Warframe Dev Workshop: Corpus Proxima & The New Railjack |
| Dev Workshop: Corpus Proxima & The New Railjack Posted: 08 Mar 2021 03:02 PM PST Greetings Tenno! The next Update we deploy on PC will be Update 29.10.0: Corpus Proxima & The New Railjack. This Update touches virtually every part of Railjack, and in our longest Dev Workshop to date we will be telling you what's changing and why. Get comfy, dreamers.  Warframe has several key strengths that have helped it stand the test of time in the world of video games. One of these strengths is a sense of "flow"; blade and gun blend together, and mission objectives are clear, challenging reflexes and awareness. From your first foray into the Star Chart, mission progress flows into Junction progress, leading to Questlines and other systems opening up naturally. Enter Railjack. Technology from the Old War that when wielded today, could take all of Warframe's combat to Orbit. We tried many things that were different from the norm. While some elements did offer a unique spin on the existing formula, it was not for everybody, and many complaints cited the amount of separation from the main game as a negative. And we agree. To quote the venerable Cephalon Cy: We have work to do. As we revisit Railjack in 2021, our overall goal is to simplify these points of friction, better integrating Warframe's signature "flow". This flow has evolved over the years for core Warframe, thanks in no small part to our continuous overhauls and revisits. From 'Bullet Jumping' to 'The Sword Alone', our path is rarely straight forward. If any Tenno out there chose to customize their Railjack Ship and name it 'Theseus', you may be onto something. What is 'The New Railjack'? The name is deceivingly simple. The depth will be explored in this workshop below, indexed by the way you will interact with it. Everything here is subject to change. 1. What will happen on login? More Accessible Avionics to Mods Meet The 'Plexus' Dirac to Endo Intrinsics 2.0 - Re-spec your Intrinsics! Command Intrinsic New Railjack Component: Hull Wreckage Cost Changes Early Adopters Streamlined Matchmaking (obey normal rules!) 2. What's different in missions? New Railjack Layout (smaller interior). Stamina is gone! Individual resource pools. Malfunctions and Hazards Unified Damage Types Node changes 3. What will keep me playing? Corpus Railjack Command New Missions 4. What Comes Next? Void Storms and Relics! Update 30: Call of the Tempestarii A better foundation for Update 30 and beyond. WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON LOGIN? MORE ACCESSIBLE: First thing's first: if you have yet to build your Railjack as part of the Rising Tide Quest, the cost of ship components and the time it takes for each one to build has been dramatically reduced (the difference in cost will be part of our early adopter compensation below). Simply put: less Grind. If you'd rather just jump straight into the action, a fully built Railjack will also be available through the Market for Platinum in the new Railjack category. Maybe you've noticed a pattern - when we released Necramechs, we didn't sell them for Platinum at launch either. Their Market appearance came many months later with Orphix Venom. It's almost paradoxical that as a Free to Play game we don't put these new items in the Market. There really isn't a good reason, either, and players with Platinum - whether bought or traded - really have made it clear they'd like the option to buy new items. And now the option is there. And if you want to go the free path, it's easier with less resources required. AVIONICS TO MODS Now let's talk AVIONICS. Before you even think of departing, you'll want to revisit your Railjack's Avionics, which have been redone as... Railjack MODS! That's right, Avionics are no more. This entire system has been completely overhauled, including Avionics being turned into regular Mods, so everything has been unequipped and reset. Gone are the days of upgradeable grid slots, and praying that your Host's Railjack has the Avionics you want to use. In fact, you aren't even equipping things on the Railjack itself anymore… MEET THE 'PLEXUS' Instead, Tenno will have a "PLEXUS" that they bring with them into every Railjack mission, carrying the three types of Avionics you are familiar with. Battle/Tactical Mods remain the same, but are personal to you, being available on any Railjack you board. Integrated Mods will be separated much like Warframe mods: Personal mod slots that only benefit you, and Aura mods that benefit the Railjack and your entire squad. Aura Mods for the Plexus will simply go in the designated Aura slot, similar to how Modding your Warframe works!    