User-Unfriendly To New Players

[Caine2112]

Hello everyone.

 

TL;DR down below.

 

As a new player, I have quite a lot to learn and understand about this game.  First of all, let me just say that this is a gorgeous game, and for a new player like myself, the missions are a lot of fun (although I can see it getting old and repetitive as I continue to play).  Regardless, my brother and I are enjoying ourselves a lot and that's what counts in the end.  The graphics are stunning, the mechanics work very well for the most part, the weapons feel genuine and the entire concept of a Warframe is breathtakingly unique in its implementation.  I readily admit you devs have created quite a beautiful work of gaming art, and I just love the sci-fi zen feel to the game.

 

Now, veteran players, please keep in mind that my post targets new players, and although I fully appreciate veteran players commenting, do keep in mind what I'm currently going through as a new player and my short experience thus far.

 

As the topic title states, this game is very far from being user friendly in relation to information.  There is a plethora of information missing from the game, to the point where I'm finding myself constantly alt+tabbing out and reading on the Warframe Wiki for even the most basic information, such as Gas or Radiation effects.  (And please don't refer me to the randomized tooltip below the weapon stats; that's just a terrible way of doing things.)  Even though I'm in my early 40s, and fully understand that this game is still carrying its Beta tag and lots more development is forthcoming, I'm rather quite disturbed at the fact that there is next to no in-game tooltips or codex entries for basic information.  I did go through the few tutorials, and they don't offer very much.

 

Examples of such information missing: 

1. What does Radiation damage do and who does it affect?  Same goes for all elemental damage types for that matter.  Little symbols on the various enemies in the codex don't clarify what icon is what damage.

 

2. I've maxed out my Loki warframe (my choice last year when I tried out the game).  What do I do next?  Every other warframe is out of reach either in pricing or crafting or both.  There's no information or tutorial to let you know what your options are.  Am I stuck playing the same warframe for weeks or months?  Maybe Lotus could send an email or a communique telling you what your options are at this point.  I dunno.

 

3. All the warframe and weapon stats could use either tooltips or a codex entry to tell you in depth what they do, although some are self explanatory, most are not.  I had to look up what Status meant in the wiki.

 

4. A clanmate had to tell me that Revivals refresh daily.  I did not know that, and I let a lot of good drops go by forfeiting missions because I did not want to waste them.  There's no information in the game that tells you this.

 

AND, quite possibly the most frustrating is understanding which areas you can do missions on based on the level of the sector compared to your own level.  I still don't understand where I can reasonably go, and what is out of my reach.  I'll enter a sector with a mission type of Excavation Level 1-6 on Mercury, and get my butt kicked royally within a few minutes, but then I can go to Venus and beat an Extermination mission of 6-8.  It's challenging, yet quite reasonable in being able to complete the mission.  Yet there is NO information in the game, or even the wiki for that matter, to help you understand where you can reasonably go.  Would it be possible as an idea to include under the Level # - # something along the lines of Easy, Moderate, Difficult, Very Difficult, Impossible based on whatever parameters you use to determine difficulty level of a mission?  This would go a LONG way in helping a new player to better understand the situation said player will encounter should he/she choose mission X over mission Y and such.

 

And this is just the forefront of what I'm going through right now.  There's quite a lot more to understand but no information in the game to help you do just that.  Now as a man in my early 40s, I took it upon myself to ask questions in the clan I joined and look through the dedicated wiki for information, but this stuff and a lot of other things should be in the game.  No need to make fancy splash screens with heightened background music, just put it in the codex as a page of info or something, or use tooltips at your discretion.  Keep it simple and clean, and I'll love you for it.

