Warframe needs a starter zone/clan/dojo

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

We all know that getting into the game can be daunting. A lot of the time new players don't even know what they need to do to find the information they need. A lot of us are willing to help if they ask for it, but even that is unusual for a lot of new players. 

On another thread (PS4)Hiero_Glyph made a suggestion that I think would help an enormous amount: have a starter clan for everyone MR 1-5. We might not agree on everything but this is an idea that I can immediately and unreservedly throw support behind.

I believe that using the existing dojo system, newer players can learn about the game together, and it would provide a concentrated space for teaching about the game. 

 

There can be rooms laid out like a museum, with each room devoted to specific learning objectives. One hall can teach about enemy types and their specific weaknesses. Another might be  devoted to weapon types and mention that mods can vastly increase damage. Another might be devoted to the types of drops teaching that some are common, others rare and some only found on specific planets. One room can explain mission types. Another can give the basics of hacking and ciphers. One can be devoted specially to syndicates and services found in the relays. The little information panels can explain the basics and refer players to the codex in their orbiters for more information. There can be ones entirely dedicated to teaching new players about using abilities, (which would save me from having to repeatedly tell them "dude, just swipe up, down, left or right every once in a while" or having to explain "no Inaros's 4th ability rocks, you just have to charge it by holding shoulder button and pressing triangle then release it with the swipe"). And possibly most importantly there can be a room devoted to fashion frame. 

The dojo can have a market panel that educates players about the panel in the ship, perhaps this one will only sell the starter weapons that are purchasable with credits but direct players to check the orbiter for more variety. (Dress a stationary npc vendor up as a vendor/the market panel and you won't have to mess about with code for the actual panels.) 

It gives new players earlier access to the guides of the lotus. Let's face it, most of us probably never encountered them, maybe didn't even know that they existed before we found that we don't really need them. Put them where they'll be able to do the most good, with the newest players. 

Maybe it can be hybrid between dojos and a relay with multiple instances to teach that busy and calm are in game concepts and that if your friend is in one instance and you're in another you won't find them. Maybe to find the guides of the lotus you need to be in instance number 1 (or number 10 because the lower numbers tend to fill faster). 

It will be a place to find other newer players so that you aren't totally overwhelmed by the higher ranked players... Like those "godly MR8 or MR9 players", with the superamazingcool weapons and abilities. 

Higher MR players can have limited access if they already belong to a clan and are trying to help/recruit players into their clans. 

A lot of the work with setting up/decorating the rooms can be offloaded onto the excellent decorators whose work we see featured so often in DE's twitch streams. Give them/the clans credit on the room panels and then new players have an idea of whose dojos will look amazing. Perhaps give them a fraction of the resources they end up using as a reward for their hard work, so they can make their clan dojos look even more amazing. 

Obstacle courses can help to reinforce the basics of movement/attacks. We've all seen players who don't know how to bullet jump, or wall run, we've probably all heard new players express amazement at the fact that aiming while falling makes it last longer. They don't have to be super challenging to be educational for new players. Others could help teach about finishers, something that a lot of new players have to figure out in the heat of battle. 

 

LSG501 suggested that maybe DE can add a 'newbies are welcome at these clans' page with a 'click here to join' button to make things a little easier to find somewhere to go.

 

 

I think that's everything we mentioned. If anyone wants to add ideas, please do. 

Let's face it, most of the feedback on this forum is about stuff that's affecting higher ranked players. And that's fine, we're the ones who have invested time and money in this game. But take a glance at the stats on any system for the number of players who even stuck around long enough to master different weapons classes. The attrition is way too high. We see it all the time. Too many people are just overwhelmed by the complexity of the game and the lack of a better in-game tutorial for newer players. 

Anything that can help newer players should be encouraged. 

Edited August 19, 2018 by (PS4)guzmantt1977
Suggestion added

[Danjal777]

I would like for the Lotus to give them a special portal that leads to an area where all of these lessons are given in small tutorial mission that will give resources and a few slots for completing them.  Also they need to put all of the game's information inside the game, it seems sloppy to have to go to a wiki to find out how a power works.

