A bad first impression: Warframe's main issues

[Ethorin]

19 minutes ago, Mewvg2 said:

We're talking about Warframe, most free to play games are skinner box treadmills while this one is actually good. Oh, and plenty of f2p games make do with only cosmetic microtransactions, with how prevalent Fashion Frame is DE could easily drop the inventory slots and their bottom line wouldn't take much of a hit.

maybe not, maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't but the player economy would, I dunno I can't see the future and I have stayed up way too late already. Talk to you again after I have had a chance to sleep... so like, day after tomorrow?

[BlackCoMerc]

9 hours ago, Mewvg2 said:

It has, and don't make assumptions about random people. Seriously that's an awful thing to say.

...is your argument literally 'Look at all these bad games and be thankful DE isn't worse'? That's... wow. Now I've only played three of the four, but I can't say I've sunk too much time into any of them, partially because of their microtransaction greed.

I would like to see DE cut more of the systems that punish the newer players (or revise them) and avoid shoving the microtransactions in a new player's face so early. This can only make the game better.

The most effective plat sinks in the game is buying weapons and frames for plat and skins. Inventory slots are a drop in the bucket compared to them.

This is what shills for the status quo do: compare Warframe to worse games and then say "hey, it's ok, see" like everything is now justified.

Don't worry, it will come round one day, when the paying players finally have had enough...like this one certainly has.

[JayJayOkocha]

 I'm a new player here. Have a few things to say

-It is correct that we DO need some free slots ,5 for weapons and about 3 or 4 for frames.

-The wiki page should be sticks on the main website ,have it own columns ,somewhere between news and community (trust me i'm a newbie and plays for 50 hours without knowing that we actually have a wiki).Make it officials .People nowadays will get frustrated easily and they'll quit doing sth if they don't know what's going on . When i started the games , 1 monitor is playing warfame, other for watching guides on youtube ,'cause the data on wiki is not newbie friendly.

-Not everyone like to type "i need help" on the chat ,they'll explore themselves ,and once they do they'll get 2 shots OR doing no damage at all without some decent mods,which are translated to money ( don't tell me you can farm for rare mods in 1 week ,that S#&$ is for veterans with powerful friends and clan ,not newbies).I play excalibur ,and without chromatic blades -i'm doing no damage at all( which is required General for syndicate,around 20 days to 1 month farming points,you can shorten it with emblems but since there's no sources of clear instructions whatsoever ,it'll take forever.) . And those rare mods aren't drop at low-levels anyway.

Some few stuffs above that makes me thinking F2P is totally bs. You have to pay at some points to boost up the games 

And lots of people here are speaking from your veteran-POV , not from a newbie POV

My English sucks ,so pardon me :D

Edited December 29, 2017 by JayJayOkocha

[BlackCoMerc]

You CAN progress entirely for free. But you won't have much fun. Slots are few, so your play Experience will lack variety. And DE determines when Reactors and Catalysts are available, severely hampering Progression.

So yeah, technically, it's free. But it won't be very enjoyable without money spent.

More importantly, though - and I don't say this either lightly or often - if the grind is already bothering you...don't spend money. Uninstall and walk away now. You think you're grinding now, but you haven't seen anything yet... believe me, it gets worse. A lot worse.

[ACULonSeer]

14 hours ago, Ethorin said:

...so apparently 90% of F2P games need to change how they function since most of them have CHARACTER slots that are a LOT more limiting then "Oh no, I have two slots and need to grind for more."

 

frankly those friends will probably be happier with stuff they buy upfront.

You seem strangely adamant about limiting starting slots. Like, what's so good about this limitation? How does it improve gameplay? 

[ACULonSeer]

3 hours ago, JayJayOkocha said:

 I'm a new player here. Have a few things to say

-It is correct that we DO need some free slots ,5 for weapons and about 3 or 4 for frames.

-The wiki page should be sticks on the main website ,have it own columns ,somewhere between news and community (trust me i'm a newbie and plays for 50 hours without knowing that we actually have a wiki).Make it officials .People nowadays will get frustrated easily and they'll quit doing sth if they don't know what's going on . When i started the games , 1 monitor is playing warfame, other for watching guides on youtube ,'cause the data on wiki is not newbie friendly.

-Not everyone like to type "i need help" on the chat ,they'll explore themselves ,and once they do they'll get 2 shots OR doing no damage at all without some decent mods,which are translated to money ( don't tell me you can farm for rare mods in 1 week ,that S#&$ is for veterans with powerful friends and clan ,not newbies).I play excalibur ,and without chromatic blades -i'm doing no damage at all( which is required General for syndicate,around 20 days to 1 month farming points,you can shorten it with emblems but since there's no sources of clear instructions whatsoever ,it'll take forever.) . And those rare mods aren't drop at low-levels anyway.

Some few stuffs above that makes me thinking F2P is totally bs. You have to pay at some points to boost up the games 

And lots of people here are speaking from your veteran-POV , not from a newbie POV

My English sucks ,so pardon me :D

This is pretty much what I was talking about. He didn't even know a wiki existed. Also no game that takes itself seriously is gonna force people to rely ENTIRELY on a wiki. Tutorials are essential 

[Ethorin]

2 hours ago, ACULonSeer said:

You seem strangely adamant about limiting starting slots. Like, what's so good about this limitation? How does it improve gameplay? 

...have you ever played an MMO? Until I came to Warframe the only MMO I had ever played where people actually TALKED to each other was Runescape. Limited Slots and the F2P solution of TALKING TO PEOPLE is great.

2 hours ago, ACULonSeer said:

This is pretty much what I was talking about. He didn't even know a wiki existed. Also no game that takes itself seriously is gonna force people to rely ENTIRELY on a wiki. Tutorials are essential 

How the feth do you not know a Wiki exists? I am more surprised when I run into a bad/incomplete/misleading wiki than when I run into a lack of tutorials. 

[Proslackernifty]

OP, you're point about the nox and mesa's number 4 shows your inexperience.  Look up nox on the wiki.  Actually, look up a lot of stuff on the wiki.

Edited December 29, 2017 by Proslackernifty
I have bad spelling

[ACULonSeer]

Just now, Ethorin said:

...have you ever played an MMO? Until I came to Warframe the only MMO I had ever played where people actually TALKED to each other was Runescape. Limited Slots and the F2P solution of TALKING TO PEOPLE is great.

How the feth do you not know a Wiki exists? I am more surprised when I run into a bad/incomplete/misleading wiki than when I run into a lack of tutorials. 

Tutorials are essential in every game, period. They should be a foundational feature, not something added literal YEARS after the game is released. The more I think about it, the less sense it makes that people were patient enough to play this game without knowing how anything works. I can understand using the community for help with void fissures, but I shouldn't have to use region chat to find out where my inventory is. 

Also, the "oh every other MMO does this" excuse is hardly valid, and so is "limited slots encourage communication" 

Warframe shouldn't be, and ISN'T striving to be like every other MMO, so they should advance on these features instead of praying people have the patience to look past it.

Also, due to the lack of tutorials, there are PLENTY of other reasons to communicate with people aside from "so I only have 2 slots and I have to pay for more? Is this true?" Which is a statement I've heard countless times now. 

[ACULonSeer]

5 minutes ago, Proslackernifty said:

OP, you're point about the nox and mesa's number 4 show your inexperience.  Look up nox on the wiki.  Actually, look up a lot of stuff on the wiki.

I believe I stated that I was a newer player. Also I didn't know mesa's regulators aimed for center-of-mass. It's an autoaim ability, asking such a question never seemed relevant until the Nox incident 

[(XBOX)Sh4dow Ech0]

Just a few comments, but first a warning. I write A LOT! I tend to write BOOKS on forums, not kidding, not even a little bit. I'm used to people making fun of this, some even hating on it. Look, let's be reasonable here, no one is holding a gun to your head to read any of it, so don't complain. If you want to read, then do so. Maybe read it when you're sitting down, otherwise occupied :P Or waiting for some appointment. Whatever. I won't know who reads it or not. That's your call. I type fast, and it's easy for me to do, so it's no big deal is what I'm saying. About the content of this tome-not aiming to take any particular side here. In general, I think arguing over the internet is a huge waste of time. I certainly hope my comments don't come across as such, but then again you know what they say about good intentions :P

*if you want to know my background as a gamer, I'll put that last, because I'm guessing most don't really care tbh lol. However, it is relevant to an extent, because the time period during which I started gaming affects significantly how I view gaming currently, especially things such as tutorials, supplemental sources of info, etc. You'll have to decide if it's worth reading. From this point, I'll cover some of the times mentioned by the OP and comment on how I view them in terms of the early player experience (I started playing early this summer).

