I ain't one to endorse hand-holding but at the same time it's hard to be helpful to ccp as a beta tester when I am killed every ten seconds by a spawn camper. So maybe actually being able to play the game for more than 1.5 seconds at a time would help with the learning "cliff" as you put it and also get ccp some decent feedback.

I am also not entirely against spawn camping, but this game is not a competition yet. It's a beta, and as such people who are spawn camping seem to show zero interest in helping to develop the game. You can spawn camp, great we learned it, move on to something else. Spawn camping has been tested and seems to be working just fine.

I don't think the learning cliff problem is ever going to be solved, to be honest. It will be made better a bit by tutorials, but those are not a priority in the beta.

If you think about it, that's a good thing. Sure, it's frustrating as hell to pick up the game as someone brand new. No one can deny that. But a tutorial puts people on the right path, tells them what to do, what to train. How to play, what guns to use. If people don't have that, they end up doing and trying all kinds of stuff when trying to figure things out. In doing this, they are more likely to gain different perspectives, or find things that are broken.

This isn't why in-depth tutorials are not in the game, those are simply just not finished yet. However it's an interesting thought.


The best way to get around a learning cliff is to have a community with people willing to help new players adjust. This is often better than a tutorial. People who seek help from others will always find it, and thrive far more than people who do not look or think to ask.

Another idea that came to me the last night.

In terms of guiding the player without forcing them

The game could monitor the players statistics, for instance K/D both in ratio and quantity, and when it falls below a certain thresholds then you could have on screen prompts/voice over to suggest different trainning videos, less aggressive modes etc.

CCP are logging all kills and a huge amount of stats on the players, why not put them to good use in the, "You appear to be struggling, may I suggest you look at this area for guidance" sort of way.

I mean, the stats they are collecting, and the fittings they will be monitoring, ultimately they could provide basic advice based on the players play style patterns.

Sort of as a compliment to other more active controls, this is a more passive way of presenting the right information to the player based upon their needs.

Nsaugh Palidar:

While I don't have anything against your idea, it doesn't really fit in this thread. The point of this thread is to discuss things that don't alter the core gameplay to help new players. Restricting access to part of the game is altering the way the game works. And while it might be a good idea, it definitely doesn't fit in this thread.

As to your comment about the (tentatively named) Spreadsheet Support Idea, I don't think he's talking about something that would be showing up in the middle of the match. My impressions of the idea is it would be something used outside of combat to highlight areas of interest to you. Some games already show things like "weapon you are most killed by" at the end of a round. This would just be a much more useful version of that.

I think most of us agree the casual gamer will not ease into the game in its current state. It is accurate that many of us bought more then one militia gear. When I first bought a tank I was looking for the "L" slot for my large weapon. (it comes prefilled) That is after many hours and SP earned...it takes a bit for a tank. When I spoke to some friends about the game they said they would give it a try (free) but were waiting for Black Ops 2. These are the players CCP wants. They are a business and need revenue. They need to put food on the table like every other business.

My thought was to put an advertised weapon/suit/vehicle/equipment shown on the load screens. Like HMG...then showing a "skill" tree of sorts advertising the requirements needed for it...including the heavy dropsuit part. I know this info can be found by bouncing back from the skill, dropsuit, and weapon screens. I just think when a person sees it outlined for them easily they will pursue with more fervor. Then there should be less wasting of points in area they thought they needed. My thought is literally JPEG style commercials on selling the weapons etc. (especially the AUR ones)

What do you guys think? Just trying to make this game huge.