Putting gold man pop ups to use.

[Venalan]

Mordaan and I were just talking and it occurred to us that the gold man popups are not as wide spread as they could be and they would be a nice additional layer to impart information to new players. These are texts players are prompted to view by the presence of the gold man icon appearing on their screen, which when clicked causes a text box to appear.

Now, the idea we have is to make it so that the first time you have to do something or get something important in a quest a gold man pop up is used to explain what to do or what the item is.

An easy example is when a player is given a crafting book for the first time. A pop up could explain what it is, where you put it (mind slot), what is shown inside, that /study can be used to filter the texts... etc.

What I wanted to ask here, is for suggestions as to what texts could be used in these popups. What sort of areas would a new player most benefit to these being used?

I look forward to suggestions.

Venalan, and the team!

[OctavianGrey]

This is an excellent idea, that I really appreciate as a new player.

I found when I first started crafting items using a table, a reminder or a walkthrough would have been deeply appreciated - it makes sense to put things in a forge, but not in a table. Other things like tools for mining or fishing could be easier to use with even just one pointer as to what do to. Maybe certain objects that you acquire, like a summoning ring (I think thats what you call it) could have even just one pop up on how to use/access it.

Frankly I don't know of enough things to give something really in-depth, it will be interesting to see what others think.

[apyj13]

Having one for the pterosaurs might be useful.  Might also be good for explaining the mechanics for music scores and player made books too.

[LigH]

Playing other games too (e.g. RIFT), first-use tutorials appear useful to me as long as I am really a beginner. But as useful it is for the first time, as annoying it may easily become later: installing the game on another PC, or creating a new account to play more characters in parallel, doesn't make me a beginner again.

Balancing its appearance may be an important quirk. Please don't make it another Office Paperclip (in Germany we even had car stickers reading "Tötet Karl Klammer!" - meaning "Kill Clippy!" in English, I believe). Stating the obvious may also appear not so really required: I remember how I installed MS Office 97 on another PC, switched to Einstein as assistant, pressed a keyboard shortcut, and the first suggestion was: "Instead of selecting this function in the menu, you could as well press this keyboard shortcut" ... 

People with the first character on an account may be thankful for useful hints. With the second character, it may not be so useful anymore. And with a second account ... well, how shall you know it is related to another? Disabling these hints easily will be welcome by already experienced players. Possibly even gradually, if you imagine several levels of hints.

[Eonwind]

People with the first character on an account may be thankful for useful hints. With the second character, it may not be so useful anymore. And with a second account ... well, how shall you know it is related to another? Disabling these hints easily will be welcome by already experienced players. Possibly even gradually, if you imagine several levels of hints.

LigH when you say tutorial pop up are annoying for non-beginners you're right, however also consider the annoyance given to a seasoned player can be counter balanced by the fact a beginner player may very likely give up playing if the can't understand how things work.

[Sirial]

I agree with Eonwind, the fact of having more than one account to play in parallel shouldn't be the norm but an exception.
I suggest to put the gold men at jayose's to invite people to read the books in the library and to suggest them to look more often at the catalogue because sometime can be tricky for a new player to find the correct books just by trying every bookshelf.

[feas]

As a new player don't. There are enough things in the game already to annoy us. Want something to do to help us? Fix the books! I have been trying to get the developer version installed to assist but no body seems to be able to help in that regard. The ones who take the time point to an extremely out dated and broken and or wrong link guide. I know I am not the only one with this issue that would like to help in other means than coding. If I need to make another partition on my hard drive to install mint or ubuntu to get this going with a guide that works that is fine. Kill the Little dude!

[Eonwind]

I know I am not the only one with this issue that would like to help in other means than coding.

You don't need to compile or be able to compile the client from source to help development in rules, art, sound and settings. You only have to compile if you want to help engine.

For example all you need to help settings is a base knowledge of the game (as a player) and a simple text editor.

To start, you simply havo to come in IRC freenode channel #planeshift-prospects or send one of the developer a PM.

[Venalan]

Having one for the pterosaurs might be useful.  Might also be good for explaining the mechanics for music scores and player made books too.

I assume by pterosaurs, you mean the fast travel we have. And if you do mean that I'm not sure which bits of them you think would benefit from an additional explanation. The quest based system of travel seems pretty clear to me. But I might be wrong.

This is an excellent idea, that I really appreciate as a new player.

I found when I first started crafting items using a table, a reminder or a walkthrough would have been deeply appreciated - it makes sense to put things in a forge, but not in a table. Other things like tools for mining or fishing could be easier to use with even just one pointer as to what do to. Maybe certain objects that you acquire, like a summoning ring (I think thats what you call it) could have even just one pop up on how to use/access it.

Frankly I don't know of enough things to give something really in-depth, it will be interesting to see what others think.

This idea was impart stimulated by hearing people talk about how some things are not that obvious if you don't know them. Summoning and using pets is a good idea, I'll use that one.

@Ligh, there is currently no way to get around gold man pop ups appearing on second+ characters when doing quests, as there is no functionality for tuning them off or on. The possibility that this becomes annoying to people who (keep) make(ing) new characters is something I'm happy to take flack for given the fact I'm certain that when these appear to new characters some will find them useful, which is the whole point.

I agree with Eonwind, the fact of having more than one account to play in parallel shouldn't be the norm but an exception.
I suggest to put the gold men at jayose's to invite people to read the books in the library and to suggest them to look more often at the catalogue because sometime can be tricky for a new player to find the correct books just by trying every bookshelf.

I'll add some dialogue to Jayose where he suggests reading the book I've placed next to him, which I added int he first place to help people find where all the books are located.

As a new player don't. There are enough things in the game already to annoy us. Want something to do to help us? Fix the books! ....<truncated>

What books? If you are referring to crafting books then that is a engine problem, which I can't help with, which is why I spend my time making things like this which I can make. And if you are talking about the compiling guides, well same thing, I can't help.

[LigH]

I guess there may be hints even a "seasoned" player will find interesting; looking at myself, when did I use crafting for the last time? A lot may have changed, I will probably learn something when I try it again the next time. So please don't overestimate my thoughts. I did not want to discourage the whole project. I am just notorious for seeing rather the obstacles than the path.

[feas]

You don't need to compile or be able to compile the client from source to help development in rules, art, sound and settings. You only have to compile if you want to help engine.

For example all you need to help settings is a base knowledge of the game (as a player) and a simple text editor.

To start, you simply havo to come in IRC freenode channel #planeshift-prospects or send one of the developer a PM.

Thank you again I and some others were under the impression we needed to compile a test server to help. One my way over to IRC with gedit!

[apyj13]

I assume by pterosaurs, you mean the fast travel we have. And if you do mean that I'm not sure which bits of them you think would benefit from an additional explanation. The quest based system of travel seems pretty clear to me. But I might be wrong.

Yes, I was talking about the fast travel system.  And the quest system is nice, but it may not occur to a new player to walk up to the pterosaur handler and ask them for a quest as a way to travel.  they may not even be aware that fast travel is an option, so having a tip to say "hey, come check this thing out and see how it works" might be useful.  /2 cents.

[Venalan]

Right, so then a way to make the travel system more apparent in the first place. I'll see about working that in some how, a nice idea. Thanks.