Improving the New Player Experience

[Zahnny]

When I first joined in 2014 around the time of Mesa's update I had so much fun it honestly felt unreal. I never really felt many hardships even if I knew they were there. But if there was one moment where I nearly straight up left it was realising Weapon Slots were a thing.

Upon seeing those, so many different feelings hit me and I was really close to straight up leaving and uninstalling the game. I'm really glad I didn't but seeing what I thought was a paywall infront of me during that time nearly made me nope out of Warframe.

I'm not sure how you would go about handling that though. Maybe as part of some beginners quests you got some missions where you unlocked additional slots or something. Balanced for new players but not something that would upset long time players. Or simply a new quest old and new players can play for a few extra slots. Obviously this would be a one time thing though.

[dannywaters]

Hi Deckard,

I'm an experienced gamer (read: old guy that has played games his whole life) and also relatively new to Warframe. I'm about six weeks in, MR 14 and counting. I played Warframe when it first came out, and was encouraged to return with the PoE expansion.

The single-most frustrating aspect of the new player experience for me was getting lost in tilesets. In a public mission, the more experienced players would zoom ahead, leaving me to languish on the first few tiles, trying to find the semi-hidden door or platform that was the passage. This is particularly a problem on missions where the tiles are very similar, for example the ice planet tileset.

The mission objective indicator/map are meant to be the fix to this, but there are a whole plethora of tiles where the indicators are wrong or downright misleading. The map is 2D, while many pathing solutions are in 3D. The objective indicator is a good show of general direction, but will often take you off-track, for example when there is an elevator involved in a larger room.

I can see how from the dev side that is potentially a larger issue involving AI pathing and map generation. But you asked! :)

PS: for the love of gods dont nerf slash

Happy Holidays <3

[VoidPunch]

Ensure that you tell new players that mods are NOT consumables! This is a very common issue, where they do not use mods because they think the mod will go away after the mission is over.

[DoctorPelusa]

Since a great part of warframe's progression is given in relays, instruct players to always try to get to the next relay and complete it's objectives to unlock the next planet.

Instruct players to equip and mod weapons reasonably, I've got to a few new players that hadn't equipped any mod and others that didn't know they could level up the mods.

Somehow introduce the mastery ranks, what do I have to do to get to a higher rank is also a common question.

And also, give more importance to the main questline, I see a lot, and i mean A LOT, of new players, that don't follow the questline, and get stuck at Jupiter-Europa or Uranus... 

[PrezBOTW]

To me, a more in depth explanation on modding would be immensely helpful, ideally focusing on elemental mods and how the damage is ADDED to the weapon, even if it does not have any innately, as well as the interactions around mod placement for elemental combinations in the build itself. There have been many players that seem to hit a wall of sorts around Saturn/Uranus and often times the root of the problem is improper modding.

A step in the right direction I saw recently was in the Saya's Vigil quest, there is an explanation on how to use your codex scanner which was missing from the game until that point. While that is excellent that it is available early on, it still will not explain that to new players as that quest is not in the mandatory progression as far as I am aware, like Once Awake or The Archwing is. If they decide to bypass this quest and nobody says anything, they will run into issues at the Phobos Junction on Mars which requires scanning.

Just my 2 cents but I believe that teaching things like modding in a structured manner will go a long way to help newer players understand the mechanics behind making Warframes and weapons stronger.

[JesterTheNight]

Mk-1 weapons should reach lv 30 super fast (20-50k affinity) to introduce and explain the modding system in the first couple hours of the game.

Also take out broken mods, they make no sense.

Believe it or not, but people still have no clue what to do in the star chart, after Vor's Prize, Lotus should send a mail telling you that to visit other planet (throw in some lore explanation why we have to go on other planets) you have to complete junction tasks and complete the junction mission to unlock the next planet.

Resources tab is pretty much invisible to new player, they don't know what the icon means and don't know that they have to hover over it to reveal what resouces drop. The extractor icon should only appear when an extractor is active on that planet (shown next to said planet, not in a corner) and it should show the progress %. While the resources should always be visible when zoomed on a planet, put em in a corner, use the same color system as relics to indicate the rarity of the drops (as of now we have a top to bottom system that only veterans can understand, top = common, bottom = rare, makes no sense when we have better systems already in the game to show rarity of stuff).

