Improving the New Player Experience

[Nazrethim]

3 hours ago, [DE]DeckardPain said:

Hello Tenno,

I am [DE]DeckardPain. My background is in UX/UI Design but also in Warframe. I've been a member of the community since August of 2013 and recently have had the pleasure of joining the Digital Extremes family.

Congratulations!

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

Gameplay:

-Existence of Codex (and scanners as well as the Tutorials)

-What is Conclave (since it's available from the very beginning)

Meta sense:

-That the game is not PayToWin (a good way would be to showing players below a certain MR bps first instead of the plat option)

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

Damage types can be overwhelming/confusing at start. Conclave (again) is designed for more experienced players, even in Recruit Conditioning. A proper Conclave Combat Tutorial would be welcome.

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• 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?

Mostly related to Quests and what to do next after finishing Vor's Prize. Though Rail unlocking and further quests have helped a lot with that.

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• 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.

It's mostly lack of information about how the game actually works. What struck me as odd was the lack of variety of starter frames. We have only 1 fighter (excalibur) and two casters (volt and mag) but no thief/rogue or support.

Would be nice if a rogue-type frame (Ash, Ivara, Loki) and support frame (Oberon or Trinity) were added to the roster of initial frames. I talk from my experience, I picked Excalibur and almost quit the game because I enjoy playing Rogues, Ninjas and Assassins in other games and Excalibur wasn't one, I had to make a beeline to Tyl Regor to get Ash (that was a long time ago). I'm sure many more players who enjoy assassins or support roles feel the same. I would go with Ash and Oberon as assassin and support additions because they are fairly rounded and good options for begginers.

Another thing to watch is acquisition of Kubrows. They require a lot of investment to maintain, I don't think new players are able to afford to keep a kubrow initially.

 

Edited December 20, 2017 by Nazrethim

[Xerenova]

I'll just qoute from my reddit comment.

"Explain all of the segments in the Liset and Orbiter(best to explain these too). 

Example, Relic segment.
You just started the game. You head over to the back to see locked segment. An action will be prompted and Ordis will appear and explain what is it used for. He will proceed to tell you about void fissures, how relics can be farmed and the possible upgrades of the relic with void traces.

Everything should be concisely explained."

Edited December 20, 2017 by -Icicles-
Remove spacing.

[Cazzzz]

The questions that typically came up for me are as follows:

-How do I upgrade stuff? (Mods/catalyst/reactor/etc.)
-How do I progress in the game? (Nodes, planets, obtaining new items.)
-What are credits/platinum, and how should I use them? (Market and building tips. Resources and drop locations could maybe be crammed into this.)
-What exactly do all of the frames do? (Maybe introduce the players to the starter frames before making them select one of them. I know personally I wanted to change my choice after figuring out what the other two did.)
-How do I use 'x' gameplay mechanic? (Certain maneuvers, interactions, mission types, etc, with a big focus on the parkour aspects. I ended up figuring out half of the mechanics in that category by sheer accident as a newer player.)
-Slots?? (Really, I know it's more profitable for DE to not say anything and hope players expend their slots and eventually just buy more of them, but a warning really does give players more insight to what the game offers, and what limits do exist. I almost feel like this shouldn't be its own category, but it did catch my attention when I started playing.)
-Clans, relays, and other community locations. What/where can I find things in those places? (This is a HUGE one with the newly added Plains of Eidolon and Cetus. New players might have a major problem figuring out what goes on in places like this, and that might become discouraging very quickly.)
 

As a general, overall tip, explanations and tutorials need to just be a bit more specific without being too boring either. In the current system, players are guided (vaguely) through a quest that offers little reward and doesn't explain how it all quite fits together. Before this quest came out (when I joined), I only figured out how the game worked through the help of already seasoned veterans. Not that community help is a bad thing, but that shouldn't be the end-all-be-all of the learning curve. If it weren't for the one friend I made within the first few hours, I can assure anyone I wouldn't still be playing this game today.
If we're trying to improve the first few hours, the best tip I can give is to introduce the game in the most exciting way possible. Lore is usually a good way to do this, but how that gets done really isn't any of my business.

