Improving the New Player Experience

[BlackCoMerc]

3 hours ago, Nerdonis said:

Given the storage requirements of Rivens, I very seriously doubt this is even possible, let alone advisable

Then DE can get more storage space. Storage isn't exactly the most costly tech in.the world and they are making money from this game.

[Teoarrk]

Introduction

The new player experience is talked about a lot here and I feel that it is important as a long time player to try to pitch ideas whenever I think that my ideas are useful to entertain to a larger audience than myself and whoever appears to be in region chat at the time. Before I get into the meat of what may end up being a long post it's best that I acknowledge the progress that has already been made in getting players engaged in Warframe than when I started. I think I got lost in that training room at first trying to find out if it had an edge, but thats more on me than on how it was designed.

Vor's Prize on the other hand:

1.Gets a player used to powers.

2. Gives them some starting weapons

3. Gets them used to the foundry

4.Gives idea of the Grineer's motivations and goals and why you should oppose them.

These are all good things and it would belittle the man hours of everyone involved to not recognise the work that went into that. The codex was introduced, giving players a little rundown on various aspects of the game, including how to run mission types and after scanning enemies, where to get certain mods and what types of damage are the most effective against specific enemies. The mod station gives you a brief overview of why mods are important and how to improve them. There's even a quest to introduce the concept of pet breeding to the player. 

These are all great, however I still see people say 'look at the wiki' whenever there is something that another player doesn't understand. To me that says that the tutorials aren't fulfilling their purpose, because players are still left with what could be considered to a veteran player basic questions. Of course, people should be free to ask such questions and use whatever sources they want to in the pursuit of getting the answers they need to have answered, but the problem I see with, in particular the aforementioned 'look at the wiki' is that it is taking players out of the game to explain the game. I know that there is also a startup guide on the Warframe website for starting players, but that also takes the players out of the game to explain the game. The game itself should be a repository of how it should be played.

Mods

Mods are the backbone of how we progress. There is a clear progression in player skill over time as they get used to the controls, but ultimately a veteran that has a full mod collection will be able to perform tasks much more efficiently then one that doesn't. New players should see what they're working towards, even with their starting frames, kinda like how going to a main city in World of Warcraft for the first time introduces a low level player to what a high level player receives as a reward for their perseverance. Two suggestions to getting this across to players:

-I think that the importance of building should be highlighted in Vor's Prize. Get players used to scanning enemies to see what they can drop, give them a chance to get basic mods like Vitality, Steel Fiber, Redirection and one or two of the gold mods. Broken mods, while fluffy don't help get a player into gear.

-Another proposition can kill two birds with one stone. Alongside the auto install function that is implemented to give a random build for equipment, I suggest that there be a 'max install' function. The max install function would:

1.show the mods and forma required to get the most out of a piece of equipment.

2.If there were multiple ways for a piece of equipment to be optimised, the config tabs could be labelled with the different scenarios, for instance The difference between Blessing Trinity and Energy Vampire Trinity, or the different damage types required for different factions.

3.I understand that in the case of specific Warframe builds a little bit more explanation might be needed to explain exactly what the build is doing considering that high ranking builds are designed to do a small number of things as optimally as possible and this information could be presented in the upper right hand corner of the upgrade page.

4.If a player hovered over the Forma icon, they could see not only the number of forma required, but also which slots had been polarised to make the build possible.

5.The reason this point is important is because many players don't see the significance of using a forma on a weapon and while it isn't immediately necessary, it is an important part of a player's toolbox when making the most of their equipment.

To touch on Rivens in this section, Riven mod challenges should be given extended tooltips. What exactly are you asking a player to do? What mechanics are they required to utilise?
 

Codex Missions Tab

The tableau's are very good at informing the player on what needs to be done in some of the mission types, however it doesn't inform the player of what warframes suit some of the mission types better than others. There are only some missions that require specific kinds of warframes to really work and how I would envision a good way to inform the player of what to equip is "A successful Tenno Extraction Cell requires at least one Warframe that can use powers to defend the objective. Frost's Snow Globe, Limbo's Cataclysm and Vauban's Bastille all can perform this role." This is just an example, but giving that extra bit of information is always helpful. 

If Trials are brought back, each Trial should be given it's own set of tableau's to explain objectives. Some community contributors have made lengthy videos explaining how to do each raid, but this once again ties back into self containment. Ultimately, either the Lotus or the ally that is directing us should give hints on what to do next, but giving players the ability to get up to speed before the trial is equally as important.

