The New Player Experience
by Loral on May 29, 2005
How can SOE get more players playing Everquest? This is a question we've asked since the release of Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft. It's hard to bring new players to a six-year-old game when newer and shinier games appear right next to it. This has been a question I've discussed often in these articles.
SOE has asked this same question many times as well. Recent expansions have mostly focused on the game above level 50. Newer features such as missions are given to players above 50 while those below 50 play the same sort of game we played six years ago. While many small improvements were added to the level 1 to 10 game, they weren't cohesive and didn't compare to the newbie experience in newer games.
Last week on the Everquest Test server, SOE began testing an entirely new tutorial zone. The original tutorial did a good job of showing new players the large array of strange Everquest commands and put them on a few quests but at level five or so, the game dumped the new player back in their old city and gave them little else. I have heard new players speak their frustrations at that point. No direction is given and no other players are in those towns.
The new tutorial extends the original by five more levels. A player can hunt from level one to ten within this new and much larger zone. New Kobold models were released and the zone uses new drake, spider, and goblin models from the Dragons of Norrath expansion.
Quests, about a dozen of them, use the mission window of Dragons of Norrath. Quests have a wide variety of interesting jobs including blowing up Kobold mining operations and stealing the jailer's key. There are even a set of group missions to defeat some of the larger boss mobs in the new zone such as the Kobold king, the spider queen, and some huge unnamed horror in the depths of the mines themselves.
The new tutorial is intended to take players to level 10. Players can leave the tutorial at any time and doing so drops them in the Plane of Knowledge.
Here is where controversy begins. Many people want to continue the fight against Plane of Knowledge. They think this city removes the soul of the original Everquest and removes their race identity that they had back when they hunted six years ago. They're right, but there's more to it than race identity.
Knowledge is often the most populated zone in Everquest. If there is one place where a new player can really understand the difference between Everquest and Morrowind, it's in Plane of Knowledge. The city has all of the practical features any city needs. It has single-click access to sixteen newbie zones. It is the one place where a new player can see how large the population of Norrath really is. This also opens up the opportunity for SOE to rebuild Knowledge, a large job no doubt, into a new and shining city as technology and design understanding continue to grow. Changing one city changes the city for every player.
After the tutorial players are directed to a new Plane of Knowledge Greeter. The greeter gives a new set of quests to explore New Tanaan to find a banker, a spell vendor for their class, their local guildmaster, and a new NPC who begins sending players on a new set of armor quests.
At the time of this writing I was unable to start these armor quests (my little dwarven paladin was only level 7) but my understanding is that these new armor quests replace the original guildmaster armor quests using the new task window. These quests should help lead a new player from levels 10 to 20. At level 20, a new player should have a good view and understanding of the game and now has a path for even greater rewards.
These game updates are the first steps in a new push to bring new players to Everquest. Only successful marketing can do the rest. At the Fan Faire we will hear about a new expansion and then we may learn how SOE plans to market Everquest to a new and wider audience, an audience competed over by other massive online games such as Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft.
Now let's bust a common myth. "There are no new players of Everquest. Everyone's a twink." I hear this a lot. I also hear that the majority of EQ players are raiders and the majority of these raid MPG and above. We always focus on the area we ourselves play. There ARE new players, they just aren't hunting in Riftseeker's. I spend a lot of time in lower level zones buffing and healing new players. Many of them are indeed twinks, but quite a few are actually new players who either downloaded the trial or had a friend bring them in. These new players are often pretty quiet and often hunt far away from other players, especially higher-level players. No doubt there are less new players joining today than there was even a year ago, but they do exist and changes like these may bring in even more.
Will these tutorial changes and new quests indeed bring more players to Everquest? That's hard to say. There are a lot of variables unknown even to SOE. In order to really grip a new player and drag them into a game as huge as Everquest, the newbie experience has to be smooth and clean. The best newbie experience I have seen so far was World of Warcraft. It focuses on a small town with very easy to accomplish quests. I had little difficulty reaching level ten and I never got badly stuck. As SOE continues to improve this level 1 to 20 segment of the game, it would do well to take lessons from WoW. Much of what I see in the tutorial falls into this line.
