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Warlander

New tutorial (parallel to current one) suggestion

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Like this topic shown, new players are not really happy with current tutorial - this is really bad thing, both when it comes to keeping new players interested with game and keeping them in game for longer. New players are often very confused, don't know what and how can they do and - even if they already know - their skills are making any task very hard. While wiki, asking for help and playing with more experienced players can help a lot, nothing can replace good tutorial.

Suggestion:

Add new, optional (but very recommended) tutorial parallel to current one, taking place in tiny, instantiated part of the world.

Here, players could learn all basic things needed to survive - how to craft tools, terraform land, build house, fight, avoid dangers and secure themselves, receiving (and crafting) some basic tools at the same time, as well as leveling basic skills.

Instantiated part of the world would be really small (max 50X50), containing small pond, grassland with almost flat land (slopes in 0-3 range), hill with single exposed rock tile (and iron vein right on the right or left of the entrance), forest. Player would receive tasks, instructions how to complete them and some tips.

Tasks for new player (in that order):

-interface familiarity (wasd, qe, click-drag, right-clicking and select bar, activating tools)

-cutting down a tree, chopping it into logs

-creating shafts, mallet head, mallet

-terraforming basics - leveling small piece of grassland

-planning first 1X1 house (with alto-leveled carpentry if below required skill)

-mining basics - creating tunnel (with less actions needed than usual), mining ore and rocks

-fighting basics - fight with weak passive creature, buthering

-creating campfire

-cooking basics - processing raw meat, drinking water from pond, fighing (low ql, non-drop fishing rod given at this point)

-turning ore into lumps

-creating small anvil

-house building basics - creating planks, large nails, building wooden house

-dangerous creature attack (wolf? Maybe 2 rats at the same time? Anything too hard to beat in one go, but easy enough to kill in 1 or 2 turns) - hiding in house, healing wounds with cotton (some of it given to character at this stage), hit & run combat and info about guard towers

-security - crafting lock, attaching it to house door

-something missing/should be added/in different order?

What do you think about this idea?

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I think you are on the right track i remember when i started ATITD another sandbox like game it had some basic quests that you had to finish before you could teleport to the next area.  It was not in the typical quest giver format like most mmos it was just a list of things kind of like the personal goals window and it would check things off automatically as you went along once you completed them.


 


I do think cooking should be one of the big ones and maybe they could keep the skills on that one since it is hard to feed yourself when you first start off as a new player.  


Edited by Kegan

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Some new players ask in global chat, or in forum tech, why their new character cannot do any action except for Forage.  It's because they have no idea what other players even mean when they are told to activate a tool. Since the only tool active by default is their hands, those are the only activities they can figure out. Right-click, Forage.  Right-click, Forage.  Perhaps many never even bother to ask why that is the only option they get; they just log off and find some game that is more fun. There are, after all, hundreds of other games all competing for their attention -- why stress over one that doesn't seem interested in trying to engage you? 


 


I never quite understood why they removed  the old "hands on" tutorial -- the one where you made a campfire, dug some clay and made a bowl, chopped down a tree (after finding that "Mature" trees weren't really all that mature).  They said it was too hard to clean up after the new players, but other games seem to manage some sort of "training instance area" that resets every 15 minutes or so.  For every new player we get in CA HELP or chat or forums, asking why they cannot do anything except walk around and forage, we probably have 99 we lose in the first five minutes of the game.  In the old days, you read a  manual before you played a game. And in Wurm, we have a great wiki they can read.  But the old days are gone and now there are more new games than any sane person can ever try, and most of those are more than happy to make that first half hour in game be less painful and confusing.


 


I would like to see an optional tutorial like Warlander suggests. At the worst, I'd like to see the new "Book Of Knowledge" finished and made more user friendly and nice looking (so that players enjoy using it), and maybe a reminder at login and again at logout their first few visits, that the Book of Knowledge contains a lot of useful information if they are finding the game confusing.  We were told quite a long time ago that they would be finishing this ingame guidebook,  which warranted them discarding the old tutorial,  but it does not seem to be a very high priority. It seems now to be a forgotten priority. 


 


Meantime new players log  in, wander around, forage a little, then log out.


 


And never come back. 


 


Can we afford to be losing them like this?


 




 


p.s. 


