We Need A Fourth Starter Frame

[ArcusVeles]

I think we should take helping newbies understand the game + get started a step further and actually give all the newbie frames to new players, and take them off of planets.

 

Let them pick one of four starting frames (Excal, Rhino, Nyx, Mag) to start the mission off with.  When Lotus does that power surge thing at the start of the tutorial, instead of just giving you infinite energy and making you spam your 1, make it auto-use your chosen suit's level 3 AoE ability and wipe all the enemies in a scripted sort of way to give you a taste of what the suit looks like being a badass (Excal 3, Nyx 4, Rhino 4, Mag 4).  As new players move through each part of the tutorial, give them completed parts of the other three suits they didn't pick along the way, maybe making them loot them out of lockers or scripted crates along with their weapons.  Give new players the feel that they're recovering their Tenno's old suits and weapons from before the long cryosleep, and that it's normal for Tenno to have different weapons and suits for different situations.

 

It'd free up 3-4 planets for new suits (which I think is a better idea than making more purple drops), and give new players a more immersive and comfortable early game to start with (giving them a handful of MK1's and four simple frames to start with).

[ivlr3vil]

My top four choices would be Excalibur, Oberon, Nyx and Mag. Got to have poster boy in the line up, so they might as well add in poster girl, she's the only frame to get another proto skin thus far. Oberon has a healer affect, with a pretty good CC ability that blinds like Excalibur and Confuses like Nyx. Mag is just mag, nothing more to say to that.

[(XBOX)Archibald Jax]

When I got Oberon, I was still pretty new. Honestly, I loved using him, and found him to be easy enough for a beginner to approach. As a bonus, he has a depth that is only appreciated when you have been playing and modding for quite a while, so a solid choice for a fourth starter frame if we get one.

[Aerophys]

I think that Ember should be the fourth starter frame, as she is a caster that does heat damage which falls off pretty quickly, so players should be able to use her to her full effectiveness earlier on.

Banshee's kit will also probably seem very underwhelming to newer players like it did to me when I first crafted her at a low MR (25 energy for the equivalent of a glorified jump attack knockdown...) I always spammed Sonar whenever I had energy for the cool outline effect, hehe...

But I'm on the fence for Nyx, her kit also seems to be pretty "starter-like", but I don't think new players should get such early-access to heavy CC, especially since Loki isn't a starter frame anymore.

I also believe Volt should also remain as one of the starter frames--his kit always struck me as "basic", so to speak. He also looks like he should be a starter frame, if that makes any sense. Oberon has more novelty, though you could argue to replace Volt with Ash.

Edited September 27, 2015 by Aerophys

[Nazrethim]

mmm... this thread is very interesting. I would suggest this starter line-up:

 

Excalibur, Mag, Ash, Trinity

 

Melee, caster, stealth, support.

 

Also, because Ash is ridiculously hard to get (you will probably get Ash Prime BEFORE you get normal Ash) and since Loki is out of the starter line up that leaves begginers without choice when it comes to players expecting stealth. Also Loki is the magikarp of warframes.

[Corvid]

Martin_Moriarty, on 09 Sept 2015 - 8:24 PM, said:

Volt actually seems to be a half-way decent starting frame. His shock gives him a reasonable crowd clearer that dual-functions as a stun through its guaranteed electricity proc. His electric shield provides cover in addition to an increase in damage when he shoots through it, helping to offset the weakness of relatively unmodded weapons. His ult is rather lackluster however, due to its innately low damage, the fact that Volt is stuck in place for its duration, and its reliance on electronic devices for any real damage, which it promptly destroys, preventing effective re-casts.

 

Just want to point out that this hasn't been the case for almost a year. Now he quickly jumps up, releases the pulse, then drops back down again.