Expect the new tutorial to be released to live servers after the Fan Faire but in the mean time, build yourself a level 1 test character and give it a try. There are many good threads on this topic over at the Everquest forums and the developers are actively seeking input on these new tests. New players help improve the game for everyone. The more players that play Everquest, the better the game will be for all of us.
Next week expect a brand new Evil Agenda for my trip to the 2005 Everquest Summit and Vegas Fan Faire.
Loral Ciriclight
29 May 2005
loral@loralciriclight.com
Comment Posted by: Quesci on May 29, 2005 05:54 PM
I really and truly feel sad knowing that new characters will never really feel like their racial home is truly their own. No new ogre is going to feel nostalgia visiting Oggok. No more wood elved reminiscing about learning the ropes (literally) in the trees of Kelethin. Every new character will think of Plane of Knowledge as their home town. I can sympathize with the people who hate PoK.
My suggestion -- and I understand that it would be difficult to implement -- would be for the tutorial to take place in an instanced version of a character's home town. The quests could all be identical (except maybe the NPC names), but a High Elf would go through the tutorial in Felwithe, while a Halfling would have a Rivervale instance for his tutorial experience. Then, every new character would have a home that means something to them.
Remember when Grobb fell? Remember the outcry? I remember trolls fighting against hopeless odds to defend their home town against the frogs. And I remember the message board posts for months about the indignity of having to be refugees in the Dark Elf caves.
The only people who would be upset today if the Crushbone Orcs overthrew Kelethin would be old school roleplayers. That's sad to me. I spend more time in PoK than I do in Freeport, but I still consider that place where I started Everquest as my home.
Comment Posted by: Cognac on May 29, 2005 08:21 PM
Why do the home towns have to be instanced. Every original race home already has lots of good quests to do. All they have to do is convert those quests into the new task system and Bang, you have it. Put the new players in the original cities, place the quest guys in the city, put an exclamation mark above their heads if you have to. The new players shouldn't need to know about PoK untill they hit 50, or are taking a shortcut to another zone.
Comment Posted by: Sunshadow on May 29, 2005 10:29 PM
A new tutorial is a great idea. It will teach people how to use things they cannot access once they get outside their newbie zone or POK. I have 5 expansions on my account and what I find frustrating is the features I cannot use due to not having the right expansions. Thing like ingame maps, I can only access them in cities as I don't have LOY. I can't access any missions from any of the NPC's arround the world as I don't have OOW. I don't even have the LFG tool which is supposed to be essential creating groups these days. But I will get to use some of these in the tutorial and learn to depend on them, and then when I get out in the "real world" I will be frustrated cause these things no longer work or only work in some zones. It frustrates me no end that I need a guide to lead me every time I go somewhere new even if it is through a totally green zone.
Comment Posted by: Kanas on May 30, 2005 12:29 AM
I wonder why SOE is waiting until now to do something about lvl's 10-20. EQ2 has been out for awhile now, and they started working on it even longer ago. Why now? Why just get by on the skin of your teeth, I ask SOE. I'm currently a new player to EQ and have been playing for about a week now. I've gotten to lvl 15 and starting to get frustrated cause it takes doing some hard research on some websites to figure out where I should go that has people actually grouping.
At lvl 11, I got a msg saying to go to Blackburrow....I went and no one was there. Got another saying to go to Najena....after doing some heavy researching, I found it and no one was there either!! OMG, what are they expecting me to do? I'm a ranger and at lvl 12, I can't solo Najena without getting clobbered. So...I'm staying in Crushbone until its entirely green. After that, I have no clue. Some people have told me that Paludal Caverns is supposed to be good xp after 20. I may check that out.