 


Another interesting statistic from that survey -- besides the fact that only one percent found the  tutorial area to be much help -- is that only three percent of people completing the survey started Wurm in the past six months. Almost 80 percent are "old timers" here for two years or more.  It might be easy to explain -- veteran players are much likely to use the forums than brand new players so the survey results are biased and lop-sided   ... but it might also be a warning flag that we have in Wurm a hardcore loyal fanbase that is going to be slowly reducing over the upcoming years, and few new players are stepping into their shoes. 


 


w e   n e e d   n e w    b l o o d


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Edited by Brash_Endeavors
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YES!


I and Many others have been suggesting this for a while now.


I do believe this will help in retention of new players.  Sure there will still be a lot of people who want to be 'macho' and skip it but once humbled by Wurms learning curve maybe even they will go through it the second time.


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Yes this is something much needed.  I've spent a lot of time lately thinking of ways to increase new player retention, and intend to do my own share of work on the matter.  A clear concise tutorial with "quests" or goals to achieve before moving on would be best, in my opinion.


 


I had also thought, at one point, about making a tutorial video for people fresh out of the gate, in case they chose to skip the game tutorial. 


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- pick sprout, replace a chopped tree (and help with/ lowered requirements for making their first low-QL sickle)


- pick flowers, plant them for grass (less hard then it is now at the start)


- cut grass, make feedingpile for animal (and hopefully at some point in the future as one of the ingredients for making a mudwall- or sod hut)


- make a few fences to protect the cow or sheep that gets put in, learn to milk the animal as alternative for water (would be good to see milk giving some nutrition too)


- one clay tile next to their pond, make bowl and jar


 


- give them the chance to also go to this instanced tutorial as 'second thought' (after indeed the real thing has humbled them somewhat, give them also the chance to visit, or revisit, the instanced tutorial at *that* point)


 


- and don't throw them out of there too soon, let them potter around in there at their leisure - perhaps a few days or a week even before final closure/reset (of course they can leave at any time sooner if wanted).


 


edit/added: - perhaps one instance for several new players is possible? Thinking of friends joining together here.


Edited by Kianga
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I'm not sure how many people have the patience to follow an elaborate tutorial. Personally that turned me off a few other games, I just can't be bothered. I think watching youtube videos of someone explaining (even very basic) mechanics are more usefull.


Edited by Theshrike

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i like this, and if you got to keep these items you've created (mallet, anvil, etc) it'll set you up with all you need.


and unfortunately weigh you down :P


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I never knew why you couldn't keep the items. It's not like being able to start the game with an iron file and a handful of nails was terribly overpowered.


 


Though I guess for Challenge and new servers they do not want some people leveling up to 20 and starting with a full starter set of things other people don;t have.


 


Wiping skills & items means a true even start. If you get no skills and you get no items, once you have "learned" the material there is no reason  not to proceed on to the "real" servers.


 


 




I'm not sure how many people have the patience to follow an elaborate tutorial. Personally that turned me off a few other games, I just can't be bothered. I think watching youtube videos of someone explaining (even very basic) mechanics are more usefull.



 



 


That's why making it optional is good. Some people like to watch a youtube tutorial, others like to get "hands on" and learn by doing, others like to read through wiki guides. Some people are not good at learning and making connections unless they get a chance to try it without worrying about attacks from wolf packs etc.  


 


It's easy to say "well they should be smart enough to just research it on their own", but the upshot is, people don't. You are shooting yourself in the foot if you decide "well then it is their own fault if they never learn what a great game this is".  Because they don't care - there are plenty of other games to try --  and Wurm is the one that suffers for it. You end up feeling morally justified that your values are the right ones, but the game doesn't end up benefiting in any way. I don't think people want to see what other people have made, as much as they want to understand firsthand what they can make. 


 


The only thing that matters is, would player retention increase and if it did, would it be by enough to justify the cost and effort of making a tutorial. At which point we are all just speculating whether it would/would not. I think dropping the old tutorial hurt us much more than it helped, based on the people I see who quit because they cannot figure out the starting basics. 


Edited by Brash_Endeavors

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An optional tutorial like this would be awesome!
And I do like the suggestion to have the possibility to go back there for a while and look at all the things again - or simply the choice to do it later. I'm sure there are some players out there that want to start the game without delay... just to realize they should have done the tutorial and can't go back. You already get some new player buffs for 24 hours, this would add in nicely for easing up the start in Wurm.

 

things I would add to the tutorial list:
- death, loosing skills and finding and retaining your corpse and your items (maybe add something about item weight and run speed at this point)

- creating a rope and leading animals, taming and showing the fact you can lead a tamed animal around with you
 

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