New Player Impressions

[Ugmar]

Hello all. First off thank you for letting us demo your beta test, overall my initial reaction is pretty positive. I have logged about 6 hours so far. Only have the single warframe at about 13, and have only been able to find blueprints for a new sword (appears to be an auto drop), my weapons are all around 10th tier.

So at first this game is a bit brutal to a new player. There is certainly a learning curve to movement and such, though that is certainly not a bad thing. I would say thought that the difficulty of the game was a constant downward slope from the first mission up until the last one (which was actually my first failure, ran out of bullets and had to ditch). The low levels seem to have the wrong difficulty curve to the missions from my impression in that the game started off brutal but honestly became pretty trivial pretty fast (i soloed several missions using just the sword once I got the patterns down). I might suggest that you start off the first two or three missions with a decrease in difficulty and a small ramp up after that.

My other large point of feedback is that the boss General Sargas Ruk probably should not be your second boss. I had 0 issues at this point, steam rolling through the content I was doing. When I fought him I simply ran out of bullets. I got him to about 20% but then that was just it. The level was closed off, could not find more enemies to stock up on ammo. It might be possible in my situation to solo him if I did the rest of the level with the sword to save all my bullets, but honestly even that would not fix the issues. The damage I can produce is not nearly high enough to deal with his shields considering he can so easily against a single player shut down your damage output for the time needed to completely refill.

You either really should consider altering his abilities against a solo player, providing a warning that he is particularly not solo friendly in the mission log, or you should change him with a later boss whose mechanics do not so heavily prevent it from being soloed at the appropriate level (yes I realize he is probably a cake walk to solo when your leveled/geared, but i am playing without plat, and was hoping to get to solo a good bit).

Take this as constructive feedback. The games a fun one, and I have recommended to most of my steam friends they check it out. That being said I have heard much the same from my friends with a whole lot of crying from a few of them about how bad it is to start off in this game.

[naskapal]

second planet is venus, it's the jackal, and it's weaker than sargas ruk, it drops rhino parts blueprint

[Tsukinoki]

My other large point of feedback is that the boss General Sargas Ruk probably should not be your second boss. I had 0 issues at this point, steam rolling through the content I was doing. When I fought him I simply ran out of bullets. I got him to about 20% but then that was just it. The level was closed off, could not find more enemies to stock up on ammo. It might be possible in my situation to solo him if I did the rest of the level with the sword to save all my bullets, but honestly even that would not fix the issues. The damage I can produce is not nearly high enough to deal with his shields considering he can so easily against a single player shut down your damage output for the time needed to completely refill.

You either really should consider altering his abilities against a solo player, providing a warning that he is particularly not solo friendly in the mission log, or you should change him with a later boss whose mechanics do not so heavily prevent it from being soloed at the appropriate level (yes I realize he is probably a cake walk to solo when your leveled/geared, but i am playing without plat, and was hoping to get to solo a good bit).

I had that issue when I first went up against Sargus Ruk, but one thing that you can do is go through Venus instead of Saturn and kill the enemies there and have some fun before you come back to fight Ruk again. The biggest thing that can kill new players fighting ruk, especially if they have powerful guns, is his reflect shield that he can spam on a single player removing your ability to fire any guns at him without killing yourself.

Also you can buy ammo packs for 1000 credits from the marketplace, look under equipment, and bringing 2 or 3 will make it pretty much impossible to run out of ammo on him.

They really should tell people about the ammo packs you can buy....

[Ugmar]

well huh..... I must have looked at something wrong, I thought I followed the lowest level mission course as it was layed out. I could have sworn saturn was lower level than venus for the first mission revealed.

Oh, and I got an artifact based mission to show up. 30:00 minute timer. I completed it (was actually really hard since the mobs were all level 15ish and I was only at like 6 or 8 on my warframe at the time. Was very happy I beat it solo..... but did not seem to be much of a purpose to the mission, was actually really disapointed. If something shows up with a timer on it that is special, I kind of want to see a reward for it (unless I missed the reward?).

