My head is spinning...

[ControversyB]

I returned a little over a week ago after a several year hiatus. My computer was falling apart, as was I, so I was more than excited to have a new PC and able to play like I never had before.

When I left, Deimos was the newest thing on the block. I saw the Duviri trailer. And that's it. I was at MR27, had a massive amount of content completed. The lore was always more expansive than I could feasibly wrap my head around and also still save room for reality and other games, but it was always manageable. Upon my return, I had mixed feelings after logging back in. The rush of joy at seeing my orbiter and remembering the high-speed gameplay and adrenaline I've missed out on, but then I started reading the update logs.... and the quests I need X/Y/Z for.... and the multitude of different, hyper-specific tasks I need to perform to acquire the plethora of items to engage with another snippet of the storyline before I can then repeat the process in another set of missions with specific mechanics that I've never seen before. Also, the lingo and terminology was always a bit fun, but it feels excessive. I need regal aya, which is different from aya, to buy certain things from Varzia, a person I do not know. I don't know what Aya is. I don't know what Riven slivers are. What's the real difference between a void storm, and a void fissure? I continuously failed a few missions because there were mechanics I'd NEVER seen before in my years of WarFrame and there was nothing but exposition dumping to try and clue me in. The thing with sentients spawning and I have to use my operator to attack the beacons to destroy the whatever-it-was-called? Had NO idea, aside from Father(I think?) barking at me. I don't even understand why he, of all people, was the one trying to guide me. I couldn't figure it out if I was wide-awake, cheeks clenched, let alone just an average night after work trying to blow off some steam. I'm only scratching the surface of how I feel because WarFrame has always brought a lot to the table, that's part of why we all still love it, but I feel so far and away from everyone now. There's so, so many different, disjointed and largely disconnected parts of the game, be that by design or just major barriers to entry, and it's like I can't figure out where I'm supposed to be, what I should be focused on. The open worlds are great (aside from a certain one) but keeping up with the different gear and resource-farming involved for each of them was hassle enough. I was happy to do it, though. As a veteran player of 9 or 10 years? 4,500-some hours in the game - I've been very familiar with a lot of the directions DE takes and can anticipate how the gameplay will feel and so-on. Coming back, though, there's so much new content that it hurts. Not that new is bad, but it doesn't feel like WarFrame in some of these new stories and content releases. If I'm actively trying to engage with the story, I proactively take a few ibuprofen. I'm so serious. It HURTS my head trying to keep everything from coming in one ear and spilling out the other. I need to build a Voidrig to play The New War, and I am loathe to do so. I don't know what, if any, of the Brother/Sister/Mother/Neighbor/Pet Dog/High School Crush tokens I need to try and keep track of, I've heard nothing particularly kind of TNW, Kahl???, The Walls. What the heck is the wall thing? I thought that was what Harrow and that storyline was about. Is this a different wall person? Is Wally a moniker or what? I want to love and understand the lore, but even after so, so many years and hours of gameplay, I still need a TL;DR, an encyclopedia, and some Advil.

Duviri was fun until I finished it and realized it wasn't an open world, it was an island with none of my prior experience accounted for aside from the Undercroft(?) which is not fun, I don't get a say in who or what I'm bringing aside from one of my frames and 2 that aren't mine. I have no idea what WarFrame 1999 is about, why it's relevant, or who asked for it. I don't suspect I'll figure it out any time soon. I'm not trying to dog on what is presumably many hours of work put into these things, but I'm speaking as an experienced player. I can't imagine how someone starting out feels. Why would anyone who has so, so much between them and the newest content release be excited for new content? The new player experience must be absolutely BIZARRE. I told a coworker I started playing WarFrame again because he said he plays. Apparently, what he meant is he just does fashionframe. We all do that, but he doesn't know how to interact with the game in a meaningful way. There's so many places one could be, that it becomes choice paralysis. I love this universe with all my heart, but between trying to manage decorating a dojo, an orbiter, gearing out my frames, weapons, railjack, k-drive, archwing and archwing weapons, farming resources to do all those things, running daily missions and syndicate things all while trying to keep up with a story I don't feel I really understand, the new content feels like an inevitable chore. Just the many frames and prime releases and weapons I've missed out on will have me busy for who knows how long.

Is the 1999 thing relevant? Is it just a fun, little fan-service thing or what? Am I alone in feeling this way? I'm not trying to be insulting at all but the plains and eidolons, railjack, vallis, deimos were all great additions to the game aside from their own quirks and time-sinks involved. I was able to jump into Duviri without any hassle and so I did, and I was sooooo sad when I realized what was happening. I really thought it was going to be like the other open worlds, just with a strange story taking place before I could access it.

I'm sure someone out there loves it, but why pay service to the outlier when the core content has been what has stuck and worked all this time?

[Graavarg]

I have to say that I agree, and I sympathize. I'm stepping off the train, again, but largely for the same reasons.

Running around like a lab rat in labyrinth to get my reward, which depends on randomness, can be exciting and fun. If you actually get the reward with some reasonable effort, if the labyrinth is designed well or if you just like to run around. But stacking labyrinth upon labyrinth with arbitrary connections creates an incomprehensible 4D-space. It could, potentially, be kept together with "lore", forming a believable, understandable and immersive "world" to play in. There are lots of such worlds in computer games, even set in space, and in many cases it is then that "world" that becomes the main reason to play. Even to start all over, in order to enjoy the world again.

