Arid Fear Event Feedback (Long)

[MeanOgreGrr]

The Arid Fear event really headlined a lot of problems with the matchmaking systems and interface. It also punished me for playing the game the way I want to play it. Here is my feedback on my experiences:

 

Alert system pieces

 

I'm actually okay with using the alert system for collecting the pieces. The alerts were long and frequent enough that it didn't really matter. Plenty of time to collect keys, and time to use them between alert pushes.

 

My biggest issue with the alert system currently is that you have to back out of the solar system map in order to see the list of alerts. This is a new issue as of update 9 (I think) that I keep hoping will be repaired, but hasn't. For this event specifically that means that each time a mission has been completed you must back out and click an alert again.

 

Crafting the keys

 

I'm pretty sure the blueprint was added to the goals to draw players there, possibly get them to spend money. Otherwise one piece of the key could have been the blueprint and the other piece the material needed to craft it. However, it seems that the players willing to hunt down the key pieces were those already familiar with the store and this simply introduced an unnecessary dull element to reaching the goal.

 

The corprus void missions

 

The first time I did one of these my thought was "that's it?" The void is a place that takes work to get into and showers players with mods and rewards.  After doing two different alert missions, buying a blueprint, and crafting a key I expected more rewards from this place. Or any reward.

 

I see a huge missed opportunity to have crates drop common mods in the corprus void giving players a taste of the orokin void, rewarding them for slowing down their runs and exploring, and encouraging them to stick together. Rewarding common mods would have been a great time to try out the new mod transmuter as well. Or maybe the corprus void could have contained a bunch of the rarer mats, dropped sparingly from defeating mobs. Any reward given while playing is better than some reward given in the future.

 

Instead the missions were low level, dropped no mats at all, and encouraged splitting up and getting through them as fast as possible. Even most of the "locker loot rooms" were converted into escape hatches, leaving the levels with far less loot than the average corprus ship run.

 

Client / Server issues

 

I usually play Warframe with a single buddy. We play tons of online games together, usually small group multiplayer games where one of us hosts and the other joins. Other favorite games in recent times have been Borderlands 2, Path of Exile, Left 4 Dead, Orcs Must Die 2, Payday, Torchlight 2, and Path of Exile. I list these because neither of us have any problems at all playing any of these games, or just about any other game we have tried.

 

Except Warframe gives us problems. For some reason there are people on the internet that just cannot connect to my server. Some never even see the invites, some see them but are unable to join. He is in the latter group. He has connection issues sometimes as well, and on those times we simply load up a different game and play that one instead.

 

The point of all this? It is often difficult to play Warframe with other people. For two it's not that bad, for three it gets tricky and frustrating, and for four the planets and internets must align perfectly.

 

So when playing this event with my buddy, my keys are useless. When trying to play this event at all, the experience is frustrating.

 

Punished for smaller than max groups

 

Why is there one spy spawned per player? This seems like an artificial way to force max player groups and I can't think of a logical reason for it. If the missions were too difficult for the current group to tackle, or if there was a time limit on tracking down and capturing the spies that would be cool. A group smaller than max would just need to up their game to get through it.

 

It should be up to the players to max out the group. Why bring a full group to an easy mission anyways? The current event just says it doesn't matter how good a player you are, unless you brought a full team you are getting boned.

 

The disconnected invite-only void

 

I don't really understand why the void is some strange disconnected invite-only mission type. This goes against the entire rest of the game and how it does matchmaking. It forces the player who wants to use a key to sift through their friends list inviting folks (and hoping network issues allow the connection), or to comb through the recruitment spam channel looking for folks. Then once a group has been established it boots everyone out as soon as the mission has completed.

 

There are better ways of dealing with the void, dealing with players who want a team for their key, and dealing with freeloaders who want to do a void mission. The current system is about the worst one I can imagine.

 

The chat UI and invite system

 

Game interfaces have come a long way since 1996. Dealing with the Warframe chat and UI interface reminds me of online gaming in 1996. I am not nostalgic for those days.

 

Why can't I right click a name and send that person a whisper or an invite?

 

Why aren't my squadmates automatically in the squad channel so I can chat with them?

 

Why hasn't this system been upgraded to the standard of the current millennium?

 

Why create an event that forces players to make use of this terrible system?

 

Final Thoughts

 

I have 48 points in this event. I want to give up but I will probably get two more points solo and really couldn't care at all about getting 100. After I grinded out a bunch of keys it was frustrating and took way too long to find an entire group that could even join my server. Then I had to play the game in a manner which I do not enjoy (rush like hell through a chaotic effect-filled mess) in missions that are far too easy and do not reward me for playing them.

 

Worse, I did this without my buddy that I normally game with. As dedicated as we are to gaming, trying to game within Warframe is often a hassle and trying to play this event is a frustrating disaster showcasing every poor design and incomplete system that the game has to offer.

 

TL;DR

 

- This event showcased all the elements of Warframe that need serious improvement. Why make an event that relies on all the incomplete systems?