We hope that reverting back to the familiar Modding screen will help lessen the learning curve for new players. The shift to personal Mod loadouts should also allow for a more consistent gameplay experience, including public matchmaking. For added convenience, the Plexus can be Modded in several locations: in your Dry Dock terminal (like before), in the new Dry Docks found in various Relays (accessible via Fast Travel), and even in your own Orbiter! Full details on Railjack Mod conversions will come in the Update Notes!  DIRAC TO ENDO Since Avionics are now treated like regular Mods, Dirac (the upgrade Resource for Avionics) is being converted into Endo, for a more cohesive upgrading experience. All Dirac spent on your Grid will be reimbursed (i.e up to 39,000 Dirac to Endo if you maxed out your Grid), and all existing Dirac stockpiles will turn into Endo on login of Update 29.10.0 at a rate of 1:1. INTRINSICS 2.0 Now, onto Intrinsics! Firstly, you'll need to re-spec ALL your Intrinsics when you login! Because we changed so much, we want to make sure everyone gets a fresh start on where to spend their Intrinsics. This gives us the opportunity to overhaul the various progression trees, rewarding players' investment in progression. Here is a full table of the current changes Intrinsics for each category from Ranks 1 - 10. This is probably the most volatile section of the Workshop as we do expect to make some changes:  COMMAND INTRINSIC This table has all the details on the Intrinsics you know, but we're also adding the COMMAND Intrinsic! The final Intrinsic makes its debut with Update 29.10.0! Once you've leveled up your Command intrinsic and have slots for Crewmates, it's time to visit Ticker in Fortuna. She can put you in touch with a wide variety of people from all across the Star Chart for the right Hire price! Their price may be determined by your alignment with certain Syndicates - some crew will join you at a discount, and others double the price! Your Syndicate alignments determine all. Your crew will help keep your Railjack operational when flying in squads of less than 4 players. Which is to say - your Crew will help you out provided a Tenno cannot! Each Crewmate is available forever once Hired, but if you want to have more than 3 Crew members available to you, you'll need to purchase more Crew Slots via the Market or 'End Contract' with a Crewmate to release from service. We should note the final rank (10) is not available at launch as we are still working on the role of 'Elite' crew once the core feature has been received / revised.   Level up their skills and assign them to specific roles before taking off, or change their assignments on the fly with the Tactical Menu! Crewmates will gain Affinity like you're used to, which can be spent to increase aptitude in certain roles as 'Competency Points'. Additionally, converted Kuva Liches are available for Crewing your Railjack as a Defensive powerhouse who are very difficult to take down thanks to their incredibly high Health stat. One last stop before you're ready to go: the Dry Dock. If you don't have access to a clan Dry Dock, fear not! Publicly available Dry Docks can be found in the Second and Third tier relays (Saturn - Kronia and Pluto - Orcus relays on PC) on each Platform.. NEW RAILJACK COMPONENT: HULL Even though Mods have been moved to a personal player level, the components of your ship like shields, engines and weapons will still be dependent on the hosting player's collection. The Corpus Railjack update will include a number of new weapons to collect and upgrade, but also an entirely new component: Hull materials. Since Health and Armor mods can no longer be applied to the Railjack itself, this component determines the Health and Armor values of your ship.  WRECKAGE COST CHANGES Speaking of Shield, Engines, and Weapons (Armaments and Components), we have significantly reduced the Resources required to build options from the Wreckage you acquire. Simply put, yet again, less Grind. EARLY ADOPTERS Now for the "Early Adopters" information. Whether you're someone that's already 'finished' Railjack or have just a couple of hours under your belt - we have a variety of bundles you may be eligible for! Clan has a Dry Dock: Exclusive Clan Railjack Monument!  Player has Completed 1 or more Wreckage or Clan BP: Tier 1
