Ugh... The Paywalls!

[Skullriot]

So, definitely a new player here. Right now I don't have much money and I am finding it really difficult to enjoy this game without paying for things. I know you can get a lot of things in game without paying, but you have to wait 24 hours to rank up, pass or fail, the starter weapons seem really bad compared to the rest of the weapons, and its extremely hard to get the resources I need to even make new ones! Oh, and when I do, finally, I have to wait 12 hours for the thing to process.

 

Like... was it intentional to make F2P players lives HELL. 

 

I can't even do solo missions where my frame level is +5 the missions reqs because I just have such crap gear. I am a burden to teams because I can't pull my weight, I am always hiding and regenerating my shields or something, and barely do much damage. 

 

[Mesyra]

Even then, I'm just putting this out there: it's about 5 dollars to be able to purchase 12 weapon slots/3 Warframe slots. If you have a job/bank account, it's so easy to get.

very true.

 

there are many ways to get enough to jump over any "paywall" in this game. 

 

(there isnt any real paywalls, more like pay pebbles)

[cedrada]

The starting curve can feel quite steep. I remember getting killed over and over on Venus defence missions when I was starting out and getting frustrated. That said, you find a few good players, team up for a bit and play a while, have fun, make it enjoyable for you. Don't like rescue missions? Try to leave them a while and play something more fun for you like survival or defence.

 

The more you play, the more chances you have that the RNG will give you a good mod, or stance that you are after. It's not something that will drop each time, it's a F2P game after all, the dev's have to have their content and longevity somewhere. With Warframe it's the fact you have to play missions to get better gear. Get better gear, do better things. Need better gear? Get higher ranks/mods/guns/'frames, play more, find more, level more mods and get better (both skill, tactics and gear wise).

 

This game is all about patience and enjoying the ride whilst you surf for the stuff you want. It's not a quick fix dumbed down 'spunkgargleweewee' game like CoD or Modern Warfare that rewards campers, cheaters and those with no life. It's open to all, fair to all, and rewards those of us who are willing to put in the effort to get what we want.

 

With regards to your paywall/timewall comment. I'd have to agree that sometimes the waiting for weapons and gear to build is annoying, but can honestly say that I've never spent plat on build time, and have never felt at a loss because if it.

 

You've only been one of us for ten hours. Ten hours into any decent game I'd expect to be in a similar situation, with low level gear and just getting a feel for the game. No one starts out at the top, we all have to work our way up.

[Noxonion]

*slow clap*

 

Thanks for reading. 

Thanks for the misleading title.

[Leland_Gaunt]

There is not a single paywall in this game. Everything can be gotten without putting a single cent into this game.

[SilentMobius]

I expect a lot more than still being geared in my baby gear. 

 

I have played Star Trek Online, APB Reloaded, Path of Exile, Guild Wars 2, numerous NUMEROUS other games, both F2P, P2P ans subscription. I have never seen a game move slower than this one in gear. Mods are nice, yes, but they are hard to come by and when you level a new weapon you have to start over. The fresh reset to 0 really kills things for me, and is a semi backwards view on play and rewards systems. 

 

In 10 hours I could have accumulated a lot more in any of the other games I mentioned than I had in this game. 

 

As a previous player of Champions, City of Heroes, Anarchy Online, Guild Wars [2] I have to say I disagree, at 10 hours in I had crap all in those games.

 

Mods are nice, yes, but they are hard to come by and when you level a new weapon you have to start over

 

Get used to this. This game is _not_ about "I have gone from 0-30 on thing X that's it" the run from 0-30 is _trivial_ and a tiny part of the game, by midgame you will be running a frame or weapon from 0-30 is a couple of days max. If a new frame comes out that I like I'll generally need to run it from 0-30 around 3 times. Once for mastery and then twice each for forma.

 

Also this game isn't about finding that one Warframe and weapon set you like and using it forever. It's about mastering everything so you have the right tool available for the job.

 

I mean _just_ talking about Warframes, I've currently got 26, spent a total of 48 forma between them, that's 0-30 74 times, before we've even talked about weapons.

