New Player Expierence, How To Improve It.

[TeaBegging]

So as I watched, the Prime Time 104 yesterday. I saw a small suggestion from a player saying that DE should explain the void to new players by doing so with a quest.  And jugding by their responses I was worried.

Honestly my personal opinion on this is, that this is not the way you should introduce the new players to warframe. The void has is more 'lategame' content than anything else. And showing this or explaining this right at the start is rushing to much content right ahead.

Before I am ganna start I want to mention some points about my total hours. And my first player expierence. And what kept me motivating to stay at that time. 

 

First off all: Total Hours played:3265

My first Expierence: When I started warframe, which was dated way back in 25 AUG 2013. We had an option to select with Loki, excalibur, and volt if i'm not wrong. I went with Loki. And it instantly became my favorite frame and I enjoyed it reason being was that I could cloak and be invisible and benefit from this huge adventage. Back then power there was only one power duration. And I didn't had any knowlegde about what I was doing. I Came to the game by an old friend that was playing at the time. Gladly he helped me trough alot and explained the majority. The things that he explained were the Don't spend the starter plat. Keep those for inventory slots and warframe slots. Sadly I already bought one cataylst before he told me and used on Braton. I played some couple matches went public and I was playing with people who already had maxed out gear and were killing the boss for me because I couldn't kill it with other starting players. We didnt had enough time to rank our items to rank 30 and neither did we had good mods to do actual damage. But after that all happened I started using the wiki as a big resource to warframe knowlegde. I started to enjoy the game more and played Loki for 2 months, Trying out different mods, builds getting the most out off the frame/weapons. And this made me even enjoy the game more seeing that I had so much diversity in my builds back then.

So lets get to the point what kept me motivated to stay and play, I myself have played loads off 'F2P' games. But Warframe was the standout top tier promosing Free to play game. It has weekly content, It has an active playerbase. You can obtion anything by playing (cosmetics aside) Which later was added as well by a NPC Trader. The diversity is insane in this game, Quests. daily objectives. Community based events/ normal events. beautiful envirement. And a very energetic Dev team. Not to forget ofcourse Friends.

 

Now to how to improve the game for starting players.

Starter frames: All off them should be showcasing their abilties instead off just by text. Some might not read it or some would regret what they have chosen. And might quit for this reason. or give them the option the change the starting frame at any time.

After frame selection, and miniquest.

Immediatly explain modding, fusing mods, transmutating mods,
Second show how the foundry works how to obtian blueprints. Where to get resources.
After all this is explained give the new players. A starter kit, we know they get broken mods. but that isn't enough. They should get starter credits like 100k, some base resources to immediatly starting to craft first weapon. So the player can expierence that right after it has been shown by himself.
Mk-1 weapons should come with patato. So the player can have more mod space and freedom to get the best out off their weapon. Also in the starter kit should be 1 week affinity booster along with credit booster. this should help them level their new stuff asap.

Make Mercury, a new player base planet. explain every mission node. not by just text but by letting them actually play.
For example first mission is lets say Capture, explain them in detail whats the objective what to do when you complete the objective. Explain the minimap the entire hud show a trail how to get to the extraction. Incase players get lost.
Then next mission is Deception etc etc. untill all missions have passed. Finanly the player will come to the first boss encounter. Tell them why its important to assassinate the boss what they can be rewarded with. Also explain some tactics, boss weaknesses.

After all off this, they should have been to know how to get new frames, by killing boss unlocking new missions. Upgrading their weapons/frames. So whats next? Mostly likely they will hit rank 2 soon!? so explain them how to trade, where to trade. How to start a clan dojo or join one.

Now after they learned all of these stuff whats next, now the suggestion off the void explanition by quests will work. After they got to learn all the basics by practising themselfs. and not only text based like on wiki but by actually playing.

Other Pros I would like to add to make the game more attractive for starters.

Mercury Tileset, Make it happen. ASAP. Because its the first tileset they get into it should give them a WOW reaction.
Update the game UI, I know this already did happen but he current one we have is filled with bugs, and has small numbers/explanition. Bad for people who have dyslexie.
Diverse the high ranked players away from the new ones, mostly because they will rush/ kill things to fast to actually enjoy the game themselfs.
Update the in game hud, The map is to basic, many times it confuses me as a veteran let alone what it will do for new players. Confusion mostly happens when it says I need to go up and then when I am up it tell me to go down.


