[The first time you met uncle stalker]

The first time he came for me I was in a full group. He was dead basically as fast as he spawned.

The first time I fought him solo it was a Grineer Galleon Exterminate. I was one-shotted by his bow.

The current stalker is fairly pants compared to the old stalker. He is so, so much easier to kill now. Which is sad.

[Et tu, Machete?]

Try a support ticket. Very occasionally DE has worked with polite players who miss market exclusives by a short time period to help them get what they missed.

Don't expect anything, but it's worth a try at least. Be polite and keep your temper in check if you have one.

[Let's Have Real Companion Diversity]

Give players an inch, they'll take a mile.

Personally, I support removing the vacuum mod from all sentinels. Enough newer players are already put off by how fast people blow through missions. Part of the culprit behind this is very firmly pointed at the ease and power of vacuum.

[Let's Have Real Companion Diversity]

Give players an inch, they'll take a mile.

Personally, I support removing the vacuum mod from all sentinels. Enough newer players are already put off by how fast people blow through missions. Part of the culprit behind this is very firmly pointed at the ease and power of vacuum.

[New Starter Warframes.]

Volt is way better than Loki was.

[Tips from a Limbo player, how to avoid problems when encountering other Limbo players]

8 minutes ago, NinjaZeku said:

But you can just stay within Affinity sharing range (kinda easy with Sound Quake) and get the full amount. *shrug*

You mean 30% to the weapon, as if your frame killed them.

Banshee is easier to stick next to than Ember, it's still killing my affinity gain for that weapon by a good 50-66%. So no, I'm not getting the affinity rate I'm looking for.

 

Limbo is, quite frankly, one of the strongest and nearly outright broken CC frames in a good team. You are doing yourself a disservice by refusing to learn how to play with one.

[Tips from a Limbo player, how to avoid problems when encountering other Limbo players]

Limbo doesn't turn off your guns. He just delays them.

Learn to retarget, or just use melee if it bugs you that much. (Or bring a shotgun/fast firing primary and overload his stasis.)

...

I don't like WoF or Soundquake (especially in lower-level stuff when I want to get affinity) but you don't see me asking for a "No Ember" toggle.

[Why am I being punished]

400 Nav Beacons isn't even grindy over the course of a week. You can get 88 or so per run in Outer Terminus with a sub-par farming group. (No Nekros, No frost. We did it with three people. A good mag, an excellent Equinox, and a newer Ash frame)

My own ghost clan has about three active members. Of the three of us, I'm the only one who has completed the starmap and feels comfortable doing endless runs. Frankly, I don't expect them to be capable to contribute much to the clan yet (though I appreciate when they do), the entire point of our clan is so that our more established members can help out newer members and, as a team, we can dig into clan research.

If that means I need to do multiple 35-40 wave survivals in outer terminus solo or in pugs and then partially carry them through getting the base 40 beacons they need for the boss fight, so be it.

[Nul Combas Are Unfair]

The only thing I dislike about cobas and scrambas is that they F*** with my UI. Everything else about them is fantastic.

More challenge is good.

[Could Perrin Sequence disassociate with New Loka, please?]

The Perrin Sequence isn't above using Corpus networks to further their goals. IF anything, I would argue that when talking about them you need to disassociate the Corpus Organization from the Corpus Creed and Individuals.

The Perrin Sequence is certainly all about showing the Corpus Creed, and to a less extent the Corpus people, can be more than just ruthless exploiters. By working together in the name of profit and prosperity, we can all benefit after all.

However the Perrin Sequence itself is still strongly against the Corpus Organization itself, as current Corpus embodies "Profit above all".

This is also why the Steel Meridian hate them. While their goals coincide the Meridian are completely outside of the Corpus network (Taking down the Grineer and Corpus from the outside as guerilla fighters), and the Perrin are still working within/gaming the system.

[Why I don't play with Limbos right now]

A well-played Limbo can trivialize a number of mission types. With a team that knows WTF they are doing and can work with him, he's effectively godmode.