Objective marker uses the stupid enemy AI to navigate the map, this can be super confusing to newcomers cause it's often misleading (it just can't handle verticality) if you don't already know the tilesets like the back of your hand, just completely rework the system to be precise (maybe use the Dead Space system where is shows a line on the ground to guide you at the press of a button).

EXPLAIN MASTERY RANKS! When you get enough mastery to level up the first time, Lotus should send you a mail telling you that to test your mastery you have to do this and that and how you can further advance in said mastery ranks. Many people have no idea that there's this "account level" that you lv up by leveling different stuff up. It's important to let new people know this, it's positive reinforcement, you lv up your stuff -> you lv up your account (good job!). Also let people know that at MR 2 you unlock trading, at MR 3 syndicates, the less observant peeps just have no idea they unlocked those systems, TELL THEM!

[NDCoten]

I'm a long-time player, and I recently made a new account to have some fun starting from scratch.

Four big things that I think are missing from the new-player experience:

1: Advanced movement techniques - Bullet-jumping and aim-gliding are not discussed in the first mission of Vor's Prize (since the mission was developed before they existed), and while there is a movement tutorial, it is only available from the Codex. While there's merit to having players figure those moves out on their own, I think

Highlighting these techniques in the first or second Mastery Rank test (instead of a just a boring "please shoot everything with this gun" mission) could be a great way to ensure new players know about these movement options as they head out into the rest of the Star Chart. The existing tutorial could even be lifted entirely, and used in that test!

2: "High-tier" enemy callouts - In particular, there's not much that explains what the Ancient Healer and Ancient Disruptor do. Even I had a hard time understanding what those two Ancients did until a few months of playing - and that's important info to understand when fighting the Infested / Corrupted!

In quests that highlight their respective factions, there could be lines that explain the dangers of units such as Napalms, Nox, Nullifiers, Combas/Scrambas, Bursas, and the aforementioned Ancients. Additionally, enemy units' codex entries could have a brief description of what they are capable of, after scanning the unit once. Something like:
"Ancient Healer - An Ancient Infested unit which strange protective abilities. Allied units near a Healer take reduced damage, and whatever damage they do take also replenishes the Healer's own health. These Ancients can also release a simple healing pulse."
"Nullifier - A Sniper Crewman with a special dome shield, which blocks projectiles and disables virtually all Warframe abilities when in contact. This shield can be brought down with sustained fire, or removed entirely by destroying the small drone on top of the shield."
"Napalm - A heavily-armoured Grineer unit. The modified Ogris rockets they fire leave a highly-damaging patch of burning napalm on impact."
Having this information available in-game would be a massive step up from having to look at the Wikia or getting the information second-hand.

3: Early Spy mission assistance - I often see new players asking for help with the Stolen Dreams quest, since it requires players to complete Spy missions without failing in any vaults. In general, it seems that most players don't realise that there are ways to reach the vaults without conflict and without being detected. The earlier Vor's Prize and Once Awake quests also attempt to ease players into the concept of Spy missions, and these would be perfect opportunities to show that there are usually alternate paths through each vault.

Just a concept, but: in Once Awake's first mission, the final vault could be set to a special tile based on an existing Grineer vault. The vault would have no sensors or other security measures, but the main door to the console room would be blocked off by impassable Infested tissue. The Lotus could then ask the players to look for an alternate route to the console, starting with an objective marker placed at the entrance to a ventilation shaft or something similar. After completing this vault's alternate route and hacking the console, the Lotus could remark that other data vaults may have alternate entrances ("design flaws"), and that searching for them would be valuable.

4: Extra resources for clearing Junctions - As I started my new account, I found myself short of Endo pretty often when trying to rank up whatever Mods I had found. Since I knew about the bonus Endo that Ayatan Treasures could provide, I spent time scouring for those statues and rushing the objectives that would let me unlock Mars. Until then, I rarely had more than 200 Endo on hand. I also noticed that the Junctions provided pretty paltry rewards for beating them, with more blueprints and mods than anything else - those sort of became a liability after clearing the Junction, more than anything else.

