Suggested changes to leveling

[(PSN)ROBOCRIPPLE_]

One thing in WF I dislike more than the RNG-based reward system is the current leveling system. I wanted to level up my Harrow after adding 1 Forma, without an Affinity Booster, but it took me HOURS to get him to rank 30 by simply joining public groups in Helene and Hydron with only my low-ranked Harrow and max-ranked Tiberon Prime. Most squads wanted to leave at wave 5 or 10, resulting in only small level-ups at the end of each mission. I was very disappointed. Then I thought, "this doesn't make any sense to me why this leveling system is still around".

Sure, the current leveling system made sense back in the beginning, when there wasn't much content in WF. Now that there is much more content in WF, with Fortuna coming soon, and a higher player base(?), I'd say the current leveling system is outdated, all things considered. Most of the good content in WF has higher-level enemies, mostly level 15-40, which includes most of the Star Chart, single-player Quests and limited-time events such as Plague Star, and the game starts to get really complicated at those levels; it's easy for those players who already have strong mods, weapons and Warframes and know how to mod for each faction and mission type, but can get really hard for newer players who don't know or have much. We already have to wait to get the resources, mods and parts that we want through RNG, and we also have to wait for things to get built in the foundry, so why wait even longer by leveling up your Warframe?

I understand that WF is a free-to-play game and that DE is a business. Already, we need platinum to buy slots for our gear if we want more of them such as weapons and Warframes, and also to buy things from other players in Trade Chat such as Prime parts, Rivens and ultra-rare mods like Condition Overload and Corrupted mods. Orokin Reactors and Catalysts are so rare already I sometimes end up buying one for my gear. I don’t mean to be rude or disrespectful, but isn’t that along with Prime Access/Vault enough to support the studio?

I have a few suggestions for making leveling up and modding a bit faster/easier, especially for new/casual players coming from other games:

1. Remove ranking/affinity for gear entirely. That is, everyone starts their gear with a mod capacity of 30, or 60 with an Orokin Reactor/Catalyst, as if the gear in question is rank 30 in the current system. You would not need to level it up at all, when you first acquire it and even after a polarization! That is, you can use as many Forma as you’d like if you have them! Experienced players can have their newly-built Warframe or weapon built the way they want in no time! Newer players can still solo the majority of Star-Chart missions and contribute to random squads at mid-level missions and not be “deadweight”.

   Forma would be removed from the Market, making them not purchasable with Platinum. I think this will balance things out as far as “leveling up” goes. Affinity Boosters would be changed to Foundry Boosters, which would shorten or even eliminate building times in the Foundry, for a limited amount of time.

   Without affinity, Mastery will also change; you could get mastery for a weapon by getting a minimum number of kills with it, and for a Warframe, cast each ability a minimum number of times. For Zaws and Kitguns, you’d have to get mastery for the weapon in a similar way to a "named" weapon before you can gild it.

2. Remove mod polarities entirely, give gear a generous starting mod capacity like, say, 20 regardless of Mastery Rank, and increase the maximum rank for gear to 50, or 99 with an Orokin Reactor/Catalyst. A lot of “necessary” mods in the game have 10 ranks or require more than 10 mod capacity, which results in a very high drain, like 12 or 16! Max-ranked Rivens require 18! Orokin Reactors, Catalysts, and Forma are already rare in WF, especially for newer players, and with a starting mod capacity of 20 at rank 0, newer players can install a few mods and become less of a “deadweight”, mid-game. With a mod capacity of 150 for any gear, players have a lot of flexibility in their mod setups. Mod capacity will be increased not by leveling up, but by reaching certain level milestones with the gear, similar to increasing base health, shields and energy capacity by leveling Warframes in the current system. Players would have 80 mod capacity at rank 50, and 150 at rank 99.

   Leveling gear will be slower at any rank higher than 50. Still, Forma does not have to be limited to being used as resources to build Clan-tech weapons, Greater Focus Lenses, Exilus Adapters, and Clan Dojo rooms; they can also be used to build different tiers of Affinity Boosters. A 2x booster would require 1 Forma, 2 for a 4x, and so on and so forth. Players would not be able to install an Orokin Reactor/Catalyst in their gear until they’ve reached level 50 with it, similarly to how polarizing works in the current system; from there, they can go up to level 99! Once you’ve done grinding one piece of gear to level 99, you would not have to level it up ever again!