Edited September 2, 2014 by SilentMobius

[LeoAtKnight]

To be fair though, this game doesn't really block you off from content you aren't ready for. Well, most games don't, but those games at least make it obvious you aren't supposed to be somewhere. Progression in this game is.. Unique.. I can see where the misconceptions from new players come in from.

 

In fact, my brother who plays on the PS4 mirrored similar complaints of the early game, but he was lucky enough to have me to guide him through. Now he knows where to farm things, and with Rank 5 damage/multishot mods he hasn't had a single problem since. The game is too easy now. If Destiny wasn't coming out in a week he'd be soon doing high-tier defense and survival runs and farming keys hardcore.

 

But this took him a month to achieve. Of course this wasn't a month of dedication. No, he has spent only a couple hundred hours into this game so far.

Yes, I say only. He isn't ordinarily an MMO gamer, but he just as obsessed with Monster Hunter as I am, where we have both spent 1000+ hours into the latest installment. He's pretty patient and dedicated to the grind.

 

Ah I'm rambling.. Back to the point..

In many other modern online RPGs (not specifically MMOs) their progression is generally linear. It's HARD to get into an overwhelming place because the games simply do not let you. Warframe isn't like that. Once you complete a mission you can go to the next, giving players this feeling like they can keep progressing, but the game does little to inform you that you REALLY need to power up.

But that's okay to me, because you learn the hard way. You get beat up a little, and learn. Of course so many games now hold our hands that it's hard to recognize that we actually got the crap kicked out of us, so we try again. And again. And maybe again.

 

So.. I guess the TL;DR here is, Warframe is unique in many ways; progression being one of them. Through all of its clunkiness, awkwardness, and frustration little walls, the game really is a gem.

 

You've only been one of us for ten hours. Ten hours into any decent game I'd expect to be in a similar situation, with low level gear and just getting a feel for the game. No one starts out at the top, we all have to work our way up.

This. Just imagine Guild wars 2. Where do you expect to be in ten hours? Me having leveled up 4 80's and working on a fifth, I expect to be about level 25-30, if I started from the bottom (no EXP scrolls) and didn't craft. But what do I do to get to that level? Well first I finish half of my racial area, because the progression is so wonky that I wont end up near Lv15 in the Lv1-15 zone if I started at Lv1 (or technically 2 cause the tutorial). So I travel to another starter zone, and then go back to my original zone and finish up. Then I should be around 16, so I go to another starter zone because I know I wont be able to finish the whole 15-25 zone starting at that level.

 

See where I'm going? In Warframe it is similar, but not as simple to notice. Got beat up? Go back and get some new mods. Already have mods? Reevaluate what you currently have equipped and find something more effective.

 

 

Umm.. But yeah this post wasn't directed at anyone specifically, just a bunch of rambling from me.

 

TL;DR, progression is different in this game, and you gotta give yourself a little (or a lot) more time than usual to adjust.

[Sabreracer]

I expect a lot more than still being geared in my baby gear. 

 

 

 

 

If you want to level your stuff faster do the survival at Apollodorus going past 20 minutes will level your gear fairly quickly, and it usually has higher ranked players ranking new stuff so there should be backup for you.  

 

DON'T however activate the life support as soon as it arrives wait until it gets to 60% or so.  You also get quite a lot of mods dropping there too there many be ones you already have but you need extras to fuse and get them better.

[Olematon.Mies]

Ok... Let's pretend a little, shall we?

 

There is indeed a paywall infront of you, and gritting your teeth you pay up and get yourself a shiny new frame and weapons with their own slots, Reactors and Catalysts installed.

Do you feel better now that you have those things, which you could have also gotten FOR FREE with some time and effort? I hope so, after all, you now are well equipped to play with the best of them.

 

Sorry to say, but that is not the case.

Let's look at your mod collection. How many mods are there? Not many, right? Well isn't that a shame, now you have to go back to the shop and buy a bunch of those mod packs and pray that you get some good mods. All this while you could also start playing on the lower level areas, rank up your gear and get those same mods FOR FREE and with a bit of luck.

 

Ok, finally you have all those mods you needed. Time to put those mods on to your stuff.

