26 (edited by MoBIoS 2014-03-07 23:28:53)

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

Hi Zoom, I think I mentioned this before, when the game was just released. I try to summarize my first impression.

I am really missing a voice over. A sexy female Recruiter voice., who welcomes you to the game (just read the introduction text) and then follows through the check-list. This really would pick me up, in an immersive way and would build up the needed atmosphere. I feel like I am left in solitude/ silence, to read thru the check list and accomplish my tasks. Creating some female voice over, which i.e. just speaks the text, which is projected, and this shouldn´t be to difficult or time consuming. I even bet, ppl out of the community would send you the created voice over. I for instance have a semi professional sound studio at home and I bet,I am not the only one here, but I have no time or female actress for that matter, at the moment. Been out of this businesses for some time, nevertheless, I think this is a really important part to pick someone up into the game atmosphere.

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Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

You really need to get laid bro.

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

Crown Royal wrote:

You really need to get laid bro.

What do you know bout me coital behaviour? I do presume you are projecting your own inexperience upon others. To intermediately resolve the lacking of your mating experiences, maybe I can refer you to a porn site of your trust for some home workout, to compensate any inefficiencies wink

Now back to mature comments.

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29 (edited by MoBIoS 2014-03-08 00:15:21)

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

Moving to the shooting range terminal, the terminal does not show shooting range virtua training ground as destination, only upon jumping back I got the destination and the task updated.

Edit: Autopilot still working very poorly.

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Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

MoBIoS wrote:

Moving to the shooting range terminal, the terminal does not show shooting range virtua training ground as destination, only upon jumping back I got the destination and the task updated.

Uh I have a hard time figuring out what you were trying to say smile

31 (edited by Cassius 2014-03-08 01:03:26)

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

Zoom, I think the checklist is great, but I think its a mistake to use Mechs as the test robots ... This will lead to noobs pushing for mechs to play with as soon as possible and forgo the assault and light class. Can you switch to the Assault class for the bots in the tutorial? And then a suggestion after the checklist is done for the noob to try out the Mech class bots, before leaving the island. Another thing that would be nice is an EP calculator, that would show the minimum EP requirement, in amount and days, of what the noob would need to run the bot in the game. Would be nice to also calculate all relevant extensions at 5 for the same fit .... This will help all noobs with EP planning, and give them an understanding of what it actually takes ....

I think the checlklist may create some false expectations, and may mislead some noobs into the wrong starting decisions, ie, missle launchers on Numquiol bots, I noticed for the starter bot package for Num I got a fitted Arby with a launcher ....  not good. And also not skilled enough to use it. You need to explain clearly that the starter school only allows basic allocation of extensions that alllow the pilot to run light bots ....

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

We're using mechs exactly for the reason so they have something to look forward to (see the sentence about teasing  in the first mech task). People like two-legged bots more, that's a fact and that's not going to change by trying to hide them in the hopes they won't notice them before assaults. We can try to make light/assault robots more appealing in the future, and then we can update the tutorial too, but that won't happen now.

33 (edited by Cassius 2014-03-08 03:10:07)

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

Ok, fine, but at least drop the missile launcher off the Arbalest in the starter package. I have 1.3 mill EP, and am one of the few pilots who did not jump to a mech for at least 7 months while I concentrated on my assault skills, and I cannot fit a light missile launcher. You are sending the wrong message to your new players. I don't know any blue pilots who run launchers on assaults, unless they either added them for lols or at a much later point in their EP total. We already have had enough "more EP" threads, I don't think its wise to even passively suggest a fit that really is not practical.

We are dealing with a new players FIRST impression of this game. Most will assume automatically that its a viable fit.

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

Your assuming its not but honestly who's to say. There was a time when people said you couldn't Pvp with shields. Now its split weapons but it can work, especially in pve.

Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags."

35 (edited by MoBIoS 2014-03-09 10:26:37)

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

DEV Zoom wrote:
MoBIoS wrote:

Moving to the shooting range terminal, the terminal does not show shooting range virtua training ground as destination, only upon jumping back I got the destination and the task updated.

Uh I have a hard time figuring out what you were trying to say smile

-------------
Task 17
Teleports:
"There is a nearby teleport building called “Terminal teleport”, which leads to a '''shooting range'''. Let’s visit that."
> Move close to the Terminal teleport, activate it and select "shooting range" as destination.
-------------

Sry Zoom, it was a wee bit late. I just tried to reproduce the the issue for proper documentation, only to realize, it was my bad not reading the Check-list task properly.

Did you register the "voice overs" comment? Was this comprehensible to you? As I regard this to be an important step towards picking up new players by creating an immersive atmosphere.

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Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

MoBIoS: to be honest voiceovers are currently considered a luxury feature.

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

Starter pack bots are now fixed, I have removed the single weapons from the assaults (Sequer included), and also had to remove one gun from the Yagel, otherwise it's overloaded (figured one less gun is better than no armor rep).

And although a new character doesn't have the required extensions for an assault bot, it's still in the storage waiting, and at least it provides some guidance on what extensions to upgrade.

We have also added some crosshair-like lines to the red checklist highlights, it should be more noticeable this way.