Some notes on what could be done with rewards:

• Extra rewards of 250 Endo each could be provided for clearing the Earth>Venus and Venus>Mercury junctions
• More credits (from 2,500 to 10,000) for completing the Earth>Venus junction - the current reward feels like pocket change compared to the two blueprints you're given
• Plastids awarded for completing the Earth>Mars junction, and Neural Sensors awarded for completing Mars>Phobos - early allowances of these components

Edited December 19, 2017 by NDCoten

[Kracken]

On first 2h Player need to (know) :

1. Where to go and what to do. 

2. What reasorses can be found on each planet. 

3. Seek help in codex. 

4. How to use chat tabs propetly 

5. Player need to be draged by hand on first mod Fusion, mod instalation etc. 

6. Tutorial of each Type of mission.

7. Mandatory solo quests (like the one introducing spy missions) 

8. Dont allow to buy bluprints if a Player can creat the item (dont have access to planet with a reasorse needed for it) 

9. Abolish taxi (restricton of nodes that "you dont have access to") 

 

Edited December 19, 2017 by Kracken

[(PSN)Texas_Twurk_Team]

1 hour ago, Calthous said:

Give them a mulligan on the first MR test. I have seen quite a few people fail it because they did not realize it was Primary weapons only, and/or because they brought a sentinel and it immediately failed them when it fired. Early on this can bring progression to a frustrating halt for new players.

Honestly I feel like the first few levels should have a lower delay between retaking the tests.

This exists? The ability to even use anything else that would instantly fail you should be removed in it's entirety. It only sets up new players to fail

[Amazerath]

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

Mods and polarities. I remember it took me a really long time to realize that I was supposed to match mod polarities with slot polarities. Initially I assumed that putting a mod in the "wrong" polarity would overcharge it and make it stronger.

 

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

Not back in 2013.

 

- "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?"

This didn't happen to me because I had a personal goal when I started playing the game. I wanted to go all the way to Sedna and farm Saryn. And since it took me a lot more then two hours to do this I learned all I needed to know on my way there.

 

- "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?"

I couldn't handle bosses and infested Ancients because my damage was not high enough. I kept running out of ammo. So I imagine having some ammo restore items/blueprints could be helpful. Specters could also be nice because it's not uncommon for new players to stick to solo. The problem is that Specters are very expensive and rely on your equipment to be really useful. And the system itself is not well explained.

[Liacu]

Oh, it's nice that we're approaching this topic again. Well, as a veteran player, I'd say the 3 biggest problems newcomers face would be:

1. Lack of Direction. After Vor's Prize, you're basically just plopped into the game with nothing telling you what to do. While it is one of the game's good points that you're free to do what ever you want, I believe the game should have some baseline level of direction to better accommodate for different play mentalities and at least have an explanation of what you could be doing at this point like crafting new weapons, unlocking planets, getting warframe parts, finishing quests, etc.

The best solution to this would be introducing more quests but that does require a lot more development time that'd be considered practical. Maybe introduce some kind of Journal with optional objectives with explanations associated with them. (like open a derelict vault, craft a weapon, level this mod, change archwing loadout, etc)

 

2. Lack of Explanations. Many things often don't have explanations and the ones that do are often tucked away in the codex, a section of the game that has little directing to it and so many don't know its existence and how useful it can be. Most bosses also don't get much of an introduction at all even though they could be major characters in the overall story. (most egregious example, Alad V) Although I don't think we can do much about the bosses without significant time but it would be nice in the future to reintroduce old events as quests.

The Journal feature I suggested in my previous point could go a long way in giving both direction and explanation. It should be treated as an optional list of tasks and should include EVERY feature the game has along with an explanation of said feature. Basically a more in-depth but optional version of the Junctions that's more clearly visible. Syndicates, Forma, Catalysts/Reactors, Profile Mastery Rank, Mastery Tests (most people don't even know about them in Simaris' Room), Ayatans, Derelict Vaults, Sentinels, unusual warframe part locations (example, Ivara, Octavia and Harrow), etc, are just a short list of things that really could use a feature like this.

