1 (edited by Arjha Shanoo 2012-10-26 18:12:25)

Topic: Syndicate Bootcamp

First of two long overdue topics from me - ideas that are already older than 1 year, can't say even that anymore exactly.
Okay, here we go with the first one: the "Syndicate Bootcamp".

Basics:

  • - Island to learn about the games basics (= tutorials + evtl. trainings)

  • Connects to alpha 1

  • Divided into (2-)3 areas: mining/harvesting, combat, terminal/teleport/PvP-arena

  • Gives you a chance to try out all basic weaponsystems (SynTec lasers, missile launcher, ...)

Connection to alpha 1:

  • - re-entering bootcamp only through free sparkteleport

  • two choices: abort tutorial by pre-teleporting or run it through

  • if aborted: you can sparkteleport to your alpha 1 island of choice but don't get any freebies from bootcamp. If you re-enter the bootcamp you are able to start/continue your tutorial -> see next point

  • if tutorial is completed: tutorial freebies (standard items), NPC loot, materials; chance to use the teleporter behind the terminal to teleport to the alpha 1 of your choice; possibility of item transfer from bootcamp private storage into the chosen mainterminal (depending on your island choice at leaving bootcamp via teleporter; only one way)

(2-)3 Learning areas:

  • Terminal + Teleporter:
    learn the basic movements, how to target and lock sth., use of terminal facilities;
    Teleporter accessable after completing tutorial; sparkteleport in station to jump tutorials;
    little PvP-arena: loser will teleport out, no loss of the bot/equip, small group PvP

  • Mining/harvesting:
    Small dynamic ore spawns (ore/plants defined by tutorial) but restricted to this area to learn the use of different geoscanner ammo, achieve mining/harvesting basic skills (the knowledge how it works - no extensions)

  • Combat:
    Arkhe fights (normal ones, factional ones, ewar) to learn about combat and to try out the different weaponsystem; "endboss": first real Nian! a light bot Nian that may drop t2 items, missionrelated: will only spawn once for you

Cheap SynTec variants of turrets, launchers and ewar:

  • only available at bootcamp (if tutorial is completed can be transfered to the chosen alpha island)

  • try out different fighting styles on the different arkhe spawns (PvE) or in the arena (PvP)

Tutorial/Training system:

  • Mission rows with Auto-PopUp (Stage choice if there are some left + status on active ones) by entering bootcamp terminal (freebies according to current tuts + training)

  • Megacorp Training missions: you are provided with the SynTec weapon (freebie) of that faction and get the task to destroy some of the according factional drones -> rewards you with positive standing towards that megacorp

  • "Endboss"-assignment: light bot reward - you may choose your combat lightbot

Side-thoughts and reasons for this ideas:
Character creation system and bootcamp: even with the preset character you might want to try out different styles and invest your EP accordingly after this
Arkhe spawns on alpha 1 not necessary anymore -> more place for real spawns (maybe re-introduction of t0 Nians?)
Evtlly. Limiter to orange spawns (still can only see them as band-aid-fix which waits for a better solution)

All in all, just one idea to improve new player experience in PvE/industry and giving new players a chance to train for PvP. An idea thats already old to the gaming world but I always was delighted by it.

Re: Syndicate Bootcamp

also needs scripted NPCS that fight each others for demonstration. smile

+1

*Disclaimer: This post can contain strong sarcasm or cynical remarks. keep that in mind!
Whining - It's amazing how fast your trivial concerns will disappear

Re: Syndicate Bootcamp

Celebro wrote:
Arjha Shanoo wrote:

starter island was another idea of mine... that one has even an own topic since a few days ago...

One way on another I like most of your ideas, but no sand out of the sandbox please.

First, thanks for this comment smile
This quote is from another topic. Since its linked to this topic I took the freedom to post it here.

For the sandbox part - as it is right now, alpha islands have nearly no sand in them - you can't upgrade outposts, can't build MPCs or terraform anything. There's no free PvP-zones and for PvE-part there's "too much boring orange spawns" (Quote from trial player not too long ago).
The starter island takes away the basic static stuff (Training/Tutorials/...) to make more place on alphas for sand.

Its basic idea was originally directly linked to the Alpha Siege Isle idea (how I would have imagined at least Alpha 2s), bigger islands for TENT usage and in its Beta variant the revival of original police towers for resting zones.
All in all, just the first steps to more sand and at the same time PvE-action at alpha.

Re: Syndicate Bootcamp

I was thinking something along the same lines, I'll post my vision here.  My thoughts are influenced by other players, even this thread so in no way do I claim this is my "idea"

Essentially create a starter Island in the center of the map.  Physically it appears there is enough space with the current map.

A new character is automatically sent here, with 20k ep,  Ep is accumulated in the same way. 1 per minute.  Created character is done as normal.  Race is not selected.

For sake of this post lets call the starter area Ellis Island.

Ellis operates much in the same way the test server did ...

Every Item in game is available at reduced costs, up to t3.  No t4 as to give noobs incentive to get to alpha, same with Mk2 bots. Items up to t3 to show them the value of improved equipment and teach them how to play with fits and fitting.

Extension costs are reduced.

Every aspect of the game can be tried on Ellis, in a tutorial type module.  Build a terminal and a turret.  costs and time are drastically reduced ... and terminal only lasts until that player logs off.  Pvp in a set area, with whatever bot they can afford EP wise .... this should show new players quite quickly that maybe you can jump into a mech but since your skills suck it may be better to use an improved assault first.  I think this is a common noob mistake, jumping to mech first, and wandering around in a useless mech frustrates them easily.

Have Mining, harvesting, production, reverse engineering, every single game aspect available here to try, with tutorials and way more help and explanation ...

