Retaining "new players"

[b00mslang]

Well, so far I've only read the first page, so I might have missed some stuff, but anyway, here are my thoughts:

NEW flags last until either(whichever comes first):
1. Player hits 36
2. Player attains 5 pks

NEW flags grant:
1. 1.5x exp bonus
2. Immortal-type who lists(alignment/race/class/lvl)
3. Free and slightly improved outfitting
4. Free recalls
5. Protection against 'get all corpse'
6. An mob that you can follow when the newbie dies to lead him to his corpse that moves like 75% the speed of regular walking.
7. Automated tips tailored to his race/class that can't be turned off.
Eg. Pointing people towards hobgobglins for purples, advising people on the use of aliases/hotkeys/triggers, where, when, and against who to use certain skills/spells, etc.

NEW flag restrictions(includes all characters who have ever carried the NEW flag):
1. No pk record even after lvl 36.
2. Can't apply for cabals.


So those are my ideas.

I think the whole arena idea sounds good too, though that will take some serious coding. Basically you just need some mobs can track, fight, and use the same tactics as players, with varying AI difficulty. Maybe like 5 lvls, and each level gives you a certain amount of exp, possibly like 1500/3000/4500/6000/7500.

[Davairus]

We already finalized our plans on the <NEW> flag. Its operational.


I like the idea of the arena with varying difficulty. Godwars2 has a dojo where you spar ninjas to introduce you to the combat system. Ever since I kicked around with that, I've wanted to make a quest where you take on a series of warriors. I already wrote one up actually, just didn't get around to it. Hopefully I'll work on adding that to the mudschool sometime. I also think its a good idea to arm sentient levelling mobs with this sort of AI, beyond a certain rank, so I did a bit of that. Figured 35+ before they start skinning you with combat skills. Unfortunately putting overhead on the mansion trolls didn't work out too well, so I stopped further expansion for a bit.

I would like to expand on "boss" type mobs (examples, Igor the malevolent, the wights, red dragon, Diana, Dagnir, blah blah) with smarter combat, its just a matter of getting around to it. I'd appreciate suggestions for that.

As for chase scripts, the best thing we got is warg-rider type stuff for now, and I don't see it getting better. Why bother though? You can already just go PK somebody for that..

If you want to see a mob with nice combat AI, try Pasha the thief trainee out.

[reddkey]

My two cents.

I played in 3 muds. I like this mud, but left because my characters kept getting slaugtered. I can't stand Pk and I don't see why players are forced to do it,...Let all the jerks pk if they want and kill each other. I don't even want rares or anything, I just want to finish a character, but I can't because I'm pk'd all the time, its lame, its old,...

The best option I've seen is one was where PK was an option. If a player wanted to PK, they typed playerkiller <enter>

bang,,,they were pk,...

If you didn't want it, you didn't have to. Why is this so outrageous? Why can't it be optional?

[Gavriel]

It's unrealistic that someone can choose if other people are allowed to engage them or not. Further, it's unfair for someone to be able to shoot off at the mouth to anyone they want and never feel any sort of consequence.

If you want to stay out of PK a good suggestion is Heralds. They're not aggressive and people generally leave them alone. If you're not interested in the literary aspect then Noble is also a good choice. They're protected in Valour and again are not aggressive.

If neither of those are an option, pick a class with survivability. Healers come to mind, shamans, illusionists, etc. And if yet still none of those are desirable choose a neutral alignment. As a neutral it's more likely someone will ask you to rank then try and pk you for no reason.

Sadly at the end of the day this is a PK MUD, and if you can't live with it there's not much that can be done. Though you'll get used to it if you just keep at it.

[Davairus]

If you want to make a pure PVE character, you can. What you do is you make a half-elf ranger, and spend a while mastering camouflage (not hard, with half-elf improved learning rate). Then grab a suit of malediction saves to prevent blindness and faerie fire.

You yell 'Help I am being attacked..'
flee...
camo

And thats that.

[reddkey]

I may try either of those options in the future then.

Just to note though, I was in Herald at one time,...yup,...got mutli PK'd in like 2 minutes time by a evil monk. To their credit a Justice guy did try to sort it out,..but I was so frustrated at that moment I simply deleted.