Once upon a time I hoped that Warframe would go a bit more down that "everything fits together"-path, because a lot of stuff you need to make it work is already in the game. It even occasionally seemed as if DE had such plans, to start connecting the content islands with "content bridges", making it all believable. But then, for reasons unknown but not impossible to deduce, the "power fantasy" frenzy took over. And over time "the lore" and "the warframe universe" just became a backdrop to "more power". And with "the lore" and "the universe" largely gone down the drain as enticements to play, in came the mathematical trickery and mechanisms designed not for enjoyment but to force players to play more hours and jump through more hoops (or pay to speed it up, a little).

In my small clan we gradually left "the lore" and "the warframe universe" behind, because they made no sense, offered no progress and new content seemed quite arbitrarily connected to what was already there. And that was if you managed to handle all the criss-crossing and intersecting timelines (so I get the ibuprofen 🙂). Instead we found our own Warframe within the more immediate mechanisms: damage, abilities, enemies, mission objectives and designing squad setups for different purposes. In that regard Warframe was one glorious game, and it is still "good enough". However, those "problems to solve" (with squad setups designed for specific missions/enemies) were one-dimensional, it was a fixed max amount of enemies always using the same "tactics" and the same units and weapons, and the difficulty consisted of simple math: increasing their tankiness and damage output. Once you cracked it, there was no reasons to ever go back. Who would play the same identical chess match or the the same identical Monopoly game time and time again, and think that it is fun? However, when DE started poking around with how the Warframe universe actually works, the bottom sort of dropped out. Trying to overcome enemies and achieve mission objectives with an unseen out-of-the-universe hand helping us on the way was just too "millennial", cheating on our behalf just made us feel unworthy. I still downright hate shield-gating, for how idiotic it is from an "immersive game world" viewpoint. It has nothing to do with that world, and everything to do with some programmer sitting somewhere adding some code that cheats on my behalf, without me even getting a say. So I made Inaros my main warframe, just to not have to cheat. And started using all the other warframes that doesn't use or rely on shields and were susceptible to shield-gating. With the exception of Hildryn, whose shield-gating makes some sort of sense.

When I started playing again a few months ago, I was actually surprised that it happened. All I did was boot up the game (after an 8 month hiatus) in order to build the new Dagath room in the dojo (a friend wanted it), and that was all it took: spawning into the orbiter, jumping through the Dojo corridors. But it wasn't any of the new content that got me going, it was cracking relics for the new Prime stuff. Then the Whispers in the Walls tileset. Then LR4. But like they say: "it was fun while it lasted". I could keep playing Warframe "for ever" if it was fun, there are much simpler games with a lot less content that have been around for centuries (like chess and Monopoly 🙂). But the excessive farming and the completely unnecessary hoops we are forced to jump through, mainly to get even more totally unnecessary "power"... it just isn't fun.

The Last Best Hope was the New War, you could see the possibilities: a world-shattering event that would allow resorting the Warframe universe into a more comprehensible whole, with new worthy enemies engaging us in a forever war. Changing "everything". Even the mind-controlled part gelled, with so many of us allowing us to be mind-controlled in the really real world. I abhor both those dumb enough to allow such controls and those evil enough to try to achieve it, so killing Narmers was quite satisfactory. But it was a dud, instead of inserting the New War as a cataclysmic event reinvigorating the game and the universe the game is set in, it fizzled out into "more new power stuff" as the main reward for "insanely repetitive gameplay" and no real change. Ah yes, and a new quest, almost forgot that one. And Duviri is the Warframe equivalent of playing Solitaire on your computer.

I still like Warframe, it is just not fun enough to play. I've tried to avoid the power trap (haven't slotted a single shard, probably have over a hundred), but couldn't resist the Incarnon Genesis adapters, since they made my old favourites relevant again (imagine using Soma again, that gun carried me through a lot of Warframe, once upon a time 🙂). What I really dislike even more than the repetitive "ooh, new content"-cycle (that never brings anything new, just new trappings of the old) is that DE has arbitrarily shut down the parts of the game that a player can use to create their own fun "content". It would be quite easy to add more riven slots, augment slots and more augments, universal forma etc., all allowing for more diversity to play with. because while the "power trip" just sucks, the "sandbox" is still great (one of the best in any online shooter). But for some unfathomable reason, DE does not want us to play in it. On the forum the reason is often given as "but that would add even more power", which is both logical and illogical. It is logical because their would be a few instances of slightly more power, but it is totally illogical to use the evil "power curve" as a cause for NOT implementing it's logicall opposite: "more width, more breadth and more depth".

Long story, shorter advice: just don't give a flying f*ck about all the new stuff, instead try to locate the game you once loved to play. It is still there, somewhere down in all that mess. If that proves to be as much fun as you remember, it will be easy to expand and start picking the new stuff apart. For as long as it lasts. There is no sense to be had, no meaningful progress, no goal to achieve. Except playing a game that is quite good, if you focus on the good parts and leave the bad parts and only focus on having fun. Regardless of what that fun is. The content island slot machine "power fantasy" BS is just that, a lot of bull. The absolutely fastest way to make the game less fun is to go for "max power", because that power is much too much, it turns the game into "only a slot machine", you can breeze through all and any missions and all the excitement and challenge left is yanking that slot machine handle at the mission's end. If that is fun enough for you for hours upon hours of gaming, then by all means go for it. If not, then avoid it and all the stuff that inevitably forces you in that direction.

Go crack some relics, build the new Prime stuff, test it out, max it. If that is still fun, Warframe is still there for you. For a while, at least.

