Warframe | Why Do New Players REALLY Quit?

Warframe is a pretty impressive game, especially so on the grounds that it's free, but despite seemingly everyone knowing about it few people seem to stick it out. Today, we're gonna explore a couple of major pain points that drive noobs away, as well as a few extra gripes I have that could be changed to smooth out the new player experience.
Discord: / discord
Funny art goat: / @ringaroundmereal
Devshort: kzbin.infocmcijhIZ...
CHAPTERS
Intro: 0:00
Crafting Times: 2:40
A Hypothetical: 5:00
Slot Limitations: 6:09
Time Investment: 7:57
How Do We Fix It?: 8:56
Slots As A System: 11:39
Minor Grievances: 12:52
Outro: 15:54
MUSIC:
Fleet Editor - Nebulous: Fleet Command
Corpus Ship Ambience - Warframe
Galaxy Map - Mass Effect 3
The Plains of Eidolon - Warframe
Enceladus Prime - Delta V: Rings of Saturn
secret description video: • Not a single thought l...

[@CoolKid369]

Quick note: on the topic of good things they added for new players, the Dreamer's Bond aura helps to address the issue of early game energy and health generation and also gives players a free +14 capacity because it can be slotted into any aura polarity. HUGE addition that, while not helpful at my point in the game, really does make the experience of actually playing the game much better early on. Auto-install has also been updated in the past, and new players do receive plenty of mods from both Vor's Prize and Junctions, but my point still stands regarding both. Auto-install is an option that encourages laziness instead of learning the system and often throws whatever it can at the wall to fill out capacity. The starter mods are a step in the right direction, but if they were implemented as a tutorial that would be ideal.

[@Arassar]

I had Oberon as my most-played frame for A LONG TIME because he could heal himself. That's how important it is that newbies have some way to heal themselves at least a LITTLE BIT.

[@br0sine]

As a veteran player since 2016, I agree with EVERY point you bring up. GOD DAMMIT FIX UR GAME, DE (My brother studied the whole wiki and taught me everything, you cant imagine how THANKFUL I am that he is such a nerd

[@dankmemes8254]

Auto install is the worst thing you can do

[@jasonrouse8215]

Auto Install needs to either be removed or reworked as the modding tutorial... or it needs to have "presets". Realistically, remove it and put the modding tutorial in its place. New players also need a good hacking tutorial, Corpus, Grineer and Narmer consoles each function differently, and it's not always easy to pick up. The lack of slots sucks... like in really sucks. That's the #1 reason all my friends stopped playing. I've also been playing for a long ass time, back when you could still be a founder for Excal Prime (not that I became a founder). So I've been around for many changes... I still haven't completed my star chart, I'm still not Legend 1, and I still don't care enough to do them. Warframe's become the kind of game, where I'm afraid to fully invest, because then what? You can realistically grind EVERYTHING over a weekend, then wait 4 days to craft, just to level everything to max in under 10 minutes. MR cooldowns and Crafting times are just outright bullshit imo. There's a lot to be said, but it won't get addressed, because it's about billable "services", like rushing a craft. I get that DE has to make money, but I'd honestly like to see how much they've made from selling slots and rushing the foundry, compared to idk, forma bundles and deluxe skins.

[@br0sine]

@@jasonrouse8215 The worst thing is: For those litle Tenno that chose the Duviri Spiral gameplay: The Weapons they DONT own have auto-install on them 💀💀💀

[@NovaUmbral]

The fact that your first warframe and weapons do not have a catalyst built in even after 11 years is a crime.

[@samreddig8819]

Make a quest to get them and introduce the mechanic.

[@ChangedCauseYT-HateFoxNames]

​@@samreddig8819 I like your idea more, it would also give a more sentimental value to the catalyst to be used on frames desired. Let's say you have all three starter frames to play in a tutorial area. Then after a few basic task story proceeds as normal but the grinner attack and now you choose one of the three frames and this would give you a better grasp of what you're selecting. You're not selecting the prettiest character with the best flavor text, you're picking the key to open a playstyle to the player and later on the player is given a reactor to further their bond with it but to also grasp the difference between the frame before and after. Finally the quest should give one catalyst. By this point, the new player would have developed the general idea of the base weapon type they like such as melee, primary, etc and the catalyst is a sign of a commitment to that idea.

[@yahwehra1771]

​@@samreddig8819 that would most definitely help.

[@UnholyDrow]

@@samreddig8819 just say Ordis found a reactor and 3 catalysts in storage then instruct the player how to use them.

[@wigglerlesbian]

game should give you a forma pack and a potato for everything they give for free tbh

[@LenaTheDeer]

My boyfriend always thought it was a weird ass gatcha mobile game cus of the crafting times and able to skip the timer, which is sad cus I really wanted to introduce him to the game :(

[@se7enhaender]

So... he didn't believe you when you explained to him what was actually going on, or did you just not explain at all?

[@dinanga_revert]

get another boyfriend then 🙈

[@larrybyrd6596]

"weird ass GACHA mobile game" find a new boyfriend, he's gonna replace you with someone who cosplays genshin characters xd

[@jamesdempsey1330]

Relics are just small gacha banners that drop their roll tickets at barely tolerable rates. Like, I'm in the 2k hour crowd on this game - I know how to game that system and how to dial in the focus farming and trading for plat and all that. But it absolutely IS a gacha system, with pay to win for modding capacity. They just made it cheap enough and complex enough you'll get people debating it.

[@averitiamiku]

It's true and sad that's it's true

[@usdepartmentoftreasuryinte6052]

this just goes to show that reckless financial decisions improve one's enjoyment in a videogame

[@doorknocker8920]

I disagree on this one. There have been so many video games that I recklessly spent money on and within that same day. I just stopped playing that game forever.

[@gat4835]

I dont really care as long as newer player keep coming and atleast reach mr 11 or 12 because free platnium for us veteran players.loool

[@usdepartmentoftreasuryinte6052]

@@doorknocker8920 damn thats a good point, someone shouldve made a joke about it.

[@UnholyDrow]

I took my first large paycheck at 16 and threw it at this game to deal with slots. Haven’t complained since sooo…

[@insertname9736]

True. I'm ashamed I've spent a sh*tload of money on 4300 platinum bundles when they're 75% off. If I didn't bought plat to buy the primes and some good weapons and mods from the beginning, I wouldn't have continued to farm so much just to be able to finish the hundred-hours long "tutorial" (which barely even teaches you anything).

[@55bucky94]

Slots being a reward for junctions is a great idea and would push people to A get quests unlocked B get slots for the frame they just farmed for C mastery gain D give them a clear line of where to go even just 1 frame slot and 2 weapon slots would be great

[@Genashi1991]

This is a really good idea. Slot limit is definetly one of the first things I felt starting out. But I think it doesn't seem to go away even as I continue.

[@ryancampbell454]

yess help the new people

[@oilreg434]

Slots for unlocking Junctions is really a great idea

[@GregorEblan]

Gods, the slots issue is a huge one. I got a group of friends into the game since we were in the middle of a content drought for FFXIV and one of our four man team was legitimately about to quit because of slots, so my boyfriend and I bought him some weapon and frame slots, and now he's at Steel Path. If they just gave starting players more slots it would greatly increase retention on it's own.

[@KhronicD]

I think it's one of the main reasons they added slots to the nightwave. Originally I thought "eh, that's not that good" but considering how dear they are to truly free to play players, it's a huge reward.

[@Absalom3439]

@@KhronicD Yeah that does help, but not a lot imo, from a new player perspective, many nightwave missions will either just be inaccessible or intimidating. For example, killing 500 enemies, which sounds impossible as a new player on early planets killing a maximum of like 30 enemies per mission (exaggeration) yet you have to kill 500? Me personally i’m not new and I’m thinking not about whether i can do it and whether or not i want to hop in a survival and knock it out or just do something else… lol

[@ChristopherSadlowski]

​@@Absalom3439 It might help to show new players that you don't need to focus grind Nightwave. I pretty much ignore Nightwave and I still wind up leveling so high by the time it ends.

