Player Communication And Common Sense

[Sfrost]

This post is focusing on 2 points as the title suggests, player communication and the lack of it in missions and player common sense, once again the lack of it, and how I feel about the 2 and how i think they can be addressed.

 

1st point: Communication

 

In every mission I play i try and start some conversation with the people I'm playing with, be it a "hey, hows it going" or if i'm doing a specific mission like survival, "how long are we staying for" or "when should we use lifesupport". However, more often than not I am greeted with no response whatsoever. This is especially frustrating when I join into a survival mission with fairly new players and see them using all the life support capsules at 90%. Me being the nice slightly experienced player I am try and share what little i know with them by letting them know they should wait longer before using it but it seems it never gets through and I can only think of 3 reasons why;

1. They cant see the chat box

2. They can't read english

3. They are choosing to ignore me

Due to this I usually get annoyed and dont bother saving any of my team mates and do the best I can to get them killed, which doesn't take long and I'm left playing solo which defeats the point of a co-op game.

 

The last 2 problems can be sorted by people just typing a message, for the 2nd problem if they cant speak english just type in their language i will instantly know they dont speak english so no point typing to them. The 3rd problem, people should write "they dont care" or "dont want to listen" and i will know not to waste my time. 

 

2nd point: Common sense

 

I feel people have gotten too used to games nowadays making your character a bullet sponge so when they get to the higher levels in warframe they have no idea what is a smart choice. Too often I'm seeing people charging at napalms and bombards or corpus techs, melee weapon in hand and wailing away at them and doing insignificant damage. The enemy then starts firing and evaportaes their shield and health so fast all the trinities with natural talent in the world couldn't save them. Or they stand out in the open and shoot at 20-30 high level enemies or worse still try and blitz them with their melee weapon. I can't help but think to myself when I see this, where is the common sense? An easy fix for this would be for people to start assessing their situation, which isn't hard and doesn't break the flow of the game. For example, enter a room with 6 enemies all of them firing at you and your mid reload on your soma. Doesn't take a genius to realize its best if you leave the room and wait to finish reloading rather than standing there and letting the enemy take free shots at you. 

 

Alas though these changes require people to change, so i doubt I will see a difference. Guess I will just have to return to playing solo in an online, multiplayer, co-op based shooter about a group of space ninjas working together to restore balance to the galaxy... *sigh*

 

Rant over, if you know anyways for players to help communicate better or grasp an understanding of the game a bit better do share :)

[Mythblaze]

My solution is I do not play with random players. 

[UndeadGhostWarrior]

Due to this I usually get annoyed and dont bother saving any of my team mates and do the best I can to get them killed, which doesn't take long

 

That's kind of mean

[sp33chle55]

Common sense? In our todays world? Are you insane?

People trying to dry their pets in a microwave. Thats all I gotta say.

Serious, try to grab some good players or friends and just stay with them or play solo.

You save yourself some anger and frustration.

Edited November 9, 2014 by sp33chle55

[Himmelberg]

One question... what region are you playing in?

[Nira]

I'm with you on many of these points but certainly don't advocate leaving your team to die because they're uncommunicative. It just breeds bad feelings, and unless you specifically know the other players are ignoring you it may well be all for nothing. Just my two cents.

 

The common sense thing, yes, and perhaps unsurprisingly the most-used frame in the game facilitates this heedless sort of mentality. That aside, for good parts of this game you can just charge in like Rambo and clear a room. I guess your point is knowing when you can do that, and when you have to be more tactical with your approach.

 

 

For example, enter a room with 6 enemies all of them firing at you and your mid reload on your soma. Doesn't take a genius to realize its best if you leave the room and wait to finish reloading rather than standing there and letting the enemy take free shots at you. 

 

Or if you're Volt you can cast Shock... whilst reloading *puts glasses on*

[Evil_Brick]

I don't casually converse in-game via chat. Why? Because it forces me to move my keyboard every single time, i have a very specific way of sitting and placing my hands to maximum comfort and freedom of movement, so excuse me if i don't take time to indulge someone trying to be friendly.

