Stream from New User (not myself)

Discussion in 'New Player Experience Feedback' started by Bedawyn, Sep 2, 2019.

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  1. Bedawyn

    Bedawyn Avatar

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    Devs... please take a look at this stream from a new player running through character creation and Battle of Solace Bridge: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/475562880 Start at 02:28 in (hours, not minutes; the earlier part of the stream is STO). This was one of the players who started and abandoned on the Isle of Storms and is now giving it another try. It gives a great perspective on some of the problems that have been introduced in the current version of the NUE as well as those continued from before.

    The stream gets off to a slow start, but that's also part of the NUE... the time it takes to load up the game, create a new account, decide whether you're going to bother with this game at all when there are other things to spend your time on....
     
  2. Kabalyero Kidd

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    I really like the Isle of Storms... it has that Isekai Manga / Anime feel to it... Arabella is like the Goddess that you meet in the other world that will give you a cheat skill and will reborn you into this new world of fantasy and magic where you are the destined hero... as someone who enjoys reading Isekai stories, I really dig it... too bad it was removed... :(
     
  3. Bedawyn

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    Yep -- the things you mention are the things I disliked about the Isle of Storms, but there was plenty else I did like about it. The one problem with Isle of Storms that this streamer mentioned was a problem moving -- I had the same problem my first go, and it had everything to do with performance and nothing to do with the Isle of Storms content. On the other hand, sending him "straight into the action" in Solace Bridge without a tutorial sends him straight into other problems. When there's hundreds of other games to play, we can't afford to lose people who see a huge learning curve ahead of them with no rewards in sight.

    (And no, I'm NOT talking about the people who can't be bothered to use their own brains -- but about basic game mechanics that the new player isn't told about until long after they need the information.)
     
  4. Sulaene Moon

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    Just like the streamer, it took a few for the child quest to activate for me. All the while I thought I needed to hurry since everything was burning and on fire. It took a few moments to register and I realized that there was no rush in the fire/burning house. It was good to see him rubber banding/hitching like I do.
     
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  5. Paladin Michael

    Paladin Michael Bug Hunter

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    Never thought the intro was the problem of people leaving the game, but the too many load times ...

    Please, @Lord British, @Sannio, bring the intro back! (And yes, would be great to have NO load times in there ...)
    May be just an option at start menu: "INTRO"
    AND of course for OFFLINE VERSION to get into the story, how it should be!

    Consider, please:
    Most people who wanted and backed for an offline game like Ultima VII, appreciated the story!
    To cut the intro from online mode (even I really don't understand it) shouldn't mean to cut the intro from the whole game - especially from the offline mode :(
     
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  6. Sulaene Moon

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    Considering they made 3 or 4 passes on the NUE and nothing seems to keep people they may just want to take it back to the original version.
     
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  7. Beaumaris

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    Does your meet minimum spec requirements? Even with an older PC, I was not having that challenge.
     
  8. Jason_M

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    I think a lot of optimization has occurred with time. Last summer at blood river, it was very difficult to double click anything, which was very irritating. It was some time before I learned to use E to interact. These days, on the same install on the same system, I rarely ever have similar issues.

    Things have definitely been improving in terms of optimization.
     
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  9. kaeshiva

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    Its always interesting to see where people get hung up on this.
    I made a new character when they changed the NUE and found the whole thing with the child and the tutorial to be extremely clodgy. Didn't like it at all.
    Personally, I think the current quest tech / conversation system is too clunky to be part of the 'first impression' new people get. I know this is being worked on, at the moment its a big put-off.


    Sadly, most people wont take the time to read stuff anyway. Especially early on - new game - you wanna see what the combat's like. I think it'd be more useful to log these tutorial hints/tips etc. in the task journal where they can be referred to, or to make the journal into a sort of searchable field manual (many other modern games do this) and when you learn something new it can say 'new tooltip added to field manual' or some such. Means you can read it at your leisure instead of having to sit there and force your way through it -right now- or, more likely, skip past all the text and then miss something important.
     
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  10. Vladamir Begemot

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    The player population will be in an eternal holding pattern until the quest system is attractive.
     
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  11. Bedawyn

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    I was just below, but unexpectedly discovering that your brand-new computer is STILL below minimum spec for a free game is part of the NUE. More importantly, Chris himself said they only realized this summer that the starter areas were among the worst-optimized of the game. The devs have also said that the people abandoning on the Isle of Storms were doing it all over the Isle, not in specific places -- this means whatever was making them give up was more likely something that affected the whole Isle, not specific interactions on the Isle.

    My point was that removing the Isle of Storms and Anais' tutorial did not solve the problems of the NUE and in fact introduced more problems, as this user experienced. At this point, I'm not expecting them to bring back the Isle any time soon, if ever. However, I DO expect that they should fix the new problem where new would-be players are not informed of basic game mechanics and need other players to tell them how to get into or out of combat, switch weapons, loot things, heal, etc.
     
  12. Cora Cuz'avich

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    I kinda liked the original (well, to me, as of around R44) Isle of Storms as a character creation spot only. I'd like to see it come back once the other starting areas are beefed up to the same extent as the current default one. Maybe change it so the Oracle asks you its questions, then suggests a starting path based on your answers. When you use the lunar rift, you then get a choice of which path to begin on. And to really be fun, have Anais on the path that leads to the rift. If you stop and talk to her, she gives you a short bit about choosing the path of Chaos. If you stopped to talk to her, then using the rift gives a fourth option to allow Chaos to choose your path, which would then be random. Of course, it would have been extra extra fun if a path of Chaos had been part of the main quest, for those few of us who think the Obsidians had it all figured out, but I digress...

    (To be fair, I have half a theory/hope that a path of Chaos will be part of episode 2.)
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2019
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  13. Doctorface

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    STO and Sota? Someones getting a message.
     
  14. Astirian

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    I love this idea!
     
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  15. Jason_M

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    Seconded!

    I've always hoped for a path of chaos as well. Not the path of anti-virtue, but a more pragmatic, nuanced story.

    In my own day dream, it would involve Perri the Unchained and his path to redemption. (That story could be so awesome. What the hell happened? He just forgot about the revolution and sat in his enemy's library? Shouldn't he be in the damn hills coordinating a guerilla campaign or hiding out and printing manifestoes or operating some kind of underground railroad for fauns? Most disappointing aspect of the plot by far.)
     
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