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Aerius Corius
FACTION WARFARE ARMY
FACTION WARFARE ALLIANCE
14
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Posted - 2014.02.25 20:41:00 -
[1] - Quote
Academy can't really be redone until the militia weapons and suits are fully fleshed out - then you have grounds for zero isk and minimal sp rewards. There needs to be a few more 'free' starter fits but most of the militia gear is well priced and needs to stay as such. New players should be enabled to try out more than four weapons to quickly get a sense of what they like.
You can make isk and sp in normal matches with the starter suits - so why give isk in Academy? Academy needs to be a learning experience, nothing more, with...
-Militia gear ONLY allowed.
-10,000 isk rewarded regardless of outcome, flat 1,000 sp reward for victory, 500 for defeat (makes it not worth farming compared to normal matches). isk reward serves purpose of allowing new players to buy other militia items not free (such as CR or a HMG, not currently provided but would be based on opening line)
-Kills are not tallied for overall leaderboards. WP is tracked for the purposes of the match to help new players get a sense of their contribution, nothing more.
Upon reaching a set amount of UNALLOCATED skill points (not WP, also,I don't remember where players start anymore), you can no longer enter Academy matches except...
1) As a squad leader leading a squad of three or more players below the unallocated total aforementioned (in other words, as an instructor). This enables corporate leadership, or just friends, to train each other in the Academy without introducing more than 4 veteran players into a match (four squads of four players each, 1 Vet to 3 Noobs)
2) Corporate Academy Match - This would be a feature that allows a corporation to make a private match that rewards zero sp or isk and, again, still only allows militia gear (severely minimizing isk lost but keeping the isk sink in place). Corporate members could form squads and choose team one or two and compete against each other for training purposes. Again, no kills tracked for leaderboards, no isk, no sp. Match leader can execute match whenever - does not have to be full.
There will still be griefers who are skilled in real life as shooters that will makes alts for laughs - you can't prevent this and its just the way things are. The above mechanics though at least deincentivise griefers somewhat and buy new players more leeway with forced equality skill and gear wise.
As for a NPE Mission Tutorial, I totally support this and it could be really awesome from the perspective of an MCC.
1) Start in your room on the MCC (as we normally see it) and get movement and sight controls sorted.
2) Proceed to armory to pick up that first AR and grenades
3) Proceed to bay and jump into battle (tutorial stops you mid-flight to show inertial dampener and explain how it works - notably its reusable if you get in a dropshop later)
4) Target practice and Hacking Practice
-Other weapon types could have target practice mini-missions accessible from the the main menu that show off the strength and weaknesses of weapons in a short time after the main tutorial finishes.
5) Tutorial returns to merc room to explain SP and how the skill tree functions. Player allocates some starting sp to their Light Weapon skill to reduce CPU cost.
6) Tutorial explains fittings and how SP drives a lot of what and how things fit, citing the skill just trained and showing a 'before/after' of how that skill affected their AR and the overall suit's fitting.
7) Introduction to marketplace to buy (with starting allocated money) an LAV
8) Vehicle Tutorial starts from MCC Bay (to reinforce dropping from sky and basic deployment), then explains vehicle summoning, usage, target practice (by changing to turret in rear), and vehicle recall.
-A dropship tutorial could be made separate to this 'Arc' of missions, accessible from main menu. Same for HAV.
9) Weapon and Suits Tutorials and where to find them in the main menu for more in depth understanding. Could even reward 10 militia variants on the first playthrough - like a 'starter pack' to use in Academy.
10) Other Resources and how to access tutorial again (always repeatable, no reward) such as corporations and joining them, the leaderboards, news and events, and chat functionality in particular joining the rookie channel, and the aforementioned 'other' tutorials for specific weapons and vehicles.
11) Final Main Tutorial: How to join matches in the Academy and Normal Matches, the types of matches and their parameters.
-End Tutorial-
It's a lot, and it could be interrupted and not continued by choice (just like in EVE) - but Dust IS a complex shooter, don't undersell it and take time to explain it. By building a really intuitive NPE and Tutorial System, the longevity of new players will drastically increase and, thus, the health of the DUST community with them.
That guy you killed with 0% shields?
Yeah, I sniped him - go team.
Oh, you didn't know...hmm.
*CCP: Display Assists!!!
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Aerius Corius
FACTION WARFARE ARMY
FACTION WARFARE ALLIANCE
14
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Posted - 2014.02.25 20:48:00 -
[2] - Quote
Leonid Tybalt wrote:
Okay mr doomsday preacher, tell me: if this game is so bad at "new player retention", where did all these vets in the game (that you yourself spoke of) come from?
They didn't get a "tutorial" either. They were left to find things out for themselves (i know I sure as hell did).
Did they just magically appear with millions of lifetime skillpoints during open beta?
