This game is not very noob-friendly

[dubert]

ok, im not saying this to harass this game in any way.
i know its pre-alpha or whatever early work-stage.... Just some two cents from an experienced rpg-player!

I have played:
-lineage 2
-project entropia
-morrowind
-fallout (1&2)
-various other rpgs

First thing that strikes me about this game:
I have absolutely no idea what i should do, much less, what i CAN do..... (i do know now, after nagging and bugging other players for info, and browsing the guide 10 times, and checking these forums alot)
Therefore, even the smallest kick in the right direction would be good... well any direction at all would be good..

example from morrowind :
when the game starts, you get a package to some guy, and a note telling you something about how to find the guy.... then a message pops up \"youre on your own, good luck\" (the world of morrowind is huge!) finding the guy, means he will recruit you and kick you further in some directions..

second thing that strikes me:
Trainers!!! Arghl....
It seems like an impossibility to find trainers. and when i find one, he might not train the skill i want at all. Also, there is nothing to indicate the cost to train the skill...!
Npc\'s generally, i dont really know what they do, if they are merchants, trainers or whatever, until ive excamined them thoroughly.

example from lineage 2:
Trainers for warriors have the title \"master\" next to their name, and for mages they are named... umm... well i dont know, never played a mage.. merchants have a title of \"merchant\" next to their name.

Third thing:
Plz add some sort of map to this game! well, i suspect this is already in the making nuff said i guess....

well i could go on mentioning all those darn bugs and such, but as i know this game is in early construction-stages, i wouldnt count on it to not have these...
Also, those things i have mentioned might alread have been thought of, and even been planned already!
BUT if not, well, agree to them, or not.

just my 2 cents, hope this was helpful in some small way....

[Karyuu]

Ack! Mentioning of maps... ;D All maps will be player-made through the cartography skill. No automaps. Ever. Dun dun DUN.

The others games you mentioned playing are a bad comparison. Reason? They are (mostly) finished (mostly) commercial projects. If you can find other pre/alpha/beta games to compare PS with, by all means ;)

Morrowind wasn\'t exactly an MMORPG, I think..? It also had a central well-developed and finished storyline. I thought it was a single-player game, for the most part.

Trainer suggestion, good idea :)

For future reference, you may want to browse through the Wishlist section of the forums to read what suggestions have already been made, or use the search feature of the forums. It often brings back useful results.

[Keyaz]

we welcome all varieties of newbies

whereas noobs dont get the TLC as they generally cause greivances or leave as quick as they came, sometimes, they do evolve, like a pokemon i guess

\'Noob has evolved into Newbie\'
woohoo that lightning stone worked! i only had to beat him a thousand times with it!

^^

[Waylander]

Ah!!!! I haven\'t seen you around before....you must be...NEW!?!?!?

*grabs the pesticide*

Away, I know how to use this...


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yep

[dubert]

This thread is reposted and slightly changed (removed the map part and such) in the wish list forum instead..

i realized it was more suited in there...

well, comparisons to morrowind, wich is the greatest rpg EVER, shouldnt be a bad thing? the example i proposed was also similar in lineage 2!!! you have a mentor in lineage 2 that tells you some of the possibilities you have to start of.. and btw, lets move on to replying on this in the wish list section instead. more useful there

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quote:

Ah!!!! I haven\'t seen you around before....you must be...NEW!?!?!?

*grabs the pesticide*

Away, I know how to use this...

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are you against people joining to play this game....??

[acraig]

Morrowind is a rocking game. I still have that installed on my machine ( along with all the expansion packs ).   I always thought a MMO version of that game would be cool.  Morrowind was awesome in a couple of ways:

Scope of the world - The world is huge!  And it is very well populated with towns, NPCs, caves etc.

Scope of quests - Several different factions you can follow often with competing goals.  

Scope of items - Seems like an infinte number of items.  You can even create your own spells and enchanted items.

I think there are several excellent things in Morrowind that would make great additions to the PS world.  This is an ideal project because I can take the best from those games and see if I can improve on them to make them even better.  Now it may take a long time to get them done but time will pass anyways and it\'s a fun hobby .  

I think our major weakness at this point is content which we are trying very hard to overcome.

[Ecolem]

I would llike to add that i requested an icon on top of their heads or diffrent colours for merchants/trainers my self.
Hears to hopeing  

[Moogie]

Demarthl, it pains me to have to warn you for spam. -.- Set a good example here or don\'t post at all.

*Sighs* sorry for that. Cleaned up a bit.

Anyway, good idea with the trainers. They are totally too hard to find. They wouldn\'t even need labels on their names really, they\'d just have to have their own associated shops and things. As it is, trainers are scattered around the city like nobody\'s business... what the hell? Like you\'re going to have martial arts experts training people in dingy back-alleys or outside somebody\'s house. If trainers had proper designated areas of work, they would be alot easier to track down.