Deception is still in this tab and I don't think that there has been standalone Deception for a while, while Defection is missing. It might also be good to give a detailed explanation of how void fissure and nightmare mission special conditions work.

Arcanes

Arcanes are something that I have only recently come into contact with and it was disappointing that there wasn't a tutorial on how to use them. I think it is more important now that this is changed since more people will have access to them than before. Even something as simple as explaining where the different types of arcanes can be applied and how to upgrade them would be extremely helpful.

Ducats

Given how Baro Ki'Teer tells every player that he has arrived, it would be good if his message came with a tutorial button that gave players the audio explanation of what you need to do to buy his things that is currently given on the relay. I understand that it is currently reserved to the relay because ducats have one use besides Baro, but that extra step would be helpful.

Rivens

Riven mods are essential to the tippy top of a weapon build. Rivens are rolled in their own seperate screen, away from the stats of the weapons they effect. I suggest that there be a stat comparison for the weapon that a riven effects when selecting which roll to choose. This will stop me from needing to memorise weapon stats when rolling or bringing up the wiki to see what numbers I am manipulating. How does this tie in to the new player experience? Everyone remembers that time they were ripped off for a Riven, either paying too much or being paid too little. Context is key in determining value and I think that ensuring positive interaction with Rivens is important now that they have been further expanded upon with Riven Transmuters.

 

tl;dr: players should get a better explanation of the game while playing the game, not figuring out how to play the game while not in game. Mods, Mission Types, Ducats, Rivens and Arcanes should be given more explanation than currently is in the game. Some of the explanations currently in the game need to be moved, or expanded upon.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Teoarrk
Editing and bullet points.

[FoskitoNegr0]

Totally agree with you, but the most important thing about all this (in my opinion), new players need to know a lot more about the mods: How they work, how to make a build and so on. When I need to explain someone new to the game how mods works it takes me hours in some times, because they don't see the advantages on doing it.

[(PSN)Srid-_-]

What were some things you wish Warframe taught you in the first 2 hours?

The movement system in the first area after choosing your frame (Excalibur) is not very informative, I would suggest adding the training in the codex (advance movement) into the terrain I think would be really useful. Why because when ever an new player asks in recruiting for help I see them walking up the normal path instead of bullet jumping, rolling or dodging 

Were there some things that were too overwhelming or confusing during these first 2 hours?

3 things were 1- market and acquiring blueprints for the weapons and frames weren’t explained all a new player will see is you have to spend plat to get those and will think it’s a pay to win game when it clearly isn’t, maybe you can have like a way where if they chose Excalibur for the first frame you can direct them to the market and say here are the other two frame that you can get the blueprint for and build it, (maybe in the description add the drop locations no one want to go to a 3rd party to find out something about a game) explain the foundry apart from the “ascaris negator”

2- the progression from earth to mercury and the junction system lot of the time in recruit chat you’ll find people saying “hi I just started this game and everything is locked” to solve that send them a inbox message saying the requirements for the junction. I would say don’t reveal any-other planets or nodes from the star chart apart from the planet that they are on (like you did with the kuva fortress) also have lotus explain the resources you can acquire in that planet via index message or some other way this stops the new players from feeling overwhelmed with the amount of content they have to complete

3- modding well, for me it took me around 1 1/2 months to figure out all the abilities of Excalibur and mod him for a specific ability (Exalted (EB)Excalibur or Radial blind (RB) Excalibur) make them use all the abilities in the beginning section so they know what they like 

Can you recall any points in which you or a friend weren't sure what they were supposed to be doing during the first 2 hours?

as mentioned before, Junction, blueprint and modding 

Any other obstacles that stood out to you at the beginning of your Warframe experience, or any particular items you feel a new player would benefit from

explaining the relays and syndicate, acquiring standing for the syndicate and the regalia system I’ve had new players ask how to rank up in the syndicate or hey I joined this syndicate what do I do now 

[BBaw]

Hello,

TLDR at the bottom.  But if you're interested in my thought process, please take the time to read.

I started playing warframe shortly before PoE came out and it, by far, was not my first online game.   I have played and  in some cases more accurately just browsed hundreds of games over the years.   Only a few have ever grabbed hold and hooked me right away.  Warframe got me.  One thing I noticed right away was the sense of wonder that was there immediately.   It was there because I wasn't being told in an unnatural way, outside of the storyline, about all the little things that I urgently needed to do.  I just popped out of a cryo-tube of sorts,  I was being faced with an immediate threat,  I was being gently but urgently lead to a means of overcoming that threat.   I had no idea what I was capable of or what the enemy was capable of or how vulnerable I was or how powerful I was.  I had no idea the power in these weapons, or which one to choose. 

