New players welcome experience (starting new character, trying help with experience) Part 2 up!

Discussion in 'Feedback' started by Dyonisys, Apr 22, 2021.

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  1. Dyonisys

    Dyonisys Avatar

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    Hi everyone, so this morning I started a new character on stream and main focus was to try and help to see how was the new user experience and maybe how we can bring it to a new level so we attract and keep more players!

    First scene out was solage bridge battlefield :

    - First thing notice out was the book just by the post. This book countains usefull informetion and good to have in game but.... i am not a reader and I surely woudnt have even bother about it if it was'nt me streaming trying out everything.


    First though would be to had in game tutorials as video to show couple of things and how to work with em. Talking about short video about like skillz system (glyph, exp pool), deck system (static and dynamic), crafting, etc (short 2 or 3 min. video to show a bit of system and possibilities).

    - Second thing we only have a staff, a sword and a bow. Maybe we could add one weapon of each tree so people can decide wich combat they wanna play with.

    * We also have the first trainer problem at the end of this scene, we can only train archery.............................................................. that's a big hit as new player and they will wonder why they have no choice but starting with archery (i know there is on on outskirt with all glyph but we don't want this first impression on the first scene). So please unlock at least all the close combat tree : sword, mace, archery, etc. You can leave all other like magic school and heavy light armor out but you may consider adding those.

    * I also notice i barely do NO damage with my sword but it is good and easy with my bow... if you look at stream tou will see what i mean. Takes me 8 sec to kill a skeleton witht the bow but 2 minutes with same simple sword.

    Than we need to rescue this little girl charlotte from burning house : great cool stuff but when entering the house we have big blue corpse and a sheet same big blue : i can understand we want player to get attract and interact there but it is a bit to much imo, take out the immersion in the story.

    Than we find Charlotte and ask her to follow us...we need Charlotte to be able to get out of the house following us instead of reapearing an spawning by us out of nowhere : maybe if it is to complicated in house find a spot or her on a barn just by it. I was trying to get her out and to follow me but i coudnt.

    That's is pretty it for first starting scene in my opinion it looks great, way better than before but those little thing could help make it better :) Solace brige outskirt is ongoing so i will wait before getting a post up for this scene.

    Bjorn Dyonisys
     
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  2. Violet Ronso

    Violet Ronso Avatar

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    YES!
     
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  3. Sannio

    Sannio Lead Quest and Level Designer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Great feedback! I'd like to share a few quick comments.

    Thank you so much!

    If players don't pick up the book, they get it anyway by the time they leave the scene.

    The tutorial has had several major reworks. We've gone back and forth many times on what to add into the tutorial, trying to decide if we're not adding enough or too much. Supplemental books like this one are nice because it offers players extra information while still letting the focus of the tutorial stay concise.

    We share most information with the player with short-term pop-up messages, in-character NPC conversations, (mostly) in-character journal entries, and books. Books are nice because, besides being something the player can keep, sort, or even use as decorations, their content can be "out of character" without worrying about how it affects immersion like you would with an NPC conversation.


    I love the idea of adding helpful videos, but our staff is small so it's unlikely that we'll be able to add anything like this within the foreseeable future. Great idea though!

    The small number of weapon choices comes from the need to keep the tutorial concise. It keeps the focus off trying to decide which weapon "is the best" and keeps it on "this is how you attack with a weapon."

    This part of the tutorial has a similar goal to using weapons. The focus is on how to obtain a skill, not to show the player all the possible skills that can be acquired. The task is "find skill X, acquire skill X, use skill X" (with the smallest bit of choice).

    Most avatars use bows, even before this version of the tutorial revision. I'm not sure why the difference in damage would be too great, but it's probably related to your bow. Something to keep in mind is that the swords throughout the scene are our starter "rusty" versions, wheras your avatar obtains a bow that's a bit better than one you'd find lying around.

    We tried out a few different highlight options back in the day, when it was first added. The blue highlighting is what we settled on. There's a consistency with the highlights, the blue sparkles on the hands of quest-related NPCs, and even the blue compass markers showing you the next task of a quest. Some early versions were much more subtle and better for immersion, but they often went unnoticed by most players so we went with the eye-catching version we have today.

    Are you talking about Charlotte not following you out of her house? That's a bug. Something's wrong with the path grid in that house on the live server and Charlotte can't run after you until you leave the house. The fix is already submitted and it should be on the live server with the next release. (It might already be on the QA server, I'm not sure.) It'll go back to how it used to be, where Charlotte will switch from a normal NPC in her room to a companion that follows you down the stairs and out the door as you'd expect she should.

    Looking forward to that Solace Bridge Outskirts write-up! We periodically re-examine parts of SotA's early scenes and make improvements, but feedback from players can be more helpful than our own observations.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2021
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  4. necronut

    necronut Avatar

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    My brother is brand new at the game, yesterday was literally his first day in game. After I explained to him that Solace Bridge is the Archery tutorial and what we used to have with the 3 outskirts and the Isle of Storms... he asked why we don't have the Isle of Storms anymore.

    Regardless, he had a blast and we ended up playing all night.

    I do miss the Isle of Storms intro though, it was phenomenal.
     
  5. Dyonisys

    Dyonisys Avatar

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    What would REALLY bring the immersion to othet level would be to had a introduction video of the start of the story and why we end up poping in solace bridge...