3. Remove building times in the Foundry entirely. The current leveling system could stay the same, only this time the long building times for things like Warframes and Forma would not exist anymore! Got all of the components to build the Warframe that you want? You can acquire it immediately, for free! Got a lot of Forma blueprints? Get them all built in no time, also for free! Already, we have to wait for the RNG gods to bless us with the resources and pieces that we want, and level them up and/or add Forma to get the Mastery or the builds that we want, so why wait even longer to build them in the Foundry, if you don’t have any Platinum to rush them?

I think making one of these changes would increase the appeal of WF as a free-to-play game, for various reasons. For now, I may as well stop playing the game in Public, and just solo or play with friends and clan mates, preferably friendly players. Not just because leveling up is so slow in most public Defense missions without an Affinity Booster or that I can't find/make a squad getting a old, rare Prime part such as a Nami Skyla Prime Blade, but because I’m so “sensitive”. I'm a casual player, and I play other games from time to time, mostly single-players (I'm sort of a completest, myself), but still I don't want to be left behind whenever something new comes up.

Edited October 1, 2018 by (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_

[peterc3]

Your suggestions would work except for one fact which you are ignoring: The game is free to download, free to play. The basic assumption for someone making an account an playing the game is that they have put in 0 actual currency and they need to be pressured to want to pay actual money.

Timers that can be bypassed by paying money is a tried and true method of player monetization. 3 is complete nonsense.

2 is an absurd bit of power creep that has nothing to do with leveling, but completely removes mod capacity as a limiting factor and your suggestion pretends it would still limit things.

1 suggests you haven't paid any attention to the game as you've played it. New players are fully capable of not being deadweight, it's completely down to them not being taxied to places they haven't gotten to or at least knowing how to play the game, both way more important than their mod capacity.

13 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

I understand that WF is a free-to-play game and that DE is a business.

To be totally honest, you don't demonstrate that supposed knowledge.

[LupoDWolf]

I here am I, another casual player, leveling a non-prime frame in less than an hour without booster on sanctuary, not knowing what to put on some frames or weapons not because drain, but space.

basically, not sure if this is really seriously 

[NightBlitz]

honestly... it sounds like you don't know how to level things effectively...

[Asphyxxia]

27 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

That is, everyone starts their gear with a mod capacity of 30, or 60 with an Orokin Reactor/Catalyst, as if the gear in question is rank 30 in the current system. You would not need to level it up at all, when you first acquire it and even after a polarization! That is, you can use as many Forma as you’d like if you have them!

This takes away from playtime, it might sound good to you but it's bad for business.

 

27 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Experienced players can have their newly-built Warframe or weapon built the way they want in no time!

This also takes away from time investment and feel of accomplishment, I personally enjoy putting my time in when I decide to Forma or level something.

 

28 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Newer players can still solo the majority of Star-Chart missions and contribute to random squads at mid-level missions and not be “deadweight”.

Newer players can already solo majority of Star Chart within a reasonably short period of playing. Less than 150-200 hours, I'll give you that.

 

30 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Remove mod polarities entirely, give gear a generous starting mod capacity like, say, 20 regardless of Mastery Rank

Or... Invest your time, get higher MR, eventually we'll have max capacity from the get-go when 30 becomes available.

 

31 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

A lot of “necessary” mods in the game have 10 ranks or require more than 10 mod capacity, which results in a very high drain, like 12 or 16!

DE already addressed this by saying that they are looking to change how modding works at some point, most likely by removing mandatory mods such as, for example Serration, entirely.

 

32 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Rivens

Rivens are a luxury, not a commodity. Not everyone can afford to put one in their build or invest time in rolling it.

 

34 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Orokin Reactors, Catalysts, and Forma are already rare in WF, especially for newer players

That's where Free to Play aspect is felt better, players have the option to either gather these via Relics for Forma, or alerts, events and Sorties or trade items for plat which naturally takes time. Or they can purchase Platinum to both support the game they love, because it wouldn't be logical to pay for a F2P game if you don't like it, and to progress a bit faster.

 

37 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Players would have 80 mod capacity at rank 50, and 150 at rank 99.

