Making The Grind A Bit More Tolerable.

[XCodes]

The recent arguments over the aura system has caused me to think about Warframe's grind, and I'm thinking the game could be a little better if the devs took the edge off it in a few different ways for new and veteran players.

For new players, the Aura mod system is a good start.  Having it add potentially 14 capacity is a little silly, but having it add something in the 5-10 range is reasonable and would be a nice, early boost. A starting point would be to tie in some benefits to Mastery Rank, perhaps in place of that starting 50 Plat that I could see new players wasting on dumb stuff and quitting out of frustration over it before they really get into the game.  This could potentially even lead into the eventual, necessary tutorial for the game.
 

For Terminus, the player gets dropped into the game with their basic starter gear: a MK1-Braton, a MK1-Lato (because Lato is actually a decent gun, and I used it way more than I used the MK1-Braton starting out), and the Skana.  These are designed starter weapons and cannot be potatoed, forma'd, or bought for platinum from the market.  Instead, after defeating Vor the player will be given a short tutorial on obtaining new weapons, and will be told to buy a Lato, a Braton BP (make it, with similar build requirements to the Cronus), and to build their Cronus and Braton in the Foundry.  The player is also told that they should continue using their starter gear, since increasing the rank all the way to 30 contributes to Mastery and unlocks more powerful weapons.  To facilitate this, maybe give these three weapons a free, innate affinity boost.

 

After this, bonuses are awarded for reaching ranks beyond 1 (since rank 1 is almost automatic).

2 - A Rejuvenation card and an Uncommon Fusion Core (also, add a tutorial about auras, mods, and mod fusing).

 

3 - An Orokin Catalyst and a Forma (Frame potatoes are way more important than weapon potatoes, and there's no guarantee a player will have gotten one through an alert mission, also this is a good time to tell the player about the way that potatoes and forma work).

 

4 - A Sentinel BP and a Control Module (100,000 credits is kind of a big deal if you don't know about the Void, and Control Modules are kind of a ways away from Terminus these days. I don't THINK someone would reach rank 4 without having access to Control Modules, but it's possible).

5 - Forma'd weapons revert to rank 5 instead of rank 0.  Periodically increase this at higher Mastery ranks.  If you get to Mastery Rank 5, I think it's fair to say that you're a reasonably dedicated Warframe player, and this can make the entertaining bits more prevalent as you continue playing.

 

6+ - Small bonuses, not exactly sure what.  I'm approaching this point, myself, and I think the thing I want most right now would probably be more Fusion Cores.  Can never get enough Fusion Cores.

Edited July 17, 2013 by XCodes

[-Nerf-Herder-]

-For new players, the Aura mod system is a good start.  Having it add potentially 14 capacity is a little silly....-

Uhh new players wouldn't even have an aura card, let alone a maxed out one. Why do we need to bring this up again *cries*

 

 

Like I've stated before, if you don't like it don't use them.

[Winterbraid]

So basically an extended tutorial that ties into the Mastery ranks? Most of the ideas would be nice (Warframe suffers from a chronic shortage of in-game explanations) but I thought the topic was gonna be about grind, and I'm not sure how any of this would affect the grind since most of the things you mention aren't really the biggest part of the grind.

 

Mastery 3 - I'd just give them the starting 50 Plat at that point so that they can save it up or spend it on what they like, preferably a Cat + Reactor. They probably don't need Forma yet but might very likely have both a weapon and a frame that are worth potatoing.

 

Mastery 4 - I dunno, are Sentinels really that necessary to give you one for (almost) free? I've played all my way up to T3 without one, I've always considered them to be more of a luxury item. And I think Control Modules should simply be moved closer to the starting point because making your own frame should be one of your first big goals in this game. 

 

Mastery 5 - Starting at level 5 is not really much in my opinion since that's the equivalent of just a couple Mercury runs. This is where I would give a free Forma or two, or 50 more free Plat, or maybe a one-time special "Forma Prime" that lets you polarize your item without re-leveling (with a clear explanation that it's one-time and normal Forma will require re-leveling). Forma Prime also sounds like a good reward for further Mastery levels.

 

Either way, binding the tutorial to Mastery, or making assumptions on player progress based on Mastery, is sorta flawed since a player can clear most of the game without raising their Mastery much, by just focusing on a few weapons and a single frame. I clear T3s solo and I'm only Mastery 4, soon to hit 5.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Winterbraid

[XCodes]

-For new players, the Aura mod system is a good start.  Having it add potentially 14 capacity is a little silly....-

Uhh new players wouldn't even have an aura card, let alone a maxed out one. Why do we need to bring this up again *cries*

 

 

Like I've stated before, if you don't like it don't use them.

Calm your %$#.  There's 1-2 aura card alerts on a daily basis.  Yes most of their map is locked, but I picked up a Steel Charge pretty early in my time on Warframe and it wasn't a big deal.  Also, if you look like 3 lines after that you see me suggesting that we give people a Rejuvenation card as a rank 2 bonus, which happens after something like 3 hours of gameplay.

Oh, and I'm not raging out over how my frame is worthless because I spent too many forma and too much time ranking it to 30 to polarize every slot only to have it all destroyed by an aura card.  I like the idea that there's a third source of mod points for frames (with the first two being the frame and the potato) since it makes it a lot easier to start out with a new(-ly forma'd), unranked frame, but 14 points really is overkill.

Now, for the guy just above me, I kind agree that higher Mastery levels are not something you'd want to tie to mastery, but you can be reasonably sure that someone will hit Mastery 2 or 3 in fairly short order if you are prompting them to build more frames and weapons and mess around with them.

I agree that the 50 free plat should still be given, but just give it at Rank 3 instead of right off.  I guess I only slightly hinted that I wanted this to be in addition to the 50 free plat, but in place of it wouldn't be too bad, either, if you wind up handing out free Potatoes and Forma instead.

For some of the specific benefits: I guess I can agree on Rank 3.  I see your point on Rank 4, and I'm actually getting kind of annoyed at my Sentinel right now, it just feels like a waste of space half the time.  As for rank 5, I'm aware it's only 10 waves at Xini, but I feel like making such that Forma don't *completely* re-set your weapon's rank is something that should be possible to do in the game, even though it's supposed to be an important decision where you trade power now for more power later... ehh, it's something I think should be in the game but I don't know where to balance it. Too many considerations that I'm not necessarily able to understand.

 

Anyway, basing some tutorial stuff on Ranks 1-3 shouldn't be too big of a stretch, IMO.  Those ranks come pretty fast.  I do agree that a player probably mostly understands the game at Rank 4+, though.