 

An unrelated thing to add that boggles my mind is respawns.  It happens on occasion that I cleared out a room, proceed to the next, get in a firefight, and I get respawns BEHIND me in the very room I JUST cleared.  WTF??  This seriously defies logic and needs to be looked at.  I'm usually doing very well in said mission, and stuff like this is what ends up killing me.  Now, being a mature player, I've taken some licks, and got back up, and now I check my six often enough that whenever I get in a firefight, I'm seldom surprised, and I have my thumb on my mouse button 4 with Invisibility ready to go just in case.  This newly developed instinct has kept me alive when I should have been wiped off the face of whichever planet I'm on, but to a new player, this is the sort of thing that can make or break a game for that person.  Missions should be challenging, no doubt about it, but logic-defying respawns need to be fixed.

 

But I digress from my original train of thought.  I had to put it up there because this is one thing that really flabbergasts me to no end.

 

I seriously could spend another 2-3 hours listing everything that requires information, including more detailed information on when to join a syndicate, or getting an invitation to go to the Larunda Relay on Mercury.  I found it just by accident, thinking it was some story mission.  Dojos are another area which are sorely lacking information.  And that's just more examples of what I'm referring to. 

 

Please address this issue.  I believe putting this information in the hands of new players will go a very long way in helping to retain them.  You guys have a great game going, and everyone knows information is power.  So please put that power in the hands of your players.  They will love you for it.

 

Anyways, the TL;DR version is thus:

New players are thrown into this game with very little information, including the basic stuff.  Tutorials, tooltips and expanded codex entries detailing each facet of the game would go a very long way in helping new players better understand this great space ninja game and potentially keeping player retention.

 

Thank you for reading my post.

Caine

 

 

Edit:  Spelling errors and grammer.  I'm also positive I have the name of the Mercury relay wrong LOL.  Can someone please correct me?

 

Edit 2:  Larunda Relay.  Thanks BlueMadness for correcting me.  =)

Edited June 11, 2015 by Caine2112

[Gurzil]

There is only ZUUL?

 

Good post +1

[Mcl_Blue]

Larunda.

 

Spawns from behind don't really defy logic, bases and ships have locked doors all over the place, with areas that you can't access and don't know where they go or how they connect. It's perfectly conceivable that additional troops are coming through those.

 

Excavation missions really are tougher than the other ones.

 

It's really refreshing to see such in-depth feedback from a new player. Most new players just waddle about until they either can figure things out by themselves, manage to find help, or just give up and leave.

It's probably the hardest aspect of designing the New Player Experience, as most new players don't write a lot of feedback, if any, and almost nobody writes anything like this, while veteran players making new accounts to check out what being a new player looks like can only really go so far, since they already know everything about the game and certain problems are certain to pass by unnoticed.

 

+1, good feedback, very in-depth, hope DE sees this.

[S5alad]

-Snip-

          I can sympathize a lot with where you're coming from. When I first started warframe (around build 5.0?) there was no tutorial. I didn't even know about the parkour system until I got stuck in a tile that required parkour to get across, so I alt-tabbed to youtube to watch videos on warframe and discovered that you could do all kinds of wall running, helicoptering, flips etc. nothing of which was documented in game.

 

          As a veteran player now, I'm STILL constantly referring to the wiki for what drops where, and nuances of the modding system (did you know that mods are applyed in order of left to right, top to bottom? so you can swap the order of your mods to get priorities set for your companions or to get the elemental combos you desire). You are absolutely right that this information needs to be in-game. a simple hover-over tooltip for all the weapon and warframe stats would go a long way, although it would require something completely different for the consoles since (correct me if I'm wrong) they don't have a mouse cursor to hover over stats with.

 

          Also, a much more in-depth modding tutorial is urgently needed. I feel like I know the ins and outs of modding, but I can tell you that 100% of it came from the wiki, and that's just the wrong answer. Fusing like polarities is almost as good as using a fusion core. I don't recall seeing that anywhere within the tutorial.

 

          In terms of where to go for item progression you bring up another very good point. once you max out your warframe there's no in-game guidance on what to do to aquire a new warframe. something simple as a message from the lotus saying "Now that you've mastered that warframe Tenno, you should seek out additional warframes from the leaders of each planet" which would then indicate to players that they should start killing bosses to find parts for the other warframes.

