New Player Introduction Area on Planet Arkadia

Obviously the basics of life in the game need to be covered, which I think Calypso did fairly well. The biggest untapped area I see is the tie in with the story line. Make the initial missions a way for the new player to be immersed in the world and really suck them in. Many games do it, like the Fall Out series for example (just one that is right in the front of my mind). Learning the history of the world as I learned and practiced the controls etc was quite effective at getting me interested.

I will think a bit more about it as I realise my thoughts probably lack the actual examples that you guys are looking for, but that is what I look for in a new game.

 

Number one out of the box is the avatar controls as they are not defaulted like any other game I have ever played. second how to set them up as you wish as again they are nothing like any other game out there.

Next GET INTO A SOC!!!! I can not stress this enough for new players under 6 months in game. Go freelance later if they choose but definately start in a soc.

3rd..Make sure they know EU is a ped sink up front. Let them know the main focus when starting is to limit loss not get rich in the first few months.

Those 3 thngs will keep a player in reality and not depressionville and wanting to blow up MA or some crazy stuff. This will also limit extending bad press for the game being more up front as they know what they are up against and make the choice to stay..not stay in hopes of the "Big one"

 

Great initiative to get the community involved Dave, and I'm going to give this some thought later when I can get back to it. I think the "Gateway" if you will, is a critical aspect of indoctrinating a new player to prepare them toward main stream involvement so that they don't feel like a fish out of water. If a new player is frustrated at the outset, then there's risk in losing them. Having all key components in place (e.g., no glitches in the mission process) is important.

I'll come back to this and give more specifics.

 

I believe 1 of the main things ahs already been coverd and that is to make sure they relise this not a get rich quik game and can be a ped sink.

I also find that even after 3 years in game I find PA daunting so would sugest making the nooby arival area less flash big city and let them feel there way into it instead of sensory overlaod strait up.

We have quite a range of EU players in my soc from 2 week noobs to 5 year veterans and will put the chalenge to them to come up with some well thought out and discussed sugestions and will post the best of them here.

Keep up the great work Dave

DblooD

Colonel Aussie Entropians

 

Hello David,

I am one of the Community Advisers on the Gateway at the moment.
One important thing I came across, and the thing most newcomers where very happy with are real people helping them.

Newcommers find it very comforting to have a veteran player around who they can ask questions and help them out if the info which is provided is not clear to them.

Keep in mind that not every new player is good at English, people tend to forget that.
You will be surprised about the amount of new players who don't understand the given info very well because English is not there language.

Kind regards,
Ion

 

LOL yeah! I was in the observer team at Naomi's LA event last weekend. Naomi asked me to come to Teamspeak3 ... and I did it. But for Lootius' sake! ... I understood 20% maximum *grummel*. At least Naomi had to type important messages in private chat for me! I know what you speak about ;-)

And yes! Good initiative to start this "New Player Introduction Area on Planet Arkadia"!

 

depends on what MA does with mentoring.. Giving the "Scammer fly by mentors" access to the new players will only make things worse. I remember sooo many new players getting stuck with someone who ran by and added them as a desciple and never helped them. That was bad specially when MA limited the time you had to dump them.

I am against favoritism but for this I would suggest allowing only certain players to be there to aid the young'uns. Maybe only allow the players at the gateway a certain % of the new players as a disciple at any given moment to make it fair to others willing to really mentor them. MAybe have the ones on the gateway keep a running list of old timers willing to train and distribute the new players to them in numbers easily manageable to them. IE same time zones, same languages, same areas.. Sort of pre determine what will work better for the new player by matching that criteria to them and the old timers. but thyats just me being level headed...I know many will scream about that but hey ...It will only be the ones after the ME gear more then truely helping that will be the loudest.

 

I like the idea of only a few hand selected avatars allowed in the new arrivals are. It is the only way to garuntee the quality of advice and contact newbies are getting. It is the first impression many have with the game, and is definetly a make or break period, so we definietly need to keep that area free of the scammers and tools.

Sux when u want to be one of the few and don't get selected, but not everyone can do it and it is the only way I can see to have the real player contact QA'd

 

I think we're getting a little away from the question. Its not so much about how the players can teach newbies the ropes mentoring etc. But how the game itself can teach newbies the basics. One thing that I have seem work really well in the past with fps shooters is just throwing newbies right in the middle of it at the start. Learn by doing. Allow me to elaborate on a possible scenario...

Start of the game, storyline is getting told blahblah whatever it may be. Background info is out of the way and the player sees their avatar and some other npc's on a transport, or in a holding facility anyplace really. Just talking bit of back and forth between the characters as the player expects to make their way onto the planet soon.

Unexpectedly a creature, robot, the boogeyman... attacks the transport/facility. The game makes the player run over to the stored weapons and pull out a very powefull end game weapon. The player takes control of their character for the first time. Promts appear on the screen for basic move and shoot promts. WASD to move left click to shoot. The player lays waste to the boogeyman with the weapon. A taste of the power to come later. One of the npc's comes over after the battle and takes the weapon "not bad rookie" a few more promts come up on the screen about how to change key settings and controls if needed.