Every single thing I just mentioned was 100% necessary for me to NOT know beforehand in order to hook me and drive me forward.  How do I know this? Because so many games repeatedly have thrown so many tutorials my way I know exactly how to play a tutorial.  I AM A TUTORIAL EXPERT!  I  could tutorial better than anyone else that has ever played this game.  If you need tips on how to tutorial I am the guy to come see,  I sit on a mountain top handing out sagely tutorial advice.  I would have left immediately after the first mission and never looked back if it was just another, Oh so helpful! All inclusive, Tutorial.

I immensely enjoy the not knowing and the sense of wonder.  Being given that just enough information to pique my curiosity.  Its what grabs me and drives me to explore even more because I just know there is more out there, and I'm going to find it.   That was my first 2 hours of warframe for the most part.  That feeling.  That sense of wonder.  I wouldn't have changed a single solitary thing,  that was a great day.

Of course, I have questions!   I had millions of questions about all the things you may or may not want to pack into the first 2 hours of Warframe, over the next weeks and months.

How do I get more mods?

Where do I get more mods?

When should I buy more weapons?

How do I buy more weapons?

What are good weapons to buy and use?

What is the best way to spend my starting plat?

How do I get more plat?

How do I get involved in the trading system?

Where can I trade?

What can be traded?

What warframe should I get next?

Should I put catalyst and reactors on everything or save them for only special things?

Are the weapon and warframe upgrade components easy to get or rare in game?

How do I make my warframe look like that guys?

What is a color palette and how do I get it?

What is the market place and what can I get there?

Why do I need a clan?

What do I do in a clan?

Is my warframe going to be good enough to play with those guys?

Are my weapons going to be good enough to play with those guys?

What is the benefit of grouping in game?

If I join a group on a mission will I be greatly outclassed by everyone there and laughed off the map because I have this skana and they're using things I've never seen before?

Can I go from this level 10 mission to that much higher level 18 mission and not be overwhelmed or outclassed?

What mission types am I best suited for?

Why am I always the last one to exit the mission! rofl

How do they move like that?  Literally took me forever to get the hang of the advanced parkour through trial and error and eating every door frame in the game.

Literally a million more questions I can add and definitely had asked clan members.   One thing I can say for certain, though, if you had tried to put that into the first 2 hours you would have diminished my sense of wonder dramatically and lost my interest at the start.   I love the way the game starts.

The interaction with the Lotus and Ordis in the beginning is so spot on brilliant I'm not even sure you guys realize how huge that was for me.  And still is,  what a great bunch of characters.  So many characters in this game have real life in them, just brilliant. They are unforgettable.  If you try to take space mom away from everybody you're gonna have a bunch of angry kids with pitchforks and torches lit lit LIT!  And, poor, Ordis, hes broken and humbled and charming.  A very necessary component to get players emotionally invested in the game.  Now there are components that give that dramatic RUSH, but dramatic rush is always short lived and burns out quickly and then the player is left with an empty hole while they try to find the next rush.  Warframe did an outstanding job of getting me emotionally invested in the characters without that dramatic rush.  Making me want them to stick around on this journey of discovery.   Finding out that we've all had a long history together just increases that emotional tie.  Its a great story, I love it. :P

I love the fact that I have to go to the wiki, and become involved in the youtube community surrounding warframe in order to figure out some of the advanced playstyles.  To me it lets the game be a lot less pushy?  And its a testament to the games success that all those things are readily available if you just know where to look.

My only real complaint about my starting experience was,  I didn't know where to look.  My complaint was never that it wasn't in the game.  I love love love that all that stuff wasn't packed into the game.  But a little hand holding saying check out these sections of the wiki for information about XXXX or check out these sponsored videos about the game would have been pretty awesome.  But so much information does not need to be thrown in my face through a massive tutorial.  That would have been a real turn off and probably the end of my desire to continue on.  I've talked to people about this before and they say they don't share or relate to what my experience is.  That the things that hooked me and got me to stick around don't matter to them as much as wanting to have a real heavy tutorial at the start.  I can only speak to my own experience and say I would have left,  because I had already left  many other games for the exact same reasons.  I am willing to bet, however, despite what some of these players say,  they may or may not realize what actually grabbed them when they signed up.  I imagine its pretty easy for everybody to say, "We need a lot more tutorial information" simply because they don't see the tutorial there.  But, that does not reinforce that we need a tutorial, that just reinforces that we need additional information in a clear format and clear direction to getting to it.  I would have enjoyed some prompts to check out the community sponsored information about warframe. 