Direction for newbies will be something added later on in the form of some sort of tutorial. It\'s been discussed before and will be discussed again before any work is done on that.

[provisionist1]

Welcome to Yliakum!

I would say we are very newbie friendly, just not n00b friendly. I know you just had that explained to you.

The thing with Planeshift is, it is totally what you make of it, totally what you do with your character that can make it very fun, or terribly dull (and seem very imcomplete). And of course that\'s just it, the game is very incomplete as it\'s a hobby of several devs around the world working hard *everybody applaudes very loudly* and I think so far they have done a marvelous job even if I disagree with a couple things. But Planeshift does not have a storyline path to follow, you create your own.

So, that said here are things you can do:

Roleplay, roleplay roleplay!
Develop your character, i.e. decide what you want him/her to be, then train to get there.
Kill monsters to loot their valuables- skins, hides, swords etc. and sell them to NPCs or other players for tria
Mine one of the four ores around
Roleplay!
Explore the world (it\'s bigger than you may think) and make maps (just dont post your maps here)
Join a guild, or if you\'re up for the massive amounts of planning and implementation, start a guild
Be creative: hide treasure somewhere in the world and watch people go crazy trying to find it
Play dice, even gamble
Organise competition events
And did I mention roleplay?

Also, outside of the game....

Write stories about the world and post them in the Roleplaying Thread
Draw/Paint/Photoshop pictures relating to Planeshift, post them in Fanart
Do some 3d modeling and post pictures in Fanart
Even, later on, join the Planeshift team, and develop some aspects in the game- coding, artwork, 3d etc.

Sound good? Cool...

I will see you ingame,

Xirius

[LigH]

Indeed...

Unfortunately, it is not very easy to start. It is not simple to find out, what to do, where to earn goods to sell without too much risk of health, which skills to train first, and so on...

Fortunately, you\'ll find several nice buddies in the game, who will take you to interresting places if they have time, who may help you fighting in a group, ... well, I even received some gifts here and there (many thanks to those nice \"sponsors\"!). At least, there are helpful advisors in the help channel.

But be aware: The nicer you behave, the happier they will help you.  

[TheMinority]

Amen to that! take note, all you who are just joining planeshift: THE NICER YOU BEHAVE THE HAPPIER THEY ARE TO HELP YOU!!!!

i would be happy to assist any new players, provided they follow that one rule. ^_^

nothing kicks my kettle more than \"PLZ CN I HAV FREE STUFFS!!!!!1!1!1!one!!1\"

[Skinner]

I agree, i just started today and i have  no idea were i am, were to go or what to do. and after i finally got someone to help, they said go hunt in the sewers were i fell off a walkway and am now stuck in some dark pit.  It would be very helpful to have an NPC helper right were you start the game to tell new people were to go.

Also, if anyone can let me know how to get out of this deep dark hole that would be great

[Neryam]

Ooh! Ooh! We should have signposts from harnquist and the spawn point leading th the sewers!

Sewers --->

Although in RL, nobody would want to go into sewers that bad but anyway

Oh and about the bottom of DR (deep pit) just press the unstick button twice fast.

[Platyna]

Planeshift world isn\'t small too...but I agree it could be better populated by
NPCs (not counting monsters). For example on that incredibly long and boring
way to Ojaveda is just one NPC, in ruins - also one, in the sewers also one
that doesn\'t really do anything...you have to pass the green ocean of nothing
interesting to get to Akkaio which same as Hydlaa is populated by NPCs who
are just NPC-statues, perhaps only made to bring more confusion in looking
for new quests or trainers, but they always answer in the same way and they
do absolutely nothing so searching for quests is not so interesting too, they
could at least give some hints who gives quests or who trains what or what to
do...My two cents.;)


Regards.

[Igasho]

I think that lack of automaps is PS is a mistake. There are some things to consider here. If this game has only its current players in mind, then the developers time is practically wasted. Since I assume that is not the goal, perhaps the target audience\'s wishes should be accommodated to increase player numbers, and thus, add to this \"role-playing\" aspect I keep reading about on the forums (which seems to be a placeholder for interactive plot and quests. Understandable this early in development, but realize this should not be the focus; it is flavor, which is nice, but not why people play, mostly... gameplay is key). There is such a thing as being too esoteric, and it can really destroy the chances that the project will do well in beta.

A few simple (can you say that word on a game-in-development forum?) things could be implemented to make the game more newbie friendly. An NPC tutorial, for instance. Role-play/quest oriented, of course. A game that throws you into a small and feasible goal gets the action moving, and the player interested. The more new players who get interested, the more buzz will be created and more people will come to play. In my mind, this, more than money or even prestige, is most rewarding for the developers.