[@besabaftw]

6 warframe slots and 12 weapon slots should be the baseline

[@TyDreacon]

@@KhronicD Nightwave needs the new player guide treatment to work as an effective solution. Namely: 1. The game should push players toward Nightwave on their path so they know it's there, what it's for, and that it's important for them even early on-e.g., that it can give weapon and Warframe slots. For example, in early MRs, the "gib monie for slots pls" pop-up could be replaced, or appended, with a note saying, "try out the Nightwave to get more Warframe and/or weapon slots!" 2. Nightwave itself should de-emphasize (e.g. darken) acts that are way above the player's paygrade. Eidolon hunts, for example. As is, it can come across as a late-game feature, so new players may feel it isn't meant for them and miss out on the benefits they could reap. It also both A: helps them know what tasks to focus on and B: gives a little reassurance that, yes, even if it's 1,000 enemies, you _can_ totally do this task. It's tailored. Really, the "darken elements above the player's paygrade" could help _a ton_ in a number of areas. Mods, for example: focus on base damage and some elemental stuff, darken things like reload speed and mag size. You don't even need to change the behaviours-let new players mess around and install darkened mods however they like, or let them try for above-paygrade Nightwave tasks. All you do is just leverage the UI to tell them what they _should_ focus on. Same for nodes, if desired.

[@TheRealElieux]

One day my online friend, a guy I used to play Valorant with at that time, suggested we play something else - Warframe. I don't usually try new games, but somehow he convinced me, I installed it and went through the tutorial (awakening). We tried to squad up, but I had to go through Vor's price solo as well. At that time the guy had to go for the day. I kept progressing, but he didn't come the next day or the day after... As of today, we've never played or even talked since then, but I found a new passion and I've sunk thousands of hours in.

[@paininthebox1291]

wait- he suggested warframe and then suddenly just poofed??? or in a "not talking really until both stop" way

[@dankmemes8254]

The holy spirit made a valorant account to find redemption in warframe

[@lorenmax2.013]

I haven't cried this much since Marley&Me

[@ShadowEclipse777]

He saved you from the evils of Valorant and then dipped having accomplished his goal

[@SainKail]

It's like your friend is passing you the flame that all Warframe players have passed on to others, it's always been that way when it comes to Warframe, and I did the same as your friend once

[@mrs_Robbinson]

Its always confused me that new players only have two warframe slots. Its such an archaic thing to have in this constantly updated and improved game.

[@mauz791]

Agreed. Waiting three and a half days for a frame and knowing you have to sacrifice your starter or Rhino was a terrible choice to make

[@insertname9736]

Facts! I think Warframe slots should be free. Maybe weapon slots, too.

[@straivalist8281]

@@insertname9736I disagree, I kind of like the grind of getting a slot and then having a dedicated frame for it, it’s incredibly annoying don’t get me wrong but people tend to forget trading is a BIG part of this game. You are not making it far if you don’t trade, once you do get into trading, slots are like candy, super easy to get and it’s not really a hassle. I wish they would increase the starter slots to like 4-5 though, 2 is incredibly piss poor and some new players wouldn’t know that you could get more slots relatively easily. Other than that locking slots behind plat is fine cause it is very easy to get plat in this game from just spamming relics.

[@Syrenos183]

@@straivalist8281 It's not as if there isn't already hundreds of other things to be trading for though, be it cosmetic or actual equipment. If slots were changed to either not being needed at all, or more readily available, then people would still be trading plat for lower cost things like potatoes or formas. Difference being that one would be able to do that more comfortably w/o having the constant nagging feeling that they may need more slots instead of actually engaging with the fun parts of the game, being fashion and builds.

[@muzi69]

@@straivalist8281trading sucks for console

[@liltopato]

why is auto-installing ayatan stars only unlocked at mr10

[@CoolKid369]

and yet helminth is MR 8 💀

[@RickySama240]

I didnt even know that was a thing lolz

[@KhronicD]

I have no idea why that's even locked at all. It should be a default thing. Are they scared people will hit the button and it not work because they don't have enough stars? What's the actual logic behind it?

[@thedogefox8939]

If I had to guess, they somehow made ayatan stars use too much user data space, so spamming the auto fill is limited to higher MR so it doesnt get abused? Many of the game's problems come from not letting players do things bcuz of data on their end.

[@darkmega97]

That's a thing?!

[@RingAroundMeReal]

i think another part of what stopped me from staying with the game had to be its lack of communication, most of the level scaling happens through mods that while you know you have to grind for, yet have no where in the game that would tell you where to aquire mods for what you have. leading to what feels like the ai constantly over powering you with no way to know how to improve other than google what mods you have access to thatmay even the playing field. like even with 200+ hours in the game i feel i struggle at enemies who are level 30-40 sometimes and it can get frustrating having to deal with them when i either dont know where to get the mods to improve my gameplay, or if i know where the mod is its locked behind somethign i havent unlocked yet or enemiues to high level for me to handle. also the second dream being where the story begins is kind of jaring as if it was earilier it would have felt like "oh this has always been a part of teh game" but it coming from no where makes it feel like "oh this feels sudden where did this come from?" which i think was part of why they made duviri a startign option as it gives players a glimpse of the story to let you know somethign is there oh wait this was supposed to be funny um- what the sigma???

[@Guagaboodle]

They should recommend the warframe wiki ingame for info

[@nyxtheuber]

Daily Standing limits are a HUGE problem for early game and endgame. They desperately need to either increase or straight up remove the limit. My biggest suggestion they should do is make Bounties not count towards the daily limit so that new players can grind free roams optimally and not worry about if the limit will make their effort meaningless.

[@straivalist8281]

I think they set the daily limit to make players focus on their MR rank more, but the amount you gain per rank should be drastically increased instead of minimal cap increase

[@chriwehl7173]

They DID already change how it works. Used to be way worse. But I totally agree.

[@fran13r]

remove standing limits and prices will go down in the plat market by a ton, essentially removing 1 big source of easy revenue for f2p players terrible idea imo

[@quenquent95]

I started playing Warframe around when Plains of Eidolons got released. I was playing many random free games mostly to kill time and to "challenge myself" trying to get the most out of free games without spending a single cent. I did not particularly care about crafting times as many, many other free games had crafting/waiting times. While I was crafting Rhino, not sure which, I was playing another free game until it asked me to wait in turn. What made me quit Warframe for the first time was the limited slots. I really felt like it was just another free game that wanted to make me pay for what I earned. I quit playing even before doing Natah. Honestly, I was so used to predatory free games that I did not even spend Endo on mods as I thought it would be another premium currency. Hell, I didn't even open the market for weapon/warframe blueprints because I thought it was yet another predatory system (I only leveled market weapons when I reached around MR 20). The reasons I came back was because a friend that was playing Warframe told me it was really, really good and to give it a chance. Honestly, for a free game, the gameplay is more than solid. I spent around 20€ buying my first plat on sale and now I don't regret it, but when I paid back then I was legit PISSED. I did not keep most of the weapons I leveled to max level because I sold them all for inventory space. Only weapons I kept were primes and "non-standard" ones like vandal/wraith/prisma weapons. I got so traumatized by limited slots that I STILL only bother with more slots and investing in weapons that are not "standard". I'm sure some will say you can trade prime parts for easy plat for slots, but honestly you can't ask new players to do that: - New players don't even know the price of prime parts, and no one should have to go through community sites to not get scammed. - When a new player got a prime part, they want to use it for themselves. It feels like the efforts I did to get a new weapons are thrown in the gutter because I have to trade it to someone else to get plat.

[@xSoulhunterDKx]

an option to hide mastered weapons in the arsenal would be also cool. So that you see directly what you still have to max out for mastery

[@maszkalman3676]

That's when i stopped that shit... for you to do just to continue the game have to please a bunch of peasants and now you have to do that on 3 fknig planets and they aren't optional....

[@xSoulhunterDKx]

@@maszkalman3676 so basically each Game with Progression. Most RPGs too btw

[@maszkalman3676]

@@xSoulhunterDKx No not at all you are likely a young person or a blind person even todays shłtty pay to win online rpg-s give you some slots and/or real mnoey gems to upgrade your gear or a random box after a few level Warframe isn't even doing that warfame is objectively give you less than a pay to win mmorpg...

[@xSoulhunterDKx]

@@maszkalman3676 😂🤦‍♂️

[@ThunderChoco]

The main problems all my friends had was slots costing platinum, the market not showing blueprints so they all thought it was pay to win, and veterans nuking the room for them making them basically just not play the game

[@coletonbaker4064]

A potential quit point I think is actually the multi player openness. Sure you can select to multi play or go solo and friend and invite exclusive. But the problem is getting into a game with all these vets and try hards. In early game you want to explore and expand your knowledge experience and a squad helps you stay alive, but getting an experienced player tends to cause mission completion too quickly leading to noob learning and not getting a chance to do and learn how to play

[@CoolKid369]

Public lobbies do honestly make you feel powerless, I've always been more of a solo player so I didn't experience this much but as people have pointed it out I think it's a very valid angle.

[@joblesschris1400]

Das why i have an entire loadout and use my very friendly looking noob Excalibur umbra (pretty decent mods), with normal skin, no attachments no colors, just plain exalibur, and some prime versions of the tutorial weapons, i just follow behind new players just guiding them on what to do.

