Mercury's Increased Level Is A Step Back For The New User Experience.

[TheHeraldXII]

In this update, the NUE was made out to be a big deal, hoping to make it easier for people just getting into the game. I think that increasing the minimum level of enemies on the starmap to 3-4 is achieving the opposite of that. New users should have an easy section of the game to play around in for a while and come back to if they're having trouble with the slightly higher levels. I don't think it'd hurt anyone to have one section of the starmap dedicated to low level play, and Mercury useto be that place.

 

Sincerely, a concerned veteran.

[KriLL3]

Isn't most of the new user experience on Earth? Has Earth's level been decreased to suit? Not sure how planets unlock now, the new navigation UI makes that pretty much a mystery.

[Dtexas]

I dont think its an issue. levels 3-4 are still easy to kill, especially now since there are the new mk1 weapons.

[LordBeeBrain]

I suppose the only real way for vet players to confirm this would be to create an alt account.

 

 

I guess I could try it out.

Edited July 24, 2014 by xZetsumeix

[Semshol]

I actually agree with this, Mercury used to be the easy go-to to test level 1 weapons, now it can no longer do that and I have to go to terminus...which really is rather annoying :/

[Novocrane]

Hopefully we get a holodeck equivalent sooner rather than later, and that can be the place for testing L1 weapons.

[(PSN)MoRockaPDX]

Could this be an attempt to keep low level characters from progressing to fast and mixing with higher level characters? A lot of complaints have been made about veterans mixing with green horns, and some method of gating players until they have a respectable collection of mods, something the quest is supposed to help with, before they can reasonably join higher level players.

Edited July 24, 2014 by (PS4)MoRockaPDX

[RealPandemonium]

Earth and Mercury appear to have traded places in the difficulty progression in the new star chart. 

 

Turns out this is only the case during tutorial missions.  Either way, level 3 enemies aren't that much tougher than level 1 enemies and Corpus crewmen now hav weak points so there won't be a spike in difficulty there any more. 

Edited July 24, 2014 by RealPandemonium

[WingedCrusade]

Personally I find this better. Why? Without any form of challenge, how are they going to get better? Besides, it's 3-4. Do you know how easy that is to kill?

[TheHeraldXII]

Isn't most of the new user experience on Earth? Has Earth's level been decreased to suit? Not sure how planets unlock now, the new navigation UI makes that pretty much a mystery.

Earth's lowest level is 6-7, so no, not so much.

 

Someone else pointed out that the enemies of that level are still easy to kill, and I agree but that's not the point. This update was supposed to make the game easier on newer players and I don't see how increasing the minimum enemy level helps that at all. They could, IMO should, have kept the old enemy levels for Mercury-Venus-Earth, but instead decided to increase Mercury's level to that of old Earth while keeping Earth much the same.

 

Could this be an attempt to keep low level characters from progressing to fast and mixing with higher level characters? A lot of complaints have been made about veterans mixing with green horns, and some method of gating players until they have a respectable collection of mods, something the quest is supposed to help with, then can reasonably join higher level players.

I don't see how this would happen any less than it did previously. They'd still have to unlock higher level nodes and the main problem with greenhorns getting into the high level missions was taxiing. Making the first planet easier isn't going to stop them from getting mods, nor is it going to thrust them into Eris.

[(PSN)MoRockaPDX]

Earth's lowest level is 6-7, so no, not so much.

 

Someone else pointed out that the enemies of that level are still easy to kill, and I agree but that's not the point. This update was supposed to make the game easier on newer players and I don't see how increasing the minimum enemy level helps that at all. They could, IMO should, have kept the old enemy levels for Mercury-Venus-Earth, but instead decided to increase Mercury's level to that of old Earth while keeping Earth much the same.

 

I don't see how this would happen any less than it did previously. They'd still have to unlock higher level nodes and the main problem with greenhorns getting into the high level missions was taxiing. Making the first planet easier isn't going to stop them from getting mods, nor is it going to thrust them into Eris.

 

  Sure, but now they will have a version of serration and other mods, considered essential, and should be better able to handle the difficulty. Unless this isn't how things are working out?

Edited July 24, 2014 by (PS4)MoRockaPDX

[TheHeraldXII]

  Sure, but now they will have a version of serration and other mods, considered essential, and should be better able to handle the difficulty. Unless this isn't how things are working out?

This is sort of my point, they added these mods to help players out early game then upped the level to compensate. Why? Doesn't that defeat the point of that change. Also how does reverting Mercury to an easier state hurt anyone? The way I see it anyone who is entirely fine fighting 6-8 level enemies (the actual average on Mercury, 3-4 is the minimum and only on 2 nodes) they'll just quickly ditch Mercury for Venus and Earth, if they need more practice then Mercury is right there for them.

[Viverim]

Um, did y'all play the prologue?  A "New Player" cannot skip the prologue, and by the time you finish it, you've leveled up a few times.  Mercury doesn't need to be 1-1 or 1-2 because by the time you exit the prologue you are past that.  As for leveling up new level 1 frames and/or weapons, you can mix and match your slightly higher weapons with lower frames (or the reverse) to do 3-4 missions. 

 

The most massive drawback to the NPE was that after U14 Mercury was totally infested with massively powerful arc traps that killed low level frames in one or two seconds.  Those have been removed, and once that was done I had no trouble leveling up a level 1 Mirage with a level 1 Akzani and level 1 silva & Aegis.

 

New players will have the new 'broken mods' to help them with lack of good mods, and by the time they start looking into new frames and weapons to level, they should be experienced enough to deal with level 3-4 enemies.

[(PSN)MoRockaPDX]

Um, did y'all play the prologue?  A "New Player" cannot skip the prologue, and by the time you finish it, you've leveled up a few times.  Mercury doesn't need to be 1-1 or 1-2 because by the time you exit the prologue you are past that.  As for leveling up new level 1 frames and/or weapons, you can mix and match your slightly higher weapons with lower frames (or the reverse) to do 3-4 missions. 

 

The most massive drawback to the NPE was that after U14 Mercury was totally infested with massively powerful arc traps that killed low level frames in one or two seconds.  Those have been removed, and once that was done I had no trouble leveling up a level 1 Mirage with a level 1 Akzani and level 1 silva & Aegis.

 

New players will have the new 'broken mods' to help them with lack of good mods, and by the time they start looking into new frames and weapons to level, they should be experienced enough to deal with level 3-4 enemies.

 

 

  See, that was my thinking.