[Hattori_Jr]

I just went through Vors Prize with two new players.  I would say the quest needs to be slowed down, because it is too much information too fast.  You go to pick up a piece for your ship, you use it once, then it is on to the next piece.  Each thing needs to be covered more than the quick overview.  Like get the navigator piece, put it in, then tell them to use it to launch a mission and have them do it a three times total, then do the foundry, and have them use it three times.  Maybe when the market is introduced, have them buy a low level blue print, and then make it in the foundry.  The idea is that each part is introduced multiple times, and maybe give more details, while covering the basics again each time.

 

The arsenal needs to be covered over many different small bits, as there is a lot to learn.  Have then learn what mods might be better than others, try different builds, upgrade a couple mods, learn what endo is and how to get more.  This could be a whole quest itself as there is so much to it.

So, try to reduce TMI by reinforcing the important information.  And lastly, give them specific guidance on what to do next.  Right now it is a long list of things to do, instead suggest they start by clearing the star chart and tell them how.  Also tell them where to go to find out the things they can do that they haven't done yet.

[Sanotsuto]

All of these problems can be fixed through the Codex on the ship. Players should be directed to the codex every time a segment of the ship is unlocked (maybe make it a "quest" given by Ordis with a nominal credit reward to incentivize the action). The codex should contain detailed information about everything regarding that segment, I.E., the Arsenal section would explain load outs, moding, polarities, basically any section that is a function of that segment is explained. Bonus points if there's an on-screen guide which gets you to complete these actions to cement them.

That being said, a few things could use an update.

Even for mid-level players and veterans, not just new players, the plethora of vaulted relics is daunting, and the vaulted rewards even more so. Both relics and rewards that are vaulted should have a symbol denoting that. Ducat values should be displayed next to the item upon reward selection for those farming ducats. I shouldn't have to try and race through a 3rd party app on my phone to figure out what reward I want to pick as a timer counts down. Bonus points for a unique symbol added for relics/rewards that are currently in an unvaulting cycle.

The market and it's contents are also daunting (including dojo labs). Symbols should be added that denote when a blueprint is purchased, a weapon or item is built, and a weapon/item is leveled to 30. On that note as well, one should be able to click an item from their player profile and be brought to that item in the market, if applicable.

The best new player rework will be bound to miss something, and as always, the older players will be glad to help newer players out. This would work best if we could copy/paste text from the warframe chat, so we could add links to wiki pages/resources. Bonus points for making hyper links that you can open in the background.

Mastery, and what grants it, needs to be clearly explained.

Advising new players to spend their starting platinum on weapon slots/warframe slots (and the fact it is not tradeable) would be a good idea.

 

[Phailberry]

I'mma try to keep this simple and in weird segments or separate thoughts:

- Vor's Prize is excellent. (kinda wish tenno that voted to skip the quest when it came out can play it on those accounts. We still can't play it T__T)

- Junctions: They work well, but some requirements might need further clarification (Principle Challenge Rooms on Lua, Cephalon Fragments, quests in general being needed, etc) There's no tutorial on things like Cephalon Fragments for instance.

- Menus: The distinction that X object can be simply found in Y location. There are a LOT of things going on in Warframe, especially since it's a game that revolves around massive volumes of items and craftables. Example: Decorator Mode: We have to press EscMenu > Equipment > Landing Craft > Place Decoration. That's 4-5 steps roughly. Efficiency through simplicity could be an option to take.

- Codex: needs updates and emphasis. It's an excellent resource for knowledge, however there are some parts that are outdated, particularly in the Training tab. Overall it's still great and swift. Many tenno can easily forget or overlook the Codex in its current state. (Do we still need Dark Sector tutorial?!?!? XD)

- Chat channels: Currently a small passage of white text might appear at the top of some channels, but new tenno will very likely miss this white text with all the other tenno typing away. Maybe we could have a pop up for them to read? Something in their face sorta?


Most of the things i can think about revolve around Distinction, Direction and Emphasis on the current features and sources for tenno to use, whether new or not, but certainly for newer tenno. As for new ideas on how to organize or manage the many interfaces or resources ingame? I'll leave that to you. Not my place to say what should or shouldn't be done.

If this wasn't confusing, and i somehow don't sound crazy, i hope to have sparked new ideas for DE.
Enjoy ^__^

Edited December 20, 2017 by Phailberry

[Clem2-TheClemening]

There need to be mandatory tutorials that handhold the player through systems. Make the player fuse a mod. Make them put it in the right and wrong polarity slot. Make them polarize and upgrade a piece of equipment. There is so much to do in Warframe that you cannot explore all of the systems on your own without missing something important.