 

3. Unnecessary Barriers. Orokin Catalysts, Reactors and Weapon/Warframe Slots reek of shady mobile game practices. It's probably too much to ask for their complete removal so I really think newcomers should get some of these as freebies so they won't be completely turned off by the game. You could even have an explanation of what they do along with the giveaway since they too get no explanation despite their importance in the game.

 

TL;DR summary, game lacks direction and explanation so introduce a new Journal which is a list of tasks for every feature in the game and has explanations associated with said feature. Also give first time players a free catalyst and reactor along with some slots so they aren't completely put-off by those features.

Edited December 20, 2017 by Liacu

[MarikBentusi]

Here's what I recall from my newbie experience 2 years ago:

- Arc Traps: I didn't know what Arc Traps were (probably didn't even hover above them to read their telling name) and they immediately killed me. Which isn't a big deal in Warframe, but since it isn't the kind of game with a careful and methodical gamespeed, it didn't feel quite fair. At medium-high levels arc traps barely tickle but newbie town is this weird world where you can't even always one-shot Corpus cameras.

- Acquiring New Gear: Vor's Seer/Cronus drops and Lotus' Heat Sword quest reward gave me the impression that, like in many other games, I would be getting parts for new weapons and warframes by killing enemies and completing quests, and the Market is just for spending premium currency. I didn't know that most Warframes require blueprints from the market and that most weapon BPs need to be purchased from there as well.

- "Where do I get that from?" Whenever I found something new (like a resource listed in a blueprint or a warframe/weapon my team mates used) my first question was pretty much always "where do I get that from?" and I always had to head to the wiki. The game's own "wiki", the codex system, isn't really helpful here. It's more like a picture book of stuff you've already seen and acquired.

- Damaged mods gave me the impression I would get the chance to repair them later. I didn't know they were just a quick newbie boost, for all I knew they could have been part of the general item system.

- I didn't know that elemental damage mods do extra damage even if you don't proc it

- So Many Containers: minor thing: there's a LOT of crates scattered around the levels. Initially I would try to open every single one of them unless I noticed that other players largely ignored them. As a newbie you don't really have the kind of value judgment necessary to recognize that these containers aren't worth your time most of the time. For what it's worth, during one of his first Dogfooding streams, [DE]Steve also noticed that there's a tooon of containers, but it seems like it didn't warrant a change. Maybe reducing resource drops but making them more valuable would also help with the ongoing Vacuum problem? Lots of items = lots of pickup hassle after all.

[Axemagus]

I started playing after Vor's Prize came a long, but am up to MR 19 now.  The things I remember confusing me the most were:

• What do all of the things on the HUD mean (status icons, shields, health, over charged shields, the little numbers over my abilities, etc..)  I still don't know what all of the icons mean...
• Along similar lines, it took me a bit to learn to distinguish the the visual effects of status procs on the actual enemy models
• Maroo's bazaar confused me a bit as well, but as it has been moved to Mars, it is less of an issue
• What is this relic thing I just got, and how do I use it?
• How do I change the colors on my ship?
• The amount of BPs I can buy with credits in the market is really low, how do I get more without buying a lot of plat.
• How do I heal?  Are there no health potions or space ninja equivalents?  How do I recharge my energy or restock my ammo?  What are pizzas and how do I get them? 
• Allow the player to try all 3 frames & weapon combos, or remove the choice.  I was really bummed when I realized I was stuck with the Lato, as I just wanted to check it out before the others.
• What are these Ayatan stars and how do I use them
• I wasted a silly amount of credits and mods experimenting with transmuting early on.  Disabling this until the player learns a bit more about polarity, rarity, and the like might be good.
• Spy missions and rescue missions were also a bit confusing at first.  I understood the goal, but at times I didn't understand why I failed a mission.
• Simaris..  I was exploring the relay and happened across him and he started telling me about all of this stuff, with little context.  A better intro for him would be nice.  Same for the syndicates.  
• This one may just be me, but I started with Excal, Paris, Lato & Skana.  The first few missions were easy to kill everything & stay mostly hidden.  This gave me the impression that Warframe was predominately a stealth game.  So when I started running into enemies that I couldn't one shot, then alarms started going off, I thought I was doing something wrong.
• What are alerts and invasions and why do I care?
• What is a rail, why do I need it to go to another planet, and why is this random warframe trying to kill me?  What is the context?
• Eximus units could also use a bit more explanation.

