Improving the New Player Experience

[SILVERF4NG]

17 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.

My current focus is specifically taking a deeper look into pain points in the New Player Experience, specifically within the first 2 hours of gameplay. There are many ways to approach what we perceive as the biggest issues, but we definitely wanted to also take the time to approach you and gather information from within the community.

With that in mind, we would love to hear more about your experience (if you can remember that far back, for some of you); for example:

• 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.

See you in-game!

[DE]DeckardPain

1.) The Parkour tutorial is painfully basic, on top of that the advanced control tutorial is hidden deep inside the Codex which a lot of the casual fans won't even touch in the start

2.) Explain How your damage system works, it's just too confusing, you have your three different physical status(slash, pierce etc) and the elemental damage and the diffrent combos mixing and matching gets them. Also atleast tell us what kind of damage is good/bad against what type of armor, shield, flesh etc

3.) im nearly 40 hours in and i still have no idea what radiation, blast, magnetic statuses does and who they are good against

4.) The modding system is wayyy too complex 

5.) Teach players how to use the codex scanner, i had no idea such a thing existed until i got to Mars

6.) Move 'Howl of Kubrow' further down the quest line, it's nothing short of cruel when you finally grind the egg and then find out that the mats needed are locked behind far off planets or need to be played by platinum 

7.) Revamp your crafting system, if you are giving us the Rhino warframe so early i shouldn't have to require plastids and control modules to build them, mats that are again locked behind far off planets/raids or need platinum to buy if you need your next warframe early cuz you maxed excalibur and to earn MR you need to be lvling S#&$ up. THIS is my biggest raging point till now in my 40 hrs of gameplay 

8.) Please tweak your Parkour system a bit, it's irritating when your frame performs a ledge grab animation outta nowhere completely destroying your momentum while never activating when you actually need them to, also many maps have outcropped ledges and stuff that hamper your jumps cuz they are protuding a few inches too far thus scuttling your momentum again and many of this points are at spots you must teaverse. 

9.) IMPROVE YOUR TUTORIAL! it's so barebones, without doing research on your own you won't even know about some integral parts of the game

I love Warframe, so i hope this matters are looked into. 

[CerebrateJoe]

Oh, easy memory.  I still laugh at it.

For about the first 6 months, I thought that when I sold an item with mods on it that I would lose the mods with the item.  One time I panicked because I remembered that even though I cleared out A, I still had an alternate mod setup in B.  I got full on bile inducing panic until I saw they were all still there, and I had been doing a lot of work for nothing.

Howabout including in the sale message "You will still keep the mods attached to these items.  We'll unequip them for you." or something like that.

[(XBOX)GramDare]

17 hours ago, [DE]DeckardPain said:

• 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.

My friends and I recently started playing the game. I started about a month ago and it's been a steady trickle of newbies as more friends get into the game. 

Almost everyone asks the same few questions in the first two hours: "what am I supposed to do now?", "where do I go next?", "how do I move so fast?", "what's an eximus?", "how do mods work?"

The only reason I knew what to do in the first 2 hours was because I had watched a warframe quick-start guide on youtube. 

 

[(XBOX)READYSETBOOM]

DE needs to improve market information. I had no idea I could buy so many blueprints in the market.  I origianlly thought the market was platnium only.  They should have a filter for credit only purchases.  

[Foxbat40]

Please remove cracked mods. These are awarded in the opening mission. My friend invested credits and endo into these but they are worthless.

Please instead award the normal versions of these mods.

 

Also Please give new players more warframe and weapon slots. Perhaps a quest for a good starter frame like Rhino or Valkyr. Mag is a horrible starter frame. It is a horrible frame in general as it has no survive-ability and only one dependable skil. 

[WimpyMcWeaksauce]

The first 2 hours is kind of restrictive. Is your data suggesting that players are quitting that fast? Perhaps it's because they take one look at the frontpage of the marketplace, and think everything in this game can only be obtained with real money.

Anyway, there's only so much to explain in that small window. Wouldn't want to overwhelm anyone. So I think you should just focus on something that is important right from the beginning: modding.

Other people have already gone into detail about how that could be done. But I think extra focus should be given towards the fact that leveling weapons doesn't give them more power by default. Instead, weapon ranks just provide more room for mods. This is important, because it defies RPG conventions. For most new players, they'll be going into the game with lots of preconceptions. If your game is actually different than any of these already learned truisms, then you need to bring attention to that ASAP.