Also, when selecting the first focus school, there should be some way of showing what the focus schools actually do. Maybe let them see the actual trees, or a short flashback sequence, cutscene or gameplay, of the school being used.

Edited December 20, 2017 by Clem2-TheClemening

[CorerMaximus]

MR24 with over 2,000 hours here (I'm saying this to drive that I've tried nearly every system; and believe have had an opportunity to try every aspect of Warframe).

I recently (about a month and a half ago) tried getting my brother to play Warframe and he quit after playing Vor's Prize. When I asked him why- he simply said- "I don't understand what I'm doing in the game". With that- show new players what the game is capable of/ what the endgoal of Warframe is

While he was fascinated by the graphics for a F2P game, he stopped playing after the first mission because he was lost- he didn't understand what the objective of the game was nor how to go about achieving it. A little addition of the scope of the game such as a brief demonstration of the various factions, weapons, or even the lore to be experienced would really help retaining players.

Edited December 20, 2017 by CorerMaximus

[LuckyCharm]

My new player experience was 5 years ago so I don't think it really applies here since I've grown with all the games new changes, but I'll outline a few of the things that I felt while helping others:

First two hours

-New players are told to choose a warframe with little to no understanding of the game and the importance of their choice on their experience. If they choose the wrong starter frame they're literally stuck playing something they don't like for a long while with no access to the other choices they could have made until very late planets. Perhaps consider allowing new players to either try out all 3 in the simulacrum or a test mission before choosing, or just give them access to all 3 from the beginning. 

-After vor's prize you're a little stuck of what to do. There's no clear direction of which planet to head to next, or a reason why you're even fighting the enemies. This could be changed by adding a little lore, but even simple prompts from the lotus of how to proceed next would be helpful

-You're given access to things in your ship, but are never really explained their functions. The market, the syndicate board, the codex, the mods window etc. A little explanation is necessary so people know the basic functions. 

-Marketplace mainly shows plat prices of things. Given this is the way to get the early level weapon blueprints a little more in depth explanation would be required. I've had to explain to people where the blueprints are located, and which are available for their current level.

-Damage types and statuses aren't explained anywhere so they aren't exposed to the pros and cons vs different enemies

-eximus enemies are given vague names for the most part and aren't explained so frequently people get frustrated seeing their energy disappear to something labled "parasitic eximus"

 

 

Other new player experience

-Essential mods are rare drops and may take a long time to acquire. By that I mean mods like streamline, intensify, flow, and other such mods. I find myself constantly giving these out to newbies who are MR 5 or higher who still haven't got them. It's a progression block for most of these people

-Lack of weapon and warframe slots. Other than your starter gear you're not really given any option to expand your arsenal without paying for it. That's a little harsh when you find yourself having to sell things you've just ranked up in the starmap to have to relevel a new thing with no mod slots because you're low level

 

[Seadramon.]

IMO buying a weapon blueprint from the market needs to be in the tutorial. Too many new players are turned off because they very quickly, and reasonably, assume that they need to pay money to buy any new weapons or warframes. Having part of an early quest guide them to the market and purchase a weapon blueprint would show them the main way to acquire new gear.

[WhiteCopain]

I think the new player experience would actually be far better if you directed players more and took things a bit slower. A lot of people don't even seem to know that we're sitting in an Orbiter rather than just a ship; so why not use that Ship Docking in the orbiter cutscene shown off in a devstream the very first time you dock? The upcoming personal Quarters should be locked behind a quest too, so rather then going "Whaaa?" they could have a quick quest where some merchant explains he's building it or something and it feels more like an accomplishment and less like "What is this doing here?"

 

Every player I've introduced to the game I've had to basically flat out explain how to do the quest leading up to Second Dream; making this easier to happen would go a long way, as telling them to "Listen for an Orca Sound" and then telling them to run around and scan before it leaves is kinda goofy. Plus it being on a low chance until they clear nodes is pointless; just make it 100% on some nodes.

 

 

ALSO. FIND A WAY TO EXPLAIN DAMAGE TYPES. THERE'S NO GOOD INFO ON HOW THEY WORK OR HOW TO MAKE THEM. The game as a whole has so many complicated things like this that even as a Vet I go "what did that do again?" and have to wiki it.

Edited December 20, 2017 by WhiteCopain

[Molagstar_Molakath]

My girfriend is really skeptical about warframe being a good game and just yesterday tried getting back on after a very long pause. She did not remember anything significant about the game's mechanics. She just remembered the old ugly assets. I tried accompanying her on this and this is my experience of her playthrough.

