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joedobo

New Player Tourist Mode.

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New player tourist mode.

This is a way for new players to quickly see what Wurm has to offer. They instantly jump to varius Wurm Wonders and hopefully get inspired after admiring them. They could also talk to locals in new player friendly villages and decided if a good fit for them.

Limitiation:

No invenotry is carried nor can they carring thing. No aggro will attack them and they can't attack anything either. Basicly they can't do any actions other then walk around and talk. They have to return to the spawn town to resume normal game play.

Uncertain:

I don't know if players should be able to choose thier desination or if it should be random. The frequence which they can jump is also in question.

Destinations:

The destinations should be Wurm Wonders picked by the community and of coarse with permission from those who created and maintain the Wonder. Another destination could be Villages that are recruiting and have proven to be helpful for new players.

As far as specific game mechanics; it should be possible to make a list of exact locations which players jump to. Maybe ask the players to make some kind of greeting area at these locations.

Yes, its not realistic to be teleporting around the map as some astral projection. I just feel this would a great way to show off Wurm's potential to new customers and we just need to limit them so all they can do is look and talk.

Edits***

1. If its possible limit the players range of exploration to a radius around the arrival point. This would server to limit spying.

2. An alternative might be bot controlled toon which serves as camerra. The player could view the game through the eyes of the bot as it wanders around a Wonder. Heck, the bot could even teleport between wonders. This prevents any spying issues.

Edited by joedobo
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IMO this would be abused for spy/harassment alts, if anything have GM-set "cameras" around the place to watch events and look at landmarks and things, as has been mentioned before.

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IMO this would be abused for spy/harassment alts, if anything have GM-set "cameras" around the place to watch events and look at landmarks and things, as has been mentioned before.

Spy on freedom? I can see that happening on Chaos.

I did hesitate when writing about the ability to talk specifically because of the potential greifing harassment issue. I finally decided the risk is worth it. After all we can always ./ignore someone.

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Aside from the animation aspect, how's this idea different from simply looking at good quality pics of the sites? The same tour could be done in a slideshow. Granted, no one wants to see pics that are outdated.

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how's this idea different from simply looking at good quality pics of the sites?

The feeling of truly being immersed in the game. The tourist experience would be visually exactly like normal game play. I also believe that this would encourage or speed up the removal of outdated destinations. This would mostly be village destinations that disband or stop recruiting.

Its a noteworthy point. A video might be just as good.

An alternative might be bot controlled toon which serves as camerra. The player could view the game through the eyes of the bot as it wanders around a wonder. Heck, the bot could even teleport between wonders. This prevents any spying issues.

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-1. I had many great WAOUW moments travelling around Wurm, this idea would just discourage travel.

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Hi,

Idea:

Newbie spawning on the starter deed gets a mission: "The great decision"

First goal is to find the "Portal of decision" near the spawning point.

There a window pops up, offering a few options:

  1. I want to do the magical flight.
    A pre-recorded "movie" of a GM flight is shown, featuring the current server, and some of it's most impressive areas: examples of extensive terraforming, big villages, maybe remaining uniques, and an overlook of the server.
    .
  2. I want to visit the new player deeds.
    There are villages already helping new players. Each server could get a certain number of "slots" for those, they'd get GM assigned, they'd get a special status and a "Portal of return". Such "new player deeds" would be selectable in the following window, and the newbie would be teleported there, in ghostly form. Chatting & sight seeing would be possible, nothing else.
    2 ways to go on: Either becoming a villager, then the missions finishes automatically, ghost mode ends and the newbie stays there.
    Or using the "Portal of return", it's only use is to bring ghostly newbies back to the spawning point, "portal of decision" can be used there again.
    .
  3. I want to visit another server.
    Teleports to another servers spawning point, "portal of decision" can be used there again.
    .
  4. I know what to do now, and need no further help.
    Ends the mission.

There'd be a time limit for the mission, after a certain "game time" it would auto-end, like the faint light and the free food.

Only on PvE servers. For chaos maybe in a limited form, to prevent spying - may the chaotics decide :)

Guess this way such a tourist mode could work. Great idea, btw! ;-))

Have a good time!

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Wouldn't it be immensely simpler to just produce a movie, perhaps recorded ingame on a GM account, instead of coding a bunch of stuff to allow players to do it themselves?