[LSG501]

In all honesty not sure it's needed, yes newbies need some better guidance in game but most would be better served going to an established clan first due to research being done already etc. 

Maybe DE can add a 'newbies are welcome at these clans' page with a 'click here to join' button to make things a little easier to find somewhere to go.

[SnakeGoddess]

I really like this idea, even as an MR23 vet that enjoys helping new players firsthand. It can be difficult sometimes as a longtime player to help new people without steamrolling through content for them, and something like this could go a long way to teaching them how to become stronger on their own. I've never coded a video game myself, but this APPEARS like it wouldn't be too difficult or resource intensive to implement.

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

24 minutes ago, Danjal777 said:

I would like for the Lotus to give them a special portal that leads to an area where all of these lessons are given in small tutorial mission that will give resources and a few slots for completing them.  Also they need to put all of the game's information inside the game, it seems sloppy to have to go to a wiki to find out how a power works.

That first bit is mainly the basis of the idea. After the tutorial, you are made to go to the starter dojo. There you get tutorials, and you then go on your missions where you earn your resources, and by the time you get to MR 5 and move on you would have earned your slots. 

 

Regarding not needing the wiki, I think that might be a bit ambitious. Stuff is constantly changing in ways that even the devs might not be able to anticipate. 

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

7 minutes ago, LSG501 said:

In all honesty not sure it's needed, yes newbies need some better guidance in game but most would be better served going to an established clan first due to research being done already etc. 

Maybe DE can add a 'newbies are welcome at these clans' page with a 'click here to join' button to make things a little easier to find somewhere to go.

The intent isn't to replace the established clans, but to introduce new players to in game concepts like clans. 

The first clan I joined was a clan in name only. Even the leader hadn't made any contributions. None of us had any idea what we were doing, so I went out got the information and made my own. Other clans have demands on who can join, and MR5 would be a good place for people to be when starting to choose a clan. Nothing is stopping them from joining another clan, and that's why I suggested recruitment officer going to the dojo, and giving credit to the clans who were involved in the creation of the rooms. 

[LSG501]

26 minutes ago, (PS4)guzmantt1977 said:

The intent isn't to replace the established clans, but to introduce new players to in game concepts like clans.  

The first clan I joined was a clan in name only. Even the leader hadn't made any contributions. None of us had any idea what we were doing, so I went out got the information and made my own. Other clans have demands on who can join, and MR5 would be a good place for people to be when starting to choose a clan. Nothing is stopping them from joining another clan, and that's why I suggested recruitment officer going to the dojo, and giving credit to the clans who were involved in the creation of the rooms. 

Maybe it's because I'm on pc but I had none of the issues with finding a clan that you mention. 

I agree about better guidance in some areas although I have no idea how so many of us managed before without any (it was a lot worse than it is now) and I know I never felt like I needed any hand holding to work my way through the game....the game isn't exactly rocket science after all.

Either way my suggestion would solve the issue as the clans that would likely welcome newbies are most likely well established and as such would be able to help a newbie a lot quicker than a 'clan full of newbies' would unless DE spends (unnecessary) time making tutorials for things that can likely be answered a lot quicker by an experienced player.

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

5 minutes ago, LSG501 said:

I agree about better guidance in some areas although I have no idea how so many of us managed before without any (it was a lot worse than it is now) and I know I never felt like I needed any hand holding to work my way through the game....the game isn't exactly rocket science after all.

No it's not, but I know that I missed quite a few things that only became apparent in some of mastery rank tests. Conversely I've had to point out to people things that I picked up on and they missed. And like I said, check the stats on player achievements; a lot of people didn't manage to make it very far. 

 

10 minutes ago, LSG501 said:

Either way my suggestion would solve the issue as the clans that would likely welcome newbies are most likely well established and as such would be able to help a newbie a lot quicker than a 'clan full of newbies' would unless DE spends (unnecessary) time making tutorials for things that can likely be answered a lot quicker by an experienced player.

 

1 hour ago, (PS4)guzmantt1977 said:

 

A lot of the work with setting up/decorating the rooms can be offloaded onto the excellent decorators whose work we see featured so often in DE's twitch streams. Give them/the clans credit on the room panels and then new players have an idea of whose dojos will look amazing. Perhaps give them a fraction of the resources they end up using as a reward for their hard work, so they can make their clan dojos look even more amazing. 

