A plea to fellow players- calling to arms those who love UO!

[Blood Ghoul]

If you're a new player, and you're dismayed because your new character can't do everything that a not-new character can do... you're probably out of here anyhow. The problem with your friends appears to have been not so much "we can't do what vets do" as "we can't do what we did before" - a very, very different issue.

As far as my friends are concerned that was not the case. We started in 97 and quit in 99. I am not 100% sure but I do not remember the mounts or even the vet rewards then. The skill point cap for new accounts (which it seems they are finally getting rid of) and the lack of a mount was what they told me sucked about the game.

 

[Anakena]

new players are not the answer.
the learning curve may be too much, think about it.
the amount of time it takes poor people to acquire and do anything worth while is outweighed by better games, easier to set themselves up in.

I do bleieve that new players are an answer. Maybe be only a part of it, but in each game there are people quitting. If no new blood is injected, the maths are easy.

On the other hand I agree, the gap between starters and vets is now huge. Starters must feel and see they are progressing (skill, money, ...) otherwise they won't play longer than the free demo time

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

This game has always had an ambiguous relationship with new players, let's face it.

And by "this game" I'm not in this instance referring to the manufacturer. I mean us. Not all of us are equally welcoming.

-Galen's player

 

[Theo_GL]

So my .02 on attracting new players:

1 - More co-ordinated quests to 'build' one of 5 character types - Samauri/Pally, Tamer, Mage, Crafter, Necro.
Yes, there are 8 million other templates that could be built but give people some place to start building a character that can make money and makes sense at least as a starting point. I find myself giving people a book with skill targets for templates saying 'build these skills'. Why can't we have this more automated for 5 key templates? When I first started I had crafting and fighting on the same character and had to readjust because there was no good template or target for starters. Yes, I changed out some skills and stuff on my Pally as I switched to a sampire later - but my initial Pally was a huge money maker when I first started and easiest to build. The quests would be things like 'Go kill 10 lizardmen' and when you complete the quest you get the option to claim 5 skill points in Fencing/Swords/Anat/Tacs or something. These quests should also build actual 'skill' like 'setting a macro for last weapons to switch weapons, using evade for busido to avoid 10 attacks etc. This would help people learn a profession and get extra gains for doing so. Taming - Bond a pet - gain 5 skill points (provided you are below 100 taming), stable a pet first time gain 3 skill points, rez a pet first time gain 2 skill points, each time you tame a new kind of aggressive animal - gain 1 skill point etc. Wow - actual reward for a broad range of activity vs tame 300 greater harts. That doesn't build any meaningful 'skill'. It just builds boring repetition and hatred for the game. Give skill gains for exploring new lands. IE kill a monster on all levels of shame - get 3 skill points in any skill. etc etc.

2 - Better starting gear.
1k gold and absolute junk armor is not the way to go. I know some people will come on here and claim they make mad gold by selling GM leather armor but that is BS. Todays economy is such that if you aren't making 100k/hr as a vet then the task is meaningless. People don't make a living selling GM armor nor does that make sense. Give people all 70's armor with 100% lrc to start with 100 durability a piece. Thats good enough for training any skill. Real armor would still be far better than this and what crafters would sell. Also - give people a full spellbook and full necro book to start. Hard to find on vendors on many shards and again - no one is making money selling this junk. In addtion a rune book with 5 or 6 key things marked would be very helpful. Brit Bank, Luna, Stable, moongate, etc.

3- Skill gain 3x as fast as current gains (also see #1).
In today's download and play society - the skill gain rates suck. Yes, as a vet you can powergame skills in a day or two but as a new player really trying to play the game - skill gains are too f'ing slow. Its boring to have to spend so many hours skilling up. Why not let players get to GM and better quickly? The only excuses I see is from Vets who want to 'preserve' their eliteness by making it a grind for other new folks to gain skills. I have maxed out chars and it doesn't threaten me that someone can create similar skills faster than it took me. It hooks people more in the game if they see skills rising up. Raising skills from 50-80 is fun - going from 80-100 sucks and over 100 is just mind numbing. Make it faster to get people able to enjoy more of the game quicker. Change the skill check to succeed 2x or 3x as often. Stop making this a job.

4 - New Player Community
Make it easier for new players to find each other. IE having separate chat channel people are defaulted to in order to start if they are new rather than being thrown in the 'General' chat with nothing but PVP drivel. Make the chat color different for under 500 total skill point or something or <N> in their chat to show they are a newer player. People are more likely to help and provide more paitence when they know someone is less skilled.