Comment Posted by: Jyve on May 30, 2005 12:57 AM
The new tutorial is something amazing to behold. From the quests to the layout itself, it's definately a well thought out and cleverly designed place. From the initial usual rat/bat bashing to getting closer to the spider queen, it works really well. Once that area done, then you can creep up to the Kobold mining pit and see get vertigo looking down. I personally was blown away by it. I've tried a couple of times to get people into Eq in the last couple of years, and even sitting behind them explaining what's happening, there's alot to discover. Trying to explain about luclin (no, you can't go there yet), kunark (no, not yet, unless your a lizard, but everyone hates them, no not like the dark elves, some people like them), and even just explaining what they need todo (and when) around Kelethin was a full time job for a good hour. Remember, this is the newbie experience. It's hard to think now that it's that hard, but looking back, there was a lot more people to ask advice from while hunting in the Faydark, then onto Crushbone. Mistakes were made and quickly pointed out. That experience is hard to find these days, there's not alot of <10 players in the newbie zones to group with. Pushing them through a tutorial (that remember, is optional) is a great idea to get this camaderie going again. Sure, a new elf may not see the wonders of Kelethin as they first step foot on Norrath, but PoK isn't that ugly is it? I've played the tutorial up to lvl 12 (still couldn't take down the nameds in the little fort with a lvl 10 pally and 9bsty, but that may of been because of our gear, we had precious little as we'd levelled so quick, different story on live) and the quests scaled well with level. Still a few kinks in the system to work out, but getting there nicely. Only problem I can see is, once the newbie leaves the tutorial, the rest of the game doesn't match that experience. There's no barrels and chests to open until ldon's (a few levels later), and you wouldn't want them opening them unless a rogue.
The task system should really replace the quest journal (unless it's used? is it?). To keep track of position in the quest, it's a much better mechanic than the note taking system before it. Deserves it's own button on the main toolbar.
Can't wait for this to go live, might end up rolling up a couple of new alts to experience the new side of the game.
Jyve
Comment Posted by: Redcloud on May 30, 2005 01:39 PM
I just wish the default UI were much more intuitive, simplified, streamlined than it is today.
Less different ways to check the same thing: expedition, task, whatnot timers.
Clickies, discs, doabilities, AA hotkeys, buttons galore: all over.
Just an example, mind you.
Comment Posted by: EQ2 Player on May 30, 2005 02:50 PM
I'm still subscribed to EQ1 even though I've retired my level 70 raiding character who has nice enough gear. The amount of fun I've had in the past and my attachment to the game keeps me from cancelling.
I cannot bear to play this game though, it pains me to. Today I created a new character and attempted to relive some of the magic of EQ like I remember it years ago.
The Glooming deep mines are actually quite fun (though that tutorial voice drives me nuts).
I came to the conclusion that it's not possible to experience that old magic again. I could be more motivated if there were more players around, but as soon as I reached Akanon, it was devoid of other players.
It was a trip down memory lane. I love the old cities, their visuals and music. It doesn't matter that these are technically out of date. They still have character. Technology doesn't make a better experience. Those cities were carefully designed years ago to be immersive and they still are. But if there's nobody else there, it's no fun at all.
I don't really have a point with this post, just thought I'd chip in. This is not meant to be a rant. EQ is my favourite game of all time - but I can't play it anymore - the guild I was happiest in is long gone, my friends are all gone, there's no new players around. I feel sad when I play EQ.
I only play EQ2 because there's new players and it's fresh. It's inferior, but it passes the time.
Comment Posted by: Teremar on May 31, 2005 01:13 AM
Yes, PoK is that ugly. Okay, not ugly, but bland, lacking in character, and completely unimmersive. What little sense it has of being a real place with real people in it who live there for a real reason mostly comes in references to it being a sort of retirement home for knowledge-seeking Norrathians. So if you don't know Norrath, well, it means nothing to you. As a starting zone...yuck.
On the other hand, Loral is right about it being THE place for new people to attach themselves to the EQ community. But it gives them no attachment to the EQ world.
Here's what I would suggest: yes, everyone needs to know about PoK. But they need to feel like they have a home as well. So make sure everyone has quests in both places. Add new quests in some of the classic 10-20 zones so people have a good sense of where they are supposed to go and what they are supposed to do. They don't need to be WoW-style quests that you spend most of your time doing. Just give new players a reason to go to a level-appropriate zone. Make those quests also bring them home on a regular basis.
But also make sure they can locate and communicate with other new players. Yes, the game needs to be collapsed at that level, but don't do it by guiding everyone to PoK. Just make the newbie areas feel like one big zone. Make channels for new players. I'd suggest separating them by good and evil, and having one for 1-10 and another for 11-20. Teach them in the tutorial to ask for groups in the channel and use the LFG tool. Then rather than them walking all the way to Najena to find it empty, they can just ask for a group in the new channel and get invited to CB even if they're in Qeynos. Add more PoK stones if needed so they really can find and get to groups as quickly and easily as if they were all in one zone. Frankly some of this, at least the channels, might be useful all the way up to 50.
