New User Experience (NUX) - Spoon's QA Feedback - Path of Love

Yes, Dirae. As in Marcus Dirae, who recorded it, as per The Sword of Midras. It is known as the Dire Prophecy due to its contents, which are fairly dire. Been /bugged several times, and is not an error.

 

Yes, but that doesn't hold water from inside the world. Either both should be Dirae after the guy or both should be Dire after the nick.

A Study of the Dire Prophecies, is written as if actual accounts by scholars - such scholars shouldn't use the nick, they should use the correct term on their study and the correct term is Dirae.

It only makes sense on a meta level where the injoke becomes the thing. But such metalevels doesn't make sense from the new user.

 

Battle of Solace Bridge




So we are told there is a sense of urgency - we are not safe - we should escape etc.
I will return to this several times, because we are setting the tone and the scene here, but that builds expectations, which the new user being an "Explorer" soon will find out are completely false.
There is no urgency, nor any need to escape.
But I like this tone, I like this scene, so instead of making it too easy I will add several suggestions to actually make it an urgency - and to make the need to escape an actual thing.

But first - this is an Explorer we are doing so lets find some stuff shall we.

 

Se here we get a small reward for exploration.
Quiver of Arrows.
The new user sees the pointer get green and the tooltip name. So we got the lesson last scene to doubleclick.
Poof - the quiver is gone. But we have yet to learn about Inventory... No text in the chat either giving a clue that we have added it.

Nevermind, lets pretend this user looks in the manual or UI and finds the Inventory.
But if we want options on object X in PCs we know that we should right-click.
Oups, the only option we have on the quiver is Destroy. Why isn't the default here as well? "Unpack Quiver of Arrows". This goes for all objects - the right click context menu really should have all the different ways I can interact with the object.



so I doubleclick it when it is in my inventory to 'use' it. Here we can see first me double clicking 1 quiver, then me double clicking 2 quivers. Couple of things here.

1. I'm being spammed by that child.
2. There is no difference in chat text when breaking one quiver versus many. It should tell me that I broke down 1 quiver, and in the other that I broke down 2 quivers.
3. So I break down 1 quiver = 10 arrows, I break down 2 quivers = 8 arrows, I break down 1 more quiver = 8 arrows, I break down 2 more quivers = 6 arrows.
   This tells me that I'm getting the same random number regardless of how many quivers I break down. So you are punishing stacking here. I think that is a bug.
4. Shouldn't the chat text give me the number of arrows? Instead of having to check Inventory when I'm doing this?
5. Why is the behavior to break down ALL my quivers in the bundle? As a user I'd expect it to break them down one at a time, or at the very least warn me.
   Imagine I have 100 quivers - I certainly don't want all 100 to be broken up on a double click.
6. Why aren't the NPC merchants selling these quivers as bundles instead of bunches of arrows?
7. Why is it a random number? Does that server any sort of purpose? Wouldn't it be much more intuitive and easier for everyone if Quiver=12 arrows or something static like that?

Also
please please please add some arrows stuck in those targets like in Soltown - that gives such a nice feeling when you realize one can interact and take the arrow in the target.

Also
please let us craft these Quiver of Arrows - maybe add a string and a leather strap as the cost. Thus reducing encumberance - at the expense of inconveniance in having to unpack them. This was how we used to bring arrows to a battle - in bundles.

 

Boundaries - as an explorer - the game just threw down a gauntlet here. It is telling me it is dangerous yet I see no danger.
But at the same time it is blocking me here. - I will return to this when we get to the other side.
Note though that the game is re-inforcing "danger" here - although we will again see that there is none of the kind on the other side.

Imagine instead if I could see undead there through the bars.

Also
might want to have that as
"... return to the other gate"
instead as front/back makes little sense to the user at this point.

 

AAEEIIIaaaiiai.
I'm on fire. Which is a really cool thing, I'm taking damage as well, another cool thing. What to do what to do? Well... nothing really just step out and it goes away rapidly. Which is not that cool. What happened to the emote where the avatar was swatting at fires like this?

