NPE - New Player Experience

Suggestions
1

As @monty1 said, what is likely to happen first when the new team is assembled (in about a 6 months or so) would be some work on Boundless’ NPE. How about we come up with ideas that would be compiled in this first post for clarity?
Please post your ideas regarding your early learning experience in Boundless, what you liked, and what you think should be added.

Voiced-tutorial :

A voice maybe attributed to the Sanctum Elder giving you a summarized version of the tutorial.
Can maybe lead to the Sanctum Elder being more involved in the game outside of the NPE.
Upon achieving tasks (like reaching Prestige milestones), the Sanctum Elder could congratulate you.

  • Yay
  • Meh
  • Nay
0 voters

Pictures :

When possible, instead of text, the tutorial could display pictures along with the text. If the game asks you to craft a beacon, a picture of a beacon and/or a picture of the entry to craft a beacon in the crafting UI could be displayed, to confirm “yes, that’s the thing!”. It’s longer to make, but far more readable.

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  • Yay
  • Meh
  • Nay
0 voters

Unlockable Sanctum Upgrades :

What if the Sanctum started out as an old broken space, and as you make progress in the universe and gain boxes in the Exchange, the Sanctum receives upgrades, such as fun decorative wings to explore, maybe a few secrets to uncover?
Maybe the upgrades could be a quest given by the Sanctum Elder where you have to bring him blocks, and he requests rarer and rarer blocks.

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“Wait is that a tease?”

  • Yay
  • Meh
  • Nay
0 voters

First impressions are the most important :

After the first few minutes of gameplay in the Sanctum,
• Should the player still be teleported in the wild, same as it currently does?
• Or should he be teleported at the Capital City of the world in orbit, and let players handle the influx of new players properly? Or to put it another way, shouldn’t a new player quickly get to see the best builds other players make on Boundless, instead of first having to put crawl in the wild?
• Or should maybe the player be sent in a controlled space where he gets a tutorial custom-made for new players to make sure everybody gets the same experience? Same as the Sanctum, that space would be designed in such a way that you go there only once to learn the basics. Maybe it could be a space IN the Sanctum where the player can (in a limited capacity) dig and build.

  • In the wild
  • In a Capital City
  • In a custom-space
0 voters

Add a Wooden Grapple Recipe :

  • Yay
  • Meh
  • Nay
0 voters

Chat System Overhaul :

I think most people will agree the current chat system could use some improvements.
Like… the basics are there, emojis, channels… it’s just horribly presented and inconvenient.

  • Yay
  • Meh
  • Nay
0 voters
3 Likes
2

a big fat yay to all of that. the tutorial should be more engaging than a little very ignorable text thingy. perhaps a tutorial vilage (part of sanctum) where stuff is demonstrated ( elder’s cousin shows you some chiselwork, gives you a chisel to try…)
from my own NPE experience - random spawn could be fun, but it could also be the edge of an ash farm, an ugly hole in the ground, some broken worldgen (i spawned at a terribly boring place)
many players come in being familiar with minecraft. (me included) for them the sluggishness of everything at start might be off putting (saw it mentioned in a few reviews) perhaps a demonstration of how fast things can be done (moving, breaking, placing blocks) in form of a skill potion or a ‘dream in a sanctum like area’
maybe a ‘build of the week’ portal in sanctum to give an option to spawn at a featured location (as well as something for builders to aspire to)

9 Likes
3

I tried doing this on my creative world (the Raxxian Codex on Arajiel III, accessible in the tower at the Raxxian Sanctuary), and I think there should definitely be more things like this to explain advanced technics.

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I spawned in the middle of a redwood forest on Arie and my first thought was “Ok, how do I get out of here? Where do I find other players?”. My first find was a mud-house with a locked door.

With ideas like this, I’m always thinking "yeah, that’d be cool, but someone would have to pick these ‘builds of the week’, and if that works well at first, that can easily become a ghost-feature.
What if there was a third portal that simply was the master-beacon of the current capital city of the world? That doesn’t require a human to check, unless the owner of the capital city acts like an a-hole and turns his master-beacon into a lava-trap or something.