Oops. You probably forgot that you cant put any of those mods you just bought to your unranked stuff. Lets browse the shop some more... A little more... Oh, look! An Affinity booster! Quick, buy that. This will boost all the exp you get by double, so have at it!

 

And congratulations. You have succesfully wasted alot of money on things you could have gotten anyway FOR FREE (besides frame and weapon slots, sadly) if you just stepped up and played the game.

 

 

Yeah, the beginning is a bit rough. But believe it or not, this game is about grinding. A lot - A LOT - A LOT - of grinding.

Yes, the starting weapons are quite bad, but believe me, once you eventually get some mods and new weapons, the game opens up a lot more.

[fatpig84]

If you need help, ask here.

We are here to help.

[MartianPootfairy]

After coming off a massive dark souls binge i was sort of expecting somebody to say: wut r u casul. Thankfully that didnt happen though :3

[CatPhoenix]

1)Do not do the Kubrow quest line.  Eventhough this mission takes place on Earth, this is a mid/high tier mission.  Not to mention the amount of credits required to keep your Kubrow healthy, it would be impossible to do that at lower and mid levels.

 

2) Starter weapons do not have the best stats, and have horrible reload times, but these weapons should teach you where you need to hit the enemy to do more damage.  IE, if you're not shooting the Grineer in the face, you need to shoot them in the face.

 

3) This game is really not meant to be played single player.  Play it online.  Sure, you won't get as many kills, but if you stay near players, you get all the xp evenly distributed to your frame and weapons.  No one else will complain, unless you keep them waiting to end the mission.

 

4)  Get the kunai, and if you can't get that, the mk1-kunai.  It is not the best throwing weapon, but the mk1-kunai (and I believe the regular kunai as well, but not 100% sure off hand), have 2 V polarity slots.  This is an absolute godsend to be able to use Hornet Strike and Barrel Diffusion (or speed trigger to throw them faster) without it costing you the full charge to have these mods equipped, making this the absolute best starter weapon once you have those two for mentioned leveled up a little.

 

5) Volt is very effective against the Corpus.  Play Venus a bunch more, and get a Rhino to be more bullet spongy.  Volt is definitely not a go all crazy and kill everything without taking cover low level missions, unless it is the Corpus. 

 

6) Play in groups.  Yes I'm repeating myself.  Yes,  it is important.

 

7) I would probably configure Volt to have a high energy pool and be able the use the energy pool at lower cost.  Streamline and Flow I would say are a requirement for you there.  Using Volt's basic electric ability hiding behind your energy shield should definitely help out with things.   Also, shooting though your energy shield with any of your guns gives your attacks a damage buff and speeds up the projectiles.  So, if you choose to play by yourself, you need to be using these religiously until you can use more stuff.  Volt is probably one of the harder frames to use until you get used to his play style since he is a bit fragile.

 

8) Rank up tests.... yeah, I feel there really shouldn't be a timer on them until rank 3.  I can only recommend that you watch the test ahead of time on youtube, so you can do the test on your first try and just move on. 

 

9) It may have been more useful not to complain but to ask what you are doing wrong.  And, since you did choose Volt, maybe ask someone to just give you some of the mods you really need to have unranked so you can try to get some benefits to use your frame to the best of its ability.

 

I'm sure there's more stuff I can say, but this is what comes to mind.

[SilentMobius]

Mods are nice, yes, but they are hard to come by and when you level a new weapon you have to start over.

 

Just FYI:

 

MK1 Braton, no mods, against Grineer: DPS: 45

 

Now compare to one of the best weapons in the game, that requires rare resources to get and _many_ trips to the void.

 

Boltor Prime, no mods, against Grineer DPS: 342

 

No lets give the MK1 Braton a good mod loadout aimed at Grineer

 

MK1 Braton Grineer DPS with good mods: 2467

 

Weapons are nice, but 90% of the progress as far as DPS goes is about mods.

[DrNoesis]

I'm a pretty new player, only 2.5-3 weeks in, and 50+hrs down.

Back when I'd played 10 hrs, I was feeling pretty frustrated too.  I was stuck in a Mag frame, playing in pugs where people were either awful or so much better than me it felt like I should just hand back the keys to my Liset and give up before I made any more of a fool of myself.  I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere and everything felt out of reach.