Now bear with me for a story on where this adventure disappointed even me, the one who brought her in:

She logged on her old account only to find Vor's Prize to be inaccessible and apparently bugged. She proceeded to make a new account because starting a game with a support ticket is not a good start.

Initial cutscene was pretty good, but soon after ending things became confusional. She started moving around and the first instructions disappeared immediately. I was lucky to catch a glimpse about casting first ability or it would have been frustrating for both. This was not the first case of this happening, leaving her confused. Do not put instructions that close so easily and remember to put them really in view.

Various glitches about AI happened all around the tutorial levels. Most of them were about the AI not reacting to fire and just relaxingly watching over a wall while being shot multiple times.

There was NO glimpse of a challenge. There are very few and sparse enemies. They have the right HP but they deal NO damage and pose NO challenge. Ramp up enemy spawns.

She noted animations, visuals and graphics are not on par with Destiny, but this is not a complain you should really care about because i think destiny is a dumpster fire on every other aspect.

Vor is a really bland character until he talks about his dreams of dying a grandfather. That's one of his few redeemable lines.

The story is explained the old way, just by having Lotus, Vor, Darvo and Ordis just speaking to eachother while you play. What they say is mostly flavour text about their character and Ascaris drama, mixed with serious informations about what to do and what is happening. My girlfriend is used to WoW standards, where all text is flavour text and mission progression is tied to a marker. She is not a good listener and she would like to know when to listen for the important stuff and when she let herself be distracted by the fight. Just be sure to repeat the important stuff happening, because people like her tend to lose the important bits together with the not important ones.

Espionage and Rescue levels are not really explained in depth. It is ok for their difficulty to be non-existant but this way she did not understand its rules or potential or if she will see this kind of level again in the future.

Ship segments unlocked had no explanations on what they do:

• Market does NOT explain that most of your early weapons will be bought there FOR CREDITS. NOT PLAT. NO. THIS IS NOT PAY TO WIN. TELL THEM.
• Loadout does NOT explain how mods actually work. She also does not want to read every mod she finds, so have her understand what is important and guide her through increasing the damage output instead of having Ordis spam an irritating line about him waiting for you to "mod" stuff before proceeding.
• Foundry has clutter from Air Support Capsules and Eidolon archwing launchers that make you wonder what is it you are trying to build and is generally bad polish.

The fire after the sabotage SCALES with level. By accompanying her she had a fire that basically one shotted her.

The boss fight of the tutorial STILL SCALES WITH LEVEL. She had to fight a lvl 25 VOR that basically one shotted her while I could one shot him

If you don't get sucked in the narrative you can clearly see the tutorial is just a series of basic mission with NO challenge and tedious scripted exercises on unexplained mechanics.

Once this tutorial ends, you get two ways.

One to venus, where lays one of the oldest bosses of the game. I can't imagine her disgust when she is gonna see it AGAIN. It is not a good way to show how much warframe has evolved.

The other is through Cetus, where she can do NOTHING and through some basic Earth missions with little to no challenge.

 

I am pretty disappointed about this, and i think she will not pick this up again.

I may write more tomorrow

 

 

 

 

[(PSN)stegalt]

This was said early but put in a quest that introduces teshin. As that post said I was literally like "who the f*** is this guy?", that said I also think you guys should add more... direction to planets after Vor's Prize. Also said early on have a quest that takes you to venus, then mercury, etc. etc. - My friend and I were just unlocking planets to unlock them would have been nice to have a small quest that sent you to various spots on new planets to eventually fighting the boss of said planet or something can use these quests to introduce the boss characters and provide a bit of lore behind them as well.

Otherwise I didn't have too many issues, but I'm accustomed to looking S#&$ up on a wiki from playing other games.

[Vimescarrot]

I just started playing in the last two months, and though I'm not by any means qualified, I've been playing video games for decades and the new player experience is a subject I've always been passionate about. I really, really hope you can take strides to improve the NPE, because you have an excellent game hidden behind a very ugly veil.

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

Gear was never explained. I had to have a friend explain what a codex scanner was and how to use it.

