What to expect as a new player

A previous comment in another thread got me thinking about new player expectations, mainly come release when the marketing train kicks in. Not sure if any of this has had an official response.

I'm mainly thinking players coming in keen to get into the housing market, hoping to make weapons and armour and be able to sell them effectively to make money, what the state of the end game will look like both economically and from a PvE aspect come release, people wanting a new fresh experience and competing on an equal level.

Does the game have plans in place to be ready for that situation? No wipe to me is a crazy decision but it is what it is and the game will need to deal with these issues.

 

Either way you look at it, this game was not designed and was intentionally designed against new players being able to come in and within a week or two run a thriving business in game with their own shop, vendor, etc. That is a long term goal that requires time and social commitment. Learning how to barter, find the best deals on resources, etc... not for the fickle. This should be well understood before purchase if the new player has done any research at all into the game.

 

The average player experience seems to be moving with the median player. I'd expect noob friendly decisions like letting salvage boost base skill and grinding XP on grain and the like to disappear before release.

 

I was thinking more, would they be able to do it at all? Will there be room for them in a game that has essentially been out for some time when a full release finally comes around. Will the economy be bloated? Will it support an influx of brand new players?

They will be expecting something approaching a new MMO release experience.

 

Not with drops as nerfed as they are. I can feel those gold sinks working. The question is more whether there will be an economy at all by then?

 

Very true right now and the economy will change later.

If the economy was higher yield right now, we'd have even more millionaires billionaires in the game. I'm truly looking forward to the coming "player based economy". It's been said many times in the past that our economy may be more "things based, than gold based" than players may be use to from other games. There has even been talk of guilds being able to produce their own currency. So, we'll just have to wait and see how all this comes out in the coming years, but one thing is certain, is that the early bird here is catching the worm. You can all take that however you want to, but I can say that it's by design that early backers of all levels of early backing do have a great advantage to the future in virtual economic ways.

Just some comments from a player who's read of many things for a long time around here.
~Time Lord~

 

As a casual:

You can forget that...this is not a long time thing, its a "forget it, your to late" thing.

1.) if your new you run against a wall of player owned vendors, handled by players that do nothing else in game. If your a casual player like I am, there is no point at all in crafting or being part of the "economy"...well unless of course buying stuff at a vendor is taking part in the economy, in that case...your REALLY taking part in the economy.


2.) Gathering ressources. Alone for that, you need to have a dive into the game...to find the zones that actually give you the needed ressource is an act in itself. Then...even if you happen to work your behind off to get ressources, you will very soon notice that you can get most stuff by buying ressources from players and other sites for real $. So..you can spend your week harvesting clik node, click node, click node...or you can simply buy a stack of a few hundreds for less then 10$.
http://www.shroudmarketplace.com/ So...yes..the economy in this game needs you...as a customer.



Alone the fact sir...that you demand players to "research" before taking part in the game, is so far off anything "welcoming" that I dont know what to say, as if you were a sort of club that people get admitance to if they do exactly what you expect.


A good player experience starts at day 1 good Sir, no matter how much research someone puts into this prior to purchase....unless of course you simply want money and dont care after the sale if the customer is actually enjoying it. That view is ok...for a game in production, the excuse "work in progress" might still work, but as I understood it, there will be a release soonish.


----

This is my view on the matter from my casual solo-ish gameplay style. I know, many think that if I chose to play alone, its my own fault...what is another topic

Have a nice day all

 

Maybe you misunderstood what I was saying. As an informed consumer I always "research" a product before I purchase it to figure out if it's worth buying. . . I don't just say, "well what should I throw my money away on today?", and then buy a bunch of stuff and HOPE that one of them is good...

 

i think the biggest problem with a new player coming in at release is going to be something like it was in ff11 when it came to america. theres going to be a bucnh of people with a huge head start and it will take years for people to catch up if they ever can.

 

Thats awesome...and looking at the stage in development we are in, everyone that gets a bell ringed with "ultima" is here...what could start another discussion cause the tears of ex ultima players not liking this SotA are many in this forum.

But lets continue...as a source, you used this site? Just imagine you would come here today (with 40-50$ in your pocket for the average game titel) and the first thing that jumps you is the seedinvest thing on the frontpage asking 500$ for a buy in. Since Garriot is asking for more Dollars...would you put your hard earned $ here as a new player? Me? First I would get a "WTF?!?" over my head...then maybe have a look into that seedinvest...and then I would run for my life, aeh...money. You? Honestly...imagine you find this site only today....what would you think?

And more...lets go on...what else we have as source, Youtube? Did you have a look at YouTube, at what you get if you just enter "Shroud of the Avatar"? Do it right now...enter those words in YouTube "search" and then tell me if you find ANY comment or video that would make you buy SotA today.

Steam? Dont let me start there...Ok, I agree...nobody takes steam serious in matter comments, but again...there is no good word to be found there.

The only positive source are players that are happy with the game right now, or do you have an idea? Cause...sorry...years ago when this was "new" it was "weeee....Garriot is making a new game...must have"....today you need to run miles to get a positive comment or source that is not negative.


