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Niki

The Newbie Experience

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The Basics

 

So one of the most common things new players want to do from the start of the game is to build a house. Building a house is no simple task for a new player playing Wurm. Currently this game isn't something you can just pick up easy and start without some long grind and insane crafting mechanics that puts off a lot of new players.

 

I think the new player experience is something that should be looked into to make it easier and to educate players better. I have some basic ideas to help with this. Currently wood plank structures take to long to make and require many materials. So I have a solution. Allow new players including free to play build a new wooden shack, log cabin that requires hardly any materials and doesn't require planks or nails. Nails require iron and that is a chore for a new player to figure out, 20 planks required per wall is quite insane with starting characteristics as well. When I first started playing it took me days to build my house! I simply ask why scare away people?

 

With that said, allow players to plan a 1x1,1x2, etc up to a maxium of a 4x4 log shack/cabin. (Maybe limit them here on size.) They will last longer than a tent obviously, be simple to create (requires no carpentry level), emphasizing easy creation timers like no more than 10 seconds per action. A place to store stuff that'll prevent theft which is generally a issue. I think you should only be able to create one per character as well. Allow the use of raw logs say 10 per wall, and mixed grass for a roof/floors, 5 per tile. These wouldn't decay on deeds if you build there. However it would have mild decay off deed.

 

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I think wood piles should randomly spawn in the forest maybe containing 2 or 5 logs each, maybe low chance at some kindling potentially. They should spawn rather commonly as well. I feel like this is a fairly simple tweak, the wood piles spawning shouldn't replace woodcutting, but it should help new players get a hold on the world around them without making them use Wurmpedia for every little thing, or remain clueless on how to highlight and fell a tree and logout. (Trees should have a highlight!) 

 

Keep the quality of them low, but the quality should have no bearing on the creation timers for wooden cabins/shacks.

 

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 Also allow people to pick grass, it should work similar to "take," highlight the grass tile and you'll have some grass in your inventory this should give no skill. I'd also suggest to ability to find some early food and first-aid items from doing this like a pumpkin or cotton on rare chance. Cooking is another matter which I'll go into soon.

 

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Keybinds & Settings

 

The default keybinds in Wurm are a bit odd if you ask me for the normal PC gamer! I can tell you a good amount of Wurmians do not utilize keybinds, I do think that's because of the the status bar. I'm not a fan of it either. However I don't really want to get into it a lot here so let's talk about take and movement. Maybe update the "take" default keybind so "take" is easily accessible. A great keybind in my opinion would be "Q" since it's near WASD - I would also remove the (turn left & right keybinds from A & D) as well. When I first came into this game I thought that was insanely confusing when you can simply use the mouse to change perspective. I spent a great deal annoyed by that until I figured out how to change it, back then we were blessed with the console. Right now we have a new settings panel, however there is also huge delay opening it which should also be fixed or better yet, incorporate it into the client instead of a random window pop up.

 

I would also like to mention that you should consider allowing people to change from left mouse click to right mouse click to change camera perspective, most games use right mouse click! (Also consider adding mouse sensitivity options in the settings!)

 

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Make food simple


Cooking was a huge update that I feel is a hit or miss for a lot of players. It requires some intense focus and it can be very time consuming if your going into it blindly. I still use a guide and notes for it myself! For a new player that has barley any idea on the basic systems of this game it's an absolute nightmare for them to make some basic food that actually feeds them.  So I suggest bringing back entry foods like a potato or a pumpkin that give modest CCFP and a decent nutrition level - let's say 30% that doesn't take a half hour to eat and fills you up semi-decently, or require multiple servings. No affinity should be given. Eat a pumpkin in real life and tell me it doesn't fill you up! Back in the day pumpkin was a great item along with cotton. It was simple, and it worked.


 

 

The UI & Tutorial

 

As much as I want to discuss this, I feel like it's in the works already from information stated from devs in the past. Nothing much I can mention but the game totally needs attention for these two things.

 

 

 

Have any other suggestions or room for improvement, thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Please comment thanks!

Edited by Niki
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+1, always thought that food should fill a player based on weight alone. Nutrition, CCFP, and affinity should be the only thing based off that recipe system. Some people are trying to survive while others just thrive.

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Am all for helping new players but the part about making it easier just gets me. I mean anyone and everyone that has played for 5+ years remember when you started out with nothing and had to use a skill called Rummage in order to make tools. This new breed of newbies have it made imo. You get to play for Free now , Free gear , Free tents a CA channel that is active almost 24/7.  Many many established villages taking in day one newbies. 

