Crafting Times And New Players

[_PikTin_]

Hi, this is my first ever forum post and English is not my first language so apologies in advance.

So every time I introduce a friend to play warframe it's the same story.

Likes the game and wants a new frame: "I don't mind farming for a new frame we do it in other games." 

Craft the parts for said frame: "Not a big deal 12 hours is a little long but we just craft them at the same time and do something in the mean time."

Finally craft the frame: "What do you mean I need to wait 3 days to get my new frame?"

And that is with me holding their hand and going to the best places to farm so it takes maybe 1 to 2 hours to get everything before we get to craft times, I can't imagine what it's like if you're alone starting out not knowing where to go. 

The wait times are nothing to a veteran with 5k+ plat in the bank but to new players it's like a smack in the face after grinding to get an item they were looking forward to using. 

 

My solution would not be to remove the wait times because they serve an obvious purpose but to just make them more consistent (weapon wise) and a little shorter. 

Example of the shortest: Warframe = 12 hours Warframe Parts = 6 hours 

Something like this maybe?

There's a recent game I won't name (because I'm scared) but it's extremely similar to Warframe and has a 12 hour wait time to play your new character which I think is fair as it can be rushed as well if you're inpatient. 

That's just my point of view though, I would appreciate some others. 

 

[Shenra]

I always thought they should add an item for new players that lets you instantly complete 1 warframe.

[(PSN)jaggerwanderer]

It's the newbie trap. They gave out free plat. Then make the built time 72 hours of real time. Hint hint. This game has tons of "pay to skip" options everywhere. It's up to the player to decide if that button is worth the plat.  You can still do other stuff in those 3 days. Just consider this is what people have to go through when they all started the game as a fresh account.

[Voltage]

3 hours ago, Shenra said:

I always thought they should add an item for new players that lets you instantly complete 1 warframe.

Why? This just falsely represents the way the game plays. Warframe needs to be helpful and honest about the game from the start, not misrepresent itself until you have potentially invested money into the game or something of the sort.

[(NSW)Greybones]

Honestly the build times just sort of faded into the background after getting even a few options to play around with; often I’d log in and discover I had/have something build and it was ready to collect, and was pleasantly surprised to see it was a new Warframe.

I think I do wonder why they can’t just do something else for 3 days? There’s a lot to do at the moment and more than a few ways to build and play even for a newbie as they do content that gives them the chance to build and play alternatively; a new Warframe is just another item to throw into the mix, not really a “Must have”

Edited September 30, 2023 by (NSW)Greybones

[(NSW)Greybones]

Something I would recommend is to not try and force them to grind as efficiently as possible; let them play around with what they have, and if it just so happens that the mission they’re doing coughs up a Warframe part, so be it. It’ll be better to enjoy the gameplay with the grind as secondary concern than it would be to exclusively chase the grind as if the game will suddenly become fun only when they get the new thing, as grind chasing contributes to the impatience of getting the thing from the start

Edited September 30, 2023 by (NSW)Greybones

[Shenra]

16 hours ago, Voltage said:

Why? This just falsely represents the way the game plays. Warframe needs to be helpful and honest about the game from the start, not misrepresent itself until you have potentially invested money into the game or something of the sort.

I mean if you say in the description of the item it's a one time thing I don't think it would matter. It would just allow new players to get a frame they actually want to play rather then being stuck with the starter frame for days making it more likely that they stick with the game.

[Voltage]

6 hours ago, Shenra said:

I mean if you say in the description of the item it's a one time thing I don't think it would matter. It would just allow new players to get a frame they actually want to play rather then being stuck with the starter frame for days making it more likely that they stick with the game.

Having an item like that halfway through progression as a special item would make more sense than introductory. It would be no different than being allowed 2 choices for starter Warframes instead of one. Even then though, the rush cost is actually not that much once you realize the opportunities of trading farmed items.

I still don't understand how a "free craft on us" item would be a positive for the new player long term. Pushing players through starter content has several consequences following the short term gains of their fast-tracked progression. One key issue here is that some mechanics in games are just not shown honestly from the start because they are anti-player mechanics to begin with. 100% transparency with crafting in Warframe would result in fewer players wasting resources or Platinum overall. I remember when I first started playing I assumed blueprints were reusable given they were just a map and not the components (I had never played a multiplayer loot game prior), and I sold extra Forma blueprints and Catalyst blueprints early on. I dissolved extra copies of mods when fusing (before Endo), even though some of those would be worth quite alot of Platinum now (such as my enormous amount of Nightmare mods from the Nightmare Law of Retribution that I dissolved to rank up Primed Mods and such back then).

Edited September 30, 2023 by Voltage

[Packetdancer]

I feel like you could probably stand to decrease the build time based on the size of someone's arsenal. Say it's because the foundry's getting overloaded with saved build/maintenance data for all the frames you've made or whatever, if you want a lore reason.

But those of us who have been playing for a long time and have basically all the frames, we have more than enough things to play with while we wait for it to finish crafting something. People who are new to the game and have only their starter frame don't really have other things they can play with while they wait, and three days is a long time in that scenario. So for instance, you could do... I dunno, 72 - (12 * (4 - min(4, frames-owned))) hours per build. If you have only one frame, your next one takes only a day and a half to build. If you have three frames, it'll take 2 and a half days. If you have 4 frames, you're up to the full 72 hours.

Just... it could stand to be different somehow to help the experience feel less hostile to folks just starting out.

But there's a lot of things I'd change about the new-player experience here, starting with the fact that it's super difficult for new players to get additional Warframe and weapon slots without spending plat. I have a lot of friends who have tried the game and bounced off when they got to the "wait, you mean I have to pay money or else throw out my existing gear in order to try something new?" point in early gameplay. Being a little more generous with slots in the early game would probably have made them stick around (and eventually pay plat for fashion items).

For instance, you could make it so you get one weapon slot every mastery rank, and one new Warframe slot every 5. Give a free Warframe slot for MR1 and MR2 as well, meaning a player new to the game gets a little bit more freedom to play with some different frames if they're actually pushing on through the star chart and leveling other stuff. It's not so generous that people will never want to get slots other ways, but it's not so stingy that new players feel kneecapped by the slot limits. (Plus, that gives a more tangible benefit than just "daily rep cap increase and more void traces" to the mastery ranks between MR16 and MR30.)