          I see the new warframe aspect as being especially infuriating for new players because when you buy a weapon blue print, you need to farm resources which (as far as I can tell) are fairly easily represented as to what drops where. When you buy a warframe BP, you need warframe parts which you have no idea where to get from until you alt-tab to the wiki. Including information on the assassination missions like "General Sargas Ruk has been studying a warframe known only as Ember. He may have information about this warframe should you defeat him." would point people to farming Sargas for the Ember frame.

          End-game items (prime versions) I don't think should be given this kind of hand-holding, as every MMO I've played has required some investment on developing a player's knowledge of the deep game mechanics and drop locations to acquire these end-game. Keeping this information in the wiki or by random discovery I feel is appropriate for the prime versions.

 

          In regards to enemies spawning behind you, It's a game mechanic that takes a bit to get used to, but it makes sense both mechanically and logically. If they didn't spawn behind you every mission would turn into an exterminate mission (because things can't respawn in the feeder areas to rooms you cleared) and the challenge of things like rescue, spy, etc. would be gone. There are lots of "feeder areas" - that is doors that open to small rooms that have a locked door in them, where enemies spawn at when the door you can use is open. This gives the illusion that these enemies unlocked the door and entered the room you're in from the feeder room. This also teaches you as a player that sometimes "Speed is security" as opposed to strong-walling and going hands-across the world and just running out of resources (ammo/energy) in solo play.

 

[edit]Grammar is hard :([/edit]

Edited June 11, 2015 by Fenwyn

[Caine2112]

Larunda.

 

Spawns from behind don't really defy logic, bases and ships have locked doors all over the place, with areas that you can't access and don't know where they go or how they connect. It's perfectly conceivable that additional troops are coming through those.

 

Excavation missions really are tougher than the other ones.

 

It's really refreshing to see such in-depth feedback from a new player. Most new players just waddle about until they either can figure things out by themselves, manage to find help, or just give up and leave.

It's probably the hardest aspect of designing the New Player Experience, as most new players don't write a lot of feedback, if any, and almost nobody writes anything like this, while veteran players making new accounts to check out what being a new player looks like can only really go so far, since they already know everything about the game and certain problems are certain to pass by unnoticed.

 

+1, good feedback, very in-depth, hope DE sees this.

 

Thank you for your reply.  I'm a veteran player of Mechwarrior Online, another F2P game I've spent 3 years on, so like you just pointed out, I too have a tough time understanding what new players go through in that game, and how steep the learning curve is for them.

 

As for the respawns, I was referring to rooms I just finished clearing, then the door closes behind me as I go to the next room and immediately engage in a firefight, and said door opens just as quickly to see 2-4 new enemies that just spawned in a room I had JUST finished clearing.  I can fully understand the concept of reinforcements coming from behind me, but it should take some time before that happens.  Not in less than 5 seconds.

 

Just wanted to clarify that.  =)

[Caine2112]

All excellent points Fenwyn.

 

I'd like to see something along those lines where Lotus, or even Ordis, can point you to new information once you've maxed out a Warframe or Weapon, and what options are open to you.

 

As for respawns, don't get me wrong, I'm complete for them, when reinforcements make sense.  When the blaring alarm goes off, I should expect the enemies I'm fighting to be reinforced.  Just not immediately (within 5 seconds) from a room I JUST cleared.  It should take a good 2 minutes for new troops to come from a room you've cleared.  That's what I mean by logic-defying respawns.

[taiiat]

yes, Warframe has a very, very poor New Player Experience. wanting to use discovery for finding information sounds good on paper, but much of this information a Player needs to know right from the start in order to have an experience that does not feel very unfair or boring.

sadly, the first, 50, 60, perhaps even 80 Hours of playing Warframe - are not representative of what Warframe is.

so if you were concerned about why you seem to be lost, it's not your fault, that's for sure.

yes, you will be going to the Wiki a lot and memorizing information from datamining and other nonstandard methods to understand the systems. because Warframe won't explain them to you at all. everyone else had to do the same, sadly.

i'll apologize that i'm not giving more useful information and explaining Warframe better, i'm just not up to writing an 'intro to Warframe' post for the next couple hours right now. sorry!