Edited December 20, 2017 by WimpyMcWeaksauce

[(XBOX)P1nstripe]

Having just started a new account on Xbox One, I have a few thoughts.

- The modding system could use a tutorial. Nothing difficult, but just explaining how it generally works.
- A quest that provides Forma, Prime stuff, and ends with building a cheap Prime weapon, (Such as the Lex Prime) and adding Forma to it once. Once that is completed, the new players understand Fissures and Forma.
- In Vor's Prize, make it required that new players go through the advanced movement tutorial. (Also, it would help to have a tutorial on basics as well. It took me forever to figure out which buttons did what. The intro to Vor's Prize does not cover everything.)
- I know this is reiterating, but tie in the Plains and the rest of the world. I find myself getting bored traveling through the rest of the star map, (Not having my Nyx Prime makes that feel all the worse...) I find myself on the Plains more and more often. But then it feels like I can't survive out there because of my low Mastery and horrible weapons.
- There should be some immediately obtainable fashion items to introduce players to the endgame that is Fashion Frame.
- When choosing between Excalibur, Mag, and Volt, new players should get to see the videos on YouTube, displaying their abilities in use. The way, they'd get a better idea of what would be happening when they use their powers.

(I would seriously do anything to transfer my account from PC over to Xbox One. ANYTHING!!!)

[(XBOX)P1nstripe]

14 minutes ago, (Xbox One)READYSETBOOM said:

DE needs to improve market information. I had no idea I could buy so many blueprints in the market.  I origianlly thought the market was platnium only.  They should have a filter for credit only purchases.  

They do. That is a thing that exists. (At least, it was on PC. I have yet to find it on Xbox)

[(XBOX)P1nstripe]

36 minutes ago, SILVERF4NG said:

3.) im nearly 40 hours in and i still have no idea what radiation, blast, magnetic statuses does and who they are good against

You make a good point here. I didn't know what Corrosive was until I faced Inaros, and had to ask Region Chat how to kill him.

Radiation makes Enemies unable to distinguish from friend and foe.
Blast is what it sounds like. Really good for CC. Knocks enemies down, opens them to finishers.
Magnetic is completely useless against enemies. I hope it gets a rework next year during the Damage check on elementals. Magnetic, when proc-ed on you, will sap all of your energy, and will blur your entire HUD. You won't be able to see your health, minimap, squadmates, everything.

[Bullseye55]

Having to teach quite a few friends from start to finish made, at least to me, how un-introduced the mod system is in the beginning of the game much more prevalent. It is also one of the most difficult to explain just by text: an ingame UI tutorial would probably be far better.

[halo00to14]

Haven't read all the posts yet, but some I did read.

Had something along this issue come up with a friend who just joined the game.

He just started and we are helping him push through some things. When we aren't helping him, he's off doing his own thing. Cool. He does a defense mission, gets to wave 25 and the mission fails because he doesn't have any more revives. He complains that it's not fair that he did all that work and not get any rewards. We explained to him that, well, you gotta live through a mission to get the rewards. There's no rewards for failure. He wasn't well aware of that fact and thought that even if he got to that point by himself, he should get some reward.

Now, don't give rewards for failure. That sets a dangerous precedent. Maybe make it more clear, with a longer timer, for a first time player of the Defense missions that should the mission fail, you won't get any rewards?

Please better explain where to go after the tutorial as others have said. It's not really intuitive to a new player who looks at the star chart and sees that going to Venus then Mercury is a dead end. It gives the impression that one should head to Mars first. I remember it feeling frustrating that I had to go to Venus first when I wanted to go to Mars after getting done with the tutorial.

Explain how the Market works. He's hesitant to use the Market because it doesn't make it clear that you don't need plat all the time.

I'm sure there will be more that I can come up with at a later time.

[Raistling]

Every time I hear anyone working or thinking of the new players experience I have nodded in agreement, but not knowing how to tackle it.

That all changed when the fire nation attacked /u/novaphaux posted the following:

DE needs to make Teshin's training grounds.

This is the single best suggestion I've heard/read and it includes a staging area that specifically addresses the problem new players have when they don't know what to do. Not many go to the codex, but being led to an actual training ground where you can ask a guy for advice ingame is great. I have pasted his post here so you don't have to go through the link, but do go and give him some thoughts of what you like dislike.

