New Player Experience

[Balm]

 

23 hours. That's pretty new, right? I've made it to Earth system, got my first couple weapon upgrades, pushed my gear to the mid 20's, and am building a bladed staff in the foundry. 

 

I had no idea what I was doing at all, and was exploring Warframe with a completely open mind, because I saw it on Steam and it looked fun.

 

I figure that the devs/managers/whoever are probably interested in new player experiences, to go along with their data gathering on player retention. 

 

With that in mind, let me explain why I'm about to uninstall Warframe after 23 hours.

 

Hours 1-15 were really fun. 

 

Everything was new, exciting, and I had new stuff to look forward to, while progressing through missions and contributing to the success of my party. Learning the combos, figuring out how to wallwalk, dying to Vos and Jackal, and in general being a helpless noob was pretty great. This world from a sci fi perspective is really interesting and uniquely cool. I really like the bizarre aesthetics and alien feel to the different factions. It felt like I was exploring, and like I was making progress. Learning about crafting and how mods work was great, it was very interesting and showed a great deal of potential for seeming customization. 

 

Then I asked the question: when do I get a new warframe? This Loki is kind of lame, and I've become a liability in a party. I need to upgrade all my stuff, and I really want to try out some new abilities. I could buy one, I guess. But the game is in beta still, and I have no way to gauge the true effectiveness of other frames, since they appear to totally steamroll early missions. What do I pick? Can I earn it from playing? Can I even test it?

 

Oh, I can earn it from playing. In fact, this rhino helmet blueprint just dropped from Jackal. Cool. This must be the game telling me there is some sort of frame progression built into the mission progression system. Now, let me see what it's going to take to build the full Warframe. I need to gather the other blueprints...from Jackal...and farm this other stuff from other places. Mind you, I couldn't figure this out from inside the game. I had to go to the Wiki for specific answers. 

 

That was hour 18 or so. 

 

4 hours later, I have two more Rhino helmet blueprints, and an intense loathing for Jackal, to show for my effort. I'm not really sure how many runs I did to try and get the other blueprint pieces, so I could -begin- crafting a new warframe. It became excruciatingly boring. Despair set in quickly, when I realized that the crafting system is entirely dependant on low % gambling, combined with a huge time investment. I still don't have the other blueprint pieces.

 

Even worse, there appeared to be no way to trade items with other players. So even if I did have friends who were playing, there was no way for them to help me get up to speed, besides steamrolling missions for me and praying the RNG delivers what I need.

 

The dawning realization that repetitive farming for a chance at a drop, so I could wait days of real time for something to be constructed, was what I had in store for me if I stuck with Warframe, struck me pretty hard. It totally killed my interest in this game. I was legitimately excited to dig into the meat of this game. Finding out that the content is artificially extended by the insane RNG for item components and blueprints, made me instantly not care about it.

 

I don't have anything to look forward to right now, besides more disappointment from yet another boring, steamrolled Jackal run. Why play? Just tough it out on the chance that I find Rhino to be fun and suitable for my favored style? Find people to hold my hand through jupiter, and desperately farm for another item with a low % chance to drop?

 

Then what? A minimum of 3 days poking about on my Loki, being carried by vastly better geared players through early missions that they are in for some reason? I guess. I don't see how it could be any other way, unless I just outright buy everything. 

 

That's not fun, guys. It's not. It's excruciating. It's punishment. It's not compelling or interesting in any way. It's just frustrating and boring, and indicates to me that every future item crafting venture is going to be very similar. 

 

So I'm done.

 

Summary:

 

Hours 1-15 great fun because contributing and progressing through cool stuff

Hours 16-18 discovering frame crafting, hesitantly excited for new frame and abilities

Hours  19-23 soul crushing despair, from realizing that farming and praying to RNG gods is the main focus of the game

 

Good Things:

 

-Awesome original sci-fi setting

 

-Mod/mastery system for weapons and armor unique, interesting, and totally cool.

 

-Great gameplay. Gunplay and Melee feel good, abilities on Loki are boring, but the other frames look like they have some really fun stuff

 

-Satisfying enemies, fun to kill them, challenging enough at appropriate level.

