Too Much Difficult (Solo Missions) For A Casual Gamer/beginner

[keskejesuis]

I have reached level 10 something like that and every mission is now a fail.

I'm no 8 hours/day gamer, just a casual gamer - average 4-6 hours a week-end - who enjoy those beautifuly crafted sci-fi levels, artistically and technically well designed, action is great, fast paced. There are really great ideas involved in Warframe. Noises and sound are awesome !

Now, I find this game extremely punishing. Mission failed, mission failed, mission failed....

And I die, die, die and again die.

What the point of trying stealth action when you are completely surrounded and overwhelmed by invicible foes.

Whatever I try, every mission will end by some slaughter, mine.

Even with 2 or 3 buddies in coop, it ends by "mission failed" or we cannot find mission paths.

In fact, there is only one way : the almost stupid fps way like a bit of UT3 mixed with Lost Planet.

I found however the solo missions appealing and interesting, like a whole campain, but now it's unplayable.

Too bad, have now to give up...

Just a small suggestion : when one respawn after dying (if enough credits), it would be nice to stay invincible 3-5 sec or being able to run away from the place you just died. Instead of this, one often dies again just after respawning, completely overwhelmed by numerous ennemies.

(I apologize for my poor english..)

[Renathy]

You should get some mods on your stuff.

[Inofor]

Are you trying to play this as a stealth game? Stealth is currently very broken and unfinished. If you try to stealth with only melee, it's gonna be really difficult. You can get paris (or some say snipetron) as silent weapon.

The main gameplay in warframe is pretty much straightforward gunplay. Use cover, aim for the head. Don't go in the middle of a lot of enemies, try to pick some off before you go closer. If it's an infested map and you're about to get surrounded, run away to something you can use as a choke point. If it's a corpus map, shoot the blue shield ospreys.

The blue marker is the main mission, follow that. Orange ones are waypoints usually made to point out loot.

Edited March 30, 2013 by Inofor

[JamnikPucek]

Being a "casual" gamer (identified as not spending much times a week, the term does tend to be thrown around a lot) shoudn't get you killed any more or less often. If you are dying a lot in the first few planets you ahve access to, providing you are putting in the mods you find, even in solo mode.

Stealth is a secondary mechanic, this is a TPP shooter at heart. A very, veyr basic core mechanic is room clearing, dealing with any reinforcement waves if they are summoned, moving on, rinse, repeat. Your path is clearly market by the orange exclamation mark that always leads you to your objective, but you should not try and get to it without making sure you killed off most/all enemeis in a room you go through.

[Aurora]

Which planet are you playing on?

Which kind of missions? (Endless defense for instance if you never claim and exit sooner or later you will fail)

Are you using and upgrading mods?

Which warframe are you using and are you using its abilities?

Do you have a sentinel?

and everything else mentioned above me.

[Mezecs]

I don't understand why people think they should be catered to if they're bad.

If you don't want a challenge don't play games.

Edited March 30, 2013 by Mezecs

[HexCaliber]

I am agreeing with the op, just started today, my first impressions were good, even made a purchase of some plat and bought some gear. A few hours in and I won’t be bothering with this again. While I appreciate it’s possible to group, the game provides a solo mode so it should be viable all the way through given a reasonable progression, otherwise there is no reason for it being there.

Yes I am using mods, yes I was upgrading them every chance I got, but I will be buggered if I will play a game that farms revives from the player as a means to generate income. That’s all solo play does, spawning mobs behind you in a room you cleared just 10 seconds before serves no other purpose than to put you at an instant disadvantage, it’s not even a real challenge, just a cheap mechanic.

Nor do I consider myself a "casual", I have been gaming for years, have been a member of several competitive clans in games like the Battlefield series, so I know my way around a shooter. As to the question about sentinels and frames, unless you are prepared to farm level 1-3 missions for hours to buy blueprints and mats, you are screwed.

NO f2p game should rely on the purchase of goods for cash to provide a viable experience, no one likes pay to win. I have happily spent a couple of thousand on f2p in the last 12 months, even dropped £250 in the first week of Planetside 2, but not once did I feel that I had to. I did so to enhance my experience, and don’t begrudge the devs a penny of it, but I will be damned if I will be backed into a corner and end up paying for items just so I can play this game.

