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Empyrean: The Journey so far.
6 Days ago on PC, Empyrean launched! We have done 5 Hotfixes with more to come before we rest up over the Holidays. Did the update release exactly as we had hoped? Not exactly - we’ve got bugs to fix and things to balance! We want to go over where we are and coming changes. We’re breaking this down into sections for you to read - it’s a long one:
The Co-op
The Railjack & The Intrinsics
The Resources
The Loot & RNG
The Beyond
Conclusion
The Co-op
The phrase ‘We All Lift Together’ has never been more true with Railjack! The moment to moment contributions you make all matter, and greater coordination efforts lead to success. We’ve heard the stories and seen sessions of our own where people frantically are asking “Does anyone see the incoming Ram Sled?” “Going out to take the Crewship!” “We need more Revolite and Munitions!” “Going out to collect some resources - we’re low on Pustrels” and so on. Before missions even start, we see people discussing what Intrinsics skills are currently your best to help the team, what the Host Railjack is equipped with in terms of firepower, and what Payload preparations have been made.
A key part of all co-op sessions has been the better you know Warframe, the more likely (and faster) you’ll succeed. Your existing mastery of Parkour, Weapons, and more are needed, while everyone is learning how to master the new tools within Railjack. In fact - your Mastery is so evident you are progressing through the nodes faster than we expected, but that’s alright and well earned! The power of co-operation and top-tier performance.
Despite some matchmaking issues the first day, we’re seeing extremely high success rates on Public Matchmaking missions. While Earth is where people are learning the ropes, Free Flight is providing a stress-free way to practice. We’re seeing just under 2,000,000 successful missions so far, and counting! For those that don’t succeed, we are running continued diagnostics for outright failure vs. bugs, which we are fixing daily. We will continue deploying Hotfixes as frequently as we can, with a minor break for the Holidays (while our heroes in Support remain around!).
The Railjack & The Intrinsics
The Railjack is the biggest item in-game for a Tenno to customize and Upgrade. We were careful to make all Personal progress independent of a Railjack with Intrisics, but also ensured Railjack customization was a desirable series of goals for players.
This is the foundation for us to build upon. In regular Warframe missions: you don’t always have clear roles, can mostly brute-force your way through a mission with enough fire power. On your Railjack, having clear roles is a surefire way to a successful mission. Unlike in regular missions, your loadout sometimes limits your ability to flex roles -- so long as you’ve mastered the basics, and have a few points invested in each Intrinsic tree, swapping between roles to fit your crew’s needs is very freeing.
Intrinsics are one of the first XP based progression systems we’ve released without a Daily Cap. This decision was based on feedback from our past releases, but we want to ensure our players know to strike a healthy balance when playing. Let’s take a look at the latest graph at how your Intrinsic choices have mapped out so far:
This graph shows how many Tenno fit into a certain Intrinsic Rank per Category. Each Bar corresponds to a rank indicated on the right hand side, but each column is in order!
Within 6 days, we’re seeing people progress as expected throughout the ranks. We want Rank 10 to be a very long term goal (the most long term goal within the entire Empyrean update), with a focus on specialization the deeper in you get. Does anything surprise you about this breakdown visualization? Curious about your thoughts!
The Resources
The Empyrean Update is almost like a reset - everyone starts from the same point with a few exceptions. This means every resource cost is a best estimate. Expect to see positive changes in specific drop rates (Titanium) as well as a general increase in uncommon and common resource appearances throughout crates in your missions. Smash and grab all the things.
You should also expect to see the ability to halt Repairs you’ve started - this means if you’ve made progress toward one Component or Armament and you come across a better one, you can simply move those Resources over. Many players have found themselves in that exact scenario: They start contributing to one piece of Wreckage, only to find a better piece in another mission. If they don’t finish their first Repair, they lose the resources and at best get 50% back with scrapping. This change will allow you to better distribute your Resources across un-Repaired Wreckage with no losses.
The scariest thing about balancing resources overall is the inevitable place we all end up with our stockpiles. Balancing resource goals for players that aren’t too punishing requires a careful touch, especially for a system where all players start from nothing. Community feedback and stats are two invaluable tools that will allow us to tune this balance.
Resources are a particularly hot topic because of how they play into the Loot, which is the next section.
The Loot & RNG
Firstly - true Loot sharing is enroute, just being tested. Hopefully we can Hotfix this soon. This means the Pickups on Points of Interest (ex: on a Shipkiller you’ve been tasked to destroy) will be shared with the Railjack Crew. This behaviour is crucial for the co-op experience and is in progress.
The Loot in Railjack is structured specifically to have a ‘Harder Content, Better Rewards’ approach. On paper, this all checks out the further you go into the Proxima regions (MK III only in the Veil, etc). People can and do want to get better equipment for their Railjacks. But with this update comes one familiar face: Resources & RNG.
We took a tried and true model: use resources to build your gear. We added randomness to the Components and Armaments received as Wreckage in-mission that was not properly communicated, which the in-game tools are now showing before you invest (i.e your Armaments now show the Random Stat on the screen before you Repair). There is a constant struggle between making sure players feel like there is always a worthwhile reward to seek out, versus the ‘done and moved on’ mentality. This is why we did not include any Mastery to these Components / Armaments, and instead put Mastery on the reliable progression of Intrinsics. Players who want to participate in the replay for different stats can - but it is in no way mandatory for any progress.
Missions themselves provide end of missions rewards, which people have reliably requested changes to (from removing botched Credit bundles and soon Cryotic). We will be making further changes to these beyond the Relics we added yesterday.
There’s two main areas of RNG high on people’s Radars: Avionics and Wreckage. This is not exhaustive, just the most discussed.
Avionics had their drop rates increased yesterday from 10% to 15%, and we are still reviewing the impact of this change.
The Wreckage found in Railjack missions are meant to create ships that feel distinctly your own, and to give you goals in-mission towards finding ways to improve your ship even more. The implementation of the Wreckage system has some kinks, and some bugs that we have worked to fix, that is causing understandable frustration. It’s on us as developers to tweak this system so that Tenno don’t feel forced to wait until they get MK3 wreckage before they invest resources -- this problem is linked inherently to the Loot and Resources sections above, but also requires more QOL changes on our end (like being able to cancel incomplete repairs).
There’s a third bonus area concerning a certain anomaly, but after today’s Hotfix you’ll see the factor at play is not exactly RNG. You’ll know exactly when and where a certain anomaly is present soon.
The Beyond
Some of you may have already seen hints as to what is coming for your Railjack Crew, and we have gone on the record during Devstreams and TennoCons about our plans. We are aiming to expand this new, aggressively ambitious era of Warframe to include new mission types, new enemies, and new rewards, all while tying it into the overarching plot of Warframe’s narrative.
We are excited to share that experience with you and are more grateful than words can convey for your patience on this journey.
Conclusion
We don’t want “challenging” to be synonymous with “punishing” -- that’s not our motivation or end goal with Empyrean. Just as keeping your Railjack afloat is a collaborative effort and experience, our hotfixing and further considerations of the gamemode are treated in the same vein between us as a community.