 

-Mod drops provide a fun level of treasure hunting for each mission.

 

-Stalker guy showing up and tearing me apart in the middle of a defense mission. I don't know who or what he was, but it was hilarious, scary, and great fun. Reminded me of an npc "invader" from Dark Souls, in a way. MORE S#&$ LIKE THIS. ITS @(*()$ GREAT.

 

Game-killingly awful things:

 

- Lag. 1 out of 5 games seemed to have a host playing from Antarctica. Host lag makes the game awful and unplayable. Adjusting the ping tolerance for finding parties didn't seem to do anything. It was not stopping southeast Asia and Pacific Islands players from hosting games. It's not their fault for being interested in the game and wanting to play it, but hosts a certain distance away ruin the game mission for the rest of the party. 

 

- Steamrolling. After Venus, almost every party had a well geared player in it, instantly killing everything and rushing through the mission. Totally boring for new players. Probably boring for the geared players too. I know they were farming for something, but the process was entirely devoid of challenge or thought. My meagre contribution was not necessary for success.

 

- Drop rates and farming. Why? What? How? I understand a new warframe is supposed to be a large investment, but the first hump for a new player is absurdly irritating. Especially if they don't like the frame they picked, and are stuck using it for a long, long time. 

 

Slap-in-the-face things:

 

- Discovered that because I started playing after other people, that I miss out on some awesome and unique equipment mods that were only available during special events. Big-ol "Get #*($%%@!" to your newer players. Well done.

 

- Multiple drops of the same blueprint I already have. What are you thinking? Why not just have Jackal pop a banner out that says "Get #*($%%@, lol!" after he dies? It would be less offensive. 

 

In conclusion I'd like to say that Warframe has some amazing potential. At it's core its a truly fun and interesting game, but the time and grinding requirements for progression and expansion of gameplay options really killed it fast for me. I don't feel compelled to drop twenty dollars just to test a warframe, and I sure as hell won't spend $10 per gun.

 

Your game is awesome, but your prices suck, and your grind sucks. The curse of the F2P with cash shop formula. I've said what I came here to say, good luck, and have fun if you can. 

Edited August 7, 2013 by Balm

[Archangelzz]

Well dude you have to remember the game is still being developed and is still in beta but it will get better in time iv been playing since the beginning of closed beta and enjoyed every moment of it. And you picked a bad time to become a new player things got a huge overall compared to earlier so its confusing for new players because you don't know were the best farm spots are or blueprints ect it will get better though.

 

 

PS you should have picked Excalibur for your starter easily the best warframe in the game if you know how to use him right

Edited August 7, 2013 by Archangelzz

[Sekkeisha]

Hello fellow Tenno!

 

A nice little description of the game, from your point of view, a new player. You are basicly correct with everything, sometimes the game is frustrating. I started with the Loki-Warframe too, just as you. At the beginning he was very fun, because I really like stealthy gameplay.

 

Later on I realized that other warframes have way more offensive skills, while Loki only has Utilize-Skills. While fighting hords of enemies, it was a bit frustrating, since the only skill that was alright vs. a ton of enemies was the decoy. So I thought, let's try to build another warframe, just like you did. I informed myself about all warframes and I really liked Ash.

 

Alright, I bought the blueprint. Now I have to get the other blueprints. I managed to craft him, after hours of farming and upgrading my weapons so I can face the hords without dieing. I joined partys, completed void missions, etc.

 

After I finally managed to craft Ash, I was so happy. Now I also got the warframes Nova and Volt.

 

And I can only tell you, that it isn't supposed to be easy to get a new warframe, it has to be a long-time goal for yourself. I really liked it that I had to struggle for new warframes and I still struggle to get Frost Prime as well as Latron Prime.

 

My personal tip is, don't go and hardcore farm for the whole day, just try to unlock all missions and do alert missions whenever they show up, complete void T1-T3, have fun. If you focus on a goal too hard, it gets frustrating.

 

 

 

Loki is a hard-to-play warframe and if you can master him, you'll master every other warframe with ease.