[@Edanite]

Crafting time, slot gates, and the story from events that introduced bosses to planets not being worked into the planet progression are the 3 things I feel working on would help. A lot.

[@drakefang8368]

This is an old discussion that has been 'brushed aside' due to dev time and priorities. Someone more than half a decade ago insisted that DE incorporate past events as a lore dump mechanic even without the rewards. Others suggested to bring it into rotations like the Balor Formorian we have now. But yeah, crafting times and slot gates aren't even a coding issue.

[@Thegamefinder5]

It's actually amazingly sad how the only villan we got early game is vor and we kill him relatively fast. All the other bosses just feel like they're....there. Stalker just exists with no context. Later on you get a real main villan ill just call blue man and al that's great to actually play. The fact the story is so optional is a big point of contention, esp back when you couldnt tell what was a main quest and what was a side quest. Going through the star chart feels like your doing it...just because.

[@drakefang8368]

@@Thegamefinder5 Having played through closed beta and pre-official release, this pretty much sums up the core of the game. It's a 3rd person sandbox 'hero shooter' with comical villains as a 'drop table', that's it. Tbf Warframe was a 6 month rush job last ditch effort to save an indie studio from disbanding. If those 2000 noble founders didn't buy into this game, it'll be a very different time line rn but i digress. Tangent aside a lot of players were just expecting a very niche pve-coop-"Overwatch" with no real story progression. It's the reason why old players were of the 'endless survival/endurance' type because they were expecting it to be just that really--a sandbox genocide simulator.

[@Thegamefinder5]

@@drakefang8368 You say that and what I mainly remember, at least how they tried to advertise it, is ninjas in space. It kinda was for a while but just convered into defense and survival and the amolgimation of negetive damage and nuking we have now.

[@knicklichtjedi]

1. Build times. Over the last two months, we could watch LegendaryDrops' new player experience. And he said roughly this to crafting timers: At first I hated them. I did not understand them. But as I progressed and pushed on, the foundry filled up and I had something to claim every day. This really proves your point: Getting variety more early increases the fun people have. Which means faster build times are likely good for the players as a whole. 2. Slots. Personally, I would love to have this removed even more than I want build times removed. I can swallow the bitter pill of waiting, but paying for my farmed new toy is... weird. Maybe make it so that I can have one thing of everything, but if I want a duplicate, like e.g. another Dante, I need to buy a slot. Then slots could also be rarer and more expensive, and I would consider it.

[@pcdeltalink036]

The only odd thing here is your comment about Dante. Outside of feeding a frame to Helminth I know of no reason to EVER own a second copy of a frame.

[@zockingtroller7788]

​@@pcdeltalink036 there is a reason but it doesn't apply to the average player admittedly. Sometimes two builds for the same frame require completely different forma allocations in order for the mod capacity to just barely suffice. But as I said this hardly applies to the average player so you're mostly right

[@pcdeltalink036]

@@zockingtroller7788 Hmm I hadn't thought of that. Good point. You're correct that would be an acceptable reason. However you're also right saying that it doesn't apply to probably 99% of the players.

[@Thegamefinder5]

@@pcdeltalink036 Yeah can only see forma allocations and wacky archon shard set ups esp if they keep adding on to that.

[@MuchVery]

You've hit the nail on the head. Things like Slots (and even Orokin Catalysts/Reactors) are money-makers that DE only needed when Warframe was in its VERY early days. It's only function today is inconveniencing veterans and warding off new players.

[@straivalist8281]

I agree with this but they will never remove slots because of the investment people already put into it. As you said it’s only an inconvenience for us but for newer players they get scared thinking they need to pay for them and some might actually do exactly that. I doubt DE would ever do this because all business priorities money but it would be nice if they left a notice or message for platinum stating it can also be acquired through trading so that newer players who are fully invested don’t make an accidental purchase of buying plat and wasting it on slots thinking it’s the only way to get them

[@goshdarnchicken]

​​@@straivalist8281that's a good point. Every time they make something easier for new players there seems to be some small minority of people who are pissed off for some BS reason or another. While I definitely don't think it's a valid excuse to completely ignore the issue, I can't imagine the hell some mfs would raise because the noobs don't have to spend money for loadout slots anymore.

[@SoftNapkins]

But Cooblekid, I think you're unaware (I mean how could you know) that within a dev short, they actually address this very issue! I understand not everybody has the attention span to sit through a 15 minute video, but it's okay, I got you!

[@hafbaik3472]

I wish my boyfriend stuck with Warframe, busted my butt to farm him some primes and slots for him just for him to get back into destiny 2 (still love him tho 😊)

[@NotTheDAHASAG]

Warframe quit moment: slots and craft times Relationship quit moment: SO quit warframe

[@Raikeran]

😭😭😭

[@gunnyisgoodboi4846]

As a warframe player your legally obligated to kill him or something (force him to play a good game)

[@vahnayasaki6989]

​@@gunnyisgoodboi4846 then quitting warframe was the move for him

[@mauz791]

Destiny 2? Yikes

[@victorfromm9355]

Ive been playing for 5 years, just realized i need to remaster 20 to 30 weapons i didnt fully rank when i was new...

[@KhronicD]

I was 4 years in before I mastered half the rk1 weapons you can just buy fully built for credits. :P

[@victorfromm9355]

@@KhronicD I got all of em done, it's all the low rank crafted ones

[@lavaeater5]

I personally quit warframe a month after starting back in I think 2014. I saw the limited slots and seeing that the only way to get more was to get the premium currency (i was a very recent high school grad/college freshman at the time so expendible income was nonexsistant) I got pissed and quit. Ironically it wasnt until I watched a hate video about Warframe that I learned that platinum could be obtained via in game trading that I came back. DE DESPERATELY needs to revamp most if not all of the early on boarding process so that players know what is on offer.

[@Andromeda....]

I love that a hate video brought you back

[@YoureMadBozo71]

exactly what Ive been saying for a good while, they need to overhaul the beginning part/arc of the game. Too confusing and too many things thrown at you with little to no explanation. Everytime I try to introduce the game to my friends a lot of em dont play unless im playing since im the only person who can explain what does what, why it does that, where to go for so and so things/objectives, etc. Basically sht that should be explained without me having to tell em, since it should be the basics

[@nathanhendrickson790]

Honestly if they must keep knightwave I wouldn’t mind if they took out the nightwave market and creds and replaced it with a few platinum, maybe by nightwave level 30 you’ll have 100 platinum every single nightwave rotation sure trading will still be more optimal but this gives players who don’t like trading a way to get platinum

[@straivalist8281]

They keep it like that to bait new players into spending plat for slots when it could be earned very easily for free. I bet some new players probably bought some plat for slots because of DE business practices like this. It’s honestly really shit of them to do but they gotta gain money somehow I guess even if it’s buy gaslighting newer players into buying plat

[@rossjones8656]

​@@nathanhendrickson790 it's basically a battle pass and those are good ways to get premium currency so why not. Warframe always felt like game to which you don't need money but I spent money on the game so I guess I shouldn't talk but still.

[@aaAgent86]

I think the most realistic way for DE to address crafting time problems is to simply make crafting times scale based on how "late-game" they consider a weapon to be. It would not surprise me if they would want to keep primed weapons/warframes at the current timers, since they usually are harder to get for new players and have higher MR requirements but there's no reason why they can't reduce all the basic market/dojo weapons and frames to 30-120 minute craft times across the board to help drive home the fact that they are meant for earlier-game players.

[@KhronicD]

They should do a complete MR requirement balancing pass for all gear, and then apply a scaling crafting time based on the MR requirement. That'd honestly be the easiest way to do it. MR 1 req, make it 30 mins. Scale it from there. I personally don't think the long crafting times are that big of a deal, but I do agree that it is counter intuitive for a game that you want people to play a lot.

[@aaAgent86]

@@KhronicD I totally agree. They've done tons of balance changes over the years and rarely do they adjust MR requirements along with it.

