Opinion: Warframe fell off after Second Dream and War Within, but how can we fix this?

[IllogicalLogic420]

Hell, I'd even say after Fortuna too. What went wrong? What can we do to go back? Still a great game I love warframe but it's just..... release mid-tier content with mid-tier story with short gameplay time, after waiting for so long, introduce a new farming system, LOCK ARBITRATION BEHIND NEW CONTENT AGAIN AND AGAIN FFS....................rinse and repeat.

I love you DE but stop locking arby behind new content ffs.

 

Anyway, what do?

[trst]

Take off the rose-tinted glasses maybe?

Really I don't see what's all that different between then and now other than getting actual story was more of a spectacle itself then since the game didn't have much of it. The only other trends that've changed is DE stopped announcing updates too early and we're seeing more weekly type content, both of which are largely in response to how the players deal with things.

Also as for the Arbitration thing is that really an issue even? Like sure it can be annoying but you just need to spend about an hour or two doing a quest and a few new missions of which most are the same old mission types. And as for anyone who hasn't had access to them in the first place they're also not missing anything as the rewards there only really matter for SP, which they also need to clear the new content for anyways.

[(PSN)Unstar]

All of this is my subjective opinion, but I think Warframe is currently better than it's ever been.  Does it have blemishes, things that could be improved?  Oh honey yes.  But the last two years of content have been superb in terms of quests, activities, and refinement of the overall game's systems.

I will agree that something needs to change with the Arbitration system; I'd recommend adding your thoughts to the existing feedback thread about that.

[KosmicKerman]

What are you talking about? Historically, Warframe is in a great place right now.  If you think it fell off after the major story quests, maybe you just got bored with the game. 

[IllogicalLogic420]

Just now, KosmicKerman said:

What are you talking about? Historically, Warframe is in a great place right now.  If you think it fell off after the major story quests, maybe you just got bored with the game. 

Maybe I did get bored...

 

Just now, (PSN)Unstar said:

All of this is my subjective opinion, but I think Warframe is currently better than it's ever been.  Does it have blemishes, things that could be improved?  Oh honey yes.  But the last two years of content have been superb in terms of quests, activities, and refinement of the overall game's systems.

I will agree that something needs to change with the Arbitration system; I'd recommend adding your thoughts to the existing feedback thread about that.

Some others ive asked on discord share this opinion too.

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

It didn't fall off. 

[Agall]

26 minutes ago, IllogicalLogic420 said:

Hell, I'd even say after Fortuna too. What went wrong? What can we do to go back? Still a great game I love warframe but it's just..... release mid-tier content with mid-tier story with short gameplay time, after waiting for so long, introduce a new farming system, LOCK ARBITRATION BEHIND NEW CONTENT AGAIN AND AGAIN FFS....................rinse and repeat.

I love you DE but stop locking arby behind new content ffs.

 

Anyway, what do?

Heresy

Just now, (PSN)Madurai-Prime said:

It didn't fall off. 

I agree, Warframes been the best its ever been with all the content they've continuously added. Its also not like DE regularly removes content, so there's still a decade worth of it to play/explore.

[EternaldrkMako]

i say content and QOL have improved but core story seems a bit all over the place, im assuming devs have a long term goal for the end point of this story to ..some degree but we wont see it shape till later 

 

plenty of stuff also was shelved that devs are only recently gettin to work on the side to pair with major updates (via covid 19 stuff) 

[GovernmentSecrets.gov]

I don't think the issue is with new content, but the story direction has taken a hit since then. The Second Dream and War Within had a very clear direction and purpose, but now we're going through all of this eternalism stuff that's effectively scrambled all coherency with the narrative.

[trst]

7 minutes ago, Sierra said:

I don't think the issue is with new content, but the story direction has taken a hit since then. The Second Dream and War Within had a very clear direction and purpose, but now we're going through all of this eternalism stuff that's effectively scrambled all coherency with the narrative.

But Eternalism didn't scramble anything? Everything outside of New War/Duviri have been completely straightforward and are entirely unaffected by anything relating to Eternalism (even Whispers may have nothing to do with it). While New War is the only thing really utilizing it which even then is also straightforward if you understand how they're using Eternalism. And Duviri is in more of a prequel state while the Eternalism bits primarily come up with the quest, the Undercroft, and the secondary lore.

[Xzorn]

Second Dream and Plains brought a huge influx in players. DE also went pretty big of advertising during this period.

