Forums » Suggestions
Better ramp-up for new players
Hi - sorry if this has been suggested before.
I've just started playing, maybe a total of 5 or 6 hours now in as many sessions.
In that time I have done the tutorial, and taken an "advanced combat" tutorial which involves me flying to other sectors and shooting nearly defenseless drones for 30 minutes, then flying back. The description for the mission makes it sound like I need to shoot 4 of these drones and then it will be comeplete. But everytime I kill the 4th, it just resets the counter again.
First off, if it's going to take me 20, 40, or 1212312 drones before this mission ends, just say that up front. Not knowing when it will end is frustrating, but also not wanting to just abort it and take another mission is equally frustrating because if I am making progress, I surely dont want to lose that now.
Perhaps I missed something and I'm actually done with the mission, but I need to do something in order for it to register as complete - I dont know, it's not obvious to me if that is the case.
Secondly, in the time I've been playing SOMETHING should have happened. This is way to long to expect the player to be flying around in the escape-pod-looking ship with little to no choice in weapons or upgrades, or anything. I'm still 500 points away from even getting a level-1 weapons license, as far as I can tell. I can understand making it hard to level at higher levels, but at level 1? C'mon, you need to give me some kind of reward for getting in there and playing.
I know its not a direct comparison, but in any fantasy-based mmorpg I've played, you can get to level 5 in the same amount of hours, but getting to level 10 takes a few days, 20 a few weeks, and so on. The point is you get some sense of progression rather quickly (level 1 to level 2 in, say, world of warcraft, takes 10 minutes or so).
Now, I fully expect someone to reply and tell me to shut up and go play WoW, so lets just assume that's happened and forego it - constructive reponses I'll be happy to read and reply to. :)
I've just started playing, maybe a total of 5 or 6 hours now in as many sessions.
In that time I have done the tutorial, and taken an "advanced combat" tutorial which involves me flying to other sectors and shooting nearly defenseless drones for 30 minutes, then flying back. The description for the mission makes it sound like I need to shoot 4 of these drones and then it will be comeplete. But everytime I kill the 4th, it just resets the counter again.
First off, if it's going to take me 20, 40, or 1212312 drones before this mission ends, just say that up front. Not knowing when it will end is frustrating, but also not wanting to just abort it and take another mission is equally frustrating because if I am making progress, I surely dont want to lose that now.
Perhaps I missed something and I'm actually done with the mission, but I need to do something in order for it to register as complete - I dont know, it's not obvious to me if that is the case.
Secondly, in the time I've been playing SOMETHING should have happened. This is way to long to expect the player to be flying around in the escape-pod-looking ship with little to no choice in weapons or upgrades, or anything. I'm still 500 points away from even getting a level-1 weapons license, as far as I can tell. I can understand making it hard to level at higher levels, but at level 1? C'mon, you need to give me some kind of reward for getting in there and playing.
I know its not a direct comparison, but in any fantasy-based mmorpg I've played, you can get to level 5 in the same amount of hours, but getting to level 10 takes a few days, 20 a few weeks, and so on. The point is you get some sense of progression rather quickly (level 1 to level 2 in, say, world of warcraft, takes 10 minutes or so).
Now, I fully expect someone to reply and tell me to shut up and go play WoW, so lets just assume that's happened and forego it - constructive reponses I'll be happy to read and reply to. :)
first, actually the mission doesnt end. its continuous until you end it. There is no penalty for aborting combat missions.
second , take the beginner combat mission, not the advanced. reward on beginner is higher until you hit level 3 combat when it goes away.
The beginner combat mission will increase the bonus every 5th bot until you are getting +200/+100/+100 every 5th kill.
Level 1/1/x/x should take about 1 to 1.5 hours for a new player, those of us that had been testing for a while hit it in about 30 minutes because we knew how to fly.
second , take the beginner combat mission, not the advanced. reward on beginner is higher until you hit level 3 combat when it goes away.
The beginner combat mission will increase the bonus every 5th bot until you are getting +200/+100/+100 every 5th kill.
Level 1/1/x/x should take about 1 to 1.5 hours for a new player, those of us that had been testing for a while hit it in about 30 minutes because we knew how to fly.
Getting to level 1 takes about half an hour...
Ok... I must be missing something then.
Maybe I wasnt paying enough attention, but it was never clear to me in game that I had finished the mission or that I should just abort it when I dont want to keep doing it.
Thanks for the info guys.
Maybe I wasnt paying enough attention, but it was never clear to me in game that I had finished the mission or that I should just abort it when I dont want to keep doing it.
Thanks for the info guys.
Just as a datapoint, getting to level one (which I've just done) took me 2:45. This is partly because I wasn't playing as fast as I could -- I tried a bunch of different missions and kept getting killed on the two starter trading missions -- and partly because I think it is that hard to get there.
If it's a case of "go out and kill bots until you're at level 1" then fair enough but I got bored with that and tried different stuff, hence burning a fair bit of my time.
If it's a case of "go out and kill bots until you're at level 1" then fair enough but I got bored with that and tried different stuff, hence burning a fair bit of my time.
Well it may be good to add in a begining mission to help build piloting skills, something like the old race tracks but changed a bit.
If I botted non-stop I would be in a valk in under 8 hours. This of course is boring as toe-nail clippings but its possible.
The main problem many new players have is that they have to adjust to the twitch style of the game, which can take some time.
If I botted non-stop I would be in a valk in under 8 hours. This of course is boring as toe-nail clippings but its possible.
The main problem many new players have is that they have to adjust to the twitch style of the game, which can take some time.
I agree the beginner mission system needs some tuning. There should be a series of mission to show more features of the game and to imerse players in the roleplay.
There also may need clarification about how the combat missions have progressive xp while the trade missions only last 1-3 iterations.
I also wonder if the mission would be better if they had better descritpions with a difficulty rating to help the new players find the nice easy starting missions to play. Like don't send them on a scrap metal hunt on the 2nd mission.
There also may need clarification about how the combat missions have progressive xp while the trade missions only last 1-3 iterations.
I also wonder if the mission would be better if they had better descritpions with a difficulty rating to help the new players find the nice easy starting missions to play. Like don't send them on a scrap metal hunt on the 2nd mission.