Simplify Startup For New Players

[Lone_Puppy]

I've read many suggestions, complaints and ideas about this topic and others around attracting and retaining new players, both as an independent suggestion and as responses to suggestions.

My suggestion is based around my experience playing the old versions of the British game "Elite" and "Frontier".

You start off with a Crobra Mk III and a pitiful bunch of credits and the lowest rank. From there you can simply head out into space and do stuff, like travel to different systems, trade, pirate and battle. Loads of fun. Further to game play, you can upgrade your ship components or the ship entirely. As long as you have the moola of course. When you upgrade to a ship that requires additional crew, you have to hire them and pay them. I don't remember any requirements around food, toilets or sleep. Anyway, the game kicks you into the thick of it straight away.

With Starmade this can be achieved and has for a while now mainly to customized servers. One in particular is Light vs Dark, which has a great way of getting the new players involved off the bat by joining one of two custom NPC factions.

This is where my idea kicks in. Why not have the game give you the option of starting as a member of one of the existing NPC factions. You would start off with a simple ship that has battle and mining capabilities. If the player is unsure, start by default with the player a member of the Traders faction. Naturally they should also have the credits to buy additional or upgrade/modify etc.

This would immediately immerse the player into the game with the ability to build on what they have without starting from the bare minimum of a bunch of blocks and some credits.

*UPDATE*
Fixed some typo's and added the following.

Oh, this is mainly an idea for single player. Which is often where people start and learn.

 

[Lord_Greyscale]

Adding onto the "simplify start-up", the devs really, really, need to "fix" the random-spawning nature of the pirate stations.

Even with the new NPC factions nuking all non-faction station in their initial claims, I've still had to abort 3 universes because of a Pirate Alpha station within eyeball distance.

I actually sat and waited once. That missile from the alpha? Sparked off an *immediate* war with the Trade Guild. Then it hit a Trader ship, and caused a fleet to spawn to kill it.

Then the Traders and the Trade Guild went to war against each other, because they kept flying into each other's missiles.


Fixing the spawning algorithm to simply dis-allow pirate stations within 4 sectors of 2,2,2 would fix this problem. That way, new players aren't being bombarded within the assumed safety of the spawn station.


... Oh, and hurry up and put in the new spawn station.

 

[jayman38]

Adding a pirate station with a long-range nuke attack was a bad idea to begin with. The station may have been a great addition, but the weapon needed to be deactivated or unlinked. I have seen repeated problems, especially by new players, with that station ever since it was implemented.

And yes, clearing the area around the spawn sector of all pirate activity is a great idea.

 

[kiddan]

Adding a pirate station with a long-range nuke attack was a bad idea to begin with. The station may have been a great addition, but the weapon needed to be deactivated or unlinked. I have seen repeated problems, especially by new players, with that station ever since it was implemented.

And yes, clearing the area around the spawn sector of all pirate activity is a great idea.

I remember someone from Schine said missile lock-on alerts were planned a while back. Maybe this would balance heavy duty missiles for newer players?

 

[Lord_Greyscale]

I wrote something long and rambly in response, but I realized it was rambly.
Let me be concise:

TL:DR
No, that wouldn't "balance" it at all.
Balancing it would be putting sufficient AMS on the spawn station to intercept all of the missile the alpha shoots at the player.
(this would A: indicte that there are threats that can reach out and fuck you, and B: demonstrate AMS useage.)

Non TL:DR

The problem is not the lack of knowledge of what type of weapon just slagged you.
The problem is:
That there is a one-shot, one-kill weapon, within attack distance of spawn.

This is the exact sort of situation that most game developers spend exorbitant amounts of time ensuring that it doesn't/can't happen.

Lemme use a comparison:
Would you actually play, say, Skyrim, if that first dragon attack were instead fighting the final boss, the very moment you finish character creation? (meaning you haven't even learned the basic game mechanics yet, much less the more advanced magics you need to win that fight)
Or Dark Souls, with the same scenario? (I'm aware that the whole idea of that series is to be ball-bustingly hard, but this is Nintendo-hard)
Or Pokemon, the original Red or Blue, with the same conditions? (pick your starter, then immediate battle vs the Final Four)

Hell, pick any game with a non-scripted "you win" final boss, and fight them from the very beginning of the game.
No skills, no weapons worth the name, no armor, no items, no additional party members.

Fuck no you wouldn't. You'd demand a refund. (or immediately mod the game so that fight doesn't happen, depending on your emotional investment into the series, and the ease with which it can be modded)

Hell, I'm significantly more experienced than a "true newbie", and my normal reaction is to "nope" right the fuck out of any universe where one of those stations is in sight, then spawn a new universe. (followed by the deletion of the shitty one.)
When it happens three times in a row? I delete the Pirate Alpha from the game files. (meaning they can't spawn at all, ever) and then Gen a new universe again.

I don't expect a new player to go that far.
I expect a new player to try that third time, and then do what new players the world over usually do: declare the game to be broken garbage.
Loudly, to as many people as will hear them/ they can reach.

That's the sort of word-of-mouth that destroys games.

 

[Deserea]

I remember someone from Schine said missile lock-on alerts were planned a while back. Maybe this would balance heavy duty missiles for newer players?