Quote

The Rubicon Maru.

As a new player freshly completed Vor's Prize, The Lotus sends you to investigate an active Orokin signal on an encrypted channel she detected.

You arrive in the quest instance on Earth's jungles and keep progressing through the stage with no enemies. Lotus note the abadonment of the base and will give some exposition to the Orokin and the empire.

Once you arrive at the mission waypoint,you see it is a large area at the base of Everest. The area is backgrounded by a waterfall hosting an audience of balancing logs. Stone piled pillars, old cloth targets, dogwood teees, a striking log, bamboo shoots and a small looking Asian inspired stone looking house dot the area.

Your immerssion with the area is then shattered as you are then ambushed by, at this time, an Unknown Dax Soldier. Lotus warns you about the Dax and Teshin will understandably and should be able to kick the new player's posterior. However, before he delivers the finishing blow, he spares you.

"In sleep and absense, you have been unmade Tenno." (cut here for modularity) I am Teshin Dax, master of the waters you tread, if you wish to stay afloat then I will not deny you climbing out of the water and unto the mountain. (cut here again) Come with me and I will show you what you have unlearned."

Lotus would then exposition once more on Teshin. Thought of him long dead, but an ally you can learn much from. Teshin will then acknowledge the Lotus with his distrust of her but relents that there is more to be gained working with her than apart.

Reload Room, Zone and quest now considered complete.

The grounds are now similar to Cephalon Simarius Mastery Rank Training room.

Teshin the centerpiece, when asked, will give hints to where the player needs to go next.

For example, Some items may have a context breadcrumb via Ordis and codex.

"Your journey is long, the cries of the innocent many, find peace amongst the star for them tenno." [clear your starmap hint] "A final tower's light is overshadowed by an ancient threat, make your way to the Plains on earth Tenno." [POE hint] "The Lotus has many secrets, but not even the deepest oceans of Uranus can hide them, unveil them if you dare." [Natah Hint] "My curiosity and your wellbeing will never cross paths Tenno, do not dare follow." [War Within Hint] "Look inside yourself, hone yourself, grind the gem within until you gleam in the perfection of light and hope" [grats you beat the game up to this point go forma something hint]

Around the room are then example by showing tutorials the player can contextually launch. Some of which may contain a challenge mode and leadet boards. Starting with the advanced movement tutorial.

Other tutorials are subjects such as a refresher of Vors Prize's lessons. A hacking console of every type, Archwing(viewable but locked until quest complete) Stealthing without powers, Damage Types, Scanning, Melee combos, Operator Combat (not viewable but unlocked after required events) and anything else that requires work on the mission field to complete. Hell fishing and mining if needed. Anytime DE adds a new in the field system, they must simultaneously update this area with a new tutorial node and or update the relevant node that got replaced. Ie parkour 3.0 or adding in combat systems related to the sacrifice cinimatic quest.

This area will then continue to serve as the 'while you were gone' area. Some tutorials will be unlocked once the system has been unlocked otherwise they're fully accessible.

Anytime the player revisits the area they will instantly load into this room instead.

"In sleep and absense, you have been unmade Tenno. Come with me and I will show you what you have unlearned."

"Time has worn your blade down, bask here under the heat and forge of training to sharpen your witts and blade once more."

The Tutorial phases of each room SHOULD NOT BE VOICED step by step. There may be an intro to give you the gist of what you are there to learn but DE needs to utilize the floaty text in order to keep VO work down and allow reworks should the system change and give players the time to contextualize the instructions.

There is also a reflecting pool where they can browse the council tips at anytime.

TLDR; Similar to Cephalon Simarus room a while you where gone tutorial room.

Also, Ordis needs his own interaction node on the ship to ask him on ship-based systems (foundry, mods, arsenal, relics ect ect)

Edit Spelling grammer, reflecting pool, and name of the grounds. Open to suggestions, critism ideas and more.

This also serves to show new players who the hell Teshin is. You know. Before the quest suddenly makes him important and all.

[Synx-Synx]

A small trade chat tutorial would be good

Directing them to use the [] command thing, and giving simple tips on selling/ buying like the prime mod tax 'n stuff

[ItsTabby]

I remember when I first started, I quit because I wanted to get a new frame but the market made it seem as though I needed real money for everything.