5 Likes
4

A custom location as a tutorial area would work, maybe the player goes to the sanctum and they are told go in a portal that takes them to the tutorial area, stuff happens (maybe hinting to a future enemy) while player is learning the basic stuff and somehow they end up in a perm world using a warp.

1 Like
5

First of all, beautiful sanctum bro :wink:

I agree there should be done something about the sanctum and tutorial and it could be nicely combined.
Things should be not only in words but also in pictures that would help a lot of players. Players that don’t have proper translation and either young or old or simply unexperienced players.

I do not care about the sanctum itself… what you describe of decorating and such sounds like in some games where you can decorate some own place. Can be nice but not a thing for me that I would spend much time on.

In my opinion it should be in a way chooseable where you want to start really. As I can understand tutorial would be handy, or it could be nice to spawn near people… but there’s other perspectives towards that as well. Some people want to dig right into it and don’t care about descriptions. Like my family. Tutorials are boring many people skip them if possible. Other players appreciate it. And where to spawn… some people want to be alone and stay alone. Others want a slow start and seeing what others have or can do can be discouraging because some things are hard to achieve and get. Building up slow without getting jealous. Other way around some people search for the interactions and want to get inspired. They might like to be somewhere more busy. But how should that be done. There’s a lot of capitals unactive and dead with zero player around. So it would be hard to choose. And think about the owner of the capital. Maybe that person gets also annoyed if day in and out a new player pops up and asks hundreds of questions.

2 Likes
6

I don’t think this meshes well with the lore, since I had assumed the race in boundless haves a very primitive language based off of the voice acting we do have so far.

I think it should be up to the player.

Some players are simply looking to find other players quickly and don’t want to spend a modest amount of time trying to find their way to a town or portal hub

Some players have social anxiety or otherwise might be over stimulated being placed in the center of a busy or loud area and perfer an isolated start

Some players don’t like tutorials and being told for the 30th time how to use the WASD keys or how to place a beacon, this is especially true for people who make alot of alts and already been thru it all before, and some people like myself enjoy figuring everything out on their own.

So again, I think it should be the player’s choice where they want to start.

5 Likes
7

I loved the way you set that up to go through and explore. It made doing so a pleasure and not a chore as you took all the guesswork out of it. I agree with you on having better areas available for players to find out how to tackle more advanced techniques of chiseling, farming, crafting, forging, etc.

8

I think they could easily make it an opt in or out tutorial depending on your experience as I have seen other games do.

3 Likes
9

I 100% agreed with the visual and audio thing for the tutorial. The text box isn’t engaging enough. I think a tutorial should happen in the sanctum.
In a new sanctum you are greeted immediately by the elder (who I picture as a spirit of an ancient people) where you are asked to do a tutorial or go directly into the game. If you choose tutorial. The elder moves to a different location still in visual range 5-10 blocks away. And calls you over. Tells you to make a totem and then explains a campfire and how it works. The Elder then appears beside a tree in sanctum and tells you to gather the materials you need for a campfire. Teleports to another location also very close, telling you to place the campfire. This continues as the elder teaches you all the basics and you work your way around the portal area. And eventually gets you to make your first warp augment and head out into the universe.

-Now the sanctum would have to work like an planet so you could place blocks.

-I also always felt there should be a hand craftable wood grapple that you don’t need any materials to make just like the totem because if you ever started on Beckon or fallen in a hole while just starting Boundless you know the struggle of getting around some of the terrain.

This has been my thoughts on the NPE for along time and 100% doable in the current sanctum if you could place blocks like a regular planet.

Here’s my modified Halloween Sanctum where I added many Georgio’s. Mainly copied and pasted the script files and modified a few things in each file. (I don’t really know what I’m doing, so it was a lot of trial and error.)