Perhaps a recent patch upset lower level solo balance, I wouldn’t know, but I do know the devs won’t be getting any more of my money, and will likely get very little more of my time, unless I read somewhere down the line that the situation has changed. It’s a pity, it is a good game but I suspect with the current revives for cash and the devs idea of balance it won’t do very well.

If nothing else, the game encouraged me to go buy defiance, pity Digital Extremes don’t get any commission.

As for the sanctimonious attitude of asshats like Mezecs, feel free to stick it. Free to play games rely on word of mouth and a strong community, while I know you're nothing but another average gamer, your attitude does nothing for the game’s community, but I do hope it makes you feel all grown up and tough inside.

Edited March 30, 2013 by HexCaliber

[CheeseHasLeafs]

whoa everybody calm down. No need to insinuate things about the skill level of other people.

I do find it is true that the later planets are hard. Most especially if you've only got the base shields and health. If you don't have any shield mods, it is unlikely you'll be able to get past Saturn or Venus. If you do have a shield mod, dump all your cash on it and fuse it to at least 150%, and you'll do fine. Before Update 7, everyone had at least 400+ shields and some were complaining that most part of the game provided no challenge.

Edited March 30, 2013 by CheeseHasLeafs

[Toddwjp]

I would have to say improve your mods, and scrap the stealth gameplay. Just use ya guns.

[EagleRider]

apart from this i've seen many complaints recently on the scaling of difficulty after update 7. The upgrade tree used to be all we needed for stats if you wanted to complete a mission, while the mod slots just gave people an extra KICK in thier style. I understand why they removed the Tree but there still needs to be BASIC stat inprovements as warframes lvl. Basic health, armor, energy and strength. This would allow players who just recently started out with hardly any credits to feel thier work paying off and if they want more power go to mods.

Edited March 30, 2013 by EagleRider

[Jinxiate]

If your losing to the later missions too often go back to the earlier ones and just play through them again to improve yourself. You don't need to be a hardcore gamer to take a step back in your solo quest and improve your skills. It's like any game in that aspect, if the harder stuff is beating you, your going to need to get a little better at it to keep going for it. Everyone above has mentioned mods and not doing stealth, which is accurate that will make things a lot easier but the core of the game is shooting and moving around. Are you dodging away from enemy attacks often enough? Are you seizing opportunities or just tunnel visioning the person your shooting at?

If you play chess once a week against a computer, your not going to be able to solo all the way to the highest of its ten difficulty levels in ten games unless your naturally very good at chess. Same applies here, just go back to the missions you can beat and work on your weak points then take another stab at the hard stuff.

[Venarge]

I am agreeing with the op, just started today, my first impressions were good, even made a purchase of some plat and bought some gear. A few hours in and I won’t be bothering with this again. While I appreciate it’s possible to group, the game provides a solo mode so it should be viable all the way through given a reasonable progression, otherwise there is no reason for it being there.

Yes I am using mods, yes I was upgrading them every chance I got, but I will be buggered if I will play a game that farms revives from the player as a means to generate income. That’s all solo play does, spawning mobs behind you in a room you cleared just 10 seconds before serves no other purpose than to put you at an instant disadvantage, it’s not even a real challenge, just a cheap mechanic.

Nor do I consider myself a "casual", I have been gaming for years, have been a member of several competitive clans in games like the Battlefield series, so I know my way around a shooter. As to the question about sentinels and frames, unless you are prepared to farm level 1-3 missions for hours to buy blueprints and mats, you are screwed.

NO f2p game should rely on the purchase of goods for cash to provide a viable experience, no one likes pay to win. I have happily spent a couple of thousand on f2p in the last 12 months, even dropped £250 in the first week of Planetside 2, but not once did I feel that I had to. I did so to enhance my experience, and don’t begrudge the devs a penny of it, but I will be damned if I will be backed into a corner and end up paying for items just so I can play this game.