I still have questions today!  But, I am now armed with all the necessary information to find the answers to those questions in a timely manner.

TLDR - I want my game to be a game and an adventure,  the fewer tutorial elements involved the better.  But, give my curious and questioning nature a sense of direction.  Point me to resources.  The emotional investment got me in the door,  the ability to find all the necessary resources to better my character drives me onward.

Thanks guys, you're doing a great job, I appreciate your hard work.

BBaw

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by BBaw
Highlighting

[TheHydrolyst]

You know what would really help everyone is some new cross hairs! I'm very surprised with a game as sick as Warframe that we don't already have this option. We need a few simple dots and cross hairs, as well as a  'reticle prime'!!!! Which would be a special cross hair (Gold with blue and purple etc.. and animated, similar to our prime sigils) available with prime access. It would be pretty simple to just create a basic UI for e choice, sizing and opacity in our equipment area. I know I know genius idea! Ill design the UI as well as the prime dot's ;D

Speaking of prime sigils, still waiting for some [DE]everyone!!!

Much thanks BBaw, your the wind beneath my wings<3

Edited February 28, 2018 by blakethedead
BBaw (Full Time Grammer Police, yes thats a real job) so kindly corrected my ignorant mistake.

[BBaw]

5 hours ago, blakethedead said:

You know what would really help everyone is some new crosshairs! I'm very surprised with a game as sick as Warframe that we don't already have this option. We need a few simple dots and crosshairs, as well as a 'Rectile Prime'!!!! Which would be a special crosshair (Gold with blue and purple etc.. and animated, similar to our prime sigils) available with prime access. It would be pretty simple to just create a basic UI for rectile choice, sizing and opacity in our equipment area. I know I know genius idea! Ill design the UI as well as the prime dot's ;D

Speaking of prime sigils, still waiting for some [DE]everyone!!!

You need to come back and edit this pretty quickly mr genius. :P   While I know exactly what you meant in your post and its a neat idea...

Rectile isn't  a word but is pretty similar to Rectum which is the lower section of the large intestine terminating at the anus.

What you wrote is also similar to Erectile which is also not appropriate :P

I think the word you where looking for is RETICLE which is the series of lines in the eyepiece of an optic :P

Or you could just leave it like it is cuz its pretty funny.  Rectile Prime.

[TheHydrolyst]

4 hours ago, BBaw said:

You need to come back and edit this pretty quickly mr genius. :P   While I know exactly what you meant in your post and its a neat idea...

Rectile isn't  a word but is pretty similar to Rectum which is the lower section of the large intestine terminating at the anus.

What you wrote is also similar to Erectile which is also not appropriate :P

I think the word you where looking for is RETICLE which is the series of lines in the eyepiece of an optic :P

Or you could just leave it like it is cuz its pretty funny.  Rectile Prime.

Ahhh thanks BRO! You should be an English teacher. Or better yet become the grammar police full time, perfect career for you! XD

[EndermanBeast]

On 28/02/2018 at 5:06 AM, BBaw said:

-snip-

Agree with this 100% .

But.

On 28/02/2018 at 5:06 AM, BBaw said:

The interaction with the Lotus and Ordis in the beginning is so spot on brilliant I'm not even sure you guys realize how huge that was for me.  And still is,  what a great bunch of characters.  So many characters in this game have real life in them, just brilliant. They are unforgettable.  If you try to take space mom away from everybody you're gonna have a bunch of angry kids with pitchforks and torches lit lit LIT!  And, poor, Ordis, hes broken and humbled and charming.  A very necessary component to get players emotionally invested in the game.  Now there are components that give that dramatic RUSH, but dramatic rush is always short lived and burns out quickly and then the player is left with an empty hole while they try to find the next rush.  Warframe did an outstanding job of getting me emotionally invested in the characters without that dramatic rush.  Making me want them to stick around on this journey of discovery.   Finding out that we've all had a long history together just increases that emotional tie.  Its a great story, I love it. :P

Umm... I guess you’re not going to like a certain quest. No seriously, you are. Don’t go searching for it though, only after Rell. That’s my only clue I’m going to give you.