[Ugmar]

I had that issue when I first went up against Sargus Ruk, but one thing that you can do is go through Venus instead of Saturn and kill the enemies there and have some fun before you come back to fight Ruk again. The biggest thing that can kill new players fighting ruk, especially if they have powerful guns, is his reflect shield that he can spam on a single player removing your ability to fire any guns at him without killing yourself.

Also you can buy ammo packs for 1000 credits from the marketplace, look under equipment, and bringing 2 or 3 will make it pretty much impossible to run out of ammo on him.

They really should tell people about the ammo packs you can buy....

Wow, did not know about those. Can you access them mid mission or do you have to buy them before? Also do they stay from mission to mission until they are used or do they only last for 1? Yeah, he never killed me, got me to 3 life when he put up that first reverse shield before I ran and figure it out. Simply ran out of bullets. That being said it was not an enjoyable fight in anyway solo, just kinda lame. I guess I will give the other planet a shot.

Thanks for the replies.

[naskapal]

well huh..... I must have looked at something wrong, I thought I followed the lowest level mission course as it was layed out. I could have sworn saturn was lower level than venus for the first mission revealed.

Oh, and I got an artifact based mission to show up. 30:00 minute timer. I completed it (was actually really hard since the mobs were all level 15ish and I was only at like 6 or 8 on my warframe at the time. Was very happy I beat it solo..... but did not seem to be much of a purpose to the mission, was actually really disapointed. If something shows up with a timer on it that is special, I kind of want to see a reward for it (unless I missed the reward?).

the lowest path is not always the easiest, you know now :)

did the reward is "?" reward? if yes, you can check your inventory in arsenal tab to see your blueprints, or it might be an artifact, click your account in top left, and click the deck tab, you should see all your obtained artifact there...

if nothing in both of them, you just played an alert which only give you credits and nothing else

[Ugmar]

Yeah, checked both, and nothing. So go credits I guess.

As to the other, sure lowest level not always the easiest, but this is beta and they should be looking for feedback on this stuff. That being said it is a very reasonable and logical assesment that the next place to go is the one that is next in level range. I mean really that is kind of a no brainer. Sure you might deviate when you know the game, but if its a new game most people follow the level progression and when this goes live I bet the majority right now would go Saturn before Venus because of that. If its supposed to be the other way around they really should swap the level ranges to make it more apparent.

Shrug, again not the end of the world, I was just bummed I took my first mission abandon over something I felt was not to be expected and was not "fun".

And multiplayer as a new player right now kinda sucks. There are a ton of people who just zip through the levels (I am sure its the most efficient thing to do) and I really want to play the game. I do not pick these up to rush the end game by super grinding the most efficient way to level, but to play the game. It was my set of initial bad reactions when trying to group that pushed me to play this mostly solo.

*shrug* Neat game, seems like it is going to be a solid product, I just think a few things could be improved on for a new player.

[Tsukinoki]

well huh..... I must have looked at something wrong, I thought I followed the lowest level mission course as it was layed out. I could have sworn saturn was lower level than venus for the first mission revealed.

Oh, and I got an artifact based mission to show up. 30:00 minute timer. I completed it (was actually really hard since the mobs were all level 15ish and I was only at like 6 or 8 on my warframe at the time. Was very happy I beat it solo..... but did not seem to be much of a purpose to the mission, was actually really disapointed. If something shows up with a timer on it that is special, I kind of want to see a reward for it (unless I missed the reward?).

The alert missions are not always artifact based.

When you click on "Alert" in the upper left hand corner it'll show you the mission type and rewards.

If it does not say [?] as a reward that means you dont have a chance at BPs, artifacts, or reactors/catalysts.

If you do get an artifact you have to equip it. To equip an artifact click on the planet that you want to do and you'll see a card with a ? in the upper right hand corner. Clicking that will bring up a "deck" of all of the artifact you currently have equip. Just click ont the artifact that you want to use and it'll have its effect. Also artifacts can be used without limit so there is no reason to not have one equipped if you have one.

Wow, did not know about those. Can you access them mid mission or do you have to buy them before? Also do they stay from mission to mission until they are used or do they only last for 1? Yeah, he never killed me, got me to 3 life when he put up that first reverse shield before I ran and figure it out. Simply ran out of bullets. That being said it was not an enjoyable fight in anyway solo, just kinda lame. I guess I will give the other planet a shot.