[ProvidenceNL]

When a player on my team who activates lifesupport at 80-90%, after i send a chat message asking to activate at 30% as soon as the pod spawns, i just leave to find a new game. I really have no desire to waste my time by playing with people that aparently insist playing with their head up their &#!.

[Dalethor]

Typing during a mission is a self defeating endeavor usually. Whilst doing the typing, your concentration is elsewhere from the game and you are vulnerable to being shot in the face. In a mission with random players it is quite probable that no one will respond anyway, as they are undoubtedly trying to remain alive and kill things and open boxes and find caches and, well, play the mission.

 

When I am playing I play with one or more clan members, and might leave the remaining player slots open for a random to fill it. I communicate with the clan members in my squad over Teamspeak, so we can coordinate our efforts as required without jeopardizing the mission. Many times the random player will naturally fall into our pattern of play and all is well. 

 

Common sense in a random group of four people from all over the world might mean different things to different folks. That said, much of what is seen as a silly action ot deliberate trolling is many times something that can be solved by the communication bit mentioned above, but the reality is that a random group will have a high probability of having some annoying aspect to it every time. Again, playing with one or more clan members or friends will make this a non issue. 

 

Bottom line is I commiserate with you, and I understand why you felt the need to rant. However, while the random group option is there, this will be a feature of that group type, not a bug. If it is so annoying that it ruins the game, then don't play with randoms and limit your play to within your clan and friend lists, and solo play.

 

Good luck and happy gaming.

Edited November 10, 2014 by Dalethor

[crafturtoemc]

If you let me die and dont even save me...SURE :D ill let you fail

[jonnin]

chat in this game is very hard to use.  You can't see it because it does not stay on top or pop up when someone speaks.   So we miss your chat.  Worse, in 99% of games, if we stop to chat some zergmeister will have rushed ahead and cleared the place (less of a problem on survival, but anything else, they are flat GONE if you blink). 

 

As for common sense --- game flaw.   The game teaches us in the low levels that the enemy can't really hurt us so standing there to reload is fine.  Nothing can even scratch you until level 15+,  and if you have  a decent build, higher than that even.   By that time it is too late --- people learned that being shot is no big deal.  Then they progress and things get rough and --- they have nothing to fall back on, no practice at getting under cover etc. 

[Macdermott]

I give everyone 3 revives.  After that, if they can't stay alive, I extract.  (for pugs, clanmates are a different story)

 

If they' re gonna noob it up, I'm just gonna bail out.  No big deal.

 

I've found that two types of people chat:

1.  The self-aggrandizing fool - only chats when he's claiming he's doing all the work and you all suck.  True or not, this guy's a #$&(% and nobody likes him for it.

 

2.  The guy who's super friendly but not very good - he's always getting downed because he's trying to hold a conversation in chat during wave 30 of ODD...

 

I only chat to say how long I'm staying in survival, or if there's some rare mod that dropped.  Otherwise, there isn't much point.  The people who are smart enough to communicate rationally are all in clans, using voice chat.  Pugs aren't worth the effort.

[DayInTheSun]

You don't happen to play online games very often, do you?  These grievances are incredibly common in any game that puts you on a team with other human beings.

 

The best solution, like with any other online game, is to just find people that you enjoy playing with.  It makes the game infinitely more fun.  Putting up with idiots is something that you kind of sign up for when you join a public game.

Edited November 10, 2014 by DayInTheSun

[jjpdn]

Tip for killing annoying players: Get radiation proc on yourself and then shoot at them.

Edited November 10, 2014 by jjpdn

[unknow99]

Tip for killing annoying players: Get radiation proc on yourself and then shoot at them.

Seems like something you experienced... :)

 

You meaan, meaaan jjpdn...