Edited June 11, 2015 by taiiat

[Mcl_Blue]

I can fully understand the concept of reinforcements coming from behind me, but it should take some time before that happens.  Not in less than 5 seconds.

Ah, I see. Yeah, that does make sense.

[Viedra_Lavinova]

There's an in-game manual in the codex that not many people know about...

[Caine2112]

There's an in-game manual in the codex that not many people know about...

 

Hmmmm, I'll go look for it.  Thanks for this tip.  But this reinforces my original point that there is a huge lack of basic information within the game.

[Grom-84]

Syndicates also were very broken expirience. If only somebody told me that i can buy all syndicates usefull stuff from people like for 200p in total - i would never mess with them, because it not worth it - the price in ranking is too high and the profit is so little, and now i have those nasty eximuses squads hunting me for nothing from 4 opposing fractions - while i only made few maybe 4-5 of unimportant missions for Veil and Meridian. I was very fkn suspicious about those syndicates and started progress in them only when i turned like mr 7-8 - i was a fool doing this, and i cant even undo my progress with them.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Grom-84

[(PSN)magnumcrowe]

-snip-

AND, quite possibly the most frustrating is understanding which areas you can do missions on based on the level of the sector compared to your own level.  I still don't understand where I can reasonably go, and what is out of my reach.  I'll enter a sector with a mission type of Excavation Level 1-6 on Mercury, and get my butt kicked royally within a few minutes, but then I can go to Venus and beat an Extermination mission of 6-8.  It's challenging, yet quite reasonable in being able to complete the mission.  Yet there is NO information in the game, or even the wiki for that matter, to help you understand where you can reasonably go.  Would it be possible as an idea to include under the Level # - # something along the lines of Easy, Moderate, Difficult, Very Difficult, Impossible based on whatever parameters you use to determine difficulty level of a mission?  This would go a LONG way in helping a new player to better understand the situation said player will encounter should he/she choose mission X over mission Y and such.

 

-snip-

Even as a vet (okay, I'm not THAT good...), I can relate to this. There are two problems I'm seeing with this situation:

1) Warframe fails to indicate that some mission types are clearly not meant to be soloed; they can be, if your equipped just so AND overpowered for the area, but they're really meant to be taken on with a team. Defense, Interception, Excavation, Hijack and (arguably) Survival come to mind. The problem is further on, some node setups require you to accomplish these missions to progress, and if you can't get help on them (a rarity, but some days the players in chat are feeling less helpful than others), then you're $&%# out of luck.

2) As you've said, we have no basis whatsoever for us, as players, to relate to enemy levels. Like, what is the player equivalent of a level 26 Grineer Bombard? True, given experience we, as players learn to have an idea of "okay, just what can I pull off with an aura modded unranked warframe, a superpowered gun and that crappy knife I'm levelling for mastery points?"; however, that's like saying "as an adult, you learn which stripper joints you may get shot at and which ones you won't" (actually a thing I learned as an adult, btw, wish I was kidding -_-). It's just kind of a pointless argument and is still a failure of the game. I was once told conclave rating was something you could vaguely (arguably) go on back when I was barely starting, and it isn't entirely meaningless, but since the numbers are entirely different, it doesn't help much.

And now, because I don't like complaining about something without proposing some sort of possible solution, here's what I think might solve these problems:

The non-soloable missions would be the most simple; just freaking come out, be honest and tell us somewhere which of these missions are going to lay the boo-boo on us if we don't have friends. A nice warning from Lotus when you're about to start your first defense/etc. would be nice, something on the lines of "Be warned, Tenno: the enemies here are many and will overwhelm you. Alone, this may be a suicide mission." But that would be a temporary patch. Really, what we need to be able to do is to actually solo these things. I'm not saying just any schmuck should be able to make it to wave 20 of an Earth Defense on his own, but if the difficulty could be just so, so that most new players (I know it's easy to forget they're in there with us Neurode farmers, but they're the ones this planet is there for) could finish up to wave 5 and actually complete the node for completion's (and on some planets, progression's) sake, then it would be fine. What if the number of enemies spawned scaled with the number of players doing the mission? Heck, what if every mission did this?