 

These are outside the 2 hour window, but were also big points of frustration in my early game..

• Bursas rocked my world for quite a bit & actually caused me to avoid corpus missions.  The difficulty spike that occurs when a bursa first shows up is a bit much I think.  I actually bailed on the defense mission I was on, because I didn't seem to be doing ANY damage to it and thought it had bugged out.
• The Archwing quest.  The balor blew me out of my boots multiple times before I got the hang of using the wing and how to properly avoid being obliterated.  I get that is is supposed to be an intense moment, but for me, that got lost in frustration because I died so quickly, with little idea how to avoid it.

 

Edited December 20, 2017 by Axemagus

[ArcusVeles]

A cinematic quest earlier in the game for players to really get hooked on would be a huge help.  I commonly get new players in my clan and friends asking what to do other than open up the star chart, and all I can tell them is "wait until the first cinematic quest, then you'll be hooked!".  If they make it that far, they're in for good, but if they don't, they're forever MR 1-6 in my friends list and I never see them again.

[3thereal]

Advanced movement - Bullet jump with Double jump ; rolling 

Melee- Blocking; channeling, slide attacks, combos

Foundry - Building Weapons

Damage 2.0 - How to mod for factions

Scanning - How to scan enemies and that they get into the codex

Codex- Enemy Info

Endo- How to level up mods

Modding- How to Mod weapons and frames

Modding - Capacity

Modding - Reactors and Catalysts

Modding- Polarity

Modding - Forma

Leveling frames/weapons - How Forma works in terms of capacity

MR - What it means; how to level up; why is it important

Alerts- What are these?

Fissures- What are these?

Market- Where are the blue prints?

Foundry- How to build

Relics- How to get, and enhance

Clans- How to join; Advantages

Trading - How it works; where to go

 

 

See- 

 

 

and

 

http://metadragon.de/warframe-beginners-guide/

[grumpykitten49]

I dont remember fully what i struggled with as a new player, but here are some that i still recall:

1. I feel we need to explain the modding system to newer players, modding for the weapons strengths ( status, crit, raw damage) , combining elements, explaining status and crit chance procs,or at least introduce them to the mandatory mods, such as +%damage mods( serration, hornet strike, pressure point), multishot mods(when they get them), etc.

2. explain the movement system more deeply in a section in  the Vor's Prize quest or the first few missions on earth, like bullet jumping, bullet time, etc( be more upfront), because i feel the movement system is really something that is at the core of the gameplay, or at least direct new players to the movement system tutorial in the codex.

3.give them a bit of direction, i was so overwhelmed by the star chart, what should i do?, why should i complete missions?, what are alerts?, push them to complete the star chart, and access the various bosses and ultimately the warframe quests and main story line quests.

4.switch the platinum and blueprint tabs, to show the blueprints first. showing the platinum tab first might reinforce some new players thoughts about the game and not even see the blueprint tab beside it ( this may also be due to them not knowing the symbol of blueprints , i.e. the credit or the microscope(research) symbols).

5.introduce trading, and how you can trade with people, mention you can trade things with platinum , this was a big suprise to me initially , because i didnt know there was trading and that we have to spend platinum (the real world currency ) to buy inventory slots. ( this might not be for the first two hours)

 

This is all i could think about, ill add more when i remember anything.

P.s. i started playing a little before saryn prime was released, so i still had void keys and the circular star chart.

Hope this helps

 

[sanbud]

Show them how to use abilities. It took me embarrassingly long to do anything besides play this like a normal shooter with a ton of mobility. Abilities are really not touched on all that much.

Also, optional tooltips to explain what mods actually do would be super useful (ie to explain their effect). I have a second screen open thats almost always on warframe wiki but I can't imagine that's the new player experience that's intended. For example, I was trying to figure out if I should use streamline yesterday, but I had to google what ability efficiency actually meant, and if it meant energy cost (it does).