The tutorial (Vor's Prize) I guess I see this tutorial-disguised-as-quest a bit more favorably as most, because I think it actually does a really good job introducing new players to the basics of the game without leaving them completely overwhelmed and frustrated. In fact, based off some of the comments in this thread, I'd say it's quite obvious if anything more was packed into Vor's Prize, most players would be even MORE lost and confused, as I think they would reach saturation point and additional info thrown at them would be akin to bouncing a glaive around xD. Instead I'd ask, what else would people have it cover? Endo? Plat? Trading? Potatoes? The Index? Seriously, it's there to explain how to use the controller, some minimal parkour, your abilities (your first one at least), your weapons including melee, along with picking your starting warframe and weapons. In terms of which you pick, I feel very strongly it just doesn't matter. I've played through the beginning of the game with all 3 starters, even beyond for a bit, and I am confident in saying they all 3 do a decent job with the early game content. In fact, I found Excal to be the most boring of the three, while Volt and Mag were much more different and interesting (because Excal "feels" more like every other "FPS-type of character" to me for some reason). Don't get me wrong, I've used Exalted Blade, and yes it's OP. I've seen videos of Chromatic Blade, and it's totally broken it's so OP. I'm in no way saying Excal isn't a powerful frame, but I feel he's recommended for some of the wrong reasons. I didn't die more playing Mag or Volt (I rarely went into bleedout status). All one needs to do is be a little careful and not run into the middle of gunfights lol. That's why you play with squads (which new players should be doing anyways). The main reason to get Excal (if he's really important to a new player, which I will admit that's tough for someone new to the game to judge, but still not a reason to make a "knee jerk decision") is based more on how difficult he is to get if he's NOT chosen as a starter, because one must then wait until Pluto (a long ways into the Star Chart iirc) to subsequently obtain him. I don't think it's that big of a deal, and for those who either buy plat or trade for it, he's one of the cheapest frames to buy (all the stater frames are 75 plat I believe, at least on X1, and that's not factoring in login discounts one might receive on occasion). In conclusion, I think Vor's Prize is an adequate intorduction to the game. I think DE did a great job making it feel like a part of the game (which lore-wise, it actually is) and not feel like some artificially crafted and isolated piece one must toil through in order to "unlock" the "real game."

The Codex If I'm not mistaken, the Codex IS mentioned in the game, quite often. The Lotus mentions it all the time, including each time you get a new quest. When you are just starting out, that happens quite frequently. Also, I believe you have to unlock it or add some piece to make it work, don't you? I could be wrong about that, but most things on the Liset you have to install something obtained from one of the missions in Vor's Prize. I thought the Codex was included in those things? Even if it isn't, I don't really understand how people wouldn't noticed that LARGE chunky mechanical thing that sits right across from the MARKET (which I know you DO have to install a segment for). Besides, how much MORE noticeable can it get? It has a constantly rotating holographic mod display on top of it? Maybe some people just tune everything out of their sight really well, or maybe I'm just the curious type who goes exploring their new surroundings whenever they go to a new place, idk. Not trying o insult anyone here, or hurt anyone's feelings, but I think exploring the ship and learning what all the gestures, buttons, settings, and menus do is something a player should naturally do, and Devs should expect them to do, without being prompted to do so. There are several pages of settings under OPTIONS, and all sorts of other nifty things you can do like colorize your ship both inside and out (if there's anything I really think DE should "give/gift" us, it's not more slots by a longshot, it's a fully unlocked color palette to start with but I won't get into that, many others already have). There's even a radio (scanner) but I haven't found it to be useful, just noisy. I'm glad I found a way to make Ordis shut up though xD. Discovered the door to make infested cysts go away, without even looking that up. An exploratory sense will take the gamer far. Again, maybe some of that stems from my gaming history, idk. You had to investigate every option, try anything and everything. It's great to have so many resources available for gamers these days, but they also can turn into a crutch.

After one notices the Codex, a lot of additional tutorials (that can be replayed to your heart's content) become available. Some are just written tutorials (which are also available from other locations as well, such as the Mod tutorial, available from the Mod Segment as well as the Arsenal Segment when viewing your Mods), while other are playable like Movement 2.0 I think it's called (it's basically parkour). This is where you'd refresh your knowledge of that covered briefly in Vor's Prize including bullet jump. Idk how anyone would get to their MR8 test and not know how to bullet jump, again, not insulting anyone here, it's more expressing my complete surprise that disbelief or putting anyone down. I don't recall exactly when I mastered bullet jump. I know it took me awhile too. I forgot it after the tutorial, and took me awhile to realize it was in the Codex despite knowing about it (I knew the tutorial was there, just didn't realize I could play it again, I wasn't paying attention silly me). I saw others in my squad doing it all the time, and I asked my son (who'd I had talked into playing the game with me) how to do that maneuver and he told me. Still would take some practice before I got any good at it. What actually helped me wasn't any obstacle course (those are more punishing than anything for a newbie imho). If you're in a clan, which is highly recommended because you'll want the clan tech, just go to a large semi-open room like a large clan hall or the big room with the Loki statue in the center and just practice running, dashing, bullet jumping, sliding, rolling, wall latching, aim gliding, all those moves, continuously, just try to chain them together and not stop moving (except of course when wall latching or aim gliding to a certain spot to stop). That helped a lot in the beginning especially because I preferred not having an audience, and missions aren't good for practice because you find out very quickly that for alerts in particular most people play like their house in burning down around them! It's speed run after speed run, which is a bit rough when you really need to gather a bunch of resources. You'll learn early on which missions you can solo run, so you take your time and gather stuff, and which ones you need a squad for (defense, survival, excavation, the "endless" modes in particular). This isn't an exhaustive list. Another thing I did right after the tutorial? I read about EVERY mission type in the Codex, something I would do many times, over and over again, so I'd know what to expect.

The Wiki It's VERY reasonable in this day and age to expect players to use outside resources to fill in the gaps of game knowledge, especially for a game that's as enormously complex as Warframe. In fact, I'd say it's a boon to have a dedicated and thorough Wiki for Warframe, as not all games are so lucky. This is in addition to the game forum here, plus numerous other sites as well. In addition there are many specialized support sites (unofficial of course) such as ones for warframe builds, the warframe market (to look up current prices in plat for various parts, frames, weapons, etc), and general sites as well. There are various apps that cover all kinds of info like alerts (including an official app I highly recommend) and several websites that cover these as well as day/night cycles for Earth and Plains of Eidolon. These links and apps are indispensable for the serious Warframe player no matter what stage of the game you're at. Back to the issue of the Wiki, another reason it's reasonable to have players rely on something like this? There are some aspects of Warframe some players don't need to know about, certainly not at their stage. For example, right now I don't need to know about Sorties, the Index, and many other things. But I know that info is waiting for me if and when I do. Same for Lua, Kuva Fortress, and much much more. Why would the game need to house that extensive information, much less introduce players to it? Many won't get that far, or they may take a break for indeterminate amount of time during which things may be overhauled. The game must be played online, so players must have access to an online connection, so it's reasonable to expect they'd have access to an online browser and thus Warframe Wikipedia (as well as YouTube and other supplemental sources of info). Again, when I was growing up, there were no such sources, so overall I believe gamers have an abundance of assistance; I suggest they not only take advantage of it, but also be thankful for its existence.

Slots Why 5 slots? Or 3? Doesn't really matter the number, I must agree with this point at least, someone in the early game doesn't need more than 2 frames. The "point" in the first few planets isn't to treat Warframe as a smorgasbord of sorts, sampling as many frames and weapons as possible. There are many goals to the early part of the game, but at least imho, sampling frames and weapons isn't one of them. Maybe thats why you've focused so much on the slots, and why many others don't see it as a problem? Here's some of the things I believe lie at the center of the early Warframe experience. It's all based on my own gameplay, not some list I found anywhere, so it's subjective to an extent but I would guess others would find some truth in it as well.

THE EARLY WARFRAME EXPERIENCE

MISSIONS The goal is to become familiar with the overall structure, goals and objectives, and the overall "flow" or tempo of various mission types (which will be a part of Alerts as well). These also offer excellent opportunities to observe how different frames accomplish objectives, as well as seeing what abilities each has to offer, what they do, and how well-suited a particular frame is in accomplishing a given task (such as defending an objective, crowd control, dealing damage), etc. This includes making early progress on the Star Chart and unlocking your first Sentinel, Taxon, which is very helpful for the new player.