Player has completed at least 12 Wreckage: Tier 2
Player has completed at least 30 Wreckage: Tier 3
MATCHMAKING CHANGES Once your Railjack and Plexus are all set up, it's time to find a mission. We've taken this opportunity to streamline Railjack Matchmaking, better following the rules set out in the main game. Playing as a Host used to require starting the mission from your own Railjack (Liset or Dry Dock). Now, clicking a node with no open squads in the regular Star Chart will start your own hosted mission, instead of giving you an error about no open squads and asking you to go to the Dry Dock (or the back of your Ship). WHAT'S DIFFERENT IN MISSIONS? When you first step onto your Railjack, you may notice a few key differences… The left and right turrets behind the cockpit are no more; instead you'll find entrances to a "dorsal" turret on top of the ship, and a "ventral" turret on the bottom. This makes 360 degree turning much more sensible, and will improve the sensation of aiming while in motion, as you now look in the direction of ship flight by default. Going further back in your Railjack, there used to be a large open area with several floors, connecting to the Railjack slingshot at the top, and the cargo hold at the back. This area is essentially no more - all of the ship's vital functions have been compressed into a single smaller space, to reduce traversal time between stations. Back in the cockpit, you choose a mission node and launch from the Dry Dock. Upon warping into the sector, your Railjack feels lighter and more mobile than ever before… Not only has the base speed of the Railjack been increased, but also the Railjack sprint bar is no more! Pilots cannot fire their gun while in boosted flight, but it's now much easier to reach mission objectives quickly. We've added a small cooldown to the Dodge maneuver to compensate for the sprint bar removal, but it can still be used much more frequently than before! Opening the Tactical menu, you'll see that the map perspective is now static, a common player request. Crewmates will also appear at the bottom, allowing you to observe their position or issue new orders.  So now bullets, missiles and fighters are flying fast and hectic in the heat of battle. You aim at a swarm of Corpus fighters, deploy your personal avionic ability and... oh no! Someone already used all the Flux Energy! If this has ever happened to you before, worry not. As of this update, all Railjack ammo stockpiles are tracked separately per player. From Revolite to Dome Charges, you'll only have to keep track of your own ammo consumption. These consumables will also replenish slowly on their own over time, so Railjacks will always be fully stocked before leaving the Dry Dock. In a pinch, crafting more ammo in the cargo hold will replenish the stockpiles of all Tenno aboard, so dedicated Engineers can still make a huge impact on gameplay. It's the best of all worlds! One other important change to note about the energy economy - as part of the transition from Railjack-based Avionics to player-based Harnesses, Battle/Tactical abilities will now be fueled by Warframe energy, and Flux Energy will be completely removed from the game (any Avionics that relate to it will be converted to Endo). This allows players with existing tools for Energy generation to better integrate those tools into regular Railjack gameplay, further intertwining the two sides of the game. Now - let's talk about Reactors. They exist to give you Avionics Capacity, and Flux Energy. Both of those things are now removed, so the new role of Reactors is to provide Power Strength, Range, or Duration buffs to Railjack Battle Avionics being used aboard the ship! Avionic costs and capabilities will be rebalanced accordingly with this new energy economy. Our Update Notes will have the final information here as we are still actively balancing this. Railjack Malfunctions/Hazards have also received a refresher to no longer directly affect the Railjacks Health or Shields.
