Steep learning curve, fun?

[Alpha107]

Hey, I am currently downloading this (What seems to be) a great game, but I must know:
Is the learning curve steep (As most RPGs) and is it fun/ addictive.
Thanks, you can sleep easy knowing you helped a noob.
~Alpha107~

[Karyuu]

Hiya! Welcome to PlaneShift :) There truly isn\'t much to learn at the moment - the Player Guide and FAQs stickied in the forums will help you with pretty much everything you\'ll need. As this is a pre-alpha tech demo and far from a complete game, content is still being worked on and added every now and then. You can fight and mine, basically, but the most important thing, now and always, is roleplay. Be sure to act as your character as much as possible, and you\'ll have a ton of fun - at least I\'ve been addicted for about two years now :)

[Alpha107]

Two years and they havn\'t released a full version (Though it\'s been in the workings for 5 right?) Is this full version years away?
So they keep updating with new stuff right, keep me occupied?
Well thank you.
Oh, one more question:
IS the full version free, or will i pay, or will it be free with additions you can pay for?
Thanks,
Alpha107

[Karyuu]

The awesome thing is that PlaneShift will always be free - that\'s the goal of the development team :) You\'ll never be charged for anything, no matter how complex the game will get. Currently we\'re on version 0.3.012, so it\'s still quite a ways away from 1.0. However, keeping in mind that everyone does this in their free time, volunteering everything and doing this as a hobby whenever a free moment arises, that\'s really something ;) And to keep it going without any pause for so long, too.

There\'s really no way to estimate how soon a \"full version\" will be released, since so many things can get in the way - jobs, life, etc. But everyone tries their hardest, and the important thing is that they all, we all, have fun contributing and playing.

And there is tons, tons of stuff planned to come :)

[steuben]

There\'s really no way to estimate how soon a \"full version\" will be released,

it will be released soon(tm).

[Alpha107]

Well, that certainly is a while, but hey, they seem like some nice guys.
I\'m sure there\'s always gonna be something for me to do, I look forward to playing.
Thanks again for the newbie help,
~Alpha107~

[Rumpnisse]

Note: This is an actual conversation that took place. I edited out some non-essential bits (where the gap is) about in-game sounds but this is how it went. And I must say that this is the #1 problem with Planeshift. I\'d love to be able to *like* this game but... it\'s so ridiculously punishing for new players it\'s a doomed effort.

Seriously, you can\'t expect people to pick up this game if you punish them in this way. One of the first things you\'re probably going to do is to get yourself killed. Then you get some \"insider mystery maze\" to solve? Just to try again? No, thank you. I think perhaps the Dev Team have become too blind, because of their familiarity with the dying process. How about trying to look at \"coming to planeshift\" with \"newbie eyes\" for a minute. This isn\'t *fun* and it certainly is not *exciting*... this is boring, frustrating and a textbook example of bad game design. Sorry for the harsh words, but perhaps sometimes such words have a right and proper place in things. This is perhaps such a time.

[23:52:52] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] so... when you die... you dont respawn... you get spawned in the \"Death Realm\" and you have to find your way out of there in order to \"go up to life\" again... and, since you\'re obviously a noob (you died) you have no clue how to work the game at that point in time.
[23:53:49] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] so... you find yourself stuck in a dark place with lots of halls, invisible staircases and [ EDIT ]... and you\'re supposed to find your way out of there so you can enter the \"real game world\" again.... which you ofc can\'t do, cause you\'re a noob.
[23:54:49] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] in the end, some dutch guy took pity on me and showed me the way out of the death realm... which involved me running after him for 10 minutes, just to get out of there... a way which I\'ve almost forgotten already.
[23:55:07] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] GOOD DESIGN FOR A GAME, PLANESHIFT TEAM... GG
[23:55:29] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] jesus christ, it\'s like they dont *want* people to try their game....
[23:56:03] [@|it|aidsMONKEY|SM4C|] lol planeshift.. I gave up in the death realm
[23:56:11] [@|it|aidsMONKEY|SM4C|] I do not see how that game is fun
[23:57:25] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] Some dude showed me... it\'s a portal some 10 mins of running around... staircases... darkness... turns you wouldn\'t make yourself... like from a walkway, down into the caves... \"going offtrack\" all of a sudden....
[23:58:49] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] I think they were high when they designed that whole Death Realm thing.... it\'s a major turnoff...
[00:00:44] [@|it|aidsMONKEY|SM4C|] planeshift looks like it was designed by 100 people and every person got their stupid feature in thus making it suck balls
[00:03:37] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] I\'ve not played it enough to make that call... but then again... I died about 5 minutes into playing it... and have been stuck in that fucking Death Realm for over 2 hours (gametime), until I got an offer to help me out
[00:03:57] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] so essentially, I\'ve been in Death Realm all the bloody time.... GG PLANESHIFT TEAM
[00:05:55] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] The front page says it\'s 150.000 downloads.. I wonder how many of those uninstalled after their first trip to the Death Realm... like... 149.000


[00:16:47] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] everything is *so* fucking DARK
[00:18:59] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] oh please god no.... i was in a fight with a \"bandit\".. and now... I*M BACK IN THE FUCKING DEATH REALM
[00:19:34] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] that\'s it... this turd is getting uninstalled now...
[00:20:47] [@{SM4C}Suzanna_Holmes] damn, I think I\'m gonna post this convo (relevant parts) on the forums as feedback.... cause this is probably how most people experience planeshift.