 

Tools now so cheap with just a few silver you can almost have a complete 90 tool set. When the sandbox meets the road. I sort of enjoy some of the tougher things about wurm. A huge part of the awesome sandbox that has me coming back is that some things are freaking hard or at least take a long time to master. 

 

I get it the some of the info on the wiki is outdated and could use a bit of work but serious the stuff the Dev's have done to wurm in the past year has been awesome. Please don't ask them to stop and work on " making it any more easy"  for the new players.   Let the Dev keep on working please. 

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10 minutes ago, Sunnyside said:

Am all for helping new players but the part about making it easier just gets me. I mean anyone and everyone that has played for 5+ years remember when you started out with nothing and had to use a skill called Rummage in order to make tools. This new breed of newbies have it made imo. You get to play for Free now , Free gear , Free tents a CA channel that is active almost 24/7.  Many many established villages taking in day one newbies. 

 

Tools now so cheap with just a few silver you can almost have a complete 90 tool set. When the sandbox meets the road. I sort of enjoy some of the tougher things about wurm. A huge part of the awesome sandbox that has me coming back is that some things are freaking hard or at least take a long time to master. 

 

I get it the some of the info on the wiki is outdated and could use a bit of work but serious the stuff the Dev's have done to wurm in the past year has been awesome. Please don't ask them to stop and work on " making it any more easy"  for the new players.   Let the Dev keep on working please. 

Back in the day is was common for the game to be more difficult, sandbox games were not the norm either. Recently that has changed with games like Rust, Ark, and others, however all games need to modernize eventually. Nothing I've stated really is going to change the endgame of Wurm either. It extends new player retention mostly. I implore you to think in the shoes of a newbie, the drive to dig deep into the mechanics of a game like Wurm is super rare for players these days without some guidance.

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A large part of the appeal for the Wurm and the type of people that enjoy this game over the long haul is not having things Rust like / Ark like or other games.  Wurm is a very unique game with out dated graphics that will not appeal to 99% of the current mmo gamer's. 

 

A lot of the things that make this game so special imo is that not every thing is given to you as a new player , You have to work / Invest time into this game. As far as Guidance goes all anyone has to do is either use google or CA help / Chat or even the forums. So much is already given to new players. If you make this game any more easy for new players they will not stay for the long haul only play until the game gets " hard " . 

 

Guess I don't want anymore time wasted from our Dev's on things that will not retain players vs Time our Dev's could spend on current game issues for all of us that play.

 

If you and I got it and  the rest of wurm got through this " hard part " and still play why do think this next guy will decide that because his house is too hard to build will stay around and play ?  Or because the new guy finds that the Key binding system is a bit too hard or any number of reason that make starting out " too hard ".    IMO it's a weeding out process. If you can't reach out ask for help / use google then this might not be the game for them is all I am saying. Tons and tons of help for new players.

 

This is not nor will it ever be an " Ark " or " Rust " and thank god for it.      

Edited by Sunnyside
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+1

I'm very much for making the introduction to this game easier for people, not that I don't like the challenge of the game, it's more-so that I want to see more people give this game a solid go, and can get a footing in it before just up and rage quitting. I know there are deeds out there that will take in complete newbies, but not everyone wants that, some want to strike out on their own, like so many Wurmians who own a deed with just them and their alts, many new players see the idea of the game, as a way to have creative freedom, in a more realistic way than games like Minecraft offers, but it's just that first initial stepping stone, that I know many, many players just never get a good footing on, and leave the game, and move on looking for something else instead.

In short, I really wanna see this game continue to grow, and honestly, I think this would help that :)

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Last post on this topic. forgive me.

 

Like so many games you see it more in PVP games where the player base puts sole responsibility of player retention onto the Devs.  " PVP would happen if only the Devs do this"    " Players would come play / stay around longer if Devs only did this "

 

 

But thing is with a game that has been around for 11 years and for the past 3-4 has seen some of the biggest quality of life improvement for everyone , even new players. You have stop and ask yourself at what point do the players themselves have to take a certain amount of responsibility in all this for player retention / growth ?   

 

How many new players have you brought into your deed ? 

How many new players have you mentored ?

How many times have you hung out in CA answer questions ?

 

How many videos / streams have you posted in order to showcase Wurm? 

How many ......

 

 

  Dev's can only do so much with a Sandbox. They can give you all the tools and say here have fun.. This is a sandbox game. They can't make you google / ask for help , can't make people go pvp. Can't make people go join Epic / Wild. 