P O W E R C R E E P

 

38 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

The current leveling system could stay the same, only this time the long building times for things like Warframes and Forma would not exist anymore!

A powerfarmer would burn through everything insanely fast, even now a powerfarmer can achieve MR 25 within 100 days of playing bit longer than an average gaming session but without no-lifing the game. Bad for business.

 

41 minutes ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Got all of the components to build the Warframe that you want? You can acquire it immediately, for free! Got a lot of Forma blueprints? Get them all built in no time, also for free!

B A D   F O R   B U S I N E S S

TL;DR: Your suggestions might sound good to you, but it's bad for business and very unhealthy for the game as well. Free to play games get the most out of new players and returning consistent players while in the long run your suggestions will only ruin the game.

Developers have to make money somehow, and these would null any reason to purchase platinum for any player. You wrote a lot but didn't think it through. In games both developers and players should be winning sides, if one of them fails the game, the community and eventually the studio would fail as well.

[(XBOX)Erudite Prime]

2 hours ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

it took me HOURS to get him to rank 30 by simply joining public groups in Helene and Hydron with only my low-ranked Harrow and max-ranked Tiberon Prime. Most squads wanted to leave at wave 5 or 10, resulting in only small level-ups at the end of each mission

Recruit in recruiting chat. Case closed.

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

4 hours ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

. I wanted to level up my Harrow after adding 1 Forma, without an Affinity Booster, but it took me HOURS to get him to rank 30 by simply joining public groups in Helene and Hydron with only my low-ranked Harrow and max-ranked Tiberon Prime. Most squads wanted to leave at wave 5 or 10, resulting in only small level-ups at the end of each mission. I was very disappointed. 

Odd. I just did Chroma and Chroma prime, and most people went to 15 at the least. 

[844448]

hydron isn't the best place for that. If you want to level up play titan on saturn or try stealth for 5x exp

[Atsia]

Yeah, this mostly sounds like you didn't know how to level efficiently. Of course you're gonna level a frame slowly if your constantly joining and rejoining a mission. That's not really the fault of the leveling system itself.

[FlySalus]

This change would dramatically change the mastery rank system. What would your suggestion be for the new mastery rank system given that all gear will be max level upon acquisition? I think the leveling system and time required to level is an appeal for warframe. It creates a sense of accomplishment and pride when you have finally put forth enough time to create the "perfect" build.

*edit: I see now, you suggest a certain amount of kills with a weapon to get mastery rank...still that seems extremely close to current way to get affinity. it could also cause bad blood between teammates when everyone wants the kills to level up their weapons. Interesting* 

Edited October 2, 2018 by FlySalus

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

“I’m doing a thing but it’s not doing as I want so I’m going to keep doing that thing until something changes”

sorry to break this to you friendo. But you’re insane.

[Kalarual]

If frames leveled as fast as you seem to want them to, then boosters would be pointless and DE would lose money. They already lose enough money each update as it is. Think.

 

Also, christ your ideas are downright awful for DE.

Edited October 2, 2018 by Kalarual

[Kalarual]

51 minutes ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

“I’m doing a thing but it’s not doing as I want so I’m going to keep doing that thing until something changes”

sorry to break this to you friendo. But you’re insane.

Do you know the definition of insanity?

[Prepotenza]

11 hours ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

One thing in WF I dislike more than the RNG-based reward system is the current leveling system. I wanted to level up my Harrow after adding 1 Forma, without an Affinity Booster, but it took me HOURS to get him to rank 30 by simply joining public groups in Helene and Hydron with only my low-ranked Harrow and max-ranked Tiberon Prime. Most squads wanted to leave at wave 5 or 10, resulting in only small level-ups at the end of each mission. I was very disappointed. Then I thought, "this doesn't make any sense to me why this leveling system is still around".

Sure, the current leveling system made sense back in the beginning, when there wasn't much content in WF. Now that there is much more content in WF, with Fortuna coming soon, and a higher player base(?), I'd say the current leveling system is outdated, all things considered. Most of the good content in WF has higher-level enemies, mostly level 15-40, which includes most of the Star Chart, single-player Quests and limited-time events such as Plague Star, and the game starts to get really complicated at those levels; it's easy for those players who already have strong mods, weapons and Warframes and know how to mod for each faction and mission type, but can get really hard for newer players who don't know or have much. We already have to wait to get the resources, mods and parts that we want through RNG, and we also have to wait for things to get built in the foundry, so why wait even longer by leveling up your Warframe?

