Me Complaining About Warframe's Crafting System

[bitlard]

Except there is no content outside the base warframes, weapons, and missions. There's nothing to explore out in the game itself because everything is based on tilesets which all aim to lead you down the same corridor again.

Hence update 8, weekend operations, dojos, new frames and weapons. Besides, some people like to just kill stuff over and over again. To each his own.

[Mietz]

Except there is no content outside the base warframes, weapons, and missions.

 

Again, if that is not what you are looking for, you might want to look for a different game, nothing else really matters.

[Malora_Sidewinder]

Except there's nothing to explore after you've gotten everything you want, rendering point 3 useless until they actually deliver more content.

Which they are doing at a very respectable pace.

 

Let me tell you a story. I come from the world of Mechwarrior: Online, run by the dev team of PGI. Like Warframe, it's a Free to Play model that used a founders package, and it's currently in open beta.

With zero bias (because i LOVE MWO) let me tell you some of the problems we've run into so far.

 

PGI puts out a new patch if we're lucky twice a month. They miss the patch dates far more often than they are punctual.

Every patch brings MORE bugs than they fix, INCLUDING THE HOT FIXES.

you either crash to desktop or experience a gamebreaking glitch 1/5 games. yes, that is an actual number. (for me, it's actually 70%, as i run on a 650M card, and mobile cards have by far the highest incidence of errors)

New content? We have 6 maps, and have had 4 of them for almost a year now. We get a new map every 3 months if we're lucky.

We get a new mech (IE warframe for example, except there are literally thousands of mechs in the battletech lore. we should have roughly 15 mechs for each warframe for lore purposes) once a month at this point. Each new mech brings its share of game breaks.

We currently have most of the glitches we've experienced in closed beta (november) and for many, the glitches become more common as fixes come out.

 

since the game has gone to closed beta, we have had zero new weapons.

 

in the two months i've been playing this game, there have been several new weapons, a new warframe, and a ton of new material thrown into the game, with update 8 a mere week away.

 

the WF dev team knows what they're doing, and they do it quite well apparently. in the past MONTH i've seen more content added to WF than the past 6 months put together in MWO.

[KhanCipher]

*stuffz about comparing MWO to WF*

 

i'm so glad WF isn't on any variation of CryEngine... (it looks like it's UE3 that's being used on WF... unless i'm wrong)

[Rabcor]

I disagree with you for the most part... but i have to agree that 72 hours is a long time... just sayin..

[Tombei]

I personally like that the crafting is timed. It feels more realistic. Crafting a Warframe should take time because its highly evolved piece of advanced technology. You don't want your Warframe malfunctioning in tight spot do you?

[alocrius]

As one guy stated, you will appreciate the crafting system the more you play.  Once you explore everything and start farming all the bosses you'll have more warframes than you know what to do with.  They pile up quickly if you farm all the bosses rather than focus on one.

Edited May 11, 2013 by alocrius

[Tetsmeha]

I personally like that the crafting is timed. It feels more realistic. Crafting a Warframe should take time because its highly evolved piece of advanced technology. You don't want your Warframe malfunctioning in tight spot do you?

 

Why are you trying to imply timed crafting is "realistic"? Oh, I guess paying DE money for plat to make it faster is "realistic"

 

Oh wait it's not.

[Strymon]

I would like to have option to rush by credits i think 200k for a day would be reasonable.

[Renegade_Master]

Which they are doing at a very respectable pace.

 

Let me tell you a story. I come from the world of Mechwarrior: Online, run by the dev team of PGI. Like Warframe, it's a Free to Play model that used a founders package, and it's currently in open beta.

With zero bias (because i LOVE MWO) let me tell you some of the problems we've run into so far.

 

PGI puts out a new patch if we're lucky twice a month...New content? We have 6 maps, and have had 4 of them for almost a year now. We get a new map every 3 months if we're lucky...since the game has gone to closed beta, we have had zero new weapons.

They miss the patch dates far more often than they are punctual.

Every patch brings MORE bugs than they fix, INCLUDING THE HOT FIXES.

you either crash to desktop or experience a gamebreaking glitch 1/5 games. yes, that is an actual number. (for me, it's actually 70%, as i run on a 650M card, and mobile cards have by far the highest incidence of errors)

We get a new mech (IE warframe for example, except there are literally thousands of mechs in the battletech lore. we should have roughly 15 mechs for each warframe for lore purposes) once a month at this point. Each new mech brings its share of game breaks.