P.S. Thank you again to Klaa*****(forgot rest of name) for finally showing me out of that hellhole. I\'d never have managed that myself in a million years.

[ Edited to remove a non-happy word. --Karyuu ]

[ThomPhoenix]

That\'s a bit too harsh, the DR is confusing the first time you enter it, but if you follow the path a bit and look around it\'s not that hard to find the exit. You said it was confusing to go \"off track\" all of a sudden. Well, you _have_ to go offtrack because the road ahead is a dead end, so it\'s not that confusing. And all the halls, ignore \'em, just follow the path.
Ofcourse the whole point of the DR is to make people don\'t wanna die, and it has succeeded in that way. And if you do get lost, it isn\'t a shame to ask for help, this is a multiplayer game you know.

[Xordan]

Give me lots of money and I\'ll personally make you a nice newbie zone to play in.

[hitancrias]

It saddens me to hear people are giving up on Planeshift because of the death realm. The truth is that, once you know the way and are familiar with the movement controls and the camera modes, it doesn?t take much more than three minutes to get out.

Some practical tips for escaping the deathrealm:

• If the death realm is too dark, you can use the fullbright  function, so you can see better.
  
• Familiarize with the camera modes. (Change with the M key, enable and disable mouse-view with Tab)
• If you are lost, ask others, follow others, or use the help channel.
• Use the ?/die? command if you fell to the bottom of the death-realm, or if you think you are totally lost. It will bring you back to the beginning of the death-realm.
• Look down now and then
• Just explore, find out which roads are dead ends, and which are not. Be systematic.
• Don?t fight bandits and Rogues when you are unarmed and untrained. Just run, so you don?t get send to the death-realm in the first place. :)

The people from the logs are way too dramatically about the death realm. I agree that it?s easy to get lost in the beginning, but remember you?re not alone in the world. Every new player needs help, every older player has been a newbie once and the vast majority of them is willing to help the ones who need it.

So? steep learning curve? Yes, I think so. Besides getting lost in the deathrealm or any other place, you can easily get confused by broken quests, not working skills, non intuitive training systems and a player guide which by far doesn?t cover everything. These things most likely won?t get solved soon, as they are a logical consequence of the fact that PS is a work in progress. On the other hand, there are a lot of places where you can find tons of helpful souls: in game where you meet other players, in the help channel in game, where advisors are waiting to help you, here, in the newbie forum (FAQs!!) and in the planeshift IRC-channel.

Conclusion: With some patience, you?ll find out soon enough why PS is a game that is worth the efforts: the awesome, amazing and friendly community, the roleplaying and the fact that you?re part of a world in development.

See you all ingame!

[Araye]

That might be the best post I\'ve read on the subject.  Kudos!

Someone should cut it out and paste it into the Players Guide Introduction.

Seriously

[Persaphone]

Wish I had read that before I died!  This is only my 3rd day playing and getting started was very frustrating. I remade my character 4 times before I realized the people die and get out of the death realm all the time. I will say that people in the death realm are not as eager to help us newbies as they are in the rest of the game.

[CerviasG]

Shoot.. I make daily trips to the DR... You get used to it quick... then you start to auto-run and when you get to the exit you tell your guild... \"Holy crap! I just walked the DR and don\'t remember any of it!!\"

[Godfrey]

So, um... am I the only person who actually enjoyed the Death Realm upon encountering it for the first time?

I mean, the first thing I wanted to do when I got into the game was to explore the world, to see what I could see -- and when I walked over a ledge and fell to my death, the Death Realm was just one more interesting new place to explore, even as tiny as it was in those days.

And then I enjoyed it even more when they revamped it; I must\'ve spent a couple of hours exploring in there before I found my way out, but I loved every minute of it (even if I did fall right through the lower walkway several times and have to start again).  It was a fun challenge to find my way out, and it gave me quite a thrill when I\'d met the challenge and emerged victorious.

Originally posted by Persaphone
I will say that people in the death realm are not as eager to help us newbies as they are in the rest of the game.

Really?  Weird.  I\'ve seen plenty of people in the Death Realm help out the newbies who ask for help.  I\'ve slowed down many a time to let newbies follow me out, if they\'ve let it be known that they\'re lost.

[Bereror]

Originally posted by Godfrey
So, um... am I the only person who actually enjoyed the Death Realm upon encountering it for the first time?

No, you are not  When the Death Realm was expanded, I spent days in it, exploring and just enjoying the view. I even modified my world file in deathrealm.zip to add some bloody fog and spent more days walking around  Death Realm is my favorite place to go and not a punishment. Hey, I even created a new character who lives in Death Realm and never leaves.