Also
I get no tooltip, no text, no nothing. I was on fire - but that wasn't a big deal apparently. Here you have an opportunity to do something much more to make the user feel this, and thus build that SotA is more. Especially considering you have fire in all three starter scenes and almost anyone who is too nosy will catch fire at some point.

Also
my instinct when I caught fire first time was to hit the SPACE bar. I'd bet I'm not the only one. Would be really cool if that had a different effect instead of simply making a jump.

 

So here I can interact again, lovely with these things.

Also
I get the sickle - there is some real use for that if the one I got breaks. But that "digging shovel" is only a fake deco item. Placing that here thus builds on a future dissapoint. Which is unecessary - replace it with a 'hoe' that way it is at least useful.

Also
why aren't there any plants here? You build the expectation with tools and a patch of plants. Doing this there really should be something here. After all you have plants in Bloodriver where appropriate. So that is a missed tutorial opportunity.

Also
would be nice if we were not given tools at this point and instead get them from Edvard. So that I actually need to get that sickle to be able to harvest something from that patch of land.

 

Exploring

...and finding a ladder !! Wooot!! Although that
?Ladder?
seems to doubts its own existance.

Lets follow this through. Doubleclick to interact. << reinforce this as much as possible. Remember the verbatim that should be repeated a number of times early on.

Doubleclick the existentially challenged ladder.

Burning roof - the explorer loves this - lets see how far we can get.


Pretty far indeed.
But what am I doing up here? Is there a point that I can go here? Does it make any differnce that I made it here? Did I find any item hidden up here?

Nothing special here.

But
a really good ledge to actually put something. Please?

Also
gfx bug. That plank there is sticking through the roof.




Sweet the explorer thinks, this must be it (we know it isn't) - this plank ledge thing here is of course made so that I can jump over to the otherwise unreachable wall - how cool (although again we know it isn't).

Also
what is that tree doing to that poor wall?



... but nothing here.

Also
another tree - another wall.

Also
how do I get up there in the tower?


Nothing here either.

Also
here the explorer would go over the edge - since this would lead to the blocked of "dangerous" section they were told not to go to.
But we know there is nothing there - only more blocking and no rewards.
Here you really should put some really bad skeletons. Such which would slay new folks easily. So that we learn that if the game tells us it is dangerous - it actually is. Otherwise you are building an expectation of a too easy game - since there is no danger where you tell them. Only it will come - but later on.

 

Finally - our explorer thinks that there is some rewards here for all that hard extra work.

First strike
can't get up in that tower either. Even though it looks like it 15 minutes later - still no way to jump up on top.

Second strike
the body only has 2 gold and a wurm. (ie gold + random loot table)
Just a small note on that body with some extra lore would be super enough for the explorer to think they got something.

Third strike
all those jars and bottles which the explorer definately thinks is the prize.
Its all fake deco items which can only be used by those with housing. (with the exception of the mortar) Can't even be sold to NPC merchants.
Please change this to something one can at least use in crafting - like empty bottles and plates or something, mabe just some sacks of wheat would be grand.

 

Just a sidenote here.

one can totally sneak out, take some stuff, trigger the undead and since one missed the whole dialog about how to fight since one triggered the aggro, run back and hide behind the gate - and edvard will try to do the bridge run on his own.

- love it!!!! This is what explorers want - even though they may have to restart since they broke it...

 

So I can take the books from the burning bookshelf over there - and they are perfectly fine...
Please either make that whole shelf static so I can't take them, or add "burned book" so that if I take those they are only fragments.

Also
I can take the "pewter" over there on the wall shelf. Pewter which we know melts at low temperatures. Please remove.

Also
on the table those are wooden mugs. Which are totally not burning or burnt if I take them. Please change to Ceramic which can survive fire.

Also
that important paper on the table - it is way too close to the fire and should be totally blackened. You might want to move that to the other side next to the crate along with the body where it is not burning as much.

Also
when we return here later there is an impossible amount of intact objects. Plus that they are not in this configuration but instead stand neatly on the table etc.