RESOURCES Collecting resources during missions, alerts, etc is an important part of the game, as these components will fill many purposes in the game, especially when building items in the foundry.

MODS You'll begin your collection of mods, a process that'll be never-ending for the most part because as you progress new and more powerful types of mods will become available to you. Mods are what I call the "heart of Warframe." They are the key to making everything (frames, weapons, companions, sentinels, Archwings, etc) more powerful and effective, and many times, more fun as well! You'll also start collecting Endo (a special "currency" used to upgrade mods). Mods are upgraded through a process misleadingly called "fusion." This process no longer involves "fusing" of multiple mods, rather, Endo and credits are now spent to level them. There's a tutorial for Mods but it only covers the basics. Mods are simply too complex to cover anywhere in-depth in the game, so I consider the Wiki or other supplemental source essential for fully understanding this subject. You'll also collect Ayatan stars and sculptures (which can be used as sources of Endo as well, should you decide to break them down). Many people keep their sculptures, often collecting hundreds of them!

ALERTS While I'm not sure if there's any source that "suggests" or "tells" the early player to run alerts, all I know is I just started doing them (I'm guessing because it just seemed lucrative, so maybe I figured "why not?"). Warframe is like that, I think it encourages exploration and trying stuff out. What's the worse that can hapoen? You fail a mission? It happens. I've gone into Interception missions (those seem to be the worse for some reason) where no one else seems to have ANY idea what to do. I'm serious, how hard can it be? I'll go capture my tower, yet the others just run around or come to my "captured" tower while the "enemy" holds all the others, smh. If you fall off a map (or glitch through it, lol) you don't lose health, you just get put back where you were. Like I said, quite forgiving. Anyway, Alerts are great for all players, but especially new players. You can start accumulating many useful things. A couple of times a month, there are alerts associated with Devstream for a catalyst or reactor, then there are blueprints for numerous weapons, vanity items, forma, resources (some of which are extremely, practically impossible, to find or farm), etc. There are rotating nightmare missions (available only after unlocking all nodes on a planer) but there are occasional nightmare alerts offering special nightmare mods, valuable dual-stat mods you receive as a bonus for completing an existing mission but with additonal modifiers that increase the difficulty significantly, often "no-shield" mode is in effect but it can vary somewhat). 

RELICS You'll begin your collection of Relics, special items in game that are unique in the sense they "hold" hidden Prime parts that are drawn from a pre-set tiered list of multiple outcomes. The possible outcomes are "fixed" based on the number of each relic, meaning when it is issued by DE, it will only have a certain list of possible rewards that are never randomized (unlike drops from rotations, etc). In the beginning it's best just to collect relics rather than open them, primarily for two reasons. You don't have a significant collection of void traces nor do you have capacity to hold them either, and you lack the void relic refinement segment for your ship. Use of relics, void traces for refinement, etc, are beyond the scope of early play so I'll not cover them. Important point is beginning a collection of relics is helpful, particularly given relics (and the prime parts that can be obtained from them) do get vaulted over time, so you never know when you might acquire some valuable relics, either for personal use or for profit.

THE GRIND Every game of this sort has a grind. I'm a Destiny Year 1 vet as well (oh those bitter tears). Destiny 2 has been very meh. Warframe isn't nearly so bad as other games, and fits well imho with a multi-game strategy (meaning it isn't all-consuming, I think any game that is runs a huge risk of becoming unhealthy similar to the way Destiny 1 became an extremely addicting experience for myself and many others: at least I took several long breaks from the game, which certainly helped). It's important to pace oneself. This is another reason I believe having additional slots is unnecessary. Like others have mentioned, during those early planets you don't have accces to multiple frames. You have your starter, and you'll have Rhino (although I actually built Nyx first, because at the time, Phorid was on an Invasion for days in place of the boss for Rhino, so yeah that's how it ended up working out for me). I also received Frost Prime during the summer as part of the Free Prime with Prime deal. As part of that, iirc Frost Prime came with his own slot and reactor, so that wasn't an issue, but that was a special circumstance, and like I said I didn't have Rhino. I don't think anyone has mentioned it, but don't you also get a slot for every other MR you achieve up to MR10? I'm not 100% certain, but I think that's how it works. Joining a clan is very helpful, and this topic is mentioned in the codex. One thing I didn't realize for awhile, you can gift many items to someone else using the market. If you're in a clan, or plat with friends who have some plat, they "could" purchase and "gift" you a slot. Overall when comparing the cost, a slot is quite cheap, but again no one needs a frame slot early in the game. As I've outline above, many other things in the game are a higher priority. Collecting frames just isn't something vital to early play, in fact Rhino is an extremely powerful frame, very powerful as a tank and quite easy to build up his defense with fairly common mods found when running the missions and alerts that'll be encountered on Earth, Venus and Mars. Now with PoE added, there are even more mods one can take advantage of, such as Auger Message (useful for extending duration of abilities). One piece of advice that I found was helpful on the web, is put off doing Howl of the Kubrow until later. Kubrow are high-maintenance because you have to check on them nearly everyday, show them affection, and even when doing that their health drains by 10% every day until it reaches 0% and they die, yep know just disappear and they're gone (unless you use an item to restore them, which early on you'll have to buy in the market). Not worth it early on, and it can be done later. The Archwing was another mission people recommended postponing, but now with PoE out, that may have changed because PoE is a large open space. I think it's optional, and comes down to personal choice tbh. I did Archwing many months ago, got the segment from clan, and built launcher bits from farming the Plains, but I rarely use them. If you become good at parkour, traversing the Plains is no big deal. I enjoy the Plains, it's a gorgeous place, it looks almost real imho, and the water is simply beatiful, so much so it makes me want to go swimming in it! Our frames seriously need to be able to go swimming DE!

Ok, enough, I'm sure no one is still reading by now, and that's ok. I always write incredibly lengthy posts, and I always get ignored  (and sometimes get some nasty remarks as well). I'm used to it, no longer bothers me. People can take what they want from what I wrote. Good luck out there, Tenno :)

*

I'm an old school gamer, grew up on the Atari 2600 which I got when I was about 7 I guess? I progressed to having the Atari 5200, and on through Nintendo GBC, GBA, SNES, and later the 3DS, Xbox 360, X1 and PS4. I've played some games in the Apple IIe (Zork franchise on actual "floppy" floppy disks), original Mac (Tetris), and iOS (all kinds of apps). Just recently acquired the Switch, and we still have the Wii (not that it sees any real use anymore). Definitely been a lifelong active gamer, now approaching the mid-century mark. Obviously I have a passion for gaming, a legacy I've take great pride in passing on to my son (who's a teenager now). I remember gaming back when there was no Internet, no YouTube, no online Co-op or PvP, and no guidebooks. Way back then, I really can't imagine anyone wanting to play WITH strangers much less compete AGAINST them lol. If you got stuck in a game like Zelda, you kept trying until you figured it out/beat the boss, however long it took. I remember for the GameBoy some of the carts didn't have save game memory per se, so I kept a little paper pad and mini-golf pencil in a carrying pouch so I could write "continue codes" down, that's how some of the game carts worked back then (when you started up again you entered the code and somehow it returned you to the same level or stage, I'm guessing it was used more for arcade-style games than anything else). I'm sure a few gave up, but most of us perservered. I think a lot of that "spirit" of figuring things out for yourself, without having your hand held, has been lost from gaming (I promise this isn't some "back in my day, we walked to school in the snow, barefoot, uphill, BOTH ways!" speech).

While I am against games holding the player's hand in general, it's still considered overall a part of good game design to introduce basic game mechanics (in whatever way best suits the game's style, genre, etc). There are a few occasions where no introductions or tutorials are necessary, even preferable, but these are generally unique games indeed. Some Devs prefer a seamless introduction to the game, and go to great lengths to avoid making a tutorial that stands apart and feels isolated from the game experience itself, while others find a dedicated tutorial to be beneficial and something well-received by fans. As with most everything in life, it's impossible to please everyone all of the time. With every passing year, the gaming community grows more diverse; there's simply no way to meet everyone's needs and expectations. That's where supplemental information, tips, guides, videos, streaming, etc, play an increasingly supportive role. Devs themselves are also becoming increasingly involved with the gaming community by way of Devstreams, Game Preview/Early Release with Community feedback, blogs and vlogs, etc. I remember when there were only a handful of Wiki Apps supporting just a few games. Now there's a huge number of titles supported by dedicated Wiki apps available in the iOS App Store (I'm sure the same is true for Google Play/Android). Whereas game guides used to be clunky hardcover or paperback affairs, most have website availability and many can be purchased in eBook form (Kindle, iBooks, etc). It's also common knowledge YouTube is full of tutorial vids as well as suggestions, tips, guides, walkthroughs, and for Warframe I partficular there's build guides, comparisons, top picks, you name it I'm sure it's out there (always check the date, as YouTube does accumulate a lot of outdated material too). None of this is news to anyone who's played Warframe for awhile, but I'm just providing a bit of a comparison between how gaming was when I grew up, and how it's evolved over time especially in regards to Warframe.

