to run a defense, interception, survival or any other regular mission, I'd stick to the star chart. The Corpus update shifted the focus from the Railjack to hybrid missions that, depending upon the mission type, took drastically longer on-foot. The only mission type that felt even remotely proper in its handling was the Lich/Sister assassination. Void Storms are an absolute waste of time, and I despise them because it, and that's probably the major source of my grievances with Corpus missions. To even progress in those, you have to be on-foot. All I've ever wanted out of Railjack missions were more creative mission types that centered around the Railjack & ship combat, given the fact that we've done all that we can with our Warframes. Right now, Skirmishes are the closest thing we have to an almost Railjack-centric mission type, which also throws in a few short on-foot tasks to break up the monotony, and I'd sooner take those tasks over running another 5 waves or minutes worth of defense or survival. It just bloats up the mission playtime.

Steel Path is ideal, but balancing everything will be a challenge. Our Warframes are up to the task, but I've got this feeling that Void Proxima will make our ships feel like glorified pinatas.

[(PSN)badbat111]

If wally got released from void he could be a railjack boss like jordas golem on eris

[quxier]

20 hours ago, TARINunit9 said:

20 hours ago, Sweg178 said:

Implement a smooth transition between the pilot seat and the heavy artillery seat: It’s incredibly frustrating to have to get up from the pilot seat and move to the artillery seat every time I’m playing solo. A seamless transition would significantly improve solo play.

This is clunky on purpose. Railjack was designed from the ground up as a multiplayer mode (and there is a long list of reasons why), that's why solo play was delayed for so long and then awkwardly shoved in Ticker's "merchandise" emporium

First you have to convince DE that allowing a single pilot to solo EVERYTHING even without AI crew mates is a good idea 

But does it have to be THAT clunky?

So you want to change from pilot to heavy artillery and shoot? Press X > go back press X (dunno if you can teleport) > it plays animations > it waits short time that you can hardly see if you can shoot or not. > slowly charge. Ship moves? Let's fire it... Do I have enough "ammo"? Well either go to Artillery and go back to change. Or go into forge and see, yeah I have or wait 1 minute. At least few missions in row doesn't reset ammo.

 

Above is not very frustrating. What I hate more is Slingshot. Boy, who make this? So at pilot seat hit L (afair) > click on Slingshot > rotate 180 degree > walk a little > press X > wait for animation to finish > few posibilities there:

- near ship > tap to slingshot > you either enter the ship or they shoot you near ship (press X) > sometimes you need to fly

- you are little farther? > hold to "charge" > appears near entrance > press X

Before someone told me about Forward artillery I had so much "fun" (sarcasm) with RJ.

 

In the end I think it's takes too much (by making fight clunky) and not give us too much. Compare it to very simple and old Archwing. It doesn't make everything clunky. It gives you "3d space" but it's mostly proper fight. I would rather fight from 3rd perspective than "1st perspective in RJ".

7 hours ago, Venus-Venera said:

Because I don't need boring hack missions or pointless ship repairs.

This. When I see "hull breach" every few seconds I just exit.

 

[drakefrostex]

6 hours ago, PublikDomain said:

But...

2 and 3 are more for those prefers not to use RJ cheatframe (I’m using another one 🤣)

Having cheatframes for specific missions won’t hurt I believe. It’s more like giving players easier alternative for such job especially since RJ is more like multitasking mission (which is best done by players knowing what they should do).

[TARINunit9]

2 hours ago, quxier said:

But does it have to be THAT clunky?

The intended answer was "yes." Again, we are talking about a mechanic that was intended to be infeasible if not impossible as a solo player. One person pilots, another person lasers. The clunkiness was not an accident

And speaking of things that were not an accident:

9 hours ago, Venus-Venera said:

Because I don't need boring hack missions or pointless ship repairs

The constant ship repairs served a dual purpose. One, make it infeasible for a solo player to finish the mission. Two, give player four something to do while the other three were all in the pilot seat and turrets shooting things

(No defending the boring hack missions though, that's just lazy copy-pasting)

So those are the INTENDED limitations. Now let's consider whether they were a good idea

And to do that we look at the pilot: no matter how much stuff you give players two through four, the cold hard fact is that player one's piloting is both more fun and more important. Easily about 75% of the gameplay.

TL;DR The question is NOT "doesn't DE realize how clunky and repetitive this is?" Of course they do, they did that on purpose to try making solo play impossible. The question is "should DE give up that idea and just make a solo space fighter mode?"