I understand that WF is a free-to-play game and that DE is a business. Already, we need platinum to buy slots for our gear if we want more of them such as weapons and Warframes, and also to buy things from other players in Trade Chat such as Prime parts, Rivens and ultra-rare mods like Condition Overload and Corrupted mods. Orokin Reactors and Catalysts are so rare already I sometimes end up buying one for my gear. I don’t mean to be rude or disrespectful, but isn’t that along with Prime Access/Vault enough to support the studio?

I have a few suggestions for making leveling up and modding a bit faster/easier, especially for new/casual players coming from other games:

1. Remove ranking/affinity for gear entirely. That is, everyone starts their gear with a mod capacity of 30, or 60 with an Orokin Reactor/Catalyst, as if the gear in question is rank 30 in the current system. You would not need to level it up at all, when you first acquire it and even after a polarization! That is, you can use as many Forma as you’d like if you have them! Experienced players can have their newly-built Warframe or weapon built the way they want in no time! Newer players can still solo the majority of Star-Chart missions and contribute to random squads at mid-level missions and not be “deadweight”.

   Forma would be removed from the Market, making them not purchasable with Platinum. I think this will balance things out as far as “leveling up” goes. Affinity Boosters would be changed to Foundry Boosters, which would shorten or even eliminate building times in the Foundry, for a limited amount of time.

   Without affinity, Mastery will also change; you could get mastery for a weapon by getting a minimum number of kills with it, and for a Warframe, cast each ability a minimum number of times. For Zaws and Kitguns, you’d have to get mastery for the weapon in a similar way to a "named" weapon before you can gild it.

2. Remove mod polarities entirely, give gear a generous starting mod capacity like, say, 20 regardless of Mastery Rank, and increase the maximum rank for gear to 50, or 99 with an Orokin Reactor/Catalyst. A lot of “necessary” mods in the game have 10 ranks or require more than 10 mod capacity, which results in a very high drain, like 12 or 16! Max-ranked Rivens require 18! Orokin Reactors, Catalysts, and Forma are already rare in WF, especially for newer players, and with a starting mod capacity of 20 at rank 0, newer players can install a few mods and become less of a “deadweight”, mid-game. With a mod capacity of 150 for any gear, players have a lot of flexibility in their mod setups. Mod capacity will be increased not by leveling up, but by reaching certain level milestones with the gear, similar to increasing base health, shields and energy capacity by leveling Warframes in the current system. Players would have 80 mod capacity at rank 50, and 150 at rank 99.

   Leveling gear will be slower at any rank higher than 50. Still, Forma does not have to be limited to being used as resources to build Clan-tech weapons, Greater Focus Lenses, Exilus Adapters, and Clan Dojo rooms; they can also be used to build different tiers of Affinity Boosters. A 2x booster would require 1 Forma, 2 for a 4x, and so on and so forth. Players would not be able to install an Orokin Reactor/Catalyst in their gear until they’ve reached level 50 with it, similarly to how polarizing works in the current system; from there, they can go up to level 99! Once you’ve done grinding one piece of gear to level 99, you would not have to level it up ever again!

3. Remove building times in the Foundry entirely. The current leveling system could stay the same, only this time the long building times for things like Warframes and Forma would not exist anymore! Got all of the components to build the Warframe that you want? You can acquire it immediately, for free! Got a lot of Forma blueprints? Get them all built in no time, also for free! Already, we have to wait for the RNG gods to bless us with the resources and pieces that we want, and level them up and/or add Forma to get the Mastery or the builds that we want, so why wait even longer to build them in the Foundry, if you don’t have any Platinum to rush them?

I think making one of these changes would increase the appeal of WF as a free-to-play game, for various reasons. For now, I may as well stop playing the game in Public, and just solo or play with friends and clan mates, preferably friendly players. Not just because leveling up is so slow in most public Defense missions without an Affinity Booster or that I can't find/make a squad getting a old, rare Prime part such as a Nami Skyla Prime Blade, but because I’m so “sensitive”. I'm a casual player, and I play other games from time to time, mostly single-players (I'm sort of a completest, myself), but still I don't want to be left behind whenever something new comes up.

