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TheTrickster

Starter town on new servers

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What would you like to see in the starter town on the new servers?

What do you think would provide the best induction experience for new players?

What do you think should be avoided?

 

There has been a bit of discussion of this in other threads, and Haven's Landing has had a lot input and a lot use to see what works or doesn't. 

 

I found Wurm in late 2019, and I haven't been to HL since my first week or two.  I do have some thoughts, though;

  • The resource gathering areas are good to have grouped around the spawn point, but it would be even better to have them also interlinked so you can go straight from one to the next as the tutorial leads you through them, with clear signposts. 
  • The town itself should be easily navigable - either a basic grid of streets or a good old "main street" up the middle (buildings one side, resource areas the other).  Buildings should be clearly named as well as signed.  There were several buildings I remember from HL that I think were player-made (but can't be sure) and were not of obvious function.  I also remember several locked buildings and yards (which may have been in the perimeter, but at that point I didn't even know the terms "deed" or "perimeter".
  • There were many abandoned carts.  I've seen used car lots with fewer vehicles.  There were so many parked near the bartender that I initially thought they were there for free-use by newbies (like the bartender was there for free food & drink), and I found it frustrating and confusing that were unusable.
  • Zonalized the creature spawns would be great.  This already happens somewhat with some creatures (crocodiles, tortoises, scorpions).  If the the area near starter towns spawn more rats & wildcats new players get some experience plus access to pelts.  Wolves not far away so players know that it does get tougher, and keep the bears and other tougher agros spawning further from the starter towns.  That way the starter town would not just be like a walled city where everything is provided within the walls but step outside and it's lions, tigers and bears, oh my!  It would be the safest place, with the safety dropping off as you move further away.  Newbies could stay in town for a couple of days, venture into the close surrounds to get a taste of risks while still being able to supply at the town, and when they are ready, venture out into the wilds.

  • Kill every new player once.  I am not kidding.  As part of the tutorial, preferably, have the player do something like attack a tough but normally docile creature so that they experience the dynamic of dying, respawning, recovering gear and burying their corpse. 

 

These are all purely my own opinion.  What's yours?

Edited by TheTrickster
added 2 more points

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I remember when New Town (Jenn Kellon Home) was being built from the ground up early on when I joined, then trying to venture off to find clay to build a pot to carry water in because that was what someone told me to do... then I died from mobs! Good times.

Overall, what made me really enjoy and get more into the game was seeing New Town being terraformed and then having buildings put ontop of that to grow and expand. That just sold me on the game with how much we as players have control over the enviroment.

That could also be extremely offputting for some players that are just coming into the game though and seeing simple disorganization and chaos everywhere. So I'm not entirely sure what the best scenario would be to have.

Resources being nearby would definitely help for the tutorial section, though we never had one when I first started playing which lead to an interesting start.

Either way, I'm confident that the Dev Team has already discussed a bit or have something in mind when the launch comes around.

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  • Oh, and instead of having them START with starter gear, have the new player collect the necessary new bit of kit right before they need it in the tutorial.

Probably not a huge chance of that, and I can immediately see some issues it would cause unless addressed (e.g. what if the tutorial is skipped), but I do think it would aid in inducting players into the game.  I can already see some easy ways around that, though, and my "kill every new player once" could easily slot in to right before the player gets any weapons or armour.  Have them fight without it, lose and die, and then issue them with the starter fighting gear so they really get it's importance.

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Im all in favor of new town's style of setup like it might be seen as disorganized but its got order too it
For those who never had the chance to walk through it here is a short list

Token was right on a t junction on the edge of town(the deed was build east and expanded but never build more west beyond what it originally was) with the road north splitting off within a few tiles to go east towards houses of people who lived(and paid upkeep and where mostly staff) on new town who build and maintained the deed and some other stuff they did
The road west went past 2 sets of buildings before going up a giant(and i mean giant) 2 wide with sand on both sides highway that would then span half the server as it spread out into a few directions but its first stop was a newbie friendly deed that recruited people actively at all times
The road south would take you past a few sets of houses a tree farm and then off deed into shanty town as some of us called it almost every newbie would wander south to build their spot next to someone else's abandoned place and either take over or make their own mine and thus leading to the weird maze of tunnels and drop shafts that you could get lost it(and newbies did resulting in people trying to find them for ages on end)
That area was a bit of grass land that never grew over as too many newbies kept coming in cutting back the forest and building their huts but south of that area was the deadly forest of no return anyone who went in never came back and it scared a lot of people from rumors of slavers(yes there was 1 guy who did that) to giant spiders that would hunt you down in packs and kill you to scary huge trolls that you would not see until it was to late