[BBaw]

1 hour ago, EndermanBeast said:

Agree with this 100% .

But.

Umm... I guess you’re not going to like a certain quest. No seriously, you are. Don’t go searching for it though, only after Rell. That’s my only clue I’m going to give you.

I've done all the quests in the game, including apostasy prologue.  And I'm not too worried about it, the word prologue means, an event or action that leads to another event or action, theres more to come.

 

[JalakBali]

Swaz do lah! I'm an MR24 vet and been playing since Open Beta so I have all the login rewards. Last week during the free anniversary items I decided to start a new account just to check out how it feels to play Warframe from scratch (granted, with the crutch of having the anniversary weapons). My stipulations are:

1. No power levelling. I try not to get into sessions of a high rank player killing everything and the n00bs just soak up the exp. Or hook up with a Nekros farmer to soak up resources.

2. No twinking. Aka. my high rank account or friends will not give me freebies to help me. Not even basic mods.

3. No binging. So no long sessions or farming exp or loot.

4. No boosters.

So far it's been fun and a different kind of experience (but not new since I did this years ago) than late stage gameplay.

I'm only MR 4 at the moment but here are some things I found that might confirm or contradict some perceptions of the new player experience, mostly fighting enemies rank 15 and less:

1. The bottleneck for progression (as in, acquisition of new weapons and frames and power increase) is not credits or resources but endo. Credits can be earned at a good rate, much better than it was when I started 4 years ago. But I can't increase my killing power due to how little endo dropped for me. Unlike resources which spawned on the map in special containers and thus making rare resources easier to find than before, endo only drops from killing enemies and the number of enemies killed at this level is too small. I had to sell extra copies of mods to get endo but I can see how this would be confusing to new players as they wouldn't know whether they need multiple mods or which mod is just junk or good.
2. The resource spread is pretty good right now. All the early weapons which blueprints I could buy I have no problem getting their resources. Even polymer bundles and salvages spawned quite often in clump form. I remember of trying to get enough morphics years ago this early and it was a slog. Now, every time I play the planet with morphics, it is rare *NOT* to see a morphic container.
3. MK-1 weapons are just plain terrible, especially without damage mods. It really feels like a different game when you have to pump a full magazine on a single Grineer mook. But enemies mob you faster than in other shooter games so it always felt like you have to constantly retreat to another cover.
4. Melee is your crutch. Your melee weapons are your strongest. And enemies are not damaging enough to tear through your shield and HP that fast so your best damage dealer at this point is melee.
5. Corpus is a trickier enemy than Grineer. They have more enemies that can CC you (more stomping Moa than Grineer Scorpions) and the Shield Osprey really adds tankiness to its buddies so they became a priority instead of an after thought like in late game.
6. Taxon is so important for your survivability but only if you know which of its mod to rank up.
7. Junctions give great goodies but new players might not know that should be priority.
8. Spy missions give great mods but only if the player knows they should get all 3 vaults.
9. I got Serration and Pressure Point no problem, which is better than when I first started when I didn't have Serration for a month. But Hornet Strike is still not seen. This is a problem since these mods play such a pivotal role in increasing your killing power.
10. Damaged mods are incredibly terrible. My god, these are the worst. New players will easily get confused and either use up their valuable and limited endo to level up these mods or they wouldn't bother trying to find the real mods. They also look very, very similar to regular mods. At least make the image more different, like black and white or something.
11. Information of where to find which resources are confusing the moment you can leave Venus (when the path branches to Mercury and Mars). Players just need some basic information without having to check each planet in Navigation.
12. Weapon progression is pretty good, with enough weapons to get with credits while you gather up resources... BUT the market is not clear and confusing to new players. Even in Arsenal it's hard to see which weapons you can get with credits and which are plat. The market is also not clear on how to build things. I have known friends who spent all their early credits on warframe blueprints because they thought they could build them right away.

 

So, here are my simple suggestions to improving New Player Experience without tons of man-hours of designing tutorial quests or new systems:

1. New Player Welcoming screen on the Market. There should be a special tab for new players and this should be on the front page. In this tab, there should be a list of weapons that can be bought with credits, and a separate list of weapon blueprints separated by MR requirements with the button BUY WITH PLATINUM next to it. Currently the Market is focusing on BUY WITH PLATINUM with buy blueprints with credits on the side. It should be the other way around. You don't want new players to think they feel weak and then the only way to get stronger is by buying new guns with real money.