We currently have most of the glitches we've experienced in closed beta (november) and for many, the glitches become more common as fixes come out.

 

in the two months i've been playing this game, there have been several new weapons, a new warframe, and a ton of new material thrown into the game, with update 8 a mere week away.

 

the WF dev team knows what they're doing, and they do it quite well apparently. in the past MONTH i've seen more content added to WF than the past 6 months put together in MWO.

 

Furthermore, players should be drop-your-jaw amazed that dojos were announced for the first time a few weeks ago and they're releasing them within a week.  Big features like that in MWO or other F2P games can take months to get into the game after they are initially announced.

 

Good to see you on here Malora!

Mr. Sidewinder has definitely been loyal to MWO as well as loyal to one of its large clans that he's moved up the ranks in, which I happen to be a member of.

 

To be fair to MWO, PvP in a large scale simulation-ish game has the potential for more balance considerations & issues than a PvE arcade-ish game (like Warframe).  If there's a balance issue in Warframe, it ultimately comes down to "I'm killing enemies faster or slower" as opposed to "Everyone is doing X offensive or defensive tactic against me, there's too much/too little counter measures," and so forth.  If we put all that aside though, what it boils down to is that the amount & severity of UI bugs that impact gameplay in Warframe are very low or swiftly fixed compared to MWO.

 

Back to the OP's subject: To break it down, players have two options for obtaining equipment and cards:

1) Buy them (in a somewhat random fashion for cards)

2) Work for them - Through gaining credits, buying blue prints, getting resources for blue prints, or building blue prints.

 

Don't like spending time to gather or save up for something?  Buy Platinum and spend it.

 

Want to have something to work towards?  Don't be surprised if it takes a while to get.

 

Players need to find the best mix that works for them.  If you're not happy with either option, then don't expect to like any F2P games that have a stable development cycle.

I personally am at least going to get a low to mid end founders package soon because I haven't gotten tired of grinding for a few new pieces of equipment, but I know I'm not gonna want to wait for 2 more mastery levels for other stuff.

[_Rue_]

The crafting system truly is an acquired taste as most of the people have already mentioned. I 've grown to like it though. :)

 

I have NEVER paid plat to get crafting done. Not for any warframe, not for the glaive. I feel like i'm using a cheat when I do that (lol gameshark).

 

I'm sure you'll love it the more you use it. :D

[Iceciro]

Honestly, as a new-player-turned-founder convert, my only problem with the delay in crafting is this:

 

There's nothing I can do in game to speed it up.

 

I can buy plat and deposit it there, but I earned that money 'grinding' in my real life job, not playing Warframe.

 

There should be some -warframe related- way to speed up crafting. Then if my goal is 'get a rhino' and I have 3 d 12h on the Rhino frame, if I acquire say, the resources and credits neccessary all over again I can knock a day off the time to build it. Then I can spend a day and a half of my warframe time making it so I only have a day and a half to wait... and bam, progression. Also, bam, gold/resource sink.

 

It's not the waiting in general that's the problem, it's the complete lack of player control.  I can buy or earn all the weapons and warframes in the game, but I can't earn a foundry speed up, only buy with plat. It's far more relative to my gameplay than all of those pretty colors I bought.

 

It's taking the control out of people's hands that really grinds thier gears. If I can't speed up the Warframe/weapon production at the foundry, I'm just going to use the time it spends building to unlock the next warframe or weapon I want, which really isn't going to push much longevity out of the game at all in the long run.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Iceciro

[Tsukinoki]

@Iceciro
That actually sounds like a decent way to do it, and it would also allow them to put a new rare resource into the game at various mission points so that you would be encouraged to do more than just boss rushes to slowly grind up something that can cut the building time.  And they can either have a limit of how far you can rush it, or if you spend enough time grinding the resources they could allow you to instantly finish it.

It could be a resource awarded at the end of a mission, similar to how Raid missions give you a mod or BP at the end.

[Tulzscha]

I don't have an issue with the crafting as it is, but some visual flair would be nice. For example, you can see certain parts of the helmet being built as the progress bar goes along. :)

[crow-k]

Yes they can improve on it, but as to the wait time, I realize this may seem extreme in todays world, but the suspension of something desired can make the achievement more enjoyable. Anticipation is great. Think of it like Christmas, the 25 is cool, but don't you remember the feeling of the week before, the excitement? Its like that but scaled down. Not everything in this world need be instantaneous. 