Once said noob has completed enough tutorials, shown enough competencey with what he wants, or simply is ready to go to alpha, or in some cases is a friend of an existing player and just wants to start playing, they reroll all their attibutes and are transported to the alpha of their race.  With the exception of whatever EP they have accumulated while on Ellis (remember this is at the standard 1 per minute) NOTHING they have on Ellis is transfered to Alpha.

Essenially when this noob player hits alpha, they should have a pretty good basic grasp of how the game works, and can start actually playing.   Because of this the alpha can actually be made a little more interesting ... no more dull orange spawns, no more endless level 1 or 2 spawns ..

Basic Idea here is to let Noobs try things, learn how to do thiings, understand things and the game itself, before they actually end up in the game.  I think the throw a noob to the wild appoach is flawed and just results in noobs quitting from lack of understanding.  I also think making the game easier so they stay is also flawed.  This starter concept solves both those issues.

Again ..not my idea, but a mash of everything Ive read ...

But the tutorials have to be way more helpful, and much more understandable than the current ones.
Also, not sure how this would work, but perhaps allow vets to somehow assist noobs on the starter island in guidance only.  Maybe thru a specific chat channel or something to answer and guide noobs ... and as an icentive for vets, give them 2 tokens for evey minute they are actively helping noobs or something  ,,, again not sure on this aspect but something like this would ensure an endless supply of veteran players available to help the noobs, since we hardly see GMs or Devs in game much, and most vets I know want to help out.

Also maybe have on the Starter island ... "kill a Dev" event where all the noobs can jump into the pvp area and fight a Dev ... and probably explode 99 out of 100 times, but have FUN!

5 (edited by Arjha Shanoo 2012-11-04 17:45:27)

Re: Syndicate Bootcamp

hmm, let's see...

race selection - yep, should happen on starter island when you actually know the pros/cons of each

For building a terminal and a turret: I would propose instead of those huge thingies to build your own tent first - otherwise instances would really be needed (each player a base...). With building your own little tent you already get a shoot from the MPC side.
For Terraforming - don't have a good idea to implement that one without the use of scripted events making it undone sad

every item up to t3 available? Doesn't sound that good to me.
Side thought, T4 is normally beta equip because of epriton and noralgis, not alpha.
That aside, the wish to show the improvements of modules per tier is good, but T0 (Syncrap) and T1 (Standard) should be sufficient for this learning effect.
If you get a T3 reward for killing the endboss and can take it with you to alpha (hard earned reward) its sounds better for me.

Bots maybe up to mech but those only lend by the syndicate for arena use. Or Syndicate bots like assault and mech versions of arkhe (machinegunners roll!).

Besides if you already were able to use T3 equip and have to restart from zero at alphas it might be a shock to new players. Same with the extensions as soon as you leave starter islands.

Extension wise, I would have said free Extension reset for your agent as long as you are on this island (downgrade tokens may stay for your first month after this).

Improvement to Tutorials is the first and foremost goal to all trainings islands smile

Fights versus DEVs in the starter arena? WANT.

The main flaw of Elli is that other than gaining knowledge you have no reason to complete the training isle since you loose everything you achieved there (extensions, bots, items). This was one of the reasons many newbs jumped tutorial in TR...
Another flaw would be that you need another server just to seal of EP and extensions like on a testserver (it would conflict with the one world philosophy of Perp too).

All in all, you should still be able to discover different bots, fits and challenges outside of the starter area (not just open PVP and MK2 variants) or it may get boring even faster - at least my 2 cents here smile

Re: Syndicate Bootcamp

Good post, good points ... smile my thoughts behind some of the things I suggested ...

Ellis Island would be a separate server from PO. It would solely be a training ground for new players to ease them into how the PO world functions. Rather than make new variants of what's in game, it would use wherever possible what's already coded.

Noobs should be able to see every item and its stats, up to T4+, but only fit to T3 ... Why? To give them carrots to come to the main game, to understand the value of the higher tier items. Usage up to T3 shows them a great improvement over T1 (T2 of course generally is same as T1 but better fitting and less weight). Let them know there's even better stuff (T4) but make them commit to the game in order to use it.

The reason nothing but EP follows the player to PO is so they can stay on Ellis as long as they want and need to, but it's not a substitute for the real game, it serves its purpose to give them a hands free trial of things.

Terraforming and building wouldn't be limited to just a few structures, but would automatically be wiped when player logs off ... This keeps the area uncluttered but still allows them to make a few castles and a base with a turret or reactor ... Again a taste of what is actually ingame.
The simple purpose of Ellis is to educate the player on what the game is ... No shock needed when they join the game and lose their stuff ... Make sure they are clear on the rules of Ellis and that it's a "Virtual Training Island" that all Nia bound sparks from Earth have to stop at to prepare for their use on PO.

By not keeping stuff it gives the player incentive to get into the real game as fast as possible. By making the tutorials and modules actually understandable to a noob it prepares them better for PO.

This should be the single thing that would improve player retention rates, and make the game flourish .... Without changing existing game mechanics that cripple one style like PVP and buff PVE, or vice versa.

Re: Syndicate Bootcamp

Making the game flourish with a 24/7 PTS - last time I heard this was in auto assault. it resulted in an empty live server. Even if its just "one" island, if you have a testserver most people will play there.

One in "" because of the terraforming part - if it only gets reset when you log of - imagine even a low player count of 50 working on their own bases and TF for each their own. Bigger islands don't work so you would have to implement MPC/TF islands with this -> which would narrow the aspects to the real game again.

Even more so, building your own base and TFing in grand style whilst still in training, is for me like letting anyone try out the Über-Weapons from the very beginning.

This may sound a bit biased but I don't think a training island like this will work out for players hmm