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actually you miss one thing with this idea ;) wurm is about creating stuff and changing the enviroment (mostly) and about community, so I agree with others that a video would be alot better, because you simply cannot show how something looked "before" and "after" a change...and if you tell someone that players made this, they maybe wont believe it except if you show a video (like one I've watched on youtube from wurm when i started) that shows how people are building/creating something with this time speed up trick ;) we need more of these videos to show people what can be achieved, also it's nice to see how weather changes applies too ;) and you can show whole villages this way....I'm wondering if its possible to get GMs into creating camera hotspots they choose themselves ;)

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Hi,

well, title is "New Player Tourist Mode". Regarding this target audience, would it matter if the scenario shown in a "flight-by" isn't the scenario of the very moment?

It shouldn't be shown as a "movie", imagine the bandwidth problems when using high quality. More a snapshot of the game, where the newbie (in game!) automatically follows a predefined GM-flight route, at a predefined speed. Sight-seeing of some of the most miraculous places on the server, to show what's possible. And how large the server is. Repeatable.

If possible, the newbie should be able to look right, left, up and down (any other options disabled). I don't know what the game engine is capable of, but something in this way should be possible I think.

I'd prefer to use a (regularly updated) snapshot of the game for this, and not the real game at the very moment, for 2 reasons:

- With a snapshot it could made be sure that the newbie actually sees a few of the big monsters (Champ trolls, Dragons etc.). With a real-time flight at a predefined route this would be pure luck.

- With a snapshot any abuse would be impossible, for instance the use of a fresh alt to spy for hunting prey. Or to spy on the PvP servers.

Such would be a great thing for the new players, I think, and should, maybe, even come before the tutorial. We all know the first minutes in Wurm can be quite shocking - the strange vision, the strange people standing near you, no idea what's this all about - something distracting from the harsh first experience wouldn't be too bad, right? And what would be better for this than a breathtaking sight-seeing flight, showing the new player what a great game he just started?

In the tutorial this could be a short overview. Maybe Independence only, maybe only updated once a year, just some scenery, some crazy buildings, some mobs. Short, maybe 2-3 minutes.

After having absolved the tutorial, and spawned on the designated server, a more detailed sight-seeing for every server might be offered. Maybe updated once every 2 months, more detailed, showing the whole server, showing more of the awesome work of the players. Maybe 5 minutes or more.

Hell, even old players might be able to book a flight for a measly 10 Copper ... I know I'd do from time to time ;-))

Then add the other two of my proposals:

- visiting special newbie deeds as a ghost, with the option to become villager and stay there, and

- visiting the other servers, to decide which is best.

Wurm isn't the friendly neighborhood MMO down the street. Especially in the beginning it can be very hard and frustrating. So there should be as much help and entertainment for the very fresh people as possible, IMHO, they need some hours in game to get accustomed. Anything that helps them staying in the game, and not logging for good after 10 minutes can only benefit the game.

Have a good time!

PS: Again, I have no knowledge of the game engine. But as far as I see such wouldn't be too much of a trouble to implement, and it could make the first hours of a new player ways more interesting and entertaining.

What do you think, fellow players and devs?

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I created this because apparently some think showing new players what's possible will increase the odds they will stick around. We could fix of the spawn towns but that will only be one interpretation of beauty. I don't think letting new players teleport around checking out player made wonders and chating with recruiting villages is going to hurt anything. there is probably lot of new coding to create the new character class I described. Is it a worthwhile investment to show off the game in those first few crucial hours of play?

I don't prefer videos because they don't immerse the player in the game as much as actualy controlling your character. Those fast forward videos give people a false sense of what goes on in the game, its still fun to watch them. Maybe we need to find some skilled video making players to create some Youtube videos. I say players because I don't know the rules of commercial entities receiving advertising using free bandwidth from Youtube. Videos are defiantly the cheapest short term solution and only potential problem is bandwidth.

Then add the other two of my proposals:

- visiting special newbie deeds as a ghost, with the option to become villager and stay there, and

- visiting the other servers, to decide which is best.

We need to make sure getting a free teleport part of staying in the village can't be abused. Thier is also a question of if the new play is missing out on a journey. I wanted them to return to the spawn town for those two reasons.

Watching the world through another's eyes is a very good idea. Think of all the webcams that people place so you can watch other places. With OnLive a very cool perk is you can watch other people play game(option exists to make sessions private). If we could someone show a recording of a player doing something it could show off construction potential. As far as bandwith goes, it shouldn't be any different then walking around.

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