5 - Consider a 'new player' shard only for new skill building (alternative to #4).
Once a player reaches a certain skill point - then they pick a shard to 'xfer' to with their character and skills that is a production shard. This again would insulate them from the hard core vets and pvp banter and such and allow them some time to build skill before 'choosing' a shard to move to. By the time you build 600 or 700 skill you will have a good idea of what shard you'd want to move to. Otherwise people look at the shard list and just radomly pick a shard and then are 'there' for some time unless they buy a transfer token.

6 - Armor revamp
It has gotten so damn complex to build suits anymore it is insane an one of the worst ideas was the damage spread addition to armor. What cracks me up is all the 'cursed' and 'brittle' junk that drops in the new dungeons. I know the dev's were thinking - 'lets make a bunch of disposable high mod stuff people can use and they won't care if they lose it because they can just get more'. This actually somewhat works on the weapon side and maybe some jewels but for armor - the phys/fire/cold/poison/energy spread stuff makes it so that you really have to custom build your armor. Honestly they should just combine fire/cold/poison/energy into a 'magic resist' mod and a physical resist mod for armor. 2 mods. You max out both at 70. Then as long as your items average 12 in phys and 12 in magic - you can interchange pieces easily. It currently takes imbuing/reforging and an excel spreadsheet to build a suit of armor. This is insane and hard to explain to a new player. Make it less complicated. There is still TONS to do to customize the magic mods, MR, Stamina regen, HCI, DCI etc but what makes armor so specific and so custom made is the P/F/C/P/E stats. Its a continual math problem and what makes it so hard to interchange any peice of armor. Yes, this requires some major thinking to all crafting systems but for the love of mike - it is too hard and wastes too much time and I feel this way as a crafter!
To make some armor more useful - you could add armor penalties/bonuses. Like 1% chance to parry per piece of plate mail but -1 to dex per piece of plate mail. +1 to dex for every leather armor and -1% chance to parry for leather etc. Then there are real trade offs to armor intead - everyone wears leather armor because there is no penalty, all classes can wear it (human, elf, female, male) and its medable. Get rid of the medable penalty already. Its completely restricting.

Ok, I could go on but I better get back to work... Can't do the Dev's job for them all day.....

 

[BeaIank]

So my .02 on attracting new players:

2 - Better starting gear.
1k gold and absolute junk armor is not the way to go. I know some people will come on here and claim they make mad gold by selling GM leather armor but that is BS. Todays economy is such that if you aren't making 100k/hr as a vet then the task is meaningless. People don't make a living selling GM armor nor does that make sense. Give people all 70's armor with 100% lrc to start with 100 durability a piece. Thats good enough for training any skill. Real armor would still be far better than this and what crafters would sell. Also - give people a full spellbook and full necro book to start. Hard to find on vendors on many shards and again - no one is making money selling this junk. In addtion a rune book with 5 or 6 key things marked would be very helpful. Brit Bank, Luna, Stable, moongate, etc.

This, please.
When I joined in 2011 I spent one entire week armourless, running about cemeteries trying to kill monsters with lightning bolt because I had no idea that LRC existed, thought leather would hinder med and had no effing idea where I could buy level 5+ scrolls to fill in my book.
And without level 6 spells, I couldn't gain magery anymore, and thus I took the next reasonable idea. Hunting.
But everything that drops level 6 scrolls is too tough to kill with an armourless, SDI less, 60ish eval mage with a undead slayer spellbook without level 6 spells or at least blade spirits to work with.

Eventually I ran onto a veteran at Haven and was handed a full spellbook and LRC armour, and suddenly the game was much more fun to play.

 

[Rhiannon]

This, please.
When I joined in 2011 I spent one entire week armourless, running about cemeteries trying to kill monsters with lightning bolt because I had no idea that LRC existed, thought leather would hinder med and had no effing idea where I could buy level 5+ scrolls to fill in my book.
And without level 6 spells, I couldn't gain magery anymore, and thus I took the next reasonable idea. Hunting.
But everything that drops level 6 scrolls is too tough to kill with an armourless, SDI less, 60ish eval mage with a undead slayer spellbook without level 6 spells or at least blade spirits to work with.

Eventually I ran onto a veteran at Haven and was handed a full spellbook and LRC armour, and suddenly the game was much more fun to play.

