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Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 2 post(s) |
Malkai Inos
Opus Arcana
Orion Empire
308
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Posted - 2013.06.06 01:05:00 -
[1] - Quote
This concept involves a lengthy tutorial section. I personally believe that most of this info should be communicated through actual gameplay. This is really difficult in a PVP environment though, so i chose this enclosed solution.
The Linear Part
Theming
The new player wakes up inside of a clone capsule wich opens and reveales a small steril medically stylized room. A broadcasted voice greats him as an automated protocol (including some sci fi nonsense if needed) and explaines that the process of tranfering his conciousness to his first clone is complete and that both cognitive and physiological test have to be made to ensure that everything went as expected before releasing him into the merc quarters. At this point he is to be made aware of the fact that this process can skipped and it is to be explained how this is done(the whole process should be abortable at any point, even before this).
Movement
A contraption of signal lights is lowered down and he is asked to look at the lights as they turn on. He is then encouraged to move around a little to get a feeling of his new body before a door opens leading him to a small linear course, beginning with a small conceiled (but noticeable) treadmill. The new player will now be asked to start running accross the now activating treadmill (all while displaying the required button, according to the controll preset). Upon entering the treadmill the left status bars appears. Once stamina starts depleting the new player's attention is directed towards the bar, explaining what it shows while stamina gets completely depleted, making him cease to run. The treadmill stops and the voice ques again, explaining that the basic fitness test is complete and asking him to proceed to the actual parcour. He is lead through the course, explaining crouching and jumping mechanics with the according buttons displayed.
Interface
Upon solving the course, he is transferred (either through a loading screen or by entering the next area) to another, more visually torn, area, sporting a simple shooting range and another simple course, both with some with some dummy targets that act as redberries and a few more, different looking dummies as blueberries. Now crosshair and tacmap appear and the most functions are briefly explained (dummies with corresponding incons). The supply depot icon appears by a weapon stand aswell as on the map and he is asked to interact with it (show button). There will be a selection of the most basic fits (wich are to be named by role, not gear names) and he is encouraged to pick one freely and try it out. Once the first fit is picked, right status bar and crosshair become visible, both of wich are explained briefly (preferably while highlighting each of the bars as they are mentioned).
Combat/ Equipment
A unique voice explanation for any chosen fit cues, wich explaines it's basic role and usual type of weaponry. After listening to the first fit description, the new player is encouraged play around on the shooting range and course. The shooting range must include ranges long enough for different weapon ranges to become apparent. Also, both dummy types should be treated just as players including hit markers and lock-on for repairs. A dummy area for targeted AV is to be included. It is explained to him that he is free to try all the fits as long as he likes and that he can restock munition/change fits on installations with this icon. Interacting with a door/console will bring him to vehicle test range.
Spawn
The new player greeted by the strategic map where the spawning process is explained, including the fact that every death means the loss of the current fit. He should be encouraged to use the suicide function once, leading to an invalid fit, followed by an explanation of the purpose and function of in-battle restocking. This will also show that every death leads to a loss in assets and thus cost. He is spawned new a CRU of wich the icon is shown and purpose is promptly explained.
Vehicles
The Vehicle range is a small open field wich will lead through the call in/ reclaim process and allows the new player to freely drive around, all while explaining and diplaying basic controlls. A LAV, HAV and Dropship should be available to test. He is then invited to be moved into the captains quarters.
The Explorative Part
Once the Quarters are loaded. The new player is made aware of the Battle Menu first but is encouraged to browse through all the other menus before going into battle. All menus get a short, voiced explanation as they are activated and a more in depth (possibly interactive) tutorial that can then be activated via a displayed message once (like that one that currently asks if i want to do the tutorial). All tutorials have to be available under the help section and new players are to be made aware of that fact. All aspects from skills over fitting a suit to entering/creating chat channels should have thoughrough explanations ready for the new player he decide to explore those areas.
End of NPE
Things that might need more love:
The addition of PVE content, specifically AI, would allow most of the linear part to be transfered into an actual battlefield, making things much more interesting.
I failed to communicate the death part with the deserved importance.
The vehicle part is suspiciously short.
This tutorial fails to explain ISK, AUR and SP as i think it should.
Precision strikes are left out (would fit somewhere near vehicles)
TL;DR Have fun reading this...
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Malkai Inos
Opus Arcana
Orion Empire
348
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Posted - 2013.06.07 14:49:00 -
[2] - Quote
Shady IceCream Truck wrote:EXASTRA INVICTAS wrote:Shady IceCream Truck wrote:practically every weapon, and game mechanic is broken and you wanna focus on a "new player experience" ?