I'm really becoming more and more convinced that additional chat channels are the key to handling reduced populations, and not just for new players. Limiting chat to your current zone is really an arbitrary limit, so why not expand it? All it takes for EQ to feel crowded is to hear a crowd of people chatting. If that takes ten zones worth of people, then make chat channels that cover ten zones. Done.
Comment Posted by: Talaen on May 31, 2005 07:31 AM
Leaving the RP aspect completely out of the game world for now, and just considering population and social requirements for gameplay, then I have to say that dropping everyone in PoK is probably the best option.
There are, however, some problems with PoK.
First, the zone is too small for the population that's trying to concentrate there. Sure, we all love doing a /who and seeing 200 people there, but the crowding can really hurt framerate, especially on lower-end machines.
Second, the layout of the zone leaves something to be desired - it's like an inter-planar bus terminal. Wheee so much fun.
Third, not everything that a newbie is going to need is available on PoK vendors. I remember several characters that I started where I still had to run around to two or three cities to buy my spells, even though about two-thirds of them I could buy in PoK.
So these things need to change about PoK itself.
As far as the tutorial zone and extension quests getting someone to 20 - that seems good. We used to say (back in the Velious era) that you really don't know what your class is going to be like until 20. That's a good level for people to go out and start exploring the world.
So anyway, the new setup makes sense and will probably be good for keeping newbies playing, though it won't necessarily bring any more into the game. That said, I don't think I could ever bring myself to start a new character in EQ1 now.
A lot of the charm of the original game for me is in the lore and the rich history of Norrath. I appreciated the differences between the cities and areas around them. I really liked that for a while, travel was hard, and just going from one city to another was an adventure in itself.
But all that has been gone since Luclin really, so there's no sense in mourning the past. For me personally I can't bring myself to go back into the low-level game, but they do have to try and make it fun and engaging for new players, and something has to give just to deal with the low zone populations.
Given the new tutorial, what I would like to see is to have the majority of those existing newbie dungeons, like crushbone, blackburrow, and so on, upgraded to level 20-40 zones. I'd like to see the old quests in old world cities replaced with new, mid-level quests. Otherwise, they will become completely worthless to new players, and those new players will never get to see part of what made EQ so great.
Comment Posted by: Loral on May 31, 2005 08:06 AM
Teremar, over on Test they have added a new set of persistant chat channels including a level-based channel, a regional channel, and a newbie help channel. These channels should help players, many of whom have never used the chat system before, meet and speak to veteran players.
There are also a series of quests that start in Plane of Knowledge but send level 10 to 20 players back to their old cities and newbie hunting zones.
Sending players to knowledge doesn't consider the nostalga of the original cities but its important to remember that new players HAVE no nostalga yet. They might feel the same way about knowledge that we feel about Felwithe and Neriak. Players just don't go back to the old cities that much. They are mostly empty and rebuilding them with quests or new graphics won't give them the utility of Knowledge.
This has been a heated debate both among players and among the developers for a long while now. There is no perfect solution to this problem but I think that the choice of keeping players together is better than forcing them to underpopulated zones just so we can feel good about our old cities.
Comment Posted by: Teremar on May 31, 2005 03:05 PM
Excellent. And if the new channels were added after May 3--the day I proposed regional chat on this very site--I'll be waiting for my royalty check. (Just kidding!)
The trouble with PoK is that it's not a home. Teremar grew up in Felwithe, became an adult, stepped outside the gates and started killing bats for some reason, and soon moved up to fighting orcs, the enemies of his people. Granted there aren't any actual residences in Felwithe, let alone families with kids, but at least we're supposed to pretend there are.
PoK? "inter-planar bus terminal" is about right. Or maybe inter-planar convenience store. I would hope that the new tutorial and the new quests give some reason for people to be there other than the services that are available there. Maybe it is time for a PoK revamp, including a new name and raison d'etre. Plane of Adventure is way too cheesy, but you get the idea. A city dedicated to supporting adventurers would make more sense as the central meeting place in EQ than a scholarly retirement home.
Unless they insist on making it the city of the Wayfarer's Brotherhood. Down with Mordin Rasp!