I think more emphasis on purchasing blueprints with credits would be nice.

[DirePresent]

Hello, love to see this post from you! I'd say two things I hadn't understood very well were as some people said, how to craft pets segments; and other'd be movement, I had to reach MR 8 and watch a YouTube tutorial video to learn that I could do an upper bullet jump (Had seen people doing that, but I had thought it was due to either their frames or some mods xD). Regarding other things... I'd not know much, I always used to either ask at my clan or look for it at wiki. That'd be all!

[DirePresent]

28 minutes ago, Synx-Synx said:

A small trade chat tutorial would be good

Directing them to use the [] command thing, and giving simple tips on selling/ buying like the prime mod tax 'n stuff

That'd be into the chat welcome message itself - thus we'd need a small general chat tutorial possibly.

Edited December 20, 2017 by Alangme

[serge006]

• I did not know that bullet-jump is the normal way to get from A to B. In my fist public missions I was wondering where everybody was and how the hell they can move so fast. Until some friendly person taught me bullet jump...
• My first couple of (solo) missions I played like a stealth game, trying to kill every single enemy on my way to the objective. I got annoyed when the enemies re-spawned in the areas that I had already cleared before. I had no idea that I can just bullet-jump to the mission objective, do the objective, and bullet-jump to evacuation. 
• I felt I was lost in the game in the fist 2h. I did not know what my objective was. I don't recall to have a clear main quest that you have in other games.
• I remember I got frustrated in some missions if I could not find a way through to the mission objective. It was probably something silly, like not seeing the elevator button or a vent that I can jump through. I laugh about it now but it was kind of frustrating back then rather than challenging
• I was not rewarded for my play time in the beginning. I was expecting to find new weapons or other equipment by completing missions / killing bosses but I was still running with the starter weapon / warframe after several hours of playing. In other ARPG games you get upgrades from killing/looting enemies early in the game and you feel much stronger instantaneously. Mods did not seem powerful enough for me (I also did not know you could upgrade them....).
• It seemed to me after a couple hours that everything is hidden behind platinum that you have to buy for real money. I did not realize that you can buy/farm blueprints for almost anything and build it in your foundry for resources (that you also farm). I wish this was better explained up-front so I had clear idea how to progress in the game
• I had no idea about mastery ranks and how to get them.
• Even after knowing how to get new warframes, it took a while to build my first warframe (Rhino) because I was missing some resources that were not available early in the game (although I got the blueprints quite early). I wish you could unlock more warframes earlier in the game. 
• Modding is way too complex for new players to comprehend without watching a youtube tutorial.
• I wish there were short in-game video tutorials. For instance, in the modding section there could be a "tutorial" button that would show a video explaining you the modding system.

[GreenestLizard]

Been playing for two months, and yeah some things really reaaaaally need a better explanation (might mention a few things that fly over my head/forgot):

 

- Leveling up all weapons, frames and companions to level 30 gives you experience to increase your MR. Selling a weapon before reaching the last level will require to level up the weapon again and only gain experience from the left levels.

- Advanced movement. I didn't learnt of bullet jump untill I had to do the MR test, and even then had to look up on wiki/youutube.

- The market actually has helpful stuff that you might want to get like the derelict keys (was it even introduced? can't recall), blueprints for upgrades, and blueprints for weapons (had to look up where to buy a second blueprint for the weapons that require twice of another).

- Certain weapons's blueprints will be given in the junctions. Bought a few before knowing I was a planet away of getting it for free.

- Primes are slightly better and more deserving of potatoes in certain times (getting any vauban can take some time, but definitely better save your potatoes and adapters for banshee/volt/hydroid prime). Would also loved to know about Baro before he suddenly drops into a Relay I have yet to unlock.

- Tell us about Slots. Had I know things better I would have spent my first plat on slots rather than on the Kubrow adventure D:

- Any quick introduction to damage (specially damage 3.0 when it comes), Don't need specifics for each enemy if the codex will tell me, but would be useful to know a few general rules for the factions (X physical dmg works better for A/B/C and Y elemental works better for A/B/C with YW elemental mix better for A/B/C, like the tips on loading and modding screen but easy to access or integrated on a default tutorial)

- A better introduction to the syndicates. Am still not into any of them but I recall having to look up what they are, what's their purpouse, what are they good for, because first time I got into Mercury I was like "what a weird mission... oh wait it's a community safe place... and what's with these groups, are they like clans?". 

