Sorath hijack mission, needs redoing for new player in solo.

[UilliamNebel]

No really, the mission goes beyond poor design, and implementing, to just being miserly on DE's part toward the enjoyment of their players.

I'd say this mission, and how it is scaled for a new and solo player, just is another exhibit that DE do NOT play their own game. But that be too generous. This was so bad for the purposes of being a game, and so obviously meant to be a wall to progress, it gives DE it's well deserved criticism for being intentionally miserly in their game design for their players enjoyment, like some mobile platform horror show time and pay wall game.

1, Shield strips, drone spam, grenade spam, etc, etc. Yes, I know, someone here who has played X years can do easily.. Congrats. Now lets talk about the people this mission, if you're serious DE about being a game as a service is meant to retain, newer players progressing through the Starchart. I don't care about what someone who has been here, gotten gear, learned optimization XYZ, has done. Because all they are doing is covering for how bits of content like this, are bad for the game, and disengage their intended audience. You've abandoned the new player DE, and this mission shows it.

2, 'Get a group' or 'Get gud'... How about, since you obviously need it thrown in your face like a fish smack... be a GAME AS A SERVICE... Guess what, services are flexible, have various offerings, can be configured to deliver to the customer's, a.k.a. players, needs. You talk balance, or anything like that, you are saying 'Games as a service was just some market speak we liked the sound of.' So if you are in fact the slightest bit serious on being a game as a service, then you need to address the railroads to absurd difficulty spiked missions as time walls you are putting in with content like this. Guess what, you're a service, individuals, not just communities, consume services to. Please, design, build, and implement for both, stop $&*^ing around and actually BE what you say you want to BE.

[SpicyDinosaur]

Is this satire?

[Savire510]

8 minutes ago, SpicyDinosaur said:

Is this satire?

yes, it has to be.

This is starting to get funny.

Another DE bashing post but for the smallest of reasons. I bash DE because

*pulls out a card*

i am bad at playing the game

Edited April 27, 2020 by Savire510

[bad4youLT]

[Redeye]

24 minutes ago, SpicyDinosaur said:

Is this satire?

Saltire.

On a more serious note, @UilliamNebel . What are you expecting from this post? We as players can't answer. At least I can't. I've over 6k hours in the game if you add my accounts' playtime so you won't take my opinion in account. Even though I've started over multiple times, even though I didn't have gear I had a good knowledge on game mechanics so my opinion wouldn't be taken in account either on that.

Also, even if I go your way and say ok, this game mode might be too hard for new players (which it isn't, IMHO), what are your suggestions to make it more newcomer friendly? I don't see any in this post of yours.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Redeye
Sorry for the frenglish, multitasking.

[NekroArts]

2 hours ago, UilliamNebel said:

I'd say this mission, and how it is scaled for a new and solo player, just is another exhibit that DE do NOT play their own game.

By nature, new and solo players should not be able to to solo everything in a game with the intent for co-op. It sets a bad precedent to continue to play solo instead of what DE wants players to do - play cooperatively. Anytime they make a mission/content heavily towards co-op, players go on a rampage that solo players should have it just as easy as if it was with a squad. The thing is the choice to make a co-op game/content is purely subjective; it is neither right nor wrong, there is zero reasons for us to critically criticize DE for that game design choice. They allow you to do it solo and it's usually balanced, but they don't make accommodations so that you have the same level of advantage as a full geared squad. It is still their game, there are some things that we should never be entitled to.

Do not mistake what I typed above as "all missions are perfectly balance for solo and new players". The only missions that I can think at the top of my head that isn't balance for solo and co-op are the Grendel missions, but that's for another time. However, the hijack mission, Sorath, is well within balance for new and solo players. There are four things that makes this mission doable:

• mod a weapon for toxin damage
• mod another weapon for radiation
• equip Fast Deflection
• knowing that shields will recharge after 1 second of not taking damage if you have some shields, but will take 4 seconds to start recharging if all the shields are gone.

[Yasha-7HS]

Well, I took the 15 minutes out of my day to play Excalibur with MK-1 Paris, Aklato, Cronus and Taxon with Artax, limit my mod capacity to about 30, I can't tell on my excalibur due to having 6 forma but not like it matters anyway, because half of the mods were flawed or I used the wrong mod, and still completed the mission with 3k health left.

Spoiler

 

The mission is fine even when you're alone, if you have any amount of proper modding it becomes too easy. Had I brought mag or volt, the mission becomes even easier. Had I equipped guardian or fortitude, doubly so. Non-flawed redirection, more augur mods or -- god forbid -- the shield restore you can buy from the market the mission stops even being an objective, just an auto-scroller.  I wait maybe 10 minutes to build 10 pads and sit down on the payload as it walks itself to the end of the level since the enemies can hardly do damage to it. The only way I can imagine someone actually failed this mission is if they didn't hear Lotus say "it's powered by your shields" which is plausible as there are plenty of people who can't hear for either familial or physical reasons, but also didn't read Lotus' massive transmission box nor realize that you have to be close to it, and while you're close to it suddenly your shield starts disappearing and you get this super annoying shield break sound and visual so they just stand on top of it completely still the entire time wondering why it's not going anywhere because they have zero situational awareness. 

DE cannot balance out a player's lack of awareness in the span of 10 minutes. I even forgot that it uses shields, and realized it again within fifteen seconds of standing next to it. 

