Octavia's Anthem, time limits, and 'new' players.

[WolvenEdge]

I've made another thread in the past poking at DE for the difficulty spikes aimed at older players turning into punishment for newbies, but this time I'm noting that it's becoming a bit of a disturbing trend.

So... a newer player I've been helping through the game wants to try her go for Octavia. She's fought her way to getting the second piece of her music box tonal abilities, and has run into a problem. Low leveled gear does not well deal with Sentients; they tank almost anything she can dish, and she's mostly delt with them via 'outrun' rather than 'outgun', especially considering that the two frames she has available to her aren't exactly tanks themselves. She's a lorehound, much like I am, and I've admittedly been helping her through the story... perhaps this is in part to blame.

On to the mission. Two on the way in... avoided. Two when the console is first found, and the problems begin. The first two follow her in, leaving us with four problems to deal with, and she's forced to play solo, with no way to get the sentients off her tail. This is where she hands me her laptop, and I get to work puzzling out a method for her to get past four battalysts using a Cernos, two brace of Hikou, and Dex Dakra, modded up well with different elements each. If she happened to have been playing for a couple years, and had her mods built up to the point where the gear would serve her well, this would have been a challenge... but where she is in her progression through the game leaves all of this barely shaving pixels off of the sentient fighters' health bars, and we're getting two-shot by whatever ordnance the Battalysts are using.

I then find out that she chose Naramon, and we finally have a door out of the little circle of hell we landed in; have the sentients fight each other, and then take out whatever's left of the highest bidder.

It works! The first two battalysts get taken out, and the last two duke it out. It's actually a great fight, we both commented on the lack of popcorn. What's left of a single sentient wobbles out of the corner of the room with a sliver of health left, the sad winner of a mace-like arrow to whatever's left of its face.
I hand her the keyboard back, and we go to poke the console and solve another musical puzzle, but our favorite leftover from the Great War has a few other plans; two conculysts and another battalyst. By this time the Naramon school skill is charged back up, so we let it rip and settle back to watch the fight.
We then see a sinister black box appear in the center of the screen.

"Mission failure imminent; eliminate the remaining targets."

Epithets and a rousing attempt at Sentient-assisted nyx-icide later, the second half of that feature makes itself known. Mission failed due to timeout.
So... what's wrong with this picture? The trend I've noticed has been a difficulty increase across the entire game.
Spawn rates have noticeably increased in the majority of game modes.
A game mode where you would normally be getting rid of enemies as you go now has continuous enemy spawns, removing the best training grounds that new players had by adding in the ability to be flanked constantly to a mission where that was previously impossible.
Specific enemies (sapping ospreys) having insane levels of multishot, see; https://forums.warframe.com/topic/767472-continued-enemy-notes-spawns-ospreys-enemy-ignis/#comment-8452346

 

I normally wouldn't notice. As a 'veteran' player myself, I've mowed the added elements down and even enjoyed them; they've kept me involved.
They're also making the game a pretty solid nightmare for players who don't have the experience with shooters or early warframe playtime to compe

So, I have been brainstorming all night, and have come up with a few ways to make Warframe a challenge for players who have been here a while, while still allowing the new players the chance to become veterans without having to climb over a learning curve that's looking more and more like Pride Rock's profile.

 

My personal solution;

Newer players can be here for the lore as much as the action genre, so give them some lore earlier on. Lotus is notoriously tight-lipped... but that doesn't mean we can't pry at least some information on who the Orokin were and how things like Kuva worked (I ended up drinking the stuff as a symbol, nothing more... imagine my shame when I found out that I'd just gone through with essentially becoming an Orokin completely unaware. Ick.), maybe not referred to by name, but some hints along the way would be nice.

Either remove the time limit on non-endless missions (it foils someone who's trying to figure new puzzles out as well) or make it so any quest that has Sentient fighters as a necessary kill rather than a potential distract/avoid has the War Within as a prereq. Giving the Tenno School abilities some added bonuses against Sentients would be nice as well, but comes as a secondary solution compared to the other two.. As of right now, trying to take out Sentient units is very time-consuming if you don't have access to operator abilities, and that combined with the time limit is lethal to newer gamers, so one of these factors needs adjusting. Removing the time limit would also remove a pretty major punishment from using tactics other than 'Rhino Smash.'

The difficulty increases are lovely for older Warframe players, I understand that. Veterans need things to keep them involved, and many are complaining that the game has become too easy for them. So hows about we make Mastery rank and progress in story lore actually mean something, no? These increases in spawn rate and the addition of new units can be linked directly to mastery rank and story quests pretty directly. We've had quests to introduce new units pretty consistantly throughout Warframe's development, why not use them? Ergo; if a new player goes through moldy salad's questline, mutalist enemies begin to spawn for them, whereas if they haven't gotten that far in the story, then logically those units wouldn't be there in their timeline. Further, as a player grows, their reputation grows as well; they go from being unknown, to being a threat, to being an outright walking nightmare... and their enemies send more and better units after them as a result. Yes; I'm saying that enemy spawn rates should be directly linked to a player's mastery rank, so the more of a living hell you are to your enemies, the harder they try to swarm you out.

The third suggestion would bring up another issue; taxi-ing. I'm very guilty of this, as a newer player who wants some lore gets my sympathy right away, and I'm more than willing to bring them into areas they normally wouldn't have access to yet in order to give them some of the lore they're craving. I think that the game should prioritize the lower mastery rank and story progression when it comes to spawns, as when I'm bringing someone along, I'm there to help, not to have my mere presence bring hell down upon their heads.

 

This is just what I'd like to see happen, but I admit this is just from a few hours of sleep and thought, and only from my perspective.
Thoughts or further ideas would be very much appreciated.

[Sintag]

Some hints when dealing with Sentients BTW

 

VALKYR.  Hysteria deals equal IPS+E, meaning you can whale on Sentients without worrying too much about damage resistances.  The same generally goes for all "Exalted" weapons, but Valkyr is invulnerable while Hysteria is active.  Just be sure to grab the cores and periodically disengage to restore efficiency and avoid dropping out with several hundred damage stacked against you.

 

If you feel up for gunning and have beaten TWW, Op's Void Lazors reset Sentient weaknesses as well as do damage.  This even works on Shadow Stalker.

 

Bring a very powerful semi-auto weapon, it reduces the odds of the Sentients eating more damage types per fight.

 

That's about it.

[WolvenEdge]

8 minutes ago, Sintag said:

Some hints when dealing with Sentients BTW

 

VALKYR.  Hysteria deals equal IPS+E, meaning you can whale on Sentients without worrying too much about damage resistances.  The same generally goes for all "Exalted" weapons, but Valkyr is invulnerable while Hysteria is active.  Just be sure to grab the cores and periodically disengage to restore efficiency and avoid dropping out with several hundred damage stacked against you.

 

If you feel up for gunning and have beaten TWW, Op's Void Lazors reset Sentient weaknesses as well as do damage.  This even works on Shadow Stalker.

 

Bring a very powerful semi-auto weapon, it reduces the odds of the Sentients eating more damage types per fight.

 

That's about it.

I am aware, and have made allusions to many of these points in the OP, the exception being Valkyr.
The friend I'm watching/helping does not have access to any of these methods, so 'rhino smash' isn't a tactics option available to her as of yet.