Newbie Isle concept proposal

ArchivedUser

Hello,

I wanted to suggest an idea I have seen implemented in a game I used to play for years named Tibia.

Basically a new player spawns in separated adaptation world starting at the temple of the Rookgaard Isle and goes through a tutorial phase with introduction steps until he reaches level 8 which enables teleportation through The Oracle to the "main land" where the real game begins with PVP and everything.

This part can be F2P so one can experience the feel of the game before he decides to purchase a subscription which required to advance to the main game and also a really good hook making it easier luring new players.

Do you think it can work in AoC?
Please do share your opinion.
I really want to have a discussion where we develop this idea to fit the game so maybe eventually it will happen.

Tibia Rookgaard:
http://www.tibia.com/library/?subtopic=maps&region=rookgaard
http://tibia.wikia.com/wiki/Rookgaard


Cheers.

ArchivedUser

While i'm not opposed to this concept (as long as there is an option to skip it) and think it's good depending on the type of player you are. I would say that by having a tutorial you miss out all the fun that oldschool mmorpg's had with the whole learning everything at the beginning while stumbling through the world fumbling failing then succeeding and it felt so good. Of course this is just the other perspective of this and I would not mind one bit if there was a tutorial with skip function.

ArchivedUser

I don't like the idea of a Newbie Isle, per se. I also don't think that it would necessarily be a good tutorial for the game itself.

Remember that Ashes of Creation might not have one of those single obnoxiously large main quest chains that you see in many MMOs. I don't doubt that it'll have story-based quest lines, but from what I've heard I don't think that we'll be getting one of those tedious grinds.

So, the devs have said that monster level will scale up as the node levels up (I think), which should be cool. However, this means that, at some point in the game, beginners might find it hard to start because all of the nodes are too high of a level.

What might be cool would be if the starting nodes (if there are a designated number of them) were capped out at a given level, like 3 or something. Then, new players would never feel overwhelmed by spawning into a Metropolis that's fighting a dragon on day 1. Instead, they'd be able to get into the feel of the game by being in a small village that is surrounded by weaker monsters.

ArchivedUser

All I need is a 'help' menu and hotkeys menu. I'll figure out the rest myself :)

As for noobs spawning, they mention you can choose which node you can spawn in. If you don't want to spawn in a node that is already developed, spawn far away where there are less players and work your way towards the city as you lvl up.

ArchivedUser

[quote quote=22243]What might be cool would be if the starting nodes (if there are a designated number of them) were capped out at a given level, like 3 or something. Then, new players would never feel overwhelmed by spawning into a Metropolis that’s fighting a dragon on day 1.[/quote]

The new players don't start out from a node strictly but from one of the starting portals (devs are considering letting the players choose where). It's quite possible that the nearest level 3 or higher node would be close or very far from the portal. Advancing a node to level 3, much less a metropolis, will take a lot of time, and by then there will be some sort of info out there on which portal is safest for new players to choose. On that note, it could be quite fun for a new player to see a metropolis fighting a dragon on day 1. :D

Back to OP's suggestion, any activity done in the world was supposed to matter to the node in that area so letting a character level up in a newbie zone would be a "waste" for a node. I'm not opposed to a tutorial area where basic moves can be tried out, but I don't think they should gain experience there, especially if it would be F2P.

On the docgotgame q&a video, they wanted (but not yet committing) a free and separate character creation program that's connected to the main game. Maybe it can have a tutorial with it that lets the player try how to move their character, the camera, etc and have a really, really small taste of the game.