Sorry about any typos, poor grammar, autocorrect blunders, or any other (including particularly embarrassing) mistakes. I'm sure y'all can understand that, given the length, I have no desire to proofread this. Happy New Year everyone!

Edited December 30, 2017 by (XB1)Sh4dow Ech0
Tried to fix awkward text highlighting

[Fallen_Echo]

52 minutes ago, (Xbox One)Sh4dow Ech0 said:

The Codex

Im currently mr 20, can you guess when i learned that there are movement tutorials in it?

Mr 18, 3-4 months ago. I was reading through the forums when someone said to a new player that there is something like that in the codex. I learned bullet jumping from another player and it took me atleast half a year to learn that you can roll while bulletjumping.

The problem with the codex is that it doesnt seem to serve a purpose to most people. You enter it, go to the weapon tab and see a huge list not giving you any more info that the what you already know, a mod list what is simply empty because you need to find them to fill it up and soo on. At a certain point you wont go further because theres no reason you "decide" that the codex doesnt serve any purpose.

If there would be atleast loading tips where it says you can try movement tutorials in it, then i believe less people would ask the same questions all the time.

All we need is slight help to point out the "obvious" things and some QoL improvements and the new player experience becomes much better.

[Gandergear]

8 hours ago, Ethorin said:

...have you ever played an MMO? Until I came to Warframe the only MMO I had ever played where people actually TALKED to each other was Runescape. Limited Slots and the F2P solution of TALKING TO PEOPLE is great.

How the feth do you not know a Wiki exists? I am more surprised when I run into a bad/incomplete/misleading wiki than when I run into a lack of tutorials. 

Seriously wikis are gods greatest gift to earth. Im just not conditioned to give a crap about the game itself holding my hand, if i have a question, theres region chat and the wiki. Im a huge dark souls fan and most of the stuff i learned was in the fame was from talking to friends, and later, the wiki, theres a great sense of cummunity with games that require knowledge to be spread by peers rather than by the game. Runescape as well doesnt hold your hand past teaching you the most basics of basics, and i doubt WOW has a tutorial thats as in depth as what they offer either.

7 hours ago, ACULonSeer said:

Tutorials are essential in every game, period. They should be a foundational feature, not something added literal YEARS after the game is released. The more I think about it, the less sense it makes that people were patient enough to play this game without knowing how anything works. I can understand using the community for help with void fissures, but I shouldn't have to use region chat to find out where my inventory is. 

Plenty of games have barebones tutorials such as my dark souls example, maybe the problem is with some gamers wanting their hands held the entire time instead of using resources to find answers? Youve yet to make a solid argument that doesnt boil down to "new players deserve more freebies" and "i want information that can easily be found on the wiki, a service made with love by the community i dont want to talk to"

[(PSN)Stealth_Cobra]

It's important to separate two things:

- Issues with tutorialisation.

- Issues with how the new user experience is handled.

I think Warframe struggles with both, but the tutorialisation stuff is imho not the biggest offender, as you can always "google it". There's ample documentation on everything, and I think most gamers know where to find the info when they need some info.

Thus, to me , the true issue is how the new user experience is handled. Honestly, during Vor's prize, this is fine. Game slowly introduces most systems with a small narrative that pushes the player forward and teaches him the basics. Where it gets problematic is what occurs after the questline is done and the impression it gives to a new player.

A - The player has litterally zero good mods after vor's prize. Game is so busy awarding crappy damaged mods it forgets that new player have nothing and they need all the essential mods. DE needs to scrap damaged mods and instead reward player with the proper essential mods. A new player should finish vor's prize owning at the very least serration, split chamber , hornet strike, barrel diffusion, point strike, fury, redirection, vitality, crit mods, flow and streamline, etc. Also, maybe give player some starter endo to get the mod upgrading going on.

B - Game does not award proper elemental mods. In a game where elemental mods are pretty much mandatory to deal proper damage to most factions, it's actually extremely long to get a full set of elemental mods for primary/secondar/melee weapons. Game also doesn't teach you about elemental combos and how to mod your gear.

C - MK1 weapons are absolute trash and give a terrible first impression. Even worse, people might actually waste catalysts on them, not knowing how they are basically trash tier weapons. C'mon guys, just give us a regular Braton, Paris, Bo, Kunai and scrap the MK1 starters. Giving players inferior versions of weapons that are already pretty much trash tier weapons outclassed by their primes is kinda insulting... It's like giving you a broken, rusted version of a kitchen knife and hoping you'll enjoy cooking using this.

D - Tutorialize how to install catalysts and reactors and give starting player a free catalyst and reactor. Forcing new player to wait for a catalyst and reactor alert to get their starter frames to snuff sucks..

E - Having an empty foundry when you start the game is dumb. There's tons of somewhat cheap blueprints for weapons and gear that should be awarded for free upon getting the foundry segment. Expecting a noob go through all tabs in the market looking for blueprints that can be gotten for credits is dumb, and it gives the initial impression that everything is paid for in platinum and nothing can be built. This would also help tremendously in the early hours , as credits are really hard to amass, and having let's say 20-25 free blueprints in the foundry would save a couple hundred thousand credits for new players.

F - I know you guys think the addition of junctions were brilliant, but they absolutely suck imho. Gating player progression through the starchart by constantly forcing them to complete unclear and menial tasks is one of the worse new user experience decision you did. What's an eximus ? How do I scan a fragment ? What's an AXI relic ? So many questions , so many obstacles. What exactly was wrong with simply defeating a boss to unlock the next planet again ? Why did you have to make unlocking any planet a grindy, tedious chore. There's already enough grind without having to grind planet unlocks.

G - Another big issue is the time it takes to level up frames and weapons on the star chart. You just started playing , you just completed vor's prize, chances are you're still lvl 7 with your frame and gear. You haven't even unlocked all your abilities yet, and given how slow you are leveling, chances are most player will quit because it's such a bore to just level up to 30. The fact it takes like clearing 4-5 full planets to even get your starter frame to lvl 30 makes no sense in a game where's there's so much leveling to be done. It kinda pushes new player directly out of the game, since they feel they are not getting anything done.

H - You're trying to sell this game with a strong melee combat, yet you're too cheap to give players a free stance mod for their starter weapon, meaning people button mash a slow quick attack and fail to see the melee combat's depth.

I - Likewise, in a game where you pretty much need an aura mod to get full mod capacity, you're too cheap to give players a free aura mod they can equip from the start , even if it's a crappy aura mod nobody uses. Considering new players have 0 MR (meaning they start with zero modding points), no catalysts and reactors (meaning they do not get x2 modding points) and no auras and stances, this means new players litterally cannot equip any mods for most of their initial playthrough with their starter frame.

Edited December 30, 2017 by (PS4)Stealth_Cobra

[Wagonbomb]

Just wait until you realize what the Maiming Strike mod is and how you get it :) 

 

You'll really "love" the game then. 

#TheYearDEStoleChristmas

Edited December 30, 2017 by Wagonbomb

[Gandergear]

18 minutes ago, (PS4)Stealth_Cobra said:

It's important to separate two things:

- Issues with tutorialisation.

- Issues with how the new user experience is handled.

I think Warframe struggles with both, but the tutorialisation stuff is imho not the biggest offender, as you can always "google it". There's ample documentation on everything, and I think most gamers know where to find the info when they need some info.

Thus, to me , the true issue is how the new user experience is handled. Honestly, during Vor's prize, this is fine. Game slowly introduces most systems with a small narrative that pushes the player forward and teaches him the basics. Where it gets problematic is what occurs after the questline is done and the impression it gives to a new player.

A - The player has litterally zero good mods after vor's prize. Game is so busy awarding crappy damaged mods it forgets that new player have nothing and they need all the essential mods. DE needs to scrap damaged mods and instead reward player with the proper essential mods. A new player should finish vor's prize owning at the very least serration, split chamber , hornet strike, barrel diffusion, point strike, fury, redirection, vitality, crit mods, flow and streamline, etc. Also, maybe give player some starter endo to get the mod upgrading going on.