 

[Xzorn]

I came back after a 5 year break myself. Quit before Diemos came out. I only really had one issue which was that DE now hides weapons in bounties without showing said weapon parts in the bounty reward rotations. This made me go back and re-do Diemos for a gun but otherwise crushed 5 years in 6 weeks.

Just been slowly doing dumb farms like Sisters / Liches. Don't see myself using the weapons much since many Incarnons are just better.
Never thought I'd see the day I liked Lex. Always hated it, handled like crap with crap status. Now it's a premium pistol.

Warframe has always been a wiki game. Not saying that's an excuse but that's how it's been. Much like Path of Exile. There's little in-game information. The Railjack Sentient mission you mentioned didn't take much figuring out. Now the Veil Proxima one. That one is dirty. I had no idea you could use Necramechs since it doesn't tell you at all.

[ControversyB]

23 minutes ago, Graavarg said:

Go crack some relics, build the new Prime stuff, test it out, max it. If that is still fun, Warframe is still there for you. For a while, at least.

 

That's largely what's kept me entertained the last few days, but I fully understand the sentiments you've shared. The power maxing, best of the best journey is something unrecognizable now and I felt I was OP a lot of times a few years ago. Now, I'm seeing someone with 90% damage dealt in a squad of veterans all carrying their own weight. I check their load out and don't even have a clue what they're using or doing, if its Incarnon or whatever it may be. So clearly I've missed quite a big update, but it's like they're constantly fixing what's not broken, breaking it, fixing that so it's not broken but then breaking it in a new way, fixing that, blah blah... it's hard to even say what's really wrong and what isn't. Lots of great things in the constant stream of new content and gear, but plenty of bad mixed in as well. I'm just worried the fundamental "space ninja" experience that got us all here in the first place is going to be tossed out with the bath water some day. 

[ControversyB]

9 minutes ago, Xzorn said:

Warframe has always been a wiki game. Not saying that's an excuse but that's how it's been. Much like Path of Exile. There's little in-game information. The Railjack Sentient mission you mentioned didn't take much figuring out. Now the Veil Proxima one. That one is dirty. I had no idea you could use Necramechs since it doesn't tell you at all.

It's definitely a wiki game and almost always has been. That's not great as it implies a flaw in the experience, but at least the wiki is quite informative and consistently up-to-date. I don't mind that about it, but it's the same as warframe.market. It clearly shows a desire for an in-game, simple and accessible bazaar. Their answer was Maroo's. I've never been able to find what I need there and it's hardly intuitive. And that's okay. Warframe.market is still going strong and a great tool. Just like the wiki, but it's not an ideal solution.

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

Yea sorry to hear that, but remember you have to treat this game like an MMO: you're meant to play over time and chip away at various things. 

If I decided to play World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14 right now from scratch, it would be the same issue, even if I quit my job and just sat there 12 hours a day, there's just some things you can't rush. 

That's why you have fun and breathe and pick some things to do each day.

[ClockworkDirge]

I came back after a roughly six year break, and I had to get my husband’s help for a lot of the stuff I needed to see and make sure I was seeing it in the presumably correct order… and a lot of it I still feel significantly lost on.

Duviri feels like a fever dream that I’m using basically just to farm for Rivens when Acrythis has them. The Holdfasts on the Zariman grate me to no end and my distaste for them as people only grows as I get more standing. The whole situation on Deimos proper has me confused, but I enjoy getting rocks for Otak so it’s ok in the end. The actions I was forced to take in the New War regarding a character I’d really grown to hate since the Sacrifice before my break made no sense and really made me angry ‘cause I missed an apparently very lore/context important one-off event that’s never coming back… and it keeps going on.
 

The *only* thing that hasn’t made me feel lost and annoyed at the choices the game gives me no choice but to make has been The Whispers in the Walls quest, the level’s launch event, and the Albrecht Lab tileset itself. It’s so far removed from the “main lore” and current solar system happenings while also actually feeling like a building on the actual past of the Orokin empire; that I can actually start having fun looking at the tiles visual storytelling elements, beating the enemies, learning how to beat the hardest challenges the Cavia can throw at me, and searching for the lore bits dropped from the floor bosses. Also not being barked at by Lotus in those levels is a highly welcomed change. (DE please let me replace Lotus with Tagfer)

Edited March 7 by ClockworkDirge

[Graavarg]

8 hours ago, ControversyB said:

I'm just worried the fundamental "space ninja" experience that got us all here in the first place is going to be tossed out with the bath water some day. 

I think it already get tossed. Or rather, it's still there for someone that is starting out from the beginning, when you don't understand anything but it all kind of makes sense (if you know what I mean). But at some point it just isn't there anymore, and we have instead turned into irritated demigods, frustrated when things are not going our way and demanding that the real gods should fix the rules of the universe to our liking. I am not even sure if that is a computer game anymore, but I am very, very sure that "co-op space ninja" it is not.

Edited March 7 by Graavarg

[(PSN)AyinDygra]

If ninjas ever used dual bladed polearms, I still feel like a space ninja, quickly slicing and dicing enemy armies like a blur that they never saw coming, and disappear before anyone knew I was there, except the trail of bodies.

Depends on how you choose to play, I guess... (I don't consider guns to be a very "ninja"y thing, myself.)

I dislike when the game diverts from gameplay that makes me a space ninja, and instead makes me a pilot or bipedal tank, or powerless human, or void child...

But, the core game is always there (unless you get locked into The New War, then you're outta luck.)