    This would be AWESOME, instead of just appearing right away in the scene. Would be nice to have a nice video intro.

    @Sannio thx a lot for taking the time to read and answer finished the outskirt and will write up soon my feedback but i can tell those outskirt are awesome and well made good show there. Just one or 2 little things could maybe be changed a bit :)
     
  6. Dyonisys

    Dyonisys Avatar

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    Havent we had a startin video already?! This should be inplented before we pop up in solace bridge battle starting scene!

    We should use virtue video yoi guys already made! Woild be cool intro and give option for player to skip it but would fit perfectly
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2021
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  7. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    The reason for the change to the one starting area was to have new players go through a scene quickly, learn some basics and then get them into the game.

    Many people just don’t want to do any tutorial and just want to “play the game” right away unfortunately. Just like almost every single new player in the game just will completely ignore all 3 outskirts. They just want to login and immediately “play the game”.....

    Then there are the few people that are ok with a tutorial area and will actually go through all 3 outskirts.

    This is just one of those strange and complicated things.

    Just like last night in Discord, a new player was playing our game last night running around scene to scene and completely ignored the outskirts..... this kind of person doesn’t want a long tutorial area and just wants to “play the game”......
     
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  8. Dyonisys

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    Yeah but its not looking like tutorials at least in solace bridge outskirt feels more like quest and storyline a bit so i think it looks good this way. We will always have people skiping it but they will come back when they will know about the row deed :)
     
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  9. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    In speaking to new players over the years (and actually asking them) that isn't the actual issue (its not looking like tutorials at least in solace bridge outskirt feels more like quest and storyline a bit).

    They just want to just create a character and just "Play the game". They don't want to go to any outskirts. They just want to run around on their own and explore. Completely oblivious there's a free row lost waiting for them, if they do happen to want to finish one of the Outskirts areas... How do we address this with this exact person?
     
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  10. Dyonisys

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    Had a window at beginning of reasons to go through those scene (learning, rewards experience, items and emotes) and a skip that brings you right on world map!?
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2021
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  11. that_shawn_guy

    that_shawn_guy Bug Hunter

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    Drop them near the south entrance of the Soltown next to a traveler selling some weapon/armor/etc with practice dummy setup. Let the traveler answer all the NUI "how-to" stuff they need to figure out the basic, train a non-weapon skill or 2, ask for help finding an item in the wagon (so they see the blue glow for quest items), then send them to the bank at the inn. From there, Arabela to the outskirts based on travel distance and completion of the main quests in them.

    Turn the Solace Bridge scene into a standard, but short, exploration scene.

    Maybe that would strike a balance.
     
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  12. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    If I recall correctly, Darkstarr wanted an actual selection screen after character creation and then the player could then just select what they want to do. I also liked that idea. Something like: Start Playing the Game | Start the Path of Courage | Start the Path of Truth | Start the Path of Love | Short Tutorial etc...

    Just for example.
     
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  13. AzazelReborn

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    Intro video would do so much for the game. Many game show you an intro video explaining how you got to this world. What happened to made you end up with a bow in your hand and facing a zombie. How did it get here what was I before this place.

    That's how story start. Your not just teleported to a strange place with no memory and this vague UNDEAD mission that you must reveal.
     
  14. Dyonisys

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    I love this one :



    Already made just need twitch it a bit and its rdy!
     
  15. AzazelReborn

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    why is this not played at the beginning of the game after character creation?
     
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  16. Dyonisys

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    Dont ask me lol @Elgarion @Sannio @Chris
     
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  17. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    The intro video was removed for some unknown reason, which probably was only because some trolls on some website complained about... but in all actuality should not have....
     
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  18. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    "That would have solved it"

    The Fan Base Factions...
    The ~Time Lord~ character still lists "Deliver Gawain's amulet".

    From the beginning there have always been two very different players, one that wanted quests and the other that wanted only the open world. The quest driven players (and developers) never out numbered the players only wishing for an open world, like UO was, which was where the majority of our initial fan base came from. Of these two sides, there was a third force which was a conglomeration from both, who wanted a PvP style only game who faced off with their oppositional fan base, the PvM only players.

    Thus were the factions our world was born from, yet the quest driven supporters became the dominant guiding force, due to developer control.
    Most were coming from UO looking for more UO, and I'm not certain if that's ever changed.
    [​IMG]
    ~TL~
     
  19. Dyonisys

    Dyonisys Avatar

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    - Part 2 review : Solace bridge outskirt -

    So i have now go through the Solace Bridge Outskirt and i am please about how thing were made there. Great quest and good way to make players know a bit about the game without make it feel like a tutorial so i would say overall the dev you made a good job there and the change is awesome.

    I have just spotted two little things taht bottered me. First of all is one of the quest we are going through there name : Investigating the undead mistery. I have nothing against the quest but there is just no clue about what to do and where to go like most of the quest there. So I had to search and run around for quite some times before getting it done. It could be a good idea just to do just like other quests and add some bluu hint on the compass :) i made a video until you work this out on youtube to help players lol

    Second thing that seems a little sketchy is when you talk to either the 3 ghosts we can find in the zone. When interacting with them, the chat window while interacting keeps closing by itself and it is really hard to interact and read what they have to say so might be good to fix it if possible!

    I will now head to soltown and keep questing and move little further in new players first look of npc town :)
     
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  20. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    there are four, you might need to talk to the right one before you can interact with the others
     
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