I was looking at the NPE of more successful MMOs and trying to massage those elements into what we already have
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My biggest concern is not much of everyone else’s concern with the NPE, but the feeling of being thrown onto a planet and not knowing what to do, not knowing that just how big the universe is, and not feeling completely alone from the start would be a good thing to tackle.
I could detail every little bit of the NPE and point out where I think they could do better, but a few quick things that bugged me when playing around on a new toon:
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Give me a color picker for my characters colors. You have to click a button 255 times just to go through all the colors and then go back through those to find the color you want. Pretty annoying, but just a QOL change.
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Explain how you might not want to warp yourself out into the middle of nowhere to build because in the end that is going to make it harder on you. No portals close by, no shop stands, etc. Now the argument here is that this could encourage exploration.
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One MAJOR fix… which is probably going to be a tough one to rectify… “FIX THE DAMN CHAT!!!” I asked for so much help in the chat when I first started. I didn’t know there was a major lag in it and that made me feel ignored and/or that there just weren’t many people on. Pretty bad…
Maybe I’ll go back through the NPE again and make some notes, but I know that list would be way too big for a forum post.
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Excellent, makes it faster too, easy win.
That was my goal of having them use the warp and portal systems (locations too) so they could get a better grasp on the navigation in this game, it’s honestly the largest learning curve imo and probably needs more than a text prompt and an objective, but I agree it needs better communication.
Which is why I said to add a cutscene / new trailer to the end of the tutorial and to point them to the social links since they will help them connect more than in game chat (my hope was 25min to get to it but that might make it super handholdy to keep the time down …), them fixing the chat to have less lag would be very helpful i agree with that too.
This is easily the single biggest issue facing new players. There are no readily available avenues of seeking help from other players in the game when you first start. The initial location is a randomly chosen area on a possibly hostile planet which could potentially be far from any kind of link to the greater universe. Not seeing anyone and only seeming to shout into the void in help chat until it appears someone answers an hour later is not exactly helpful and pretty discouraging in something that is supposed to be an MMO.
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I quit after about a week due to this. Luckily, I came back, but I wonder how many others never did.
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Global chats weren’t even a thing when I started. we only had say and shout. Honestly, if the “global” channels don’t work better than they do right now, we are better off without them.
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Consider this, with a working chat the need for a really robust tutorial might not be as necessary. While I do like to find things out on my own, I do at times come to a problem where it might be nice to just say, “Hey, I’m new and I am totally lost… can someone help me?”
This would be great in a working global chat. Plus, kind of nice for guilds and the like to recruit people etc.
One argument though to a real time chat is there isn’t much spam or drama there. Granted I’ve seen both.
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a working tutorial specific chat might eliminate drama and spamming.
would be hard to police, and you’d want vets to be able to see and chat there too since you would want answers to questions… I think the Community and events, and the questions and help should be live chats… at least the questions and help channel as a minimum, you already can’t say things more than what 3 times in 15 min?
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I have to admit, my preference would still be a readable book so people could look things up - I would like readable books in this game 
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(would have added this to my last post, but locked out too quickly)
I think you are right there. and while I’d love for “blueprints” to be added in the name of NPE (which I would still argue would be good for NPE until I’m blue in the face lol), the Chat seems like lower hanging fruit, and more likely to be put in quickly.
A thought occurred to me when I was headed home from work tonight, that swords would be easier to teach new players how to hunt with… they don’t use up when you miss hitting anything, and are more intuitive than slingbows (arguably more than fists too, but that’s more because fists don’t make much sense without the scifi setting >.> haha). But that is likely just wishful thinking on my part as what I really wanted from the “unreleased patch” was swords and shields, I can’t really come up with more of an argument for it for NPE other than it would make more sense to introduce new players to combat with…
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imagine Sanctum as a library? If you’re new to the game, or returning and can’t quite remember all the how to’s - warp to Sanctum, browse the library, and then go back to what you were doing.
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a way to flip back through the tutorial pop ups we already have in game could be nice, I left an alt not clearing any of those for a long long time, just so I could reread them (the"press ‘e’" to clear on pc ones, not sure what the button is on playstation).
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that’s what made me think of Sanctum as a library. I did the same thing re: not clearing the pop ups
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I think blueprints would be great and I am a very big proponent of it and have been. I do think they should have some limitations put in so that people aren’t spamming builds everywhere, but it would be nice for those of us with huge builds to be able to pack up and move especially with Sovs.
While the reclaim system is great, I think a smartly implemented blueprint system would be great. Maybe introduce the reclaim system for NPE and then blueprints later.
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Yeah this is likely THE biggest fix they could do, since the main part of an MMO is the social aspect. If that doesn’t work? Well…You’ve got a forced-online single player game.
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It occurs to me today that several of us have been looking at NPE all wrong myself included (not all, as the chat feature is definitely something that needs addressed, a better third person as people like to see themselves at least some of the time in games, and some other things suggested before).
Most people decide if they want to spend more than 5 minutes with a game, durring that first 5min.
NPE that needs improved are things they will see in those 5min, so not enough time for a tutorial, or even shallow previews of the deep game systems, or really building anything…
Things that need improved are the first things they see, like Character creation, menus should be snappy, with color pallets and previews of appearance, not the side scrolling selection we have now.
Something should lead the player on to the first journey, literally before they land on their first planet, something that brings the hooks and draws of what makes this game unique. Possibly a short (less than 60 seconds) cutscene that shows nature, a city being built, a market place, a series of portals leading to other worlds… Not unlike the steam page, but one with character models that are actually in game, with blocks and designs they could actually see… Could also be some other sticky hook, but it needs to grab their attention and inspire them.
We don’t have deep narratives to draw a new player in, our stories are completely told by us, with games within the game, communities, rise and fall of empires all being things that we craft ourselves in this persistent sandbox. That new player is stepping into a journey of discovery, community, creativity, and inspiration. That is the spirit of being boundless (to me at least to me), and in order for anything else to even be seen by the new player, they need to feel that in those first 5 minutes.
It’s like the opening paragraph of a novel, if those first few lines aren’t interesting to you, you’re not going to even finish the first page…
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