Remote Village Invitation

[Aeris 3,759]

I was reading threads about Wurm's steep learning curve and realized that most of them really are about something else:
- How hard it is to start out from scratch

So I thought about what could be done about that and this thread presents the suggestion I came up with. It's an idea that could possibly make the initial impression a bit less harsh while not really changing the gameplay.

 

The suggestion
Make it so that during the newbie time (the same amount of time for which they carry the newbie light) people will be able to accept a remote invitation to a village. This invitation would also allow the person to teleport to that settlement's token. Once.

 

How it would work:

- The mayor (or other people with invite permissions) could send an invitation (for example /invite Playername) and a prompt appears, asking the player if it wants to join the settlement. It could then accept, decline or accept and request a teleportation. The teleportation would act like the karma teleportation (i.e. all your items follow you and you spawn at the token).

 

If they accept the invitation without choosing to teleport to the token they would still have less to lose by dying on the way to the village since they would now have to option to respawn at their new home.

 

 

Some people ask to join a village right away when joining the server-wide chat and they are often successful in finding someone who'd want to take them in. The problem lies in that a new player usually cannot traverse the map well enough to get to the village without dying tons of times along the way and it's not always possible to go to pick them up. From reading the threads on the forum the dying whenever they try to get to their destination seems to be the biggest point of frustration.

I know that a lot of people have solved the issue with people dying on the way to their village by placing recruit-alts near the spawn village and this would be an alternative to that so that an extra alt for recruiting wouldn't be needed...and the first thing you ask your villagers to do wouldn't have to be "commit suicide".

[Kruggan 519]

+1 

 

Obviously it will make the new player experience more enjoyable and that first death more tolerable.  I think it could be done in such a fashion as you suggest so as to still prevent sufficient risk when new players explore out from the village.  While many won't see the benefit - as they may not know anyone in game for a village invite within the first 24 hours, it would be nice nonetheless.

[shokan 35]

That could be helpful! When my son joined, I had to travel half the map, to get to the starter town, but he had no idea where he was, so it took an hour just to meet up. Then we had the trip back to my deed, which was quite treacherous for a pair of noobs.  We did make it eventually, but it was a few hours of time to accomplish.

 

But, I'm also not a fan of the instant travel idea. Maybe a homing/protection spell on joining that guides you there? Last like the 24hr light, so you can find your way, even if you have to log before destination?

[Judicator 539]

Why does everything have to be easy? Is a few hours effort really that intolerable?

[Sir Arowhun 473]

On test server, there are village reqruitment notice boards for starter towns being tested. Maybe you could get invited through that somehow? idk

+1

[Dorian 865]

+1  

Call it 'Adopt a Newb'

[SirEvo 114]

I think the mechanics are good at the moment.

It gives it that real life aspect and that self proud moment of achieving the little things

 

However been said.

A 24hr spawn would be nice, those who dont check forums before login in and creating thier char would miss out before thier

1 free teleport is over

Edited November 11, 2013 by SirEvo

[Infinitai 11]

I'll agree with anything Aeris suggests. 10/10 would +1 again.

[Kegan 3,926]

I thought they were working on a recruitment board type thing that did basically what you are suggesting in a sign like form? Not sure if it was another suggestion I seen or what.

[Aeris 3,759]

I thought they were working on a recruitment board type thing that did basically what you are suggesting in a sign like form? Not sure if it was another suggestion I seen or what.

 

I looked at the forums before I posted to see if there was something similar suggested/presented already but I didn't find anything and haven't heard about it before either. If there is something in the works already then great! I'm hoping it'll be something to do with personal contact however and not handled through an impersonal board.

[Kegan 3,926]

I looked at the forums before I posted to see if there was something similar suggested/presented already but I didn't find anything and haven't heard about it before either. If there is something in the works already then great! I'm hoping it'll be something to do with personal contact however and not handled through an impersonal board.

I found it. It is called a "Recruitment Board" now as to how it will work I have no idea but they give an example of what they intend for it to do.