Perhaps a recent patch upset lower level solo balance, I wouldn’t know, but I do know the devs won’t be getting any more of my money, and will likely get very little more of my time, unless I read somewhere down the line that the situation has changed. It’s a pity, it is a good game but I suspect with the current revives for cash and the devs idea of balance it won’t do very well.

If nothing else, the game encouraged me to go buy defiance, pity Digital Extremes don’t get any commission.

As for the sanctimonious attitude of asshats like Mezecs, feel free to stick it. Free to play games rely on word of mouth and a strong community, while I know you're nothing but another average gamer, your attitude does nothing for the game’s community, but I do hope it makes you feel all grown up and tough inside.

The first few systems are completely soloable. In never had a mission I couldnt do solo, besides some bosses or one or two denfese missions..... But why should this game be nerfed to make every single missions soloable. They could have made this game a solo game in the first place. But they didnt. They made it a coop game with an optional solo mode, which is in my eyes simply an option to stop others in the friendlist to join your game... I can understand that some might want to play alone, but I dont see a point in nerfing the game so every mission is soloable. Why would people form groups anymore if their isnt a need to team up for the later missions

Edited March 30, 2013 by Venarge

[UnderYourBed]

If you don't want a challenge don't play games.

What? You mean people don't play games for fun? *le gasp!*

[Munx]

Tbh, I am also seeing alot of issues with the current setup.

As it is now, it is directly punishing to play solo, and the current balance seem completly illogical unless you are using some absurd mods.

The main issues for me when soloing have been this:

I have to deal with 4 times the amount of enemies, but I don't get 4 times the ammo per ammo drop.

One shoot kill bosses in solo that are more or less unavoidable, no good.

Corpus shockwave bots constant respawning in certain rooms, let us destroy those damn closet that spawn them!

Grineer constantly spawning behind me despite that fact that I cleared and double checked everyone room behind me to avoid this exact thing, getting sandwiched while solo really isnt manageable on higher lvls!

Knockback spam, this is fine when in a group, but if you get caught in it while solo all those bullets are coming for you.

Stalker, to me the entire purpose of this guy seems to be to force people to use theyr revives, unless they are using some rather nasty loadouts.

Don't get me wrong, I mainly prefer to play in a group anyways, however due to the rather poor drop balancing where no one actually does the later levels, it becomes near impossible to get groups at times.

When i got to ceres soloing really started to become a miserable experience, way to many enemies, spawning way to quickly, with way to much hp.

Edited March 30, 2013 by Munx

[Mak_Gohae]

I guess people have grown accustomed to rolling through a game until you get to "the difficult" part and are having trouble being careful from the very start. Outside of the Infested mission and the boss, which none should ever be done alone unless you really know what you are doing, everything else can be done with some patience. You need to use some cover/angles on the enemies, aim for the head, use melee when there are only a few enemies, and use your abilies only when you are in real trouble. Or when you see some energy orbs around so you know you can replenish that.

[Madotsuki]

I guess people have grown accustomed to rolling through a game until you get to "the difficult" part and are having trouble being careful from the very start. Outside of the Infested mission and the boss, which none should ever be done alone unless you really know what you are doing, everything else can be done with some patience. You need to use some cover/angles on the enemies, aim for the head, use melee when there are only a few enemies, and use your abilies only when you are in real trouble. Or when you see some energy orbs around so you know you can replenish that.

Hell, even Infested can be soloed normally if you have a good sword/axe and know how to use roll. It's the Defense missions that are a massive pain in the &#! to solo. I can survive just fine, but that cryopod just dies in seconds!

[Aggh]

What? You mean people don't play games for fun? *le gasp!*

Challenges are fun, even low difficulty ones like warframe.

[Raulnor516]

I'm agreeing with OP on this one...I feel it would be better all around if levels scaled with the number of people in them. I can run the first couple maps solo (yes I'm using mods and powers properly), but the majority of the time, there will be a random massive spawn in the room you just cleared, and while you deal with the ones ahead, you get butchered from behind. I don't think the entire game needs to be nerfed, not by a long shot. Just a little more scaling to make it accessible for those of us with terrible internet connections or anti-social tendancies.