2. Serration, Hornet Strike, Pressure Point and Point Blank should be rewards for completing Mastery Rank test. Look, they even line up nicely! You passed the test to that particular weapon class (except shotguns I suppose) and Lotus gives you the real mod. And also some endo. Like, 200-300 endo when you rank up this early on.

3. Get rid of Damaged mods entirely. Or.... make Damaged mods CANNOT BE RANKED UP. Or.... make ranked Damaged mod give back its endo when sold for endo. At least make them look different or actually named different! Like "Serration (Damaged)". Like, holy crap, some newbies might end up junking the wrong mod.

4. Buff up (non-melee) MK-1 weapons a little bit. Please don't balance them as if they got a maxed Serration/Hornet Strike because new players wouldn't be able to afford it. MK-1s should be able to kill rank 5 enemies even without mods. Would be nice if they all also look different (like MK-1 Braton could use the old Braton model) than the regular versions (maybe just different default colors?) but this is no big deal.

5. Once a player gets close to a Junction, Ordis should make a remark about the importance of completing it. This is especially important since players will get stuck on Earth early on as the node is gated by Archwing and that would confuse them.

6. Once the player gets the blueprint of Taxon, Ordis should make a remark about building it and about Molecular Conversion.

7. Expand the use of the Codex to benefit newbies. There should be section on General Information that includes:

• The different resources (including endo), their rarity and the planets they're available from or the method to obtain them.
• Mods, that these are the true progression of power in the game and that you can upgrade them with endo, or sell them for credits or endo, or trade them at MR2.
• Trading: where to do it and the limitations on your MR.
• How to build weapons and warframes, that blueprints can be bought from the market or dojo labs or from cracking relics.
• What are relics, where to get them and how to open them.
• Scanner and the benefits of scanning (it's nice we get a semi tutorial on Saya's Vigil but still no real indicator what scanning does outside of that).
• Relays and what to do there.
• Syndicates and what they are. The syndicates emailing you when you are at high enough MR and their console opened up for you with a short video explaining what they are would be nice. Some time ago I have an idea about using syndicates as part of a system tutorial where you do a mission and then given two choices (for instance, Steel Meridian and Perrin Sequence would both contact you) and whichever you pick will give you a sigil reward of that syndicate, with the opposing syndicate warning you if you persist following the other they will retaliate, etc. But that might be too much work.
• Orokin reactors and catalysts, what they do, how to install them (because there's no indicator that they're hidden in a small button at the bottom of your Arsenal window and called "ACTIONS" as if that is clear) and where to find them.
• Forma and what are used for, as well as info that dojo lab weapons use them.

8. Melee stances. It's silly how by the time I have to junk my Skana I still don't have the stance. Instead, I got stances for dual daggers which I don't use yet since I got ether sword and jaw sword blueprints from alerts. There are so many early swords that stances for them, and staves, should have been given early on or at least be made available on the drop table of early enemies.

9. Lotus should make a remark about succeeding on getting all 3 spy vaults yield better rewards.

10. More rewards for early quests. Just simple things like credits, endo and resources.

 

That's all for now! Thanks for listening.

[(PSN)s3d_sas]

See “sawz do lah” insta like  

in conclusion I’m too lazy to read all of it 

Edited March 22, 2018 by (PS4)s3d_sas

[Zanoza-chan]

I read all of that and I agree. That article definitely should be seen by DE.They've mentioned they're working on improving early gameplay stages, and that topic has a very useful and realistic opinion.

My addition to the Market\Arsenal suggestions: simple solution is making plat icon brighter\highlighted\whatever so it can be seen easier and differently. I myself once accidently bought fully crafted Tetra for plat instead of buying its blueprint for credits (but that was before placing blueprints to the separate tab), so confusion is real. Yea, items that you can buy for plat are at the bottom of the weapons list in your Arsenal, but that is not enough, it's better to make them highlighted somehow (or make em look greyish) so new player will visually distinguish the weapons he actually have from the weapons he can buy right from Arsenal.

[Halmus86]

Totally agree!

Started playing a couple of weeks ago and you summed up quite every problem i dealt with^^

I just disagree about Endo. Well, i knew of Ayatan Treasures quite early on, but just because of some YouTube Vids. Otherwise i might have had the same Problems. But I actually never see enough credits! I really would like to built every Blueprint i achieve, but even if i managed to gather all resources i don't have enough credits. Always!