Rescue - Nothing touches you, or the rescue target. Stasis + Cataclysm behind yourself when hacking as needed.
Mobile Defense - Literally nothing touches the console. Stasis + Cataclysm and just wait out the timer. (Shoot at or melee stuff that's frozen to kill it when the effect ends for bonus points.
Defense - Limbo fills either the pod defense role (That Vauban or Frost fills) with cata+stasis, or the tank/revival role. Assuming he isn't touched by a nullifier field, he's basically untouchable.
Survival - Untouchable revives, emergency shielding. Just don't spam stasis everywhere unless you are performing a mass-rez/saving the team from immanent doom.
Spy - Limbo literally ignores half of static spy defenses. If you are even half-decent at avoiding getting spotted he's right up there with Loki and Ivara.

The real issue is that a lot of players don't understand how the rift, stasis, and Cataclysm work. It's important to understand that frozen enemies will still take damage when stasis ends, and to move on from your initial target. Melee-centric frames will deal their damage immediately, and that powers function perfectly as long as they don't move enemies (that includes damage from Magnetize. If you cast it from outside the rift and shoot in, the damage will still apply to enemies in the AoE)

Also Limbo is still very troll-tastic if played poorly.

[Your Top 5 Endgame Warframes]

1. Mag - As a long time mag player, she's one of the more flexible and useful frames to have in a team. The infinite scaling on her 2 helps her remain relevant as a high-damage, defensive frame.

2. Valkyr - No other frame does invincibility like Valkyr does, and she also brings some fantastic buffs/debuffs to the table to well.

3. Frost - As a master of point defense, Frost remains one of the best frames in the game.

4. Trinity - She is basically the only effective healing frame and pretty much mandatory for endless content. Frankly, she could do with half a dozen hits with a nerf bat and still be top-tier.

5. Limbo - The sheer amount of mission types limbo can passively trivialize is staggering. Spy, Rescue, Mobile Defense, and Solo Defense are basically impossible to lose as Limbo as long as you know how to use stasis, banish, and riftwalk properly.The ability to revive allies in complete safety, prevent all damage to objectives for extended periods of time, and provide limitless energy is just icing on the cake. Frankly, if he wasn't such a mechanics-heavy frame that required a lot of coordination and skill to pull off well in a group, he'd be flat-out OP.

 

Honorable Mentions:

Loki - Radial Disarm and Master of Stealth. Loki is the Limbo of old, and still is top-tier in pretty much any mission type.

Nyx - Scaling CC in a massive range. Always a welcome addition to the team.

Nova - Slowing, or speeding up, enemies is valuable depending on what your goals are. Plus her damage

Nidus and Inaros - Situationally as tanky as Valkyr without relying on Hysteria energy drain for invulnerability.

Vauban - Lockdown in a Tee. When you need complete control of an area, Vauban is there.

[My clan just recently finished Hema research, and it wasn't that bad.]

I make it a point to hit Oxium Osprey's with CC as soon as I see them ever since I crafted Zephyr years ago.

 

One quick Magnetize and a Dread shot later and I get 22 more Oxium for the bank. Easy as you please.

 

Farming Oxium is easy as long as you play on Corpus tilesets.

[Mag, and some (semi) conservative changes that could benefit her.]

Quick Shower thought on how to make Crush worthwhile:

 

0. Make Crush more of a strong control Ultimate that can have some synergy with her shards.

1. Crush is now a 1-hand cast that doesn't lock you in place.

2. Initial cast is 75 energy.

3. Maintaining crush costs 5 energy/sec and suppresses energy generation. (duration reduces this cost)

4. Polarize Shards in the Crush AoE impale the nearest enemy within 10m, dealing 1,000 damage per shard. (radius scales with power radius). 

5. Enemies within 10m of a Magnetize bubble are pulled into the nearest bubble (radius scales with power radius)

6. Recasting the ability ends the effect, dealing moderate damage (half or less of current)

7. The base radius of crush should probably be reduced by 25% or so to compensate for the extra power. Since right now crush IS pretty huge.