UNIFIED DAMAGE TYPES Railjack combat inherited a lot of the familiar Warframe damage types, but with a twist. Impact became Ballistic, Cold became Frost, and so on. We are removing the second layer of 'Railjack' Damage types to unify and have the system be based on what Players already spend time learning: core Warframe elements. This means that: Ballistic = Impact Plasma = Puncture Particle = Slash Frost = Cold Ionic = Electricity Incendiary = Heat Chem = Toxin NODE CHANGES The Nodes in the Railjack you know are split across Earth, Saturn, and the Veil Proxima. There's choice, sure, but there's no real meaningful choice with the only option being 'Skirmish' - or at least it seems that way until you memorize what Points of Interest live on what nodes. Then what? It comes down to too much repetition of a small set of nodes, and a lot of Railjack just being ignored. For what we believe to be the healthier new direction for Railjack, we are making some changes by removing some existing Grineer nodes. This includes the removal of the Gian Point node. A decision that was not made lightly, but in the interest of improving the variety of missions played we felt it was a necessary step. We've essentially taken what was good about Gian Point (a quick turnaround mission with a high Affinity reward) and put it into the objectives of Railjack itself, so that the diversity of content gets played in more than just one node over and over (and over) again. The addition of Corpus Proxima regions will introduce many new missions to play (and it'll say more than 'Skirmish'!). We'll also be adding Corpus missions to the deep reaches of space in the Veil Proxima. WHAT WILL KEEP ME PLAYING? Corpus Railjack is here! These Robots and Crewmen taking to the skies will greatly expand the Proxima star chart - three new planets (Venus, Neptune and Pluto Proxima) will introduce new enemies, new points of interest and more. There will also be the most difficult missions for Corpus Railjack added to the Veil Proxima.  We will also be diversifying the types of missions available, in our efforts to further combine the Railjack experience with regular Warframe gameplay. Some of these new mission types will already be familiar - classic Defense and Exterminate modes will occasionally be the main objective of a Railjack mission. Fight your way into the capital ship as a team, and extract back to Railjack upon completion. We are also adding two new mission types! The first, known as Orphix, will be familiar to anyone who played the Orphix Venom event - take down the Sentient invaders, making use of Operators and Necramechs to circumvent the nullifier pulse fields. Instead of earning event currency, these missions are planned to drop Arcanes, offering an alternative to Eidolon capturing squads.  Finally, a completely new Mission type known as Volatile will offer the means to sabotage a capital ship. Help Cephalon Cy from the inside by making use of the environment to cause a Reactor failure, while fighting off Engineers who can stop you! For those keen on exploring the Proxima Regions, we'll also have a variety of more secret areas you can explore and perhaps find some new gear… stay tuned to the Update Notes. WHAT COMES NEXT? VOID STORMS AND RELICS! Despite our original plans, we cannot ship Void Storms with this Update due to the scope of changes and additions within the New Railjack. But that's okay, but thematically they truly belong with Update 30: Call of the Tempestarii which is based on Void Storms in many ways. When Void Storms do come, they'll offer Tenno a way to use their Void Relics in Railjack Missions! They'll be a rotating optional mission type to play, just like Fissure Missions on the normal Star Chart, but much bigger and stormier. And of course, the story behind Void Storms and more will be revealed in… UPDATE 30: CALL OF THE TEMPESTARII  All the work going into Update 29.10.0 is to set the stage for Update 30: Call of the Tempestarii. Update 30 will bring a signature Warframe quest for Sevagoth, tease a new villain, and more. We also plan to release it at the same time on all Platforms! So while Update 29.10.0 comes to PC first, Update 30 will bring all of this and Sevagoth to Consoles at once. The release of Corpus Liches aka Queenpins is still planned for the future in its own update. Think more 'Update 30.5' territory. Don't quote me on that Update number though, it could shift a bit. A better foundation for Update 30 and beyond. The final section of the Dev Workshop. Making it this far means you've officially read our longest Dev Workshop to date, and probably some of the most dramatic systemic changes we've made to Warframe since 'Update 7: Stormbringer' almost 8 years ago. So how does that happen? How do we find ourselves, 8 years later, still performing 'dramatic systemic changes'? It is a difficult question to answer, and this Dev Workshop is already long enough as it is. The short answer is: Making Warframe is hard. Making Warframe good is even harder. We try - then try some more. It constantly needs to be redone, rethought, and rebuilt. Railjack released in a far-from-perfect state, but the potential for something truly Warframe has always been there. We tried a rework last year, but it didn't go deep enough. This is truly a foundational change for Railjack. And it's also new content. Unified content. Core Warframe meets Railjack. Necramechs meet Core Warframe. It's all connecting now. But the most important connection of all is the Tenno who see through each iteration, and give us their understanding and feedback on what would make things better. Or at least, less worse. Every Tenno has their own style on letting us know. But if one thing has remained consistent through-out 8 years, it's the Tenno - you - blowing on our sails. Beyond oceans we never even imagined were within reach. Of course… beyond. Just what is in that Reliquary? How can the Murex be stopped? We expect to ship this Update on PC within the next week or two. Tenno - it's almost here! Discuss in our forums.[forums.warframe.com]  |
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