As for the unrelatable enemy levels, here's a wild idea (and there would surely be many more that would work as well or better): since conclave rating is now entirely moot in PvP2.0 (as far as I can tell), why don't we scrap that stat? What if, instead, every piece of equipment and every mod (on a per rank basis, as appropriate) had an experience points rating (should not be based on the equipment's previous conclave, btw, but more on its overall value in PvE)? What if, when the total experience points rating of your equipment is added up, and the total gives you an experience level that is relatable to that of the enemies (i.e., same numbers). It certainly wouldn't be perfect, but at least less experienced players would have something to go on, and to be honest even us more seasoned Tenno could use this: it would be nice to be able to tell whether I'm equipped just fine but I'm doing something wrong and don't know it (this happens) or whether I'm doing mostly everything right but I'm just under-equipped (this also happens. A lot). Now, some of you are going to argue that with a system like that, you could grab some weak weapons, a squishy warframe ill-designed for solo work, put a bunch of utilitarian mods that in no way contribute to dps or survivability, and you'd get a level of around 40ish and labour under the false impression that you're ready to solo T4 Interception. That is true. It is also true that equipping exclusively Cure materia over and over again on all of my level 65 Final Fantasy VII party will not help me in any way defeat Sephiroth, that one does not defeat Alduin using exclusively that weak, albeit cool, flamethrower spell in Skyrim, and that thou shalt not defeat Bowser in Super Mario World by simply chucking flower induced fireballs at him. For those things, you've got your brain, and you may not be giving the rest of us proper credit for knowing how to use ours. One may also argue that skill (in parkour, gunplay or clever power-usage and etc.) skews this potential stat and may render it meaningless. This is also true, just as true as my beating the ever-loving $%?& out of the Elite Four in Pokémon Blue Version with a whole party under level 40; it would be meant as a measure, not a defining, limiting point.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text; I just feel you, friend. I really do. Hope some of it helps in some minute way.

[Lightsmith]

There was suppose to be player helpers stations in the relays. But I agree, there is a codex that explains damage, but nothing to direct you there.

About revives (I sadly didn't know this until I was MR19) they are linked to your frame. If you change frames that other frame's revive count is separate from the other.

Crafting frames is quite in expensive. Are you farming the blueprints at the bosses at various worlds?

Weapons have their blue prints sold on the market for credits too.

You may be using all your credits fusing mods, you may want to cut back a little.

Use warframe.wikia.com to research various questions.

Tip for credits: run Tower capture missions, either make a group with your own key or join one via the recruiting channel. Quick missions with decent credits.

For resources, just farm planets that drop them, defense is good. For rare resources, neural sensors, neuroses,orokin cells, run the boss missions for their respective planet it has a good chance to drop from the boss.

[Kyutaru]

Actually, the tutorial unlocks the codex as part of it and Ordis even tells you about the wonderful information it's full of.  People just don't bother to read through it.

[Thrall1337]

I would love to see some Wiki-exclusive information integrated into the game (at least the kind that would be useful). I'm not sure if this was implemented yet, but the game could simply point new players to the Codex and how useful it can be. The info texts on the loading screen are a step in the right direction imo, but sadly the translation into other languages besides english doesn't appear to be a high priority.

[HandsomeSorcerer]

I can relate to that. There is no "Real" progression in this game. No end game.

 

They really should prioritise fixing that.

[Caine2112]

Even as a vet (okay, I'm not THAT good...), I can relate to this. There are two problems I'm seeing with this situation:

1) Warframe fails to indicate that some mission types are clearly not meant to be soloed; they can be, if your equipped just so AND overpowered for the area, but they're really meant to be taken on with a team. Defense, Interception, Excavation, Hijack and (arguably) Survival come to mind. The problem is further on, some node setups require you to accomplish these missions to progress, and if you can't get help on them (a rarity, but some days the players in chat are feeling less helpful than others), then you're $&%# out of luck.

