New Player Experience

What finally hooked me and is hooking others, is just going out and exploring the world. I entered every scene and town I came across, and quickly saw the variety and excitement in the game.

My request is to have the new player start at the world map, with a message telling them to go explore this new world. Maybe some quick tips like visit every town crier for gold and visit the Oracle once a day for gold and XP. I would also like to see every new player get a lot deed and house. When players have a place of their own in this world, they are more likely to return it. It would also help to fill up all the empty lots.

 

Remember I am speaking the following as some things to consider when creating the structure of implementation of anything new to the game. Imo it we act blindly without hearing any thoughts won't help the game. The Starter area has been through the ringer enough times. I vote we get it right and I'm not saying I am right but to hear different points of view to consider. This game is special.

Imo To say what an mmo is or should be is limiting to who will come and play the game. Allowing a player to choose to interact with others or not has always been important.

Once typically solo type players are more confident some will migrate to interacting with others and this may be limited interaction.

Forcing full interaction again imo is not going to be helpful or advantageous for some players. I feel We would lose many of those players.

For example playing ffxiv for your class quests you were forced into a group. For some that was fine but for others there was anxiety being forced with no option or alternate path being available available to progress your characters class.

Shroud of the Avatar was advertised as play your way. Not giving players a chance to forge their own paths in the mmo portion of the game forces them to single player or to leave.

The mmo game needs players for economy and much more. Again If players can't survive the mmo game we lose them to another game or single player which is missing many game play opportunities.

For example building friendships over time. Perhaps even missing out on Learning to sync songs in a group. Also to find your own niche. Why do I care so much about solo players in mmo games is because I am that player in many mmos I have played. It took time and a special game to bridge that for me.

Forcing the interaction and not giving out basic information about what is available to do in this game is a mistake. The knowledge journal with tabs explaining game features and quests to try all systems is mostly missing. Also repeatable progressive quests. To force the option to get more information on to speaking with others is not going to help the game.

To say we provide players with a book to tell of game systems and not read by many and is not visual and is not working. Players are still unknowing about what's available to do in this game.

Some players I talk to even after being here a while are very surprised to hear of game features.

My feedback is to consider in the mmo game the different types of players and create content with that in mind.

 

One suggestion I would make to improve the new player experience is: At character creation add a bit where the player can choose a few tier one adventure skills and have them on their ability bar as soon as they get into the world. This puts one of the best features of the game right in front of the player at the very beginning. The character building. It also serves to get them invested in their character right away. They can look at all the skills and immediately start forming ideas on builds. The fact that they have to wait until they get to a trainer (Solace Bridge Outskirts camp) until they get a taste of this feature is a real shame. Get em on the hook before they even get in the world by filling their head with ideas on creative character builds, right in the character creation menu. Even just four or five skills to give them a taste and get them looking at the higher tier skills they actually want, and seeing the path to get there. And don't force them to pick an archery skill and put it on their bar to advance to the Outskirts. Let them pick the skills they want to start with, and make it part of making their character. That's how you get players invested early.

 

I agree with you that collaboration is the key and your opinion counts. We should work to gather as crowd-sourcing has a proven success record. I trust the devs like Sannio to know what is going to work best from a wholistic approach. My thought wasn't so much to force multiplayer on every new player. It was drop them at the world map and just let them go explore. You can drop them next to Solace Bridge Outskirts and give them the choice to go there or not. You can encourage them or draw their attention to Solace Bridge Outskirts. But I honestly think most players will instead choose to run around the world and drop into random scenes. What worked for me and what I have seen work for others is entering a random scene and just seeing the sites and encountering the enemies. The faster people get to the action, the happier they seem to be. The action is what is hooking new players.

The single player story is still there for when they are ready. I think the story quests are best for players who are invested in the game. They will come across the main story organically as they explore the world. But I don't think they should be thrust into the main story from the start.

 

The issue is that there is a barrier to the deed. They have to play the quest which honestly doesn't give the best impression. It took me 5 years to finish it, because I kept starting and stopping SOTA. I tried to follow the story but it felt like a work-in-progress. So I would give up after a day or so and plan on checking back in 6 months. I feel that the new player should be dropped on world map, with the deed already. Give them something from the very start that is going to get them attached and invested in coming back. Make them feel like SOTA is their home, literally. It is a virtual good so it isn't really taking money out of anyone's pockets. I honestly think it would help to retain players and help to fill out the towns.

 

So the recommendation is to provide a lot deed much closer to the start, enabling the Avatar to access the home decoration game earlier?

This sounds reasonable to me, as the virtual 'doll house' and 'player town' aspects of SOTA definitely are defining strengths of the game. Learning character movement/adventure mechanics is a 'different game aspect'. Why not enable access to both, instead of just one, sooner.

 

So Battle of Solace Bridge is working as intended? That's an interesting point of view.

 

If the player gets a chance to learn about the systems like an NPC needs someone to decorate their house a certain way. Tool tips pop up to say things like use q and e keys to rotate item as placing. Use alt z or alt x to change size etc. It could be a fun teaching quest.

Agriculture could be to plant a garden for an injured NPC who gives the seeds and tells where to get water and even how to batch plant and batch water.

These quests could give some gold and xp and perhaps rewards at the end of a lot deed and perhaps things like cooking hat, fishing hat, and other that gives a small boost to xp or skill. Rewarding players with unique items would help to keep incentives to continue and make it more interesting.