Problem is, back then, even in pugs, I was essentially playing solo.  No one really talks in pugs... occasionally you'll agree to extract or something, but its hardly a peer level sharing of information. I didn't know what the differences between me and the people around me were or why their performance compared to my own was so different, or so similar.  I believed it was purely a matter of "newb gear" syndrome and nothing else, that I needed to buy something else, rather than learn to effectively use and mod what I had, and all of those other things seemed far off and out of reach, especially because so few items were available to actually buy outright with credits rather than plat, as I hadn't gotten myself into the headspace needed to adequately work inside an economy where you build stuff for yourself.

I needed input from other people, and realising this, joined a clan, and asked for some guidance and advice.  A couple of friendly chats and pointers later, and the game changed for me entirely.

Around 30 hrs in, and when Id hit 30 in my much improved Mag (now I'd been guided around the basics of modding and was actively building effective loadouts for myself, rather than slapping any old thing in a free slot) I was rank 3, solidly outperforming people of a similar rank, and having a blast.  I'd farmed the components needed for my first new warframe, the Rhino most of us get, and was waiting for it to finish baking.

That 3.5 days, let me tell you, that was a killer.  That was the weakest I had been in 20 hrs of gameplay, where I was so close to hitting "Rush" and sinking some plat.  But I didn't, and the result? My greatest experience in warframe was the moment I was able to slip out of the Mag and into the Rhino. It was exciting, pure awesome, the sense of achievement palpable.  It was an experience I'd earned for myself.  My first ever "Rhino's Charge" cost me a revive.  It didnt matter... being in a new frame, using a new skill, I was just grinning like a crazy person and loving it.  After testing it, I stood in my clan dojo for a few hrs chatting to people, just revelling in the experience of wearing a different suit. Tragic, possibly, but true all the same.

Rushing it would have cost me all that, all the suspense, the exhilaration, the thrill, the buzz.  I could have robbed myself of all of it by being a little more impatient and sinking some plat into buying the frame, or rushing it.

50 hrs in now, and I have just farmed the parts I need for an Ash and an Oberon.  I have the resources to build either, I just need to decide which I want and it should finish cooking around the same time as my now level 20 rhino is maxed.   Beyond that, well I recently duo'd with an incredible player weilding a Frost with the precision of a scalpel and the raw power of a tactical nuclear warhead... I want to give that a pop and see how it feels, so I'll work on it.

I recently floated the question in clan chat... Is prime access really worth it?  The overwhelming response - No... and I get it now.  Its just shiny and pretty and designed to appeal to my inner magpie.  I don't need it yet... I'm a long way off being able to use it effectively yet, so buying it will just cheapen and devalue the experience for me.  When I'm ready for Prime things, I'll have them, until then, I've plenty left to try and to do.

There is only so much Warframe to experience.  It's a finite resource. Admittedly the devs are adding all the time and it's getting bigger, but it's progression at a pace.  Vets who out pace it and have been there and seen that for too long drop out from time to time, you'll see some of the posts about it on the boards.  Think of the time sinks as a rationing system, handing out portions of the overall game to you in manageable chunks.  Learn to relish the wait.  Use it to build the suspense of a new thing, so that you can be all the more excited and wow'ed by it when it arrives.  Use it to farm for resources to help give you a better footing on the next wait, if only so you can start it sooner, and use it for what it's meant for - to develop your skills and mod's to make the best use of new things when they come.

Stick with it, and eventually you'll realise the time wall is doing you a favour, and not only does the pay wall not exist, but it's nothing more than a voluntary tax upon both your wallet and your overall experience.

I'll be honest, I've sunk money into warframe.  I made use of a special offer, got some plat.  But I used it to open up weapon and warframe slots, and to pick up some colour palettes... because I'm a hoarder and I like to colour things in... For me it was expanding upon the experience, and giving some love to some dev's who so far have given me the gift of 50hrs of enjoyment with no expectation upon me for anything. 

I'm happy to recommend to anyone that they invest, if they can, and feel comfortable expanding their experience the same way, or just want to give the devs some love.  But never, ever, pay actual money to cut chunks of the game out for yourself, because all you do is bill yourself twice.

