Thoughts on the structure of Warframe currently

[Cuchullin]

As a preface I’m a casual player who’s been playing warframe for the last two years fairly regularly and as such I think I can appreciate the game as a good game with it’s own pro’s and con’s as a lot of games do. As such I believe the state of the game currently while still good can use some TLC to make it easier to introduce new players to the game and up the overall gameplay for the community at large.

That being said I do not represent the entire community at large particularly the veteran section who seem to consistently demand high level ‘endgame content’ in a game that is evolving (admittedly at the developers discretion) and new players just starting out who go through the first few missions then reach the arsenal see the apparent paywall in front of them and saw f*** this this is pay to win and promptly uninstall it.

As such I would like to present a reorganisation or reorientation of how the game could be played starting with the introduction to the game and then moving on to higher level gameplay.

As such I would like Community input on this as I’m just one player with an opinion and that can never represent all viewpoints on everything. (Spoilers wil crop up depending on how far you str in the game.

1.      New player introduction

As I understand it the current tutorial section is an improvement to the original introduction to warframe and provides a far better starting point to how it was originally. This is great however there seems to be a bare bones approach to how it is applied after the first few missions. Sure we’re introduced to the early game basic enemies and at least one ‘ally’ with Darvo but there seems to be no real direction after the initial tutorial missions.

 

While I don’t object to this outright, I believe having a breadcrumb approach may be more beneficial then having a ‘here’s the basic movement mechanic have fun’ idea. For example for the Rhino warframe (one of the earliest warframes new players can expect to get) there is no real way in-game to know that it exists unless the players looks up online how to get it, which there is no way to know unless you have a friend who already plays. Having an in game character mention or feed information through rumours or their own in game information network not only introduces a wider lore and lived in world to the game but can establish plot points later in the game.,

Beyond that the it only lasts as the final mission in the Vor’s Prize Questline ending up in killing Vor (which is slightly confusing when Vor turns up alive when he turns up alive with Lt Lech Kril later but whatever). As such and all players have really learned is how to move in game and a few of the different mission types that are available.

 

This in my view is where things start falling apart (because frankly if you’re not into the looter shooter game as a base your probably going to have a bad time). Sure your given the direction of this is how you move this is how you get some stuff but your not really told how to get or do those things in a comprehensible way. Look at it this way, when you start playing warframe and you reach the arsenal I’d be willing to bet the knee jerk question is

‘Is this a pay to win game?’ log off and uninstall. My answer is it’s a pay to skip time gate game but that’s not obvious to new players so I think having Ordis have a few lines of dialogue (possibly backed up by Darvo) which provide clues that blueprints exist in the system and it would require investigation on the players part to find them. (I get that DE is still a company and needs to make money but it’s just a thought.)

 

From there I think having breadcrumbs to various other points of the game would be good. For example how many new players are aware of the Derelict ships and the Orokin vaults contained within them. I have heard that the dragon keys were associated with a something else but then were bound solely to clan dojo’s and Mirage had something to do with the Orokin Cipher’s (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong). The benefit here access to so very popular mods, the downsides no-one starting out knows they exist.

 

Now I am aware that new players probably shouldn’t be diving straight into Derelict missions to get these mods straight away but my counter arguments are it’s basically locked behind clan research and building anyway and if you’re going to allow lvl 0-1 access to the Plains of Eidolan at night and all that entails then your argument is invalid.

 

2.      Mid-Tier play

I don’t particularly have too much to say about this section as players have (theoretically) moved out of what the hell is going on mode to okay I’m getting used to everything and collecting stuff.

 

3.      ‘End-game play

This last section can be somewhat complicated and divisive depending on your point of view, that being everything is going down hill into a train wreck doused in gasoline with a nuke attached, everything’s amazing don’t complain or everything’s okay it just needs work (possible slight exaggeration on some points).

 

As I mentioned before I’m a casual player so I’m not as invested as some hardcore players who are consistently looking for the new meta and neither am a scrub who finds a need to get a PHD in the moddng system. That being said there’s who knows how many mods out there and I seriously doubt that even half of them are even relevant at this point. Leaving that aside I think the challenge level at later tier game play is kind of a mixed bag.

 

For example when playing certain missions veteran players are usually so well equipped with the meta gear that their usually ahead of the curve with whatever updates DE puts out that most new content barely lasts a week if that whereas a lower or less experienced player may find some difficulty but can still pull it off if well organised.

 

The main problem here as far as I can tell falls under two categories.

One the reward pool - This is a relatively short term option as there will always be players who will play consistently enough that the challenge of getting it is trivial and virtually negates the creation of said new mod/weapon/McGuffin in fairly short order.

 

Two is replayability – This is the better (although more complicated method to integrate) to go with in my opinion. I’ve been led to believe the general opinion is that at higher levels players can tear through enemies fairly easily and while this may (or may not) have been addressed with the recent update a lot of players have been asking for more of a challenge in their gameplay. As it stands there are a set amount of game modes from Exterminate to Excavation and recently Disruption missions. From what I’ve heard Disruption has been quite popular due to the challenge going with it while the lich system has been hit and miss at best while the railjack missions have been just plain grind.