Thanks for the replies.

You have to buy them between missions and they last until you use them.

1K credits is rather cheap meaning that you can stock up on them and use them whenever you are at risk of running out of ammo (and when I was leveling up my boltor I used them quite a bit).

To use them you hold Q and then click on the ammo box to use in the lower left hand corner of teh screen.

They just say "Restores a lot of X ammo" but it is usually enough rounds to top you out, or nearly so.

[naskapal]

Yeah, checked both, and nothing. So go credits I guess.

As to the other, sure lowest level not always the easiest, but this is beta and they should be looking for feedback on this stuff. That being said it is a very reasonable and logical assesment that the next place to go is the one that is next in level range. I mean really that is kind of a no brainer. Sure you might deviate when you know the game, but if its a new game most people follow the level progression and when this goes live I bet the majority right now would go Saturn before Venus because of that. If its supposed to be the other way around they really should swap the level ranges to make it more apparent.

Shrug, again not the end of the world, I was just bummed I took my first mission abandon over something I felt was not to be expected and was not "fun".

And multiplayer as a new player right now kinda sucks. There are a ton of people who just zip through the levels (I am sure its the most efficient thing to do) and I really want to play the game. I do not pick these up to rush the end game by super grinding the most efficient way to level, but to play the game. It was my set of initial bad reactions when trying to group that pushed me to play this mostly solo.

*shrug* Neat game, seems like it is going to be a solid product, I just think a few things could be improved on for a new player.

can you host the game? my ISP preventing me from opening the port, which disables my ability to host with no lag..

if you do, you can add me ingame and, I might be able to help you to lvl and get some blueprints

[Grotaiche]

What I don't get is the part about the second boss : did you solo it ? I mean, first you state the game is quite brutal in the learning curve and all and yet you solo the second boss ? I don't know, I'm noob too (actually noober, only 3 hours in) and I could probably solo many missions on Mercury with my lvl 9 Volt but I can't imagine trying Saturn's boss all by myself. You and I have starting weapons (well, I have upgraded my rifle to the the Braton which is much better than the original MK-1 Braton) why do you try to take on bosses on your own ?

[Ugmar]

I solo cause the game is not fun with the way random groups are playing right now, atleast for me. I like to actually do the missions not speed run them. Also since I can solo most of the missions in 10-15 mins, I just do that. The brutal learning curve was a nod to my first 2 missions which sucked without a real tutorial. After that the game became easy. Basically once I understood the controls, it was fairly easy (aside from Rakus solo.... which was lame). I also didnt realize how your upgrades on your warframe worked until I was about 1/3rd of the way through Saturn.... I thought you had to rank up to unlock them because of what the chick says in the tutorial, sigh.

Anyway, thats what I was trying to get at. And I just killed that boss with a reload of rifle ammo solo..... not fun, but did it just cause.

[Tsukinoki]

Anyway, thats what I was trying to get at. And I just killed that boss with a reload of rifle ammo solo..... not fun, but did it just cause.

Good job on that ^^

And you can add me in your contacts if you want. I, like you, prefer actually running the missions and such and will help you on any mission, especially boss runs.

[Ugmar]

Thanks. Sure I will toss you on my contacts list when I get back on to try some duo fun. I just ask that you bring a warframe/gear thats appropriate so as not to trivialize this game anymore than it already is...... (I am sure I will eat those words on pluto or some such =D )

Edited April 5, 2013 by Ugmar

[Tsukinoki]

Thanks. Sure I will toss you on my contacts list when I get back on to try some duo fun. I just ask that you bring a warframe/gear thats appropriate so as not to trivialize this game anymore than it already is...... (I am sure I will eat those words on pluto or some such =D )

I have a few frames that I actually need to level as well as some lower level guns that I can bring.

Dont worry, I wont hop in with my level 30 ash, level 30 boltor, and level 30 akboltos except maybe on a defense mission if we can gree on that. Im actually going to be buying a nyx soon so thats another option that once I level it up a bit that one will be good to go as well.