Space Ninja Janitor
Warframe was going so great. All the way up until I wall-ran into the payslope and slid back down on my space ninja ass.
The problem I currently have is that all of the blueprints I have available require materials I do not have enough of. In my specific case, it’s Plastids. While mobs do drop some resources, your primary source of most everything are breaking containers and opening lockers. This is essentially the equivalent of breaking clay pots in Diablo. But hey, it’s a looter shooter, right? No big deal.
Let me tell you, there is nothing more disillusioning than a space ninja terminator walking around at normal speed breaking open containers and opening lockers.
Warframe is about leaping through the air and slamming into the ground, knocking your foes aside. Warframe is about drawing an energy sword from the void and instantly slicing five enemies in half. Warframe is about dodging attacks and taking down tough bosses and then escaping as an infinite amount of enemies try to block your path.
I was not expecting Warframe to be a JRPG in which you perform the equivalent of pressing X on everything to discover hidden Elixirs.
Alas, this is a F2P game with cash money solutions to the problems it arbitrarily introduces for that express purpose. I can buy 300 Plastids from “the Market” for 30 Platinum, and $20 will get me 370 Platinum. So… $1.67ish? Warframe will periodically give you 50% and even 75% off Platinum purchases for 48 hours coupons, so technically the price can be a bit lower than that. At a certain point, it absolutely makes more sense to pay to skip the parts of the game which require you to not play as a space ninja terminator. Both money and time are fungible, after all.
…then I remember that these designers do this shit on purpose.
For now, I will ignore my empty crafting queue and continue progressing through the story missions as best I can. There is technically a “resource extractor” that I can purchase with in-game currency that will presumably collect things like Plastids while I am away. It also apparently takes damage and could blow up if I do not retrieve it fast enough, e.g. leave it running for longer than a day. Because of course it does.
If I end up burning out from having to use the same weapons and classes I am stuck with, well, that’s the designers’ fault. I’m 25 hours into the game and am still hunting down the final blueprint that will allow me to “craft” a new class. Once that occurs, I’ll reevaluate and see where things stand. Considering that I only have two Warframe class slots by default, and have to pay Platinum to open more, things might get a bit cramped.
Posted on January 10, 2018, in Impressions and tagged Grind, Loot All the Things, Looter Shooter, Payslope, Warframe. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
In An Age 
Sounds like F2P done wrong, which is sadly still common. I’ve always been surprised at how popular this game is, as from the outside it looks rather vanilla, and I’d heard rumblings about its pay/progress model before.
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I assume it’s popular because it’s fun to play. And it is.
The problem is that just being fun isn’t enough for me – I need some sense of story or character progression. The story here is thin, and the character progression requires cash money or a lot of grinding. The grinding part is okay for now, because I’m still progressing through what story there is, but every mission in which I have to use the same weapons and same class reduces that fun a little bit. When it runs out, Warframe is out.
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For what it’s worth to have another player’s perspective, I totally recall the plastid speedbump. I pressed on through it without any real money purchases and reached a point where that’s a resource I don’t even consciously think about anymore.
I have hit some other (so far temporary) roadblocks as well. One of the bosses forced me to take a different direction on the star map for a while before getting a weapon powerful enough to take it down. A couple relay requirements took a while. Archwing missions can be a hassle because getting useful mods to make them more doable typically takes… doing archwing missions for drops.
As sort of a disclaimer, I would say I have since 1) spent about $20 into the game without regret and 2) hit another resource block with oxium and ended up taking a break to spend more time on some other games over the last few weeks.
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If I manage to get a 75% off discount, I anticipate putting some money in Warframe, provided I do not get bored with the game before then. I unwittingly spent some of the free Platinum on Orokin… reactors, I think, before realizing that weapon/Warframe slots are so expensive and unpurchasable any other way. We’ll see.
I do find it a bit insipid that the devs added shit like the Incubator, then send you on an early quest to get an egg, and then provided a blueprint for the item that powers it, but said item requires thousands of a component (Nano Spores) that I haven’t seen after 25+ hours of gameplay. After reading up on it, sure, it can be farmed “easily” by progressing like 20-30 more missions from where I am, but Jesus Christ, what a naked attempt to drive cash shop sales. Why not unlock that shit around the time you are progressing on the planets that drop the shit you need? Ah, right, $$$.
It’s frustrating precisely because the game is otherwise fun to play.
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This problem is common with any P2W games: the optimal way of playing is not playing but paying. But then you realize that you are paying for the privilege of NOT playing and you can do that for free.
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Buying resources in Warframe is a notorious noob trap. Same with buying credits, mod packs, & anything kubrow/kavat related.
If you care, Warframe youtuber/streamer Brozime has a fairly up to date overview on how to play Warframe as a new player without spending money. First episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1kyYFhCxAA
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