I generally take breaks and go play other games, returning to Warframe to farm the new frames, new primes, and work on factions (only rank 3 with the Cavia.) Mostly playing Last Epoch right now. I guess, with shorter breaks, there's less to catch up on, learning each new thing as it is released... and I watch every single dev stream, so I see it all introduced and explained and demonstrated. I'm surprised they don't have a better system in-game, than the help files... they really really really lean into Youtubers to explain everything for them.

 

[Aldain]

Warframe's always going to be something you've gotta take in small bursts, even I'm in my burnout phase again after a few months (I blame farming the Circuit for Incarnons).

But that's fine, Warframe isn't a game that needs to be consumed in a single bite, it's more like beef jerky, a bit tough to chew, fairly filling, can taste pretty good depending on the flavor and keeps for a long time so you don't need to worry about it going bad.

...Now I just want beef jerky.

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

I sympathise and somewhat relate to your situation. Even if, I had a much different experience and take on some of your examples. I feel though as if this is touching on a lot of different issues, some which can be a bit complicated. To try and be more concise than I usually am, I'd like to generalise and lay on the idea of a player, the game, and other external circumstance. Then how they can overlap or influence each other. For example, with myself, there have been times, when the game was doing something, that if they were happening earlier or latter in my life, I might find more negative than positive. Not because of the game itself, but more my own situation. Or whether I might enjoy something, may involved factors that I can influence, so whether or not I enjoy it, can be a bit up to myself. 

I use to really be into comic books. I took like a decade long break, and am starting to try and get back in. It can sometimes be an exercise of frustration and annoyance, because obviously a lot will change, and the comics medium, especially Marvel and DC comics can have a variety of issues, old, new, developing... That being said, there's always going to be... There is what a game/hobby is, what an individual wishes it was ideally, what we experience, what we could experience, and what other people are okay/fine with. 

Some of your lines struck out to me, these ones. "I'm sure someone out there loves it, but why pay service to the outlier when the core content has been what has stuck and worked all this time?", "but the plains and eidolons, railjack, vallis, deimos were all great additions", "it's like they're constantly fixing what's not broken, breaking it, fixing that so it's not broken but then breaking it in a new way", how much of this is personal experience and then perception and projection, to more neutral and comprehensive and accurate to both the larger broader viewpoints as well as alternative views and experience, even if only representative of a smaller minority? Like how does one know and be aware that someone else is the outlier versus potentially existing in their own minority of sorts. Which also, to be clear, isn't invalidating or an attempt to undermine any individuals experiences and view points, but we are dealing with a lot of subjective elements here. 

I am someone who has played Warframe for a long time, and I know quite a few who have as well, I found most of your examples great too, but ehhh Railjack on launch (I like it a lot more since)... and I also thought Deimos was also quite weak on launch... I also think a lot of the most recent content/updates is Warframe's best.

Again though, I can sympathise and understand why you might be frustrated too, because Warframe has been adding a lot of content since Deimos, and its tricky, because tp some, if its good, then the more, the better, for others, if its a neutral to negative experience, then more content can just mean more frustration. That being said, do you think you are critical or frustrated with the game necessarily, or the situation of your experience? For example, some of your examples, sound like you jumped in with a bunch of different randoms, and the game... is no longer what you expect? However, if you played with some friends who helping you catch up, or solo, would those same issues exist? If you are rushing to try and catch up, is that the same, as going slow, and potentially enjoying new systems and mechanics and the new gameplay options and versatility in choice? Is jumping into Warframe, end expecting it to just click, the same as approaching the game, with a battle plan to maximise your enjoyment? 

That latter question may seem a bit funny in concept, because usually, you know, a game, should intuitively be enjoyable, without any sort of planning or preparation. Personally, I find Warframe, is the kind of game, that benefits, some individuals, like myself, to actually put more thought into it, otherwise it can be overwhelming. Its the kind of game, where you need more consideration into what you want to get out of it. You need more of a game plan otherwise you might get burned out, frustrated or annoyed. So I personally often end up enjoying Warframe, because... I know myself, what I like, what I dislike, and I know my own pace. Half my play time is solo, then the rest is split between PUB and friends/premade. I play off and on, so take breaks regularly. 

I say all this, because it might beneficial for you to slow down a little, and to try and identify what you like about the game., what you dislike, and ways to maximise the former and avoid the latter. Also, and this can suck, but people can also grow apart from a game or hobby. Thats obviously up to you, to decide, but same with me. Maybe, I just grew apart from comics and won't get the same enjoyment out of them anymore (I mean, i probably will, comics is a big medium with a lot of variety, and styles and I also have a lot of old stories from writers and artists I know I like, to check out). Maybe something in the game that irritated or frustrated you, you might actually enjoy and like, in a different situation and scenario. Like you know Eidolons, for example, is different if its a premade team who knows what they are doing, versus PUBs having arguments with each other, versus PUBS being friendly and helpful to each other, versus friends having a chill experience, versus doing it solo. Sometimes you need to curate your gaming experience a little, to get the most enjoyment out of it, and that doesn't necessarily absolve a game of its flaws and negatives, nor invalidate criticisms, but it can make experiences more enjoyable for those that desire them or are trying to enjoy catching back up. 

Good luck either way! 

[UnstarPrime]

Your post covers a lot of different things, so I'm going to try to respond to the major beats.