B - Game does not award proper elemental mods. In a game where elemental mods are pretty much mandatory to deal proper damage to most factions, it's actually extremely long to get a full set of elemental mods for primary/secondar/melee weapons. Game also doesn't teach you about elemental combos and how to mod your gear.

C - MK1 weapons are absolute trash and give a terrible first impression. Even worse, people might actually waste catalysts on them, not knowing how they are basically trash tier weapons. C'mon guys, just give us a regular Braton, Paris, Bo, Kunai and scrap the MK1 starters. Giving players inferior versions of weapons that are already pretty much trash tier weapons outclassed by their primes is kinda insulting... It's like giving you a broken, rusted version of a kitchen knife and hoping you'll enjoy cooking using this.

D - Tutorialize how to install catalysts and reactors and give starting player a free catalyst and reactor. Forcing new player to wait for a catalyst and reactor alert to get their starter frames to stuff sucks.

E - Having an empty foundry when you start the game is dumb. There's tons of somewhat cheap blueprints for weapons and gear that should be awarded for free upon getting the foundry segment. Expecting a noob go through all tabs in the market looking for blueprints that can be gotten for credits is dumb, and it gives the initial impression that everything is paid for in platinum and nothing can be built. This would also help tremendously in the early hours , as credits are really hard to amass, and having let's say 20-25 free blueprints in the foundry would save a couple hundred thousand credits for new players.

F - I know you guys think the addition of junctions were brilliant, but they absolutely suck imho. Gating player progression through the starchart by constantly forcing them to complete unclear and menial tasks is one of the worse new user experience decision you did. What's an eximus ? How do I scan a fragment ? What's an AXI relic ? So many questions , so many obstacles. What exactly was wrong with simply defeating a boss to unlock the next planet again ? Why did you have to make unlocking any planet a grindy, tedious chore. There's already enough grind without having to grind planet unlocks.

G - Another big issue is the time it takes to level up frames and weapons on the star chart. You just started playing , you just completed vor's prize, chances are you're still lvl 7 with your frame and gear. You haven't even unlocked all your abilities yet, and given how slow you are leveling, chances are most player will quit because it's such a bore to just level up to 30. The fact it takes like clearing 4-5 full planets to even get your starter frame to lvl 30 makes no sense in a game where's there's so much leveling to be done. It kinda pushes new player directly to leveling hotspots because it's the only efficient way to level up.

H - You're trying to sell this game with a strong melee combat, yet you're too cheap to give players a free stance mod for their starter weapon.

I - Likewise, in a game where you pretty much need an aura mod to get full mod capacity, you're too cheap to give players a free aura mod they can equip from the start , even if it's a crappy aura mod nobody uses.

A- i agree wholly

B- i agree on the first half byt the second is a case of look it up, experiment, or ask someone

C- so i got mr25 today but i realized the 2 weapons that were preventing me from getting that final push of MR was the mk1 furis and strun, neither appear in your equipment profile if you dont own them. My point is mr fodder is mr fodder, id prefer seeing both the mk1 and normal versions being buffed than see any removed like the poor machete.

D- Giving a player a catalyst & reactor reward for completing vors prize with accompying tutorial sounds like a good, fun idea.

E- I agree, all market bps should be included in the foundry with their buy cost integrated into the build price. There should additionally be an option to filter weapons if you dont have the MR, resources, already own or maxxed out the weapon, as well as looking aolely at clan tech, etc.

F- i didnt find them too bad, but i already had the star chart unlocked when i did them

G- new players could be given a 1 week affinity booster to ease them into the grind, they dont have he facilities to abuse it at that point, but it does devalue the 'Starter pack' bundle. So likely money plays into that role.

H- i agree

I- i agree

 

[ACULonSeer]

14 hours ago, Gandergear said:

 

Seriously wikis are gods greatest gift to earth. Im just not conditioned to give a crap about the game itself holding my hand, if i have a question, theres region chat and the wiki. Im a huge dark souls fan and most of the stuff i learned was in the fame was from talking to friends, and later, the wiki, theres a great sense of cummunity with games that require knowledge to be spread by peers rather than by the game. Runescape as well doesnt hold your hand past teaching you the most basics of basics, and i doubt WOW has a tutorial thats as in depth as what they offer either.

Plenty of games have barebones tutorials such as my dark souls example, maybe the problem is with some gamers wanting their hands held the entire time instead of using resources to find answers? Youve yet to make a solid argument that doesnt boil down to "new players deserve more freebies" and "i want information that can easily be found on the wiki, a service made with love by the community i dont want to talk to"

You seem to be making alot of broad generalizations and assumptions about my intent, and you're overlooking the key issues.

"Plenty of games have barebones tutorials" well warframe doesn't even have that. If you took the time to read my original post, you would see my Mastery 8 story. The game doesn't explain most of the BASIC mechanics, the sheer number of people I've seen begging for help on simply navigating the labyrinthine menu screens proves this. Stop assuming everyone instantly picks up on games without being told how to play.

Warframe explains absolutely nothing, which is not only why people can't understand basic mechanics, but also misunderstand Warframe's microtransaction policies. You are literally defending a complete failure of game design solely because "That's the way it's always been"

[Mewvg2]

17 hours ago, (Xbox One)Sh4dow Ech0 said:

The "point" in the first few planets isn't to treat Warframe as a smorgasbord of sorts, sampling as many frames and weapons as possible.

Seeing as this is the game's main strength, it's pretty important for a new player to find something they really enjoy (whether that be a weapon, warframe, w/e). That's why they stick around.

17 hours ago, (Xbox One)Sh4dow Ech0 said:

It's VERY reasonable in this day and age to expect players to use outside resources to fill in the gaps of game knowledge, especially for a game that's as enormously complex as Warframe.

Fill in gaps, sure. The main problem is there isn't a gap here and there, most of the game's systems aren't explained in game.

[ACULonSeer]

38 minutes ago, Mewvg2 said:

Seeing as this is the game's main strength, it's pretty important for a new player to find something they really enjoy (whether that be a weapon, warframe, w/e). That's why they stick around.

Fill in gaps, sure. The main problem is there isn't a gap here and there, most of the game's systems aren't explained in game.

Absolutely right. Even dark souls actually explained how dodging and jumping worked XD

[Gandergear]

7 hours ago, ACULonSeer said:

Absolutely right. Even dark souls actually explained how dodging and jumping worked XD

Wf does too, right in the codex with the tutorials and in vors prize

[ACULonSeer]

10 hours ago, Gandergear said:

Wf does too, right in the codex with the tutorials and in vors prize

Yeah, buried in the codex hidden in the corner where most people, including me, never thought to look. 

 

If anyone has other legitimate concerns about warframe, please explain them so I can add them to the list above. I would prefer for these to be significant issues, rather than mild criticisms, though.

[ACULonSeer]

On 12/30/2017 at 3:30 AM, Gandergear said:

A- i agree wholly

B- i agree on the first half byt the second is a case of look it up, experiment, or ask someone

C- so i got mr25 today but i realized the 2 weapons that were preventing me from getting that final push of MR was the mk1 furis and strun, neither appear in your equipment profile if you dont own them. My point is mr fodder is mr fodder, id prefer seeing both the mk1 and normal versions being buffed than see any removed like the poor machete.

D- Giving a player a catalyst & reactor reward for completing vors prize with accompying tutorial sounds like a good, fun idea.

E- I agree, all market bps should be included in the foundry with their buy cost integrated into the build price. There should additionally be an option to filter weapons if you dont have the MR, resources, already own or maxxed out the weapon, as well as looking aolely at clan tech, etc.

F- i didnt find them too bad, but i already had the star chart unlocked when i did them

G- new players could be given a 1 week affinity booster to ease them into the grind, they dont have he facilities to abuse it at that point, but it does devalue the 'Starter pack' bundle. So likely money plays into that role.

H- i agree

I- i agree

 

I don't know if a catalyst, reactor, stance mod, etc should just be GIVEN to them. I mean, maybe they should be awarded by earth-mercury junctions since mercury is really the end of the "tutorial". Also the only junction I hate is the one on Mars because cephalon fragments nearly made me quite the game.

[Elchizen]

That's "funny", because few weeks with a friend we have this idea that "I don't want to be a new player a WF because you're dropped in a game with half of the essentials informations untold and there's so many secondary things to do". (He plays since release of the game and me since 3years, so I consider us as veterans)

I have this chance my friend was here when I begin so he can explain/summarize me base mechanics (I don't even mention hidden mechanics of mods/weapons/frames that you can only rely on the wiki for a fully understand).

