Production: New Player Experience (NPE)

[soulsnatcher]

We are currently working on improving the first experience a newcomer gets from the game. To summarize, the current "newbie land" system made of 4 separate islands, is completely changed and replaced by a unique island; and, the new players should also be able to find more help through new missions that will guide their first steps on Atys regarding the gameplay and the lore basics.

Let's have a closer look on what changes we plan to apply on the NPE.
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[ajsuk]

Nice to see some thought going in to this. My only concern is the way things are being plonked in to one space. I understand wanting to give a little taster of things but I wonder if it takes away from the real game. Trekking, finding these new things etc... I dunno... *shrug*

[kostika]

Why was the desert ecosystem not included? Seems a bit unfair to leave out one of the unique lands.

[alibasil]

probably for the same reason the Jungle wasnt included in the Old Lands event

[oldmess]

I like it. Is there a time-frame we can expect this to appear in? Besides "soon (tm)"?

My only concern is the way things are being plonked in to one space. I understand wanting to give a little taster of things but I wonder if it takes away from the real game. Trekking, finding these new things etc...

Seems to me it just gives a teaser of what's to come which will make a new player that much more interested in finding similar things in the real game. i.e. more trekking and exploring, not less.

But then again, I don't think of BM's site as a spoiler, but rather an inspiration to do more exploring. So maybe I'm just odd. (OK, yes, I'm odd. There. Are you happy? Stupid voices in my head. Never give me any peace.)

[soulsnatcher]

[QUOTE=oldmess] I like it. Is there a time-frame we can expect this to appear in? Besides "soon (tm)"?


Will *Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaally* soon do ya?

[calel]

It all looks really nice and I' m sure many veteran players will try to create a new character so they as well can go through this experience.

However a few questions that come to mind:

With the unification of the four playable races on one island and even more so the presence of the Rangers there, will this mean there will be a slight change in the Lore just as well? Iirc the current lore still mentions the building of the outpost towns of Barkdel and such on Tryker side of history, and the Order of the Rangers isn' t mentioned yet in current lore concerning their role in rebuilding the civilizations.

What will happen to the characters some have invested time in just for the sake of helping out new players on the old refugee islands? Will they be transfered to the new island or will they be incompatible and thus deleted?

[melliott]

I think the universe chat is a wonderful idea, along with putting all players on the same island.

I just finished getting off the newbie island, and to me it seemed very barren - and I had very hard times finding help. I think its a step forward in the right direction

[aardnebb]

It all looks really nice and I' m sure many veteran players will try to create a new character so they as well can go through this experience.

heheh, was just gonna say this looks sooo cool I am gonna create an alt just to explore it

[katriell]

I'm concerned that the specialization and racial trainers will present an impression of a class system.

There should be something on character creation that explains what the specialization means and clarifies that it does not limit what you can do, and that you get all the other skills automatically as well.

The effect of the racial trainers might be interesting...*wonders if we'll see an increase in Matis newbies specializing in crafting etc, and whether we'll see newbies coming to the mainland with only their race's skill because they thought that was all they were allowed to train*

Will, say, a Zoraï be able to visit the Matis camp and learn crafting? If so, will they be learning Zoraï crafting or Matis crafting?

Finally, what skill does the Tryker trainer teach? Foraging?

Oh, and I love the Universe chat idea. That, coupled with all races being on the same island, would seem to solve the problem of newbies thinking the game is deserted because of the lack of people on the island(s).

It's funny that this change is called NPE.