Please add a non-violent grind task for payment

Right now if beginners are down on their luck and get killed a couple of times early, then their armor and weaponry is broken.

I meet such players from time to time and give them gifts to get them up again.

But it would be much better if the first guard (Harley?) and some of the starting area would have a "temp work" to get paid scheme which didn't necessitate fighting.

This so that new players know where to go when they are down on their luck and have no way to go into the wild without getting killed since they have no gear.

Put in some random factors and changing keywords so that they can't be scripted.

Then let the rewards for such "temp work" be worthless gear which merchants & vendors won't buy and which can't be salvaged. But which still works like weapons and armor, to let you venture into the wild once again.
Like a "rusty sword" without value and no salvage. Or "rags" for protection. "Leaking Cauldron" helmet.


For instance:

• Getting heavy stones from a quarry, delivering them to X town crier for a minimal set of sub par gathering tools
• helping the inn with the "dishes", emote+time, to get rags (protection)
• Searching the trash heaps, emote+time, usually rewarding nothing but sometimes some sub par gear
• helping the guards polish armor, standard crafting emote+time, to gain sub par weapon

etc

 

Great write up Spoon. I like the idea and premise of your request. I think this would make testing out the game a lot more fun for new people. Thanks.

 

There are a couple tasks in Soltown to learn crafting, which results in a few pieces of gear. Unfortunately, the only way to complete them now is by killing for leather (or buying it, if you can find it). Hopefully there will be some alternatives; I like your suggestions, Spoon.

 

I liked the crafting quests for new people to learn how to craft. I did them to see how they worked. I was lazy and just killed a few deer that were in the town and got leather for the quest. Not sure how hard the deer would be to kill for new people though since Im higher level. I think it would make sense to provide the very first ingredients to teach crafting to new people with no skills. Vanguard Saga of Heroes had work orders to do and they provided the resources not the fuels, but you were not doing the quests for items since they took them just to level up your skills, so no help for new people, but just my hope that we have work order stuff in the game in some way.

 

If they do this, then they would need to use ingredients that are not used for other recipes; cloth rags instead of regular cloth, for example. Otherwise someone would just keep creating new characters to stockpile resources.

I think that is a great idea, assuming the tasks are not repeatable and the items created have no value (perhaps cannot even be repaired). It would get players something to use while they earn toward their next set of gear and skills.

With the prices of skills, we might also want to look at having the crafting tasks (and perhaps some combat, like when you use the sword in the tutorial) award some automatic points; still reduces your total and can be "untrained" if necessary, but gets you the first rank of your skill without spending gold. This could be a way to choose your focus during the tutorial; pick your desired weapon type from the rack (the others cannot be picked up unless your current one is destroyed), and then attack the training dummy for a couple few skill points (say 3 ranks in the tier 1 and a rank in a couple tier 2 skills for the desired weapon type).

Slightly more heavy handed than I'd like, but better than everyone starting with a Bridge Defenders Sword, when they might never want to touch a blade...

 

You didn't get to keep the resources. The quest was that you were making them for so and so. It was just to have a bit to interest in the very slow crafting leveling. It was just an example of work orders, I was making and a bit off topic(so sorry Spoon). Leveling your crafting took forever in that game. I think I only got to level 30 on on one character with tons of work. Plus there were other crafting quests sending you all over the world. I hope we do something fun also.

 

We're going to try to get something like this in for a patch on Monday. It will be VERY simple and will give you enough to afford a repair kit - appropriate for new players but not someone looking to pay off a house deed

 

Courier quests also may be a consideration since even PRTs have town criers.

 

I like how he thinks!

 

Also, something like Mohito has caught the zombie plague and you need to go borrow Cavoricus' arm as a vaccine for him to chew on...

It's an interesting concept, but you'd probably want a NPC from an npc scene.

 

Or you can have a repeatable quest that rewards you with a base level sword & armor (zero gold value).

 

Did you say... COWrier quests? As in 'Go and Milk "Opehlia" (ahem)'..? I like how you both should be thinking!

 

I like it... But, don't you think it would be better to show a new player, how to "run" away, dis-arm regen, arm, carry on the Battle... Take the spoils and sell them... I know it's hard to start over (or start), believe me I hate server wipes, but there is a natural progression to this game... You can get some gold just stripping the dead at solace bridge... The skeletons aren't hard and have weapons to use or sell... Beginners can alway get a new weapon by taking the one off their kill...

I would like to see a fairly long learning quest line that shows new players every aspect of the game, how to use the skill trainers, how to sell loot, how to buy armor and equipt it, what areas are easy, which critters to kill that are easy, how to skin them and use the pelts to make leather to sell or craft...

Don't just give them gold/skill points, but teach them how to play the game...

 

We must be talking about different concepts you and I because I have difficulties parsing your response.
???
Uhm, if your sword is broken and your armor is broken, then no, then they can't get an "easy kill" nor loot it.

My proposal was not to give them gold, nor skill points.
My proposal was to give them opportunities to get gear so that they indeed can have the opportunity again to go out and stand a chance.

 

This is where we get into the differences between a Lord British game and just picking everything off the dead soldiers in Solace Bridge...

 

mhm...

 

Some sort of refuse bin by the blacksmith in soltown maybe? He throws away a "reject" that didn't pass quality control, every once in awhile.

It would have zero value, and at the end of the day, nothing different then just stealing the ones from blacksmith shops in other cities, but without the notoriety penalty with the oracle.

Or perhaps as other adventurers had traded in their "Bridge Defender Sword", they got put into the refuse bin in Soltown, and now a down on their luck adventurer can take it from that location.

 

Yes, you are talking about "giving" players equipment after doing very simple tasks, and I'm talking about "teaching" them how to play the game... Because IMO, a player who can't budget money and monitor armor wear/tear is missing a whole lot of game features, and doesn't know any better... It's not a matter of having "bad" luck, it's lack of managment/knowledge... If you want to take your starting gear and go into a dungeon, of course your going to die, if you just keep going back for more, of course your armor is going to wear out and be worthless... If you fail to heed the warning signs, and don't know what they mean, then maybe you would have more fun if you learned the "ropes" of the game, instead of asking for hand outs from other players... I have never met a player that's not willing to answer questions and show a new player a place were its easier to kill things and loot them for anything they got...

If a new player doesn't know that death has a penalty of equipment wear, then they should know that first... If a new player doesn't know that they will need "gold" to repair/replace, they should know that too... I have always said that this knowledge should be in the Books that are in the game... The beginner quest at solace bridge only shows you how to fight, they should also show you how to find knowledge of the game, and how things work by talking to the proper NPCs and having a conversation with them about "how the game works"...

I found that just by talking to a villager in soltown, he would give me 5 cure potions free and where to buy more, I'm a seasoned player and already know to talk to everyone, but a new player wouldn't have a clue... I know a lot of players get frustrated with the game because it's hard, not like anyother game out there, but once you know what to do, it's easy...