Edit: Now that I think of it, hilariously I could've even just cheesed the mission by being even worse and dying while I had no shields to instantly get my shields back and be invincible for like 15 seconds.

Edited April 28, 2020 by ShichiseitenYasha

[(PSN)crashteddy03]

I'm trying to think back to when I was doing this as a newbie...

When I started playing Warframe I played solo the star chart up to about Neptune. I know I had trouble with a couple of the nodes on Europa, so I continued on through the star chart and came back to them later when I had better kit and skill. Of all the different mission types Interceptions were the hardest to do by myself, so I'd switch to public and keep trying various nodes until I found a squad to help. IIRC no one ever gave me any stick for being a newbie.

If you're up to Europa, try using Frost (parts drop from boss of Ceres) or Rhino (parts drop from boss of Venus) as both have high shields and good durability. With a few levels in the Redirection mod you shouldn't find it too hard.

[UilliamNebel]

2 hours ago, Redeye said:

I don't see any in this post of yours.

Because it is that bad. No really, for where it is in the Starchart, it is that awful and will impact new player experience. It needs a bit of gutting. Or just outright being chucked.

I honestly from playing through it, and getting past it, but failing several times right at the very end, due to drone and grenade spam A.I. cheese, and arbitrary shield strips, can't find a good thing to say as worth saving in this mission set up. I'm sure it is great when much better geared, modded, and play experienced. As for where it is, as a new player to the game, and how the game prepares and teaches you, no it is horrid.

[(PSN)crashteddy03]

2 hours ago, UilliamNebel said:

As for where it is, as a new player to the game, and how the game prepares and teaches you, no it is horrid.

I'll agree that the "tutorials" for Warframe beyond basic move and shoot are distinctly lacking. For this issue specifically, the lesson is that not every configuration works for every mission. And I'll be the first to admit that this is a hard lesson to learn when you're new to the game. Trying out different frames, weapons, mods and strategies is all part of the experience. Heck I'm still finding things that don't work...

I was curious as to the difficulty level of this mission so I picked out the closest gear I could find to what a new player may have and an appropriately low mod configuration...

Warframe: Frost

Mods: Flow (Flawed) R3, Enemy Sense R0, Redirection R4, Vitality R6, Steel Fiber (Flawed) R3. No aura, no exilus. 24 capacity used with base polarities.

Primary :Boltor Prime (Boltor being an MR2 weapon)

Mods: Serration R2, Fast Hands R2. 10 capacity used.

Secondary : Viper Wraith (Viper being an MR4 weapon) (didn't actually use this weapon in the mission)

Mods: Hornet Strike R4, Concussion Rounds R1. 11 capacity used.

Dark Split-Sword (MR5 weapon)

Mods: Swirling Tiger stance R0, Pressure Point R0, Fury R1. 7 capacity used.

Unfortunately I forgot to remove my Smeeta Kavat so he did assist me during the mission.

The result: I managed to complete the mission, dying only once right near the end. My strategy was to ignore enemies until I got to the rover, stand on the rover with my melee weapon out to deflect enemy fire and occasionally trying to pick off enemies with my Boltor. When shields ran out, jump off and take out as many enemies as I could with melee until I had enough of a breather for the shields to recharge. The rover backtracked a few times but not far (until I lost it by running in the wrong direction...).The Kavat worked well to distract the enemies, I'm sure a Kubrow would do the same thing for at least a while. I'm tempted to try it again without the Kavat but that might have to be another day. BTW I didn't use any of Frost's skills during the mission. Using Snow Globe would set a barrier behind the rover slowing down enemies and stopping fire. Avalanche will freeze and potentially eliminate close enemies.

If you only have a sentinel (Taxon?) at least he'll provide a bit of extra firepower for you. If you have the Guardian mod for your Sentinel it makes the mission even easier - just wait until your shields run out, jump off the rover and watch your shields recharge instantly. Jump back on and carry on.

Final remarks: Warframe was built as a co-op game. That doesn't mean that it's impossible to do solo, it's just not as easy. As I said, I solo'd up until Neptune, but I've had much more fun (and occasionally irritation) since joining public matches. Don't be afraid to ask for help (if you were on PS4 I'd happily oblige). Try different things and if nothing works, backtrack and try to level up your frames, weapons and mods first. And if it's losing it's fun, take a break and come back to it later.

 

[bad4youLT]

13 hours ago, UilliamNebel said:

Because it is that bad. No really, for where it is in the Starchart, it is that awful and will impact new player experience. It needs a bit of gutting. Or just outright being chucked.

I honestly from playing through it, and getting past it, but failing several times right at the very end, due to drone and grenade spam A.I. cheese, and arbitrary shield strips, can't find a good thing to say as worth saving in this mission set up. I'm sure it is great when much better geared, modded, and play experienced. As for where it is, as a new player to the game, and how the game prepares and teaches you, no it is horrid.

You dont need any of this , hijacks can be easily cheesed in few ways even for new players

 - frame with high base shields or ability that restores shields

 - team shiled restore consumable ( wich is easyest to get )

 - specters thta can provide shields 

 - sentinel mod guardian wich is quite comman and requires very little endo to max

 - recruit chat to ask around people for help

 - perrin syndicate weapons or aguments that grant shields