 

Now Mag has a strong CC that isn't a death sentence to use, won't kill everything on the map with it, and has some incentive to try chaining her ultimate with polarize or magnetize without having crush completely suppliement the armor/shield stripping function Polerise

Combine this with a % strip for shields/armor (Perhaps 25%, scaling with ability power) and mag becomes a fantastic support frame without reverting back to her "CORPUS QUEEN" status

 

Edit: Also, crush should not apply to new enemies that enter the effect radius. That's Vauban's thing

[What are your mainly used frames?]

Started with Mag, ages ago.

Still play Mag today.

Going from the GODDESS OF CORPOSE DESTRUCTION to current levels feels odd, but as I'm adjusting I'm loving Mag even more than I did before.

• Magnetize is fantastic area denial now for all factions (Shoot the bubble for a little bit and nothing gets through it. Especially nice with my Dread.)
• Polerize is helpful for an emergency "heal"+mininuke (And stripping armor on tougher Grineer enemies is excellent).
• I've recently learned how effective Magnetize is for completely trivializing two of the deadliest enemy types in the game (Bursas and Sentients).
• Pull is a nice, cheap, quick CC as long as you have some +range (It doesn't last long, but mine costs something like 13 energy. Even with Mag's small energy pool I can cast it pretty much all day).
• Crush still sucks, but it can give your squad a brief respite in a serious pinch.
• Mag is relatively tanky for a caster frame.
• Bullet Jumping gives her much-needed mobility, and yanking pickups along with me as I dash towards a cryopod/extractor/objective is moderately useful to my team even with a sentinel equipped.

My other frames will remain in my lineup, but Mag will always be my girl. Through thick and thin.

[Pretty Bad "pet" System.]

I just had a clanmate bring his Kubrow into T4S. It survived the entire time and revived him at least once while we fought Vor.

 

I fail to see your issue.

 

Yes, Kubrows are somewhat expensive pets. Considering the reoccuring costs, it seems to me that they are intended for players that have unlocked a good chunk of the solar map/know where to farm. Personally, I can farm up 100k pretty quickly in most dark sectors. Sechura literally takes four 5-wave defenses to gain that much. While I understand that players who are not as far in the game cannot do this, it is pretty damn clear that Kubrows are not intended for players who are new to the game. After all, it takes Argon Crystals to incubate the egg!

[Please Add A "mute" Button For...]

... of course I post this in the wrong window. Apologies.

[Please Add A "mute" Button For...]

...Ordis and Lotus.

 

I get it, I really do. Lotus is a very important lady/mother of all tenno/mastermind behind our operations and has saved us all a dozen or more times. Ordis is the AI of our ship and often has important things to tell us...

 

But seriously, 99.9% of the time I really don't want to hear the mission briefing or "Oh great, it's hatching."

 

There are many bugs and issues that need to be addressed. (like the utterly terrible new UI. Not going to get into that right now) But please, if you get some time, give us poor belugered Tenno the means to mute the repetative voice-overs that we have all heard a hundred times before. If we can only mute those two, it would be very, very nice.

[New Ui 1St Impression]

The new UI is cluttered, unfriendly for navigation, laggy, motion sickness inducing (and I don't GET motion sick in games!), and terribly ineffecient.

It is a step back in every way concieable.

The old UI was leagues better than the current one, please do everything in your power to make the UI closer to the U13 UI.

Thank you.

[If You Could Use Only One Warframe To Clear The System... What Would It Be?]

Zephyr.

 

Durability? Check

Defensive skills? Check.

Crowd Control? Check

Speed? Check, Check, Check.

 

Once you know how to use Turbulance, you never go back. Ever.

[Sooo... Shock Eximus.]