They went hard into visuals over substance then spent majority of their development remaking the same loops either to create another boon or keep players from the previous. Now when players see yet another Rep grind hub, I doubt they feel the same as that first introduction. Don't even get me started on Rivens either.

Content or "things to do" the game has not changed much at all since then for better or worse but mechanically it's taken a massive dive.
The new status system sucks, all of it. New melee combos don't feel good as the previous. Bugs from 2017 are still around with a heap of new ones.

I told a friend recently. Warframe has more cool stuff to do but entirely lacks any depth in builds or mechanics it previously had.
Most weapons have 3 builds, most frames are lucky to have 3, usually due to an augment. This is from previous 4-7 variants.

[(XBOX)C11H22O11]

1 hour ago, Sierra said:

I don't think the issue is with new content, but the story direction has taken a hit since then. The Second Dream and War Within had a very clear direction and purpose, but now we're going through all of this eternalism stuff that's effectively scrambled all coherency with the narrative.

People blow Eternalism out of proportion, it has only really been observed in the story with the drifter existing... That's it.

[Corvid]

57 minutes ago, trst said:

But Eternalism didn't scramble anything? Everything outside of New War/Duviri have been completely straightforward and are entirely unaffected by anything relating to Eternalism (even Whispers may have nothing to do with it). While New War is the only thing really utilizing it which even then is also straightforward if you understand how they're using Eternalism. And Duviri is in more of a prequel state while the Eternalism bits primarily come up with the quest, the Undercroft, and the secondary lore.

16 minutes ago, (XBOX)C11H22O11 said:

People blow Eternalism out of proportion, it has only really been observed in the story with the drifter existing... That's it.

It's becoming apparent at this point that some players will give up and dismiss any story element in the game as "Eternalism" if it requires them to think for longer than a second to understand it.

In other words, the term is a scapegoat for their own lack of curiosity.

[[DE]Momaw]

You shouldn't be locked out of Arbitrations by us adding new map nodes anymore. We changed that a year and a half ago with Update 32?
 

Quote

Added a mechanism which permanently unlocks Arbitration missions one you have completed all current mission nodes. Even if we add new mission nodes in the future, you will not lose access to Arbitrations. 

 

Are people saying that this doesn't work?  (If you know you've unlocked Arbitrations before, and they're re-locked saying the map isn't completed, please speak up so we can investigate your account)

[(XBOX)Big Roy 324]

22 minutes ago, [DE]Momaw said:

You shouldn't be locked out of Arbitrations by us adding new map nodes anymore. We changed that a year and a half ago with Update 32?
 

 

Are people saying that this doesn't work?  (If you know you've unlocked Arbitrations before, and they're re-locked saying the map isn't completed, please speak up so we can investigate your account)

I don't know if you looked at it for this most recent update and fixed it.  But I can confirm WITW gave me the unlock these nodes message in order to unlock arbitrations again.

That may be connected to the fact I had done an account merge prior. I have since done those nodes though so I don't know if you will find anything worth note.

Edited January 9 by (XBOX)Big Roy 324
grammar

[Voltage]

38 minutes ago, Corvid said:

It's becoming apparent at this point that some players will give up and dismiss any story element in the game as "Eternalism" if it requires them to think for longer than a second to understand it.

In other words, the term is a scapegoat for their own lack of curiosity.

Or some people just get bored with a story that has no stakes. The same happens with saturated movie franchises, some anime, or other video games narratives. Warframe quests are still "nice" in the sense of content, but I've personally stopped caring after the way The New War wrapped up. Teshin for example, was rendered insignificant. The questline for many years built up a semblance of risk and loss, but The New War completely tossed that out the window, so there's a really easy reason to just not care or be invested in your own story as a player.

Edited January 9 by Voltage

[(PSN)Unstar]

5 minutes ago, Voltage said:

Or some people just get bored with a story that has no stakes....Teshin for example, was rendered insignificant.

I'm guessing I might not be following you because the above feels like a contradiction.  Teshin's removal from the Operator's timeline and being trapped in Duviri seems like evidence of stakes, right?  Though let me know if I'm misunderstanding you, as I have no desire to twist your words.