[PoisonedTea]

thenm don't play solo sure pugs can be annoying but solo mode is a secondary mode for people who want a challage

[Cauldrath]

The thing about solo play in a free-to-play game is that if you aren't in online mode, playing a private match with a paying customer, or a paying customer yourself, you aren't contributing anything to the game. Free players are content, which is why they are worth having around for the paying customers. With the current setup, DE has little reason to support solo mode because they want all the free players to be playing online mode. They need to just make private and solo options that only unlock when you've bought any amount of platinum (though you can still join someone else's private matches if invited), and then they can really support it.

I do agree that there are a lot of problems with solo right now, like getting chain stunned to death from enemies that spawned behind you, getting insanely huge spawns that you couldn't possibly have enough ammo (even at maximum) to kill alone, and instanced ammo drops meaning you get 1/4 the ammo. Actually, if they fixed those three issues, (which would consist of making it so enemies can't spawn in rooms that have already been cleared and enemy health scales to player count) I think solo play would be perfectly fine in its current state.

Lastly, this casual bashing is ridiculous. Not everyone wants to play games at the same level, and not everyone wants to play every game at the same level or even the same level all the time in the same game. Sometimes I wanna be the guy, but other times I just want to wander around and look at cool stuff in Bioshock, and sometimes I want to beat it in less than an hour and a half. Making the base difficulty lower does not in any way prevent you from doing skillful things, unless you can't be bothered to do more than the bare minimum to complete any game you are playing and have to complain to get that bare minimum up to the point you enjoy.

[Zeruel104]

I'm agreeing with OP on this one...I feel it would be better all around if levels scaled with the number of people in them. I can run the first couple maps solo (yes I'm using mods and powers properly), but the majority of the time, there will be a random massive spawn in the room you just cleared, and while you deal with the ones ahead, you get butchered from behind. I don't think the entire game needs to be nerfed, not by a long shot. Just a little more scaling to make it accessible for those of us with terrible internet connections or anti-social tendancies.

This.

I find myself soloing often to grind up resources as most people I play with online tend to leroy jenkins the level and rush through. a scaling system that made the levels more difficult based on the number of people (or the players warframe levels) would solve the soloing diffculty spikeproblems and still make the game challenging to those who play in groups.

[Venarge]

This.

a scaling system that made the levels more difficult based on the number of people (or the players warframe levels) would solve the soloing diffculty spikeproblems and still make the game challenging to those who play in groups.

No....

What would be the purpose for teams and bosses if you can still solo them. There have to be levels you cant solo to actually force people to work together.

[vieuxchat]

Mass Effect 3 had a very very good idea about difficulty : you had to chose before play. So the player can choose how they want to play the game.

I mean that the game shouldn't decide instead of the player how the player wants to play.

No ?

So everyone would be happy.

And don't forget that the first contact with such game is usually a couple of solo games before diving in the melee. Those first plays are there to let new players to get accustomed to the controls for instance. Those first couple of plays shouldn't be punishing. At all.

And I would add that there should be some tutorial for controls like how to wall-climb, wall-jump or wall-run. But it's a beta. Not a final game.

Solo is really hard with the things that knock you down. As a ninja, I should be back on my feet in a breeze, or have some special move that would let me get up somewhere else than where I fell.

Lastly I would say : don't forget it's a beta. We're not already "players", we're "testers", even those who already spent some money. The game is far from final and I'm sure devs will listen to such problems.

No....

What would be the purpose for teams and bosses if you can still solo them. There have to be levels you cant solo to actually force people to work together.

So why not "lock" those levels when you solo ? There's nothing more irritating as playing a game you can't win whatever you do (apart playing dwarf fortress :P).

Edited March 30, 2013 by vieuxchat

[keskejesuis]

I don't understand why people think they should be catered to if they're bad.

If you don't want a challenge don't play games.

thank you very much, this is so much nice : if you are bad, don't play

My answer : if you want not heard feedback (good or not) from gamers, don't bother read

[The_Shang]

To the OP:

actually, the game is not too hard to solo, at least the first few planets. If you have Vitality and Redirection mods, I suggest you upgrade and equip them. Currently I'm working through Saturn and my mods give me +200 health and shields. With some careful playing, your health won't get touched at that point.

Really, Vitality and Redirection are key to your survival.