 

The Plot

I would compare Warframe's narrative delivery method to Dark Souls games; there is a narrative, but it's explained in intentionally obfuscated bits and pieces that players have to put together like a mystery.  Seldom is anything straightforward.  To truly understand what's going on you have to unlock dozens of codex entries with supplementary text, or rewatch one-time cutscenes to try to understand them once you have additional information.  And even then, there's a lot that is left unsaid and thus is unknown or open to interpretation.  Trying to understand Warframe's narrative and world is indeed difficult.  But if you like that sort of thing, it can be fun.

While you can find people who will be happy to summarize the plot for you, such summaries can wildly vary depending on the interpretation of each individual.  So if you choose that route, take every last bit with a grain of salt.  I personally find coming to my own conclusions to be very satisfying, but it takes a lot of time and work playing detective, and it makes sense that not everyone is into that sort of thing.

 

Resources

While the game has gotten better at telling players where to get resources they need to craft certain things, it's still not better than the wiki.  So if you need to know where to get something, the official wiki is generally a required resource.

Also, most rewards and items are more "for fun" than required, so hopefully that makes things more whelming.  You can generally skip past them and only return once you decide that's the thing you want to farm.

 

Game Modes

With rare (if any) exceptions, every Game Mode tells you how to play it.  It's not uncommon for players to want to drown out those NPC's who are chattering on their comms, but those NPC's are the ones telling you what you need to do.  If it's still unclear after that, the wiki is a great resource.

 

Lots of Content

Warframe continually gets new content to try to sustain the appetites of its players, so if you're a new player or if you've taken a break, there's a ton of content waiting for you.  Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely on you.  If you see that content as work that needs to be done ASAP, then it's probably going to feel bad.  But if you see it as a buffet of new toys that you can play with at your leisure, you'll probably have a good experience.

My advice would be to not rush it.  If you try to eat the whole buffet as fast as possible, you'll get a tummy ache.  Remember, Warframe is a game intended to give you something fun to do during your leisure time.  It is not a race, it is not a job that needs to be done, it is a place to just try to have some fun.

 

Content You Don't Like

With so much content in Warframe, there will invariably be some game modes that you dislike.  Whether it's Defense, Railjack, Duviri, etc, not everything is going to be your speed.  And that's fine.  Either don't do that content and buy any rewards you want from the players who do like it, or just do a little bit at a time here and there, which will eventually allow you to unlock whatever it is you want to unlock without burning out because you immersed yourself deeply into something you dislike.

And expect DE to eventually make more content you dislike, because they're highly experimental in their approach to game development.  Do you remember Lunaro?  They made Lunaro.  We should not be surprised when they continue to create new systems that deviate from standard Warframe gameplay.  Personally, I like most of it, so it works out for me.  But if it rubs you the wrong way, hopefully recognizing that this is their M.O. will help you determine for yourself whether Warframe is for you.

 

Islands

I don't think there's any right way to feel about so-called content islands, so I'll simply offer one possible alternative: I care more about whether my content is fun than whether the game systems are connected. And truth be told, while the mechanics of the gameplay systems between Duviri and "regular Warframe" don't overlap much, these modes do feed into each other, since Duviri is how you get resources to get things like Incarnon weapons.  So if I'm having a fun time playing in Duviri, it's earning me rewards for my Waframe, and that's enough connective tissue to satisfy me.

 

Who Asked for 1999?

If you only give people what they ask for, you'll never surprise them, nor will you impress them. Nobody asked for The Second Dream...but it's one of the most impressive moments I've ever experienced in a game, and I'm damn happy that DE thought to give it to me.

From what I've seen, I'm excited for 1999.  It has potential, and that's good enough for me.  Hopefully it will be good and not bad, but we won't know until we play it.

 

In the end, so much of enjoying Warframe is about meeting Warframe where it's at, and I hope that what I've written here can help guide you towards that.  Of course, if that experience simply isn't for you, that's valid, too.  Just try not to fall into the trap of focusing too much of your brain on wanting Warframe to be something that it's not, as there's a point at which that desire will make you unable to enjoy what Warframe actually is.

And to be clear, it's valid to complain and criticize and try to make your voice heard; in some cases, that may impact DE's trajectory.  But broadly speaking, DE is going to make the game that they're going to make, and it's up to each of us to decide whether we're onboard with that or not.

Anyway, wishing you the best, Tenno!

[(PSN)robotwars7]

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

When I left, Deimos was the newest thing on the block. I saw the Duviri trailer. And that's it. I was at MR27, had a massive amount of content completed.

funnily enough an old friend of mine returned to my little group recently (he had 2 kids, 3rd on the way so he was just a little bit occupied), and returned to warframe as well. just like you he's MR27 and stopped around the time Deimos came out. so you're not alone I guess.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

but then I started reading the update logs.... and the quests I need X/Y/Z for.... and the multitude of different, hyper-specific tasks I need to perform to acquire the plethora of items to engage with another snippet of the storyline before I can then repeat the process in another set of missions with specific mechanics that I've never seen before.

this happened to my friend as well, just as it happens to a lot of people who return to Warframe after a long hiatus; it's easy to get overwhelmed, which is why I always say to think carefully about what you want first and then focus on goals one at a time, then onto the next and so on: spreading yourself thin and trying to get multiple things at once usually just leads to burnout and another hiatus.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

. I need regal aya, which is different from aya, to buy certain things from Varzia, a person I do not know.

Varzia is a vendor who is part of a system called Primed Resurgence. remember how old primes get vaulted and then unvaulted? well, now they get unvaulted in this primed resurgence system, which rotates every couple of months or so, so you don't have to wait too long for a specific prime frame to come back. as well as relics for the frames, she also sells the primes and their weapons/items directly, and even their accessories, and accepts 2 currencies:

Aya comes from relic packs and bounties, and can be used to buy void traces and certain cosmetics from Varzia.