Comment Posted by: mac173 on May 31, 2005 03:39 PM
I have tried the new tutoral, and I like it for the most part, but it needs some changes. I found the XP to be fast and furrious, to the point that I was dying to green mobs because my skill levels were too low. I had a Level 7 Shaman, who had a 1HB skill of 6! The XP modifier needs to be fixed.
Also, the cost of low level spells needs to be changed. My shaman was not twinked, and had only what he could earn (like a true newbie would) and could never afford all his spells when he needed them. In the tutoral, 5pp for a level 7 spell is not realistic when you needed to kill less than 50 mobs to make that level. I had to go out and kill green mobs to collect drops for sale just to keep up.
As to the termination of the tutoral in PoK....
I HATE it. I would have much preferred that the newbie go to his/her home city, and have quests set up there. If the quests are sending the players to the newbie zones anyway, lets get them there to begin with. I think newbies should be able to level up to level 20 without ever going to PoK, and should be restricted from there till then. You can level up pretty quickly as is, no need to twinkbuff (TEMP) every newbie. This will allow the newbie to learn the game better and to understand that there are more places to go then PoK. If this was implemented along with the mentoring system that they are working on in EQ2 the newbies would not have such a bad time of it finding groups. I would mentor newbies gladly.
Comment Posted by: Cognac on May 31, 2005 06:43 PM
quote "Players just don't go back to the old cities that much. They are mostly empty and rebuilding them with quests or new graphics won't give them the utility of Knowledge."
I disagree, The old cities arn't populated because they arn't usefull, THAT is one problem. Tradeskills are better done in PoK simply becuase all the ingredients are in one zone. You try to do smithing in any old world city and you'll have to run through 2 zones minimum. Cabilis is the best place for smithing, but you still have to zone to buy water. Every other city is far worse.
This would be the first thing I'd fix, make the old cities the tradeskill prefered locations for old players. That way you get some people there.
quote "This has been a heated debate both among players and among the developers for a long while now. There is no perfect solution to this problem but I think that the choice of keeping players together is better than forcing them to underpopulated zones just so we can feel good about our old cities."
They are underpopulated for the wrong reason. Experience accumulation in the old world zones is very slow compared to the new zones. THIS is the reason it's not worth xp'ing in the old world. It's so damn slow compared to Luclin. Simply make all xp for any given level <50 the same, and people will camp whatever zone most interests them. Thus you get a better spread of people.
Secondly, I dispise the idea of keeping people in a cocoon untill they hit 20, then dump them in the "real" game. Just put those same tutorials in each of the old world cities, customise the newbie quests for each city, and let them gain the first 20 levels from their home cities instead of the newbie instance zone. The home cities already have many good quests, but they are very difficult to find them, especialy in Neriak.
To play the newbie game now, you must look up quest spoilers to even find the quest in the first place, who to talk to, where to find the rare spawn who wanders the zone only at night, ect... It's not friendly to lazy players.
Comment Posted by: Tarzel on May 31, 2005 07:29 PM
OK. I know the flames will come, but maybe what is needed is a completely new experience, or new approach. Why not force every new player (not new alt) to the same server. Let’s call that Server N (newbie). They would have a larger population of similar level players to group up with and experience all over Norrath. In essence they would experience Everquest like we all did. One caveat. Each new player would be given one server transfer with items for free, at any level when ever they wanted to transfer.
If I talk my cousin into playing EQ1, he builds his first character on server N and levels up using the tutorial. I don’t have to teach him how to trade, move, engage, and loot. He gets to power level through 1-20. If he wants he can transfer to my server when he wants to be transferred for free. I can help him at level 1 or level 21 no big deal. Eventually server N will have a healthy amount of players that it can sustain itself. SOE would then build a new server Z, and place all the new players onto server Z. SOE could concentrate guides on these fledgling servers, and hold newbie GM events to allow the new EQ players to experience events like the fall of Grobb.
SOE has to nurture and raise new servers of new EQ players, not help a few new players merge into an established EQ server with the help of a new tutorial or task system.