2) As you've said, we have no basis whatsoever for us, as players, to relate to enemy levels. Like, what is the player equivalent of a level 26 Grineer Bombard? True, given experience we, as players learn to have an idea of "okay, just what can I pull off with an aura modded unranked warframe, a superpowered gun and that crappy knife I'm levelling for mastery points?"; however, that's like saying "as an adult, you learn which stripper joints you may get shot at and which ones you won't" (actually a thing I learned as an adult, btw, wish I was kidding -_-). It's just kind of a pointless argument and is still a failure of the game. I was once told conclave rating was something you could vaguely (arguably) go on back when I was barely starting, and it isn't entirely meaningless, but since the numbers are entirely different, it doesn't help much.

And now, because I don't like complaining about something without proposing some sort of possible solution, here's what I think might solve these problems:

The non-soloable missions would be the most simple; just freaking come out, be honest and tell us somewhere which of these missions are going to lay the boo-boo on us if we don't have friends. A nice warning from Lotus when you're about to start your first defense/etc. would be nice, something on the lines of "Be warned, Tenno: the enemies here are many and will overwhelm you. Alone, this may be a suicide mission." But that would be a temporary patch. Really, what we need to be able to do is to actually solo these things. I'm not saying just any schmuck should be able to make it to wave 20 of an Earth Defense on his own, but if the difficulty could be just so, so that most new players (I know it's easy to forget they're in there with us Neurode farmers, but they're the ones this planet is there for) could finish up to wave 5 and actually complete the node for completion's (and on some planets, progression's) sake, then it would be fine. What if the number of enemies spawned scaled with the number of players doing the mission? Heck, what if every mission did this?

-snip-

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text; I just feel you, friend. I really do. Hope some of it helps in some minute way.

 

I agree with you on both your points.  I've had to have my butt handed to me on this purely group modes in order to discover which modes I can solo and which ones I need at least 1 more person to complete.  Thankfully my brother and I play together, and we can progress through the sectors together.  But for new players who don't know anyone, this can be very daunting.

 

Oddly enough, it's rather freaky that I went through a similar situation at a night club nearly 2 years ago lol.  But that's sidetracking the discussion.  =)

 

There was suppose to be player helpers stations in the relays. But I agree, there is a codex that explains damage, but nothing to direct you there.

About revives (I sadly didn't know this until I was MR19) they are linked to your frame. If you change frames that other frame's revive count is separate from the other.

Crafting frames is quite in expensive. Are you farming the blueprints at the bosses at various worlds?

Weapons have their blue prints sold on the market for credits too.

You may be using all your credits fusing mods, you may want to cut back a little.

Use warframe.wikia.com to research various questions.

Tip for credits: run Tower capture missions, either make a group with your own key or join one via the recruiting channel. Quick missions with decent credits.

For resources, just farm planets that drop them, defense is good. For rare resources, neural sensors, neuroses,orokin cells, run the boss missions for their respective planet it has a good chance to drop from the boss.

 

I discovered this today about the Revivals when I switched from my Loki to my Nyx and saw the number was different.  Again, this stresses my overall point that there is a lot of information missing in the game.

 

Good tips on where to accumalte credits and resources.  Thank you.

 

Actually, the tutorial unlocks the codex as part of it and Ordis even tells you about the wonderful information it's full of.  People just don't bother to read through it.

 

Oh trust me, I've gone through the codex at least twice on all the items in there, except the pvp stuff.  Skimmed it once and Exit.  I don't pvp unless the game is specifically designed to be only that, such as Mechwarrior Online.

 

I would love to see some Wiki-exclusive information integrated into the game (at least the kind that would be useful). I'm not sure if this was implemented yet, but the game could simply point new players to the Codex and how useful it can be. The info texts on the loading screen are a step in the right direction imo, but sadly the translation into other languages besides english doesn't appear to be a high priority.