- Better Equipment UI and an explanation of it. Spent a few weeks having to change all my steup to do different kinds of mission when all this time I could have set up different slots with pre-selected warframe/weapons/companion D: . Also would love to have a "use new equipment slot" or something like that and a way to better organize them, as far as I know, only way to open more slots is to "duplicate" the current one. Same goes for Conclave's equipment.

- Speaking of, what's conclave, what good is it, what advantages it gives or why should I try it...

- Mods. I think I finished Vor's adventure and barely equipping a few broken mods without actually upgrading them. Would be nice to know about it, about their polarity and how useful Aura/Stance mods actually are.

 

I know putting all of this in a single tutorial would be overwhelming for a new player, and we got Codex to put extra info, however a few quick tutorials on the key components of the ship would come in handy. Specially when most of them are unlocked by finishing a few junctions and specially because a few things are just explained as "we are LORELORELORELORE" but don't really explain why should I care as a player.

[YoY]

• What were some things you wish Warframe taught you in the first 2 hours?
  The Starter platinum(I believe its 50) in which isn't tradable. Menu> All sorts of mechanics(i.e. navigation, market, including in relays)
• Were there some things that were too overwhelming or confusing during these first 2 hours?
  Objective markers such as extraction(green icon) is being overwhelmed by mobile defense icon(yellow icon)(confusing w/ Options>Interface>"Lock Map Rotation")
• 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?
  N/A
• 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.
  A starter pack(which I see you released recently via Warframe.com>Store>Starter Pack($20). Region Chat available during Vor's Prize(including during mission) that way players can communicate and socialize their interests.

[(PSN)CannaWhoopazz13]

Hey Deckard Cain Pain!  I think the most important thing that desperately needs to be explained in the first 2 hours is how important ranking up mods is and how to do it. I think one of the early junctions requires players to equip mods, but having an actual tutorial on how to rank up mods would be very helpful.  Several of the players I've met (I frequently run missions on Venus/Earth in order to meet new players) had no idea the importance ranking up mods had.  

I also think adding in something about how Mastery Rank works would be helpful, since a lot of new players discard their MK1 weapons before hitting rank 30, and will ultimately have to rebuild them later if they want those missing MR points, though that's not a major concern in getting a new player hooked.

Also, while this will probably go against the business model of DE, it'd be helpful if it was explained that new non-prime warframes can be obtained by killing planetary bosses would be good as well.  In addition to that, showing them that weapon blueprints can be bought from the market for credits and then built would be good too.  There's a lot of new players that waste their starting plat on buying a new warframe or weapon right away, and get frustrated later in the game because they realize it was a bit of a waste (unless they bought a hard warframe/weapon to get)  

[(XBOX)FrostyCraunch77]

The worst thing by far for a new player experience is making a mistake that they could have avoided if the game had explained things better (for example: fully leveling a damaged mod only to get the undamaged version 2 missions later). I started playing about a month ago and was confused for a lot more than 2 hours. But here are some things that confused me the most right off the bat. 

1. Damaged mods: I did not understand what these were or why they were damaged. Maybe that is in the tutorial but i didnt know there even was a tutortial then. Ended up fully leveling several of these before a buddy informed me of the mistake I had made.

2. Tutorials: The tutorials for every portion of this game need to be pushed into the new players face. You guys have all this great info in game but its always optional and is usually easier to get said info from a wiki.

3. Damage types: I still dont know everything about damage types in this game, or how they affect enemies when they are combined. 

4. Mastery Rank: every single thing I have learned about mastery rank, I learned from someone else or a wiki. The fact that you should not delete guns before they hit rank 30 was never stated to me in game. 

[AranaiRa]

I'm going to parrot a poster on Reddit: When you first grab a new frame, have a Simulacrum segment with Teshin that teaches you how their abilities and their passive work. Especially complex interactions, like Saryn's abilities.

This also has the advantage of introducing Teshin to the player early, so his role in The Second Dream doesn't come out of absolutely nowhere if they haven't done any PvP.

