DUST Search - New player experience: Lambs to the slaughter.

CELESTA AUNGM wrote:

I have made this risky suggestion before, but I'd like to make it again here. I think it is very applicable:

The Matchmaking Engine HAS improved the game substantially, (though it will NEVER be able to do what players are expecting and demanding be done---NO artificial software script can predict a human player's combined performance and motivation in the next match, and pair her up against an "equal" combi-performance-n-motivation human player). Scotty HAS raised itself to a level where the word "matchmaker" is falling into our subconscious while we're in the gameplay, instead of being up front in our minds all the time (maybe in another year, it will be as forgotten in the background as Aim Assist).

So with a certain amount of comfort and elbow room put into our matches now, there is also room to restore some of the "Progression Difficulty" Dust used to have for new players.

What I mean is, hold new players back longer (MUCH longer) in Battle Academy. Get the WP threshold back up to a level where 15 year old addicts that spend 16 + hours a day at their fav games, can't burn through and unlock their Academy diploma too fast to really understand anything about the game.

Blink

A certain percentage of "new players" will always be the passerby type---they don't sit on a game that lasts longer than 9 hours to beat; they want to have fun mixing it up on a new title every few weeks--and kudos for them. If that type of player is properly quarantined in Battle Academy long enough, she will have her 3 weeks of fun and leave, without stepping into post-Academy and accidentally derailing our FW or Dom gameplay.

Straight

Simultaneously, players looking to stay in Dust longterm would also have the chance to benefit from a much longer, tougher semester in Battle Academy phase, until they've exploited the HECK out of every Militia item around, memorized how they work by heart due to the much longer repetition of use, learned the subtle differences of advanced gear mixed with their Militia suits, and start understanding the value of networking with older players via mail and forum, so they can prepare for the deep end of the pool BEFORE they're under the water.

Battle Academy needs to be deeply lengthened back to where it used to be, OR further. The "new" kids playing starting this game rack WPs at a rate that doesn't give them any honest Academy time. Cry


