New Player Experience - Quest Tutorial Should Be Better

[Ascythian]

It should be a whole lot better. It should really be a priority for DE after PoE to fix. 

There are a lot of things in it that new players WILL miss because of bad design.

 

1. Who though it was a good idea to place the controls physically on the map?

New players miss these ALL the time because they are soaking in the new world and walk past them without knowing they are there??

Place them directly on the UI and make sure they see it and ideally use the control to make the control text disappear.

 

2 Rolling not explained. Bullet jumping not explained. Bullet Time not explained. Why should new players go to the Codex to train for these by now basic Warframe movements?

These should be inserted into the tutorial post haste.

 

3. A couple more starter Warframe's to choose might be a good idea. Rhino and Nova?

 

4. Remove damaged mods maybe?

 

5. Tell new players that the Codex exists.

 

6. Don't default to region chat while starting to avoid spoilers.

 

7. Keep it on solo play for the duration of the tutorial mission?

 

 

Edited September 18, 2017 by Ascythian

[InDueTime-EN-]

7 minutes ago, Ascythian said:

1. Who though it was a good idea to place the controls physically on the map?

New players miss these ALL the time because they are soaking in the new world and walk past them without knowing they are there??

Place them directly on the UI and make sure they see it and ideally use the control to make the control text disappear.

 

I guess I've never really thought about it because I have been playing the game for a long time when I did Vor's prize quest but you are correct. I missed all the instructions.

 

9 minutes ago, Ascythian said:

2 Rolling not explained. Bullet jumping not explained. Bullet Time not explained. Why should new players go to the Codex to train for these by now basic Warframe movements?

These should be inserted into the tutorial post haste.

 

 

There was a tutorial for Parkour 2.0 at the time of release. I'm not sure where it can be found, but it would be nice if it was included in the first level of Vor's prize. 

10 minutes ago, Ascythian said:

3. A couple more starter Warframe's to choose might be a good idea. Rhino and Nova?

 

These 2 warframes are a bit overpowered for a starter frame. The current starters are fine, but I would like a choice between, the swordsman, the caster, and the support. Maybe switch out mag or volt for Trin or Oberon? Oberon might be better because starting as Trin might be too difficult or just boring with the lack of offensive abilities. 

 

13 minutes ago, Ascythian said:

4. Remove damaged mods maybe?

 

There have been a lot of talks about these mods and they do mislead new players to wasting their Endo on them. Instead of removing them though, I would prefer that distilling them to Endo would return the exact amount used to upgrade it. Some required mods, like Serration, are still hard to get for starters and this was a good idea that was not executed the right way. 

15 minutes ago, Ascythian said:

5. Tell new players that the Codex exists.

 

Yep. Just yep. 

 

All in all, there have been a lot of improvements to the New player experience but new changes will always take time. DE has to balance between new content for veterans or new content for New players. I guess, in PoE we are sort of getting both, but we shall see when we get it how it impacts the new player experience. 

[Koldraxon-732]

Response to main post:

Spoiler

 

1 / Maybe get Ordis to hint about what the Extractor thing does, among other Navigation features, while making the UI for Nav bigger so people can actually be mentally dragged to things such as the Quest Objective List.

2 / There is a basic Parkour 2.0 introduction simulation that should be the first thing that Ordis should ask you to look into, and begin to pester you about, even if you mute him.
Ordis should also ask you to do this at least once daily if you fail to use any parkour whatsoever, with no way to mute him until you do. 

3 / No. Tenno must fight for their frames. It would be like giving a new player Loki, as it was once, and was never so again. On this note, where is MK1-Skana and MK1-Lato?

4 / Damaged mods should give you 10 times the Endo when recycled, and all mods should give back all the credits and Endo spent on them if they get recycled. I mean all.

5 / Ordis pestering them about the Parkour 2.0 tutorial will also lure them into the Codex, Ordis should also mention about scanning enemies and Fragments. When eligible for The New Strange, Ordis should also recommend the Sol-Battery Widget for the Synthesis Scanner.

6 / Automatically have unseeable overrides that block out any mention of Operators, Natah, Tenno, and so on, that would toggle off when the respective Quests are completed.

7 / This, but grant the full 4-squad XP bonus for all Mk1-weapons and their starter frame to help them get stronger better faster so it becomes less harder. 

 

One thing I can say though about Plains, when it comes out, is that we'll finally have a ground-side mission that isn't underwater that allows us to level Archwings.

We could do with tilesets that allow us to deploy Archwing, along with new, massive tiles that, when connected, would be big. We have a few examples of these already, such as the small cliffside area on Corpus Snowy-outdoor tiles or the Interception/Defense Corpus tileset seen at Cerberus.

[NeithanDiniem]

1: Most of the instructions tell you of required steps to take to pass to the next area and will be noticed quite easily. If players are getting sidetracked that badly that they are missing instructions then they are not progressing the tutorial. This is a fundamental aspect of any game you play, pay attention to what is going on least you miss something important. A tutorial or first-mission should be expected to have explanations on how to play in it at some point, be they pop ups, voice-overs, or in-game text.

2. Already well known of by DE and already slated for update.

3. No. Rhino is not a good starter frame as he encourages bad habits from the get-go and people become too easily dependent on his survivability that it hinders their learning how other frames work. It was the exact same with Loki. Making him not be a starter means they have to see how other frames play first before they get someone with high survivability for early game.

