New Player Introduction Area on Planet Arkadia

I think you will have most of the things I find essential to a new player experience covered, but one aspect that may be worth introducing in a new player area is 'teaming'.

Feedback received from most EU players that go from newbie to long term player seems to centre around their interactions with other players.

For this reason, perhaps a new player mission that can be completed only by interacting with other players could help newbies form instant connections (as they would all be looking for someone to 'team up with') and therefore result in an easy way for the new player to feel more 'part of' the game, hence, less likely to quit in the short term.

The only issues I can forsee with this type of mission is that some new players won't have the confidence to approach other players. So perhaps there could be a 'players looking to team up' area or terminal which would enable them to easily contact other players in the arrival area (This could also tie into a 'lesson' on how to PM and add friends).
Also, people stuck in unpopular time zones may find there is no one around to team up with. So, perhaps you could have more veteran players/Arkadia reps available during these times or make the mission optional.

Just a thought,

Cheers ,

Aly

 

I like the last three posts.
My suggestion is: establish a two stage learning area.
At the first stage newbies alone with a few basic missions to give them an overall view of professions.
At the second stage ... even with low mobs/gear ... help from other players, still in a "safe" area. There is no need (and no chance) to select dedicated players I guess. Just let it go as it's atm. Dunno if there is (will be) a chance to prevent such an area from mad ppl. But it should contain team hunt (swunt) and personal assistance. I agree with no gifts for mentorship. Most player who offer help do that for free. Vice versa! Some give small presents to newbies.

Than release the new players to the wilderness ;-)

 

Hi Dave/All

What would be really cool is if you could share not just what should be taught/explained, but also suggest in the most creative way you can HOW it should be done. The new arrival area is designed to be fun above all else, so the learning is just a consequence of playing, we don't want a classroom feel to things.

Response:
I have played hundreds if not thousands of games in my time across a wide spectrum of genres. One thing I do know is when you start a new game, players normally have 3 approachs:

Approach 1: Dive straight in, getting up to your neck in guts and glory, maybe surviving maybe dying. These players refuse to ask/seek help and will keep banging away until the frustration and not being able to proceed any further in the game makes them a) give up and start on the next blood and guts game or b) ask for help or read instructions.
Approach 2: Cautiously read every scrap of info in the player/guide manual, the game jacket, the forums, the write-ups, fan sites before even installing the game. They approach everything with a do once, do right philosophy and usually challenge the game intellectually rather than in out and out skill in cutting a path through alien hordes or marauding outlanders. They stick to a came until it reaches a logical end.
Approach 3: This player is a hybrid of the two, a player or looks up basic controls while the game loads, understands some of the story and approaches the game with a trial and error mindset. Plays the game but also begins to learn that the most direct method to solving a problem is not always the best. A player who will stand up in a fire fight and give them hell but notices the hatch behind the statue through which a hasty retreat can be made if needed.

On arrival 5 yrs ago I remember running straight down the loading bay and began looking around for info, I had a basic knowledge of the game...you got in and made money right??? I ran over to the square at PA and listened to the talk. Waited for people to ask questions or I would ask them occasionally myself. It was look and learn approach. Then after many failures and deaths...I ran into 2 german players (ladies irl) who had been playing from the start. They picked me up and I followed them round at this stage I had some basic skills and an opalo. They ran me round collecting TPs and team hunting (which they kindly kept putting on share loot no matter the ability I had on killing the mobs so I was getting a tiny bit of loot as well!). My service to the noob started then and has been for the last 5 years of gaming in EU.
The essence of our gaming community will be that there are those who run ahead and never look back, those who learn and pass this onto those they meet. Then there are a select few who are always there for noobs and assist because this is a great part of the game.

To assist the new players to the world a player needs to be given an option. Stay and learn or move forward at your own peril!

My vision would be a series of connected capsules of an established initial base camp that has long been vacated for a city/outpost that then became the new centre for those who proceeded the current players now arriving. Within these capsules the usual game terminals exist (may look different but same function), it looks very scientific with a one or two with a military feel.

The capsules sit on a huge ledge between a deep and wide natural gorge/trench and an array of jungle covered peaks and rock formations. 2 old bridges made from natural resources have been erected and lead away across to a plain before being swallowed into more dense vegetation. The military capsule has cross hatch windows which have mounted opalo like weapons allowing colonists to shoot with UNL ammo but not claim loot due to the distance (gun training options). Auto cannons function from time to time but may allow mobs to sometimes to come across the bridges and pass by to the jungle behind (trouble for miners). New colonists could wander across the range mining or around the plateau/ledge the camp sits upon.