Regal Aya is a premium currency bought with real world cash, just like platinum, and you use it to directly buy already built primes and accessories from Varzia.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

I don't know what Riven slivers are.

Riven Slivers are dropped by Eximus units and for every 10 of them you get, you can turn them in to an NPC in Iron Wake, who will give you a Veiled Riven mod for them. you can also by Kuva and Credits with the Riven Slivers as well. you'll likely amass a lot of them naturally as you keep playing.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

What's the real difference between a void storm, and a void fissure?

Void Storms are Railjack missions where you can open relics, Void Fissures are what the regular relic-opening missions are called.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

The thing with sentients spawning and I have to use my operator to attack the beacons to destroy the whatever-it-was-called? Had NO idea, aside from Father(I think?) barking at me. I don't even understand why he, of all people, was the one trying to guide me.

Orphix mode, heh. it was introduced in an event called Orphix Venom; basically just before we got new war, the Sentients started attacking corpus ships and Orphixes are immune to Warframes, so we had to use Necramechs, which Father knows all about, so he tags along on comms. you take your mech into the Orphix area, shoot the thigns, then damage the Orphix itself, then shoot more thigns, then finish off the Orphix, rinse and repeat. it's not a mode that many people tend to bother with nowadays, probably due to the reliance on Necramechs.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

It HURTS my head trying to keep everything from coming in one ear and spilling out the other

I kinda get that. the story isn't always fully explained and a lot of things are still left open to interpretation, but you can always ask somebody on here: there's still plenty of loreheads around who can answer any question you have regarding the story (I'm not one of them though lol)

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

I need to build a Voidrig to play The New War, and I am loathe to do so. I don't know what, if any, of the Brother/Sister/Mother/Neighbor/Pet Dog/High School Crush tokens I need to try and keep track of,

there are a lot of different token types, but if it's a Voidrig you need, for that specifically you mainly just need to focus on running iso-vaults and getting the damaged parts, and you can turn in the Matrices you pick up from dead enemy Voidrigs in there to Necraloid and get blueprints form him. it's not the easiest farm, but it's totally doable. you can also buy the Voidrig outright if you want.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

I've heard nothing particularly kind of TNW, Kahl???,

most of the complaints around The New War are either the fact it was kinda rushed at the end, or more likely from people who struggled with the fights and hate being locked into the quest until you finish it. Kahl is a character introduced in The New War who also has his own missions where you play as him, but those have a.. mixed series of opinions nowadays.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

The Walls. What the heck is the wall thing? I thought that was what Harrow and that storyline was about. Is this a different wall person? Is Wally a moniker or what?

you're not wrong about Harrow being tied to this. basically it's this:

- Harrow and his operator, Rell, were the only thing keeping Wally (the shorthand term we use for Man in the Wall, they are the same person) in check, but we released Rell of his suffering. now WE are responsible for keeping him in check

- at the same time, the man who first discovered wally, Albrecht Entrati, is also trying to find a way to stop wally, and is doing so by time travelling.

- recently, Wally has been trying to break into our reality. this is VERY bad. like, everything will die bad (or so we believe)

- the focus now is on trying to stop wally, he's the big bad.

- you might also hear of "the indifference". this is just another term for wally/ Man in The Wall.

the rest is more or less explained in the most recent quest, I won't say any more as I don't want to spoil it for you, you should play it and then ask any questions you have afterwards.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

Duviri was fun until I finished it and realized it wasn't an open world, it was an island with none of my prior experience accounted for aside from the Undercroft(?) which is not fun, I don't get a say in who or what I'm bringing aside from one of my frames and 2 that aren't mine.

it does actually tell you what you're getting on the current spiral if you click on the Duviri icon, and then hover over the warframe/weapon icons. you also get more options to choose from when you rank up your Duviri Drifter Intrinsics, which is done by playing the mode.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

I love this universe with all my heart, but between trying to manage decorating a dojo, an orbiter, gearing out my frames, weapons, railjack, k-drive, archwing and archwing weapons, farming resources to do all those things, running daily missions and syndicate things all while trying to keep up with a story I don't feel I really understand, the new content feels like an inevitable chore. Just the many frames and prime releases and weapons I've missed out on will have me busy for who knows how long.

again, focus is key. I know there's a lot of stuff, and it's easy to get overwhelmed, but if you can try to break it down into chunks and just say "today I'm going to get X", and then just work towards that. it's easy to want to have and do everything, but even the best players can only do one thing at a time. not only can you make a line of progression for yourself, you'll also go at a pace that's more comfortable for you. none of the stuff you've missed out on is going anywhere, so you have all the time you need to collect your thoughts and work towards each goal you desire, one step at a time.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

Is the 1999 thing relevant? Is it just a fun, little fan-service thing or what?

it seems like it's a major story thing actually. to do with Albrecht travelling back in time and making people into warframes to combat the infested plague... I will admit DE does take us to some pretty crazy and weird places for our story, and it does seem get confusing at times, but hopefully when 1999 launches, things will make more sense.. maybe.