4. And replace them with what? Those mods are there so players can see what types of mods to expect for general gameplay, not miss out on key mods for beginner progress, and DE doesn't have to make very significant mods be simply given away at the beginning of the game when players have little to no idea what mods even are and how to use them. You cant throw a kid on a bike and expect them to ride it first try every time, so the training wheels are on during the tutorial. Before they existed players were screwed over not being able to have some of those mods. A way to repair them wouldn't be bad if restricted to progressing in the game a little, but simply removing them outright creates the exact same problem we had before their introduction. Its a way to show to the players that power has to be earned one way or another in the game and it is not simply given away for free.

5. All part of the tutorial changes they plan on in point 2.

6. If I'm not mistaken they already do this or already agreed on doing this in the future, again point 2.

7. And stop players from being assisted by their friends that are trying to get them into the game? Not exactly a way to build easily accessible help for new players that way. I know of a few players that actually never would have gotten into Warframe at all if they didn't have their friends to party up with through the beginning of the game. Remember you can still play normal missions before completing the tutorial quest. Removing multiplayer at that point really removes a fundamental cornerstone of the entire game that players should be allowed to access if they want to. DE already removes distractions from the nav menu to block off content they aren't ready for, and they prominently promote the missions needed to progress the quest to make it easier to find for the new Tenno. Spoilers are going to happen if you play in a multiplayer game, regardless of any way you try and swing it. Outside of completely phase-locking the players that haven't completed second dream away from any contact with players that have, there is going to be spoiling going on. Players typically should know that entering global chatrooms in games runs the chance of seeing something about future content, so them entering chat is them doing so at their own risk.

[LuckyCharm]

From what i saw the current tutorial is okay. The problem comes after when youre out of it and left with no direction of where or how to procede

[NeithanDiniem]

42 minutes ago, Koldraxon-732 said:

1 / Maybe get Ordis to hint about what the Extractor thing does, among other Navigation features, while making the UI for Nav bigger so people can actually be mentally dragged to things such as the Quest Objective List.

2 / There is a basic Parkour 2.0 introduction simulation that should be the first thing that Ordis should ask you to look into, and begin to pester you about, even if you mute him.
Ordis should also ask you to do this at least once daily if you fail to use any parkour whatsoever, with no way to mute him until you do. 

3 / No. Tenno must fight for their frames. It would be like giving a new player Loki, as it was once, and was never so again. On this note, where is MK1-Skana and MK1-Lato?

4 / Damaged mods should give you 10 times the Endo when recycled, and all mods should give back all the credits and Endo spent on them if they get recycled. I mean all.

5 / Ordis pestering them about the Parkour 2.0 tutorial will also lure them into the Codex, Ordis should also mention about scanning enemies and Fragments. When eligible for The New Strange, Ordis should also recommend the Sol-Battery Widget for the Synthesis Scanner.

6 / Automatically have unseeable overrides that block out any mention of Operators, Natah, Tenno, and so on, that would toggle off when the respective Quests are completed.

7 / This, but grant the full 4-squad XP bonus for all Mk1-weapons and their starter frame to help them get stronger better faster so it becomes less harder. 

1. The Nav UI being bigger would just be a hindrance. Easier ways exist for drawing attention to something. It would be better for a generalized voice-over tutorial for the nav console be shown when first using the console. Same should be said about all of the ship stations; Arsenal, Mods, Foundry, Market, Codex, Syndicate, Conclave, Incubator, and the Relic stations when each are acquired/unlocked and first accessed. Very basic explanations without heavy hand holding is all thats needed to get players at the point they can comfortably examine things without missing critical bits. As for resources and the extractors, a simple VO for when the player first fully unlocks a planet and gets the ability to use an extractor could be put into the Nav console. For resources, part of the nav console's explanation would cover letting players know what the mouse-over does, and maybe when first accessing the planet, such as after a junction unlock, the resources could be displayed or blink until the player mouses over them.

2. Frankly this should simply be added in as a requirement to the quest after entering the ship, remastered to be a fully realized part of the game. Lotus could require that you access the training simulation built into the codex and it take you into a testing chamber specifically set up as a playable tutorial for the movement and interaction system. It could then be accessible in the place of the existing tutorials for anyone needing a recap. Same would go for the tutorials for the other stations

3. There is no need for a MK1 version of what are already starter weapons. Making those weapons have an MK1 variant would make those variants be abysmal in performance. There has to be weaker weapons in the game if there is going to be any natural progression forwards for the players. Skana and Lato don't need a stronger variant either, as they are already sitting at their intended roles with how mods are set up around them.

4. Also no, we have plenty of ways to get credits, and making endo be fully refunded completely eliminates all investment into mods outside of the farm for them. Players would refund mods on a whim and it would just lead to problems. It would make endo sources plummet in value even farther on top of that.

5. Players are fully capable of investigating what the syndicate offers as a reward by the time they get there, they no longer need to be lead by the hand like children if they are progressing through quests like that one. Making people be so completely reliant on what the quest or guide tells you to do eliminates any critical thinking needed in a game. This is how one gets players that don't understand key mechanics and aspects of a game. A simple explanation of syndicates, as with point 1, is all thats needed rather than specifically pointing out choice rewards they offer and effectively back seating them to let them know they should get it.

6. And how would they do that without putting a huge rift between players? They'd fully have to isolate players from one another. The new player experience is already lonely enough without people suggesting new players be put into solitary confinement.

7. The beginning of the game is the easiest time in the game to progress, they don't need special buffs or faster exp gain because then they'd expect that same level of accelerated progress throughout the game. All that adds is confusion as to why it would be twice as hard to level anything after the starter weapons.

Edited September 19, 2017 by NeithanDiniem

[13QZXXTTX]

DIGITAL EXTREME.

Crafted WarFrame with "Learning Curve".

If you don't have any other Game EXP, or understand what WarFrame truly is.

Yeah it be hard, but hey the Starter Experience was hinting at GRIND.

Good Day.