A lot of the tutorials can be offloaded to players who already excel at those skills, and by giving them credit we can steer the newbies to great, active clans. 

 

I will add in the explicit point of encouraging them to join the established clans above. 

[LSG501]

33 minutes ago, (PS4)guzmantt1977 said:

A lot of the tutorials can be offloaded to players who already excel at those skills, and by giving them credit we can steer the newbies to great, active clans.  

Decorating your own clan to the extreme some do (pretty pointless for me personally but each to their own) is a little different to doing a tutorial especially if it needs to be 'interactive'...  if it's just a text based one they might as well just add a link to the wiki on one of the consoles on the ship.

[(PSN)slauter24]

Or you could just read the codex as a new player litterally everything is there that you need to know.

[-.SP.-G43riel]

1 hour ago, LSG501 said:

Decorating your own clan to the extreme some do (pretty pointless for me personally but each to their own)

when you have everything ingame, and most of you clan mates also are 23-24-25 that dont need help, the only thing left is decoration and reading forums 
#endgame

Edited August 19, 2018 by -.SP.-G43riel

[(PSN)Hiero_Glyph]

Please keep in mind that this is not something intended for active players that are already in a clan. This is content intended to instruct new players about the freeform structure of Warframe.

__________

We all know that Rebecca loves seeing what clans are doing with their dojos. This would be DE's introduction to Warframe designed explicitly for new players. This is where space mom takes the recently found Tenno and gives them shelter while they figure out what to do within the Warframe universe.

The intent is to bridge the gap between Vor's Prize and the star chart. In fact, new players should be prompted to visit the Lotus' dojo upon returning to the orbiter for the first time. As guzmantt1977 noted, new players would be placed into specific instances as a part of the tutorial experience as this would encourage the social aspect of Warframe that is so critical for nearly all content in the game. This would also give the Guides of the Lotus a more direct manner to find and assist new players as the relay is far too crowded and big to achieve this.

Furthermore, the Lotus' dojo would contain specific things designed to teach new players about important content. There could be a vendor that supplies Mk-1 weapons and teaches you about the market segment on your orbiter. There could be syndicate reps guiding you to the relay. There could even be special tutorial rooms allowing players to configure their settings and teaching them the basics of combat and parkour in a controlled setting.

Of course the Codex is there to serve as a refresher of this content but the Lotus' dojo is the introduction or safe haven where players can practice what they have learned. It would become an ever evolving tutorial that DE could refresh as new content or changes are introduced. In the end, the Lotus' dojo would be the best tutorial for Warframe as it is what the game is: a community of players helping each other decipher the complexities of Warframe. Well, it's either this or just go read the wiki.

Edited August 20, 2018 by (PS4)Hiero_Glyph

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

17 hours ago, (PS4)Hiero_Glyph said:

Please keep in mind that this is not something intended for active players that are already in a clan. This is content intended to instruct new players about the freeform structure of Warframe.

=========snip=========

The intent is to bridge the gap between Vor's Prize and the star chart. In fact, new players should be prompted to visit the Lotus' dojo upon returning to the orbiter for the first time. As guzmantt1977 noted, new players would be placed into specific instances as a part of the tutorial experience as this would encourage the social aspect of Warframe that is so critical for nearly all content in the game. 

I just want to put some perspective on the sort of numbers we are dealing with. 

A little more than half of the accounts made on steam find one mod, begin ranking up a weapon and frame by levelling up to the second level with them. 

Only about 1/3 of the accounts stick around long enough to find 20 mods, or apply 4 different mods to a frame or weapon. That's a huge drop, very early in the game. 

Only about a quarter of the accounts,  manage to stick with the game for a cumulative 10 hours or, to find 100 mods. 

Our of all the accounts, only one in five will be able to get the first sentinel. At this point we've lost more than half (roughly 60%) of the people who managed to get past the tutorial. Only 1 out of 8 managed to find 1000 mods and we've lost 75% of the people who actually started the game and they would be still be facing a huge learning curve. 