 

I believe to address this if the various missions types had an option to have different entry caps depending on mastery level and planet node completion could be interesting. For example, at levels 5-10 you can unlock the option to have additional optional (similar to PoE or Orb Vallis) objectives within the mission. At 11-15 could have access to increased enemy spawn rates 16-20 increased enemy damage rates etc. This way the enemies would seem more adaptive to your in-game actions and a sense of scaling is associated with it.

 

In any case I believe we’ve entered the TL; DR territory and I’m tired so I’m going to open this discussion open to the community for their thoughts. Let me know if I made good points or bad ones as long as everyone is respectful.

[Jiminez_Burial]

9 minutes ago, ty91 said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbFybrLQ1Ro

Never reply with just a link.  Explain what it is or don't expect people to bother clicking through.

[-AoN-CanoLathra-]

20 minutes ago, Jiminez_Burial said:

Never reply with just a link.  Explain what it is or don't expect people to bother clicking through.

It's 3 and 1/2 hours of a veteran player and his MR6, doesn't-understand-the-game girlfriend who has experience in game development discussing everything from DE's corporate structure to Warframe's new player experience to the end-game grind. I highly recommend watching it if you have the time.

[(XBOX)DShinShoryuken]

25 minutes ago, -AoN-CanoLathra- said:

It's 3 and 1/2 hours of a veteran player and his MR6, doesn't-understand-the-game girlfriend who has experience in game development discussing everything from DE's corporate structure to Warframe's new player experience to the end-game grind. I highly recommend watching it if you have the time.

You should put this under your link...would get more people that see a link and clik it to visit it. 

Did you say 3 &1/2 HOURS? 

[DAnextFAKE]

15 minutes ago, (XB1)DShinShoryuken said:

Did you say 3 &1/2 HOURS

Being a Warframe player you should understand that isn't a long time.

[(XBOX)DShinShoryuken]

1 minute ago, DAnextFAKE said:

Being a Warframe player you should understand that isn't a long time.

I only get 24 hours each day....3 &1/2 to watch someone talk about a game they did not make and are not making their own....is HUGE. 

 

[DAnextFAKE]

5 minutes ago, (XB1)DShinShoryuken said:

I only get 24 hours each day....3 &1/2 to watch someone talk about a game they did not make and are not making their own....is HUGE. 

 

True. You can never have enough time

[-AoN-CanoLathra-]

1 hour ago, (XB1)DShinShoryuken said:

You should put this under your link...would get more people that see a link and clik it to visit it. 

Did you say 3 &1/2 HOURS? 

I wasn't the one who posted it. I simply recognized it.

And yes, it is 3 & 1/2 hours long. They go through a large amount of stuff, both in Warframe specifically and in DE as a whole.

They don't use the screen to show anything, though, so you can listen to it in the background while you do something else.

Edited March 16, 2020 by -AoN-CanoLathra-

[Danielw8]

Im not developer, i dont know how to code, im just a gamer with a tons of hours, and some months ago after a pretty long discuss on discord, i just said 

DE is just very small for warframe in 2020, everyone with just a little gamesense and some hours in videogames can compare and understeand how warframe feels

Just being quick example, and did it here and in reddit

In dota2 we have balance update, massive changes, patches, fixes, everyting really quick, they are ultra fast -> valve

Assassins creed, a new video game, new history, new maps, new character, literally everything new, they make a whole videogame in a year, want 2 years? right 2 years -> ubisoft

Dont get me wrong, i like warframe is my main videogame at this moment, but allways everyday i get the same feeling "why im playing this?"

When i play CSGO/DOTA/LOL/R6/OVERWATCH my goal is i want be this player, i want be this rank.

When i play battlefield series my goal is i want be a really good tank, i want be the best tank in america and i want carry every single game (yes playing ultra casual pubs)

when i play casual/singleplayer videogames like assassins creed or call of duty, they launch a new one very soon.

When i play warframe, at early game is super fun, and mid game repetitive, and late game there is a massive black hole, is literally massive, every single player in warframe will say the same thing, you compare that feeling when you are farming your umbra excalibur, and now farming grendel at mr27 is literally other videogame

Railjack is a good idea but this railjack is like a mini videogame maded in 2 days

Resuming i not understeand why DE cant hire more people, you can literally take most passionate, addictive, and productive warframe players, pay them to be "beta tester" or whatever else in the company

Take note steve, for 1k dollar/month i can be a full time beta tester for your videogame

Edited March 16, 2020 by Danielw8

[(PSN)STR8L8CED]

After playing for three years I play Warframe in between new games. You can go a whole year without playing and catch up in two weeks easily. When Cyberpunk 2077 drops ill be playing that for a long time and by the time I decide to come back so many new games will be on the new gen. These may be my last months of Warframe for a long while. #*!% thats kinda depressing lol.

Edited March 16, 2020 by (PS4)STR8L8CED