[@DonutSwordsman]

Slots should be cheaper or more, and players need to realize they have a flow of unlocking by doing stuff while things cook

[@ShadowEclipse777]

Yeah once you get things crafting while others complete, it starts to flow a lot better. Also nice you can craft things even if you don't have the slots and just claim them later (I have like 40+ weapons built and ready to claim lol)

[@straivalist8281]

I think slots are fine ngl, just wish they would increase the starter slots a new player has cause 2 is actually crazy. Like you said, once you get into the “flow” of crafting and trading, you never have an issue of running out of stuff to sell for plat. Once you built a momentum, it’s super easy to get slots

[@chipslight738]

I think nothing is more telling about the crafting timer than me crafting 30+ Formas over an actual month because a Forma takes 23 hours to craft. Everytime I went to bed I brought up the app, claimed my Forma and started crafting another

[@maszkalman3676]

Yeah formas are aother shit and now you need different formas for everything back then was only one for exilus and stance or aura now everything needs a specific one and a weapon needs at elast 5 to be actually useable... msot mods was nerfed to shit..... i came back from a hiatus since 2018 when my broken war deleted the max level sortie enemy when i coem bakc i needed to peel a level 50 grineer and hit like 10-12 times just to kill it now like 4 weapons viable if you don't like them tough shit.....don't liek priming weapnos you won't kill high level enemies

[@Sawdust_Soup]

This guy's video rants really remind me of CoolKid

[@deeras2183]

This video is a banger. I would mention the fact that new players also don't get like a story-based motivation to keep going. There's a whole lot of nothing between starting the game/completing Duviri, and The Second Dream, so there's little motivation to keep going. But I loved this video, it was clear and concise, keep it up!

[@KhronicD]

I honestly don't think they have a valid path to make the story progression any better than it already is. The content has always been pretty disjointed, and they really have done a lot to make progression smoother, but I think they've dev'd themselves into a bit of a corner storywise. The star chart is kind of obvious progression, but most of the quests are just kind of all over the place. They'd have to do some kind of massive overhaul of the entire quest system and add more content to tie the individual quests together. Which might not even be better than it is now.

[@gamrage]

For me, Necramechs became a wall for me. I don't mind grinding for materials, but for some reason, the Necramech grind seemed daunting.

[@pcdeltalink036]

I hate the necramech grind. Have to kill these absurdly tanky enemies on this one specific mission for a chance of maybe getting the part you need. It was terrible. Only worse grind so far was Equinox having something like 7 or 8 different pieces to get from Tyl Regor. And no, I never did get the last piece and ended up buying her for plat after something like 50 runs on Tyl. I couldn't take it any more.

[@alexblackwood2316]

I finished the grind I kid you not less than 6 days before they did the most recent updates that made it so much easier. I spent over two months grinding a mech, and they release a bunch of things that would have cut that down by at least a month or more haha. I'm not too salty about it, thank GOODNESS it's changed, but man was the grind soul crushing when all I wanted to do was go past the third planet in railjack and maybe do The New War.

[@maszkalman3676]

Yeah i grinded for them like 2 weeks never got all the damaged parts so i bought one which is fknig expensive then i played the vomit inducing new war which soem apid shills/l@sers praise dto high heavens but ni reality it's 1 hours of good stuff 5 houres of runnig around school frame steath frame and you are locked out for mevery event until you finish it.....

[@RavenChromeLive]

You can buy all the damaged mech parts from vilcor now

[@genghisj1372]

bro, it was daunting for me too, and I've been playing since The Archwing. I had to do it before Vilcor sold damaged parts, and this made it take months to complete for me, even with me trading for necra parts. I got a lot of bad trades those days

[@Metaretru]

One most important thing that turn off new player is that Warframe is those type of game that "It will get better in xxxx hours" much like PoE or , hell, WoW. You need a dedication to get through the filters which is the grind/crafting to see the meat of the game. People see the crafting timer and think "Damn, 3 days crafting timer? What do i do now?" and log off, not returning and not knowing that you can play/grind other thing while the foundry are cooking.

[@straivalist8281]

Essentially it is just horrible at warning new players. What you stated is true and slots also scare new players into thinking they need to cough up cash for it without realising plat is super easy to get through trading. The wait time for crafting and the slots are the two main culprits driving new players away and it could simply be fixed by giving a notice box explaining that you can do other stuff while an item is crafting and that plat is easily obtainable through trading when hovering over any slots or items that require plat. That and just horrible tutorials cause they throw players into the game after the first “tutorial”

[@Gay4MapleSyrup]

For me, whenever I get someone into playing warframe I let them do stuff solo and then ask them if they like melee, guns, or casting abilities. When they get their starter frame to level 30 I then gift them a warframe that is based around the aspect of combat that they like. It usually gets more people to keep the game as a passive play at least

[@CoolKid369]

I've actually done something kind of similar where I gift friends the two starters they didn't pick so they both have more variety and can experiment with other play styles.

[@AndrewChicken]

Something important to remember is that the amount of default warframe & weapon slots hasn't changed in almost a DECADE. The game has grown its roster by literal MAGNITUDES since then, but the amount of slots has remained the same in all that time. 2 warframe slots might have worked when the warframe selection was closer to a dozen, but not now!

[@maszkalman3676]

Oh they would give you one slot if they could....

[@khaozcat]

warframe parts should NOT take 12 hours to craft. And if the crafting times are reduced, they should be like a few minutes at most, because my god is it annoying to wait for parts, then you are doing something else and not playing the game and the frame you want isnt even cooking in the foundry, effectively wasting time. I think just making frame components 1 minute and frames like 3 hours is fair enough. Weapons could take like 1-2h to craft aswell, so yeah you can still rush them if you're impatient but you at least get to try them out relatively soon.

[@SainKail]

trueeee

[@Blumiii]

I do think that waiting times should be reduced, but 3 hours for a frame is insanely excessive. Something like ~30 minutes to an hour for parts and a day or two for warframes would be much better imo.

[@zockingtroller7788]

I think we can all agree that the crafting time for forma is absolutely bs. Almost an entire day for an item you will likely use in seconds after getting it. And with the amount of forma needed today only being able to craft one at a time is absolutely trash. I'm my clans dojo builder and when I discovered that it takes almost the same time to make an entire massive room as what is likely a tiny puzzle piece I was absolutely livid

[@shauntempley9757]

At least you are not in STO. The crafting in that game is taking the warframe mods, and building them. They are called consoles. Each mod for ships takes as long as a warframe component to make. Then it takes farming to upgrade those mods to their maximum level, not play time. The one good aspect of that game, is that slot space increases with character level up, and character levels up with no tests. Players also have the option of buying more slots if they wish, and also a totally separate slot system for storing ships that players no longer want to use, called Dry Dock. The most egregious aspect of warframe, is the level up system. Doing a test to go up character wise feels wrong. It should go up no different than leveling up a warframe.

[@straivalist8281]

I kind of disagree to a certain extent, they should reduce times true but not to that crazy extent. Also this is technically a way of “time gating” players from progressing too quickly and finishing the game. 3 hours for a warframe to be built is absolutely crazy, at most it should take a day since realistically you are not getting a frame everyday during mid to late game so the time wait actually makes sense, though like I said, it should be 24 hrs, not 3 days

[@DogeZzzz]

The thing about Warframe is that it's a grind heavy game similar to RuneScape or Path of Exile Just recommending to your average Destiny or Borderlands player is not gonna work You HAVE to recommend the game to losers like us that are willing to play 25 hours a day to get one weapon that we will use once and never again (But damn it feels good finally having it)

[@clementfermn6711]

We're a small breed. Some of us want to reach out to our non insane friends and play with them.

[@lua8501]

as someone who tried to get their destiny friend into warframe, i know the struggle. gave them a spare prime wf i had, helped whenever they needed mats, answered any new player related questions they had, and nerfed myself so i wouldn’t sap all the fun by nuking tilesets. “i like the game but i don’t like the waiting, i want my *cool shiny thing* now” all i could do was shake my head and do my best boomer impression “this generation doesn’t want to work for anything, they want everything handed to them, so entitled.” not saying i regret doing it because i don’t, but i’d be lying if i said i wasn’t disappointed

[@PDVism]

euh.. I tried Borderlands... I like the humor but the grind in there is off the scale. Warframe is tame in compared to the endless mindless grind in there.

[@alexzanderellis4232]

these two issuse are the exact reason I quit after getting Rhino in 2016. I just came back in nov of 2023 and have thrown like 350ish hours in and have had a blast the whole time

[@se7enhaender]

They should hand out potatoes more or make them much cheaper to get in the Nightwave or something that makes them like 5 times easier to get. They have sooo much stuff now, and also so many other ways to further invest into your favorite items (forma, arcane slots, forma, exilus slots, forma, incarnon mutations), that the basic potato should be, well, basic. It once was that holy grail of power, but now it's just a basic necessity that you put in _before_ you make the decision to actually invest in the item. And keep in mind, as a new player, getting them from the Nightwave is A) very expensive, as you first have to go through the whole pass until you get credits regularly, and B) you want/need to buy the other things in the shop as well, such as aura mods, bps or even Nitain extract. And all that I've just said just gets amplified by adding more starter slots and so on.