Comment Posted by: Pants on May 31, 2005 09:05 PM
There are two factors at play here. First actually getting more new players to try EQ over the newer games. The only way to do this is to advertise EQ. I'm not sure that higher ups at Sony are willing to spend money to do this instead of only pushing their newer games. Late last year on the G4 cable network (channel dedicated to video games for those not familiar with it) they were running constant ads for EQ2. Recently I have been seeing ads for Star Wars Galaxies there (probably only because of the latest Star Wars movie being out). I have not seen an ad for EQ on TV or in a gaming magazine in years. From a business standpoint I see the wisdom in pushing the newer stuff over the older, but the older is still around and will be for years so a little money spent promoting it can't hurt.
The second factor is keeping the newer players around once they try EQ. A better tutorial certainly is a step in the right direction. The problem arises when they are no longer in this "coddled" environment and are playing the regular game. So many of the older quests are so cryptic, confusing or just plain poorly done that it can be frustrating to a player, which is a shame because many of them tie into a great story. Sure there are lots of spoiler sites out there but a well written game would not make these sites a requirement. World of Warcraft really has gotten it right as far as making progressing not painful. I know for many people that is a turn off, they feel it is too easy and coddling, but you have to consider all types of players. I think the main divide is that the current new generation of MMO players is not the same as those of us who started this in the 90s. I think the average newer player is younger, less patient, less of hardcore gamers than many of the old timers. I see a lot of evidence of this from playing the more recent game releases which has a higher population of this newer generation than EQ does. To help this problem I think it would be a good idea to rewrite all of the quest dialogues in the game so that they give more direct clues as to where to go and what to do. Also the rewards should be upgraded some. They should also put in some kind of pointer to direct people to the quest NPCs, not a big yellow ! over their head like WoW has which I find a bit tacky, but something. Stuff like tasks, LDoNs and such are fine but there is still so much of the older content that people avoid doing. This is too bad because the best artwork and storylines in the game is from original EQ through Luclin. Getting people into those older zones through better quests and increased experience gain to match the newer zones (in all the zones not just hot zones) could go a long way towards keeping those newer players around as they enjoy those fantastic worlds like we did once.
Comment Posted by: Glormane on June 1, 2005 04:37 AM
I think this is a good improvement. I have always thought expansions should more for the higher level player. Why? Well if you are a new player the existing zones are new. Also lvl 1-20, maybe even higher, are transient levels. You dont get to level 14 (or 32 or 47) and think 'Ok whats left for me to do now?'
So I think SoE should be improving the quality of leveling, and general lower level play on their own time. I don't mind the odd zone being added by an expansion, and oppose what was done to Mistmoore, which was still a popular lowbie haunt, but expansions should (IMO) be about the higher end game. As for PoK being cold, and it being sad about the original cities not being used,well I remember fondly running around Kaladim as a young dwarf. Sadly these memories are blighted by 30 min rides on the boat, or spend all my net profits on a druid port, only to die on route to getting bound and ending up.....back in Kaladim. Nostalgia is well and truely to be seen through rose tinted glasses. Pok makes it easier to get around, to tradeskill, to get groups. Its flaw it seems is its too impersonal and too small. If SOE were going to make it bigger, make sections of the city reflect their ethnic background? A swampy area for the frogs, Underground halls for the Dwarves, a Clockwork Castle for the Gnomes, below a Tree Network for the Wood elves. SOE designers could obviously update the graphics. For me you could re house thre populous of some cities of Norrath here, if a natural disaster were to be befall certain places, as per EQ Lore-to-be. The corrupting of Freeport perhaps? The destruction of Shar Vahl?
Comment Posted by: Kubb on June 1, 2005 06:56 AM
"I had a Level 7 Shaman, who had a 1HB skill of 6! The XP modifier needs to be fixed."
Talk about proposing the wrong solution to the problem. A better solution would be to have skill increases happen extremely fast at the lower levels. If you're playing normally your skill should keep up with your level.
Comment Posted by: Loral on June 1, 2005 01:11 PM
From Pants:
"I have not seen an ad for EQ on TV or in a gaming magazine in years."
I think we will see better marketing for EQ once the tutorial is live in a couple of months. Adding a new newbie game goes hand-in-hand with proper marketing. SOE knows this and I think they will act upon it.
I agree with your assessment of Worlds of Warcraft. So far its the most fun I have had in a newer game. I love the look, I love the streamlined newbie experience, and I love the progression. My only frustration in WoW comes from a focus on solo content and a lack of cohesive mission-like content that Dragons of Norrath has.
