Warframe suffers when you play with less than 4 people

[Inmemoratus]

So I've mostly played Warframe with my friend who introduced me to the game. We prefer to just 2 man everything, but the problem is Warframe seems to be designed to favor playing with 4. With the latest update some aspects of the game now push for full squads more than before.

Void Fissures are great imo, but it's hard for my friend and I to really enjoy them with only the two of us. We only get 2 chances at rewards if we don't find 2 more people. With public matchmaking, the pubs can bring whatever they want so they probably won't bring anything we care about. Not only that, but we don't enjoy playing with random people. We've been talking about getting other friends into the game, which I'm sure, DE, you must love to hear in this feedback. But the fact remains that the experience leaves something to be desired for people who only want to play with 1 friend, or have trouble matching schedules with enough friends to fill a squad.

So basically what it boils down to is, the game isn't flexible for people who want to stick with their friends and not play with strangers from public matchmaking or recruiting. We are forced to choose between rewards or the Warframe experience we want.

[Eldnacpeek]

Also add on the fact that spawn rates are significantly higher with 3-4 people than 1-2, which is also a vital aspect of gameplay (xp gain, resource drops). I agree with you overall, there is no incentive for playing solo or duo other than simply playing. When it comes down to rewards, it appears one has to sacrifice their enjoyment of the game for the gains (only speaking of those who solo/duo, such as myself).

[Inmemoratus]

Just now, LazerSkink said:

Also add on the fact that spawn rates are significantly higher with 3-4 people than 1-2, which is also a vital aspect of gameplay (xp gain, resource drops). I agree with you overall, there is no incentive for playing solo or duo other than simply playing. When it comes down to rewards, it appears one has to sacrifice their enjoyment of the game for the gains (only speaking of those who solo/duo, such as myself).

Thank you, I was totally going to talk about this too. It's a big deal for us as well.

[Trowicia]

That seems to be a trend in co op games nowadays.
I feel like Tom Clancy's The Division is another example of a game designed to be played with others (preferably friends) since soloing or duoing effectively is virtually nil.

[Inmemoratus]

2 minutes ago, Trowicia said:

That seems to be a trend in co op games nowadays.
I feel like Tom Clancy's The Division is another example of a game designed to be played with others (preferably friends) since soloing or duoing effectively is virtually nil.

I guess they think it will get people to invite their friends to play, but it equally turns people off who have trouble matching schedules between more than 2 people concurrently, so it's a bad strategy imo.

[Borg1611]

I mostly play solo or with one other friend as well and really wish the game wasn't quite so punishing in terms of efficiency for smaller groups. That's one of the things I always hated about D3 (post RoS) also. 

A solution to the spawn rates I think would be adding the equivalent to D2's /players 8 command to the UI somewhere so a smaller group can choose to face the same spawn rates of a larger group. If you could choose four player spawn rates as a solo player or smaller group, that would be awesome. 

I think another nice feature would be to allow groups of any size to equip up to 4 relics for a fissure so that 1-3 players could still bring 4. IE: if you're in a 2 player group you could both equip two relics and still get to choose from four rewards. You'd still be at a disadvantage in that you'd have to spend more of your own relics, but at least it wouldn't feel as bad as not getting to get as many RNG rolls per game as larger groups. 

[FrackingBiscuit]

16 minutes ago, LazerSkink said:

Also add on the fact that spawn rates are significantly higher with 3-4 people than 1-2, which is also a vital aspect of gameplay (xp gain, resource drops). I agree with you overall, there is no incentive for playing solo or duo other than simply playing. When it comes down to rewards, it appears one has to sacrifice their enjoyment of the game for the gains (only speaking of those who solo/duo, such as myself).

Lately I feel like this problem is most pronounced in Excavation missions.  Unlike survival, which has a high tempo and allows you to have better control over respawns to maintain life support, in Excavation enemies trickle in for single players.  Progression is constantly halted as you wait for power cell carriers to spawn.

[Inmemoratus]

3 minutes ago, FrackingBiscuit said:

Lately I feel like this problem is most pronounced in Excavation missions.  Unlike survival, which has a high tempo and allows you to have better control over respawns to maintain life support, in Excavation enemies trickle in for single players.  Progression is constantly halted as you wait for power cell carriers to spawn.

It's a problem in interception too. It seems like the spawn rates suffer more than most other mission types.

[LuckyCharm]

I do this too, I duo with a friend all the time since we don't really know anyone who plays this game very well. Biggest issue I find is Survival missions, since they're easily duoable, but you end up getting split enemy spawns if we split up, where one person will fight a hoarde of enemies, and the other will have litterally no enemies around them for a long time. I've run out of melee combo counter time a ton just because enemies have spawned at my friend instead of me. 

[JohnnyQuantum]

I mainly PUG, and 90+% of the time don't have any problem with it.

[Inmemoratus]

6 minutes ago, JohnnyQuantum said:

I mainly PUG, and 90+% of the time don't have any problem with it.

It's not that I have issues with people I get from pugging. I just don't like to play with strangers. My friend feels the same way.

[Recel]

2 hours ago, Borg1611 said:

I think another nice feature would be to allow groups of any size to equip up to 4 relics for a fissure so that 1-3 players could still bring 4. IE: if you're in a 2 player group you could both equip two relics and still get to choose from four rewards. You'd still be at a disadvantage in that you'd have to spend more of your own relics, but at least it wouldn't feel as bad as not getting to get as many RNG rolls per game as larger groups. 

 

This I would love to have. I don't mind spending more time doing missions, often I actually prefer it, which is why I run solo almost exclusively nowadays. You just can't explore or take even a bit of time on something with random players. It's always rushing.

[Kotsender_Quasimir]

i agree spawnrates don't properly reflect participating player numbers resulting in substandard loot aquisition (and if that loot sustains the actual mission like energy cells / life support: artificial drawing out) as well as lack of challenge in solo play.

some sort of option would be appreciated.

[Rambit23Z]

I've had a similar situation. For the longest time I've always rushed due to my solo playing. Today one of my friends who played with me since U7 decided to start again, and I was having more fun in even generic missions. I have a third friend who is also picking it up again.

That's still not the ideal 4 (especially due to schedules). Therefor, I totally agree.