Alerts, invasions, and nightmare mode aren't explained very well. Alerts are self-explanatory, but there's two kinds of nightmare mode (nightmare alerts, and the three-times-a-day-per-planet nightmare missions) that I had to look up on the wiki. Invasions on early planets are all vs Infestation, so the player doesn't understand some of the UI (it asks you to pick a side...but you can only pick one side. "Progress" on those invasions doesn't make as much sense.)

The Market is unexplained, and finding anything in there is just...well, I search in there for random words like "shotgun" and just click on every weapon to see how it goes. That's not great, is it? I want to find the newbie-friendly weapons. The stuff I can craft with resources from just Earth and Venus. Can we explain the Market? Can we allow players to find easy-to-craft equipment for themselves?

Finally, this is rather vague, but...you don't really know why you're doing anything after the tutorial. There's no goal, once you've finished the tutorial. No objective to pursue.

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

The controls. Open up your keybinds menu right now and read over it. Ask yourself - what's a new player going to understand? Will they know what "item popup" is? Will they understand an archwing icon?

You're barraged by item drops constantly. None of them are explained. Resources, and especially mods, drop constantly, and you just...don't know if they matter, at all. I wonder - could you just not have resources drop in tutorial missions, until you've had chance to explain them to the player?

 

• 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?

After you complete the tutorial missions, there's one node of vanilla mission (that leads onto the Venus Relay), and one node for Cetus and the Plains of Eidolon. How to actually clear the Plains is not explained at all, and the Venus junction says you have to kill Eximus - but by this point in the game, no Eximus have ever spawned, so players will have no idea what to do. Can't make informed progress to Venus because they have no idea what an Eximus is; can't make informed progress past the Plains because the Plains are.....weird.

You might consider making Cetus and the Plains a side-node instead of a required node. You might also consider having Lotus explain an Eximus (by forcing players to fight one) before you finish the tutorial.

• 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.

More access to mark-1's and a better system to get items for new players. The foundry feels like it should only start being relevant once players have gotten past the "newbie" stage; sort of early midgame. Before that, I would love a system that lets players buy - and experiment with - other mark-1 items. A bigger variety (mark-1 shotgun? mark-1 crossbow? mark-1 hammer?). This way players can get S#&$ty items, play around with them, get a feel for what they like, and learn the game's item system, without having to ever understand the foundry, and where to get crafting materials and such. That's something that can wait a little.

Apparently you can do all of this! But it's not obvious. I'm hearing right now in the Discord server I'm in, there's a bunch of cheap, easy, bad gear to find in the market. But new players have no idea! I didn't! I'm MR4 now, grinding through a Grakata and Bronco and my fifth melee weapon, and all this time I never knew I could get cheap, easy gear in the market. Make a smaller market or different kind of option for bad, newbie weapons!

Could we lock fissures behind a quest on Mars so that new players simply don't see them? New players do not need to see fissures at all. New players don't understand farming for Prime parts or whatever, nor do they expect to. Locking content behind progress gates lets players play earlier content without behind quite so overwhelmed with information. If a player gets a relic drop, have Ordis or Lotus say "Interesting. Keep this; we'll be able to use it later, once you're stronger."

Ayatan stars and sculptures aren't explained. I just made 7.5k endo making and selling some, because a friend explained them to me. Once again, could we lock the ability to get stars and sculptures until after a quest, which can also explain them? This one might be a bit more controversial because it straight reduces the amount of endo a new player gets, but once again, it reduces the amount of information a new player is barraged with. Also, the interface for putting stars in the sculptures is....um...Pretty. But awful. It explains nothing. I had to be handheld through it!

In general, consider questlocking content. It's a way to ease players into the game.

Tooltips can be very useful to new players. Tips that pop up when you mouseover something.

I've just been informed that you can find a lot of the answers in the Codex. I had no idea until I was told just now. That fact is never made obvious to the player....and Codex options are never good solutions to players not knowing things anyway. Great that it's there, but never think that the Codex is enough on its own.

Explain Clans? They're required to get some weapons, but I've had no explanations! Make a clan quest! (This one could gate the ability to join your friends, so think long and hard about how much you gate behind a clan quest).

There are a lot of UI elements that are honestly not great - this is less about the new players and more about all players, but difficult to use interfaces hit new players disproportionately hard. Notable bad interfaces:

• The weapon comparison is...awkward. Make a good, easy way to compare any two weapons.
• Market and foundry menus have massive big buttons for each item, taking up a huge part of the screen, reducing how much you can see at once. Makes searching harder/more tedious.