 

Here is the link to the post it was talked about in...

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/87797-news-update-work-and-progress-week-38/#entry876932

Edited November 11, 2013 by Kegan

[Aeris 3,759]

Why does everything have to be easy? Is a few hours effort really that intolerable?

To you it might not be, because you know what the game is like and you know that you like it. Imagine being completely new to the game and unsure of whether or not it'll be worth playing it, but you find someone who wants to take you in and show you the ropes. The only problem is that when trying to find that person you die so many times that you no longer have the time to stay online in order to find them.

Many who protest against the "newbies getting everything handed to them" were never in the position that the newbies are in today.

- We have an increased spawn rate compared to when many of us started out, which is great and something they will surely appreciate once they've gotten the hang of it but it won't make for the best greeting in a game ever.

- Some of the maps are insanely difficult to traverse if you've never played the game before. I started out on JK-Home which was a much more newbie-friendly map and I still wouldn't have made it to Silent Hill if Eliasthecrimson hadn't personally lead me there and invited me.

- We can't swim everywhere anymore. Back on JKH when a village on an island wanted to recruit a newbie it wasn't really a problem - They could just walk all the way there. This isn't the case now so villages on islands have a slight disadvantage if they'd want to take someone in.

I found it. It is called a "Recruitment Board" now as to how it will work I have no idea but they give an example what they intend for it to do.

 

Here is the link to the post it was talked about in...

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/87797-news-update-work-and-progress-week-38/#entry876932

Ah, thank you. Seems I missed it in one of the news threads. Hoping it won't be too difficult to add my invitation suggestion to it once the functionality is sorted out!

[Druidnature 1,118]

I don't know that I like the instant teleport...they should get to see the land.

However. I guess that will also come in time though.

I remember my first 6-8 hours was tubing acrost half the server, barely living (had to forage for cotton a lot) and thankfully a kind soul took me and my dopey (yeah just made that word) in. Without those 3-4 days of help, I doubt I'd have stayed.

On the other hand, I look back and realize I was having a blast. I like a challenge, and I was expecting one... I wasn't expecting to die by a stupid spider (I didn't, but I had to run!) and it was great to see it wasn't handed to me.

Would be great to see new players have easier access to other players. Ask "most" new players, I bet they'll say that they had help from someone and I think that is the best option. I think the community needs to be the ones helping, not a Npc, not a mechanic. (But if a mechanic helps them get to the person, that's perfect )

Huge +1

[Amadee 1,543]

+1. I like this idea.  That first 24 hours can be intimidating for some people.  If someone hadn't taken me in right away when I started, I probably wouldn't be here.  Luckily she had a recruiting alt at FM, but the suicide thing kinda put me off a bit.  And if we'd had to run all the way to her deed in the far NE, I know I wouldn't have seen a thing. I'd have had tunnel vision watching her so's not to get lost.  lol.  And there's a lot to take in at first.  Sensory overload kind of prevents much sightseeing.

[As_I_Decay 1,592]

+1

[rixk 830]

Remote invitation maybe, but I definitely am against any teleports. In a game without any missions it is first mission of the new villager to find the village, or mayors mission to escort the villager safely to the village. This all is part of player generated content.

[Elen 1,013]

+1 to at least remote invitation

+1 to teleport during nublight at least on non-pvp servers

[Pollo 146]

The remote village invite is the nice part, can be worked around by having a free alt member of the village left at the starter town to invite new players.  The teleport can be worked around by having the new player /suicide then select spawn at village, but they lose a backpack and couple other things.

 

It just makes things a very little easier, +1.

[Druidnature 1,118]

The remote village invite is the nice part, can be worked around by having a free alt member of the village left at the starter town to invite new players. The teleport can be worked around by having the new player /suicide then select spawn at village, but they lose a backpack and couple other things.

It just makes things a very little easier, +1.

Imo it's not worth suiciding... Iirc you will lose your backpack, compas, and flint. Granted a new player doesn't know the value in those... But I sure as heck wouldn't suicide to risk losing those. Lol