[@ADunleavy]

The Auto-Install feature should be reworked to add options to focus on specific factions for weapons, and specific play styles for warframes.

[@shadamethyst1258]

Love the ΔV music, it's so relaxing ❤ And yeah, couldn't agree more. It hurts me every time I see half a buck going out just to be able to claim a weapon or a warframe, but I got past the initial hurdle because I was told not to use my plat on anything else

[@Benzinilinguine]

Genuinely the most important video about WF this year. I hope some DE higher-ups watch the whole thing and take notes.

[@Mr.Pidgeon]

Definitely agree, got more than 2500 hours myself, smart thinking with nightmare slots. I do think that at a couple of mastery ranks and/ or junctions that 1 or 2 of each should be given as no free slots is beyond infuriating, especially early on.

[@yehiaabuelnasr7243]

I think another big factor is grinding resources, there are so much different types, and with so much stuff to craft it becomes easy to run out very quick. And having to grind for them can sometimes take longer than the actual wait time to build warframes, especially for new players who don't know where to farm these resources, and if they do, they do it very inefficiently with most likely no booster. And having some of these resources locked behind high syndicate levels is so demotivating as they can take multiple weeks to get.

[@bluegem8582]

like, one thing i remember for a good while after getting back into was neurodes feeling constantly out of supply now i got like 200, and can feel comfortable with using

[@brandonuzumaki]

@@bluegem8582 Me with Orokin Cells, i somehow acquired 500 Neurodes in the last 4 months (seriously, i was crafting some random stuff when i noticed 500 Neurodes in there and i was like, WTF??), but i only have 50 Cells and a lot of prime stuff to craft, biggest problem are the weapons, 10-15 per weapon is "criminal" lol. But farming for that stuff is horrible, you need so much and you get what, 2-4 per mission (no boosters and stuff), and since i am tackling the endgame i have no time to farm it. But typing this comment made me realize something, the reason i have so much Neurodes is because end game activities still drops them (Zariman and Cavia Bounties, Netracells, Circuit, Archon Hunts, etc), while Orokin Cells are locked to certain Grineer star chart maps and that's it, DE needs to add Orokin Cells to the endgame lol.

[@ENDSURED]

I started my warframe journey alone, and I'm still playing it alone. Damn near all my friends have played warframe at one point with 1 of them saying they actually enjoyed it but due to the craft time and slot bs she quit.

[@peppersiegel7636]

As someone currently waiting for jade to craft, I couldn't agree more.

[@Glenjamin87]

Every time a new frame comes out, I’m excited then after 3.5 days of crafting I lose all hype. Happens every time. When I was a new player and I was constantly building new items it wasn’t an issue but I’m all caught up and it hurts my reasons to log in every day

[@user-jm8sy5ox2j]

It gets worse when you grind a frame, spend days waiting for it to craft while watching KZbin videos about how fun it is, then DE nerfs it into oblivion immediately after you unlock it. They do it quite regularly with new frames nowadays

[@WaframeKosen]

If I may, a few of my friends that tried warframe also quit for the simple reason that they don't get the LORE faster; so while they love the introduction, they still feel like many bits of the story aren't connected early on. What I always wish they could do is trying to get the little bits of story we DO get from previous operations to a short like missions or mini quests that aren't like 10 minutes max, giving them context as to why things happen. And MAYBE lock certain instances to story progression, like in jupiter, having the amalgamans so early confused those friends that DID stick it out. But TL;DR, Having a more constant narrative hook would also improve the Early game for new players.

[@jesmcdevlin3116]

As a founder i fully support this message. I had an easier time investing because i started so long ago, but having made alt accounts for training videos and guide writing, and having put dozens of friends through the start of the game, i can say that so much of what you say here should go directly to the devs. They are really shooting themselves in the foot with general audience appeal on these choices.

[@steamfang5371]

I have like ten people i've introduced to the game but most of the people in my friend circle are not shooter types. One of them found basic missions like exterminate overwhelming because they didn't understand the mission objective and hitting escape doesn't tell you what the mission is. Most of my friends didn't mind the crafting times but many were very easily overwhelmed by enemies and mission types because they want their hand holded which really bewildered me. I really think base slot count needs to be increased and crafting times decreased, there's just so much in this game and farming can be so easy but the slots are struggle for new players. It doesn't help that trading is kind of a nightmare. I've probably spent well over a thousand plat on slots for other people because they're such a problem and most of the people I know are not willing to no life this game unfortunately.

[@ayalabaleeiro8398]

Honestly the main reason why i hate inviting new players is the crazy amount of unlock for us to play together. Honestly you can just gift them stuff and trade mods, but the fact you gotta play a dumb boring story to do content is nuts.

[@skylarmccloud4080]

I've Been saying that About the build time for ever. It takes 23 hours for 1 forma. Sevagoth by himself requires 15.thats 15 day to plus the 3 to make hie and 12 hours for the crafting materials. 2 weeks and 4.5 daaays just for 1 wargrame. Theres still 5oo million weapons to go. They build time is insane

[@xcrimsonlegendx]

True story: I started when the game first dropped on Xbox. I was really excited to get my first Kubrow, that I just called a dog at the time. It took me days of grinding to get an egg due to bad RNG. Then by the time I got him into the incubator and realized it was like a 3 day timer to craft it, I literally uninstalled. Didn't play the game for YEARS. Finally met a friend who was a founder on PC, he got an Xbox and started over on console to play with me and I got hooked. We played for hundreds of hours before I decided to give it all up and restart on PC to play with him on his main account. If it weren't for him giving me a reason to give it another chance I would never have gotten into the game. Now I have over 10k hours on steam. Also, yeah I'd say the slots issue is a massive problem for sure, when I got my boyfriend to play with me I constantly showered him in slots to keep him from having to deal with that. I've got several family members I'd like to introduce to it but I know the lack of slots and the monetization of inventory space would be a major pain point so I just haven't tried to draw them in yet.

[@NW_Gamer_18]

Another way to bring new players into the game is Rent Warframes. I know this sounds stupid but hear me out on this one. Buying the Warframe is stupidly annoying as they are expensive as hell but if you at least get to any relay. You CAN rent Warframes for like 3 days to use them before they take it away from you. The cost would be 100,000 credits to rent them OR buy them for 5,000,000 credits to own the Warframe and a free slot. Yeah, Credits can be hard to get for new players but if they work hard enough. They could get the Warframe they want! Or if your in a faction like red veil for example, Harrow would be in a discount by 50% from 5,000,000 credits to 2,500,000 credits. But other factions that are against you have a 25% tax on a Warframe you probably want in the future. Sounds expensive but it could be a good mechanic that encourages players to grind credits on a Warframe they want when they have enough to either rent or buy the Warframe.

[@maszkalman3676]

No it's not stupid nfs world did that back in the day and you know how those cars will handle and you know wha to buy or work to get them...

[@mauriciogomes1091]

I almost stopped for the same reason

[@drakefang8368]

Back in 2013 during beta(who are we kidding we still in beta), I went into a half year hiatus after waiting for my Rhino and Excal to cook. Completely forgot about them that time coz, idk, between AC: Black Flag, GTA V, Metal Gear Rising, Tomb Raider, Fire Emblem and Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, time will wait for no one especially back then for a newly employed individual. DE seems to 'capitalize' on this weirdly coz Reb sometimes mention this issue in devstreams and tells the players to "Hey, play another game while crafting...". Well she got we she asked, a lot of players did and never returned, unfortunately.

[@Sicarius_Avindar]

This right here. I see all of this so often as part of the Warframe Giveaways community. I give away thousands of mods per year to new players, stuff they need but don't get. That's what I can do to help, aside advice and helping with some ingame activities. And over the past 6 years just in that community, the most frequent complaint/issue I see is always the same: Slots. Straight up half of the things new players ask for is Slots. And I'd love to hand them out, but I'm not made of money either, and I don't want to reward DE for making that so needed.

[@joaobelo1999]

The main problem with slot it that they have been the same since Warframe had like 10 frames, meaning that 2 slots were like 20% of own able frames. DE, has they usually do, just keeps adding to the game without taking a look at the base, they expanded the arsenal massively but never bothered/forgot to see that new players only have very limited slots. The game grew so much they forgot the early player (and the endgame one)

[@greathip6473]

I remember back when i first started and started leveling a heat dagger that i didn't really like using it, so i sold it before i fully mastered it so i could grab another weapon from the foundry. imagine my surprise when i get the blueprint for dual heat daggers where, hey... i kinda need that back now...