[DaftMeat]

A while back I did a "Do Over" blog, which was updated a bit even after retirement. A lot of my Veteran Reviewing Newbie Content findings/opinions are still valid, IMO.

Edit: Highlights...

TUTORIAL

• Parkour 2.0 is not very well known by new players. Maybe add a chasm so players can learn "Crouch-jump and hold aim to glide" immediately?
• The Gear Wheel is not covered at all, particularly the Scanner. As the codex is very useful in hunting down mods in a backwards kind of way, this should be addressed as well (credit to @Vomitous for bringing this up).
• Sentinels are not revealed/discussed in-game. Perhaps add a "disposable" starter sentinel that Vor destroys before the end of mission? At least then new players would be aware of them before just randomly seeing them via other players or the Market. *Devstream #71 noted that this is in the works. Much thanks to @AM-Bunny for his overview
• Auras are also not introduced. Perhaps add Damaged Rifle Amp/Steel Charge aura in Tutorial (max 2-3 ranks).
• End tutorial with Social information: Relays, Clans/Alliances, Forums, Wiki, Facebook, Twitter alerts, Nexus app.

 

POST-TUTORIAL

• Melee system & stances are also not introduced, but is currently being discussed for changes by dev team. Personally, I would hope that melee combos would unlock the same way that Warframe abilities do as you rank an item up. Existing stance mods could be changed to add 1 or 2 combos if Uncommon or 2 or 3 combos if Rare, and both would add mod points to the weapon.
• Inclusion of a relay vendor that sells Common rank mods would be greatly welcomed. Certain basic necessary mods like Redirection, Vitality, Steel Fiber should not be left to RNG.
• Credits at very beginning of game are extremely scarce. There's no need to cut credits short for new players as Platinum is the real currency of the game. Credits should be the hook that draws players to stay, to experiment with beginner weapons, to build more Warframes. Please consider a larger initial credit fund, and perhaps reexamine credit alert amounts and frequency?
• Blueprints for Mutagen Samples, Fieldron Samples, and Detonite Ampules are extremely cost inefficient. So many invasions give you fully crafted/usable Mutagen Mass, Fieldron, and Detonite Injector rewards instead. At the very least, please give thought to dropping the credit cost from 15k to 5k, and making the blueprint reusable.
• Explain Void Tower keys: Make a mini quest perhaps that gives you a Tier I key as a reward?
• Archwing mod acquisition needs re-evaluating, and damaged AW mods might be a great addition to the initial quest.

 

MASTERY RANK

• I think they should start by awarding MR based weapons in a "Pick one or the other" function per Mastery Rank up till MR 6. The other benefits of getting mastery ranks (weapon slots, loadout slots etc.) wasn't made clear
  The basic frame slots should be 3, not 2. There are a lot more frames now. You can at least then get 5 by buying slots with your starting plat. (credit to @YasaiTsume)
• I wonder if it would be possible to scale weapon and warframe build times based on ranking and availability (credit to @Caelward); i.e. low MR requirement = low build time, high MR requirement = high build time.
• Parkour 2.0 has trivialized some of the MR Tests. Specifically, the MR8 test can be almost completely bypassed with Bullet Jump and Aim Glide (from the start of the test, it took me 10 seconds to accidentally jump to the final platform).
• There's no reason to hide what each mastery test is. The devs may as well give the name description of the test so that people can go in prepared. Otherwise, you go in unprepared, risk failure, and just have to redo in 24 hours. No one likes taking a test they are not prepared for. Pop quizzes are universally hated except for sadistic teachers. At any rate, most people will just check the wiki or ask friends/clan for info. Again, not having information up-front really serves no purpose. While you can practice the tests in Sanctuary, this isn't make apparent in-game (Relays and Sanctuary Tests are never really introduced in-game either)

 

STAR CHART

• New star chart UI is nice, but lacks the linear paths shown by the original star chart showing which nodes lead to other nodes, especially on other planets.
• All crafting blueprints and parts should definitely note where all of the needed parts can be obtained, ESPECIALLY in the Market preview screen before they are purchased. (credit to @Ojimaru) Whether it's Warframes, weapons (like Miter), or Prime gear, each piece you receive should tell you what node, boss, or void missions the other necessary parts come from. Maybe these could even be listed on the star chart itself just like resources? Maybe this info could be unlocked after running the node successfully? Anything is better than just deferring players to check the wiki. I don't understand why this information cannot be made directly available in-game.
• I really wish Archwing nodes didn't count towards star map completion. They block the use of resource extractors.
• Also a problem with Extractors, they are not shown anywhere except in the market. A clan-mate of mine was MR12 until he discovered extractors.
• Also regarding Extractors, Earth is Extractor-locked until you have finished "The Second Dream" because of nodes that are hidden until the end of the quest. However, there is no in-game reason as to why an extractor can't be deployed. Maybe consider making the Moon another "planet" or a sub-node of Earth?