Glormane, I agree. SOE should make Knowledge reflect the eclectic culture of our adventurers. Expect a rebuild of Knowledge as one of my evil agenda points for this year's summit.
Kubb, I agree. I was level 10 in WoW before I knew it and it wasn't so bad. I think the level 1 to 10 game shouldn't be too long considering I can play though all of God of War in 7 hours. Skills shouldn't be a concern at lower levels.
Comment Posted by: Maitreya on June 1, 2005 02:51 PM
"I had a Level 7 Shaman, who had a 1HB skill of 6! The XP modifier needs to be fixed"
This is only because all players get double xp from combat on the Test server. The xp will be much slower when the tutorial goes live.
Comment Posted by: Valc on June 1, 2005 04:27 PM
I know about the PoK thing and it does take away the experiance that us old timers know of back "in the day". It pisses me off everytime, traveling is easy, yea, but come on. Traveling was the best part of the game, boats, long runs, long corpse runs, etc. But still, i do travel to all the older zones and peek around a little. I go to CB trying to relive the experiance of horror as I went on top of orc hill and try to remember the twenty brave souls who fought there and the Legends that actually went into CB. The game was bliss back then, and it is now. But the originallity of the game has fallen. It is now time for me to go back into the shadows of the trees in the Faydark.
Comment Posted by: Armarant on June 1, 2005 09:43 PM
Valc Wrote:I know about the PoK thing and it does take away the experiance that us old timers know of back "in the day". It pisses me off everytime, traveling is easy, yea, but come on. Traveling was the best part of the game, boats, long runs, long corpse runs, etc. But still, i do travel to all the older zones and peek around a little.
.......................
In my opinion the Plane of Knowledge change does not effect the game at all.. it would be nice if they did add a quest to the Greeter that would have you go back to your home city and look around it though.. but other then that I feel that people can still connect to their home city even if they dont start in it.. because its where their race lives.. just because they start in a different place doesnt give them less of a connection to others of their race.
Comment Posted by: Geroblue on June 8, 2005 02:31 AM
I don't care about the racial towns. I find more of what my low level toons need n POK.
I look forward to the new tutorial.
Comment Posted by: Clarion on June 8, 2005 08:22 PM
I am a long-term veteran of EQ and greatly enjoy the game. Recently, I've had the chance to Play in the Tutorial and I've found it very useful. In fact, ever since, I have kept at least one character live in the Tutorial and indulged in one of my favorite passtimes - Teaching EverQuest.
I like to think that this has improved the EQ experience for many new players. Further, when I am elsewhere and see some naked-newb running around, begging for money and gear, I redirect them to the Tutorial. I usually have to explain to the eager person (idiot), vainly searching for 'Instant Gratification' (idiotically), the Advantages of using the Tutorial - Free Weapons, Free Armor, Free Food, and Easy Experience.
So, here is my take on the Tutorial. It's great!
As for the 'improvements' being discussed, I'd make a few adjustments. Firstly, PoK is too crowded - I am constantly lagging in this zone, usually worse than in the Bazaar. I wish there was some practical way of shifting all or most of those people back to their home towns.
That said, sending all of the 'graduating' newbies to PoK is just asking for More trouble. Sadly, I can't think of a better place for them to go. In terms of concentrated EQ Knowledge, you simply can't beat the 'conclave' of players in PoK.
Also, part of the tutorial should cover the LFG tool. This is a Fantastic addition to the game, but almost nobody uses it. It could be argued that nobody uses it because it doesn't work - you can rarely find a group with it, but the real problem is that nobody Uses it, so there's rarely a 'registered' group to find. Walking each newbie through its functions will get them accustomed to using it, so it will get used more, so it will become more effective. In fact, perhaps the LFG tool should be one of the default windows that pops up when you log in??
If the Tutorial is to be expanded, then I think this expansion should take place in Additional Tutorial zones. Give the 'kids' a more realistic taste of EQ reality - Everything you need is almost Never all in one zone. You've got to go through one zone, to reach another, to find the monster, then backtrack to another zone to find the second monster, before returning to the quest-giver to turn all the junk in.