One of the soldiers/npc's can explain how to equip armor / weapons in a more straight forward way on the rest of the transport trip.

Mining and crafting are a little less exciting and so may have to get straightforward, go here do this kind of "mission" tutorials but for combat i think this is the best way i've ever seen it done.

 

Yeah I think the mentor gifts should go. Have always thought they were the main problem with mentoring. The good mentors have never done it for the gifts anyway.

Yeah addz that's how I would like to see it all happen, immersed inthe story.

 

Usually mmrpgs have a tutorial island at the start of a game. An example is runescape. When i played that i learnt everything i needed to know at the time on this island.

When i started project entropia there was no island and the most difficult aspect i remember was moving around and figure out the controls etc.

So with EU not ony an introduction to the gameplay areas is needed but also essential to let a newbie know how to control avtar and all the boring bits related to that. This stuff although essential can also be boring, so the player must always have a choice to skip through it.

A creative way to show how to control the avatar would be to have maybe "control" monsters i.e. special characters for newbie area that show a player how the control system works e.g. could have "keyboard map" monster who in some way walks a player thru on how to do keyboard mapping of controls (obviously they wouldn't see this monster first in the tutorial island but maybe the last thing on the island).

 

Maybe it is a good idea that all mentors have to register......
on a terminal like the comission terminal for vehicles......and when the online times are to low or whatever the registration would be deleted....
or like the socterminal ....and the newbies can search for someone.....

 

Altho I like the idea Addz had posted I fear that in the end it would only contribute more to the frustration of a new player. In most rpg's or mmo's you can use the best wepons in a very short time. Here in EU that is not possible. Giving them that fire power at that level whets their appetite for decent items but could easily give them even more false hope. I restate my opinion that just because MA says you can use something, it does NOT necessarily men you could use it effectively. This gives way to a player getting higher level weapons that would not help their "Eco" for those that believe in that and thus becoming disheartened by wasting even more ped in the long run.

As far as mentor gifts..Abolish them...Those that want to mentor someone do, those that want the rewards do it for the reward...If I take someone under my wing I ask only one thing in return. If what I teach helped you and you stay and grow in EU somewhere down the line pass on that knowlege to someone you feel deserves it along with what knowlege you gain on your own. I care not even for mentor skill points..Its just too easy to use them as yet another scamming tool.

Take the "Known" true mentors and start them in the gateway/ newb island or whatever is designed. Set up a sign up program for those that wish to really mentor using language, country, normal play times, and experience in a specific field as the main parameters for the "Known" mentors to assign the new player to. Have them limit the number of active new players they can mentor to three max at any given time to make it easier on them and to be more fair in distribution of newbs to those that want to help.

This way we dont get a mentor teaching a hunter what to do when the mentor is mainly a miner or a crafter teaching hunting. I know many experienced players know the roundabouts of al main professions but specialising will focus the new player better. One of my main starting problems is I did all three at once figureing Id hunt and mine to be able to make my own gear and be truely self sufficiant..That just dont happen within the first 3 to 5 years...

As far as the new player area.. give them a choice but also a warning. They can jump right in and immerse themselves or stay and learn a few ins and outs of the game to better help them on their way to a more enjoyable experience.

Anyway thats my take on this whole thing.

 

I'd have two sugestions maybe will elaborate other time, I'm at work now.

1st let everybody in this "gateway", just disable "trading" abilities of the newbies. Should not be possible to use pvp trading (while trade terminal should be allowed) until a few hours or maybe a small skill level. I do not like the idea of "select few" allowed nor as Community Advisers nor as anything. Newbs should see the community as it is, just add them an antiscammer layer. Also I'd rework the "add mentor/add disciple idea", maybe implement a sort of time counter which to control how much they spend together, maybe implement mandatory teamhunts via a quest system etc etc to prevent disciple hoarding (if gifts are not removed).

2nd remove mentor gifts as items, but introduce (maybe in concordance with "mentor" skill level) a reward system unique to mentoring, apparel items I'd say (clothes, medals and such), non tradeable. Maybe some ingame title. Dunno, along those lines, something which to differentiate mentors from the crowd but which not to bear commercial value. Imo.

 

I think first i'd just get them to be able to do simple navigation and like switching from cursor to aim mode and chatting so that they can ask for help when someone is there.

Market Values is important. Along with i think people need to be aware that the skills they are gaining can be re-sold later. I think thats something that makes Entropia way better then other games is that you are not just getting loot back but you are getting skills and the skills are worth money. I know i've done some stats in hunting and found a lot of times that i didn't get back as much in loot i was gaining a larger amount of skills so it evened out.

Most important thing is not to have too much reading at once but get them into the story. I like the go here read a paragraph or 2 then go to somewhere else and read a paragrah then go do some action. People don't like reading a HUGe long speal.
When i was mentoring and teaching about market values id split up lessons on Economy by going to the Trade Terminal, the Repair terminal, giving them a couple pec to repair there clothes with to see how that works, and gong to auction and seeing how things are sold there. Then showing them how people sell stuff in PA and how to know the real prices of things. It was like a little adventure where it wasn't just sitting in one spot explaining everything.