PlaneShift

Gameplay => Wish list => Topic started by: Kada-El on March 17, 2003, 12:24:18 am

Title: In-game information
Post by: Kada-El on March 17, 2003, 12:24:18 am
It amazes me the amount of people who seemingly log into MB without ever having read anything on the main site or the forums. These people usually ask the same questions and it gets a bit tiresome after a while hearing things like; ?so, what can I do in this game?? or, ?how do I open doors?? etc.

While the game is at this early stage, maybe it would be a nice idea to have an information button somewhere unobtrusive on the game screen, which could detail things like:

- Features of MB and the fact that it is a tech demo, not a full game (how many times do you find yourself explaining that one?)
- Features not present (combat, opening of doors, monsters, equipping weapons, buying/selling etc.)
- Crystal hunt introduction
- Perhaps a brief setting (e.g. the fact that it is an underground world etc.)
- Website address for further information and the latest downloads

I guess it?s like a FAQ which could be updated as more features are added, I suppose it could even be a command in the chat window.
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Post by: Valfaran on March 17, 2003, 02:46:26 am
I\'ve been wanting that to happen since the flood of \'uninformed ones\' began in the game. No doubt your voice is trusted and respected enough for this to happen (or at least be seriously considered)!

Now, what would REALLY help is there to be some sort of quiz before they are allowed to logon to the server, with questions like, \"Is this a full game?\" and, \"Can you fight yet in this version?\" and if they get below a certain score, they aren\'t allowed in. If and when they pass, these fundamental bits of knowledge are once again plastered on the screen in large, unmistakable letters. It is only after this that anyone is allowed passage into the game. This will not only keep (most!) of the possibly-once-to-be-uninformed people from asking those same questions over and over again, but it will hopefully encourage them to read the site to get the right answers.
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Post by: Vengeance on March 17, 2003, 07:56:14 am
lol I LOVE the test idea. :)
Title: just an idea...
Post by: jagator55 on March 17, 2003, 08:25:05 am
What about having a screen pop up before logon with current news and happenings? Kindof like in EQ. Oh yea, I like the test idea too. It would make people learn about the game before jumping in head first.

-Robbie

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Post by: Galadon on March 19, 2003, 08:31:59 am
The upside to Questions is that those who dont want to actually test the game itself and just want to play at this point will get to see whats comming But wount really be arround much. Those of us who want to report the bugs and help out as much as possible will be the Top Guns :-)
 I myself dont mind helping other players out It gives me something to do while I hunt for Crystals..
 
P.S.  We are the In-game Information (for now anyway)
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Post by: Destiny@Work on March 19, 2003, 02:45:05 pm
Hi everyone Im new to this forum, have to say Im really impressed by the work actually done.

To the topic, I too was one of these \"What can I do people\" sorry I normally read the manuals to avoid that, so because of most people not reading manuals an ingame newbie help would be really good.
By that I mean if you have activated it in options all things like pic up open door and such are explained ingame if you are enar such things, maybe a possibility to click a field I have understand to avoid this message to appear again.
For those who know, the hl mod natural selection has a good system like this.
For the full game, where enemys, questions a text at loading could help, btw the page gave me the impression its already an alpha and not a tech demo.
There would be written this is an open tech demo, you can walk around and enjoy the landscape and so on.

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Post by: Kiern on March 19, 2003, 04:35:47 pm
I like the test idea :P if it was any other way they would just skip it but having them fill it out before they can enter would work out :)
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Post by: Fanomatic2000 on March 19, 2003, 11:13:54 pm
Yes, I like the test idea as well, seriously. There should also be random questions every time you create a new character. (or at least when you create a new account)
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Post by: Destiny@Work on March 19, 2003, 11:29:58 pm
Imo help textes for things like doors which can be avoid by doing something right a few times are the better solution, that way everybody would learn it, without annoying others and more useful since you have it ingame and not in a outside manual.
The key asking problem will automaticly disappear, when people can bind there own keys imo.
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Post by: Ravenmaster on March 20, 2003, 03:54:24 am
Maybe whenever you enter the game, a screen could just pop up saying all this basic info, and it will have an OK button on the bottom, but when you click it, it doesn\'t do anything. So, you actually have to read all the info (at least the first time) and somewhere near the end, but not at the very end, it will say you must click shift while pressing the OK button. This would force newbs to read and at the same time not bother the rest of us.
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Post by: Ravenmaster on March 20, 2003, 04:05:19 am
hey! There\'s no four yellow stars. I just went from 3 to 5. Weird...  Anyway, it is also possible that they could put up info in the Loading Hydlaa Plaza screen.  I mean, there\'s nothing else to do there anyway. You just have to wait for three to five minutes, may as well read some facts.
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Post by: Zeus on March 20, 2003, 04:06:44 am
good idea raven, but then you\'ll have them all posting in the bugs section that they can\'t get in to the game because the ok button doesn\'t work lol
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Post by: Ravenmaster on March 20, 2003, 04:23:31 am
hey, but if they post in the bugs section, at least THAT will force them to look at the page.  Then they may happen to read up and figure out what\'s going on.
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Post by: Zeus on March 20, 2003, 04:28:35 am
we are talking about the same people that make 800 threads for the same question lol
i don\'t think that they\'ll have enough sense to look.
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Post by: Ravenmaster on March 20, 2003, 05:58:29 am
well, that may very well be true.  Maybe we could just start a thread in each forum called NEWBIES LOOK HERE BEFORE TYPING ANYTHING!!!! and tell them what to do.
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Post by: Keldorn on March 20, 2003, 10:06:59 am
People don\'t read those either, there are enough sticky posts around here that newbies don\'t seem to read.

Quote
Originally posted by Ravenmaster
hey! There\'s no four yellow stars. I just went from 3 to 5. Weird...  

It\'s true, as soon as you hit Conqueror status you\'ll get 4 stars. It\'s the wrong way around.
I actually made a thread about this awhile back in the \"Forum Requests\"  section, but that led to nothing.
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Post by: Ravenmaster on March 21, 2003, 12:05:17 am
Hehe... I just made a post about that too. Speaking of which, this is post 100 for me, so I guess I\'ll be a conquerer now. Yeah, a demotion!
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Post by: Keldorn on March 21, 2003, 09:27:30 am
what? you say you\'ve hit 100 but your count says that you are allready at 130! You mean you made 30(!) extra posts within like 10 hours. That\'s insane. I usually take about one to two weeks to get somewhere near that many extra posts.
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Post by: Ravenmaster on March 22, 2003, 12:44:18 am
Well, Keldorn, I\'m at 155 posts now. It\'s 6:38 pm on Friday 2/21/03.  I raised to Double-As today, Conquerer and maybe Forum As yesterday, and I was at around 60 on Tuesday. I have an average post of 10.somethingerother per day and I didn\'t post for about a week after I first posted.  Also, I\'m accelerating.  More posts every day.
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Post by: Kada-El on March 22, 2003, 01:20:30 am
Raven, I\'m sorry, I don\'t know what it\'s like elsewhere on the forum, but several times in this topic you talk about things relating to the number of posts you\'ve made. Your post count shouldn\'t really be your priority or a topic, especially when this thread had a point. I know you have some valuable input so just forget about about the count and enjoy the discussions.
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Post by: Ravenmaster on March 22, 2003, 01:37:07 am
Ok, Kada, I\'m sorry. I was posting in response to Keldorn every time except the first, though.  Well, back to the point. Like I said earlier, and no one seemed to follow up on, they could just post this basic info on the Loading Hydlaa Plaza screen, where you have nothing better to do than read it.  This, I think would be the most effective thing to do.