Evidently the game manages to cater to some people that have a taste for this type of harsh game enviroment (just like Eve). And more people interested in hardcore will eventually follow (while scrub crybabies will be scared off).
Trying to cater to scrub crybabies will, if anything, kill this game for sure.
This mentality is not healthy. The vets you see, like you and me, are accustomed to CCP's development style or are just hardnosed about quitting a game quickly.
You can't seriously be against new players being given a chance to acclimate to that hardcore environment - by enabling them the chance to understand that suit loss is inevitable and costs, the game goes from appearing unfair to simply hardcore...where we understand it.
Perception IS Reality - if they percieve the game is Unfair, it is, therefore they quit and the game dwindles. If we can change that perception to Harcore, not unfair, we'll still lose new players that don't like the style...but we'll retain just as many who like it. More importantly, the world at large will not see the game as unfair and full of griefers (it isn't) but simply made of a tougher style of gamers. There are many other hardcore gamers out there NOT playing DUST because they only see the unfair mechanics in the beginning and don't give the game a shot.
That guy you killed with 0% shields?
Yeah, I sniped him - go team.
Oh, you didn't know...hmm.
*CCP: Display Assists!!!
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Aerius Corius
FACTION WARFARE ARMY
FACTION WARFARE ALLIANCE
19
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Posted - 2014.02.25 21:39:00 -
[3] - Quote
Leonid Tybalt wrote:My mentality is perfectly healthy. I had no ******* idea about ccp's development style when I first started playing. I had to find out the hard way like everybody else, and feel all that "unfairness". But im still here right? That doesn't make me (or you) "special" it just proves my point that there are players that enjoy it. You're worrying about nothing. Scrub crybabies and quitters are to be expected. People said the exact same things about Eve in the beginning years ago. You think the playerbase of Eve is "dwindling"? 
The playerbase in EvE is dwindling. Added Japanese local content = jap players to cover the losses in english and russian markets. China market is the only market growing for EvE (counted in the media totals, not in TQ totals) along with Japan (for now). If you hadn't noticed...DUST hasn't faired much better.
So, no, I'm not worrying about nothing. Beyond worry, I'm more interested in making a better game - and a better game includes mechanics that draw more people to play so I can tear them up later on.
Ever read the book Atlas Shrugged? Know why it hasn't happened? Super Smart, Amazingly Strong, Very Important people need their opposites to survive. You need scrubs to make the game worth playing or all you'll have is EVE:
-Bitter Vets staring at each other in 10% TIDI because solo and gang play no longer exists because the idiots willing to waste the resources no longer exist...called 'having fun'
-An overflowing hisec that accomplishes nothing but fuel the market for each other, rather than the deeper gameplay of Null and WH...resulting in a rotating door of new players enjopying just shallow PvE content, then leaving.
In Dust terms - that's proto-stomping and minimal PC turnover. You think FW timers are bad now? Wait until all the pubs are gone. "Well then I'll have a REAL challenge" once every ******* hour. "Well the real hardcore people can get after it" - News Flash: we're a very tiny breed - a game of 5,000 doesn't warrant paying for servers, so the game shuts down. EvE is fortunate (for now) to have enough media influence to continue to draw more hardcore players...
...but consider that in all the places you can play EvE in the real world, a totally unique hardcore game I LOVE...
...only 50,000 play. Earth's population is...3 trillion if I recall (don't quote me, school was awhile back, hehe)
Now compare that to a shooter game on ONE console that large tracks of the civilized world don't have (compared to PC, that everyone has). 50k just became 5k. We're not there yet - but people like you are sure as hell getting us there. I want DUST to be a hardcore game and not change - but I want more people playing it too. Why don't you?
"Scrubs suck" isn't an answer.
That guy you killed with 0% shields?
Yeah, I sniped him - go team.
Oh, you didn't know...hmm.
*CCP: Display Assists!!!
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Aerius Corius
FACTION WARFARE ARMY
FACTION WARFARE ALLIANCE
19
|
Posted - 2014.02.25 21:44:00 -
[4] - Quote
Scheneighnay McBob wrote:In that case, most new players are dumbasses.
When I first joined, I kept my distance and snuck around, assisting when I felt it was safe.
As I got more comfortable, I took more risks.
And here I am today, as one of the few people with enough know-how to play a scout.
I say leave the new players to be the everyday assault cannon-fodder that most players seem to want to play as.
This. I'm totally ok with dumbass new players - and who doesn't like assault fodder? But if we don't get them to stick around long enough to be somewhat ok and less dumbass players, it all goes to hell in a handbasket.
The good stuff rises to the top (our vets and hardcores), but since when did a man drink the foam on the beer and leave the pisswater behind? Stop throwing out the beer!
That guy you killed with 0% shields?
Yeah, I sniped him - go team.
Oh, you didn't know...hmm.
*CCP: Display Assists!!!
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