Inside the capsules it is like a working comm centre with video screens that can play a tutorial as if made by early colonists explaining the new gear (like testing for rest of team with results recorded). The narrative could give hints etc as to what the colonists using thought would be a better approach to mining and weapon use. Videos on expedition teams findings could be released through here for initial quests to lead players ready to leave away into the rest of the landscape. Old players may recall the EBN video where the trox kills the reporter...something like that approach (Cyrus would love this!).
Those wanting to run ahead can leave and attempt to get through swarms of mobs beyond the bridges and hopefully to safety. Mature players could lead teams across the bridges and try and break out helping noobs escape the confines of the camp.
This is the controlled environment without it being so visibly controlling. Odd low maturity mobs could be found on the rock formations and within the jungle for sweating/hunting as well as the passing flying creature that could swoop and attack without provocation.
Ancient ruins, lava vent tunnels (some maybe providing another escape) as well as shrines and mysterious and dangerous remnants of an ancient culture (traps)

Just a thought....

 

Hi David,
One thing I found lacking on Calypso was a community spirit especially from day one. I was thinking that maybe during new player orientation you could have some team based activities? For example a group of noobs lead by a mentor or even just noob based team activity. These could be sponsored by societies if there needed to be extra mentors. These activities could cover hunting for example which is best if team based. This could be a great way to develop teamwork, allow noobs to find friends, and provide a way to introduce etiquette.

 

Cheers Aly

 

We need to teach then
"Not to beg"
Ask for help, don't ask for handouts
We all like helping the noobies.
We are there to answer there questions and offer advice.

I'm your Mentor, not your ATM

 

Thats just defectors from WoW and Farmville that ask for the free stuff all the time.. real gamers tough it out and dont ask for help till the first stranding at an outpost and thats only after 3 days when the water supply runs out.

 

New arrivals in my opinion should autimaticly get "guide" or smthng, and the "guide" should tell him what to do in the first playing days like we had mentorship on planet calypso. The difference is the guide should be not a real human but just a program. Afcourse there is smthng like this in Planet calypso but still smthng is missing... When i started playing EU there was no information how to start playing at all i was running around and exploring things, but now FPC added alot of info to new players but still... If i were a noob and started playing EU i definetly wanted some action not just to read info bars. So i think u should make some action for noobs that give them alot of info and fun. Just do it better then FPC did with the missions.. theyr missions are boring.

 

The Gateway idea and new player area as added was a great idea but in part badly implemented. There's to much 'running around' trying to find things and to much overlap of learning, at least I thought. The chance for players to use items and do things is a great way to learn.

Maybe if it was set up more in 'stages' it wouldn't be as confusing. Do one thing, go to next area, do another and so on with warning each time that you can't turn back and to be sure to learn everything about a current area.

For example:
Staging area 1 - learn to move avvy, chat tools, basic overall interface stuff.
Stage 2 - hunting - how to equip, use, hot key etc.... .. chance to do it a bit
Stage 3 - crafting - how to etc...
Stage 4 - mining - how to etc... ..


OMG.. just noticed.. I'm a noob here! WOOT!

 

But the problem is, that some newcomers only want to shoot like in an ego shooter. And so they aren't able to finish just the first hunting mission! Often they have no idea how EU works. And to give them a gun and ammo for free... the wrong idea is even stronger in their heads.

AND in most cases they don't read the texts given from the NPCs. The Community Advisers try to help, but they can't do anything, if the newcomers broke their guns after senseless hunting.

On the other side, to be totally free IS an important part of EU. If a newcomer is railroaded through the tutorials, he doesn't learn the important parts. And is thrown in cold water, after leaving the tutorial area to the real Arkadia...

 

I wrote a mission that covers alot of what stage one and two of your ideas are. I am currently making a small world in the crysis sandbox 2 to learn how this is done and to test its usefullness. Its kinda fun really. Specially since I have never done any game making at all other then a few maps and missions in the original warcraft editor long long ago.

Once those are written and complete I may forward the ideas on for possible use later.

 

Hehe, cool!

But CB, place face the imbecility of people, that have never played EU or Crysis or such games.

And it would be even better, if you could find a way to get the misssion texts done in different languages.

 

I did the dialogs about a basic as one could be. Literally the npc tells player press button X to do this action.. then player must repeat the actual button press before the dialog continues. Of course this is skipable for those with no paitence..and repeatable for those with no clue.

As far as languages doesnt EU have selectable languages to choose from at start to interpret the games dialogs and chats?
I see many laungage scripts in chat in game alot lately, specificly Swedish and Russian.

