RNG vs. Disposable Time

[(PSN)Alphonso-Alonso]

So I've made salty posts about a few game mechanics before (Ramparts/stunlocking/Bursa hacking minigame during a fire fight), but a not-so-opinionated topic came up whenever I was playing with the girlfriend recently and I'd like some input...

Both of us recently started new jobs and it's gotten where our gaming time is rather limited in favor of real time together. When we do have time to play we obviously share an enjoyment for Warframe. 

 

The issue? Well. She's been trying to get Ivara.

 

Since The Second Dream Launch :\...

 

So yeah, for about 3 months now she's been trying to get Ivara from spy missions and we've used the tried and true Reddit Tour of Spy missions (Lex, Tikoloshe, forget the last one) that basically takes you on the same ship with the same relative expediency. I've offered on many occasions to just buy Ivara but she's adamant that if do that then "They" win. Before anyone yells at me, calm down, It was a joke at first but now it appears that platinum is the only real solution anymore and it's lost all meaning as to why we even grind to begin with. 

 

Combine that with the fact that we both don't have a lot of time to spare and it's becoming very clear that we are enjoying time gaming with other titles where we know exactly where each minute/hour/night is going to go. 

 

For instance, in spite of a perfectly good game we could have played, we were convinced that we HAD to play the Shadow Debt event. I use the term "had to" because it was the only window in which the Acolyte Mods were going to be available. So we did that- and grinded our little hearts out to get assorted prizes. The most prestigious (to me at least) was a tie between Hydraulic Crosshairs and Body Count/Blood Rush. But through the entire event we were genuinely struggling through each boss fight or spy mission, annoyed almost that we had to spend out time doing this mission or else miss out on the event mods. 

"Well it's either this or Ivara, I guess..." She muttered at one point. I tried to offer something else but we really didn't need/want Ducats and Ceres was not exactly all that fun with Ramparts randomly killing us with a combination of DPS/DoT/Pre-fire. Bursas are just a middle-finger. Juggernauts can be fun but the cramped quarters tend to work against us more times than not so the idea of fighting a hulking being in such a cramped space is more awkward than epic. 

 

At the end of the Shadow Debt event we did get some mods but the overall experience really made us rethink what we want to spend our time doing whenever we have the spare couple of hours to play together. It's actually more preferable to play games we've already played before just to have good experiences versus playing really meticulous tasks FOR xp/rewards/rng rolls. Back when we could kill a weekend or a day off grinding this game was amazing but these days when we only have so much time, it's like we play the game because we HAVE to, not because we genuinely WANT to. 

 

Anyone else experience this?

[notlamprey]

That wasn't my takeaway from hunting the parts for Ivara, but it's very much a YMMV situation.

I tend to find Spy 2.0 pretty relaxing and get through the missions quickly. It's a decent-enough alternative to Draco when you have something to level, and it probably took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 total missions to get all the parts.

The thought of buying Ivara never crossed my mind.

Regarding the bigger question...

I actually do think there are a number of games that give you more for your time than Warframe does. Part of the reason I stick around is the fact that I have a big clan with people who occasionally do things that entertain me or make my game experience better in some way. I'm of the opinion that Warframe has developed a bit of a "donut hole" problem. People who have bottomless wells of free time to play, as well as those with ample disposable income, have a good chance of finding this game rewarding.

The rest, who work normal jobs and don't want to sink hundreds into the game, aren't going to find as much to enjoy these days. In truth, there are other games I regularly find more enjoyable to play than Warframe lately.

I would be interested in trying a fresh account to test the "new player experience," but my feeling as I sit at the far end of the "accomplishment curve" is that I don't have much to do these days besides rote maintenance. Log in, briefly check to see if anything interesting is going on, maybe run a few missions, log out.

How "complete" would you say your arsenal is?

I've noticed that a few of the problems I used to have with Warframe's apparent lack of "reward for time" can be mitigated (or perhaps outright solved) by the acquisition and customization of equipment. In a nutshell, cheese. Having access to all the top gamebreaking loadouts tends to assure that your work in game will be mostly painless. Having said that, why continue playing the game if there's nothing left to do but break the content?

Basically, trying to play this game "for fun" is becoming less and less feasible as time goes on. The design pushes us to be "efficiency-oriented," which removes our intrinsic motivation for playing the game. I almost can't even put myself in the headspace of "let's just do this mission because I feel like it" anymore; everything has become all about getting the most out of my time spent here. That's a shame, because it doesn't matter what DE designs for us when we're trained to think about how to break their content just so we can get through it all in our limited time.

[Uzpian]

Y'know what? DE should remove Ivara's main bp in Spy and move it to the market.

[Urska]

6 hours ago, (PS4)El__Lobo_Loco said:

So I've made salty posts about a few game mechanics before (Ramparts/stunlocking/Bursa hacking minigame during a fire fight), but a not-so-opinionated topic came up whenever I was playing with the girlfriend recently and I'd like some input...

Both of us recently started new jobs and it's gotten where our gaming time is rather limited in favor of real time together. When we do have time to play we obviously share an enjoyment for Warframe. 

............................................................etc

i do think the over alertuim being used OVER N OVER is really bad due to ppl DO have lives.... however. you could save up prime parts, get ton of Void trader stuff. then sell it for plate later, or sell the prime parts for quick plate. then just by her with it

 

this is off topic but how are you guys not banned yet? before someone freaks out. i seen n hear stories of a couple or roommates both playing warframe and one or both geting banned for some how being seen as cheating due to having 2 accounts. and staff not being helpful at all... will be asking DE support soonish about this though. i have friends that come over n play n all irl

[Marvelous_A]

Grinding? Fine.