[(PSN)robotwars7]

for me, the game has mostly gone from strength to strength, just like our loadouts lol. there are still a bunch of issues that need to be addressed, and I so desperately wish that DE would take a break from the big cinematic stuff at some point to look back and revitalize some older content. I'm hoping that maybe after 1999 they can do that. I don't think they have to worry as much about "content drought" as people think, as the vast majority of people haven't 100% everything, and Abyss of Dagath proved that smaller updates can still provide. I also believe that if older modes like Invasions, Orokin Vaults, Dark Sectors etc, were reworked that would be enough to inject a new lease of life into the game for older players like myself.

I'd also like some more lore: leverian entries for frames that don't have them, a better codex that gives details about the universe, and also provide actual, helpful information that people otherwise have to run to the Wiki for.

[Beowulf22]

3 hours ago, trst said:

Take off the rose-tinted glasses maybe?

Really I don't see what's all that different between then and now other than getting actual story was more of a spectacle itself then since the game didn't have much of it. The only other trends that've changed is DE stopped announcing updates too early and we're seeing more weekly type content, both of which are largely in response to how the players deal with things.

Also as for the Arbitration thing is that really an issue even? Like sure it can be annoying but you just need to spend about an hour or two doing a quest and a few new missions of which most are the same old mission types. And as for anyone who hasn't had access to them in the first place they're also not missing anything as the rewards there only really matter for SP, which they also need to clear the new content for anyways.

Unfortunately I think Arbi's are an important enough stepping stone for players to access steel path that it kind of is a problem.  I personally was able to get mods and do Steel Path prior to getting a Necramech and Railjack because I chose not to farm those two things right away. It kind of railroads players into farming specific things early which is I suppose a good and a bad thing.

[Xzorn]

1 hour ago, [DE]Momaw said:

Are people saying that this doesn't work?  (If you know you've unlocked Arbitrations before, and they're re-locked saying the map isn't completed, please speak up so we can investigate your account)

 

I was blocked though took a 5 year break. It was the new Diemos maps and a quest if I recall. It didn't take long to fix though.
There's certainly more pressing issues I'd say.

Like I just posted a topic about Equilibrium + Vacuum spamming sound effects still. That bugs been around for years.

[Joezone619]

No it fell off after railjack released and wasn't what we were promised it was gonna be, still isn't. At least for me.

The Second Dream and The War Within were the first 2 quests to actually add anything meaningful to the story, lore and direction of warframe.

Edited January 9 by Joezone619

[Syahra]

1 hour ago, [DE]Momaw said:

You shouldn't be locked out of Arbitrations by us adding new map nodes anymore. We changed that a year and a half ago with Update 32?
 

 

Are people saying that this doesn't work?  (If you know you've unlocked Arbitrations before, and they're re-locked saying the map isn't completed, please speak up so we can investigate your account)

It was for my wifes account. We did arbitratios together before my daughters birth, afterwards she had to do duviri, all zariman mission nodes and the whispers in the wall nodes. We re-unlocked it in the meantime, just took some time to get her back to where she was with a toddler around 😍

[PollexMessier]

All these weeky time gates are what have really killed the game for me. I loved the game back when I could play it at my own pace. Do whatever I wanted, when I wanted to do it, instead of being coerced into doing specific tasks at specific times when the game wants me to.

The only way we go back is if this weekly content mentality is entirely erased from the game.

[Xzorn]

13 minutes ago, Syahra said:

It was for my wifes account. We did arbitratios together before my daughters birth, afterwards she had to do duviri, all zariman mission nodes and the whispers in the wall nodes. We re-unlocked it in the meantime, just took some time to get her back to where she was with a toddler around 😍

 

Actually this sounds more similar to my experience.
I know I only had to unlock like 10 missions at most and do something quest related which might have been Durviri.

Honestly I'm used to it being old as I am. I've "unlocked" the star chart 6 times now.

[trst]

52 minutes ago, PollexMessier said:

All these weeky time gates are what have really killed the game for me. I loved the game back when I could play it at my own pace. Do whatever I wanted, when I wanted to do it, instead of being coerced into doing specific tasks at specific times when the game wants me to.

The only way we go back is if this weekly content mentality is entirely erased from the game.

You can still do exactly that and ignore the weekly content as you're not missing out on anything by skipping them entirely. And if you're for some reason concerned about Shard FOMO it's almost inevitable that there'll only be more sources of it in the future. Just do them whenever you feel like it.

Also you can only expect more weekly/daily content going forward (or maybe DE will mix it up with monthly content next). As it's the best choice DE could be making for dealing with the player retention issues WF has always had. The alternatives would result in far bigger problems than some FOMO.