 

I think EU have English(default) and then French, German and Spanish languages to select from. And I guess when you choose another language that the mission texts will also be displayed in that language...
A lot of good things here in this thread and on this forum for not even being close to be released yet

Swedish you always seen and i guess that depends on that the company behind the platform is based here, I however try to speak English in main chats all the time, especially in crowded places

 

I know you only want a short and quick introduction, so i guess this is too much, but have you considered the ending of the mission to be something like the ship you crashed in is about to blow up, and you have to get out there as fast as possible, so you can use a vehicle to get out there? (which is ofcourse destroyed when you reach the mainland). Vehicles are a lot of fun (especially a valkyrie over a dusty road or bendable bushes (that don't stop the car)!)

 

Hey Harmony,
This is very similar to the beacon missions we used to have. Just that instead of running for our lives, we'll be using the vehicles to commute. Not sure if you're talking about the New Player missions or General missions. We could do this for the general missions but maybe not so much for the new player area. This area would be more suited for letting new players familiarise themselves with basics controls, navigation and user-interface, preparing them for Planet Arkadia.

 

Well i was actually talking about the newbee missions (although a general mission would be awesome too). Because driving in a car (and making huge jump clifs) is something that is way more fun that shooting/mining/crafting, and you wanted a fun way to introduce people to the basics. And vehicles have basic controls too right? (Yes i'll keep on dreaming)

 

Maybe for the language barrier problem you could have signs at the entry points with a little bit of information to start.

1. How to use chat.
2. What to do if no one responds in your native language.
a. Use english if you have any fluency in it.
b. Go to the Planet Arkadia Forum and post questions there in the Non-English speaking help section.
3. How to move
4. etc. whatever you can fit in without creating an eyesore


You could make a section of the forum strictly devoted to players helping players in their native language.

Have threads started by existing players in various languages to offer help which the new player could post in.

Could be an opportunity for this forum and planet to stand out from the crowd.

Moderation of that part of the forum could be problematical, but I think would be well worth the effort.

Perhaps as the section progresses, "mini-mods" would be assigned to moderate in their respective native languages.

Community building would be intensified greatly by this I think.

 

that would be a nice thing Dab, if you need Swedish mods I can be of service
(doubt Swedish is one of the languages needed tho lol)

 

I hate to double post, but this is a totally seperate idea so...


Perhaps some starter missions which give a little bit of lessons into the harsher side of life in EU. As said in the thread earlier, people are breaking their guns without completing the missions.

TURRETING 101
An NPC wants to see a (insert mob name here) up close. Teach them about agro by having them approach a mob and telling them to run back to the NPC when it starts to attack them. "Oh damn, the turret killed it, oh well."


CAUTION: THINGS BREAK HERE

Make one of the first missions go as such:

The player talks to the NPC and is told they need to kill 3 mobs of type X and are given a (L)gun and ammo (or a melee weapon) to do so, also have the NPC tell them that if they have trouble, to return for advice. Make this mission impossible to complete in 1 step by making it so the given weapon breaks in the middle of killing the second mob. (earlier you would have insructed them on how to survive by using turrets)

When they return to the NPC they are told something along the lines of "Oh damn, I gave you the wrong weapon that one decays like crazy." (Explain decay and limited weapons), the NPC tells them to be careful to conserve their weapon as much as possible until they learn the ins and outs of life on Arkadia.

"Well, thanks for trying, my fault really, sorry. Go talk to Xambulik, he'll get you fixed up with a better weapon."

Xambulik gives a similar mission with the weapon given being unlimited (but really really really crappy stats) but in need of repair (how to use the repair terminal), after the player kills the 3 mobs, they return to Xambulik and he tells them to sell that crap weapon to the TT and buy a (insert (L) newbie weapon here) from the TT and come back for their next mission.

Xambulik tells them to kill X amount of another mob "Be careful, don't wear your weapon out shooting at tin cans."

If they screw up (accidently or on purpose) and don't kill all the mobs - "I told you so, but at least you tried."
If they kill all the mobs "Good job, I think you could do well here."

KNOW YOUR MARKET

Have an NPC which offers to buy an item from the player which they recieved from an earlier quest. they recieve some few pecs for the item and are told to talk to another NPC who might be interest in another item they have.

The second NPC tells them they should have checked the market price since the first guy only gave them 75% of the value they could have gotten. (explain market graphs). Also this guy is not really interested in buying anything.

Also some brief explanation that the graphs, while accurate for the auction, may not be a true indication of the street price.


Don't make it so you can't finish the missions because you didn't kill X amount of mobs. At least give them the "Thanks for trying" result as an out.

Other lessons I'm sure people can think of.