Maybe that would be a way to improve PoK, too. Keep New Tanaan as a crossroads, but shift a lot of its Functions back to the core cities. In fact, those core cities could use a revamp, too. Gee, that sounds like a lot of work for Sony! Well, they've got to work, to keep our interest, to keep us all paying our... $15 now, every month.
Anyway, I agree, the new, extended newbie quests should be offered in their Home Towns. Plane of Knowledge should remain a crossroads, with 'traffic directors' guiding the new players to their proper destinations.
The tutorial 'mode' of walk-through windows (without that annoying voice-over!) should take the new kids through their home-town, meeting their GMs, and training new skills. Walk them up to a Guard and say, "Excuse me, Officer, but could you direct me to the Bank?" This functionality is already present in the game, but only 'old-school' players have ever used it. Let the kids get part of their education from the NPCs in the game (like we did), instead of always hollering for a Player!
It would be great to be able to ask the home-town Guildmaster, "Where is the level 16 Bard song?" and have them direct you to the proper Merchant. Even better, have them respond, "Oh, we don't have that one here. You'll have to go to Highpass to find it." Remember back when we had to Travel to find and train all of our abilities and magic? Either that, or give up and put all of the spells on the home-town merchants.
Lastly, the issue is accessibility. It frankly Stinks that one has to Log Out, in order to enter the tutorial. If the tutorial is going to continue through level 10, then there Must be a simpler way to get in and out of it. I suggest a port-stone in each home-town... and one in PoK, if you insist. Make it more resonable, to go home, train your new skills, buy those critical spells, and return to the tutorial. The only other option would be to place Class GMs in the tutorial, and that would make a big mess!
Really, if the home-cities are under utilized, then we should not be sending even More traffic to PoK, but finding ways to direct the traffic that goes to PoK back Home!
Be Well!
Clarion of Quellious
Just another Bard from Kelthin.
Comment Posted by: Ogulbuk on June 9, 2005 10:38 AM
I dont visit this site as much as i used too, the fact that this is already an old article shows me that...
Anyway, these changes will NEVER bring new players in. All they will do is RETAIN the new players instead of scaring them away, and this is a good thing. These changes are needed, and altough I have not seen it myself, every new quest that gets added to the game should use this new DoN mission system instead of the old system.
Now, there is only one thing that will actually bring more players in, and that is a facelift. This game needs new models everywhere. From towns to mobs to player characters.
DoN introduced many new models for old creatures, and i think GoD did too (bats and so on), and all these NEED to be used on the old zones ASAP. This should be a priority.
Follow this by cities, the cities should be revamped to look less square, this means changing trees, fireplaces, forges, and all the basic building blocks, not nesesarely everything, just what is required to make it look better.
Finaly the character models, if needed just reduce slightly the Luclien poligon count and fix the animations, that may be enough to fix that issue. Also, whatever you do, guard npcs should be altered acordingly.
A character model system similar to EQ2, where all armors look the same on all races, would be ideal to make the shift more simple, and at the same time to make more distinctive armors for distinct classes instead of making the same thing look diferent on 13(?) races.
Plane of Knoledge may be ok, all things considered. But old cities should be revamped, quest missions should take players there at some point, and there should be a new system to take players stright to the city from PoK instead of just a stone that they may get lost from.
Such a featrure, of course, should be limited to factions, so that if you are KOS to guards on the areas you dont be alowed to be tpd there just to die.
Comment Posted by: Maitreya on June 9, 2005 02:08 PM
"DoN introduced many new models for old creatures, and i think GoD did too (bats and so on), and all these NEED to be used on the old zones ASAP. This should be a priority."
Already done. All rats, bats, spiders, goblins, drakes and basilisks use the new models on Test.
Comment Posted by: Ogulbuk on June 9, 2005 03:32 PM
GOOD!!!
Comment Posted by: Ogulbuk on June 9, 2005 03:34 PM
Forgot to add a big smiley there! :D
Changing trees, fire places and other mundane objects should not be too hard either, there are many of those on the new zones as well, specialy trees. These are in the end simply placed models, not really part of the map itself (can be seen in how enchanters can turn into them,) so taking a great looking tree from one expancion and placing it on the other one would be very good step too.
Oh and did they also reused the bears and orcs from LDON on test?
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