Where new players tend to struggle

[Ice-Ragex]

Hello, i'm Ice-Ragex, i've been boasting that i like to help new players for a long time now, i believe i finally have acquired insight on where new player experience needs improvement,

Small disclaimer, this is just a tendency, i may be a data scientist (and therefore aware of the bias) but i didn't actively try to avoid them so i'm not that aware of the extent of the problem especially the newer tendencies.

So no need to further beat around the bush :

Modding :

New players tend to under-estimate how important modding is, they often are,
The way stats work is a little mysterious to them so they have a hard time understanding which mod is useful for what.
And i'm often required to do a full course lesson about modding.

One of the way warframe teaches a lot of thing with ease is though mission tutorial, which is amazing !
I believe modding should require that as well. it's such an important aspect of the game, and can be so cryptic.

How did i Compensate ?

For this problem i have a simple solution : "show, don't tell",
I show them the damage of a normal weapon, unmodded, and then the damage of a modded weapon, same for warframe.
so i believe a similar approach would achieve wonders with them, just give them harder enemies, and in the middle of the missions, mod their weapons to show them how important it is.
you can then just do a normal tutorial missions for the rest of the aspect, teach them to use the codex to find which enemy drop which mods.

 

Parkour :

New player often struggle with advanced movement, they have a hard time understanding how important speed is in this game.
they get stuck on item, spend a lot of time in mission in general, it's no problem, but they dont get to experience the nice part as well.
maps have a lot of secret and it's fun discovering them, but they totally go clueless because they have difficulty following a waypoint.

How did i Compensate ?

This one is both harder and simpler, For the parkour part, i have a dojo equipped with a parkour designed to make them use their movement at their fullest, it's really effective !
So i believe the same thing should be available in the game as a parkour tutorial, for advanced movements, if there is one , it's too well hidden form the players.
The second part is the tricky one, but mostly i teach them to move using their map, but the buggy waypoint system really doesn't help, they are the ones hurt the most by it
they also dont know the /unstuck exist when they get stuck and that's very frustrating for new players. (tho, they find out quickly how to use it)

 

Difficulty :

This one goes hand in hand with modding, a select few players figure out the modding pretty soon and have no trouble advancing thought the first planets,
however, some never figure out modding and find the game stupidly hard.
So i want to focus the scope of it toward the former :
Having a select few optional mission with a higher level , that are not on the main path would help a TON with this.
I had one a player tell me how easy it was since he could just obliterate level 15 enemies while himself being level 1.
I think this needs correction, they need to be aware that player level and mob level are two separate things and have nothing to do with one another.

How did i compensate ?

i took them on their word , sent them to steelpath so they could see by themselves how difficult the game can get.
efficient and it gets them excited most of the time since i show them they have to get better to achieve this. (be aware this problem is one of the most recent one i met though,)

 

What should i do next :

This one is one of the easiest to fix, setting up a mission that asks you to go on sedna would help a ton, a general objective that they don't loose form sight, because that's what happens most of the time ! the question is hard to answer for an old player, but for a new one , it's easy, just finish your missions and complete the star chart.

How did i compensate ?

i just tell them to reach sedna, because that's where the biggest part of the game start, they get addicted long before they reach it most of the time.
 

 

Now some Probably gonna be asked questions

About your experience, how many players are we talking ?
    - About 250+ new players, ranging from MR0 to MR5, not always on direct squad, i'm heavily involved in the official french community discord.

My friend wants to play the game, what should i do ?
    - 2 advices : "Show, don't tell" and "Don't play the game for them"

Do you know DE is juts gonna swipe your post under the rug ?
    - Yes *Cries in a corner* 

Do you know where spacemom is ?
    - Yes she is currently at the ....

 

[DaraSilverDragon]

1) Agreed. Ordis forces you to equip a mod during Vor's Prize, but having a section where you temporarily use a gun that has been properly modded before it's taken away from you could be quite powerful in terms of showing how important mods are, compared to an item's rank

2) All of the basic (and some advanced) movement options are showcased during Vor's Prize. The unfortunate thing I've noticed, quite frequently in fact, is that a shocking number of people... well, they just don't bloody read! The text 'Press the Jump key again midair to do a double-jump' is floating in glowing white letters, right above the spot where they keep falling down, and people just scratch their heads wondering how to get across the gap. It's absolutely maddening, and I have no idea how to fix it beyond physically blocking their progress until they do specifically the thing they are being taught. Like, I've seen people not learn bullet jumping even though a popup in Vor's Prize explains it, because they just used double jump and wall-hopping to bypass the obstacle they were supposed to bullet jump past - moving straight through the explanation text for it as they do so. It's insane.

3) The 'gear rank vs. enemy level' dichotomy is a serious sticking point, it's true. I can't tell you how many people I've seen look at a mission's level, and then ask me how they find their own level, and it's always a chore to explain that this isn't actually how it works, and that it's more like Dark Souls where your 'level' isn't nearly as important to mission completion as your skill and how much bonus stuff you've dumped into your gear. WF seriously needs to communicate this better to newer players.

4) I think that having Ordis restore the codex during Vor's Prize instead of the market might be the power move here, since he can then force the Tenno to go through each tab and by extension see what all the quests are (and, this is key - don't have Ordis talk on loop while the Codex is open. Let the Tenno read at their leisure here). I always thought it was a bit off to have unlocking the in-game market be the second thing you do after logging in for the first time... it always makes the game feel like a money-grubbing pay-to-win that Warframe most definitely is not. The market should be one of the last things you're introduced to, and the very first thing a player does when they unlock it should be having ordis tell you to buy a Burston blueprint (and have the option to purchase or gift it with platinum greyed out during the Vor's Prize quest) using a credit bundle sent to you by Darvo, to showcase that the market is also used for free-to-play purchases and not exclusively paid ones. Then, at the end of Vor's Prize, instead of having the lotus tell you the whole system needs you... yeah, like you said - say that your help is needed on Sedna, but you'll need to reactivate the Solar Rail network to get there by going around through the rest of the system. Now players have seen the huge number of quests available, they've gotten a good look at the massive system map, and they've probably looked through the weapons and warframes sections of the codex as well if they're curious. They have direction, and an understanding of the game's scope.