Not even. if i a brand new player started playing and instantly got destroyed by a missile when i spawned in(which seems to be what this post is regarding, especially the pirate alpha stations), regardless of if there was an alarm or not, i would be pissed off, and angry at the game itself for allowing that to happen. Regardless of the warning.

To me now, with almost 2000(logged) hours in the game i get agitated abuse the hell out of admin powers and warp out of the starting system, and or spawn a ship capable of destroying said station and go on a pirate destroying rampage till im satisfied ;-; Sometimes i delete the universe too, and thats just with admin mode on.

 

[MacThule]

Yeah... the entire spawn system should be completely pirate free, always have some asteroid belts and planets, start with several shops and derelicts to explore, and other interesting, inviting, and non-lethal features.

For the sake of multiplayer experience, spawn system should be owned by an NPC faction with a powerful fleet in the area that will 'jump' (magically appear) in any sector where a player is attacked by another player to issue a blaring warning not to fire in security space. If a second or third warning is violated by that player and he continues firing on players in spawn systems, the fleet could be set up to instagib the offender (literally could have special function to instantly vaporize all shield and armor HP and set system HP to 49%). Tradewars 2002 style. Even in the distant stone-age of online gaming they understood that much.

It would probably be best to take all the nonsense of pirates, hunters, thugs, trolls & griefers outside of the entire spawn system; spawn should be inviting, easy and friendly for new joins, then venture out at your own risk into the thousands of other star systems in the galaxy. And put the spawn station in like 5 5 5 so noobs won't accidentally drift into danger so easily being right by the edge of the system. Or make the spawn security zone comprise the spawn system and all 26 systems directly adjacent.

Noobs should get a chance to fly around and get the feel of the controls, the complex building and engineering dynamics, mining and trading and be able to have some carnage-free fun and exploration before venturing into the infuriating abattoir that is the rest of the universe. Making people huddle hopelessly around a miserable stick station in one sector is just mean. Screw lore, realism and all that - retaining new players is a legitimate issue that SM needs to attend to.

From a professional perspective, the current failure to make the game accessible to new players is a failure of UX design. The User Experience needs to be considered, not just the UI. The tutorial is decent now, but starting up can be discouraging and infuriating. I understand that the notion is to develop the engine itself to a good point then set up all that stuff, but in the meantime, every year so many would-be players are walking away with their fingers burned and many will never try SM again even if told that it's gotten way better. Without improvements to initial UX, by the time the game hits Beta a significant portion of the target market may already be unavailable.

[doublepost=1497459490,1497458617][/doublepost]And I keep seeing cool stations from the devs in update release videos, and month after month our standard spawn station remains this hopeless, unimpressive, un-engaging, desolate little stick-shop. That makes me sad - what is all that design effort for if it's not being used to improve the experience of new players right off the bat?

Why not get them to think "this is a cool game i've come across! i'm already getting super inspired by all the designs i see!" instead of "hmm... ok, so there's nothing here, just this stick that isn't even a space station in the middle of nowhere. maybe if i use this core thing to look around nearby... wait what's that moving over th... BOOM > [RESPAWN]."

 

[Lone_Puppy]

"hmm... ok, so there's nothing here, just this stick that isn't even a space station in the middle of nowhere. maybe if i use this core thing to look around nearby... wait what's that moving over th... BOOM > [RESPAWN].

Love it!
I had similar experiences with pirate stations when exploring many times when I started playing. Luckily, this did not deter me, otherwise I would have moved onto Space Engineers.

As for the spawn side, it definitely should be a safe zone and have a newer station. Even if it's the new Traders station.
Maybe just have spawn be the Trader home base. Oh wait, that could be laggy.
Maybe have the spawn be at a Trader station but far away from Home Base. This along with visiting ships would also give incentive to go exploring.

 

[Hemmingfish]

Alpha stations alone are responsible for the majority of the push to be in gigantic ships. There's no reason for them to have a homing 600k-damage missile that they can fire as soon as you load their sector. 600k is a lot of shielding if you don't want to instantly die. Starting in a new universe is a diceroll whether or not you'll run into an alpha and get instagibbed on your flight to an unclaimed system, especially with the current anti-player fog of war.

Right now there's no way I'd play the game without godmode and creative mode. It just isn't worth it.

 

[MacThule]

Alpha stations alone are responsible for the majority of the push to be in gigantic ships. There's no reason for them to have a homing 600k-damage missile that they can fire as soon as you load their sector. 600k is a lot of shielding if you don't want to instantly die. Starting in a new universe is a diceroll whether or not you'll run into an alpha and get instagibbed on your flight to an unclaimed system, especially with the current anti-player fog of war.

Right now there's no way I'd play the game without godmode and creative mode. It just isn't worth it.

These days I just always carry radar jammer along with the standard core, power, and thrust. It's so effective for small/starting players as to be essential. With a jammer on a small ship moving fast, the only time the rats ever bother me is if I go AFK while flying and return to find I've actually crashed into a pirate station. I havent had more than a handful of unwanted pirate adventures in years.

Random Alphas are a total menace to new players though. And to many ships with shields in the 500k-2m range, which I think is why you don't see many.