New Player Experience Rant

[Deidaku]

When I started, there was no real tutorial, like now, and I learnt the game the hard way, especially since I pretty much solo'd the first few missions. My frame at this moment was a Mag, and I first learned why I was dying : I wasn't using the game's mechanics. You have cover, you have powers. Not everything relies on gun play and just rushing.

 

But I don't think that's the point. I've been used to "older" games where you were almost dropped in the game with only few advice and learning it by trial and error, and I'm kinda disappointed by the way that games nowadays tend to hold the player hand until he understand everything. But from what I see, it IS needed, because WF is a complex game. First I'd rather see starting plat given after an explanation of what it is and how to acquire it, rather than gifting it without reason. Second, I'd like to see the game direct you to the tutorial part of the Codex after the first tutorial. Or maybe something like an interactive thingy with the Lotus ? "Go check this tab, this is the Armory,..."

With the summer, a lot of people will probably start to play this game, and a lot of them will be "casual" or people that are not interested in trial and error and dying all the time.

 

Concerning starting weapons, giving potatoes and mods, I disagree on a few points : first, don't be like "those weapons are trash". Yeah, they are in some way, because they're starting weapons, they're old, and they're not a boltor prime. However, I'd rather see MK1 disappear, and maybe standard Braton replace it, but Lato is "fine" to me, as it makes you learn why you need to HS rather than pew pew pew in the general direction like you'll learn when you get a powerhouse weapon.

 

Potatoes should stay "rare" (Yeah, I have more than enough to cover every weapon, and twice the frames) to begin with. That said, it could be a reward for beating Vor or something, to give you something "worth" your time, and make you feel like you have more options. However, I don't know if it was your case, but the first time I beat Vor (I didn't grind that much), I had 2 rifle mods, one for crit chance, the other for max ammo cap, and both we're almost max'd and my mod points were fine. And Lato + Skana were about the same, maybe a few more pistol mods.

 

On that point, we should drop/give more adequate mods to start with, or simply kick them out of the game if you can't pass on them and you don't have them before a long time (I mean, every build use Serration, Hornet Strike, and so on). Giving them for free could be a solution, but I'd rather see a sense of progression coming : Lotus telling you to beat this mission (since we need to hold hands of new players), giving you a cooki- a mod, always the same, whatever happens.

That's how I feel about the start of the game, not really anything worth your time, but thanks for reading.

Maybe a tutorial quest system could help in giving the mods