[@maszkalman3676]

Yeah another horseshłt ideas in this game to make a wepaon form another weapon soem not even in the same category i cna understand that you need 2 of the same for actual weapon but when for a tofa you need a rifle and a bo or for a sword and shield you need a knuckleduster is shorseshłt oh and my favourite is when you need who psitols to make another which isn't even a dual weapon and on eof those coem form dojo lab which you don't have acces to and another is crafted from a pistol that you only has a chance for the blueprints to drop and it's not even a good on e jsut an mr4 fodder....

[@snorpus]

I quit originally because I felt like this game was going in no direction at all. There was no story, and I felt like everything I was doing was working towards nothing when I came back a year later I apparently was two nodes away from "natah" once I played that, I have been hooked since

[@bluegem8582]

i remember being close, but, not getting any ocus to spawn for me in first few nodes, and not doing later nodes cause was on switch at time and said no one was doing them a few years later, and on pc now thanks to cross save, i finally get off ass and do them even without, and, been hooked hard since getting back into it

[@drakefang8368]

Goddamn. Finally. Had the same experience back in the HEIGHT OF THE PANDEMIC. You know, the horrible event where people got nothing better to do for months on end. Recruited 3 of my friends. They all liked it. After farming for a bunch of stuff and started crafting, that disgusting 12-72 hours of wait. Well what happened? We played another game in the mean time. Monster Hunter World. We totally forgot about the "Warframe Wait Game" and got so engrossed with another grindy game that LETS YOU PLAY WITH THE WEAPON IMMEDIATELY AFTER CRAFTING. Please be a big voice on this issue. PLEASE voice this out vehemently!

[@yumisynthia942]

DE should make it so new nlayers have a decent number of slots to start off with it to avoid the limitations they come across quite early into playing. My idea to help out even more would be to make it so players under a certain MR can use 0 plat to speed up of all normal weapons and Warframes or at least have a reduced craft time. Since many weapons are locked until a higher MR anyways, new players being able to experience newer and varied weapons to begin with will help with keeping them hooked. Those so much progression that a player can do that speed running XP to MR4 or 5 shouldnt be that big of an issue. Another solution could be a "free trial" where new players can have benefits like slots and craft time for a certain period of time to use. After the trial, any weapons or Warframes in any "trial slots" become locked and unavailable until obtained. Players should still be able to have limited access to these slots by being able to delete or sell those in the excess slots and to avoid any "My Prime Warframe/Weapon is now locked behind these slots" issues, make it so that after the trial period, the players get a pop up menu which allows to "save" which items they want to keep access to and which ones to keep in these locked slots. Warframe is a great game and after a period of time of playing, you can do soooo much content. But so many things are either locked behind a paywall or a timer that it REALLY throws off any new players to the whole experience. DE does do a lot of free giveaways and freebies, but can be missed if you don't log in much or just simply missed out on it. Even then, some freebies are locked behind content that a new player might not even have access to yet and as a new player a "taxi" isn't a concept that they would be familiar with yet. So these suggestions are, more or less, coming from my experience when I was a new player and getting other new players into Warframe. I wont lie. When I first started, I would've most likely quit if I didn't get freebies and help from already established friends and luckily starting when Warframe was giving out the three set Dex weapons. My SO would probably have quit or are at least been thrown off a heck ton without the help and monetary assistance I gave as well so DE should start thinking about making some changes like these!

[@gem_ola6642]

tbh wf market should be adviced for any newbie to sell, easier, time efficient, than the chaotic trade chat

[@user-jm8sy5ox2j]

Warframe market shouldn't be an external entity though. Look at games like guild wars 2, they have the black lion trading post built into the game and it does a nearly identical task as the warframe market except it's so much more smooth. Being able to post a buy/sell order on the trading post and being able to instantly buy/sell items from those orders, then having those items show up in your inventory is such a huge convenience thing that warframe could use over the current "go to the market and scream the loudest" approach to trading

[@marlonese]

Ive been saying this for years and I will stand by it: warframes monetization sucks. Slots, Catalysts and Reactors shouldnt exist. Monetization should never be involved in anything gameplay related. Theres so many Games that get by on selling skins and customization, when will Warframe join them... EDIT: My bottom line is this. Games can very well survive and flourish on monetizing cosmetics only and I think Warframe could and should absolutely do the same. And if it helps retain new players in the process, even fucking better. I say this as someone that's spent 4000h and 700€ on this game with no regrets and no want of any refunds. Slots and potatoes are suck, period.

[@Arassar]

You can get all of those without spending a single cent. Just sell some prime pieces.

[@CodyL33OX]

@@Arassarwhile I do agree, that just isn’t the case for new players. Not only do they have to have things people could want, but they’d also have to watch trade chat till that person shows up. Those items should absolutely have a more reliable farm.

[@Fighter_Blue]

I want to keep buying forma. So no

[@marlonese]

​@@ArassarWell yes and no. New people won't know that and it's somewhat of a barrier to cross in the first place + it makes you interact with the premium currency very early on, so you're more likely to buy it. That's borderline predatory gacha monetization but it's so normalized now that having a discussion around this is impossible.

[@KhronicD]

@@Arassar Sure, now lets address how trading in warframe works on a fundamental level. It's not like there's an auction house, or even an in game way to list your items globally. You gonna go stand in Maroo's for hours on end hoping to make a few plat? And no, 3rd party websites should not be the go-to option for trading in any game.

[@kicsiduda]

THANK YOU for addressing the slot problem! I also had to buy slots for my friends when they started. They just see the out-of-slots message and the following conversation plays: - It says I'm out of slots, should I use my platinum? - Yea, the first 50 plat you get should get you 1 warframe and 2x2 weapon slots. - All right, thanks. How do I get platinum btw? - You either buy or trade. - Oh, with real people? - Yea. - I don't really want to do that. - I can give you some plat. - Oooo, thank you :) Then they play for a few more days, then only return for days in every few months.

[@longwingdetrain3183]

The best solution for slots- Each time you complete a solar rail- the player is given a Warframe Slot, and when defeating the boss of the planet for the first time they are given a choice between 2 weapon slots or a companion slot.

[@johncouzens5321]

Slots are my pain

[@akdreamer6497]

OPEN WORLD STANDING IS CRINGE

[@dracojester2971]

When a couple of my friends convinced me to start playing, i complained about a bunch of stuff and kept thinking i was going to drop it, but i stuck with it and now it’s one of my favorite games and i have more playtime than both the friends that got me into it combined

[@Yummy_Br34d]

I honestly don't even know how i managed to keep playing the game, I started the game when i was around 10 and at the time the game didn't even have junctions to lock you out of high level content before you could finish the first main quest. The game also had much less QOL for players making anything impossible to understand, but i can say they are at least trying to make the starting experience more enjoyable which is good for everyone.

[@YennyTheYak]

1:54 - Casually slurs

[@CoolKid369]

real???

[@Solonneysa]

@@CoolKid369 Yeah, honestly, I'm not sure using the term "noobs" is the best way to announce your rhetoric. It's off-putting and may actually hurt your viewership. The slang was always meant to refer to "idiot new players" not just "new players" so it's weird to use it instead of the words that already exist: "New players." I only watched because my clan leader linked it as a discussion topic. It just might behoove you to consider trying to reach more people when you want to initiate positive change.

[@Netist_]

​@@Solonneysa boohoo

[@ErrorhIL]

@@Solonneysa then stop using it with that meaning so normal people like us can just use a simple short usefull word, for fucks sake people like you that bring that bulshit meaning of noob over and over are obnoxious, noob means new player nothing more nothing less!!! only idiots use it with other meanings

[@grandshow500]

@@Solonneysa The definition of "noob" is a player who doesn't know or understand game mechanics, new player is by definition a noob, it's not a slur.

[@etch-a-mess1598]

I had experienced these issues when i started playing. I remember being so frustrated that i had to get rid of some frames just to get a new one, and i constantly complained about it. I remember people just gifting me slots at some point. After replaying the early warframe grind again on Switch (do not recommend btw), i found it strange that the railjack took LESS time to build than a warframe, after all the railjack changes. Im glad i stuck through all the grind, but man it was rough, especially around the time i started playing. Loved the video!

[@deejayf69]

I really think if they give new players like 5 Warframe slots and 16 weapon slots would go a long way. I'm glad that DE is talking internally about crafting timers. It wasn't a deal breaker for me, but it would help.

[@Meichrob7]

Slots need a rework, I think that if DE wants to keep them they should make them similar to how old Kubrow stasis worked. If you have a gun or frame or melee it can be something you actively use if you have it in a slot, if you run out of slots you can send your other weapons off to "storage" which frees up a space and doesn't delete the weapon, but to get an old weapon out of storage you need space for it, and have a 12-24hr wait for it to be "shipped back to you". This would make slots still useful and something I think a lot of vets would buy in bulk, but prevents a lot of the issues that slot limitations causes in game with so so so many options and progression tied to using all of those options for at least 5-50mins each.