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Shaun Iwairo Simple Minded People Pty. Ltd. 83	Posted - 2015.10.15 01:22:00 - [1] - Quote CELESTA AUNGM wrote: I have made this risky suggestion before, but I'd like to make it again here. I think it is very applicable: The Matchmaking Engine HAS improved the game substantially, (though it will NEVER be able to do what players are expecting and demanding be done---NO artificial software script can predict a human player's combined performance and motivation in the next match, and pair her up against an "equal" combi-performance-n-motivation human player). Scotty HAS raised itself to a level where the word "matchmaker" is falling into our subconscious while we're in the gameplay, instead of being up front in our minds all the time (maybe in another year, it will be as forgotten in the background as Aim Assist). So with a certain amount of comfort and elbow room put into our matches now, there is also room to restore some of the "Progression Difficulty" Dust used to have for new players. What I mean is, hold new players back longer (MUCH longer) in Battle Academy. Get the WP threshold back up to a level where 15 year old addicts that spend 16 + hours a day at their fav games, can't burn through and unlock their Academy diploma too fast to really understand anything about the game. A certain percentage of "new players" will always be the passerby type---they don't sit on a game that lasts longer than 9 hours to beat; they want to have fun mixing it up on a new title every few weeks--and kudos for them. If that type of player is properly quarantined in Battle Academy long enough, she will have her 3 weeks of fun and leave, without stepping into post-Academy and accidentally derailing our FW or Dom gameplay. Simultaneously, players looking to stay in Dust longterm would also have the chance to benefit from a much longer, tougher semester in Battle Academy phase, until they've exploited the HECK out of every Militia item around, memorized how they work by heart due to the much longer repetition of use, learned the subtle differences of advanced gear mixed with their Militia suits, and start understanding the value of networking with older players via mail and forum, so they can prepare for the deep end of the pool BEFORE they're under the water. Battle Academy needs to be deeply lengthened back to where it used to be, OR further. The "new" kids playing starting this game rack WPs at a rate that doesn't give them any honest Academy time. This, and a sequence of daily missions (like Eves career missions) that are required to graduate from academy. Get kills with x/y/z gun, hack points, repair teammates, use x/y/z races suit, scan enemy players. You get the idea. Also like the career missions, some of them should reward the corresponding skillbook and a handfull of the items. Something is killing new player retention.
Shaun Iwairo Simple Minded People Pty. Ltd. 85	Posted - 2015.10.15 02:06:00 - [2] - Quote Haolo Geardreck wrote: Bit you also don't want it set so an alt or new profile can remain indefinitely I think alts already skip the academy. In April Rattati said he rolled a new account to experience the academy and he saw lots of the same names going 20/0 then being recycled to get back in. Pretty sure he put a stop to that shortly after. He also indicated that an unusually high KD is a trigger to automatically graduate. Something is killing new player retention.
Shaun Iwairo Simple Minded People Pty. Ltd. 89	Posted - 2015.10.15 04:53:00 - [3] - Quote When is the next CPM election? I think a candidate that stands for improving the NPE stands for the health of the game. There's been a lot of us throwing ideas around on this topic so between us I'm sure we could come up with someone that's a good representative. Something is killing new player retention.
Shaun Iwairo Simple Minded People Pty. Ltd. 93	Posted - 2015.10.15 07:47:00 - [4] - Quote Dewie - for the second to last reply; I wouldn't worry about KD gaming, from what I've read about it the MU system sounds pretty robust. That is - how CCP assigns a 'real skill' number to each account. I'm pretty confident it's the matchmaker that runs into problems and is taking last-resort options very frequently. for the last reply; I see what you're saying, but new characters doing the Career Missions in Eve aren't being put in PvP situations with other new characters. Letting new players opt out of the academy is reasonable, but you've also got to have a mechanic that ensures the new characters in the academy are actually new to Dust or you run the risk of the sadistic bastards farming the academy for cheap thrills. At the moment the best system for NPE that i've either heard from someone else or myself is this: Battle Academy is broken into three grades. These grades should invisible to the new players so they just seem to be 'in the academy' throughout. Each grade has a set of missions that need to be completed before graduating. The missions within the tiers can be completed in any order to prevent a go here, do that, now go here, now do that kind of experience. Missions, where appropriate, will reward skillbooks, items and less often a chunk of SP. If a new player is learning how to walk and jump and change their gun in the first grade, by the third grade they'll be fitting up active vs passive tanked suits, understand weapon optimals and know what the specialized suits (logi/assault/scout etc) do. Most importantly, by the end of grade 3 they'll understand the importance of SP allocation and being able to run at lease one suit at ADV level. The first grade would use Ambush, second would add Dom to the mix and the third would add Skirmish. IMO least overwhelming game mode -> most. The three grades would be based in three different solar systems so they have their own local chat. This is important for the next bit. (Now this is really pipe-dream stuff) Established players could apply to be a mentor, and once the GMs accept their application they'd be moved into the grade 3 system (Eve has a similar system of players being allowed in the newbie help channel). From local chat they could round up almost-graduates and form squads. A mentors main responsibility would be to inform the new players of the things that the tutorial can't - the meta, the finer points of the maps, etc. You know, good mentor stuff. After some metric has been reached the new player graduates the academy with a message that says something like "Congratulations, you've graduated! Your next step is to to play some public contracts where you'll be evaluated for our Matchmaking system. Things will get a bit rough, but it won't last long - you'll soon be in your skill appropriate bracket. Good luck out there Mercenary!" They'll then have a chance to re-allocate their skillpoints sensibly, and into something they'd like to run with. With an NPE as fleshed out as that we should end up with more new players willing to stick around, which would result in an increase in the playerbase. An increased playerbase would mean that the matchmaker would have a greater chance of doing it's thing properly, so public contracts won't be the cluster cuss of old/new/MLT/OFC that they are today. Sorry for the wall of text, this is a subject that I'm especially passionate about. Something is killing new player retention.
Shaun Iwairo Simple Minded People Pty. Ltd. 107	Posted - 2015.10.15 23:15:00 - [5] - Quote Celesta, great idea! While they'll still have to reach a 60% threshold in everything they need to learn, it allows them to attain the other 40% in areas they really want to learn. Something is killing new player retention.
Shaun Iwairo DUST University Ivy League 163	Posted - 2015.10.18 21:44:00 - [6] - Quote deezy dabest wrote: shaman oga wrote: New players does not exist. Only alts. There is roughly 2 new players per 100 new characters. The rest are indeed alts. Interested as to how you got that number confirmed. I'll take it with a grain of salt until I see a GM or DEV tag attached to it. Either way that's 60 new players every day on our worst days and 140 on our best. With a daily login peak of around 2000, you think you'd expect to see some growth if the NPE was doing what it was meant to. Something is killing new player retention.
Shaun Iwairo DUST University Ivy League 179	Posted - 2015.10.19 05:57:00 - [7] - Quote That's for all of New Eden. See here for Dust specific logins. Something is killing new player retention.