Gimping the game and calling it a "challenge" is an acquired taste it seems, actually no, rather an "opinion". I enjoy fighting tough enemies that float about and bombard you with annoying knockdown rockets, I enjoy meleeing all kinds of ancients including toxic and disruptors, I even enjoy the Gurstag Three when they're not being ridiculous, Stalker used to be a challenge, Zanuka was ok-ish as well, throwing some boss duos at the players was a challenge and FUN. A píss poor enemy that drains all your energy with its scifi magic and leaves you with your pants down isn't any more of a challenge than playing with your eyes closed for giggles or shooting high level enemies with a modless braton MK1 as I've said. It's fine if you're into that but know that many won't be fine with it.

 

-I find them no more bullS#&$ then the first time I fought Vor (solo) and got utterly wreaked by his tesla balls. I simply learned to adapt to that situation (and buffed up my redirection) and eventually defeated him with better tactics. You are mistaking challenge for poor game design, it's simple as that. YOUR opinion is that one enemy is too strong/annoying, and you simply refuse to adapt

-Poor game design would be an enemy that can instantly kill you with no warning and no windup. The only enemy that I can think of in Warframe that can do that is the Stalker, and he gives you AMPLE time to prepare to fight him.

 

Yhonix this isn't directed at you personally, just throwing it in the middle. You guys should stop imposing your so called strategies and tactics on others and accept that your way isn't the only way it's supposed to be (otherwise everyone will end up using Rhino P + Soma + Angstrum or some other god builds and sod everything else. #tactics). Saying "lol just stay away" is about the same as "stop playing the game then". You can "overcome" it and adapt to devs' shortcomings in 'creativity and innovation department', we'll give feedback and welcome any changes they may come up with as any half decent beta tester should, or give feedback on those changes as well whether it was for the better or the worse. Critique is a wonderful thing. Criticising criticism isn't helping anyone though.

-You (complainers as a group) are the one using sub-par tactic and getting upset when you run against an enemy that is designed to punish that sort of tactic. Mind, my preferred builds do not even include any of the weapons you mentioned! Personally, I run Mag/Valk, Dread, Afuris/Aklex, Obex/Glaive. That is by no means the standard rhino loadout. When I run into situations where I do not do well (getting swarmed by enemies in survival or defense is quite high up there!) I change my tactics according to the challenge! A good example would be running into 3-5 corrupted heavy gunners in the void. The Dread doesn't perform well there without near-perfect accuracy. Rather than rely fully on my weapons (which are outclassed in this situation), I will generally resort to knockdown tactics (Pull, or an Obex/Hysteria jump attack). Bullet Attractor+my secondary weapon also becomes an option if I'm playing in a team.

-Content should not be changed simply because a small subset of players refuse to look into alternative means to overcome an obsticle. If your tactics are not working, change them. You don't need to follow the flavor of the month, simply find a changed tactic that works.

 

 

Just to be clear, Shock Eximus doesn't kill me, he doesn't even harm me, I don't get hurt seriously just because I lost all my energy and that I rely on QT+R mod combos; it's simply, purely, completely, annoying, inconvenient, time-wasting, pace-disrupting (no pun), ultimately unnecessary. Do you know what else is unnecessary? Rollers. Do rollers actually hurt anyone? No. Is it a "challenge" to fight them because all they do is stagger you constantly and annoy you to no end? Not at all. Get my point? That's another bad game design and its been debated to death. There's absolutely no real difficulty in this but just annoyance. They fixed that by supersizing them, they'll probably fixing Shock Eximus by giving it a huge flag and making it's aura super shiny and obvious most likely since bandaids seem to be how DE fix things. Dark Souls is what I'd call challenging, constant staggers and InstaEnergy-depletion isn't. :P

-Dark Souls has far more, and worse, moves that utterly screw over the player. More than Warframe could possibly have. To note:

 

Dark Souls I

The Four Kings. (A nearly unblockable 30-40s grab animation that takes so long to complete that it summons an extra copy of said boss)

The flaming barrel in undeadburg (Granted, it's there to teach you situational awareness)

The bridge after Solaire (unless you are expecting it. Most new players simply are not. That game really does drive home the "screw the players" approach to gaming. In a good way.)