[Balm]

 

PS you should have picked Excalibur for your starter easily the best warframe in the game if you know how to use him right

 

Excellent input. I do realize that now after seeing Excalibur in action, but like I said, I picked up Warframe on a whim and started playing. It raises a great question. Why is a totally new, and totally noob player stuck with their first choice of warframe? From what I can tell, Seer and Loki pale in comparison to Excalibur for low level gameplay. Why does a new player have a 2 in 3 chance of semi-screwing themselves? Why is a new player locked into 1 set of abilities? What if he finds out he doesn't like sneaky gameplay, and wants to try straightforward assault that Exaclibur offers, or the (seemingly useless) support of Seer?

 

I would have loved to try Seer and Excalibur (beyond the tutorial). That would have been really fun.

[S3riaL]

farming and praying to RNG gods is the main focus of the game

Welcome in WARFARM and sorry to not be able to say something different because you did summary a lot about what people can think about the game.

EDIT : I started with LOKI too and after 600+ hours of gaming with almost everything unlock it still the frame I like the most playing with.

Edited August 7, 2013 by S3riaL

[Balm]

 

 

And I can only tell you, that it isn't supposed to be easy to get a new warframe, it has to be a long-time goal for yourself. I really liked it that I had to struggle for new warframes and I still struggle to get Frost Prime as well as Latron Prime.

 

 

I know, and I appreciate that it is supposed to be a difficult and longterm goal. My beef isn't necessarily with it being a difficult and long term goal, but rather with the monotony by which the goal is reached. Killing Jackal 100 times for the blueprints just isn't very compelling. It cheapens what could have been a memorable experience. 

 

Thanks for the input. What do you have to say about the steamrolling bit? Does that ever taper off? Or is leveling from the beginning going to always involve much higher level players carrying you?

Edited August 7, 2013 by Balm

[alpenhornblazer]

Ever thought of opening a second account and starting with Excal?

[Sekkeisha]

I know, and I appreciate that it is supposed to be a difficult and longterm goal. My beef isn't necessarily with it being a difficult and long term goal, but rather with the monotony by which the goal is reached. Killing Jackal 100 times for the blueprints just isn't very compelling. It cheapens what could have been a memorable experience. 

 

Thanks for the input. What do you have to say about the steamrolling bit? Does that ever taper off? Or is leveling from the beginning going to always involve much higher level players carrying you?

Well it is boring to farm the same boss over and over again, but I often got some unexpected blueprints during random missions. I can't really remember what kind of missions they were, but they were definitely not boss missions.

 

About the steamrolling:

At the beginning, when I started playing the game, I had 1-2 well geared players all 3 missions or so. That was really annoying, so I decided I switch to "Solo". That worked out pretty well. The missions were interesting again, I could be all by myself. I only switched to "Online" when I had to complete a defense mission. And since they can be pretty hard, it's actually positive to have a strong player in your squad.

 

I played Solo until I had strong gear myself, so I can compete with the other steamrollers. Although I sometimes still switch to "Solo" when I get alot of players who don't know how to enjoy the game and just rush the level.

[Dala.]

It gets boring (for me) if you just get everything thrown at you in 4-5 runs. It's not amusing if you have unlocked every warframe you want in 2 days. I really like to strugle to build a new warframe, I love to hope for a item and the little adrenalin rush if you see the purple orb and then it's a helmet or a chassis again so you just do it again and that way, you are way more happy to finally get the damn systems BP you were hoping for (lower drop rate :) ).

Edited August 7, 2013 by Katsura-dono

[DAWGUNITALPHA]

OP: It also takes 12 hours to make each component of your frame and 3 days to actually make it.

[Pendragon1951]

I agree with the poster who said get another account and try Excalibur, but I would suggest other than the Wiki, which is not always correct, I would watch the profile videos of each of the Warframes that way you are more informed about all the frames. I also completely agree with all your points, I have almost 600 hours in and have even out of frustration bought a Warframe, so I know how you feel. I would suggest doing defense missions quickest way to advance and get mods.