-----
I'm not really agree on the grind part (except for Reactors / Catalysts), reason that is there ways to farm it, the key can be of not focusing in only 1/2 resource but to use a "filler objective" ingame (ie. completing a quest, make syndicate missions). If these components (think of nitain) were too simple to collect so the weapons/frames attached to lose a bit of their "advanced in the game" part (even if for frames like vauban prime, 20 nitain is ..too much).
for some "special items" (like you can only drop in spy missions), introduction of them match the rework of this mission type, and even is this is boring to do the same type mission 50times (hello equinox) this is not a "all wrong point" (unless you want to only do exterminate missions, but at this rate you play a hack'n slash).

I agree there's few adjustments can be made on this. (Since I’m a vet, I’m less concerned with grinding except for new content)
-----

The learning exp is as you tell, even 3 years ago I more rely of the 'saint graal' wiki than the codex (partially because I like theory craft and precise data over than basic ones), for the mechanics like advanced movements, when the functionality was released the game "forced" us to do a small tutorial to learn it (semi-hidden in the tutorial part in codex).
Even as a non-novice player I think the tutorials and mechanics was non-explained or at least in a user-unfriendly way. (There tons of mods for who the wiki is the only way to really gauge their effect)

-----

For the damage part, there's an IPS rework incoming, but the main part in it is to use a good panel of weapons/damage (corrosive against gunners, radiation against bombard, etc.) and the effects of them. This part unfortunately relies on dropping the right mods and minimum acknowledge to make proper builds (which bring to the previous part). Unfortunately and like others games, even sort of "advanced players" can make S#&$ty modding (hello the dumb "vitality/redirection is for the weaks" modding on a 100+ missions who dies every 20seconds).

The "hard" part of this is to find at least a decent weapon who you like to play and rely on (unfortunately half of them are outdated in viability terms for "big" missions).

-----

As tell, few more starting slots can only be a good choice.

For the platinium part, unlike lots of f2p we have a very good design who allow us to earn this currency with trading part, even if it's not written when you begin, a "trading chat" is I think not a "came from space functionality".

so for new players, you can easily trade prime parts to made plats especially when baro comes (even I’m the first to think that the "5part for 10p" guy are thieves who avail on new players) (3 years ago, even if the base price of a trash prime is 5pl, there's no baro'ki'teer event who generate a "buy anything" rush.)

This system at least allows players to buy anything they want without money or rely on semi-legal methods like some games.

-----

With release of plains of eidolon, we also see "new players"(less than MR4) in bounty 4 and 5 (the two hardder), there's no MR restriction unlike nodes on planets and it's design fault because the "novice player" don't really do anything versus a lvl 50+bombard (not his fault for not having good stuff) apart from dieing or watch others do the job.

 

TL:DR, I think the "informations/tutos" part was the main "thing to improve" for new players.

Edited January 2, 2018 by Elchizen

[ACULonSeer]

54 minutes ago, Elchizen said:

That's "funny", because few weeks with a friend we have this idea that "I don't want to be a new player a WF because you're dropped in a game with half of the essentials informations untold and there's so many secondary things to do". (He plays since release of the game and me since 3years, so I consider us as veterans)

I have this chance my friend was here when I begin so he can explain/summarize me base mechanics (I don't even mention hidden mechanics of mods/weapons/frames that you can only rely on the wiki for a fully understand).

-----
I'm not really agree on the grind part (except for Reactors / Catalysts), reason that is there ways to farm it, the key can be of not focusing in only 1/2 resource but to use a "filler objective" ingame (ie. completing a quest, make syndicate missions). If these components (think of nitain) were too simple to collect so the weapons/frames attached to lose a bit of their "advanced in the game" part (even if for frames like vauban prime, 20 nitain is ..too much).
for some "special items" (like you can only drop in spy missions), introduction of them match the rework of this mission type, and even is this is boring to do the same type mission 50times (hello equinox) this is not a "all wrong point" (unless you want to only do exterminate missions, but at this rate you play a hack'n slash).

I agree there's few adjustments can be made on this. (Since I’m a vet, I’m less concerned with grinding except for new content)
-----

The learning exp is as you tell, even 3 years ago I more rely of the 'saint graal' wiki than the codex (partially because I like theory craft and precise data over than basic ones), for the mechanics like advanced movements, when the functionality was released the game "forced" us to do a small tutorial to learn it (semi-hidden in the tutorial part in codex).
Even as a non-novice player I think the tutorials and mechanics was non-explained or at least in a user-unfriendly way. (There tons of mods for who the wiki is the only way to really gauge their effect)

-----

For the damage part, there's an IPS rework incoming, but the main part in it is to use a good panel of weapons/damage (corrosive against gunners, radiation against bombard, etc.) and the effects of them. This part unfortunately relies on dropping the right mods and minimum acknowledge to make proper builds (which bring to the previous part). Unfortunately and like others games, even sort of "advanced players" can make S#&$ty modding (hello the dumb "vitality/redirection is for the weaks" modding on a 100+ missions who dies every 20seconds).

The "hard" part of this is to find at least a decent weapon who you like to play and rely on (unfortunately half of them are outdated in viability terms for "big" missions).

-----

As tell, few more starting slots can only be a good choice.

For the platinium part, unlike lots of f2p we have a very good design who allow us to earn this currency with trading part, even if it's not written when you begin, a "trading chat" is I think not a "came from space functionality".

so for new players, you can easily trade prime parts to made plats especially when baro comes (even I’m the first to think that the "5part for 10p" guy are thieves who avail on new players) (3 years ago, even if the base price of a trash prime is 5pl, there's no baro'ki'teer event who generate a "buy anything" rush.)

This system at least allows players to buy anything they want without money or rely on semi-legal methods like some games.

-----

With release of plains of eidolon, we also see "new players"(less than MR4) in bounty 4 and 5 (the two hardder), there's no MR restriction unlike nodes on planets and it's design fault because the "novice player" don't really do anything versus a lvl 50+bombard (not his fault for not having good stuff) apart from dieing or watch others do the job.

 

TL:DR, I think the "informations/tutos" part was the main "thing to improve" for new players.

Yeah, the lack of tutorials makes the game look like it's trying to trick you into spending plat at every turn. I mean that's the conclusion I almost drew from the slot limit, and the plat prices on early-game guns. Im pretty sure I bought akmagnus with plat!

[Cleopatranikea]

On 2017. 12. 30. at 5:41 AM, (Xbox One)Sh4dow Ech0 said:

Just a few comments, but first a warning. I write A LOT! I tend to write BOOKS on forums, not kidding, not even a little bit. I'm used to people making fun of this, some even hating on it. Look, let's be reasonable here, no one is holding a gun to your head to read any of it, so don't complain. If you want to read, then do so. Maybe read it when you're sitting down, otherwise occupied :P Or waiting for some appointment. Whatever. I won't know who reads it or not. That's your call. I type fast, and it's easy for me to do, so it's no big deal is what I'm saying. About the content of this tome-not aiming to take any particular side here. In general, I think arguing over the internet is a huge waste of time. I certainly hope my comments don't come across as such, but then again you know what they say about good intentions :P

*if you want to know my background as a gamer, I'll put that last, because I'm guessing most don't really care tbh lol. However, it is relevant to an extent, because the time period during which I started gaming affects significantly how I view gaming currently, especially things such as tutorials, supplemental sources of info, etc. You'll have to decide if it's worth reading. From this point, I'll cover some of the times mentioned by the OP and comment on how I view them in terms of the early player experience (I started playing early this summer).