Havel (At least, until you know he is down there)

Lower Undead Burg (Unless you got the master key. Of course, new players don't generally KNOW to get said master key!)

The Capara Demon (Even after beating the game several times, I STILL die to this bastard a few times when I fight him.)

Bed of Chaos (This fight is the only boss fight in the game where progress is saved as you go. A clear indicator that you are expected to fail a few times here.)

DMB falchion builds

Dark Magic

 

Dark Souls II

That first bloody Heide knight.

The Bellfry

The Gutter

The Mirror Knight (He isn't so tough the first time... unless he summons a well-prepared red phantom to fight you.)

The Arena, for both PvP heavy covenants

Dual-Wielded Chameleon Avelyn in PvP (It has very few, mostly nonexistant counters)

Mundane sanatier's spear (At least it's melee.)

 

It's funny you even bother to bring up Dark Souls in this context, as you are essentially doing the same as the people who complain that bosses like the Capara Demon or players that use things like lightning spear are "unfair, unfun, and horrible." Learn to adapt to enemies that can cripple you. Virtually any decent build can do so with a paradim shift. Your complaints are unfounded, mostly because you refuse to adapt to a situation.

Comments in-line

[Sooo... Shock Eximus.]

Shock eximus are one of the few enemies that actually bring challenge to the game. The chance of losing all your energy is a risk that happens, and it forces a player to change their tactics to be successful. Yes, occasionally you can end up getting punked through a wall or caught out in a bad position. Bad luck can happen in any situation. A show of player skill is finding means to overcome this. Complaining that one specific tactic is not working against an enemy that is supposed to force a change in tactics is... ludicris!

 

I tend to run Valkyr (Rage/life build, not dissimilar to what Janzer runs. Probably lower level) and Mag (Corpus/Void only) in the survivals I do.

 

Thus far, there has been exactly one instance where I was caught in a bad position with Valk. It was up around 60 minutes in  a corpus survival and I got nailed by an eximus as I came out of hysteria. Rather than try and fight, I coptored out and kited until my energy was back!  It did cost me a downed team mamber (the reason I was hit by the drain in the first place. A shockwave Moa knocked me out of the revive.) but overall it didn't utterly cripple me in any way.

 

On my Mag, I'm reminded of one of my first 50min+ survivals. It was on earth, and I was partnered with a Saryn. Due to Mag's rather pathetic armor score I would get repeatedly ripped up if I let a Toxic ancient (who were spawning quite quickly at that point) get near me. After getting knocked down quite a few times and revived by my partner, I started shifing my tactics and following her. Her weapons were weaker than mine (or so it seemed), but rather than stay put, she would kite the infested down the long canyons of the map. Utilizing her decoy to distract them before cleaning up the bigger targets. By following her lead, we lasted quite a long time in the end!

 

My point is, if you are failing due to an enemy ability. It is likely YOUR tactics that need adjusted. Shock eximi are dangerous, certainly! Checking corners and staying within shouting distance of your teammates (especially a friendly Valkyr or Frost) can help immensely. Bringing a side-arm or primary to work alongside your primary melee can allow you to remove them at a distance, and being ready to copter out of a really bad situation (or, if you run a fist weapon, stunlock spam!)  can mean the difference between survival or death.

 

Does it suck to lose all your energy? Yes. Is it bad game design? No. It's a challenge, overcome it.

[The New Player Experience]

Hello folks!

 

I was brought into warframe a few weeks ago by a small group of friends. Initially, the style of the game and the behaviors of some early weapons had me a little leery, but I stuck with it and quickly found the action/shooter aspect quite enjoyable! Since I've been a fairly avid player, working my way through the starmap and slowly trying out a good number of frames and weapons. That said: Something of late has been bothering me about Warframe. I have see quite a few threads mention it, but I've seen no real discussion on the manner or many solid ideas discussed to adress it.

