Booo. Get me excited over char creation, then let me play....

[thanatosx]

Whether this belongs in the noob board (as i undoubtedly am), or in the game discussion board, i\'m not sure, but it\'ll be posted here.

First off, character creation was great. having enjoyed D&D, i enjoyed something more than a simple cookie cutter race/class/sex/appearance creation.

Now, I realize this is an alpha, and i have played no real MMORPG\'s before (closest being diablo 2), but why is it that i spawn in an area, walk around for about 1 minute without seeing ANYONE in any building or area i walk around in, walk to a door trying to figure out what exactly i am supposed to do, then get killed by a rogue for no reason.

I respawn, with no explination in game in the death area, no signs, nothing. What\'s more you can die in death\'s area, and its more of a platformer than a MMORPG. If i wanted to navigate a skinny 3d path with arrow keys, i probably wouldn\'t be playing a MMORPG in the first place. If i wanted to navigate a 3d maze of sorts, i wouldn\'t be playing a MMORPG, i\'d be playing MYST.

Perhaps this is one of those things that \'if you aren\'t willing to put the effort into it, we don\'t want you\' but making the thing somewhat user friendly. (IE adding some sort of ingame tutorial, rather than a browser page i have to tab back and forth through. ) is something you should do.  I personally have no inclination to play something that allows spawns you in a ghost town, lets you be killed without talking to a single person in the first minute of play, and spawns you without help (in game or in the forum/guide) in hell.

so flame, tell me all the things i did wrong, the chances i didn\'t give the game, so long as you tell me why they\'re worried about implementing crafting when you don\'t even have the basics of the world set up.

[Karyuu]

We don\'t have very large amounts of players in-game all the time. A low is usually around 30, and a high is around 120. The server can hold much more, but not everyone has fun in a game of this early development stage. It\'s understandable, and I\'m sorry that some people have the immediate impression of \"ghost town.\"

I also personally dislike the Rogues wandering around (and in) an area where new players, having no skills or items, spawn. I think this is why the majority of Enkidukai just end up in the DR within the first 10-20 minutes of gameplay. I agree with you, it becomes really hard to enjoy everything else. But some people have really good experiences too.

I\'m a little perplexed at your analyzation of the DR, however. It is meant to be a maze-like place, dark and confusing - and it will be harder (though more understandable) to escape from it as development progresses. You will have to do a lot more than just find the exit - there will be quests involved, sacrifices of items, etc. But right now, it isn\'t that hard to find your way out, especially if you ask people around you for help. That\'s what an MMORPG is supposed to do, right? Bring people together and get them to talk to each other?

This thread may be interesting for you: this game is not very newbie-friendly

[dfryer]

I guess we see things like \"crafting\" as something that is a necessary part of the game mechanic and needs serious input from both coders and content creators.  Making the game newbie-friendly is a difficult process but in large part is an issue of content (for instance, starting off in some happy tutorial land).  Right now, our attentions are directed toward fleshing out the rules of the game - not that newbies and user-friendliness don\'t matter, but that everything will be worked on in time.  In the wish list there are numerous proposals for some kind of \"tutorial area\", but right now switching focus to that would stall other things that already have the foundations laid.

[Redman]

Preventing newbies from getting sloughtered the minute they jump in could be realised perhaps by creating (small/limited) \"safe\" areas where fighting/killing isn\'t possible/allowed?

As far as making the game interesting for newbies what could be a possibility is creating more ways of making money (perhaps less quick than killing rats). That way, people can make a choice like in real life: do I go for quick money (with the same amount of risk) or do I go for \"safe\" money (which takes longer but with less risk).

Just my 2 cents

[Dark_Druid]

But had it not been for the two peeps I met at the death guardian\'s room I would have thought I was in the sewer where I crashed upon entering.

(ps, there\'s no new update to solve that in the updater...but that\'s for somewhere else)

But they told me where I was.  A sign possibly?  A message even better?

\"You have been reborn in the death realm\"

Something...

not asking for an hour of time, just a couple minutes to help point the way.

Wouldn\'t it also be easier to test stuff out if you gave us some hints without having to find people in these\"ghost\" towns.

I\'ve played for about an hour. Been to and out of the DR 3 times...I personally like it, but I can see where it will get REALLY REALLY ****ing annoying when I have to do it everytime I mis-step and fall off some dumb cliff or try to enter the sewer to get that ph@t loo7.

[Gripen]

Originally posted by Dark_Druid
....But they told me where I was.  A sign possibly?  A message even better?

\"You have been reborn in the death realm\"

Something...

not asking for an hour of time, just a couple minutes to help point the way.
.....

The death guardian tells you something like this.
(When I first started he was the only npc that was working, and there were not any other players. [I fell off a shelf almost immediately as soon as I learned to walk.]
I did however need help out of DR, eventually people died and one led me out, but boy that first turn in DR is a doozie (especially on a mac--with its clipped blackpoint) all black path.
There were also mac black mapping bugs, at the time, when I got pointed to the exit--all I could see were a few barely visible pink floaties.

2 days of play, then 8 days of constant crashes, then a few days of play, then mac client problems--I think I had a taste of Planeshift 3D torture right off the bat, and it never stopped.  Newbie friendly--user friendly?

[DaveG]

Yeah, the immediate few weeks after a new release are not user friendly.  We found all the weird issues that had built up over the past 3 or so months in about a day.  Normally, we\'d like to do updates more often, but CS issues prevented that.  When it comes to dying on Oja road... stick to the road.  

[Gripen]

Oh, well that is good [ahem] to know.  I haven\'t been able to play since the update. :s

[zanzibar]

Originally posted by Karyuu
I\'m a little perplexed at your analyzation of the DR, however. It is meant to be a maze-like place, dark and confusing - and it will be harder (though more understandable) to escape from it as development progresses.

It\'s not maze like.  A maze is something you would get lost in.  The DR is very linear; the challenge is not falling and dieing.

[Dark_Druid]

Originally posted by zanzibar
It\'s not maze like.  A maze is something you would get lost in.  The DR is very linear; the challenge is not falling and dieing.

Very true.  

Perhaps a macabre actual MAZE would be nice.  With walls and traps.  And perhaps something IN the DR so there would be more of a reason to stick around then just getting out.

like some hidden NPC with a quest...

[zanzibar]

That\'s been discussed before.  Pretty much everything in connection to the death realm has been discussed before... I just had a knee-jerk reaction to Karyuu\'s comment.

[defender43]

If you were expecting something like RuneScape, don\'t. RS is crowded because the world is small, and has, like, a bajillion players. PS is increasing disporportionally, as there seems to be a new face every day (asking \"WHERS DA SEWERZ!!!1!!1!one!\" just kidding lol.   ), but there has not been an update for as long as I\'ve been around in which the world itself increased in size. Don\'t worry. There will be more people. You know what they say:
\"If you build it, they will come.\"

[DaveG]

Yeah... our maps are a little more detailed.    The last new map was the expanded DR, and rest assured that new maps are in the works.  Just don\'t expect them in the next 3 seconds.