RNG? Fine (most of the time).

Grinding AND RNG? OH GOD PLEASE NO JUST KILL ME FFS. The new event is the perfect embodiment of this. Grind for points and pray to RNGesus for getting good mods in assasination. It's just terrible.

[(PSN)robotwars7]

I actually traded until I could buy Ivara. had the Systems and Helm, but I was closer to affording her in the market, and I CBA to do the Spy Missions just for the Chassis.

I usually a reasonable amount of time, so as long as I stay dedicated, i usually get what I want. eventually... goddamn Sheev parts..

 

[Eminem2420]

I used to have that issue but since I've been running spy missions for fun and to level gear, I have more parts than I know what to do with. If you don't focus on the grinding and focus on playing for fun l, then you will have a much better time.

[UnderFiend]

I feel you. I play a lot but my partner doesn't. Shortly after Ivara and Nezah's release, and after a few Sorties, we didn't get any parts for either frame. While neither of us ever bought a frame in the 3+ years we played, I just decided to buy my partner both frames - which they also did for me - and justified it as "I still haven't bought a frame for myself".

It made me a little sad, and now after running countless Sorties I have at least two Nezah sets which will make up for the cost but... yea, I wish I had gotten Ivara via spy missions. I still don't have a single piece, and my partner is still short a Snipertron Vandal Barrel which we may be out of time to get soon. Never mind the new landing craft parts - one from Hunters that rarely ever show and rarely ever drop the parts, and one from sabotages that I've yet to get anything special from; on top of that, I've read that Extract drops from sabotage missions rarely drop.

I get that DE wants to streach out content so we don't get everything immediately and then are bored or quit, but the RNG Grind needs to go. At the least, give us some high-level tiered content like the current Rathuum event where we can win what we want without the RNG. Some Devstreams ago, they mentioned possibly instituting a token system for rewards. I feel that may fix some of the issue but not really if they just end up pulling this again later for other items, or not all the rare items are obtainable via this system.

[Jerakl]

If you were on PC I would say HMU bc I love doing spy missions.

 

I got Ivara p quickly, like within 6 hours of farming (5 minutes per run about).

GL fam.

[BlackCoMerc]

15 hours ago, (PS4)El__Lobo_Loco said:

So I've made salty posts about a few game mechanics before (Ramparts/stunlocking/Bursa hacking minigame during a fire fight), but a not-so-opinionated topic came up whenever I was playing with the girlfriend recently and I'd like some input...

Both of us recently started new jobs and it's gotten where our gaming time is rather limited in favor of real time together. When we do have time to play we obviously share an enjoyment for Warframe. 

 

The issue? Well. She's been trying to get Ivara.

 

Since The Second Dream Launch :\...

 

So yeah, for about 3 months now she's been trying to get Ivara from spy missions and we've used the tried and true Reddit Tour of Spy missions (Lex, Tikoloshe, forget the last one) that basically takes you on the same ship with the same relative expediency. I've offered on many occasions to just buy Ivara but she's adamant that if do that then "They" win. Before anyone yells at me, calm down, It was a joke at first but now it appears that platinum is the only real solution anymore and it's lost all meaning as to why we even grind to begin with. 

 

Combine that with the fact that we both don't have a lot of time to spare and it's becoming very clear that we are enjoying time gaming with other titles where we know exactly where each minute/hour/night is going to go. 

 

For instance, in spite of a perfectly good game we could have played, we were convinced that we HAD to play the Shadow Debt event. I use the term "had to" because it was the only window in which the Acolyte Mods were going to be available. So we did that- and grinded our little hearts out to get assorted prizes. The most prestigious (to me at least) was a tie between Hydraulic Crosshairs and Body Count/Blood Rush. But through the entire event we were genuinely struggling through each boss fight or spy mission, annoyed almost that we had to spend out time doing this mission or else miss out on the event mods. 

"Well it's either this or Ivara, I guess..." She muttered at one point. I tried to offer something else but we really didn't need/want Ducats and Ceres was not exactly all that fun with Ramparts randomly killing us with a combination of DPS/DoT/Pre-fire. Bursas are just a middle-finger. Juggernauts can be fun but the cramped quarters tend to work against us more times than not so the idea of fighting a hulking being in such a cramped space is more awkward than epic. 

 

At the end of the Shadow Debt event we did get some mods but the overall experience really made us rethink what we want to spend our time doing whenever we have the spare couple of hours to play together. It's actually more preferable to play games we've already played before just to have good experiences versus playing really meticulous tasks FOR xp/rewards/rng rolls. Back when we could kill a weekend or a day off grinding this game was amazing but these days when we only have so much time, it's like we play the game because we HAVE to, not because we genuinely WANT to. 

 

Anyone else experience this?

This is a mirror of what my girl and I are going through.

We live coop gaming. We enjoy Warframe. But we DO NOT enjoy having to run the same mission types over and over, hoping for rewards and losing out to RNG.

At first it only bothered me. Long as she could blow up enemies she was good. But as events more and more focus on tedious damage sponges who one shot players - as the game becomes more tedious - it's REALLY grating on her.

Me, I cone and go with games. Been through one three month hiatus already. But not her. Once the tedium pushes her away from a thing that's it. Done. You don't get second chances.

And once she is gone, we both are. I certainly don't enjoy grind enough to keep doing it alone.

Now if I can keep her talked out of The Division until DE hopefully fixes things...