Similarly, someone took like 30 minutes out of his day to explain what status meant, what puncture, impact, etc all meant, how they worked and I'm sure there's even a lot more there that he didn't have time to get into - none of that is explained to new players.

I've been playing for two months and I had no idea what a status actually was until that kind soul took the time to explain it all, I still wouldn't know if they hadn't. I thought it was like "Frozen" or something like in other games, I had assumed that if a weapon didn't have elemental damage, "status" was irrelevant. I don't remember seeing anything in-game to disabuse me of that notion. I'm still not sure I really understand it. 

It would be awesome if there was a way to just mouse-over things like Status and Ability Efficiency where a tooltip would pop up and explain it. It would obviously be an optional tutorial tooltip, but it would be pretty useful. There are a ton of little effects and things like that that aren't really explained. 

_{also if you guys want to see a lot more replies this got x-posted to the subreddit:} 

 

Edited December 20, 2017 by sanbud
formatting/clarifications

[Khlamydia]

3 hours ago, [DE]DeckardPain said:

Hello Tenno,

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

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

I highly recommend 5 minutes of that new 2 hour experience be teaching players the controls of the parkour system. An example that shows the player how to wall run, aim glide, double jump, roll jump, bullet jump, wall latch, ect... Part of new player retention is getting those new players excited so they want to discover more, and the best way to show them that this isn't any other shooter is to let them play with flying through the air like a space ninja because what other game does that? It's an amazing feature so show it off!

[Senechaux]

I've got over 1500 ingame hours now (3000+ login hours) but I still vividly remember my experience as a new player. Some of the aspects of the game that are not well defined are: mastery, inventory slots, and how to improve the damage we are dealing. 

When people normally play shooters/looters, if an item isn't dealing enough damage and your inventory is limited, you discard it and get a different one. If I was to discard the mk1-braton for the regular braton before I got the original to rank30, i'd lose the mastery from the missing levels and i'd have to level the weapon again from the start. Considering I have only 2-3 weapon slots to begin the game, it doesn't make sense to me why I shouldn't delete the mk1-braton and get the regular braton as soon as possible. Why would I care about something like "Mastery Rank" when I may never play this game again.

I recommend that all mk1 weapons be given to new players by default in "locked" weapon slots. Players cannot delete the weapons to free up the slots. The added benefit is if a player chooses the mk1-braton, they still can play with the mk1-paris,, strun, kunai, lato, bo, & skana. This takes some of the pressure of the initial "choice" of choosing the right weapon. A notification could say something like "choose which weapons to take with you, the rest will be delivered to you after the tutorial." Since the weapons can't be sold, there's no risk of a player losing mastery, and no aggravation from having to re-level a bad weapon from 0-30 just because you deleted it at 25.In addition all these "free" weapons are enough to get a player to beyond mr3. From a graph I saw a while back, 75% of players who try warframe quit before reaching mr3. It would be nice to give people all 3 starter frames as well. Some people regret the choice instantly because the descriptions of game items are poor. (Eg. "Volt is an alternative to  gun play") I suggest Nezha be moved from Dojo to Pluto and excal, mag & volt be given for free (locked warframe slots you cannot delete). A lot of popular mmo's allow you to create multiple characters even as a new player.

Other than the above, the game could use some more concept-differentiation between item level and account level. When I was a new player, I didn't understand why my gun kept going up in level but my account stayed at mr0 especially since they are both called "Rank."

Edited December 20, 2017 by Senechaux

[Rekkou]

1 hour ago, VoidPunch said:

Ensure that you tell new players that mods are NOT consumables! This is a very common issue, where they do not use mods because they think the mod will go away after the mission is over.

This brings back some old memories. Back then i don't even dare to equip abilities because i thought they are consumables.

IMO, you need to prioritize how the game is monetized. Platinum, potatoes, and slots. Some who aren't used to F2P might think platinum is just a rare resources that they can get from playing the game. On the other hand some people are too used to F2P might think mods or even companions are 1 time use.