Leveling is super-easy.
The only thing I agree with you is the building time for Formas. I did over 500 forma on my gear, and I got less than 250 days played (meaning that I would have not been able to forma so much if I didn't buy them).

[Tsukinoki]

12 hours ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

I wanted to level up my Harrow after adding 1 Forma, without an Affinity Booster, but it took me HOURS to get him to rank 30 by simply joining public groups in Helene and Hydron with only my low-ranked Harrow and max-ranked Tiberon Prime.

You are aware that there are much faster and easier methods to level a frame easily, right?
Do a dark-sector survival against infested.  Very easy, lots of enemies to get affinity from.  Without a booster I can level a warframe that doesn't have offensive abilities in under 40 minutes.  With a booster its around 20 and I'm done.  And even better is that if you get a challenge that matches the weapon that gets bonus affinity from the node you get even more challenge affinity than normal.
There's also high level spy which can give a good affinity boost for a perfect run, and they don't take much time at all to do regardless of frame.
TL;DR: There are more leveling spots then Hydron and Helene and it doesn't take "hours" to max out a frame once you know what you're doing.  You should look into more leveling spots.
Alternatively you could try recruiting chat and get a group that is willing to go 20+ waves each time....

12 hours ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Remove ranking/affinity for gear entirely. That is, everyone starts their gear with a mod capacity of 30, or 60 with an Orokin Reactor/Catalyst, as if the gear in question is rank 30 in the current system. You would not need to level it up at all, when you first acquire it and even after a polarization! That is, you can use as many Forma as you’d like if you have them! Experienced players can have their newly-built Warframe or weapon built the way they want in no time! Newer players can still solo the majority of Star-Chart missions and contribute to random squads at mid-level missions and not be “deadweight”.

Forma would be removed from the Market, making them not purchasable with Platinum. I think this will balance things out as far as “leveling up” goes. Affinity Boosters would be changed to Foundry Boosters, which would shorten or even eliminate building times in the Foundry, for a limited amount of time.

Without affinity, Mastery will also change; you could get mastery for a weapon by getting a minimum number of kills with it, and for a Warframe, cast each ability a minimum number of times. For Zaws and Kitguns, you’d have to get mastery for the weapon in a similar way to a "named" weapon before you can gild it.

So in a F2P game that relies on people playing the game and possibly spending some money to speed up the game you want to utterly remove the main component of the game that actually takes a small amount of time?
This idea may sound good to you, but would be utter suicide for the game itself.  A F2P game like WF needs players to have something to grind for to keep them playing long term...and you want to remove all of that and replace it with what?  Absolutely nothing?  What would keep people playing if they could just instantly build and 8x forma things with absolutely zero time investment?
Further I seriously doubt that DE would touch how polarization works.  In fact DE was originally against changing polarization because they saw the built in polarities as a small balancing point and didn't want players to be able to just slap on every mod.  Eventually after enough push back DE added forma but very purposefully added in the releveling so that you have to put in some effort to min-max your gear.

Also how would your new "mastery" system work with teams?
After all say you join a group with a nuker who keeps wiping the map?  Looks like you just won't get any "mastery" for your gear until the mission is over....
This basically forces people to go solo to get mastery from their gear...which is against the co-op nature of the game and would only cause massive fights over KSing with absolutely no upsides.

12 hours ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Remove mod polarities entirely, give gear a generous starting mod capacity like, say, 20 regardless of Mastery Rank, and increase the maximum rank for gear to 50, or 99 with an Orokin Reactor/Catalyst. A lot of “necessary” mods in the game have 10 ranks or require more than 10 mod capacity, which results in a very high drain, like 12 or 16! Max-ranked Rivens require 18! Orokin Reactors, Catalysts, and Forma are already rare in WF, especially for newer players, and with a starting mod capacity of 20 at rank 0, newer players can install a few mods and become less of a “deadweight”, mid-game. With a mod capacity of 150 for any gear, players have a lot of flexibility in their mod setups. Mod capacity will be increased not by leveling up, but by reaching certain level milestones with the gear, similar to increasing base health, shields and energy capacity by leveling Warframes in the current system. Players would have 80 mod capacity at rank 50, and 150 at rank 99.