The tutorial (Vor's Prize) I guess I see this tutorial-disguised-as-quest a bit more favorably as most, because I think it actually does a really good job introducing new players to the basics of the game without leaving them completely overwhelmed and frustrated. In fact, based off some of the comments in this thread, I'd say it's quite obvious if anything more was packed into Vor's Prize, most players would be even MORE lost and confused, as I think they would reach saturation point and additional info thrown at them would be akin to bouncing a glaive around xD. Instead I'd ask, what else would people have it cover? Endo? Plat? Trading? Potatoes? The Index? Seriously, it's there to explain how to use the controller, some minimal parkour, your abilities (your first one at least), your weapons including melee, along with picking your starting warframe and weapons. In terms of which you pick, I feel very strongly it just doesn't matter. I've played through the beginning of the game with all 3 starters, even beyond for a bit, and I am confident in saying they all 3 do a decent job with the early game content. In fact, I found Excal to be the most boring of the three, while Volt and Mag were much more different and interesting (because Excal "feels" more like every other "FPS-type of character" to me for some reason). Don't get me wrong, I've used Exalted Blade, and yes it's OP. I've seen videos of Chromatic Blade, and it's totally broken it's so OP. I'm in no way saying Excal isn't a powerful frame, but I feel he's recommended for some of the wrong reasons. I didn't die more playing Mag or Volt (I rarely went into bleedout status). All one needs to do is be a little careful and not run into the middle of gunfights lol. That's why you play with squads (which new players should be doing anyways). The main reason to get Excal (if he's really important to a new player, which I will admit that's tough for someone new to the game to judge, but still not a reason to make a "knee jerk decision") is based more on how difficult he is to get if he's NOT chosen as a starter, because one must then wait until Pluto (a long ways into the Star Chart iirc) to subsequently obtain him. I don't think it's that big of a deal, and for those who either buy plat or trade for it, he's one of the cheapest frames to buy (all the stater frames are 75 plat I believe, at least on X1, and that's not factoring in login discounts one might receive on occasion). In conclusion, I think Vor's Prize is an adequate intorduction to the game. I think DE did a great job making it feel like a part of the game (which lore-wise, it actually is) and not feel like some artificially crafted and isolated piece one must toil through in order to "unlock" the "real game."

The Codex If I'm not mistaken, the Codex IS mentioned in the game, quite often. The Lotus mentions it all the time, including each time you get a new quest. When you are just starting out, that happens quite frequently. Also, I believe you have to unlock it or add some piece to make it work, don't you? I could be wrong about that, but most things on the Liset you have to install something obtained from one of the missions in Vor's Prize. I thought the Codex was included in those things? Even if it isn't, I don't really understand how people wouldn't noticed that LARGE chunky mechanical thing that sits right across from the MARKET (which I know you DO have to install a segment for). Besides, how much MORE noticeable can it get? It has a constantly rotating holographic mod display on top of it? Maybe some people just tune everything out of their sight really well, or maybe I'm just the curious type who goes exploring their new surroundings whenever they go to a new place, idk. Not trying o insult anyone here, or hurt anyone's feelings, but I think exploring the ship and learning what all the gestures, buttons, settings, and menus do is something a player should naturally do, and Devs should expect them to do, without being prompted to do so. There are several pages of settings under OPTIONS, and all sorts of other nifty things you can do like colorize your ship both inside and out (if there's anything I really think DE should "give/gift" us, it's not more slots by a longshot, it's a fully unlocked color palette to start with but I won't get into that, many others already have). There's even a radio (scanner) but I haven't found it to be useful, just noisy. I'm glad I found a way to make Ordis shut up though xD. Discovered the door to make infested cysts go away, without even looking that up. An exploratory sense will take the gamer far. Again, maybe some of that stems from my gaming history, idk. You had to investigate every option, try anything and everything. It's great to have so many resources available for gamers these days, but they also can turn into a crutch.

After one notices the Codex, a lot of additional tutorials (that can be replayed to your heart's content) become available. Some are just written tutorials (which are also available from other locations as well, such as the Mod tutorial, available from the Mod Segment as well as the Arsenal Segment when viewing your Mods), while other are playable like Movement 2.0 I think it's called (it's basically parkour). This is where you'd refresh your knowledge of that covered briefly in Vor's Prize including bullet jump. Idk how anyone would get to their MR8 test and not know how to bullet jump, again, not insulting anyone here, it's more expressing my complete surprise that disbelief or putting anyone down. I don't recall exactly when I mastered bullet jump. I know it took me awhile too. I forgot it after the tutorial, and took me awhile to realize it was in the Codex despite knowing about it (I knew the tutorial was there, just didn't realize I could play it again, I wasn't paying attention silly me). I saw others in my squad doing it all the time, and I asked my son (who'd I had talked into playing the game with me) how to do that maneuver and he told me. Still would take some practice before I got any good at it. What actually helped me wasn't any obstacle course (those are more punishing than anything for a newbie imho). If you're in a clan, which is highly recommended because you'll want the clan tech, just go to a large semi-open room like a large clan hall or the big room with the Loki statue in the center and just practice running, dashing, bullet jumping, sliding, rolling, wall latching, aim gliding, all those moves, continuously, just try to chain them together and not stop moving (except of course when wall latching or aim gliding to a certain spot to stop). That helped a lot in the beginning especially because I preferred not having an audience, and missions aren't good for practice because you find out very quickly that for alerts in particular most people play like their house in burning down around them! It's speed run after speed run, which is a bit rough when you really need to gather a bunch of resources. You'll learn early on which missions you can solo run, so you take your time and gather stuff, and which ones you need a squad for (defense, survival, excavation, the "endless" modes in particular). This isn't an exhaustive list. Another thing I did right after the tutorial? I read about EVERY mission type in the Codex, something I would do many times, over and over again, so I'd know what to expect.

The Wiki It's VERY reasonable in this day and age to expect players to use outside resources to fill in the gaps of game knowledge, especially for a game that's as enormously complex as Warframe. In fact, I'd say it's a boon to have a dedicated and thorough Wiki for Warframe, as not all games are so lucky. This is in addition to the game forum here, plus numerous other sites as well. In addition there are many specialized support sites (unofficial of course) such as ones for warframe builds, the warframe market (to look up current prices in plat for various parts, frames, weapons, etc), and general sites as well. There are various apps that cover all kinds of info like alerts (including an official app I highly recommend) and several websites that cover these as well as day/night cycles for Earth and Plains of Eidolon. These links and apps are indispensable for the serious Warframe player no matter what stage of the game you're at. Back to the issue of the Wiki, another reason it's reasonable to have players rely on something like this? There are some aspects of Warframe some players don't need to know about, certainly not at their stage. For example, right now I don't need to know about Sorties, the Index, and many other things. But I know that info is waiting for me if and when I do. Same for Lua, Kuva Fortress, and much much more. Why would the game need to house that extensive information, much less introduce players to it? Many won't get that far, or they may take a break for indeterminate amount of time during which things may be overhauled. The game must be played online, so players must have access to an online connection, so it's reasonable to expect they'd have access to an online browser and thus Warframe Wikipedia (as well as YouTube and other supplemental sources of info). Again, when I was growing up, there were no such sources, so overall I believe gamers have an abundance of assistance; I suggest they not only take advantage of it, but also be thankful for its existence.

Slots Why 5 slots? Or 3? Doesn't really matter the number, I must agree with this point at least, someone in the early game doesn't need more than 2 frames. The "point" in the first few planets isn't to treat Warframe as a smorgasbord of sorts, sampling as many frames and weapons as possible. There are many goals to the early part of the game, but at least imho, sampling frames and weapons isn't one of them. Maybe thats why you've focused so much on the slots, and why many others don't see it as a problem? Here's some of the things I believe lie at the center of the early Warframe experience. It's all based on my own gameplay, not some list I found anywhere, so it's subjective to an extent but I would guess others would find some truth in it as well.

THE EARLY WARFRAME EXPERIENCE

MISSIONS The goal is to become familiar with the overall structure, goals and objectives, and the overall "flow" or tempo of various mission types (which will be a part of Alerts as well). These also offer excellent opportunities to observe how different frames accomplish objectives, as well as seeing what abilities each has to offer, what they do, and how well-suited a particular frame is in accomplishing a given task (such as defending an objective, crowd control, dealing damage), etc. This includes making early progress on the Star Chart and unlocking your first Sentinel, Taxon, which is very helpful for the new player.

RESOURCES Collecting resources during missions, alerts, etc is an important part of the game, as these components will fill many purposes in the game, especially when building items in the foundry.

MODS You'll begin your collection of mods, a process that'll be never-ending for the most part because as you progress new and more powerful types of mods will become available to you. Mods are what I call the "heart of Warframe." They are the key to making everything (frames, weapons, companions, sentinels, Archwings, etc) more powerful and effective, and many times, more fun as well! You'll also start collecting Endo (a special "currency" used to upgrade mods). Mods are upgraded through a process misleadingly called "fusion." This process no longer involves "fusing" of multiple mods, rather, Endo and credits are now spent to level them. There's a tutorial for Mods but it only covers the basics. Mods are simply too complex to cover anywhere in-depth in the game, so I consider the Wiki or other supplemental source essential for fully understanding this subject. You'll also collect Ayatan stars and sculptures (which can be used as sources of Endo as well, should you decide to break them down). Many people keep their sculptures, often collecting hundreds of them!

