Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
-Discussing The Beginning-
Yor_Ogre
Member
First off I want to say that fine tuning the beginning of the game is no small task. What is presented now is serviceable for testing but is by no means ideal for beta presentation and miles away from being playable for new players. Things I wanna go over to make the experience more palpable and enticing to players.
-Show Don't tell (Player interaction before we delve into story telling)
-Be detailed in everything!
-Have a heavy hand to guide at the start
-Don't be afraid to overload the player with information but give them a quest line that is straight forward and easy to handle in bit size forms.
((Note: I have only tested mage so far so I do not know what the player experience is like for the other class's yet so it will be from a mages perspective. (* will indicate mage specific suggestions *) I would also like to note that the start of the game should be solo player friendly up to a point where they cross into harder content. lvl.1 - lvl.5 is my opinion.
We should also have a tab for guild recruitment and that should be a quest in itself since player socialization is what the developers want. Tie it in with an achievement system and call it milestones or something.
I also think instead of having the player choose a class at character creation, have them choose one after when picking a abilities. That way testing out the kind of class they want to play as is resettable if they don't like it and they want to change class. This also gives us the option to have an item later for changing out our class farther down the line without loosing the progression we have made for that specific character. ))
How the game starts in any game is probably the most important part of hooking anyone to a game, MMO's is no exception. Placing us in front of a giant blue portal is a good first step, its the next one that needs more fine tuning. Right now the npc that addresses us is set off to the side of the room. This should be our main focus so they should be moved to the center of the room right before us so its the very first thing we notice when entering the world. The disposition from the npc should slow it down, instead of telling us to slay goblins, have the npc give us more information for the weapons our class will be using.
Going into more detail, after the first npc we should have a weapon master that explains more about the weapons we use in the game and have the player decide which weapon they would like to start with. This gives the player more agency to how the player and their play styles for their characters main class. After that have the battle master send us out to go kill goblins since we do not have auto attacks have the players learn that the attack button is their main source of damage. After we kill a low number of goblins(1-3), we should be returned to the battle master to level up for the first time to then get ability points to spend in the tree.
Explaining the ability tree is going to be the next foundation of the new player experience. Have new players spend the points they get to play around with what works for them. *For mage specifically, I would like to suggest a tweak to arcane spells matching element type to the one that is active. * Then once we choose an ability have the npc send us to our next destination with the option to kill more goblins along the way using our new skill.
After getting to lionshold that's were you can slowly stop the hand holding and really broaden our horizons with what the game has to offer. The main story quest (MSQ) will be what drives the player forward through the game but ultimately the player will have to decide how to progress to meet those quests requirements.
There is probably more we could go over but I think this is a good start for making a better hook for player retention. As it is right now the game really relies on a players good faith instead of the game to keep them invested. Thanks for reading this much!
-Show Don't tell (Player interaction before we delve into story telling)
-Be detailed in everything!
-Have a heavy hand to guide at the start
-Don't be afraid to overload the player with information but give them a quest line that is straight forward and easy to handle in bit size forms.
((Note: I have only tested mage so far so I do not know what the player experience is like for the other class's yet so it will be from a mages perspective. (* will indicate mage specific suggestions *) I would also like to note that the start of the game should be solo player friendly up to a point where they cross into harder content. lvl.1 - lvl.5 is my opinion.
We should also have a tab for guild recruitment and that should be a quest in itself since player socialization is what the developers want. Tie it in with an achievement system and call it milestones or something.
I also think instead of having the player choose a class at character creation, have them choose one after when picking a abilities. That way testing out the kind of class they want to play as is resettable if they don't like it and they want to change class. This also gives us the option to have an item later for changing out our class farther down the line without loosing the progression we have made for that specific character. ))
How the game starts in any game is probably the most important part of hooking anyone to a game, MMO's is no exception. Placing us in front of a giant blue portal is a good first step, its the next one that needs more fine tuning. Right now the npc that addresses us is set off to the side of the room. This should be our main focus so they should be moved to the center of the room right before us so its the very first thing we notice when entering the world. The disposition from the npc should slow it down, instead of telling us to slay goblins, have the npc give us more information for the weapons our class will be using.
Going into more detail, after the first npc we should have a weapon master that explains more about the weapons we use in the game and have the player decide which weapon they would like to start with. This gives the player more agency to how the player and their play styles for their characters main class. After that have the battle master send us out to go kill goblins since we do not have auto attacks have the players learn that the attack button is their main source of damage. After we kill a low number of goblins(1-3), we should be returned to the battle master to level up for the first time to then get ability points to spend in the tree.
Explaining the ability tree is going to be the next foundation of the new player experience. Have new players spend the points they get to play around with what works for them. *For mage specifically, I would like to suggest a tweak to arcane spells matching element type to the one that is active. * Then once we choose an ability have the npc send us to our next destination with the option to kill more goblins along the way using our new skill.
After getting to lionshold that's were you can slowly stop the hand holding and really broaden our horizons with what the game has to offer. The main story quest (MSQ) will be what drives the player forward through the game but ultimately the player will have to decide how to progress to meet those quests requirements.
There is probably more we could go over but I think this is a good start for making a better hook for player retention. As it is right now the game really relies on a players good faith instead of the game to keep them invested. Thanks for reading this much!
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