As a new player: confusing mission sequence on Earth

[BratwurstBob]

I made a new account out of boredom and to see what it was like when I first played years ago. And as I progressed beyond the initiation phase I noticed a problem: Where am I to go now? I opened the Venus junction because the requirements were easily met, but what am I to do next?

Cetus offers a bounty to me, but it says level 3-5, which I definitely am not.

So I am cut off the rest of the planet by being level 1 and not able to pass the PoE hurdle. Am I to go to Venus? But that is already the next planet, i.e. it must be even harder than my beginner planet Earth, right?

Just a heads up for the future redesign of the new player experience.

 

EDIT: While I'm at it; I LOVED the opening sequence when first entering Cetus, the playing children, the camera pans, so very well done 😉. Just wanted to tell you guys how much I appreciated the work that went into it, a shame I only will see it once and never again.

Edited July 26, 2019 by BratwurstBob

[Drachnyn]

Earth progression is definitely very confusing and it only got worse with the introduction of the plains. The intented path is still going to venus. 

The problem with plains is that you are forced to go there to get to the mars junction so new people think they are ready to do bounties which they arent, at all.

The level display is also very confusing for new people because they think (and I did aswell when I was new) they need to have that level to do that mission when infact it's just the enemy level.

Earth is an absolute mess of "come back later with better gear".

[GinKenshin]

All of these problems are 'what ifs' and assumptions. A new player would actually try out these things instead of wondering what to do next, and when he/she does, they'll know that they can do that and that's the way to move next. You're digging too much into this 

[BratwurstBob]

I disagree. As a new player this is confusing and leads to frustrating results. I already noticed my enemies being rather tough to kill with a frame and weapons still in the single digit levels. I know how to move, melee, stealth attack, enemy weak spots and map layout. my tolerance level is much more robust than that of a player trying this for the first time out of curiosity. The mag frame looks meh, the weapons feel rather weak, I have no Endo, only flawed mods, nothing is clear at this point. Of course there has to be a point in time where the training wheels come off, but this is being shoved into the deep end and no one in sight to even give the slightest clues.

[Drachnyn]

The level display on missions makes no sense for the open worlds, especially fortuna. Enemies there are just so much stronger than their regular counterparts.

This is definitely an issue for new players. Just recently we had a big thread from someone frustrated by exactly this: 

Many more people probably just quit without posting any feedback.

[BratwurstBob]

Indeed.

It also just occurred to me that I can only use 3 out of my 4 abilities, they are so weak and energy inefficient I ask myself why bother, I have no way to reverse my choice of frame & weapons to find out what I would like better, the enemy density and toughness does not scale well with these puny guns and my staff. This Mag is a far cry from what she can do in the end. As a new player at this point I might already regret not having taken one of the other 2 frames.

Nothing is as satisfying as it gets when properly equipped. I'm not a Space Ninja, just a weakling pitted against mighty factions for some reason? 

A lot of things are completely unclear and information is scarce, Right now I finished the first Venus mission and got 3,5k XP for the frame and 2.7k for the gun. I'm still level 7 and will be for probably 1 more mission. Somehow I don't see myself starting to enjoy the true power of a Frame for a long time, all I get is a glimpse of what's to come. I don't think that is enough to encourage a silent majority who have zero knowledge, websites to refer to, clans to help them, a general idea of what to do in which order with their limited resources. If I were a new, mildly interested player i don't think I'd stick around for long. There are too many other looter shooters out there now to be this sloppy when it comes to presentation.

For instance the flawed mods you get at the start: consider how frustrating it must be to use your limited supply of endo (which starts at zero) -that you might dare to refine out of other mods- on them only to regret it later when you get the regular version. Things like this are not helping in enjoying the first steps in this game.