Good luck with improving the NPE further. As I said; I'm truly passionate about the NPE in all games. I've come from games like Dota. The NPE there is awful too. I want it better, in all games.

Truly, good luck.

[Majes1337]

The three biggest questions I had, and that I frequently see being asked, are:

• How do I get a new weapon?
• How do I get a new Warframe?
• Where do I find X material?

When I first started, I also had difficulty figuring out how to progress between planets, but thankfully the new star map makes that clearer.  

One big help on the last point would be tool-tips in the foundry to tell you where to obtain certain materials.  For example, one of the first Warframes people will try to craft will be Rhino. However, Rhino Systems require a Control Module to build.  The number of people I routinely see asking where to find Control Modules in chat, or even worse, post stories about how they spent 10 of their starter plat on a Control Module because they thought it was some super rare material, is staggering.  A little tool-tip that popped up when you hovered over the Control Module icon in the Foundry that said "Autonomy processor for Robotics. A Corpus design. Control Modules are a rare resource drop on Europa, Neptune, and the Orokin Void." would go a long way toward helping players.

My last bit of feedback is more on the game-play side, rather than UX/UI.  The "Core Mods" are just way too difficult to obtain for new players without assistance.  By "Core Mods", I am referring to the following: the base damage mods (Serration, Hornet Strike, etc), the multishot mods (Split Chamber, Barrel Diffusion, etc), the four 90% elemental mods (Fever Strike, Stormbringer, etc.), Intensify, Streamline, Continuity, Stretch, Vitality, Redirection, and Steel Fiber.  These mods are the basic building blocks upon which every build is formed, and they are frustratingly hard to obtain for new players. 

The first time I reached Phobos (back when it mostly used the Grineer Desert tile-set), I had only obtained Pressure Point, Vitality, Redirection and Stretch; I found it all of a sudden basically impossible to kill enemies and survive any reasonable time, and it was incredibly frustrating because I had no idea what was wrong.  New players are already gated off from power due to needing endo and credits to rank up all these mods, not to mention limited weapon capacity to slot them, due to lack of Forma/potatoes; there doesn't need to be this annoying scavenger hunt for basic tools on top of it.  Leave the mod hunt for more powerful/niche mods.  The bounties and incursions help this somewhat, but I feel that at the very least the core damage mods for weapons should just be awarded to players, perhaps during the Stolen Dreams quest.  

In fact, awarding these mods could also serve as a tutorial to the whole modding system.  Have a quest where the Lotus basically tells you that you need to get geared up to take on the threats to the Origin System that have emerged since you first entered the Dream.  One mission would be a Spy mission where you need to break into Corpus vaults to steal the Electric Mods.  Then you have to search for caches on a Grineer ship to get the Heat mods, then an extermination mission against the Infested for the Toxin mods, then an Excavation missions on Venus for the Cold mods, and finally a 15 wave defense mission to get Intensify, Streamline, and Continuity.  Between each step of the quest, the Lotus tells you to equip the mod on an applicable weapon.  Or maybe you structure the quest so that one mission awards you all the core Warframe mods, another gives you the pistol mods, and so on.  Regardless, there needs to be a clearer path for new players to obtain these basic building block mods, so that they can more quickly get to experience all the wonderful stuff that Warframe has to offer, rather than getting bogged down with no guidance 10 hours in.

[(XBOX)Cirosem]

I started at the end of October, so a lot of my new player experiences are pretty fresh. One of the first missions was an Excavation and it was painful, so many deaths, we didn't know we were done with the mission and continuing the objective was optional.

• Keep the Extraction icon up on the screen. It disappears after a minute, and you have to open the map to view its location.

Kurias and Cephalon fragments are an interesting thing for new players. I tried to loot them when I first encountered them.

• Perhaps if Kurias and Cephalon fragments could be marked with an orange border waypoint instead of the standard white one, it might relay it's an item to be scanned, or at least something different than the usual loot.

Howl of the Kubrow was what almost made me stop playing. The only resource I had at that point was Control Modules. It took me 3-4 days of crit path and farming to finally start incubating the kubrow. It made me pretty salty. In hindsight, there were probably alerts for argon and nano spores, but I didn't know what I currently had collected or where to view them aside from viewing blueprints in the foundry.

• Maybe resource Alerts can display an extra line like, "You currently own <#>" so players know right away if it's something they don't have, or need more of.