18 hours ago, ControversyB said:

but why pay service to the outlier when the core content has been what has stuck and worked all this time?

there has been plenty of discussion about DE going away from the "traditional" warframe, the magical space ninja simulator we all know and love, but nowadays at least they seem to be goign back slightly towards that, and they have made a number of improvements to core content as well. with our next update we get a new version of disruption modes, and we have had more modes that focus on the use of warframes AND other systems, like Netracells.

ultimately, it just sounds like you're being overwhelmed, the best thing to do is to take a step back and decide on the specific thing you want most. a lot of your questions can be answered by people on here or in the Wiki (and yes, I know that having a wiki open for a game just to know what the hell's going on isn't ideal, but this is the same page that all of us are on most of the time.). just play the game at your own pace and try to have as much fun as you can while working towards each goal you set yourself. 

Edited March 7 by (PSN)robotwars7

[ControversyB]

On 2024-03-07 at 6:55 PM, (PSN)robotwars7 said:

ultimately, it just sounds like you're being overwhelmed, the best thing to do is to take a step back and decide on the specific thing you want most. a lot of your questions can be answered by people on here or in the Wiki (and yes,  just play the game at your own pace and try to have as much fun as you can while working towards each goal you set yourself. 

Thank you to everyone who responded, I've read everyone's response but replying to everyone would keep me here all night. So if anyone's reading, here's how I'm feeling after spending pretty much all my downtime outside of work (and life stuff) in WarFrame. I'm far less frustrated with my experience as I've just naturally tended to bite on whatever I can manage to chew. WarFrame has always had a lot on offer, usually more than anyone would even want, but the success that kind diversity brings is a game model most developers are trying to duplicate for themselves nowadays. Not a game you play, but a world you consistently visit and virtually "live in." After about a decade of being here, I'd say that's certainly true for WF. 

I have no qualms with DE, but I definitely have had to warm up to their storybeats in the past and I'm sure TNW and 1999 will be no different. It's great that they continue to build upon this experience, and to do so into perpetuity requires abstract thinking, lest we should find ourselves at an "end." What bothers me time and again is how the story can fundamentally change the gameplay without much warning. The operator was a strange decision at first, but then it made sense and didn't feel jarring. Lots of different mission types, some good and some not so good. The list goes on. What works will stick, and what doesn't will naturally kind of work itself out. 

I'm also coming up on one year of sobriety after 9 or so years of addiction. My brain is not what it used to be, so much has been lost as my mind and body learn to function normally again. I think part of my frustration is just frustration with myself and how some days my mind is like Teflon - nothing wants to stick. It's getting better as I march onward and away from my past, but definitely takes getting used to.

I'm just happy to be back in action here, and to see so many others doing the same. More now with cross-platform play than ever before. Thanks again to everyone for taking time to share and advise. I really do appreciate it. I do have one concern - I keep hearing about people getting locked into TNW.... I never have much issue with soloing any content and have a pretty diverse range of frames and weapons at my disposal. What is it that's causing trouble? Some light spoiling is fine. I've read some stuff already anyway.

[(PSN)AyinDygra]

2 hours ago, ControversyB said:

I do have one concern - I keep hearing about people getting locked into TNW.... I never have much issue with soloing any content and have a pretty diverse range of frames and weapons at my disposal. What is it that's causing trouble? Some light spoiling is fine. I've read some stuff already anyway.

Spoiler

This mission has several segments using completely new mechanics, much like with the introduction of the operator.
You are locked out of using any of your warframes or weapons until late in the quest, and at that point, I'm fairly sure you use the selection you had equipped as you started the quest from the codex - you don't get access to changing that frame or weapons to just anything you have (this was the extent of the "warning" being applicable to the difficulty of the content that most people expected... not being able to change their warframe or weapons once they start... not the lack of ANY use of the Warframe at all for most of the quest.)

There are stealth segments without the use of your normal warframes that you would use for their stealth abilities.

There are 2 bosses that you must fight without Warframes, using a bow. If you don't like using bows, or have trouble aiming/timing bows, relying on melee for most of the game, this could be a very troublesome part of the game - especially for those with bad reflexes and who compensated for their shortcomings by using tanky warframes or weapons that were more forgiving for playing the rest of Warframe's content.

Once you get to the part where you control your Warframe again, you're not even sure of victory; the segment that requires the use of a Railjack may be very challenging for someone who has not upgraded their Railjack, simply due to the nature of the mission that requires flying it, and the damage you're going to be forced to take.

The part that makes use of the Necramech could have been handled using the same mechanic used on Deimos' surface, where you can commandeer a disabled mech. There's not much to worry about in that segment.

I know there's a bug in the final battle, that my roommate experienced, making the unique mechanic to make the boss vulnerable simply stop working... required a reboot and another try, but it did work just fine the 2nd attempt.

 

[Sporthand]

It's okay! I have not been playing since I got tired of playing Warframe 3 months ago. I keep writing a novel nowadays! It's already on page 212 during my leisure time. I may return to Warframe if I feel like playing it!

[Aruquae]

10 minutes ago, Sporthand said:

It's okay! I have not been playing since I got tired of playing Warframe 3 months ago. I keep writing a novel nowadays! It's already on page 212 during my leisure time. I may return to Warframe if I feel like playing it!

Novel? Sweet, what’s it about?

I do love literature 

[Sporthand]

1 hour ago, Aruquae said:

Novel? Sweet, what’s it about?

I do love literature 

The Elven Queen Reborn in the post-advanced modern era.

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

9 hours ago, ControversyB said:

I'm just happy to be back in action here, and to see so many others doing the same. More now with cross-platform play than ever before. Thanks again to everyone for taking time to share and advise. I really do appreciate it. I do have one concern - I keep hearing about people getting locked into TNW.... I never have much issue with soloing any content and have a pretty diverse range of frames and weapons at my disposal. What is it that's causing trouble? Some light spoiling is fine. I've read some stuff already anyway.