Edited July 20, 2019 by BratwurstBob

[BratwurstBob]

At this point I'm ending my little trip down memory lane, as I can't motivate myself to grind this lackluster Mag and the Mk-1 weapons through the missions. Hopefully DE will be able to rework the beginner phase to a level that gets you hooked, educated, equipped, introduced to the community and represents the Space Ninja experience that is to come 🙂

EDIT: I just remembered why I stuck around that grindy start phase those 3? years ago: I had a free Frost Prime from a twitch promotion and that made all the difference and had me return after a long hiatus from the very early days of WF.
EDIT2: I just remembered and should include this small but important detail. As I played, I was getting acquainted with a player as we were together in a mission, and I was seriously lagging behind the rest of the group (I couldn't parkour for the life of me). He showed compassion and guided me for 1 or 2 missions and we chatted a bit. he gave me a few ranked yellow mods, a Lex Prime (the bps) and a Ignis Wraith bp for free, something quite remarkable and another reason to fondly remember the early days and why i stuck around: this awesome community. Something I would definitely consider vital to this game and the difference it can make for any new player.

Edited July 20, 2019 by BratwurstBob

[Shalath]

I completely agree that the plains should have some kind of "maybe come back later" warning as it is far too easy to go there are a new player and get utterly stomped which could make players leave thinking that it is normal. The thread above is just one example.

A friend of mine played on PC but stopped before PoE dropped and recently started up again on PS4 when some of his friends decided to give the game a look. I literally had to tell them not to go to the plains as they would get one-shot without seeing where the shot even came from and if it was night it would be even worse. One of his friends actually said "that's literally what happened, why weren't we warned?". I explained to them the path they should take and not to go to PoE or OV until they have an Archwing at least and some levelled up gear. If it wasn't for me and my friend who remembers early game they would have quit by now thinking they should be doing bounties, losing badly and getting mauled by voms without knowing why they couldn't kill them.

[BratwurstBob]

I also think the starter frames & weapons should come with some basic ranked mods. The flawed mods are being used as an interim until the real deal drops, so why not give them fully ranked and let the player use them as he progresses? At least it would lessen the feeling of underwhelming damage by frame and weapons. Maybe even let the starter frame and weapons be level 10 at least.

[LegendaryNeurotoxin]

Level is the enemy level, not player. They are not synchronized. They don't expect a player with a catalyst/reactor and multiple forma to take on level 80-100 sortie content

I had created an alt due to some silly circumstances and didn't find the experience nearly as painful. I know they ended the FREESWORD code this year, and a potato'd heat sword to start off with is kinda nice, and I found that I was fed all the melee mods I needed to be worthwhile in the first couple planets. It felt to me like they wanted me to focus on melee from the start, that the pace of firearm mods dropping doesn't really pick up til later on. 

So.. I guess that'd my advice, review the melee mods and plan to be a smasher. Health and shield mods on the frame are all you need early on, if you can cut everything down with ease. 

Alternatively, you could offer a few starter plat to someone bored in trade chat and have them feed you a pile of basic mods. 

.....but I kinda felt like the new intro trailer they showed around TennoCon is going to be part of a new New User Experience to help with just these kinda issues. I agree the new user experience is rough, and it is still a tough game to stumble into solo as a new user.

[Bioness]

10 hours ago, LegendaryNeurotoxin said:

Alternatively, you could offer a few starter plat to someone bored in trade chat and have them feed you a pile of basic mods. 

You can't trade the starter platinum.

They should just lock Cetus and Fortuna behind the Vor Questline. Give people something to look forward to. I started after Fortuna was added and going to both there and Cetus as a low MR was not helpful. It gave a nice spectacle, but certainly threw me off until I read more about the open world areas.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Bioness

[(PSN)dtdionne]

I did a smurf acct about a year ago (for more riven storage) and I don’t recall this. Actually i think I just ran a dark sector, survival, if memory serves...but I only knew to do that cause I’ve been playing for years.  Soooo, yeah, I think ur points valid.

[LegendaryNeurotoxin]

17 hours ago, Bioness said:

You can't trade the starter platinum.

Oh yeah.. heh, that doesn't help much!