How bout lets adress the real issues in an honest manner? Iron wolf guy, I dont see you over on the MD thread.. or any other thread that matters.. IMHO Maybe nobody is talking about the Mass Driver because CCP has already went on record countless times saying they know what the issue is and are currently fixing it? wrong they are on record saying " we nerfed it because of an office party" where someone got his pride stepped on... so we nerfed it and wont rebalance it.. I dont see this as acceptable One Dev post search for "Mass Driver" makes you look like an idiot. Read and leave this thread alone.
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Malkai Inos
Opus Arcana
Orion Empire
349
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Posted - 2013.06.07 16:57:00 -
[3] - Quote
I was thinking about the importance of squadding up and teamplay and a way of teaching those too but never felt that a highly scripted tutorial scene is the best approach to a game that's entirely dependant on the community so i came up with this:
The Stuffz for Trainers Programme:
Any character that has left the Acadademy can enlist as a trainer. Beeing a trainer means that you get access dedicated trainer gear, wich has its own unique color pallete and is of around STD quality, and that you can join into academy battles again, as long as you use trainer gear exclusively, with a few special rules:
When a trainer queues into a match the game will automatically assign new players into his automatically created squad.
He may not invite randoms on his own, while new players are free to join him.
The trainer may invite every academy player he was been playing together in the last 30 days and play with him again.
Trainers do not get ISK or SP based on their own actions but based on the combined efforts of his squad mates.
His k/d will not be recorded as a trainer, his WP not be tracked. That way he has no reason to slap around the other newberries.
Now we need something to motivate those players to go into rather easy matches, explaining the same stuff over and over again.
The game needs to track the progress of every single trainee (every player that has been in a trainer's squad at least once in the last 30 days and is still in the academy):
How often/long are they in squad with the trainer? (this will act as a multiplier. The more time you spend with the same newberry, the better.)
How much do they play?
How much WP, SP, ISK do they earn?
Did they join a corp by now?
Are they squadding up Properly?
Based on those metrics we reward the trainers with "TC" (Trainer Credits) which will be used in a seperate store section to either buy varients of normal gear or even AUR currency and/or Items. Dedicated trainers will increase player retention and NPE by a huge margin, thus effectively making money for CCP. It's only fair they get a share for their efforts.
What has to be balanced of course is the timeframe in wich a player should be considered a trainee and how the payout metrics are weighed. A trainer shouldn't have to try and hook up with his minions as often as to force both out of a reasonable and organic playing schedule but he should be incentiviced to keep in touch with his trainees and squad up whenever it's appropriate for both.
This system will put the People back into the NPE and provide worthwhile rewards aswell as fun for both sides if done properly. It gives corparations a chance to actively recruit new players for their corp and get rewarded while thei're doing it It also feels much more compatible with the new eden philosophy ("Trust no one!"  ) than scripted tutorial sections.
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Malkai Inos
Opus Arcana
Orion Empire
355
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Posted - 2013.06.07 21:56:00 -
[4] - Quote
Concerning respecs i will second Cross Atu's notion that this warrants its own debate in the appropriate thread.
The system i propose heavily aims towards organic interaction. No seperate actions like providing data or actively seeking contact should be required from either side. The randomness of my proposal is supposed to allow new players to jump into the game and be welcomed by real people from second #1. To work together in a new environment without the new players in the squad even realizing that they are set up to be tought how to play.
New players can can stick around for hours in one squad when the games are fun, getting to know each other, talking about the experience and learning the intricacies during and inbetween the rounds. Then both trainer and trainees can decide to add each other to contacts and play again later. They can also part ways with the press of a button and get another random trainer or trainee respectively without any consequences, just as roaming through random squads until you find one you stick to.(you mentioned this and yes, this already happens often, so i decided to abuse it  )
"No lists, no criteria, no channels", is the thing that i wanted to achieve with this concept. Just people having fun.
The rewards i believe are not exactly necessary but simply justified for the work and benefit that trainers provide for the community and CCP. It also allows corps like Dust UNI who devote their time into training to achieve something by doing so. And if people help the community simply for their own gain, heck, everyone does, in some way. The system filters unhelpfull trainers out by design because trainees who don't stick around (the first metric) bring low income.
On the segregation, i agree. It's just much easier to work with the current academy system than to include some nonexistent matchmaking simply because it keeps the unknowns to a minimum.
But while we're at it:
One we have a fluent matchmaking system in place "TC" gains degrade the more experience a trainee has in the game. The higher the trainee is ranked by the matchmaking system, the less "profitable" he becomes as a trainee. There will be a point where "TC" gains for his further progress reach nil.
At that point it's again completely up to the players to "corp up" or part ways.
Hope this clarifies a some things. |
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