The tutorial, needs a rework.

Hey all, just got the game, I played UO for many years when I was a kid, it was my first MMORPG, so of ​

course hearing this game was close to releasing I snatched it up and dove right in... Until the tutorial.

I was pretty happy at first, the tutorial seemed mandatory... So the straight forward path and small area ​

was very welcomed. I made my character, talked to the oracle, and then re-chose to be made a mage lol. I went through the moongate and was still very hyped to play. Only to find I was in more tutorial. The blood river massacre.. Sounds cool, but theres a huge problem with it... I am incredibly bored with it. I can't quite put my finger on why, but it did not suck me in.

I will be 100% honest in how things have gone trying to get past this tutorial zone so far... I started ​

yesterday, I am still in the zone as I find it mentally difficult to push through the tutorial to get to the actual gameplay. I looted the bodies and crates in the burning building, and found 4-5 lore books right away... Lore is important to me, but this method of delivery is a bit painful. I'm already annoyed that I can't skip this tutorial zone designed for, I assume, children who have never played a single rpg game on the pc in their life as it tells me the same mundane instructions in most games these days, but while trying to get past this zone i'm bombarded with optional lore which, if delivered through another method, would have been great and interesting, but I just started playing a new game! I have an excitement rush, I want to do things! What I don't want to do is be bogged down by tons of little books giving you pieces of different background information. Ultimately I found myself playing a few mobile games on my phone, and then cleaned the house and went to sleep.. I want to play the game, but this zone is just so boring.

The thing is, I just came to this world, had a robot tell me I am the avatar, and now in a burning village ​

filled with dead people, but so what? Ask these questions.. 1. Why should I care about this? I don't know these people, I have no emotional attachment to anyone here, why am I helping? 2. I can't figure out if the dead people are humans or elves... Maybe I missed something, but its hard to tell. 3. I have no strong feelings one way or the other about either race yet... So with all of that, its a struggle to push through this content. So I had a few suggestions for fixing this and making things alot more enticing to new players.

Add a skip option for those who are familiar with mmorpgs and are willing to get information through ​

other sources, like google, youtube, discord, etc, or make the tutorial a non-mandatory quest from an npc that you can easily just skip and dive right into the content of the game, much like UO just dropped you right in the middle of the game and let you do what you wanted.

Make lore an experience! You can keep the random books everywhere, but add lore that jumps right out ​

at you! You know what would have been great? For a cinematic to play after going through the moongate, a custom specially designed video, or a gameplay cinematic. In the very beginning you could have showed a general cinematic describing the current world, some of the major events going on, a bit on the history, something to hook the player and let him know why he should care, describe the other races and some of their stuff to allow the player to start to get attached to one or more of them, to hate or love them. With accessing new, key areas, like going through the first moongate, you could include smaller cinematics about the town, the people, the events happening there, maybe a prelude of what was happening before things went to hell. You know how as you did stuff in fable, and it would have that little narrator movie playing, telling you about the events, the people, the history, what was happening, or had happened? That would be absolutely perfect for hooking players in! Further? A good cinematic will keep the excitement going! Its like biting into a chocolate donut and reaching the cream filling. A good cinematic in a game is like a hard warhead candy with a liquid sour center. First its super sour, so your adrenaline is pumping, then you reach the sweet shell and its good, and enjoyable... And when that cinematic starts? Thats when you hit the liquid and you get a big burst of excitement to draw you further in! The current tutorial? Is a spiral downward.. Its a piece of fruit stripe gum, amazingly flavorful for 1 minute, and then its just flavorless chewing the rest of the time, and you just really want to make it to a trash can so you can finally spit it out.

 

There is a cinematic intro at the outset of the game when you first play it. You can even rewatch it if you want by clicking View Intro when you star the game. I agree the tutorials shouldn't be compulsory and more cut-scenes might be more helpful for filling in lore. It gets much better after you are done with tutorials. I wasn't aware they were mandatory, except for the Blood River Massacre part(which didn't take too long.) Anyway, welcome to SOTA, and I hope things get more enjoyable for you!

 

The narrative of the opening introduction is pretty much arbitrary and has little to nothing to do with the lore or the game that follows, other than a few passing mentions.

 

I never mentioned how valid/ good it was. Merely that it existed. It is far from arbitrary and has everything to do with the game. It covers how outlanders ended up in New Britannia, which is the crux of the lore in this game.