ALERTS While I'm not sure if there's any source that "suggests" or "tells" the early player to run alerts, all I know is I just started doing them (I'm guessing because it just seemed lucrative, so maybe I figured "why not?"). Warframe is like that, I think it encourages exploration and trying stuff out. What's the worse that can hapoen? You fail a mission? It happens. I've gone into Interception missions (those seem to be the worse for some reason) where no one else seems to have ANY idea what to do. I'm serious, how hard can it be? I'll go capture my tower, yet the others just run around or come to my "captured" tower while the "enemy" holds all the others, smh. If you fall off a map (or glitch through it, lol) you don't lose health, you just get put back where you were. Like I said, quite forgiving. Anyway, Alerts are great for all players, but especially new players. You can start accumulating many useful things. A couple of times a month, there are alerts associated with Devstream for a catalyst or reactor, then there are blueprints for numerous weapons, vanity items, forma, resources (some of which are extremely, practically impossible, to find or farm), etc. There are rotating nightmare missions (available only after unlocking all nodes on a planer) but there are occasional nightmare alerts offering special nightmare mods, valuable dual-stat mods you receive as a bonus for completing an existing mission but with additonal modifiers that increase the difficulty significantly, often "no-shield" mode is in effect but it can vary somewhat). 

RELICS You'll begin your collection of Relics, special items in game that are unique in the sense they "hold" hidden Prime parts that are drawn from a pre-set tiered list of multiple outcomes. The possible outcomes are "fixed" based on the number of each relic, meaning when it is issued by DE, it will only have a certain list of possible rewards that are never randomized (unlike drops from rotations, etc). In the beginning it's best just to collect relics rather than open them, primarily for two reasons. You don't have a significant collection of void traces nor do you have capacity to hold them either, and you lack the void relic refinement segment for your ship. Use of relics, void traces for refinement, etc, are beyond the scope of early play so I'll not cover them. Important point is beginning a collection of relics is helpful, particularly given relics (and the prime parts that can be obtained from them) do get vaulted over time, so you never know when you might acquire some valuable relics, either for personal use or for profit.

THE GRIND Every game of this sort has a grind. I'm a Destiny Year 1 vet as well (oh those bitter tears). Destiny 2 has been very meh. Warframe isn't nearly so bad as other games, and fits well imho with a multi-game strategy (meaning it isn't all-consuming, I think any game that is runs a huge risk of becoming unhealthy similar to the way Destiny 1 became an extremely addicting experience for myself and many others: at least I took several long breaks from the game, which certainly helped). It's important to pace oneself. This is another reason I believe having additional slots is unnecessary. Like others have mentioned, during those early planets you don't have accces to multiple frames. You have your starter, and you'll have Rhino (although I actually built Nyx first, because at the time, Phorid was on an Invasion for days in place of the boss for Rhino, so yeah that's how it ended up working out for me). I also received Frost Prime during the summer as part of the Free Prime with Prime deal. As part of that, iirc Frost Prime came with his own slot and reactor, so that wasn't an issue, but that was a special circumstance, and like I said I didn't have Rhino. I don't think anyone has mentioned it, but don't you also get a slot for every other MR you achieve up to MR10? I'm not 100% certain, but I think that's how it works. Joining a clan is very helpful, and this topic is mentioned in the codex. One thing I didn't realize for awhile, you can gift many items to someone else using the market. If you're in a clan, or plat with friends who have some plat, they "could" purchase and "gift" you a slot. Overall when comparing the cost, a slot is quite cheap, but again no one needs a frame slot early in the game. As I've outline above, many other things in the game are a higher priority. Collecting frames just isn't something vital to early play, in fact Rhino is an extremely powerful frame, very powerful as a tank and quite easy to build up his defense with fairly common mods found when running the missions and alerts that'll be encountered on Earth, Venus and Mars. Now with PoE added, there are even more mods one can take advantage of, such as Auger Message (useful for extending duration of abilities). One piece of advice that I found was helpful on the web, is put off doing Howl of the Kubrow until later. Kubrow are high-maintenance because you have to check on them nearly everyday, show them affection, and even when doing that their health drains by 10% every day until it reaches 0% and they die, yep know just disappear and they're gone (unless you use an item to restore them, which early on you'll have to buy in the market). Not worth it early on, and it can be done later. The Archwing was another mission people recommended postponing, but now with PoE out, that may have changed because PoE is a large open space. I think it's optional, and comes down to personal choice tbh. I did Archwing many months ago, got the segment from clan, and built launcher bits from farming the Plains, but I rarely use them. If you become good at parkour, traversing the Plains is no big deal. I enjoy the Plains, it's a gorgeous place, it looks almost real imho, and the water is simply beatiful, so much so it makes me want to go swimming in it! Our frames seriously need to be able to go swimming DE!

Ok, enough, I'm sure no one is still reading by now, and that's ok. I always write incredibly lengthy posts, and I always get ignored  (and sometimes get some nasty remarks as well). I'm used to it, no longer bothers me. People can take what they want from what I wrote. Good luck out there, Tenno :)

*

I'm an old school gamer, grew up on the Atari 2600 which I got when I was about 7 I guess? I progressed to having the Atari 5200, and on through Nintendo GBC, GBA, SNES, and later the 3DS, Xbox 360, X1 and PS4. I've played some games in the Apple IIe (Zork franchise on actual "floppy" floppy disks), original Mac (Tetris), and iOS (all kinds of apps). Just recently acquired the Switch, and we still have the Wii (not that it sees any real use anymore). Definitely been a lifelong active gamer, now approaching the mid-century mark. Obviously I have a passion for gaming, a legacy I've take great pride in passing on to my son (who's a teenager now). I remember gaming back when there was no Internet, no YouTube, no online Co-op or PvP, and no guidebooks. Way back then, I really can't imagine anyone wanting to play WITH strangers much less compete AGAINST them lol. If you got stuck in a game like Zelda, you kept trying until you figured it out/beat the boss, however long it took. I remember for the GameBoy some of the carts didn't have save game memory per se, so I kept a little paper pad and mini-golf pencil in a carrying pouch so I could write "continue codes" down, that's how some of the game carts worked back then (when you started up again you entered the code and somehow it returned you to the same level or stage, I'm guessing it was used more for arcade-style games than anything else). I'm sure a few gave up, but most of us perservered. I think a lot of that "spirit" of figuring things out for yourself, without having your hand held, has been lost from gaming (I promise this isn't some "back in my day, we walked to school in the snow, barefoot, uphill, BOTH ways!" speech).

While I am against games holding the player's hand in general, it's still considered overall a part of good game design to introduce basic game mechanics (in whatever way best suits the game's style, genre, etc). There are a few occasions where no introductions or tutorials are necessary, even preferable, but these are generally unique games indeed. Some Devs prefer a seamless introduction to the game, and go to great lengths to avoid making a tutorial that stands apart and feels isolated from the game experience itself, while others find a dedicated tutorial to be beneficial and something well-received by fans. As with most everything in life, it's impossible to please everyone all of the time. With every passing year, the gaming community grows more diverse; there's simply no way to meet everyone's needs and expectations. That's where supplemental information, tips, guides, videos, streaming, etc, play an increasingly supportive role. Devs themselves are also becoming increasingly involved with the gaming community by way of Devstreams, Game Preview/Early Release with Community feedback, blogs and vlogs, etc. I remember when there were only a handful of Wiki Apps supporting just a few games. Now there's a huge number of titles supported by dedicated Wiki apps available in the iOS App Store (I'm sure the same is true for Google Play/Android). Whereas game guides used to be clunky hardcover or paperback affairs, most have website availability and many can be purchased in eBook form (Kindle, iBooks, etc). It's also common knowledge YouTube is full of tutorial vids as well as suggestions, tips, guides, walkthroughs, and for Warframe I partficular there's build guides, comparisons, top picks, you name it I'm sure it's out there (always check the date, as YouTube does accumulate a lot of outdated material too). None of this is news to anyone who's played Warframe for awhile, but I'm just providing a bit of a comparison between how gaming was when I grew up, and how it's evolved over time especially in regards to Warframe.

Sorry about any typos, poor grammar, autocorrect blunders, or any other (including particularly embarrassing) mistakes. I'm sure y'all can understand that, given the length, I have no desire to proofread this. Happy New Year everyone!

It is a fine writing and I personally a person whom figuring out by myself with no or small tutorials. Still I am a teen but I find this game relatively easy to play.