THE VOID

I know that there's talk that the Void will *eventually* be blown up and distributed among the star chart. For the time being, the rewards tables don't seem to have any specific order for where parts go and can be found. At present, it seems parts are just randomly thrown in wherever there seems to be room. RNG rewards need structure. I would love there to be a formula like Blueprints in Tower 1, Common parts in Tower 2, Uncommon parts in Tower 3, Rare parts in Tower 4. At least then you don't have to keep asking in chat or referring back to the wiki when looking for stuff. Forma should really fill Tower 1 missions, since it seems that most people rarely play it because T2-T4 reward better. It seems that the only time people go to T1 is if they are looking for something specific, ranking junk, or they're new and it's all they have/don't know better.

STALKER

Stalker changes have really revamped him to be balanced for veteran players, but for new players he can be too much of a challenge and no fun at all. At the very least, please let players run from him/abort the mission just like Grustrag Three encounters and remove his player-teleport ability.
Suggestions for changes behind spoiler for Second Dream follow:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

SYNDICATES

• At Mastery Rank 3, please consider giving players at least an Inbox message asking them to visit a relay and research which Syndicates they might be interested in.
• Please let players know where to find the sacrifices they need to rank up with Syndicates, as there is no need for mystery. "Orokin Catalysts can be found in specific alerts, invasions, or purchased in the market." "Soma Prime Barrels have a chance to drop in Tower IV Interception and Tower III Mobile Defense."
• New Loka Assasins: Damage mitigation auras, healing auras, toxic auras, energy drain auras, and a huge fire AoE... Loka hit squads are no joke for new players. They definitely don't compare to Roller hit squads or MOAs or Corrupted Lancers. They could use some reevaluation and tweaking.

 

OTHER ENEMIES

Rampart turrets can be extremely lethal at any level of gameplay, and especially so for beginners. I have seen these things cause near team wipes. Granted, in real life a stationary gun like this would be exceptionally deadly to an on-foot soldier. But this isn't real-life, and I'm not playing Call of Duty or some other type of Tom Clancy game. Please consider giving these emplacements a spool-up time, much like the Gorgon or the Supra. As deadly as these things are, some forewarning before they completely shred a Tenno would be nice.

 

EVENTS/TACTICAL ALERTS

I love most of these, but more often than not I join public games and people have no idea what to do (even myself on occasion). The Warframe team does a lot of great videos for teasers and Tenno Reinforcement showcases. Perhaps posting quick How To videos could be considered in the future?

Edited December 20, 2017 by DaftMeat

[Vimescarrot]

Oh I've just remembered something.

Please don't suddenly enable public matchmaking to a new player when they finish the tutorial! I had no interest in randomly being matched with other people at that point, especially without being asked or informed first! Give us a little dialogue box that asks, and then once we've chosen, tell us where to go to change that setting.

Hurts even more when the first mission you're likely to be matched up with people for is your first trip into the Plains of Eidolon. Good grief, that's just a triple whammy of nothing making any sense, and other players just doing stuff for you while you stand around doing nothing.

[Lord-Taco-the-Great]

I've been wanting this for song long. I will list things that need to be in the first two hours, and stuff afterwards (in a different section). This is all based on my observation, and complaints from my dad after I got him into the game.

 

First 2 hours:

Explain how mods work, including forma, catalysts, reactors, and polarities.

Explain how relics work, and how to use them.

Explain how the market works, and how to buy blueprints.

Explain parkour in more depth (bulletjumping, advanced moves, etc)

Explain how arcanes work.

Explain sentinels.

Explain junctions.

Explain clans.

Explain syndicates.

Give more exposition on the orokin.

 

After first 2 hours:

Explain why we are fighting a certain boss.

Explain the background of the planets and how they ended up that way.