 

Well, It's just 5 to 12 - late, but not too late for changes

To be honest: There was a lot of work doing them and I appreciate this! Thank you for your work!
There are players who will enjoy it to be taken by their hand, and of course, like you, there are players who don't want ...

@Lum the Mad, @DarkStarr,
this could be one of THE virtuous questions given at the start scene from the Oracle, if we would like to have a helping hand on our path after leaving the moon gate

So players, who decide to be on their own could explore without any - tutorial - help.
No need of blue glowing at doors, bodies or locks, if we choose to be an Avatar on our own

I am with you, in that, @sefer :
It would be great to have a decision, if we want to have the tutorial(s).

Beside this, I don't think, they are boring and I suppose, there are a lot of people, no Ultima/UO veterans(!) who will be very thankful for it!

 

About choosing my path - and then choosing to be a "Mage", "Ranger" or "Fighter" ....
... I asked about in a few threads, like here, because I don't think, this isn't necessary: each Avatar can choose his Character ...

 

It does? How exactly does it say outlanders arrive in new britannia?

 

That's not what I said. I said:

This cinematic describes the cataclysm and the arrival of outlanders:

"...Now Dire Prophecies are beginning to come true as the land is flooded with Otherworlders"(the land being New Britannia)

As I said, it is the crux of the lore, not the lore in it's entirety. It gives you a basic premise and, as you play the game, the lore fills in. If you want to rewatch the video you can here:

Shroud of the Avatar Opening Cinematic

 

... so you didn't say that it covers how avatars arrive in new Britannia? Or you did but that's not what you meant?

Because nothing in your post or in the introduction actually says how anyone actually arrives in New Brittania. It apparently just kind of happens.

But hey defend it all you want

 

The whole game needs a rework

 

I said it covers how they ended up in New Britannia. It doesn't come right out and say it. I never claimed that it did say that. Again, it gives you the basic premise and then the game fleshes out the story. The opening paragraph in the video mentions otherworlders(outlanders) flooding the land(New Britannia.) I'm not really sure what you are missing.

I agree(story wise that is), that the story definitely needs a rework.

 

You picked the one starting location that does that to me too. Courage and Love both have a lot less "stuff" lying around to distract the player from the game. Truth is like "I'll take this plow, here's a yoke, crate crate crate crate, a million lettuce, books, jeez I've been in this zone picking up trash for half an hour.

 

So let's take this at face value. A new player gives feedback about what didn't connect with the end user.

I'd say the best approach is to ask ," how can this opening be improved to connect with a larger audience," rather than, "let me explain what was meant to happen and be said instead of what actually happened and was said."

 

Suggestions for improved opening:

• Probably remove a lot of the items that new players would pick up, that are not that important. I know when I started an Ultima game, if I could pick it up .. I did! A book, yes! I may need that information later and I may not get that book again (I would not know that being a new player). Every arrow! Every sword! Every gem!
• Don't make the entry scenes optional ... just make them less messy I guess, i.e., remove many distracting items. People DO need to learn the small basic things to do (use a weapon, attack and kill something, loot the body, learn something from an NPC, use the Journal, accomplish a task, etc.).
• The entry scenes are perhaps double-edged swords ... familiarize the new player with mechanics and how to interact with the storylines/NPCs, and/or, familiarize the new player with the actual storyline to at LEAST let them know there IS a storyline!
• Many books early on can distract the new player, unless they are relevant to the quest line. I don't recall if any of the books encountered in the starter scenes relate to the storyline itself, or if they are mainly library books not of great storyline consequence.

Finally, the real lore experience comes after the starter scenes I think (and the starter scene/tutorials should make sure the new player understands that somehow) ... as one talks to the NPCs and follows quests that relate to Truth, Love, and Courage. So the Lore Experience is the main paths to follow after entering the game. The starter scenes should imply this more perhaps, somehow.

If it's too late for the starter scenes to be changed for Episode One, oh well. We can get through it and help new players. However, we should continue feedback so starter scenes in Episode Two can be even better. To me, EP1 allows us to experience the real game with the core mechanics and Book One supporting the storyline. EP2 can be enriched based on all our experiences from EP1, and Book 2 leads us to more things to anticipate and discover.

Oh, somehow, New Players should be encouraged to get/read Sword of Midras (Book One) via some dialog in the starter scenes. That helps people understand the world and history if they are interested.