 

They have given us the tools  

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1 hour ago, Sunnyside said:

Last post on this topic. forgive me.

 

Like so many games you see it more in PVP games where the player base puts sole responsibility of player retention onto the Devs.  " PVP would happen if only the Devs do this"    " Players would come play / stay around longer if Devs only did this "

 

 

But thing is with a game that has been around for 11 years and for the past 3-4 has seen some of the biggest quality of life improvement for everyone , even new players. You have stop and ask yourself at what point do the players themselves have to take a certain amount of responsibility in all this for player retention / growth ?   

 

How many new players have you brought into your deed ? 

How many new players have you mentored ?

How many times have you hung out in CA answer questions ?

 

How many videos / streams have you posted in order to showcase Wurm? 

How many ......

 

 

  Dev's can only do so much with a Sandbox. They can give you all the tools and say here have fun.. This is a sandbox game. They can't make you google / ask for help , can't make people go pvp. Can't make people go join Epic / Wild. 

 

They have given us the tools  

They've given us tools but they could be easier to use.

 

An update if you will on some basic systems even if you're against the idea of log cabins, it could be just increasing attachment rates on wooden houses a bit, using wooden pegs instead of nails. That would make a huge difference even! 

 

A lot of what you're suggesting in my humble opinion makes the game worse for them. When I first started I did not join any villages, I'm the type of player that really gets into everything about the game. I completely experienced everything myself without hand holding that joining a village or asking questions in CA would give. At one point I got so annoyed I disabled the chats so I could learn without random information dumps. When I couldn't figure something out I wouldn't ask someone I'd spend time reading the forums or using google. I eventually found Wurmpedia. That was that. I had a good learning experience, I self taught myself a lot of stuff because of using the forums and Wurmpedia. I can't stand hand holding but I know some people like to be spoiled, but how often do those villagers of yours play the game? A few weeks? A month? Less than a year even?

 

If you are against making the game easier why do you suggest people join villages and stuff? Telling a newbie everything about the game and not letting the figure it out on their own first is terrible design. Most people who do that spoil new players with enchanted tools, boats, wagons, carts etc. That's how you ruin the game for a new person. Trust me. If someone did that to me I surely wouldn't be here right now let me tell you!

 

The choice to join a village should be up to them, and you shouldn't force players into it by saying you need to or else. Most people getting tons of junk and advice on how to do things the way you do it proper - is way worse, than adding quality of life features that I stated in OP that would support initial growth for this game which is hemorrhaging players currently. Most games have entry structures, food, clothing, weapons, tools until you figure out the second tier, the third and so on and so on until you reach endgame. 

 

I really don't understand why modernization is so taboo with some of you players. Wouldn't you like more people?

 

Thanks.

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+1 for more people, sure;

But there's no proof that newbies quit because of the struggle of making a house, picking grass, grinding skill, etc.

Could be the time it requires, graphics, knowledge; overcomplicating certain things for sure....  but... still wurm's unique in it's own way, changing it too much in random direction is no way to get new players...

 

Some people wont chat to learn more, other wont read the wiki.. some will make it, others will quit eventually.

Teaching new players cold be done with some game assistant within or with similar to help tool which at first explains to players about hunger, thirst, stamina, healing, .... there could be added a few more things like starting a house, cooking, tips how to start crafts.. or upgrade from crude tools to expanded iron-age arsenal of tools, promote some social interaction in chat, exploring, etc........

 

All this is another WILD guess, best way to figure a way to act is to gather data, start asking the questions to get the answer you need, staff needs to gather the data why some leave the game and figure what could be done to keep the game unique and interesting to play.

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+1 for the cabin in the wood idea...

however for the random spawn of logs. no need. they arrive with a hatchet and would need to clean up the spot to live regardless so shouldnt be required. and might cause more server lag to have too many items spawn...

rest of the idea seems pretty solid tho. nothing to add

 

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Random thoughts based on OP:

 

- I like the idea of natural logfalls, if only because it would make forests seem more real. What if when a tree grows to overage, it has a chance to turn into a felled tree instead of shriveled? Leave behind the stump, or even have it uprooted (new graphic, I know). A fallen tree would also be a good place to spawn mushrooms.

- As a new player, it wasn't intuitive to figure out that to cut down a tree I had to click the tile beneath it. (Something for a tutorial?)