I know this might be a very basic guide. explaining these things to new players will help them alot. And I could go more in depth but it will require far more writing and my english isn't that great aswell.

 

TL'DR; Here I tried to explain atleast what direction DE should take to make the game more interesting for new players.


There are far many things left out that I can't remember now, but feel free to add them here. I see this player expierence as a community goal. So we all should contribute to this and express our thoughts and Ideas. Maybe a make this a MEGA Suggestion Thread.

 

Edited January 29, 2016 by TeaBegging

[Wingblaze21]

I realize this won't be a very satisfying response, but here it is.

 

If you think back to what this game was a year ago, or more, you realize how much DE has done to improve the new player experience (and the player experience in general). Things used to be crude, you jumped in, sink or swim. You googled things and got the hang of a number of systems that had no tutorials and were not that intuitive. Over time DE improved these things.

 

And over time, I'm sure they will continue to do so. Their past behavior has made me willing to take this on faith and not worry about it too much.

[TeaBegging]

I realize this won't be a very satisfying response, but here it is.

 

If you think back to what this game was a year ago, or more, you realize how much DE has done to improve the new player experience (and the player experience in general). Things used to be crude, you jumped in, sink or swim. You googled things and got the hang of a number of systems that had no tutorials and were not that intuitive. Over time DE improved these things.

 

And over time, I'm sure they will continue to do so. Their past behavior has made me willing to take this on faith and not worry about it too much.

Yea mostly likely, but giving some usefull suggestions/creative ones that you didn't had seen as a new player would improve their pattern.

[Anatolius]

Ive always said that DE needs to do better at explaining basic concepts and not being afraid to nudge players in the right direction.

Do more quests. More dialogue. A text box in the codex should not equal a tutorial. Something as simple as asking the player to fuse a small pack of common cores to rank up redirecton a few levels is more than enough to help explain the importance of fusing and moding.

The boss nod should show which frame drops what.

The wiki should not be the resources to learn basic game mechanics but to expand on them.

(Which isnt new players fault if tgey come on the wiki and ask how to do things, it just means the gane has failed to lay down a proper foundation).

[Madway7]

If Mercury or any of the planets became a new player friendly zone or a tutorial planet, it would have to be removed from alerts (also needs explaining), sorties (also needs explaining) and currently possible Acolyte hunting location.

I agree with the potato idea though, you should get 3 catalysts (or just 1) and 1 reactor from saving Darvo and be tought (yeah basically forced) to use it/them on your starter frame/weapons.

If I do remember correctly you are given a small description on how modding/ranking mods works in the beginning. Though I think it's missing polarization and explaining what forma is.

This game seems more contempt on show now learn later though... like the focus system. Hurray, you finished the quest and unlocked the focus system! Well, what are you waiting for? Go use it... now?

Edited January 29, 2016 by Madway7

[Talys]

Outside of the explaining things better, what initially drove me off as a new player was the lock in I was feeling with my starter frame and weapons. You get a new sword blueprint pretty early on, but it takes awhile to farm up the basic materials for it. And I got completely bored with the lack of player options and basically quit the game.

 

Coming back recently after playing a little more I've farmed enough resources and credits to start to unlock more weapons. I also bought/spent some plat to open up a second frame(Excaliber because it's cheap), get some different mods(stances), and have gotten to the point where I'm building my first frame(Mag). The game is MUCH more fun now. 

 

I really think there should be quest lines that walk players through and give the resources for building new weapons and a second frame. Also it'd probably help to throw players some specific damaged mods up front so players can feel some choice in the mod system. It's sort of silly to need to play 40+ hours before you might see your first usable stance or get an aura. I think throwing players some starter damaged auras, elemental damages and stances wouldn't hurt progression any. 

[(XBOX)Bixits]

I think joining an active clan is the best thing. I did that on PS4 and was tutored and mentored for a long time. We would run 50 minute void survivals or defense and they'd help me lvl a frame or weapon from 1-30 in a single match. But as I'm starting over on the Xbox I realized that if I hadn't already been a veteran player I would have no clue what I was doing. I hadn't played in a good six months and I came back and my ship has a new level on it and other things I was so confused lol. But they really need a better tutorial system, I think new players would stick around much longer (especially those without an active and helpful clan).