 

Woot my first crate. - doubleclick to interact

OK, I'm now in combat mode. But no clue or chat about how to get out of it.
So now you have taken the user into combat mode long before you planned to tell them about it.

Off to assuming that users read the manual then to find Z.




So the only clue to the user that there was something in that crate is this small sniper target?
Why not change that icon into something like a hand or something to indicate one can take something?

Also
first time I crash a crate - I should definately get some popup tip about this.

Also
the user experience for breaking the crate or barrel and then have to click to open a 'container' isn't very nice.
How about simply opening that 'container' automatically maybe? Or have some lump at the bottom which is what we click.
Because right now the user can visually see that the crate/barrel was empty and will not think twice about leaving it.

 

There she finally is - I've been listening to her for over two hours by now.

Also
why is that red laser target still indicating I should do something with that broken barrel? I've emptied it.
Proposal: When emptying a container, lose the 'target' on it.

Also
that book is "A Study of the Dire Prophecies III", which is the same one we got from the Oracle - it would have been so much cooler if that had been number I or number II. This is one of the first books that the user will meet in the wild (if you remove the burning ones) - and to have it be a copy of one they have is a let down.

 

Battle of Solace Bridge

So why is everything respawning so very very fast here?
As an explorer I go round and poke here and there, and die a lot etc. And every lap I make everything that I've alrady taken is back again - very disconcerting - not to mention very very very heavy.

Also
Is there any chat tips about being over encumbered? Even without respawns an average player will reach encumbered here - but I couldn't find any hint in chat - but I could have missed that.

 

Area: Battle of Solace Bridge (SolaceBridge_Starter) Loc: (-64.4, 47.3, 19.8)
So there is clearly a cabinet on the other side of the big fire - woot another challenge for the explorer.
Died once - tried again.
Finally got it and the reward is... Broken Cloth Gloves???
I understand this is the basic loot table and all of that. But this Cabinet is really hard to get to and as such represents a feat for the player building expectations.

 

So who doesn't want to take a selfie when lying down in the ?Bed? which is totally on fire?
Not possible - out of reach. Which is almost understandable if the message had been "sleep now? are you crazy?" but out of reach when I'm standing right there or even on top....

Also
the candle on the side table is a bug. I nicked that one when I nicked the book, but it still remains visually although I no longer can interact with it.

 

So this is supposed to be a really dramatic moment. The child finds her dead dad.
But...
You have reinforced by her calls that it is her mom she is looking for, repeatedly and often. Thus the user is now conditioned to look for a 'mom' and not a 'dad'.

and the sobbing actually stops when you let her come with you

and she isn't emoting properly that that body is her 'daddy'.

Also
think how more dramatic this moment becomes if Charlotte here initiates another close up chat with appropriate emotes and talk to really drive home who that body is.

 

Plundered the weapons in the wrong order and before I started talking to Edvard, so I have sword and shield - yet Edvard does not detect this when he is glad I 'have the bow he found'. This mini-mistake is most likely to kill me.

Proposal:
What if Edvard is closer to the gate, so that he can start talking to you as soon as you open the gate? That way it becomes more clear for the user that a linear approach is the easy path.

Also
you should really hint the user about the paperdoll at this point.

Edit:
funny I tried to change to bow so that I could continue upon the default path.
But it won't let me use the paperdoll.
Can't drag the sword and shield from doll to inventory cannot drag anything from inventory to doll, is this intentional or just a bug?

 

Area: Battle of Solace Bridge (SolaceBridge_Starter) Loc: (-41.1, 42.0, 37.1)

gfx bug
rock peaking out through wall

 

So lets loot the bridge.

But here the user is face with three very similar objects which behave very differently.

1
We have the bodies of humans - we interact and can loot - after they stay
2
We have the bodies of fallen foes - we interact and can loot - after they dissappear
3
We have skeletons among the skeletons which we can't interact with nor loot, and they don't disappear.

Proposal: to make this less confusing, lets have only two types of objects. In that you add loot to all the skeletons that are put there as deco - they should have the loot and it would bring up consistency.

Also
those bags being lootable is a nice touch, although a bit strange considering the items one get. Would make more sense if it was food products or such.