If this mud ever goes pk/optional I would play it all week long. But if not,...I just don't want to waste the effort. I know whats going to happen, its happened 3 times.

I'm not a sh-t talker, I don't provoke people, and I even duel at times (I'm not a complete wimp) but training and eq gathering, that takes forever, it stinks to get totally off track. loosing all your gold an eq, so some pker can be satistfied. Its like I'm just some herd animal ready for harvest by the pk crowd, when my character matures.

Sorry, thats no fun, no matter how you slice it.

[m1co]

Once the n00b gets into my ranking grp, he never wants to leave AR! trust me i have been doing this for 6 years...

[Xazappith]

[Gavriel]

[trance_monkey]

[Flight_Control]

I'm back to have mudsex with Elaedon. Where she at?

[raginggnome]

I think in order to retain new players, you have to have new players. We need a review on mudconnect or something because the playerbase the last week has been horrible. Its almost not even fun to play anymore. Just sit there for an hour trying to find a group, find it then hunt for half and hour before your groupmates get bored and log off. Trying to get to fifty with it the way it is now would be excruciating.

[Davairus]

[Justdoitmikey]

Im jumping in here mid topic so don't flame me too bad. I would like to preface this by saying that I started playing AR back in like 96-97 when there were 20+ characters online at all times. I stopped playing when I started working full time in like 98 and came back for a few months in 05 before going "dark" again. As of say 7 days ago I jumped back in the realms and am ASTONISHED at how few people are around any more, and how much has changed.

I LOVE the quest system now. I mean seriously WOW. These quests blow the arse out of the old skool quests. Whoever came up with these needs a raise because this is probably the single best change to AR ever.

I agree that you need some sort of advertising to just get people on. Maybe grant people like level 25 85% of all skills, maxed stats and ok eq if they create a player in such and such week. Then have imms staffed to help these people learn the AR world.

You need to be more relaxed on the RP stuff. If I need to know how to write a script for Zmud let me ask it without facing a ban. I agree that out of roleplay conversation needs to be at a minimum but at least a little bit needs to be allowed to slide so that people can learn stuff. Not everyone wants to log onto the website to ask a stupid question.

I guess there seems to be and always has seemed to be a huge void between "Im new" and "Im freaking amazing" There needs to be some learning curve for the middle area.

Also I think if you are following / grouped with someone they shouldn't be able to lead you into a no exit room. I was on the other day and some punk asked me to group, led me into a no exit, and pked me. I honestly was not paying enough attention to even put up a fight but seriously if I was new and this happened I would probably quit and never come back. And if you are a newbie you wouldn't have even seen it comming.

Shrug sorry for rambling I have been drinking.... I would like to give further input. But for now I notice the whole 20-35 area is just too tough, not enough help to bridge the gap.

Don't flame me....

[Davairus]

[raginggnome]

In my honest opinion we need some sort of player ran rp, perhaps some sort of climatic finale for the start of a new age. Something like the Zaikkra invasion or the return of the warlords . Then once this gets started write a new review for mudconnect or something. That way when new players come they see all this cool stuff going on and want to get involved. It would give them incentive to rank as well as bringing something fresh in for the experienced players.

[Davairus]

The truth about people is they rarely talk with other people about something that they've found satisfactory. Maybe its because they don't want to be thought of as dorky for liking something, who knows? But most people don't say or do anything to spread the word. So its really not appealing to try to put a massive effort into things for the sole purpose of trying to make them go do that. On the other hand, if there is anything negative to be said at all (like a few trashy players, a declining playerbase, or Imms being unable to rp with them much because they actually gained a life or something) then the same people will forever be complaining about it. I'm serious. It isn't like the mud is short of things to praise it for already, is it? Please think about that.

Based on the last couple posts the best remedy I saw was for one or two of you to go make a level 25 and slaughter supposed "newbies" and "bored re-rolled vets" without discrimination. Its combat experience.. its at a low enough level that its really not going to matter how much time was spent getting there to a newbie.. its a break from the "boredom". We've definitely had a trash problem in the past, and while those days are obviously gone, there's actually too little low level pk'ing now. It makes things more interesting, and think about this, all those skills and level gains are positioned in a ways to give you time to get used to them before you level up and get more new ones.