[Loswaith]

Great overview, and hits on all the parts that really need to be looked at.

Some additional points:
Mod Progression and Endo really needs to reworked for the Endo upgrading of mods system.  Currently the drop system for those still works with the multiple mods to upgrade a mod concept and typically not with the Endo to upgrade mods in mind.
This is reflected in that early missions don't typically drop/reward the "essential mods" and aren't always limited to mods aimed at the Novice point of the game and the middle to later game drops common or "essential" mods that should be reasonably ranked up at that point.  
Some kind of mod progression will also help players get used to various types of mods as they go along, letting the missions be much more tailored for what it is expected for a player to have, rather than the mishmash of mods that are awarded now.

Damaged mods are simply a trap for new players and should be completely removed (or grandfathered), these are just a trap for new players. 
New players wont have the endo to upgrade the mods significantly (thus keeping the power on them low) and certainly cant afford to be wasting the endo and credits to upgrade the damaged ones (which many think they can fix).  This also teaches players that they don't have to max out their mods ASAP and that they can do so progressively (as they can max out damaged mods fairly quickly, implying that is the best option).

[Resyke]

All solid points. Like Halmus86, i found credits to be a bigger problem than endo personally.

Im MR10 now and havn't seen another Hornet Strike in the wild yet.

Damaged mods are just a waste everybody's time.

Kubrows and kavats just aren't worth it to a new player due to their costs and early game upkeep.

[trndr]

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars all have Hornet Strike as rewards from Spy Excavation and Interception.

There should perhaps be a way to access mission drop tables from the game, but moving the mods to MR tests would just make the grind wall at mr8-16 seem that much worse.

Warframe is a game with grind, hiding all the grind until the players has spent considerable time is unlikely to increase player retention.

[LuinCeltchar]

It's funny that you posted this the same day we got part 2 of the Noclip documentary, in which Steve says this:

(at 17:17 if the time link doesn't work for you)

Edited March 22, 2018 by LuinCeltchar

[True_Naeblis]

I think @LuinCeltchar pointed out why much won't be changing. I was annoyed by the amount of Wikiframe required at a certain point in the star chart to keep progressing, but I got through it, and I guess that's what they want. Maybe they figure it's going to happen sooner or later because there's so much to the game, so why not sooner? Maybe retention from those players who stick through is more solid, or maybe the data scientists who did their analysis for them gave some wonky numbers. Who knows? Seems that they're happy with the status quo, though.

Definitely great ideas, OP, but probably destined to be ignored. I guess they consider the wiki mentions and the region chat guides to be sufficient pointers for what comes next.

[Huanthus]

I agree with everything you said,  but would like to add something myself:

Custom Voice lines from Lotus on every un cleared node  that help you understand the lore or why you are doing S#&amp;&#036; there helping you understand the WF universe better outside of adventures or assassination missions.

IMO would be a huge plus for new player retention since most of the people are unclear on why what we are doing on the game is "important". 

Also this would require not that much work since they are just voice lines and after a while it gets repetitive  the default explaination of every mission for example: in an interception mission you get a few voice lines regarding an huge robot proxy to hype up your first encounter with the Jackal and so on...  Also reuse voice lines from past events such as the Gradius Dilema  could be used to contextualize you on the situation of each planet you discover. 

Also,  if i recall correctly if you do not have a quest active it will point you into completing the nearest juncture, so they are at least pointing you on that direction....  correct me if im wrong

Edited March 22, 2018 by Huanthus

[JalakBali]

19 hours ago, Halmus86 said:

Totally agree!

Started playing a couple of weeks ago and you summed up quite every problem i dealt with^^

I just disagree about Endo. Well, i knew of Ayatan Treasures quite early on, but just because of some YouTube Vids. Otherwise i might have had the same Problems. But I actually never see enough credits! I really would like to built every Blueprint i achieve, but even if i managed to gather all resources i don't have enough credits. Always!

I focused more on endo because I could actually grind for credits. Each finished mission is guaranteed to give you credits and almost every single box and locker would drop either a resource but mostly credits. Not so with endo. There were many missions ended without receiving a single endo. Ayatan treasures and stars would help, sure, but there is no info on how to do this until you reached Maroo. But even then, they're not that reliable since the player must approach them and manually pick them up. Stars are a bit better since they're marked. Treasures should also be automatically marked whenever it comes into a team member's line of sight.

 

13 hours ago, trndr said:

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars all have Hornet Strike as rewards from Spy Excavation and Interception.