[CheeseHasLeafs]

The wait time, credit cost and materials are all never problems for me. So essentially I have no problems with it.
However, whenever I see Alloy Plate on the materials list...
I cry a little inside. Because I know I'll get about three drops of Alloy Plate with every mission I play on Ceres. 

 

[AgentNipple]

The only thing I hate more than a crafting system that makes you wait is one that is by chance, so lesser of two evils I guess but yeah I do agree that 3 days is kinda long for a Warframe.

[DeadlyNerd]

Tbh I love this crafting system.

 

I can simultaneously craft several weapons.

I can plan ahead when to get crafting started.

The GUI is easy to navigate.

 

I don't even mind the crafting costs, though I'd really like to see a tenno crafter standing there arms crossed waiting for me to select something to craft.

This way it's like minerals in Red Alert, money gets turned into an item.

 

The only thing I do mind is when crafting more same items I have to wait for each of them to finish to start a new one.

Edited May 16, 2013 by DeadlyNerd

[Caliocerion]

I'm fine with the crafting system. I'll just go do something else while my Trinity is being built. I can go level up my other items, my other warframes. I can go read a book, take a nap, go outside, practice some sports, play a different game, talk to friends, get laid, learn a new skill.

[HexCaliber]

The crafting system is perfectly fine, if you cannot wait for a few hours that is a problem you need to work on. However, the more important point is that this is the internet, if you don't want people to post negative responses, don't start threads. In the world of adults people are going to disagree with your opinions and will do so vigorously, asking people who don’t agree with you not to post is tantamount to flame bait.

 

This is f2p, the game has to include incentives to encourage plat sales, without them it dies a very quick death; if you don't like it, stop playing, as it’s not going to change anytime soon. You already have the client and are free to play as much as you like, as often as you like without spending a penny, and you want to *@##$ and moan about it, gtfo.

[KhanCipher]

This is f2p, the game has to include incentives to encourage plat sales, without them it dies a very quick death; if you don't like it, stop playing, as it’s not going to change anytime soon. You already have the client and are free to play as much as you like, as often as you like without spending a penny, and you want to $#*(@ and moan about it, gtfo.

 

oh let's count the incentives, shall we? (excluding founders packages)

 

@ $5 option

- potatoes

 

@ $10 option

- potatoes

- slots

 

@ $30 option (notice there's no $15, or $20 option...)

- potatoes

- slots

- and maybe some colors

 

@ $50

- potatoes

- slots

- colors

- and that useless mod for the paris

 

@ $100

- potatoes

- slots

- colors

- that useless mod for the paris

- that useless frame mod that should be an general ability

- and maybe a few weapons and frames

- oh and maybe speeding up production

 

@ $200

- at this point you may as well spend the plat on anything and everything

 

my point is that the incentives for buying plat is to bypass systems that really do need reworked (e.g. alerts. Which yes (imo) paying to bypass a bad system is EA level of low and dirty)

[crow-k]

Then do not pay. The point was made in this thread by page 2. Rehashing comments does not equal further enlightenment. Let it go.

[Sammy001]

I'm fine with the crafting times except for the one on warframes.

If people can wait 24 or 48 hours to craft, who will still spend to make it go faster with only 24 hours left on the clock ?

After all the grinding, wait times for individual parts, it seems a bit excessive and without purpose.

[KhanCipher]

Then do not pay. The point was made in this thread by page 2. Rehashing comments does not equal further enlightenment. Let it go.

 

oh no, the only problem (well, nitpicking) i have with the foundry is... waiting 36 hours to craft 2 boltos and "fuse" them together with a orokin cell, something about the later part just doesn't convince me that we're making the gun from scratch, so yeah... spending 24 hours to build the 2 boltos (because you can't build them both at the same time for some reason...), and then spending another 12 hours and a orokin cell to use them both at the same time, my only problem with that is that it really breaks the "suspension of disbelief" surrounding the foundry that you're hand building all the stuff.

[PapaKicks]

I'm fine with the crafting times except for the one on warframes.

If people can wait 24 or 48 hours to craft, who will still spend to make it go faster with only 24 hours left on the clock ?

 

I would, but only if the price scaled down with the time remaining.

 

The closer an item gets to completion, the more excited I am to get it. But I don't because it would still be full price.