 

The one thing is the "New Player Experience"

 

I'm certain more than a few of the players in Warframe have at one time or another tried to recruit a friend to join. While it's fairly common to see a new player join up to try Warframe out (It's free, after all) I've seen and heard quite a few of my friends not making it much past Venus or Earth. Perhaps one in three even get themselves a new weapon, and even fewer stick around much to get into the void, derelict missions, or get themselves a catalyst or reactor.

 

This is, of course, a problem. Warframe isn't retaining players very well! While yes, a good number have stayed with it! All in all, I would estimate at least half the people I've worked on recruiting (Both people who have played MMOs and Action games) simply haven't been able to stand what I like to call "The new player wall"

 

Let's look at a new player, and a few possible reasons why. Note, all of these players are real people that I have tried to persuade to give Warframe a second chance.

 

 

Conversation 1

Player A is the new player

Player B is another experienced player who was in on the conversation

Me is me

 

A: "I can't get back into it"
B: Yeah, one of my friends loves Nova but he's one of those min/max types that goes all the way to "If the internet says it has one really good use it's alright, anything less is useless and you're bad at this game if you have it."
Me: Eh
Me: Nova isn't really good for a min-maxer
A: They took away cover. And now my sneaky Loki is #*($%%@. Because everyone else runs and guns.
A: And I just ..
B:  Oh yeah, just tried out Mag and Volt recently, they're pretty damn fun once you put some mods on for their first ability
Me: Mag.equals("Corpus Rape")
A: "I have a stealth suit in a game where everyone runs and shoots everything."
Me: Hawk: Loki is fantastic in a full group.
Me: The ability to revive people in the middle of an enemy group is amazing
Me: Radial disarm is also fantastic :/
A: Games too hard solo and I can't keep up in a group
Me: How far did you get?
A: "What's the, oh you've shot everything. Good plan. I'll just amble behind."
B: That's the part that used to upset me A. I took Loki as my starter frame and everybody used to pick on me. Granted, I didn't have the mods to make him worth it yet. Got Rhino ASAP, eventually dropped Loki for Ash and never looked back. Made a pact with myself to keep a stealth frame and Ash was much more fun for me.
Me: Aaaaa!
Me: how far have you gotten?
Me: 'cause those complaints can be fiiiiixed :P
A: L18 suit.
Me: I mean what planet?
B: I still get picked on, and actual stealth is even harder now, but you still don't get tankier than invisibility.
A:  Far enough to first meet corpus and the infected one's. (Note: Venus)
Me: Oh, so not far at all
Me: Do you wanna stay as a stealth frame?
A: Don't really care. I have the double xp everything's
A: And it's still too Grundy.
A: Grindy

A: I have time in a day for maybe two missions.
A: Guess what all the friends I try and play with have?

A: Oh, yeah. Triple my level everything.

 

Once again, this is a real conversation with the participants edited out. You'll note, Player A didn't even make it to Jackel! The main source of his complaints were, however, the fact that even when he played with friends he would end up getting left really far behind (in both a damage and literal sense!)

 

The most likely culprit for this, I feel, is likely the state of the Branton MK1, the Lato, and the Skana. To understand how a new player feels... go buy a starter weapon. Unequip all of your mods except a base-level redirection, a base level vitality, one base-level elemental mods of your choice and some an ammo increase on your gun. Then go and run an early mission with a friend.

 

To put it bluntly, the starter weapons are trash. The lato and branton Mk-1 are hands-down the worst guns in the game, and the Skana is hardly better without a lot of love from harder-to-get mods! If you couple that with a complete lack of any "basic" mods, such as Serration, Hornet Sting, and Point Blank, it becomes readily apparant why newbies feel pretty damn weak and powerless when compared to most of the rest of the warframe population. Hell, until I got my own Serration and Hornet Sting mods, I primarily used my melee (an Obex, because i happen to like the asthetics of the weapon.) because it was flat-out better than shooting an unmodded branton mk-1 or lato! I recall the first time I used a Lex, on suggestion of an experience friend, and the difference was not just noticable... it was like night and day.