4 Likes
10

Ah yes, the Lore, which is absolutely not established, aside from maybe 3 words. ^^
To go back to the example of World of Warcraft, each race has words. Not enough to have a decent language, but enough to have some flavor. It’s always funny to play an Orc and say words like “Dabu” (‘understood’), “Lok’tar Ogar!” (‘Victory or death!’) in the middle of roleplay conversations.
When speaking to other players, you don’t feel the need to speak in weird ooga-booga like a primitive guy, so why would it make sense for an NPC like the Sanctum Elder to speak like a caveman?
I think it would be 100% alright for Boundless NPCs to speak in english with a few Oort words here and there.
“Hatubio, my child. Go forth and be boundless!”

Agreed. But I believe the options should be well highlighted. The game is very hands-off, in general, which some players like, others not so much. It can be intimidating to start the game and have the pressure to pick a spot on a map when you might know nothing of the game.

11

Which is a shame in its own right, but no matter, I don’t care that much.

12

Ha ha, if only it wasn’t sending emotes in the chat. That’s the one thing that always annoys me because then I get the number notification and my minor OCD brain wants to immediately remove it. ^^
But that is pretty awesome!

Understood.
I on the other hand am not crazy about having to read paragraphs after paragraphs of text, and I think voice-acting brings a lot more to the ambience and world-building than many think.

13

It all depends how they move forward with this game. Lots of people don’t come on the forums so to have a good idea of what players want from just a few heads on discord and the forums is impossible.
But if they keep the economy side then I would suggest a npc hub where all players start off so we can be joined by other players on our first steps into this game. It would also be good to give reason to travel to the hub even as a seasoned player so adding quests, and special shops wear we spend our cubits for cosmetics, respecs, special items like auras for our characters and many more things can be located at the hubs “suggest 1 in each zone for connectivity issues”.
If they decide to change functions like how we level our characters they could put an npc there so we have to travel back to level up “ basically creating a reason for more players to travel to the hubs.” Keeps the game looking alive and strong even at times when player count for the day is low.

I would like to also suggest being able to create real teams in this game click on some one and add to team that way there name health buffs all appear on the side of your screen. Giving you the ability to click on there name and it will put a box around the person on your screen allowing you to track or target them a lot easier. Plus can have team chat added instead of doing local or broadcast or whatever. @monty1

1 Like
14

Based on what they’re doing with Crowfall and the other game, I’m confident there will be a F2P model built into this. It’s only natural if one is trying to build it out as an MMO since the others do something similar. Plus, it’s a good way to attract new players.

2 Likes
15

Hahaha. Agreed. But I’m thinking that the elder talking would be actual audio and not in the chat. Like you described.

16

A lot of people would spit on the idea of the store being more involved, and would tell you that the F2P model often ends in a dumpsterfire.
Which I won’t attempt to disprove.
I think I would welcome it if done tastefully. If it’s not a situation where every new thing goes in the store, that’d be bad. But if every big update that adds content had 60% new content for free and 40% store content, I think I’d be fine with that.

OR change the chat system so that it’s less annoying like that.
BTW I’m gonna add a vote for the wooden grapple idea!

1 Like
17

100% agree. A grapple is a must. Especially since walking/running is our only means of transportation.

3 Likes
18

Boom, it’s in the OP!

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4 Likes
19

Said on everything yay except picture tutorial (meh).

Thing is it might then again cause issues in an other way. Which could be changed with a choice before you can do anything at all. Controller or keyboard and mouse choice.

Wooden grapple definitely yes maybe like a totum recipe and single use?
So it’s resource free to make and crafting a stack would be like 9 uses per stack.
Adding stone grapple for a few rocks and leaf’s…

1 Like
20

What also should be included is an overhaul on the chat replacing what it is now to live. That if someone has a question they can ask it in help and don’t have to wait however long it is now for an answer.

From the start that has annoyed me (when we got universal channels) that you had to wait almost an hour if not more for an answer.
If i need to know something im not waiting for an answer if it takes more then a few minutes to get it.
So ill close the chat and forget i even asked and do something else. Because i need to know it now and not in an hour or two.

3 Likes