 

Good on you for coming so far on your journey! I am just a random anonymous Internet voice, but the efforts and challenges involved with sobriety after addiction are very admirable. I sincerely wish you the best on your journey, in game and out of game. 

As far as The New War and being locked out, AyinDygra covered many of the potential issues. From my own perspective, the main reoccurring issue most people had difficulties with, were some of the bosses in that update. They can rely on a different type of skill set to complete. You are also restricted to certain gear, as in weapons, and abilities, so one potential issue, is that mechanically, the bosses could be said to be "easy", but it might also assume the person playing it, has certain general skill sets, that may not be accurate or reflect all those who participate in the game.

Like in regular Warframe, you don't necessarily need to aim all the time, because Warframes can have abilities that do AOE, auto target, you have AOE weapons, you have melee that doesn't require aiming. In New War, there are some sections that do require some general accurate aiming. 

There are some other skills that can help as well. I tried to help some of the people who found these bosses hard, and some of them, showed us some video clips of their attempts. Are you familiar with circle strafing? See I wasn't personally familiar with the exact term, but its one of those things that when I went to articulate what it was to others, i realised it was a term in video games, and that I had intuitively been doing it as long as I have played video games. Its just the ability to move/strafe around an enemy, in a way where you can still fire at them, but also be moving so that you might avoid fire/attacks from them. So it combines movement control, with camera aiming control, with firing a weapon and attempting to be accurate with it. There are other factors as well, like whether its PVE or PVP, since many PVP enemies move smarter than AI enemies. Whether you are using hit scan or projectiles, and so whether you need to lead shots, and consider distance. Whether or not cover plays an element, so you strafe in and out of cover, and use right sight advantage. 

I said that in a longer round about way, because for many people who play video games, we just pick up a controller and do all that effortlessly, like second nature, we don't have to articulate or describe it. Its just natural, but... not all people necessarily can do that well. For many reasons, some that may be more personal to their situation, so on. If you are familiar with circle strafing for example, and know you can do it, and you have done Eidolons in the past, and Duviri quest recently, I would guess you will be fine with New War. The people struggling, I empathise and sympathise with, and there ideally should be ways for them to progress through the mission, or to skip it if not, but as far as I can tell, they are also relatively rare.

Now you know your own history with games better than me, so if my explanation about circle strafing makes you think "Yeah, I know all that, I have played a lot of games, you strafe left and right a lot whilst shooting the enemy, to avoid their gunfire or attacks, or even in games with swords, you use distance with actions like rolls to make distance or close the distance, basic stuff sure" you will probably be fine. If your reaction is more like "I don't play any shooting games really, and in Warframe I dislike guns that require aim, and prefer abilities or weapons that don't require precision, because they are more fun, I don't like dodging or rolling either. Its not like you need to in Warframe anyway" then, much higher possibility the bosses may be a struggle. 

The other thing about them is potentially personality and pressure. Personally, I have always been pretty good at any game I played, probably because I have decent hand eye coordination, and I use my hands for a lot. So games were fun to me, even when I lost, or struggled, but I would enjoy the learning experience. If ever felt frustrated by a game, that sense got processed fast, back into joy/fun. Thats just the personality I have, and since I don't have a lot of internal pressure, I tend to play better, observe and learn better, pick up on enemy patterns and actions better, and so adapt better. If fear is the mind killer, then frustration might be the mind inhibitor, and frustration can often create more frustration as a result. I think that a lot of people also struggled with the bosses, not necessarily because of skill, but frustration. A lot of Warframe is relatively easy, so when some people expect something to be easy, and its not, it can be frustrating. For others, it can be a pleasant surprise.

So if the idea of failing a boss attempt on first try sounds potentially frustrating to you, I would say, also try to not put too much pressure on yourself, which ironically was my original message about the game having so much content hehe. You also seem less frustrated with Warframe in general with your most recent reply as well, well, i mean you literally said that, so it also sounds like you are adapting and acclimatising to the game and its peculiarities well enough. If you approach the bosses that way as well, you should be fine as well, unless specifically there is some other variable present (some, but not all people who struggled, often mentioned some specific external issue that made the bosses harder than they might otherwise have been). 

Long post, but I wanted to be vague so as to not spoil the story, and why and how people can struggle with a games difficulty, can be surprisingly complicated and nuanced, and this quest can effectively soft lock your game as well, and whilst I assume you won't have much trouble with it, many people have, and so I have sympathies for them. 

All the best to you. Take care. 

[Arniox]

I came back after a year and a half. 

The newest thing when I left was the new war quest. But I hadn't played actively since deimos either. 

I had farmed most of deimos but not all of it. 

I then came back just in late January. The trick for me, was finding the specific update I had left on, and then reading each update main page and playing through the content in release chronology. 

I specifically did not play the newer content or quests until a few weeks later once I had caught up. 

So I started back with the zariman angles, and played it and farmed it extensively until I was fully aware of what that update entailed. Then I did the same thing with duveri, playing it extensively until I understood everything. 

And then weeks after I came back, I started the whispers quest. I also avoided archon shards and the archon hunt for a week or two and basically spent my time doing what I had always done, leveling and cracked relics to farm some of the new primes. 

I took my sweet time forcefully avoiding the new stuff and letting the quests sit there for weeks, slowly easing myself in one update at a time. It helped SIGNIFICANTLY with my time coming back. And now I finally feel totally eased back in to the game.