 

In my opinion sacrificing the possibility of a nice and engaging start to the game in favor of conveying the WASD basics in a mostly empty and uninteresting scene is a questionable design decision. Like Majoria pointed, there is an infinity of systems that aren't presented to the players at all.
I tried to have 3 friends of mine join SotA. Two of them couldn't endure the blandness of Battle of Solace Bridge, they didn't want a game to school them on WASD, they wanted a game that's fun and engaging to play.

 

And where to settle? New players are advised to play through all 3 of the starting areas, which are at opposing ends of the continent. Having a deed then may end in a house in a place that the player places too early and rarely visits again.

As long as the player is new and has little idea where is what, it´s better to stay mobile and only e.g. rent a room at an inn or become the tenant of a private landlord.
At the start having just a room is enough to store some stuff and try out minor decorations and having a place to return to. And when the avatar has delivered mail and solved quests all over the continen and knows where the character he is playing would belong, then he can use the quest-deed to get some permanent housing. There are so many different cities and towns with completely different landscapes - it´s worth it, to get out and take a look at them all before being able to decide where one´s avatar might want to settle.

I could e.g. imagine a Ranger to settle in a log hut or tree in a forested town. A knight near to a keep or castle. A Wizard at a place that is not even reachable on foot or in an invisible university...

 

This has been my personal experience as well as my experience with others. I am not trying to trash the game. I get it; the team needed to mock up a scene and move on to other parts. The devs did a fine job with their available resources and the time they had. This is not a reflection on the game as a whole or the devs. Solace Bridge is just not an exciting way to start the game nor does it convey the core of the game, which to me is journeying and exploring.

I think starting the player directly on the world map with a lot deed and house in hand, is a great way to get across to the player that the adventure is theirs. SOTA has been stuck between the single-player and multi-player worlds. Starting in Solace Bridge is how you would start a single-player experience. SOTA really needs to lean into the multi-player, open world sandbox experience. I feel like the single-player, main quest experience should take a back seat. Missions are crucial to any RPG, but they don't have to be overarching quest chains. You can have smaller, regional quest chains that players come across organically by talking to NPCs. A new player can jump into a scene to get straight to the combat and come across missions as they explore. They don't need to go from one mission to the next. I think a lot of players don't find that engaging enough. The strength of SOTA is in the combat, crafting, and deco. Put those out there, front and center.

 

I think it all boils down to this: Battle of Solace Bridge doesn't make the game justice.

 

IF Battle of Solace Bridge was more polished, I might agree. To me, Solace Bridge is just as lifeless as the world map. I submitted a suggestion on how to spice it up and make the player feel some sort of urgency and excitement. As the scene is now, it might as well just be a "room" with some basic tutorials before the player is dropped on the world map.

As far as learning the basics, I feel that most players are going to know WASD movement and to click on things to interact. I really don't feel that most people are going to be lost. People that play SOTA are most likely to be playing their first MMORPG or game. You can have brief, context-sensitive tutorial messages pop up at appropriate times. The first time the player encounters an enemy, a brief message pops-up explaining to hit the Z key to enter combat. The first time a player enters a scene on the world map, the game displays a brief message stating how to judge the difficulty of the area and to click on ENTER to enter the area. The tutorials and game info should come organically, through actual play.

 

Unfortunately the dev's response to this will very likely be in the lines of "it's working as intended".

And I 100% agree with your feeling that the overworld map is just "there" as some of the other scenes are, Battle of Solace Bridge being the most prominent.

 

Considering that it´s population was annihilated and undead roam it, it literally is that dead...
However I did not find it lacking. I´m used to appear in a moongate/lunar rift from the former Ultima´s and in SotA you do too. After a few steps you find a handbook at the Ankh if you like to read up on the basics (I do read everything I find). And the next metre you find some arrows and your first zombie around the corner that is usually easily dispatched. The dead bodies really look like there was an undead attack and the girl to rescue and the inn to plunder and the specifically named Bridge Defenders Bow from the fallen soldiers gives an idea of what happened there. There is even at the edge some old cave with the prophecy in it that later is referrred to until you get to the gate and turn to find the guy at the boat to get you out. Nice enough for the first scene and certainly showing more what SotA can than either the Overland Map or the original start on the floating island of the esoteric.

What urgency? In all 3 starting areas the battle has already been fought - and if you as a newbie had been there at the time you would be dead, too. The remaining enemies, while only a fraction of the original force, are still enough to keep you on your toes if you just start the game. If you learned your first skill and one of yout combat skills surpasses 10 you might become more usesull in the Outskirts map but not before...

I usually never use WASD. Most times I use the mouse or the Joystick or the decimal keyboard or the 4 direction keys to move in games.

 

Just my own personal perspective, Battle of Solace Bridge does exactly what it needs to do. Avatars suddenly arrive from Earth to here. There isn't any form of exposition of this transition, which seems a bit off, but interestingly, even in ultima IV you just "suddenly" arrive in Britannia, and that's it. Nothing else. And then as the Avatar progresses through the Battle of Solace Bridge scene, they learn very basic game mechanics. And in that, the scene is just fine. I can't see anything else that even needs to be added to this scene. It does exactly what it needs to do. The rest is up to the Avatar, to go out and find more answers for herself....