[OmegaDas]

It's funny cause i started the game F2P and didn't buy plat till like a year into the game, first month was rough.... was always getting carried till i could get rhino and a couple potatoes on my gear, after that it was smooooooooooth sailing....

 

 

With regards to the mastery tests even though you fail your mastery points are still retroactively added, so no worries there, and you should always youtube people doing the tests to give yourself a heads up...

 

 

Hope you stick around playing!

[Lunamaniac]

The problem you're facing wouldn't be any better if you were paying.  New players just have a bad start.  You're given trash weapons and need to rank lots of mods to 10 before you're even partway useful.  Ranking serration should be your top priority.

 

And not the trap one you get from the tutotial, that's just DE being counter intuitive.

[SolarDwagon]

Ew Rhino, lrn2mag :D

 

But joking aside, Mag is a great frame-crush is great crowd control, as is pull (and that one is cheap). Shield Polarise is terrifyingly awesome against corpus/corrupted, and bullet attractor is a boss/heavy instagib.

 

Prime Access is so worth it! Otherwise I wouldn't have all the jealousy of my Misa Prime :D (Basically, get it for the cosmetics and boosters. They're good. Farming the actual Prime Stuff is half the fun of an update)

Geez, I'm derailing this badly.

 

 

Just FYI:

 

MK1 Braton, no mods, against Grineer: DPS: 45

 

Now compare to one of the best weapons in the game, that requires rare resources to get and _many_ trips to the void.

 

Boltor Prime, no mods, against Grineer DPS: 342

 

No lets give the MK1 Braton a good mod loadout aimed at Grineer

 

MK1 Braton Grineer DPS with good mods: 2467

 

Weapons are nice, but 90% of the progress as far as DPS goes is about mods.

 

 

There, we're back on track now. A good demonstration of why paywall isn't a thing.

[ReizoRyuu]

Also, find a group to do the crytic front mission with, heck message me and I'll do it with you; free latron wraith rifle.

[SilentMobius]

I'm a pretty new player, only 2.5-3 weeks in, and 50+hrs down.

Back when I'd played 10 hrs, I was feeling pretty frustrated too.  I was stuck in a Mag frame, playing in pugs where people were either awful or so much better than me it felt like I should just hand back the keys to my Liset and give up before I made any more of a fool of myself.  I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere and everything felt out of reach.

Problem is, back then, even in pugs, I was essentially playing solo.  No one really talks in pugs... occasionally you'll agree to extract or something, but its hardly a peer level sharing of information. I didn't know what the differences between me and the people around me were or why their performance compared to my own was so different, or so similar.  I believed it was purely a matter of "newb gear" syndrome and nothing else, that I needed to buy something else, rather than learn to effectively use and mod what I had, and all of those other things seemed far off and out of reach, especially because so few items were available to actually buy outright with credits rather than plat, as I hadn't gotten myself into the headspace needed to adequately work inside an economy where you build stuff for yourself.

 

I absolutely agree with this, I felt the same way even though it was a while ago, this is why I think the soon-to-be player hubs will help so much. It'll give the players a chance to gather in medium size groups and chat without the pressure of a mission.

[Salenstormwing]

The only thing you need in this game to pay for with Platinum is Weapon, Warframe, Sentinel, and Stasis Slots. Everything else can be made through grinding out parts, resources. Want a frame, go beat up some bosses for 4 or 5 times to get the pieces. Want a weapon? Buy a blueprint and make it yourself. Want a Puppy? Go get some eggs.

 

For the longest time, that's all I ever bought in game were the occasional weapon and warframe slots. But then I bought a few cosmetics, but otherwise, nothing you need HAS to be bought with Platinum.

[Utarious]

Yeah starting off can be rough but when you get some mods and get your first decent gun it will go much faster. Also trying to get some friends to play with always helps, when I first started playing I had a friend join me and we completed the star chart in just a couple days.

 

If you need anyone to play with there are generally people in chat willing to help or people here on the forums willing to help, just gotta search around.

 

Also if you need to level things, try to get to Sedna and to the mission Kappa. I can generally pick up 3-5 levels a run there with a good team. Pretty nice place to level stuff.