This last line is really the point. It's up to the vets to catch these new players and help them out. I know a number of guilds on Atlantic that do this on a regular basis. I see books dropped all over Britannia near banks and dungeons with the title "do you need help" or some such thing. I have a friend who is actually creating a training school for new players to help them get going, teaching them about templates, etc.

Aside from being fun role playing activities, these kinds of offerings by veteran players will get those new folks up to speed with as much help as they need.

 

[Theo_GL]

This last line is really the point. It's up to the vets to catch these new players and help them out. I know a number of guilds on Atlantic that do this on a regular basis. I see books dropped all over Britannia near banks and dungeons with the title "do you need help" or some such thing. I have a friend who is actually creating a training school for new players to help them get going, teaching them about templates, etc.

Aside from being fun role playing activities, these kinds of offerings by veteran players will get those new folks up to speed with as much help as they need.

Well, the communnity has fallen to nothing but the true hard core play all day UO crowd who can't be bothered to help a new player lest they be pulled away from farming a boss for uber loot or pvping at Yew gate. So the devs/game MUST do something to engage players and cannot expect the community to pick up the slack.

Yes, its great that there are guilds that sacrifice their time to help new players and I've done it in the past - but honestly, again, the road is so steep - you help a new player for WEEKS before they are at a level that they can do the same things you are doing. Thats not very fun.

It used to be worth hunting lower level creatures for gold, loot etc. Now there is hardly anything that drops on a regular (read non boss) monster that I'd keep. Even in the new dungeons I pretty much unravel 99% of the loot. Guild hunts to a dungeon are pure boredom if you are a skilled player.

The game must help players advance quicker to join the ranks of the playerbase or they lose interest and leave. It would be interesting to do an exit survey of those who no longer play on why....

 

[BeaIank]

This last line is really the point. It's up to the vets to catch these new players and help them out. I know a number of guilds on Atlantic that do this on a regular basis. I see books dropped all over Britannia near banks and dungeons with the title "do you need help" or some such thing. I have a friend who is actually creating a training school for new players to help them get going, teaching them about templates, etc.

Aside from being fun role playing activities, these kinds of offerings by veteran players will get those new folks up to speed with as much help as they need.

Yes, it is nice to have veterans to help new players set up. Once I got on my feet in the game, I started doing such as well, always providing armour, weapons and full books to whoever needed them.
But one shouldn't have to rely exclusively on them to get on their feet. New comers should have some more guidance and some kind of in-game option to get better equipment (armour, weapons, shields, jewels) fitting their skills and fill at least their magery books up to the sixth spell level, be it by a quest or by killing a boss in Haven.

 

[DerekL]

Yes, it is nice to have veterans to help new players set up. Once I got on my feet in the game, I started doing such as well, always providing armour, weapons and full books to whoever needed them.
But one shouldn't have to rely exclusively on them to get on their feet. New comers should have some more guidance and some kind of in-game option to get better equipment (armour, weapons, shields, jewels) fitting their skills and fill at least their magery books up to the sixth spell level, be it by a quest or by killing a boss in Haven.

And in modern games - new players expect a certain amount of guided experience.

 

[Picus at the office]

This, please.
When I joined in 2011 I spent one entire week armourless, running about cemeteries trying to kill monsters with lightning bolt because I had no idea that LRC existed, thought leather would hinder med and had no effing idea where I could buy level 5+ scrolls to fill in my book.
And without level 6 spells, I couldn't gain magery anymore, and thus I took the next reasonable idea. Hunting.
But everything that drops level 6 scrolls is too tough to kill with an armourless, SDI less, 60ish eval mage with a undead slayer spellbook without level 6 spells or at least blade spirits to work with.

Eventually I ran onto a veteran at Haven and was handed a full spellbook and LRC armour, and suddenly the game was much more fun to play.

This is the exact issue I am having in attempting to write a "what to do if you are new" essay. The lack of up to date items that a person needs to start with is beyond absurd and are a shocking clue of the neglect that the dev team(not the current but all of them) have had towards the new player.

At the very least give them 500K gold on the first new char ,a free 8*8 house(not able to be placed in luna) and a magical rune to each char on that shard that recalls to the house so they don't get lost. A house gives a feeling of ownership and a place to horde the crap they find thus creating a reason to log back in even if they are alone in the world. Anything less is insane and only hinders the person, this isn't 1998 anymore.