[@gushterell7989]

All players should have max capacity, not only MR30. This is such a great qotl. Gatekeeping this feel so bad when people find out.

[@kilowyatt1107]

I just want it known that before the "Totally not battlepass" nora wave that replaced the old daily alert system I don't think there was an actual way to get inventory slots that wasn't just selling prime junk for plat

[@pcdeltalink036]

Correct. Nightwave should give more but it's certainly better than nothing.

[@Meichrob7]

I think a good balnce between "3 day crafting kills new player hype" and "DE needs to make money" could just be to make prime frames take 3 days and have base frames not take any time. If DE suddenly starts hemorrhaging money you could make it so the most recent frame released also has a 3 day craft time, which means all the current players who aren't at risk of quitting will probably be making their version with the 3 day crafting timer and will still sometimes want to rush or outright buy the frame to skip the wait, but for a new player, 98% of the frames they could try to make wouldn't be time locked in any way. This seems like the best way to specifically alleviate the new player problem while letting DE still make their money. Obviously as an older player I'd love it if they didn't have crafting times at all, but if DE IS going to keep them, I'd prefer they didn't harm this game's ability to intake new players.

[@MagikarpMan]

Hold up your may be onto something here

[@Meichrob7]

@@MagikarpMan The other thought I had was that your first warframe is made instantly and after that each one takes 1hr extra until you reach the normal 3 days. That still feels kind of shitty like you're being punished for making frames, but its another way of like selectively targeting new players with quicker frame build times.

[@paulross-innes4329]

As a vet that has trained up over a hundred tenno, I can say it's the sheer amount of things to do that can be daunting to the point of failure. Without a clear set of guides directing players towards the playstyle and game type they would enjoy. Took me a long time and many thousands of plat to realise it wasn't that I gave trainees too much gear for free, or I didn't train them up mechanically or strategically enough(they could beat most legendary ranked players with 100 x their hours), it was they had no direction to go, no clear set of concrete goals and landmarks to work towards other than finishing the star chart.

[@eranoszrill8907]

I believe that one of the biggest issues with keeping new players is the same that is keeping me away from the game at the moment The gameplay can be "held hostage" by other players powercreep and AOE nukes got so out of hand that just 1 person can take away all gameplay from the mission as a new player maybe it's cool to see a high level player carry you through the map like a god but after a while it'll just become boring as hell you have nothing to do everything is easy now if everything is easy there is no motivation to get stronger with better gear or higher rank

[@soosboons4444]

Now that I think about it, reducing the crafting time is honestly pretty valid. I think the hurdle of getting materials to craft the items is enough already.

[@gullim92]

Damn, I almost forgot those first few months of playing where I would just not craft anything because I couldn't afford slots, and had to trash and rebuild Rhino several times just to try some new frames every once in a while...

[@lua8501]

when i started, warframe was so different from anything i had played, it tickled my brain in a way no other game has even come close to. in fact i liked it so much that the build times didn’t really bother me, it just gave me more of a reason to come back the next day. yes, the limited slots were annoying but i learned about trading and got to farming prime junk, which again gave me more reason to play. that being said i’m all for lowering/removing build times and increasing base slots, not everyone is as patient as i was and in an age where every game wants all your time, i want people to spend their time on a good one. an alternative to changing build times could be adding another way to speed them up like “spend x amount of x resources”. this wouldn’t instantly finish it like plat, but would reduce the time needed down to a max of 1 hour. many others have already said this, giving players slots after completing junctions and/or mr tests would be a godsend. load out slots are cool, but new players won’t have weapons and frames to make use of them, and in my case they kind of confused me when i started because i thought they were actual weapon/frame slots. lastly “buy for plat” should be removed from the cover of all items (not including things that can only be bought with plat like cosmetics or bundles) and be replaced by the credit option or a “click to see how to acquire” for items from the dojo or that drop somewhere else. of course the buy for plat button would still be there but it’s no longer the first thing a player sees when looking at weapons/frames in the arsenal/market. i love this game, been playing it for almost 8 years. yes i’ve burned out here and there, but i can always take solace in the fact that when i inevitably comeback, i can pickup right where i left off. it’s one of the few actual good games and one of the fewer good f2p ones. i hate seeing it labeled as pay to win because it genuinely isn’t, like a parent with their child i want nothing but to see this game thrive for as long as time will allow. i want this game to be a “hey lets play *blank*” not a “damn remember *blank*” game

[@jackgamer6307]

Duviri as an alternate start did more harm than good to new player retention. It didn't teach new players what to do and how to do it properly, and the little tutorial it did have, was redundant. It tought you how to play void flood, when the quest you need to do to access the gamemode normally already teaches you

[@gidelix]

just another MR L2 here, i started the game many years ago. nowadays i play on and off and always thought “ah well, it can’t have been that bad back then and they’re already doing a lot of stuff for new players, i’m sure it’s fine.” thanks for reminding me that the crafting times are not, in fact, fine. especially for new players.

[@jaywarzynski4111]

Awesome video! You bring up excellent points and you provide sensible solutions! Amazing stuff all around!

[@TheWhildOne]

Great video. +1 to losing people because of crafting times and slot limitations, def top of the list for early game walls. I feel like we need a very mainstream forum post to flock to along with this video though.

[@Synetics_]

First of all, thanks for the video, a few things I had in mind while looking this video : - Forma Buidling 23h > 1h - Warframe Parts already crafted if obtained - Warframe Building > 12h (Reduce with Mastery Rank to get something to motivate you getting higher in MR - in the same moment a complete explanation about the mastery system e.g with a pop-up) - Weapon Crafting > 6h (also with reduced time on higher MR - and a complete deletion of these craftable weapon parts e.g Trumna) - Delete the Archwing Quest and add this as a eye-catcher to the tutorial mission - I mean, you need like 2-3 Minutes anyways to build a complete archwing 3x 1min for Parts, Main Blueprint 1Min - Weapon Slots from the current amount for newbies to atleast 40+ (just keep in mind you have to keep some of these weapons for the combinations of crafting e.g Redeemer) - Warframe Slots from the current amount for newbies to atleast 10+ (If you got an good advice from a "veteran" you just spaming the star chart so you collect these frames anyways) - Currencys at the beginning : 250.000 Credits, 50.000 Endo, 100 Platinum (lock the start platinum for cosmetic purchases) - Highlighting System for beginners which simply highlighting base mods (e.g Vitality, Shield, Armor - Damage, Multishot, Elec, Heat etc. with a short explanation about these mods)(For example the current polarization system which was implemented with the new Jade Update) - A better creator overview with good tips and videos about the beginning in warframe. Like a showcase of a helpful youtube / twitch channel as a weekly or monthly highlight creator like lost ark does - The thing which is in my mind the biggest "fucked up" thing is the platinum situation. It's for newbies literally a view in the entirely of our galaxie with no clue what's worth and what's not. And the Game is still playing games with these peoples wallets.

[@theforkedman3030]

Great video. I myself have almost 6k hrs in the game and when I was new and saw the crafting timer for Warframes I didn't turn the game back on till it was done and many times I just forgot I had the game all together. If it wasn't for trade chat being consistent back then I wouldn't have continued to play the game at all because I couldn't afford to buy platinum. The timer killed my interest in playing the game and the slots killed my morale to even try. The only reason I kept playing was because a friend of mine was still playing, I found out about trade chat and it was the only game I had to play at the time.

[@LeMajesticJames]

Lack of patience and the overwhelming amount of unique mechanics can either hype a new player or throw them off

[@Gelly311]

Another reason new players quit, which is also not really discussed, is the fact that the game is free to play. That alone means people come in, try it, and dip out at a faster rate than other games of a similar, albeit more expensive, nature because the only investment they need to put in is time. And only a small amount of in-game time equals very little psychological investment/attachment. Making it easier for them to drop Warframe for something else.

[@madsvigan2898]

And to add to my other comment. How i would suggest how we fix the New player experince: 1: when you finish the intro, ordis will pop up, and request you look into the foundry. Where you then guided into the quest section. 2: ordis tells you to begin a new player quest. Where it starts out with you getting bodied in a mission. Then ordis tells you, you need better gear. So he helps you build a new gun, and how to mod a frame. 3: then the quest ends with you conpleting the first junction. Ordis tells you to do use what you learned and unlock them All. Then the last junction has a new quest, that brings you into the open worlds, or the duviri.