Now...just imagine a new player comes here...he/she is either all-in and joins a guild or is in for a hard time of trial and error.


Look, I am playing since...uh...dunno...a felt while (with pauses) but do you think I know the best way to make an awesome bow? Do you have a clue about how Long I tried to make a masterwork before I understood I need to get to ardoris and buy the recipe for masterworks....even the videos about crafting dont explain that, and if they do...its in english spoken by someone that uses a lot of "ahh, aehhh....arrrgs...maehhh" and other words that make a non native speaker have a hard time.



And please...this is not me being negative, nuuh nuhhhh....no Sir.



PS: thanks for the awesome discussion !

 

Today? I would probably use Discord to talk to current and long term players to get a sense of a new game... in fact, I've done that for my last 3 purchases. That, and watch a few gameplay videos I will grant you that the current "front page" of the shroud of the avatar website is designed for current players, not new ones, and hopefully that will change before "launch/large promotional campaign"

 

we agree...exept on the discord...but thats a nice source to, thanks man.

Thanks for the awesome discussion, really.

 

I'll be honest, I was being somewhat ironical. They are trying to do something to deflate exploit wealth out of the economy. I know Chris has more than enough knobs available to reduce the nerfs should it become necessary after the expected population increase a few months from now.

 

As a casual player (10-20 hours a week) the gold sinks, some core design decisions, as well as other factors (I will not get into them here) chased me away.

As a new player? I can't even fathom what it would be like to finish installing the game, fire it up, and load into the floating island with the expectation of a "Lord British" experience. The only advice I could provide someone who is expecting such an experience is to not expect a Lord British game from the days of old. Expect a completely different Lord British experience like you have never had before.

 

As it stands right now, and this has been publicly stated that it's not their intent and will change, the game is a limitless system where there's always something to do to advance your character however marginal it might be, BUT whether or not you want to deal with the pain/misery/suffering etc grind to do so is another thing entirely.

Now if they add in some dailies/weeklies, get an LFG tool (not really sure how this'll work to be quite honest), and give me options as to how I want to go about furthering my character, I will be as happy as a pig in mud. They've stated this is the intent, so we'll see in about 5-6 months what we're looking like around the supposed release time.

The "head start" I think will be marginalized as long as we get a large influx of new players. New market towns will spring up and be just as popular as, for example, New Brit and Novia markets are now. Location might not be as prime but, as they say, if you build it they will come. In all honesty, I think the ones that should be worried about the head start are ourselves, the ones with it. God only knows what Chris will find to be *TOO STRONK!*

 

Once the game has a system in place for parties they will be able to get experience and help. There are a lot of people, myself included, that offer their services to new players very often.

They wont have a house, they'll be weak and confused. But that's how every game starts. It will be as if you joined any mmo late, which if they aren't playing right after persistence naturally they will be behind.

 

Folks, just wanna point out two things.

The game's been live for a year, no more progress wipes. Folks that started then and took advantage of the not-quite-well-thought-out systems to make money quickly, early, are FAR ahead. Players just coming in, as casuals, have absolutely NO chance of catching up to someone that knows the game and has a year's head start. The uber merchant/economist spots have been filled. If you're just starting now, without dumping SHITLOADS of cash to acquire things to sell for in-game currency, you are not getting to sit in a position as part of the "1%". You missed that boat, sorry.

The economy in its current state isn't something you can apply most laws of economics to. There are VERY few people playing, those that stuck around to this point have their own **** and means to get more easily. Those just joining can't afford to buy things other players make for some time. There is a UBER surplus of stuff sitting on vendors, or in storage, waiting for whenever the game's population picks up - it will take a minimum of six months once the player base is healthy for this to all even out.

Even debating it now is pointless. It's not a real economy, and there's too much that's gone on in the past year that gave people a HUGE advantage in acquiring wealth. SUPER Smart, hard-core players will catch up 6-12 months after a population influx. Casual players, playing <10 hours a week will never, ever catch up. Ever. Unless items get put in the game that have a %.00000001 to be dropped, are mandatory for good ****, and thus sell for a shitload. A new player could get lucky and make $ that way, but that's about it.

If you're not a hardcore, you aren't going to be a major part of the economy. The folks that put the time in and already know the game have superior advantages on you. Focus on having fun.

 

I have to agree with most of what you are saying, @TheBalance. My largest concern is how they chose to "balance" the economy with such a small sample size. Well, to be honest, it used to be my largest concern. Now, I just want the physical goodies...I don't really care about the game at this point since it was balanced around such a small set of power users.

 

There is a Rent system going in game that allows you to rent rooms/houses from other players who own land. many people will be utilizing this and it will be the best bet to get a shop set up for new people coming in. There will also be bullitin boards for advertising (if i rememebr right) and there are public vendors in which to sell things. It is not a neccessity to have a "prime location" to be competitive.

Another thing is that Tax free lots are limited. there arent enough to fill the game. Many ltos will be taxed and if the tax isnt paid, it will go vacant allowing another lot to be placed there.