 

[Picus at the office]

Heck yes. I'm not up to date with the Google doc but if you started it I'm sure we could bang something out quicker than one person at a time.

 

[Tanivar]

But there's not a whole lot out there that addresses those overwhelming issues of how do you even get started with so little gold and acquire basic, needful items ...

What's overwhelming about getting started? You just take your starting character with the armor it's supplied with, buy a sword, and start hunting. The game is set up so a beginning character can hunt things in New Haven and gather loot to improve his gear as he plays there, then moves on to the main continent. He can't jump from New Haven directly into the big leagues of the ML & SA dungeons, but he can work his way up through the monsters provided until he can hunt in the Big Leagues.

A new player should play his way through the easier monsters so he can learn of the game by experience.

Roll up a new character throwing the beginning skill points into skills you don't plan to ever use and start with the skills you intend to use at zero, buy a sword and a few heal potions with your starting gold, and start hunting. Duke it out with Rabbits and chickens to earn some skill, then move up to something a little tougher. By the time your skilled enough to hunt where Bad Things play, you'll have had a lot of fun and learned a lot.

 

[BeaIank]

Aye, Picus.
At the very least they should make the New Haven quests rewards to be more worthwhile for a newbie.

One feels like crying when looking at the New Haven quest rewards:
http://uo.stratics.com/content/guides/uokr/KRwarrior.shtml
http://uo.stratics.com/content/guides/uokr/KRspellcaster.shtml

Undead slayer spellbook with all level 1 to 4 spells plus incognito and summon monster?
Hat with 7 LRC?
Sleeves with str 3, HPR 1 and 27 resists?

At least the necromancy quest gives a full necrobook.

The very least they could do is make those quests give a full set of armour with LRC/MI or Stam increase with okay resists (high 50 or low 60 would be enough), a decent weapon for a newcomer and a full book in case of magery.
Also, add a quest for mysticism with a full book as a reward.

Giving them runebooks with hunting spots for unskilled players would help lots too. But we'd need a dungeon that would mix old Shame and old Despise in one.
Ettins, Earth Elementals, Dull Copper elementals and Krakens taught me painful but very useful lessons about fighting spawn in UO. And in the end of the day, the rewards were worth it. Some decent gold, some crystalline blackrock, the eventual useful magic item among other things.
Made me feel like I was accomplishing something in-game, and that felt good, thus making me stay.

As it is now, it is too hard for a complete newcomer to set foot in the game. One needs to have much persistence to stay in game long enough to start enjoying it to the fullest.

 

[Picus at the office]

What's overwhelming about getting started? You just take your starting character with the armor it's supplied with, buy a sword, and start hunting. The game is set up so a beginning character can hunt things in New Haven and gather loot to improve his gear as he plays there, then moves on to the main continent. He can't jump from New Haven directly into the big leagues of the ML & SA dungeons, but he can work his way up through the monsters provided until he can hunt in the Big Leagues.

A new player should play his way through the easier monsters so he can learn of the game by experience.

Roll up a new character throwing the beginning skill points into skills you don't plan to ever use and start with the skills you intend to use at zero, buy a sword and a few heal potions with your starting gold, and start hunting. Duke it out with Rabbits and chickens to earn some skill, then move up to something a little tougher. By the time your skilled enough to hunt where Bad Things play, you'll have had a lot of fun and learned a lot.

If it is so easy than please write a short intro on how to do it and post it into the other thread. It's alot more in depth than you might think. Does the new guy want to take the accelerated quest to gain faster, which one where and what monster to I fight. Where do I go? How do you get the quest, is there a link? One cannot view this as a vet knowing what to do with years of play time but as a brand new player.

 

[Sargon]

They want to attract ppl to the game? Make it simplier. This game is so freaking complex it takes years to figgure out all the systems to be 'good' at it.

This is so true. Not only are the systems complex, but they are poorly documented on top of that.

 

[Gameboy]

Being in a guild has been a life saver for me. I do not play this game anywhere near it's full positional.

 

[Zosimus]

You may want to check out the link since beloI would like to add some useful examples to Tina and Picus that may be able to help both of you out. Maybe both of you may not like what I am going to try to help out with but may just trying to give you both some possible ideas. For GW2 alot of use the site Dulfy to break down events, holiday events and live stories. Same with armor and weapons.

Its easier for players to not just read but to see examples like take a screenshot of the map of New Haven area and use color bullets for say quest givers and the area they may need to go.