The Market is somewhat off putting to me. For a long while I didn't use it because I thought everything was bought with plat. The filter "Show Blueprints only" doesn't show items that you can purchase with credits, that aren't blueprints. (Mk starter weapons, DNA stabilizers, festive limited time things.)

• Possibly add new filter for all items in that category that can be purchased with credits.
• Please add a line in item descriptions that can be researched in the Clan Dojo. (Ex: Landing Craft Foundry Segment) Some players don't know there's an alternative way to get these items in the market, and this could help encourage new players to join a clan.

With the lack of starting weapon slots, selling occurs pretty early on. My boyfriend got a Soma Prime, then leveled a Soma later, and well he accidentally sold the Soma Prime when he maxed Soma out. Honest mistake but.... after a while muscle memory kicks in with menus and confirmation of destructive actions are completely missed.

• If equipment could be marked as Favorite, to prevent accidental selling, that would be super.

It took guesswork to figure out what the icons on the top right of my screen (when I'm in my ship) meant. There's no way that I can tell to find what those icons mean. Early on I found what I now know was a rare storage container, and got an affinity booster. But I didn't know what an affinity booster was, let alone what affinity was for.

• When in your ship, can the Change View button act like a tutorial interface to highlight those icons and get information? Maybe also have a decorating menu, or display a decorate Landing Craft option since so many new players have asked me how to customize their landing craft. I was a white ship til like MR 6, now I silently laugh at the white ships I see.

I think I wrote a lot. But lastly, please feel free to add more easily-obtainable decorations to the ship. Changing the colors still left me with an empty ship until I started acquiring decorations. But new players won't get decorations til .. well... ayatan sculptures that they don't pick up, or quests much further down the road. Being able to customize your living quarters in a game can do a lot for player retention.

[PyroChemist]

Two words

 

Sentinel Precepts

[Alderynn]

Honestly? Starting new players off with a couple more slots for frames and weapons would be huge. If you look at people asking for advice on where to spend the starting platinum, it's always "buy slots". If new players don't do this, then they are going to have a bad time unless they immediately drop money on platinum, but if they just started and are already struggling with this aspect of the f2p model then why would they continue?

Sure, DE may not sell quite as many bundles of plat to brand new players just looking to get a new frame, but I 100% guarantee this would make player retention go up, which results in more people buying plat later on.

I just convinced a friend to start playing a couple months ago and there is nothing worse than that feeling of telling him that he needs to destroy one of his few frames to make room for more right after he grinded some early planets for the ones he has.

Edited December 20, 2017 by Alderynn

[MaidGalaxy]

Simple: the first 2 hours are not enough to teach the player the fundamentals of this game.

Modding is barely explained outside of "equip this".

Upgrading mods isn't explained.

How to obtain warframes isn't explained.

Where to see what resources a planet offers isn't explained (and also hidden behind the resource drone icon for god knows what reason).

Benefits of damage types aren't explained outside of "use heat against infested", but this isn't even within the first 2 hours of the game.

What the codex is and how it functions isn't explained.

Where to get the void relic segment isn't explained.

There is no tutorial to what fissures are outside of what lotus says within the fissure mission itself (which is vague).

The player isn't given a goal to achieve and after the tutorial is done, doesn't know what to do.

That quest requirements are listed and found within the quest tab of the menu / codex, isn't explained.

Ship customization isn't explained.

What Ayatan does isn't explained outside of maroo, but this implies people know that she gives that information to you, which also isn't explained that she does.

That the player's inventory is limited isn't explained until they get the pop up to buy more.

That you can't have less than 1 weapon of a weapon type (primary, secondary, melee) isn't explained and causes confusion if a player lets say, owns 2 lex and wants to build aklex, but can't without any reason given.

 

All of those things could be explained in a brief tutorial sequence the first time they pick up / interact / obtain items that need explaining to be done.

Edited December 20, 2017 by MaidGalaxy

[Rulbiem]

Well, here is the thing: Warframe is a very different game in a lot of aspects, and this originality is both a good and a bad thing for the newcomers.

Warframe is very bad at teaching the new player the systems, the mechanics and the vocabulary present in the game. The first hours of the experience needs to be better, needs to be solid, or the player will loose interest. Take some minutes to present players with the mod system in the first time he opens the Upgrade section, create a more intuitive and visual tutorial for all the options instead of a tedious wall of text. In a lot of mobile games is common to see tutorials that awards you with something just for the sake of the learning experience. Give the new player an Orokin Catalyst just to teach him how to upgrade the mod capacity for example. I know that Warframe is a very fast paced game, but take it slow in the first hour, take the players by the hands and guide then for all the possible questions. Something that I learned is that game developers needs to answer the players' questions before they ask then. 