 

OH, Credits. Void Missions or Pluto on the mission Sechura can generally get you good credits.

 

Other than that not much to say, pretty sure you have heard all this already though.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Utarious

[Niryco]

So, definitely a new player here. Right now I don't have much money and I am finding it really difficult to enjoy this game without paying for things. I know you can get a lot of things in game without paying, but you have to wait 24 hours to rank up, pass or fail, the starter weapons seem really bad compared to the rest of the weapons, and its extremely hard to get the resources I need to even make new ones! Oh, and when I do, finally, I have to wait 12 hours for the thing to process.

 

Like... was it intentional to make F2P players lives HELL. 

 

I can't even do solo missions where my frame level is +5 the missions reqs because I just have such crap gear. I am a burden to teams because I can't pull my weight, I am always hiding and regenerating my shields or something, and barely do much damage. 

This website: http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/WARFRAME_Wiki

 

Is like your textbook or your holy bible. You don't have to study it but all the information of what you need to do is pretty much there, even how to do things more efficiently. Such as farming spots, which mobs drops the more desirable mods, difficulties of maps in general, etc etc.

 

I suggest that as of now you complete as many map missions within the solar system as possible to open yourself to more alert missions available.This would allow you more access to cash, farming spots and even rarer mods, which would generally ease your level of difficulty. If you have difficulty with boss missions just hit up the recruiting chat window, there are bound to be people willing to help you but you may have to wait for these people to appear.

 

On the other hand you could also try the region chat, people would try their best to help, this game really emphasizes work in groups even though content is soloable, it is generally gets more difficult to solo content once the enemies start hitting level 15 and above as they would hit hard back at you. Also it doesn't matter if you are a burden to teams since most of the time people just play the game without caring who is the weakest link. Though if you do meet a toxic player who acts superior and rude best avoid them, the forums "player helping player" section is very useful for any player, old and new, so don't be afraid to use it.

 

Good luck, as everyone said, the longer you play, the general learning of how to level up gear and your mastery rank, the more smooth sailing would your experience be. This game isn't like all the other games that provide instant gratification, it instead really rewards your time invested but that does not mean it rewards effort in general. So the more you stay tune, the more you stay invested in not just the game but also the community like the developer streams and forums, the more you will enjoy this game and i kid you not, it is like a very amazing extended family =3

Edited September 2, 2014 by Jacate

[Evanescent]

I can tell you myself, specifically now with trading, There is no paywall. I say this as someone who has been here since the nearly first days of open beta, and has all the stuff, even cosmetics he wants, and has not spent a single buck(although I would have liked to support devs, it's not feasible where I live >_<).

 

Play in squads, and there are lots of people willing too help you out, Don't lose heart.

[Cpt_Atroxium]

Go buy some MK1 guns when you wait on the builds that are around 12h. Farm one day for resources and credits, buy the blueprints in market and start the build. The next day after a nights sleep and possibly school or work. You come home to new toy to play around with. Repeat. The "getting" used to having platinum, rushing and buying things should not be on menu of thought, it will only ruin the mood of the player. So do as I've said, and you will soon understand what it means. Good luck tenno. 

 

Only Cosmetics, are really a paywall requirement. And that is pretty obvious to why. Other than that, any mastery gain weapon is possible to get. Other then the ones that are not in the game anymore. Times have moved on, if you were not born in the time elvis was still alive, you have very litte chance to see him in person. Same goes for the weapons. You can still see old videos of them, but that is pretty much it. 

[MrJxt]

Just play for fun and don't worry about obtaining the "best" gear in a short amount of time. I own most if not all of these "best" gears and I rarely use them.

 

I've spent... $10? on this game and those were mostly for extra space and cosmetics. You can also trade the "pay2win" currency(platinum) with other players.

[sorq]

I spent $30 on a platinum sale about a year ago, and i've doubled my amount of platinum - including occasionally buying cosmetics and inventory slots.
In the end, i realised that maybe i could have also done it without buying for platinum.

Everyone starts off hard, and especially noticeable in warframe, but you got people to help you.
Trust me, the game only gets more fun.