[Suggestion] Show New Players the Variety of this Game

[KaeseSchnitte]

Back story: I am trying to get a few friends to play Warframe, but they stopped playing before they even crafted their second Warframe or their second weapon. I'd like to be able to show them the variety Warframe offers without having to spend platinum to just buy them different frames or weapons.

The idea is to give new players (players under a certain mastery rank) insight on how varied Warframes and weapons can be, so I thought about a couple of suggestions on how that could be achievend:

Free of the Week: A few Warframes and weapons will be free for everyone to try out for one week. During that week you can do everything with them you could do, if you owned them (except selling ofcourse). After that, those items will be locked again and a new batch of items becomes free. Potatoes, Formas, Exilus Adapters or Lenses (if that is possible) used on those items will be saved and if you unlock those items further down the road by yourself, they will be how you last modified them.

Loaning: A player can loan other players weapons or Warframes for one mission for them to try out. This should be mastery locked and limited to a certain number of times per week to prevent exploitation. A loaned item oughtn't be customizable by the receiver and not be usable by the loaner.

Edited November 19, 2016 by KaeseSchnitte

[Dogefighter]

I'd like to see something like that as well.

[Rounpositron]

^

[(PSN)DesecratedFlame]

1 hour ago, KaeseSchnitte said:

Free of the Week

NO!

That said, I always wondered why DE didn't let people try out all three starter frames before picking one. That's why I mistakenly picked and was almost stuck with the abomination that was Mag. If I didn't get the free plat from PS+ that let me afford Volt for free, I probably would have quite WF right then and there.

[KaeseSchnitte]

4 minutes ago, (PS4)DesecratedFlame said:

NO!

That said, I always wondered why DE didn't let people try out all three starter frames before picking one. That's why I mistakenly picked and was almost stuck with the abomination that was Mag. If I didn't get the free plat from PS+ that let me afford Volt for free, I probably would have quite WF right then and there.

Well, if you have a better idea, then I'd love to hear it. I just find it frustrating to console my freinds with what they might unlock in the future.

[(PSN)DesecratedFlame]

7 minutes ago, KaeseSchnitte said:

Well, if you have a better idea, then I'd love to hear it. I just find it frustrating to console my freinds with what they might unlock in the future.

1. Let players try every starter frame and weapon before they pick the ones they want to stick with.

2. Add a simulator option to the market, where players can spawn an enemy and use the market weapon against them before deciding whether to buy it or the BP for it.

[TheScytale]

1 hour ago, KaeseSchnitte said:

Free of the Week: A few Warframes and weapons will be free for everyone to try out for one week. During that week you can do everything with them you could do, if you owned them (except selling ofcourse). After that, those items will be locked again and a new batch of items becomes free. Potatoes, Formas, Exilus Adapters or Lenses (if that is possible) used on those items will be saved and if you unlock those items further down the road by yourself, they will be how you last modified them.

That underlined part could be a big problem. The main reason we buy slots is because we're using up DE's storage data on the servers. Having those changes saved (customization and/or mods) would mean using up space without buying slots, and if people don't end up liking the item, chances are they won't buy slots for it and huge chunks of data would be stored in vain.

1 hour ago, KaeseSchnitte said:

Loaning: A player can loan other players weapons or Warframes for one mission for them to try out. This should be mastery locked and limited to a certain number of times per week to prevent exploitation. A loaned item oughtn't be customizable by the receiver and not be usable by the loaner.

I was surprised to read this because it was the next thing that came to my mind after your first suggestion. Another way to make it would be a clan dojo's simulacrum where you use the owning clan's gear (again without the possibility to modify it). Those clannies would need to flag the item as "usable" first though, if for whatever reason they wouldn't like people to use their gear. This could also eliminate exploitation as you're not using it in a mission at all.

Edited November 19, 2016 by TheScytale

[KaeseSchnitte]

1 hour ago, TheScytale said:

That underlined part could be a big problem. The main reason we buy slots is because we're using up DE's storage data on the servers. Having those changes saved (customization and/or mods) would mean using up space without buying slots, and if people don't end up liking the item, chances are they won't buy slots for it and huge chunks of data would be stored in vain.

I don't think that storage is a huge issue nowadays. First of all, the existence of slots is probably due to them earning money off of it and in a time where there are 2TB of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute (I think) I don't think that storage space is much of a hassle. Also I don't think that people wouldn't buy the frames they tested. I for one didn't start playing this game with the intention to own everything, but now I own every Warframe and a lot of weapons. After all, the suggestion was meant to "lure" new players, to let them taste the variety of this game.

[DrBorris]

3 hours ago, (PS4)DesecratedFlame said:

1. Let players try every starter frame and weapon before they pick the ones they want to stick with.

2. Add a simulator option to the market, where players can spawn an enemy and use the market weapon against them before deciding whether to buy it or the BP for it.

This is honestly all that is needed, except maybe more Warframe and Weapon slots for new players. Two Warframes was fine when there were 8 in total, but at this point two is so limiting that it is not even enough time for new players to understand the diversity of Warframe. At least three if not 4 would be much more appropriate for having a roster of 30 frames. I doubt that 40 platinum per new player account would have any affect on the money DE makes, and it would probably help with new plyer retention.

 

Free Warframe of the week has far too many problems associated with it (like MR) and loaning is honestly too restrictive, especially to a solo player.

[(PSN)DesecratedFlame]

1 minute ago, DrBorris said:

except maybe more Warframe and Weapon slots for new players.

Honestly, I think new players should start with 4 frame slots.

[polarity]

They could also bring a number of frames' drop locations to points much earlier on in the game, as well as adjusting their resource requirements so that by the end of a player's first week, they have a very good chance of owning a second frame, and being well on the way to their third, without needing any help from anyone else, or needing to go out of their way to farm the resources.

Hell, give players ALL of the frames and weapons they could choose between in the tutorial (without it taking from the number of spare slots they currently get), and I bet you new player retention will go through the roof.

Edited November 19, 2016 by polarity

[Gelkor]

6 hours ago, (PS4)DesecratedFlame said:

NO!

That said, I always wondered why DE didn't let people try out all three starter frames before picking one. That's why I mistakenly picked and was almost stuck with the abomination that was Mag. If I didn't get the free plat from PS+ that let me afford Volt for free, I probably would have quite WF right then and there.

I think the reason why DE doesn't do this, or something like OP's suggestion, is because of they way they've designed inventory and inventory management in WF.

They've never done anything like that before which leads me to believe it's a technical thing.

That said, I've long been a proponent of the idea that Starter Warframes, like the starter weapons, should be purchasable whole (or maybe as helmet/chassis/systems) from the Market for credits only. This would be a good way for people to try out the other starters, and introduce them to building Warframes, and clear up drop tables for future frames. They should have more starter WF slots too.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Gelkor

[Shalath]

Totally agree here. I picked the starter frame and weapon based on what a friend told me to pick after me telling him what my play style would probably be so luckily I got a solid frame. I had gotten a bad frame I probably wouldn't have kept playing. As I play mostly solo I didn't see other frames much and thought those 3 starter frames were it until I saw the list my friend had. That and a look around the market gave me something to work towards but it still took too long to get to the point where I would have been able to build anything. In the end I bought a Rhino for plat just so I could switch things up.