Like this below is a live story going on in GW2......


You may want to check this link out in case the C&P below doesnt look exactly right.

GW2 Living story Refugee Volunteer events guide
Categories:
flame and frost, GW2
by dulfy
A guide to the GW2 Living story Refugee Volunteer events and achievements introduced as part of the Flame and Frost prelude patch.
Navigation
Refugee Volunteer (Jan 29)

• Wayfayer Foothills
• Diessa Plateau
• Rewards

How the Living Story content works
. Here’s some context on how it works (Bobby Stein- GW2 Lead Writer)

• The Flame and Frost story content progresses over time. You will not see everything today, tomorrow, or even the next day.
• Expect subtle changes at first. Maybe you’ll encounter some familiar characters. Perhaps you’ll be introduced to some new ones. You might see a new structure where there wasn’t one before.
• The Living Story content is initially about the thrill of discovery. We’ll put some markers on your map, maybe send you a letter, or parcel out details through certain characters, but the rest is up to you.
• As the weeks progress, you’ll notice bigger changes in the world. New events may appear. Plots will advance and characters will develop.

Refugee Volunteer (Jan 29)

• Refugees traveling south from Wayfarer Foothills to Hoelbrak, and from Diessa Plateau to the Black Citadel are in need of assistance. Collect mementos, light campfires, and aid the refugee migration.

How to Start the event
You don’t really start the event, you just go around in specific areas of Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau to repair roadsign posts, lit campfires, and loot mementos to handle to collectors (stars on your map). Each action give you 1 “act of assistance”. You will need 75 acts of assistance for the title and achievement. If you don’t see golden stars on your zone map, then your server is bugged and you will need to guest to a non-buggy server (i.e. Tarnished Coast) or switch to a different overflow.
Herald
There is a Herald in major cities and Lion’s Arch near the asura gates to the different main cities. She just tell you to head to Diessa Plateau and Wayfarer Foothills and doesn’t provide much background info! (thanks Draczar)

Wayfarer Foothills
Roadsign Posts and Fallen Refuges
Map of all the roadsign posts and some of the Fallen Refuges. You can log into an overflow or a different character and all the roadsigns and fallen refugees will be reset, allowing you to get the achievement fairly easy

• Follow this path, repair sign posts, light campfires, and gather mementos to hand to the NPCs with the star icon on them.
• Hold down the ctrl key to see campfires, sign posts etc that needs to be lit./repaired. Note that Fallen refugees do not lit up when you hold down ctrl key.
• Fallen Refugees give out mementos, these fallen refugees are slightly off the trail so you need to run around abit or use the map above

• You can help limping refugees and revive some of the refugees for credit.

Events
There are two events that give you multiple “act of assistances” but they are on a fairly long timer so you may not encounter it right away (received 5 “acts” for getting a bronze star).

• Event: Use ice blocks from unstable ice elementals to plug the steaming ruptures contributing to the blizzard.
• There are two locations for the event, one up north, one down south near Breakneck Pass.

Interesing stuff
There is a dead merchant just south of the Solitude Waypoint way up in the north. Not sure what it is suppose to be yet.. Murder mystery?

Diessa Plateau
Roadsign Posts and Fallen Refuges
Map of all the roadsign posts and some of the Fallen Refuges. You can log into an overflow or a different character and all the roadsigns and fallen refugees will be reset, allowing you to get the achievement fairly easy

Events
These events give out multiple “Acts of Assistance” towards the achievement but they are on a fairly long timer so you may not encounter it right away. The event is called Use boulders from earth elementals to plug the ruptures causing dust storms (basically identical to the ones in Wayfarer Foothills but use earth elementals instead).

• There is one near Oldgate Clearing (thanks Draczar)
• There is another one up in the north east of Village of Butcher’s Block (thanks Relyk)

Rewards
Reward

• Refugee Child’s Drawing (eat it for 5k karma), and Volunteer title after you finish all 4 tiers. You get the drawing in the mail.
• Refugee Volunteer achievement
• If you don’t get a reward after doing 75 acts of assistance, relog or remap

Tier Act of Assistance Achievement point
1 1 1
2 15 1
3 40 1
4 75 1

 

[RuSini Neb]

The only think I want to say is, Thank you EA for alinating another portion of your player base although we were small...
me 4 accounts now == 1 account. it would be 0 if houses didn't fall.

really messing with stam mechanics and taking off feint from leafblade... WHO DA WHAT THA FA????