[Foefaller]

So, here are the things that I think Vor's Prize and the quests from Mercury/Venus/Earth don't really explain well enough:

Upgrading Mods and the purpose of Endo: Biggest one here IMO, to the point that I think Vor's Prize should be changed up that so that Ordis or the Lotus explains mods and endo in greater detail. I figure there should be split up into three spots: First when you first unlock the mod bench, where there is a basic explanation as to how to install mods and polarities. Second time right before you fight Vor, when Ordis or Lotus now stops you from starting that mission until you upgrade some mods (maybe the damaged Serration you get?) Third time might be the first time you use the mod bench after finishing Vor's Prize, where they explain selling mods for credits and endo, fusing mods for a new one, and that you will be wanting to replaced your damaged mods with better ones.

Junctions: Probably just a line or two after Vor's Prize, someone should mention that to explore beyond Earth that you need to work towards the goals of the Junctions. Along with the third mod tutorial. 

Weapon and Warframe slots: Honestly, your marketing/montization people might hate it, but "Save your starting plat on slots" should be in the game, as it's probably the #1 piece of advice vets give to new players. At the very least, mention that Inventory slots for weapons/warframes/sentinels/companions are a thing and you will need to manage your space with them. Might be something you mention when the player first gets a weapon or warframe blueprint, with Ordis or Darvo perhaps giving a warning to players if they attempt to buy something with plat from the market first?

Relics in detail: Ordis gives some bit about how relics work when you unlock Mars, but he doesn't really explain why they're important and you'd want to do them. Might not need a mission, but maybe Baro Ki'Teer contacts you and tells you all about the goodies you find in relics and why he's interested in them?

Trading: Maroo should contact you to give you the lowdown about Trading once you hit Mastery Rank 2, and perhaps even mention her skills with Ayatan Sculptures as well.

Reactors, Catalysts, and Forma: These might be a bit beyond the 2 hour mark you're talking about, but it's still confusing to a lot of new players. Might be the best way to teach them it to give them out. I know Stolen Dream gives out a catalyst BP when you finish it, and that comes after unlocking Phobos, but it isn't "required" until you want to unlock Europa, and I suspect many player will have leveled several weapons by then. Maybe make it a requirement for an earlier Junction? Or also make it a reward for Once Awake, which comes even earlier? With forma you might give out one once the player levels their Warframe to 30, with an explanation.

Edited December 20, 2017 by Foefaller

[Vimescarrot]

I wish I had a job where I just go from company to company implementing excellent NPE's.

[DoctorCandor]

Corresponding Reddit thread here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/7kwy9z/de_asking_for_help_on_improving_the_new_player/

 

As a new player, the lack of information and answering the who, what, when, where, why, how of Warframe was sorely missing in the first two hours - I immediately turned to Google and found the wikia, any relevant YouTubers, and the subreddit and had to study for hours to understand what Warframe is and how to play Warframe effectively. Aside from everyone's great suggestions, I recommend also giving a nod in-game to available informational resources like the wikia, partner YouTubers, and the subreddit that is outside the scope of what the game can show/teach players especially within the first two hours.

If this approach is not possible, then I would rather have the game at least acknowledge that Warframe does require a learning curve. While having a basic overview of the systems/mechanics in Warframe in the first two hours is fine, I would have liked to see each step at least mentioning that there is more to learn by, for example, telling the player to consult the codex and having the player open the codex as a mandatory quest step. I would have preferred a "show, don't tell" tutorial where I was hand-held through a basic understanding of what I needed to know about Warframe, then at least given a way to learn more once I understood the basics.

 

[DoctorCandor]

1 minute ago, Vimescarrot said:

I wish I had a job where I just go from company to company implementing excellent NPE's.

That's more akin to consulting, but new player experience is probably too narrow a scope for such a job.

[BaTHaLo]

Add an indicator (icon) wherever interface it is, what weapons/frames/companions/sentinels we've already mastered, so that we players, especially new players won't accidentally waste credits on items that we already mastered. I for example after playing for about a month and a half had a lot of this incidents whereas I accidentally bought items that I already mastered thus wasting credits that I could've use on much useful purpose, thank you.