Hi Steve,
I just wanted to give you some feedback, as I'm a new player that came in right after update 14 and thought it might be good for you to see how a new player experiences the game going in.
Context - I'm a 40 year old with 20+ years of fps experience, reflexes slowing but still good, usually come in 2-3rd in standard shooters TF2, CoD, BF2 - also 5+ 90's on current WoW so also have a fair amount of xp in MMORPGs. I'm also someone who will not personally "pay to win", so I was very interested in experiencing your game from the perspective of the "poor" player.
Your game is incredible. No really, absolutely incredible. The level of mobility that you give the player creates a visceral engagement that makes this one of the most immersive games I've played. I'm seriously hooked - played only 3 times and already logged 15+ hours.
The intro levels were extremely good - they filled me in enough that I was curious and wanted to find out more about the world, without too much hand-holding. I dig that the beginning levels are hard - I was both impressed and surprised at the complexity of the Grineer AI (although the slow windups of the melee grineer felt a little nerfed and unrealistic).
I did feel a little lost after the intro quest, but figured things out pretty quickly. It would be cool to have a bit more direction after the initial newbie quest, maybe a followup that explains a bit more about the history of the factions.
I was initially confused about the fact that you have to use mods to engage your abilities - I think this can be better explained. It also took a bit of digging to realize that without platinum, I had to buy blueprints and make all the gear. I was hooked enough on the gameplay and storyline to go to the wiki and figure it out, but I think that for a player on the fence, having to go track down this information would turn them off towards something easier.
Which is too bad, because once I researched the mod system and started crafting my own weapons, I found it extremely satisfying. The experience system you folks have implemented is really cool - I feel like it reflects what I'm learning in the game with each weapon.
Going back to the blueprint issue, I think that if you include a "realistic time to completion" stat for the item in question, you might see an uptick in platinum sales. For instance, I was very interested in the frost warframe, and wanted the challenge of building it, but was considering a platinum purchase to help move it along. When I bought the blueprint, there was no instructions on how to get the components, or if the components I bought with platinum would fit the warframe, etc... just a general lack of information on "how to get this". Again, I had to hit the wiki to figure this out, and it still wasn't particularly clear.
If, within the blueprint, we had a breakdown of the quests (or hints as to were the quests are located) with a idea of how much time it would take to completion, we could make an informed decision on whether to spend the platinum or not for specific pieces.
I like the user interface within the ship - it feels real, and continues the immersive elements of the game for me while doing maintenance. There are a couple of bugs (for instance, unequipping a mod via the Mods menu from a weapon causes an interface crash on my machine), but all in all it's really nice. Ordis needs to STFU up tho, or have an off switch.
All in all, I'm totally hooked, and would probably consider a reasonably priced subscription plan if it were available via steam, and provided a small monthly amount of platinum along with cosmetic upgrade freedom (seriously, changing the color of your warframe shouldn't be locked behind a paywall). I'm not a fan of the $20 buy a big chunk of plats plan, cause that just feels too much like pay to win to me, but would consider a $5 - $10/mo sub per my suggestion above.
Keep up the great work - this game is a masterpiece, and the best I've played in years!
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