[xicx]

thats the fun man, i like playing with new players sometimes ya would be suprised at sum newbs skills. just be cool with everyone and things will fall in place. when i was just starting i didnt even know how to run on the walls and always putting the laser on in voids.

 

other than that hope to get sum new players , add them to your friends list and set up times to play 

[Skrotacus]

So I'm new and often cant see or don't remember to look at the chatbox.......otherwise I tried to get my headset working and I have it set up in the options menu and stuff but other players tell me all they hear is static.  If I have Skype running at the same time or teamspeak does that mess with it?

[Evil_Brick]

Granted, i do read the chat. I just don't always type. ...Although yesterday me and a pick-up group from Recruiting chat ran a few low-level Tower missions, and we had a good time, i even ended up typing, so i guess that if i feel motivated enough, i'll communicate.

[CephalonShy]

Warframe is fast paced game, and even low level enemies can chew trough your shields and health very fast. There is no time for blabber.

[Dalethor]

So I'm new and often cant see or don't remember to look at the chatbox.......otherwise I tried to get my headset working and I have it set up in the options menu and stuff but other players tell me all they hear is static.  If I have Skype running at the same time or teamspeak does that mess with it?

You should be able to use TS3 or a similar VOIP program with no problems along with Warframe. There's also Raidcall, a free VOIP service that some folks use in Warframe as well, and they all work fine together for the most part. The one caveat in this is that Raidcall, being a free service, has had times of trouble keeping the service up and running in the past, while Teamspeak, Mumble and Ventrilo, being subscription services, are almost always up and running with very little time down even for maintenance that is noticeable, as they do it at times when 90% of users are offline. 

 

Bottom line here is that yes, a third party VOIP service will work fine with Warframe. I would recommend that you disable the ingame voice communication if you'll be using one of those services, as it can create an annoying feedback loop.

 

Good luck and happy gaming.

[Sfrost]

When i say communicate, i'm not talking about casual chatting im talking about stuff that is related to the mission, eg survival missions, when to use the life support and how long were staying, or if i have to get stealth kills will say that so people dont rambo in there and alert every enemy. The only time when its so intense that you have endless waves of enemies coming at you that you might not be able to chat is survival or def missions aside from that you always got time to write a short sentence, especially if you use cover.

 

My clan mates are hardly ever online so i can't play with them and im playing with randomers to build up my friends list but i really can't be bothered to go through mission after mission with silent team mates trying to find the one that pays attention to chat. Im getting into the higher level missions now and it would make the game so much more enjoyable and easier to have team mates to co-ordinate with but its just not happening. 

 

Maybe if the chat window popped up with like a white background to the window so people could clearly see every time someone wrote a message making it less likely of people not noticing and more chance for them to reply. Any other ideas?

[UchihaWar]

Hi Sfrost,

my IGN is UCHIHAWAR, i usually play warframe everyday at night, i am from brazil and here i have the same problem, people don't talk or chat.

So my english is not so good yet but if you want to add me in the game for we can play together, it will be great have someone who wants to play as a team 

 

 

See you 

[SwiftPotato12]

Common sense? In our todays world? Are you insane?

People trying to dry their pets in a microwave. Thats all I gotta say.

Serious, try to grab some good players or friends and just stay with them or play solo.

You save yourself some anger and frustration.

Hah. I could add so many things just as stupid if not worse, but I'll leave you with one. Trying to recharge your phone instantly in a microwave.

[alba-mos]

So what would be the most ideal time to deploy LS, in the 30% range?

 

I typically deploy in the 60%-70%. I find that deploying LS under 60% leaves the team in a rush to locate the next LS.

Edited November 14, 2014 by alba-mos

[Sylthos]

LS buys you 45 seconds on top of what you already have. So activating at around 30% gives you a minute and a half to get to the next pod. If you are having trouble doing that then it's a good time to extract.

I generally chat with other players when I'm over equipped for a mission or I'm in the early parts of an endless. But I'm also primarily a solo player, so I don't run into randoms a whole bunch.