 

- Alert system should be visible from anywhere in the solar system, like it used to be.

 

- Making keys by buying blueprints seems unnecessary.

 

- Corprus void missions are a huge let-down in terms of rewards given considering the effort needed to get there.

 

- Warframe has too many client / server issues. These are problems no other similar game has. What is Warframe doing differently and why can't it be fixed?

 

- Punishment for bringing a group smaller than the maximum is terrible design. Encouragement for bringing more players would have been okay.

 

- Why is the void off on some lonely invite-only island that forces groups to split up after each mission?

 

- The chat and invite system is terrible. Games I played in 1996 were better than this.

 

- As a player, I was frustrated and let down by this event. And I enjoyed all of the other events.

[Skepsis]

Warframe doesn't have servers. The Host is the person who starts up the lobby, I think this is their way of seeing which features work, what needs improvement, and what goes well for Warframe.

 

Please remember this is a beta :3

[Yanga]

They're working on other means of doing an event than just one... making Variety for later events. Best way to get feedback is by doing something people don't expect, let them work on it and see if it needs improving in case it is done in the future. However... saying the game is bad as a entity because of one event is going too far.

 

The reason on why more points for a group over a solo run is to get the community to work together to get it done faster. If it was able to be done solo and same progress as a group of 4, a lot more people would be soloing and it would just be a wasted effort for the event. Not really considered a Community Event/Operation if everyone is just soloing it like that Grineer Informer event. That one was just terrible because of the fact that everyone had to kill their own instead of being able to share it.

[Neruell]

You are not getting punished for bringing less than 4 players.

 

It all depends on how to look at it.

 

 

You can say        They encourage you to bring more than total of 1 player to earn more points per run.

 

 

What you said is also true, just rephrased.       They punish you with less points for less people in a group.

 

 

Proper definition or better, an alternative solution to this specific event would show what a "better" design would be.

 

 

 

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As for client / server issue. I barely see any of those. Since, as already stated, there is no "big giant server" somewhere but rather every person who starts a game is a server himself, it all depends on that specific person. For that being the case, I am even more impressed how well the game runs on different configurations.

 

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Void is invite only because there is no "place" like the void, There is no place where you click, like on any other planet to randomly join a mission. They could make it like when anyone starts a void mission, someone can also join when he/she starts the same map, but there are other problems. Who will be the host? Whose key will be consumed? and probably even more issues.

 

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The chat, invite problem is as far as I know a temporary problem till they implement the new UI across the whole system, and not only foundry because that system which we have right now is the same as at closed beta start almost a year ago. Definitely it will be fixed and changed.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Neruell

[EclipsedHusky]

Didn't read much besides the TLDR, but you also forgot to mention the "reward" we started with was well nothing honestly, a new place to grind out for new stuff. But that is content that would keep us around. So DE pretty much went. "Do my homework for me and I WON'T punch you"

 

Love you DE, but at the most exclusive mods, frames, and guns are what weekend rewards should be, and as Rebecca has stated Primer chamber will be a reward later. So leaving something like mods, guns, and frames as the only thing it would leave the person on a personal level to see if they care enough to bother. When I knew all we would be getting is something they should add in as a simple update. I figured why bother? This event is a grind, and I luckily have nice enough clanmates and friends that I generally mooched all my runs off them.

 

Also never use the void for these events with the whole host can only invite, split up after runs, only host can use keys. Fix the void set up before you use it this heavily again.

[MeanOgreGrr]

The point of my post wasn't to sound as if I dislike the game. It is feedback, not hatemail. I really like Warframe, which is why I spent a lot of time typing up this feedback. My level of frustration may have influenced my words.

 

As for other points:

 

I listed a great many games that have client / server setups. All of those work very well. I wish Warframe could figure out how they do it and also work well.

 

Requiring a full group with connection issues as they seem to be just doesn't seem good. It led to most of my frustrations.

 

I'm glad some folks have no connection issues at all. However all three of the people I personally know who have tried the game do have some sort of connection issues, either being the server or connecting to servers as a client. Sure, me and three people are a small group of the total players but from my perspective that is 100% of the people I know have problems. That's a lot.

 

As I said, punishment for not bringing a full team seems like poor design. Encouragement for bringing one is better. The solutions I offered are in my post above. They might not be great solutions, but they are there.

 

The worst part of the experience, as seen in the feedback, is the chat and group invite system. I may have sounded overly harsh, but sorry that's how I feel. Back in the day Gamespy let me connect to more games easier than Warframe does.

 

A solution to void missions you say? Include them as regular missions within the standard mission interface. You can click to join a mission or chose to use a key to begin a mission. If you used a key you will invite, on a first come first serve basis, the people who clicked the mission without using a key. No chat / invite systems needed. Matchmaking as good as the rest of the game.

 

Currently the recruitment channel gets spammed and the players who spam the most, or have the simplest usernames to type /invite for, are the ones who get chosen first.