No, many of us here didn't need the extra support. Many of us joined or created clans of our own without having anyone holding our hand. Many of us have fully unlocked our first focus tree, and many of us did it the hard way. 

We're less than a single percent of the people who started the game. 

 

Anything that can help to ease them into the game, that can smooth the passage to the point where they can understand the game enough to know what questions they need to ask, is going to be a good thing. 

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

15 hours ago, Worbane said:

From a guy who is usually pretty good at catching on and mastering games and does not mind a grindy or even repetitive game. Here's a newbies (just got MR4, still in Excal with 2 sets of weapons at 30) perspective for you...

I've played a good weeks worth pretty heavily each day and I still have absolutely no idea WTF the point is. I have accumulated a bunch of bits and pieces of gear and blueprints but still can not do anything useful with any of it. I'm always missing this or that part that I have no idea where it comes from. I made a heat sword and it is worse than my starter Bo, so WTF was the point? Every time I think I have found something I should be working toward, I run into a dead end/road block..."you need mastery rank x", "you must complete quest line x". So for 6 days out of my week playing, I am just running the same low level missions on the same 3 or 4 planets over and over and over....

I have level 30 Excal and weapons but if I try to run anything solo over level 12-14 I get slaughtered. Usually I don't even know what killed me, I see a blue ring (or fire or whatever) pulsing out from something around the corner I can't even see and it knocks me down or up in the air over and over, and then I am dead with no visible baddies anywhere near me. So I go for a group. If I wait for players none ever show up and if they do, they are high levels who kill everything before I can even get close enough to see them, or they run past them and leave them all to repeat what I described above. Either way, it f#$%ing sucks. Either I run mind numbingly boring level 3-8 crap for no apparent reason, or solo and die without a chance to even control my frame, or group with the big boys and don't even get to participate.

I loved the gameplay for the first 2 or 3 planets but then...I see no point to continue. I'm sure I am doing something completely wrong, but if there is no way to learn that without spending my gametime reading some wiki and taking notes...yeah, not my kind of game. It is no fun being knocked around until dead with no control of my character and no chance at all to fight back, and it's no fun to run behind a higher level guy clinging to his coat tails to survive. So that just leaves rerunning the pointless, too low level stuff over and over, and that got boring on day two.

This is exactly the issue that we hope the starter clan/dojo can help with. A lot of these issues stem from not knowing enough about the game. 

In the case of your weapon being weaker, there are probably a few issues at play: first the enemies on the planets are different, they are weak against specific damage types and you do better if you mod the weapon to suit your needs; second the modding itself is something that you will need to learn to do, some mods affect specific stats and others combine to give new damage types that might be useful; third any new weapon needs to be ranked up in order to fit more mods, as you level up your Mastery Rank this process will get a lot faster, just keep upgrading it in the arsenal after each mission to be sure that it's the best you can do at the time; fourth some weapons are just not going to be as good for your play style; fifth as a newer player you will have a limited selection of mods to work with, as you go further you get more stuff so you can use better combinations on the weapons. 

Regarding the higher ranked players leaving you in the dust, again it is a case of you needing more experience handling your frames. If you can bullet jump,  and aim glide you should be able to stick with most of them so you should probably try and learn how to do that. It'll also help you to survive if you can rapidly exit the thick of battle and let your shields recharge. 

Regarding the odds and ends you've collected, I am willing to bet that includes parts dropped by the bosses. You can redo those missions to get the set, like Rhino parts and get the blueprint from the market in your orbiter. Rhino has an ability that will let you shrug off huge amounts of damage, so it will give you a better chance to learn what works. You should run that jackal mission until you have all three parts. 

Regarding the big boys killing everything, that's not as bad as it seems. Once you stick close, you will still gain experience from their hard work. If you can equip your sentinel with vacuum, you will be able to get a lot of resources and even some mods that help you to progress even faster. You kill what you can, and if you drop and someone is nearby they'll usually revive you before you actually die. 

Regarding the blue or orange rings you see, a lot of the time those are shockwaves try to hop over them or otherwise avoid, and they're not as much of an issue anymore. 

 

Good luck, Tenno.