There should perhaps be a way to access mission drop tables from the game, but moving the mods to MR tests would just make the grind wall at mr8-16 seem that much worse.

Warframe is a game with grind, hiding all the grind until the players has spent considerable time is unlikely to increase player retention.

I wasn't saying to move these mods exclusively to the mastery rank tests. Just that a player should be guaranteed to have these mods by certain rank because the tests would reward them the mods, because they're so crucial on your power progression. Also, almost all of my suggestions do not remove the grind. There is 'grinding' and there is 'progression brick wall'. You cannot progress in your secondary's killing power without Hornet Strike. The grind to rank it up will still be there.

 

12 hours ago, LuinCeltchar said:

It's funny that you posted this the same day we got part 2 of the Noclip documentary, in which Steve says this:

(at 17:17 if the time link doesn't work for you)

Oh I totally agree with Steve there. But my suggestion is not a revamp of the New Player Experience but adding and modifying already existing things to make some stuff clearer and streamlined. They don't need to explain everything, just the basics enough to point players what they should aim for at this moment. The new player experience of WF currently is propped up by its fantastic community of helpful veterans.

 

[cookieknife]

No boosters and freebies ruined it for me. Having help is nice 

getting passed the manotany of having no mods being weak asf sucks and that’s why loki isn’t a starter anymore

[JalakBali]

24 minutes ago, cookieknife said:

No boosters and freebies ruined it for me. Having help is nice 

getting passed the manotany of having no mods being weak asf sucks and that’s why loki isn’t a starter anymore

Back then my nephew tried Warframe and picked Loki because he could stealth. He almost quit the game because of how weak he felt with crappy weapons and being unable to kill anything. I helped him build a Galatine and he was happy then.

[trndr]

4 hours ago, JalakBali said:

I wasn't saying to move these mods exclusively to the mastery rank tests. Just that a player should be guaranteed to have these mods by certain rank because the tests would reward them the mods, because they're so crucial on your power progression. Also, almost all of my suggestions do not remove the grind. There is 'grinding' and there is 'progression brick wall'. You cannot progress in your secondary's killing power without Hornet Strike. The grind to rank it up will still be there.

I can understand what you are saying, just completely disagree it should be done.

I remember my first mod grind, it was for Split Chamber, now soon 5 years ago. There was no nekros, you could not get it as a mission reward, or at least not as far as I knew. So the remaining option was spaming grineer Mobile Defence. And yet that grind paled compared to the now rare mods, like Condition Overload, which manages to replace Primed Pressure Point on some of my builds.

Slowly building up the grind for new players from the start, is, IMO, the fairest way to allow players to know what type of game Warframe is.

Handing out mods for no effort, would help them get started, but when they progress further, they will stand with the same dillemma, grind or go to an other game. Personally I would get rather iritated if the game, I've had spent hours on, suddenly shifted.

[JalakBali]

Just now, trndr said:

I can understand what you are saying, just completely disagree it should be done.

I remember my first mod grind, it was for Split Chamber, now soon 5 years ago. There was no nekros, you could not get it as a mission reward, or at least not as far as I knew. So the remaining option was spaming grineer Mobile Defence. And yet that grind paled compared to the now rare mods, like Condition Overload, which manages to replace Primed Pressure Point on some of my builds.

Slowly building up the grind for new players from the start, is, IMO, the fairest way to allow players to know what type of game Warframe is.

Handing out mods for no effort, would help them get started, but when they progress further, they will stand with the same dillemma, grind or go to an other game. Personally I would get rather iritated if the game, I've had spent hours on, suddenly shifted.

I would agree with you completely only if the player actually knows there is a grind for it. Currently, they got handed damaged mods with no explanation that non-damaged ones exist. Even if they figured it out, they wouldn't even know how to grind for them. Do mobs drop specific loot? Or is it universal? Or does Hornet Strike only drops from mission rewards? It's not so much of a grind but more like a mystery. And then there's the problem they might think they're so weak that they must spend money to get stronger. DE definitely doesn't want that.

 

But your idea does make sense. There just need a way for the player to know what they're looking for. Even a simple quip for Ordis the first time you got damaged mods could help. Like if Ordis were to tell you have damaged mods and wonders if the non-damaged ones exist out there. Just a nudge telling the players "it's there somewhere, go find it". And then it's up to them whether they go to region chat or external wiki for that. If they gave up, then the game is too much work/commitment for their liking anyway.