The road north would lead off to a more undeveloped peaceful area towards a bunch of villages and guard towers everywhere with the road splitting off soon to go either north(turned into a small road with no protection leading to a steppe and beyond) and north east going past a lot of towns

The whole place of nt and its surrounding area displayed what wurm was all about adventure exploring building managing fun entertainment and indy's first starter town kinda had that going to but it was never given enough time to really develop it and subsequent starter towns on servers just never reached that as "oh gms build it into these giant over the top organized show homes" vs players live on and around the place and the deed has some order but right outside of deed its utter chaos

For me personally i hope that the new starter town will become a place similar to nt where cm's and gms get to live and maybe a few players who actively want to help out newbies if they have questions and the likes and they are the ones who organize and build it by hand(no gm powers) and opt for a more casual setup(2x2 houses and the likes) and show off what village/community living in wurm is all about with a public smithy and leatherworking/cloth tailoring building and public cook house and what not

Imagine you are brand new to a game and you know its graphics are old and they claim they have a great community and the first thing you see when you get in is the starting town being a community of active players who try to help people out and guide them when questions are asked and the community build and maintains the place and there are dozens of people living around the town as its a safe place with all resources so its a great and safe area for you to try out the game without having to worry about mobs
That is pretty much the experience i had when i started out again after my break from wurm way way back and that is what made me decide to stay instead of take the previous reasons why i quit as a means of leaving again as nothing had changed yet(we had a period where new updates didnt really come out much)

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I only have the experience of one starter town, Linton on Xanadu. But to this day I don't know if the GM's or Dev's or volunteers constructed the towns on Xanadu or not. I've heard that on some of the older servers, the towns were built by the players. Whether that is true or not, that is what I would I like to see on the new server; not a single building or road, etc... that was not placed there except organically... by players with the exception of anything needed for the purpose of the tutorial. And when I say players, I don't mean specially selected individuals, I mean anyone. I think if perms were set to allow players to build there, then it would be fun to be able to show off the fact that the starter town was built by players, from the lowliest wood shack, to the most extravagant marble temple. Perhaps allow additional perms for any players that join the starter village as a villager (if joining a starter town is even possible), though wrestling for the right perms in a town that is unmanaged could lead to potential issues. A sign should go up too, letting everyone that joins the server for the first time know that the starter town was and is player built.

 

I don't know if any of that is possible, but it is what I would like to see. If not, then all I would like to see in the starter town are enough spots/resources to complete the tutorial and a few builds to show as an example of what can be achieved in Wurm.

Edited by Whane

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On the new servers I would like to see at least 2-4 main towns, or a main town and several spawn outposts at different areas on the map.

 

I feel that the land rush and scrum in the beginning of jackal was pretty detrimental. Imagine being a fresh to wurm new player, and failing to get a pelt. Imagine being a fresh to wurm new player and not seeing a tree for hours. While jackal had a "coalesce and reclaim the world" mission that necessitated an aggregate start, the new servers need not be similar.  A centralized town for those who want to stay there and contribute may be nice for players seeking structure, but in other ways it retards development from being resource constrained.

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2 hours ago, nygen said:

On the new servers I would like to see at least 2-4 main towns, or a main town and several spawn outposts at different areas on the map.

 

I feel that the land rush and scrum in the beginning of jackal was pretty detrimental. Imagine being a fresh to wurm new player, and failing to get a pelt. Imagine being a fresh to wurm new player and not seeing a tree for hours. While jackal had a "coalesce and reclaim the world" mission that necessitated an aggregate start, the new servers need not be similar.  A centralized town for those who want to stay there and contribute may be nice for players seeking structure, but in other ways it retards development from being resource constrained.

Jackal was supposed to be a work together as an entire group or big groups to reclaim land but to me it felt like core features where just missing beyond ramped up difficulty caused by op mobs that where around in abundance vs 0 skill toons

Other servers never ever where like that sure first day people had a hard time getting a pelt but people who know how to hunt would wc for a few hours then go fighting grind and have a buddy who makes them a butchering knife and they go on the hunt for pelts and once they got a few they would often sell pelt for cheap at a quickly placed merchant and within a few days pelts are an abundance  but ya starting off with a ql 10 pelt would be great as sure its garbage but its better then not being able to imp your mallet past ql 5-6 because lack of pelt for that newbie even though his carp is 20+

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