 

A lot of what's in the wiki I wish was in the game.  I will agree from an earlier reply that the end game stuff should be discovered, and that's where player participation in creating a third party knowledge repository is deemed necessary.  End game content, such as raids in MMORPGs, needs to be discovered through trial and error, but the basic stuff, and maybe some of the more advanced stuff, such as what to do when you max level a warframe, should be in the game.  Tutorials, codex entries, Ordis, whatever.  Just needs to be in the game, not on a wiki.

 

 

I appreciate all of your replies.  Always nice to hear the opinions from veterans and their shared experiences.

[CY13ERPUNK]

+9999 OP

 

over a year ago now we were really hammering DE about how horrid the new player experience was

 

so DE ditched the old UI and gave us the Liset interior and Ordis

 

so ya, basically they did a ton of unnecessary work and a bandaid fix on a huge problem that has largely still been unaddressed =[

 

it really does seem like ppl can only see/treat symptoms and are blind to the core problems =/

[Kaiservadin]

I don't mind helping new players to get there footing but don't expect me to hold your hand as it will get old fast ..... bosses and codex quest i can understand though.

[Kaiservadin]

+9999 OP

 

over a year ago now we were really hammering DE about how horrid the new player experience was

 

so DE ditched the old UI and gave us the Liset interior and Ordis

 

so ya, basically they did a ton of unnecessary work and a bandaid fix on a huge problem that has largely still been unaddressed =[

 

it really does seem like ppl can only see/treat symptoms and are blind to the core problems =/

Your mastery rank now you can now chat in regional ... your mastery rank 2 you can now use these weapons .... your are level 1 don't worry keep leveling and you will max all your skills ... you got a nav segment with this you can go to another planet grats .... did you know vor spawns enemys to aid him once his hp hits 0 .... and so on. BUT the game should check if you already have a level 30 frame before doing this.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Kaiservadin

[DJ_Tyranny]

Thank you, Caine, for such a well thought-out and constructive post. I know DE regularly reads these forums (even though they can't comment on everything), and I think genuine, salt-less feedback goes a long way in helping them decide what is actionable and what is not. Moreover, I've heard them comment on various Devstreams that they know the new player experience is wanting and they're hoping to make it better. I really hope they do.

 

I was lucky, when I started playing (a long time ago), that I had a couple of friends who were already well-versed with the game and could explain, over Skype, what things did and what things meant. However, when DE re-worked the damage system (now known as Damage 2.0), they had left the game on hiatus and as someone who hadn't played many games, I struggled. I was used to throwing mods on my weapons and going into missions with any faction and doing reasonably well. Suddenly every faction had specific weaknesses to certain combined elements that didn't exist before (gas, radiation, etc.), while other factions had weaknesses against others. Mods had to be placed in certain orders to get the desired results and the Wiki page didn't even exist yet. I had sticky notes, spreadsheets, pictures and copies of posts I referred to until I couldn't stand it anymore. I was working full time, going to school full time and just didn't want the headache. All the research.. it was like having another class. I took a long break and came back. The Wiki page was in place and suddenly everything made a bit more sense. I remember wishing something like that Wiki table was released in-game, when the new damage system was released. I missed a lot of events, special weapons, etc., because of that break, so even as a vet, I understand exactly where you're coming from and support better in-game info for new players and new heavy releases.

 

I'm in a small clan, most of whom don't play these days, but I still run with a couple of very good, mature players. The best I can do is offer to help you and your brother as best I can. I will run through missions with you and answer questions and revive, etc. I can help you practice parkour, the infamous coptering and aerial melee and other parts that make the game fun. What I will not do is fly through missions at breakneck speed, kill everything in my path with overpowered weapons and take the fun out of your experience. I'd love to see you guys find your own playstyle and enjoy the game to its fullest.

 

Please feel free to add me in-game if you wish, and that goes for anyone who could use a hand or someone to run with.

 

Best regards,

DJT

[victor_victory]

DE thinks that putting guides in the codex will improve the experience of new players. Too bad new players don't even know the codex exist. They are really lazy about it and I feel sad everytime I think about it. There is a lot of things holding warframe back and this issues is definitely one of it.

