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Mink Gex
Zumari Force Projection
Caldari State
3
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Posted - 2012.08.04 02:26:00 -
[1] - Quote
Hi all,
The UX designer in me (yes that is my profession) is concerned that Dust might go the way of EVE (at least the way EVE started) by having a _very_ steep initial learning curve and correspondingly high frustration index. My EVE experience helps a great deal in navigating this game, but without it, I would likely be lost despite the extensive help. I'd like to encourage the developers to include a few things that are not currently in the beta:
1) A quick, easy game with default gear that gets people into Dust without too much reading: Allow people to drop down and have some success, perhaps against other players with recruit gear. Do this very early, even immediately after making a character. Ensure that the experience is positive -- players should be able to survive with that gear for more than 20 seconds (my record over my first session). This experience has to hook people who are even in it just as a demo.
2) A clear guided path through the initial purchasing and fitting of gear that makes it seem easy. Some major barriers exist here at the moment. In particular, it's hard to identify what is missing from a fitting when making it (if you haven't memorized the introductory help message). It's also hard to determine what skills are necessary for vehicles (and how to deploy them once you have them), what is a reasonable, initial replacement path for weapons, etc. I'm not suggesting that the user's hand should be held all the way through this, just that there should be some initial, obvious paths to allow people to get hooked. After that, people will invest the time to learn the rest.
3) Improved initial survivability, goals, etc. At the moment, surviving those first few drops for longer than a few seconds, let alone getting a kill, is neigh impossible. This will turn people off the game and has to be improved. Once on the ground, goals are not clearly understandable (what targets do I need to hit, how do I do that, where do people spawn, etc.). The overview map between spawns is cool, but unusable in the sense that options seem to appear and disappear without explanation. Why can I sometimes spawn in a vehicle and not other times? Why sometimes are there no other options for selecting a spawn point? What is the difference between selecting a spawn point and using the default (especially when there are no other options available)? I'm not saying these are not discoverable, it's just that they're not easily understood initially -- especially for players experiencing the sound and graphical impact of the first few drops where it's hard to identify important information. On the overview screen, we're also missing status information that would be quite useful: what colour are you shooting at? who is winning? what are the general characteristics of those who have dropped already? etc.
I really like many of the ideas behind DUST and I believe, unquestionably, that this takes the FPS genre in a new and interesting direction. These comments are intended only to help make it easier for people to access. After all, it will be more fun for everyone if there's a nice user base of players...
Cheers,
./Aaron |
Aijul
ZionTCD
Legacy Rising
55
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Posted - 2012.08.04 23:46:00 -
[2] - Quote
I agree with these points. DUST can still be a challenging game while still giving new players a sense of direction.
As many has stated before, an extended tutorial that must be played before going into battle and can be accessed at anytime in the Mercenary Quarters (or any other non-battle scenarios) will be one way to accomplish this.
This tutorial will cover the basics, such as which corp you are fighting for, how to capture bases, and the consequences of death. (Loss of equipment, penalty to your entire team)
As for the map, a key and brief navigation tutorial would help. When selecting a drop uplink to spawn on, there should be a different icon than traditional spawn points to clarify that these points are temporary. Mobile spawn points should also have a different icon such as a silhouette of a LAV/HAV/Dropship to clarify that this will spawn you inside a vehicle. |
Duren Ruin
Zumari Force Projection
Caldari State
0
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Posted - 2012.08.05 00:38:00 -
[3] - Quote
Starting out is really rough - even for those with FPS experience. Gear makes a lot of difference. CCP might want to consider creating new player only rooms. That way everyone has the same gear - maybe up to 500K SP or something, so people can learn what works well for them. Just a thought though. |
Logisticus Testing
Tronhadar Free Guard
Minmatar Republic
17
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Posted - 2012.08.05 00:47:00 -
[4] - Quote
agreed, tho as people will say, this is a beta, with a lot of functionality yet to be developed and released. i think these are all good points, though, and i hope someone from the DEV / GM team take the time to at least scan all these threads.
BTW
Mink Gex wrote:Hi all,
The UX designer in me (yes that is my profession) is concerned that Dust might g....
1) A quick, easy game with default gear that gets people into Dust without too much reading: Allow people to drop down and have some success, perhaps against other players with recruit gear. Do this very early, even immediately after making a character. Ensure that the experience is positive -- players should be able to survive with that gear for more than 20 seconds (my record over my first session). This experience has to hook people who are even in it just as a demo.
since this is going to be a free to play game, i doubt there will be a demo :) no point, really, unless the initial download file will be huge, in which case a smaller demo type file - say the intro tutorial - might be a better alternative to whet people's interest.
EDIT: p.s. remember to look through a lot of the threads, as more than a few of these concerns have been covered, like ranking matches by skill level (so that a raw recruit isn't getting tossed in with the 30 million SP players. though they may have an option for that, like skipping right to 0.0 regions. not recommended, but as i understand it in EVE, if you want to go, no one will stop you, so i figure the same for DUST.) |
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