#25 Improve new player gaming experience
There are several difficulties with this game for new
players, aside from Windows client instability under
Win98...
First is the "the god who lent it to you takes it back"
newbie item removal. If you happen to drop too much,
you seem to be sunk (though I know that's not the case,
it certainly seems that way to a new player). Newbie
items shouldn't be taken from the player without some
relatively obvious means of getting them back. I've
seen one game that gives newbie items to any new player
who dies, and doesn't have the newbie items for that class.
Second is the massive death penalty of 20%, possibly
including loss of character level. Even the early D&D
games didn't take a level away from a character unless
there was a reason (such as, the DM didn't like you).
It seems very nasty to take away both the amount of
damage done by a character (through possible loss of
skill), and the amount of damage a character can take
(through possible loss of level). Going back and
picking up your gravestone to sell for around 1 plat
isn't that much help or consolation for losing 20%.
Third... The newbie "getting started" map needs help.
The text includes something like "click around in your
inventory until you manage to get the sword wielded."
If a new player isn't careful, guess what, he loses the
sword to "the god who lent it". There's also little or
no info on how to get through that map as a
spellcaster, though I suppose punching the ants for a
while might work.
I'd be happy to help with the newbie map, once I figure
out how to do so.
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About 2nd point, that's a server setting.
You can set death to be permanent, or not make any xp loss -
up to server admin.
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Patch to add more useful text to the start/newbieshouse map
has been added to the patch tracker.
I'll give up on the "experience loss" setting, as it seems
people who've been playing for a while don't care that much
about it anyway. I've also given up getting past level 7.
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yes, there is lack of documentation for newbies. I was also
surprised by the items disappearing and I did not find any
info on that, had to figure it out myself.
The 'click different buttons until you manage to wield it'
is probably the best possible description given there are
different clients. But it is probably a good place for
warning and explanation about the disappearing items.
I also did not find a description of some basic useful
client commands and some more obscure ones that can put you
into a weird state when accidentally invoked.
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heh, now that the CF web is readable for me and some people
told me where to look I can find much useful information there.
It would use some more crosslinking. ie there is a general
section on gods and there is no reference to the appendix
where the gods are actually described. Also links between
the reference, survival guide, etc. would be nice.
I should look at the client built-in help. I did not notice
the few lines at the bottom about more available topics.
Perhaps there is even useful information in there.
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As far as the items disappearing, a reasonable change might
be that god given items just have zero value.
Thus, you can drop and pick them up all you like, just
can't sell
them for money.
This is perhaps a good thing, as newbies who accidentally
drop such
objects in shops could then just pick them up again.
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Forgot when it was commmited, but new players have their
starting items locked by default.
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First: starting items are now locked, so should be less
painfull.
Second: that's a server setting, can be changed by server
admin at will.
Third, not sure about that :)
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Could we consider the training house as a correct solution to the newbie map lack of help? The training hous countains lots of information to help player start with world interaction....
I THINK everything here has been addressed? Can we close this?