[Justdoitmikey]

I don't want to "slaughter" a bunch of newbies. That is part of the problem in my opinion. Someone would rather exploit a newbies inexperience then help them. Im perfectly content solo ranking and doing quests to tell the truth (although solo ranking is a total dog). My addiction to this place is the whole building a char becoming more powerful thing, not "I totally screwed some newbie". Now I do like the PK that is why Im here and not on a non or restricted pk mud. But there is too much raping, if you obviously kicked someone’s butt don't full loot his piddly crap unless you need it.... or he really pissed you off. Try helping him instead! Some guy last night tried to attack my lowbie warrior and Im not a stupid player so I figured it out before he could initiate and spelled up and attacked him, let him hunt me a bit then knocked him around, (I had a huge advantage being a lowbie warrior to lowbie mage, after lvl 30 he would spank me). That is where the new flag comes into play I suppose, not that I had it but we still treated each other with respect. Don't be a piss bucket when you are an aggressor, sure its rp and damned fun but it makes people leave AR.

Maybe you could allow people to form an alliance. Both parties would have to agree on it it would prevent you from attacking each other for "x" period of time. That way if you want to group and rank or quest you don't have to worry about someone chasing you down. Since it requires two people to make effective it means that both parties feel it in their best interest to enter into the agreement.

Maybe put a listing on craigslist.org.... its free, maybe get a few people who are bored to join.

As far as the gap between good and bad players I agree that the game is not to blame. But people like me don't learn on their own too well. If I read help files for something versus someone telling me how it works them telling me will go above and beyond the help file simply because they have more input on how things work. I remember when heralds first came on the scene and they made it a point to answer any question asked them. Just answer questions people. Or put someone who has an ungodly amount of time in a position where they are around to guide people and answer questions. I mean surely someone is able to be connected from 9-5 while at work and answer questions....

And Dav AR is great. I love the changes and Im not trashing anything! Im just giving my input where asked in an effort to make the realms more exciting for everyone. I agree that the mud has a LOT to be proud of, maybe just not enough exposure to get new people.

[Davairus]

I'm sorry but experience is the best teacher. If you want to get better at pk'ing at AR, you don't do that by joining Heralds. And you can look at the ratings to demonstrate this. Descideon, leader of Heralds, is firmly at the bottom. He's last place. Now in addition to that, Heralds has a "non-aggression" policy. You think you are going to learn from people like that? Meanwhile, the MOST aggressive players (Noctezza recently, Keira) have both ending up as the highest rated without barely any help at all. So what does that tell you? It tells you that there is a correlation between aggressiveness and learning the game. That doesn't make it a cause, but certainly, you can say without doubt that the aggressive players quickly rack up tons of hands-on experience at pk'ing. We've had guides on the site and newbie help sections, "coaching" from cabals, it doesn't work. You have to get up off your butt and pay your dues, you have to die a lot. And you are doing newbs a disservice by not allowing them to challenge people of similar skill, and instead leaving them for the jeo-multikill types. Make no mistake - they will get pked whether you do it or not. Lets have no pretences about what kind of game AR is. They can be pked at 25 or pked at 50 and find out they dont like the game after they levelled for 200 hours. That isn't retaining newbies, thats just pissing them off, and filling the mud up with people who don't really want to play. Then again, who knows, you might find out you actually get your ass handed to you by level 25 players, who are newbies, and they might actually enjoy it!

[jeoparty]

I don't think my last character was the multi-killing type at all. I usually offered advice to those that I took down too easily, just ask Gizzeltu whom I quite often helped after we faught. I told him little things like where to get wyvern rings, to always carry a bunchload of gyvel potions, when to run and hide (after I hit a deteriorate or something), and even where to find his corpse after we faught. The only thing I looted from him were his coins, and if that's not being a decent guy, then I don't know what is. He got better each time I faught him, so maybe my advice helped him a bit? I don't remember being helped like that at all during my time here, especially from someone of the opposite alignment.