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

I would see more NPC on the testing area and not just Arkhe's at least far away from the teleport. So you can figure out how works the robots in "real" battle if you want.

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

We could do something, I'm just hesitating because I'm sure there would be people who would get themselves killed before they even complete the task for that mech smile

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

Maybe having them killed would be a good way to open an advanced tutorial on the market, tell them the items they need to buy to refit the particular mech they died and make them search the market to buy those items and reassemble the same mech to go out again and continue the checklist.

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

One thing I would strongly advise is mapping out what stage of the checlist people get to on a time basis and on a log in / out basis.

If you see this then you will be able to tell which parts are annoying and which arn't and change over time to make this section - the most important for any game - worthwhile

Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags."

42

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

I think the NewPlayerExperience is really a big step over the nothingness that we currently have, good job!

As others have said the Mech fits need to be improved (remove non racial weapons from them) but i would change it to assaults and let the new guys fiddle around with assaults to get their bearings.

There is no need to heighten expectations to the Mech class from the very start. You should be promoting the lights and assaults.

I think there could be a little more done with the combat system really I did not get very much information on electronic warfare at all when i went through it. Which was disappointing because EW is a critical part of game play.

Tux ~ Kill the messenger, he was part of it all along.
Euripides ~ Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head.
Bertrand Russell ~ War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

Remove T2-T4 items on market listings seems very confusing for new players.

+1 Tux's post, tutorial is well made , but I would certainly avoid for new players to try mech classes so early on.

RIP PERPETUUM

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

Celebro wrote:

Remove T2-T4 items on market listings seems very confusing for new players.

We can't do that, we only have one database of marketable items. The only thing we can do there is to set "show only available" as default on the market.

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

DEV Zoom wrote:

The only thing we can do there is to set "show only available" as default on the market.

And we did that.

There is one other change we did but you'll only see this one when the patch is already out on the live server: the training terminal will always deploy you on the side that's close to the terminal teleport.

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

well a lot has been said already,

first off: this is a major improvement to the old tutorials. good job on that.

but there are a few things that can be improved.

1: faction bots:
i think there should be more prefitted bots avalible mabe a small background menu in the terminal where you can fast spawn pre fitted bot. small assault mech heavy. important that its visible all the time and can be used very fast. maybe this should just start to appear when you reach the faction bots in the checklist, or even after you have used the 3 ones in the list.

2: show of of the factions:
i think you should give here a bit more details in what the factions are good at, or what the specific benefits are.

i can imagine a special area setup just for each bot. i mean there is more then enough room there, so that should not be a problem.

thelodica:
thelodica specializes in long range lases so the prefit should obviously contain HCL laser, range extender and sensor amps.
your objective then should be to derory a enemy (that maybe even has superiour firepower) at long distance without the enemy retaliating. so basicly this will also be your first lesson on how to kite a npc. which is basic knowledge they should have in pve.

pelistal:
ok i think it is obiously. we need a setup where we have some cover and can shoot a enemy that has guns.

nuimqol:
even they have long range weaopnary i would set up here a gauss scenario where te player has short range high dmg fit and has to go for a close range encounter and see the difference of raw firepwer compared to the other ones before. of cource a lessen that close range has its disadvantages would also be good. so once you have successfully killed the one enemy you could spawn another 3 that you might not be able to handle. then you also save your way back to the terminal. of cource pack it into a a good story and use some explayning on the mission.

voiceover:
yes it has been said before, and honestly i had also that idea when i just started the tutorial. as good as it is now. but whet ppl get into a game is the mood. that usually is done by music and by voice. you feel way more involved if you have a voice telling you what to do. it dont has to be a sexy woman voice (but of cource with a mostly male community it might have a beneift or two). an ai like voice filter may also work very good. or what ever you might have avalible.
you want to make a good impression. then i suggest you realy consider a voiceover. this dont has to be perfect, maybe even someone in the community can do that. but people will feel way more involved, and that should lead to more subs.

as you daid before: a beginning is a delicate time. this is your first impression, and thats what ppl will see and mostly judge the game for. before they decide if this might be intresting or not.
you have your texts, and without going too complicated, buti think that voiceover can be done within an week of time.

p.s.: also this can be very usefull in the missons. for example to have small "voice commands" to help th eplayer what they need do. like keep your distance, charge the enemy,  ... ...


last: more directional help for noobs:
when you are deployed i think it would help the noobs to have some more directialnal help. the red indiactor you already use for the menu are good, but a few markers on the radar and/or a a arrow for your bot to show where you have to go might also be a big help for the start.

Re: New player experience testing - March 2014

add:
if the players closes the rookie checklist (what a lot of them will do) then you should have a easy access and easy to see icon on your screen to open it again. similar like the gift box that we already have. something thats not on the normal menus and good visible on the screen, but that that dominat that it hinders the UI and the visibility.

shooting range improvment:
there should be a big variety of npcs that players can experiment on. i can imagine a highway that runs into one direction. then you have different shooting spots on both sides. lights/assault to one side, mechs/heavys on the other. the npc tier level will increse the further you go down the highway. starting with T1 and going all the way to T5, grand and superiour observer.
if somebody wants to try that, why not give them the chance to experiment with the big bad guys.