 

Player effectiveness, or the preception thearof, is really important. Especially when it comes to hooking and keeping newbies!

 

 

Conversation 2

-This conversation is with an entirely different player, one who I had convinced to give Warframe a second try. Earlier in the week I had offered/helped him aquire the blueprints for a Rhino, as it was a frame he had really wanted, and this conversation occurred after he, myself, and a third friend had done a survival to help him get some components for the frame.

 

 

Player A - The new player who was trying to get his Rhino

Player B - A player I play with regularily. We normally run 1-3 missions together or so a day and split up to solo when our schedules don't coincide.

Me is still me.

 

A: I'm too excited for sunday
A: Sytop exciting me
Me: Morning!
Me: Later today!
Me:  I'm going to have a new frame and THREE NEW WEAPONS to play with
Me: What do you say to you, me, and B all going and playing spess ninjas? :D
A: If I don't get roped into something, okay I guess
Me: Okay! :D
A: It's not really a super exciting game for me
A: Because I got in on it later, stuck playing the grind
Me: I got in on it later too A :/
Me: I just enjoy it for what it is and try and stick to people around my power level

 

[An hour later]

Me: So
Me: Wanna play warframe for like an hour or two?
Me: I have my new S#&$ to level
Me: QWERTY wants in too
A: I got 45 minutes
A: that acceptable?
Me: Sure. What's yer plan in 45 minutes?
Me is curious
A : Starwars EoTE
A: Playing a Dug
Me: Ah
Me: Okay!
Me: Let's do this then
Me: We can fit in a few games[sic] in that time
*** Me created a group conversation with B(B).
Show group conversation ***

 

[The other chat was voice, so I can't copy logs. We did three missions, ending with a survival for 20 minutes on Mercury]

 

Me: <3
Me: You had fun you said?
A: Because I got materials I need/was actual use
Me :P
Me: You do get a lot of materials by just going through the starmap
Me: Valkyr is fun, you would probably like her lots

Me: With a bigass sword or axe

 

 

The second new player here mostly participates because his friend(s) want him too. He really doesn't have a lot of interest in progressing on the starmap, but is instead interested in playing with the people that got him in. A goodly part of the reason he had fun was because I had deliberately reduced my own power (by running an entirely new frame and unranked weapons. Only my carrier was leveled.) Player B had done likewise, bringing several unranked weapons and holding back so that our mututal friend could participate.

 

Part of A's issues with playing stemmed from material drops. You will note he specifically is looking for materials for a favored frame. Unlike the first example, he doesn't really care much about starmap progression. The entire point for this player is to be able to play with his friends and feel he is contributing. Of course, in doing this he hasn't gotten even enough plastids to build a rhino. Much less the rarer components!

 

My main point with this conversation is this. RNG drops, while very easy to implement, do not do well for keeping new players. While some variation is good, a means for a player to get specifically what they need (such as Neurodes for a new weapon, or Morphics for a new frame) is something that Warframe sorely lacks. A means to gather rare components in a gaurenteed manner is sorely lacking, and this can create an artificial wall that a new player or casual player may not be able to surmount in a ready manner.

 

While I do not feel every item needs a gaurenteed aquisition method. (Prestige items, like prime frames, should definitely not!) I do feel that basic rare materials and mods SHOULD have a means for a player that needs them to aquire them that is not RNG-based. Farming Four Neurodes for your first Boltor isn't fun for anyone. If you compound that with the fact that players are only likely to see one or two at most when passing earth? It's no wonder that quite a few players don't get far enough into Warframe to really respect how varied the later frames get!

 

 

 

All in all, I feel that things should be tweaked to help keep lower-level players from abandoning Warframe before the game really picks up. What are your thoughts? Do you have your own "friend won't play/quite playing" story? Do you have an idea for a solution? Your opinions and stories on the subject manner are welcome!