[@Noctifer]

I believe that increasing crafting time as your Mastery Rank progresses would be beneficial. For example, for players at MR 1-5 with limited weapon options, crafting times could range from 5 minutes to 30 minutes for weapons and 2 hours for Warframes. For MR 6-10, the crafting time for weapons could be 2-4 hours and 6 hours for Warframes. Moving on to MR 11-15, it could be 6-12 hours for weapons and 24 hours for Warframes. For MR 15-30, players could have 12-hour crafting times for weapons and 2 days for Warframes. Players above MR 30, known as legendary, could have 24-hour crafting times for weapons and 5 days for Warframes. This system could incentivize players to either rush the crafting process or choose to purchase items directly, potentially increasing the game developer's revenue. Additionally, providing weapon slots along with blueprints in junctions and quests could help resolve inventory issues.

[@ScorchedIce]

I have to say I'm so glad you made this video. I'm sure 2 slots for frames and 8 for weapons made sense back in... update 8, when I started. And when there was like, 90% less content in the game. DE really needs to revise these numbers. Either just add more to new accounts, or give them out through progression as like, junction rewards or something. It'd be even better for DE in the long run. Maybe someone could argue "they'd be giving away free platinum" but I'd argue in the long run, the extra newbies that did stick around because of more slots would outweigh them not paying for slots.

[@juliasayllas611]

Another small issue I have with the new player experience that I don't see many people talk about is it's early game story presentation, which is basically non existent. You get Vor's prize which does a good job as an introduction quest but then after it's completion you have basically nothing, the bosses for every planet for example have no build up until you actually do their mission node where the Lotus will only tell you very basic stuff. The bosses have no beef with us other than the fact that we are part of a different faction than them, Lek Krill is just a guy who kills a bunch of people with his hammer, Kela apparently has some relation with the Steel meridian and hosts a competition centered around on killing people, Sargas Ruk is a prostetics freak, Tyl Regor is the boss that is the closest of being an actual character but he only has his boss fight and a sabotage mission that tells us what are his motivations are and why he hates us, most of the Corpus Bosses are just machinery and the one machinery boss that has SOME story is locked behind an event that will never come back, so the average player doing the Ambulas boss will just play through the fight completely clueless as to what Frod and Ergo are yapping about, and the Sargeant is one of the capture missions of all time. Our timeline starts with Vor's Prize and then we do a bunch of stuff we will all forget about until the first cinematic quest. The early game has so little content related to story that the narrative basically starts during the Second Dream because thats where people become interested in the story not only because of the twist but because it also has cinematic cutscenes. A lot of people will even tell newbies "congrats for beating the tutorial" when they complete the Second Dream, as if the game and especially the story JUST STARTED FROM THERE.

[@pandoriasbox]

When you said only one of your friends had stuck with the game that hit me hard because it was the same for me. I tried to get my entire friendgroup to play and from them only my partner plays with me to this day. Stings even more because I have a friend that USED to play the game, that was pretty advanced (he played back when the preludes to war were the latest quests released), and whom I PLAYED WITH A COUPLE OF TIMES, but I recently brought it up and he told me he uninstalled because "he wasn't feeling the drive to play by himself cause he felt the game had changed too much for him, it isn't the same game he used to play." That was very rough to hear.

[@straivalist8281]

I played this game solo for a short while, quit cause I felt powerless and was too confused from everything, I kept coming back to this game starting fresh only to quit very early on for the same exact reasons, but then I finally got a friend to play this game with, instantly changed how I viewed this game and instead of me being the only one lost, we both were lost but we could share info we learned back and forth essentially helping each other out, now I’m incredibly addicted to this game and I’ve reached a point where I’m fine playing solo. I think the hardest part for noobs playing this game is being alone. Having a high tier player help you out is rarely ever going to work and would just make the game boring, instead it’s better to find someone at the same stage as you so you can progress together until you figure out what systems this game does and how it works

[@Geckur0]

for a lot of people, its the first frame they build. you start with one of three, then you get rhino parts and see they take 12 hours to craft. then theyre finally done and you see you have to wait ANOTHER THREE DAYS before you can play with your new toy. people dont want to wait. there are other games out there that dont make you wait. then they see that you can skip the wait with platinum, and they think "how greedy, what a cashgrab" and they set the game down, never to return.

[@Azarian]

All of this is great. One other one I can think of is Amps. The power spike you get from going from a mote to a proper amp is TREMENDOUS and I had to learn how to go about making one through trial and error and learning how to proper eidolon hunt too.

[@pcdeltalink036]

Yes! Amps I hated so much at first. But even getting a basic 2 2 2 setup is HUGE at that point in the game.

[@RealWarDemon]

I agree with all your points about crafting and providing extra slots for new players. I was already thinking 10% as a baseline number for available slots across the board. Completing quest should also prioritize, so a way to bring attention to quest competition is important and specifically to Warframe specific quest. At the end screen where you get the BP and rewards, it should tell you where to get the missing parts instead of looking the wiki or the kinda vague codex. Nightwave is a really easy way for new players to get slots and handle things. Nightwave’s challenges should be scaled to the tier level so the first 1-5 tiers are obtained very easily and new players can get multiple aura mods or their first or second catalyst/reactor easily. In general a way to visualize, “Completing this will get you that” or Getting enough of this lets you buy that”

[@scrymglin]

Firstly, what a great analysis. Good job. I think you're right - if you move the "this sucks, I quit" point further into the game, it's less likely new players will quit. While this possibly reduces revenue for DE at first, I honestly believe it will increase players that stick around, and therefore increase revenue. Like you, I have spent waaaaay more on WF than any other game. I love it. I want DE to survive and keep going, so I'm prepared to spend cash sometimes to help that. But new players aren't invested, so why would they care? There are a lot of improvements DE could make, especially QoL, all over the game. I think the problem is DE is somewhat strapped for cash and can't (or won't?) employ more people to make all these changes. The guardrails idea is great. I remember hating the Gorgon (and still do!), and I deleted it before I maxed it. Once I understood how MR worked, I had to craft another one, and level it up to max. Very annoying - especially when I really fucking hate the Gorgon. Also the levelling up time, especially for warframes, is really really slow for new players. Once you get to Hydron then it's not too bad, but my first frames took days to level. Maybe DE could have an automatic level booster for the first couple of frames? I've often wondered why DE don't improve the trading system. I think it's a real pain in the arse. I realised the answer as I was watching this vid. If they make trading hard, it's more likely you'll just buy plat to avoid the trades - especially when you're selling stuff. Dunno if other people agree with this thought?

[@DatboiZyion]

I recently started playing Warframe about 3 days ago. Was recommended the game by someone I play destiny with, and I was rather excited about playing it. From what I’ve seen, the things I hate the most about the game as a new player are the crafting times and the lack of slots. This video actually told me about the limited slots for weapons and frames, which I thought wasn’t the case and that you could just collect everything and use all the different frames once you got them. As for the crafting times, man is it annoying having to wait an entire day just for a gun to craft, and 12 hours for a clan key. As much as I like how the game feels, a lot is aspects of it really frustrates me with how, not new player friendly some of the stuff is. Thankfully I have the guy who recommended me the game to bug whenever I have even the slightest question lol.

[@freaxx8240]

Everyone i tried to introduce was bored because it is so easy, even when no one is helping them. I helped them with the confusing and overwhelming parts, so that wasn't what kept them away. Crafting times was sure something that was annoying as well.

[@deadeye-hy6ic]

Recently I started playing warframe for a while now, I'm still a new player but veteran at heart (reason being is because I have seen my uncle play it when it first released) I'm happy I can be part of a good gaming community such as this.

[@RouffCOJ]

Wholeheartedly agrees with every NPE flaws laid out here (MR32, 2015, mostly solo player too). Proposal > make a small but emotionaly impactful quest, right from the start at MR1 or 2, just like Jade Shadows format, to experience the moments leading to the Fall of the Orokin Empire. (Outer Terminus) And pack it up with every tutorial needed. Go through Orokin potatoes, modding, arcanes, parkour, pets (kubrows, kavats and sentinels). Once you've done a 'tour' of everything worthy of attention, peak gameplay times, you're all powerfull with a fully modded warframe, all shiny with Prime gear and you go through one of the last battle against the Sentient. You return a Hero and we know the rest. Fade to black, you return to your orbiter and you're all prepped up and wanting to know more about what you just saw.

[@azchenon8951]

15:26 This also applies to Prime stuff, when I started playing it was SkillUp's old video (Hydroid prime access) that taught me you can get the primes for free

[@FrancisYorkMorganFBI]

as someone that helped a ton of new players get into the game i feel like a market tutorial would help a lot. pretty much all of them don't know that you can get blueprints from there. they just see the plat cost and close it. that plus the crafting time pushes a ton of people away.