Leveling gear will be slower at any rank higher than 50. Still, Forma does not have to be limited to being used as resources to build Clan-tech weapons, Greater Focus Lenses, Exilus Adapters, and Clan Dojo rooms; they can also be used to build different tiers of Affinity Boosters. A 2x booster would require 1 Forma, 2 for a 4x, and so on and so forth. Players would not be able to install an Orokin Reactor/Catalyst in their gear until they’ve reached level 50 with it, similarly to how polarizing works in the current system; from there, they can go up to level 99! Once you’ve done grinding one piece of gear to level 99, you would not have to level it up ever again!

So basically: Lets remove a balancing factor on mods, remove the main benefit of increasing your MR (and for no real reason at that), and add on stupidly massive power-creep to top it off?
DE purposefully gives powerful mods a high drain so that you actually have to relevel and forma and work towards min-maxing your gear so that it keeps people playing and gives them something to work towards over time.  If you want to put in a lot of powerful mods then be prepared to forma your gear a few times to fit it all...and even with that most weapons only need one or two forma to clear even sortie level enemies so its not like its a super huge investment or anything.
Further why do you want to remove the main reason to increase mastery rank?  After all the only reason to try to hit the highest mastery rank is so that you have more starting capacity.  Literally nothing matters after MR18 (I think that's the highest MR required for rivens), except for the small starting boost to mod point pool on weapons.  So why remove that?
Also, why do you want such a stupidly massive amount of power-creep?  With the mod points that we currently have its very possible to fit in a strong riven, and enough other mods to make a good weapon able to one-shot things well past sortie levels...and you want to increase that cap to 150, nearly 3x, just because?  What benefit would it serve?  We can already utterly destroy anything in the game by essentially blinking at it, we don't need more useless power.

12 hours ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Remove building times in the Foundry entirely. The current leveling system could stay the same, only this time the long building times for things like Warframes and Forma would not exist anymore! Got all of the components to build the Warframe that you want? You can acquire it immediately, for free! Got a lot of Forma blueprints? Get them all built in no time, also for free! Already, we have to wait for the RNG gods to bless us with the resources and pieces that we want, and level them up and/or add Forma to get the Mastery or the builds that we want, so why wait even longer to build them in the Foundry, if you don’t have any Platinum to rush them?

Ok...so you want to remove one of DEs sources of income (which they have mentioned before as being a noticeable source of income) and replace it with what?  If you want to cut into DEs bottom line you had better have something to replace it with.
Further this ignores, and would remove, a very important part of WF that helps keep people returning: Looking forward to new gear building that you get to try out tomorrow or in a few days.
That keeps players coming back over and over and over again because "oh my shiny new weapon will be finished today, I can't wait to try it out!"
It keeps players thinking about the game even when they aren't playing it.  It gives them a reason to come back tomorrow and check their foundry which helps cement WF into a players daily routine.  And in a F2P game like WF that is critically important.  If WF can become part of your daily routine then you will continue playing it and checking in on it and talking about it and that helps WF to survive.
Having a reason to sign in day after day, to collect your forma and relevel your frame, or to collect your next weapon and start using that, is a big part of how F2P games keep their players hooked and keep them coming back.  Its a common psychological trick that works.

Further its a money maker for DE.  After all if you can't be bothered to wait then you can spend some money and get it now.

12 hours ago, (PS4)ROBOCRIPPLE_ said:

Newer players can still solo the majority of Star-Chart missions and contribute to random squads at mid-level missions and not be “deadweight”.

Finally you keep saying this, quite a few times, when its not true at all.
Unless a player has been taxied to a node that is beyond them then a new player can, and does, contribute in starchart nodes.  Even without having a maxed out frame or mods or a good build they can still contribute and be useful.  Even mid-level missions in the starchart allow rather fresh players to do stuff and help the squad without any trouble or need for much, if any, help.
Sure sometimes a player is taxied to a node where they are under geared...but that happens in most games with this sort of mission structure and is relatively rare.
If you watch new players actually playing through the starchart as intended then you'll see them easily able to pull their weight without any trouble at all.