[Caine2112]

Thank you, Caine, for such a well thought-out and constructive post. I know DE regularly reads these forums (even though they can't comment on everything), and I think genuine, salt-less feedback goes a long way in helping them decide what is actionable and what is not. Moreover, I've heard them comment on various Devstreams that they know the new player experience is wanting and they're hoping to make it better. I really hope they do.

 

I was lucky, when I started playing (a long time ago), that I had a couple of friends who were already well-versed with the game and could explain, over Skype, what things did and what things meant. However, when DE re-worked the damage system (now known as Damage 2.0), they had left the game on hiatus and as someone who hadn't played many games, I struggled. I was used to throwing mods on my weapons and going into missions with any faction and doing reasonably well. Suddenly every faction had specific weaknesses to certain combined elements that didn't exist before (gas, radiation, etc.), while other factions had weaknesses against others. Mods had to be placed in certain orders to get the desired results and the Wiki page didn't even exist yet. I had sticky notes, spreadsheets, pictures and copies of posts I referred to until I couldn't stand it anymore. I was working full time, going to school full time and just didn't want the headache. All the research.. it was like having another class. I took a long break and came back. The Wiki page was in place and suddenly everything made a bit more sense. I remember wishing something like that Wiki table was released in-game, when the new damage system was released. I missed a lot of events, special weapons, etc., because of that break, so even as a vet, I understand exactly where you're coming from and support better in-game info for new players and new heavy releases.

 

I'm in a small clan, most of whom don't play these days, but I still run with a couple of very good, mature players. The best I can do is offer to help you and your brother as best I can. I will run through missions with you and answer questions and revive, etc. I can help you practice parkour, the infamous coptering and aerial melee and other parts that make the game fun. What I will not do is fly through missions at breakneck speed, kill everything in my path with overpowered weapons and take the fun out of your experience. I'd love to see you guys find your own playstyle and enjoy the game to its fullest.

 

Please feel free to add me in-game if you wish, and that goes for anyone who could use a hand or someone to run with.

 

Best regards,

DJT

 

Two things I always notice right away are: is the UI user-friendly?  AND, is the information for new players available?

 

For me, this is what can make or break a game.  In this game, the UI is ver user-friendly and very beautiful to look at.  The sound on button click is very good, and unlike Mechwarrior Online, far from being annoying LOL.

 

I really feel for you for your struggles.  This definitely is not something you should have had to go through.  Sure there are things that need to be discovered within the game, no doubt about that.  But basic information such as new damage types, what to do when your warframe is max level, or weapons for that matter, etc, this needs to be better explained.

 

My brother and I joined Victrix Mortalis pretty early on, and a lot of the players in this clan have been extremely helpful answering questions, and even helping us get some much needed materials.  But for the most part, my brother and I are enjoying discovering the difficulties of the missions, and we go at our own pace; really hate zooming through and kill everything.  I greatly enjoy stealth and try to do an entire mission without ever being noticed or setting off alarms a la Splinter Cell.  Loki is wonderful for this.  And when I wanna run and gun, Nyx is great, albeit a little squishy.

[Caine2112]

DE thinks that putting guides in the codex will improve the experience of new players. Too bad new players don't even know the codex exist. They are really lazy about it and I feel sad everytime I think about it. There is a lot of things holding warframe back and this issues is definitely one of it.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC, the intro missions have you install the Codex Segment aboard your Liset.  As I see it, no new player should not know about the Codex.  But yeah, the broken record that is me, reiterates that it needs a vast improvement in available information.

[Vonahime]

I am also a new player using an level Excalibur frame. Albeit I figured I had to use the wiki already and some high level players have already helped me get on track.

I still am somewhat confused on the mission level stuff though. Part of it is armor and I think damage going...up that I know but I have no clue how exactly I could tell if my frame was ready for that mission or not until I either blaze through it or die horribly

Edited June 13, 2015 by Vonahime