- I like the idea of simple huts, but the real deal is sleep bonus, and beds are hard to make. Along with huts, I'd recommend some kind of rudimentary sleeping device. :) Packed dirt + log hut + ??? = early sleep bonus.

 

At that, the new player experience can vary from arriving in a peaceful civilization to paradropping into a dangerous wilderness. When I jumped to Freedom from Epic (before update), I knew people already, and they showered me with everything I needed.

 

Epic was different, but still, so many resources had been left lying around (including beds), that I had no trouble. I've never had to start new in a virgin wilderness, relying on nothing but starter tools. I almost feel like a new player would have to deliberately look for that experience....

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Want to make the game more friendly to new players without making it less challenging? Make what things do more obvious. Have a [?] button next to each skill that explains what it does, complete with numbers.

 

The UI should not be the enemy, it should be my ally.

Edited by Darmalus
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23 minutes ago, Darmalus said:

Want to make the game more friendly to new players without making it less challenging? Make what things do more obvious. Have a [?] button next to each skill that explains what it does, complete with numbers.

 

The UI should not be the enemy, it should be my ally.

 

I agree. I'm still learning what I'd consider basic stuff from people who have dived into WU code, and really, that's nuts.

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5 hours ago, Roccandil said:

I like the idea of simple huts, but the real deal is sleep bonus, and beds are hard to make. Along with huts, I'd recommend some kind of rudimentary sleeping device. :) Packed dirt + log hut + ??? = early sleep bonus.

mixed grass + mixed grass, create crude straw bed, add 8 more grass (total of 10) can sleep for a max for 1 hour sleep bonus.

simple and easy to make, but doesnt make them as good as our actual beds. also after a certain time of gameplay cant be used anymore perhaps.

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22 hours ago, Roccandil said:

Random thoughts based on OP:

 

- I like the idea of natural logfalls, if only because it would make forests seem more real. What if when a tree grows to overage, it has a chance to turn into a felled tree instead of shriveled? Leave behind the stump, or even have it uprooted (new graphic, I know). A fallen tree would also be a good place to spawn mushrooms.

- As a new player, it wasn't intuitive to figure out that to cut down a tree I had to click the tile beneath it. (Something for a tutorial?)

- I like the idea of simple huts, but the real deal is sleep bonus, and beds are hard to make. Along with huts, I'd recommend some kind of rudimentary sleeping device. :) Packed dirt + log hut + ??? = early sleep bonus.

 

Yup, good ideas - also cutting a tree seems easy to use because were used to the tile system, this game really ought to highlight a tree (minus the leaves) instead.

 

23 hours ago, Ekib said:

+1 for the cabin in the wood idea...

however for the random spawn of logs. no need. they arrive with a hatchet and would need to clean up the spot to live regardless so shouldnt be required. and might cause more server lag to have too many items spawn...

rest of the idea seems pretty solid tho. nothing to add

 

It's because of how strange it is as a new player to understand that you cut the "tile" to cut down the tree, see above.

 

16 hours ago, Ekib said:

mixed grass + mixed grass, create crude straw bed, add 8 more grass (total of 10) can sleep for a max for 1 hour sleep bonus.

simple and easy to make, but doesnt make them as good as our actual beds. also after a certain time of gameplay cant be used anymore perhaps.

Good idea.

 

Thanks.

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On 1/7/2018 at 7:41 AM, Finnn said:

+1 for more people, sure;

But there's no proof that newbies quit because of the struggle of making a house, picking grass, grinding skill, etc.

Could be the time it requires, graphics, knowledge; overcomplicating certain things for sure....  but... still wurm's unique in it's own way, changing it too much in random direction is no way to get new players...

 

Some people wont chat to learn more, other wont read the wiki.. some will make it, others will quit eventually.

Teaching new players cold be done with some game assistant within or with similar to help tool which at first explains to players about hunger, thirst, stamina, healing, .... there could be added a few more things like starting a house, cooking, tips how to start crafts.. or upgrade from crude tools to expanded iron-age arsenal of tools, promote some social interaction in chat, exploring, etc........

 

All this is another WILD guess, best way to figure a way to act is to gather data, start asking the questions to get the answer you need, staff needs to gather the data why some leave the game and figure what could be done to keep the game unique and interesting to play.

 

If you want to know why new players quit, just read some of the reviews on Steam for WU. I know you are talking about WO here, but as they are very much the same in many fundamental ways I think feedback on either is relevant.

 

I agree with your idea to having a 'game assistant', as so many things can be confusing especially for someone used to more straightforward, modern games.

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