I believe starting platinum should be the main priority, mistakes like selling your mods, weapons or even warframe can be mended with more grinding. But wasting your starting platinum on resources like neural sensors or morphics can't be undone. Some people might try again in new account, but other might simply left. 

Yes, i know trading exist, but this is new players we're talking. The assumption of their behavior should be that they don't know anything instead of assuming them to jump into the game already knowing everything.

[ThunderingMorkai]

Speaking from experience, my first hurdle in Warframe was coming to terms with the menus not supporting a gamepad.

That aside, I'd like to refer to a recent Reddit thread about how the chatbot has info that should absolutely be integrated into the game.

In addition to having it in the Codex, using Ordis to "teach" the UI is something to consider. As an example, perhaps the first time a new player gets access to navigation Ordis could have some dialogue about how cryosleep has made the player forget how the Liset's interface works so he'll do his best to give them a refresher. Other core aspects of the Liset like the mod bench and such could apply to this too. (These tutorials from Ordis should also be available to repeat from the Codex.)

[Aigloblam]

 

What were some things you wish Warframe taught you in the first 2 hours?
That some mods are absolutely required to be on every single weapon, and not just the broken versions.

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?
Absolutely, But we joined juuuust after Closed Beta, so nobody knew anything at all. It did throw me a bit when i jumped into a mission and suddenly everone was *POOF*, just gone. No "Stay together for safety" or "Spread out to get things done quicker"...Just, sink or swim, either keep up with the rushers and ignore extra loot, or hold everyone up.

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.

I set up a Google Doc (tinyurl.com/WFbaseMods) with all of the absolute base mods that you will be REQUIRED to have to complete the solar system, up to but not including sorties. So thats what i give to new players. Mostly because at the very start, you have absolutely no direction. After that first debacle with Vor is done, you have TOO MUCH choice. There are so many things to do, and you feel that if you do the wrong ones you are setting yourself back ages. Maybe once someone is done with Vor's Prize, they should get a message in their Inbox to come talk to someone in Larunda (or whatever the base relay is for either console) and have that person suggest the player ask around inside the relay itself, or region, to find a Guide of the Lotus or willing player to sort of aim them in some direction that will help. Just something to give them more direction.


 

[sanbud]

3 hours ago, [DE]DeckardPain said:

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

to answer these questions directly:

• Mods and Status, easily. Also, that blueprints are purchaseable with credits
• After the tutorial, I had no idea where I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do. I didn't really understand the star chart
• When you reach Cetus, it is super not clear that PoE isn't your next area of progression. I definitely spent a few nights chasing after objectives that were like 2000m away and usually completed by my archwing-borne companions long before my arrival. I don't think I actually accomplished anything of significance those couple nights, and it would've been good to know I should have been doing alerts or working through the star chart or quests instead of POE bounties, given my MR at the time. 

 

Just now, Aigloblam said:

I set up a Google Doc (tinyurl.com/WFbaseMods) with all of the absolute base mods that you will be REQUIRED to have to complete the solar system, up to but not including sorties. So thats what i give to new players.

omfg as a new player thank you so much, i've been looking for something exactly like this

Edited December 20, 2017 by sanbud

[Aigloblam]

11 minutes ago, Khlamydia said:

I highly recommend 5 minutes of that new 2 hour experience be teaching players the controls of the parkour system. An example that shows the player how to wall run, aim glide, double jump, roll jump, bullet jump, wall latch, ect... Part of new player retention is getting those new players excited so they want to discover more, and the best way to show them that this isn't any other shooter is to let them play with flying through the air like a space ninja because what other game does that? It's an amazing feature so show it off!

Absolutely! 
I run into maybe 15-20 players a day that do nothing but run.....they just sprint, nothing else. And they seem so confused when i go whizzing by. It takes 30 seconds to teach them the basics, enough to get them to quadruple their speed easily...That should be taught.

[Aigloblam]

3 minutes ago, sanbud said:

omfg as a new player thank you so much, i've been looking for something exactly like this

Hit me up in game sometime man, I would be more than happy to teach you WAY more than that list....thats not even the tip of the iceberg :)