I'm seriously worried about the new player experience

[Rolfski]

I think SOE made a big mistake on this one and really underestimated the importance of this. It looks like the new player experience will be at best inadequate and frustrating at launch.
After you choose a faction (no decent info on what to choose), you will be thrown in a vague and generic tutorial video (implemented in latest patch) that doesn't stick at all (and probably no option to re-watch it) and smashes you into a hot zone. In the current game, good luck after that but at launch, you will probably get a few bare bones missions that will hopefully explain some raw mechanics under 3 minutes and that's it.

In a best case scenario, new players will hopefully immediately get a grip of the potential of this game and stick to it to educate themselves. In the current situation however, many of them will probably feel lost and bored immediately and uninstall it from their drives. Which is a shame and I fear SOE is not doing enough effort to have this improved at launch.

I did some lone wolfing/ casual gaming with a new character after the latest patch. The experience is still boring and frustrating if you don't know where to look for. You still spend a lot of time finding action (the map activity indicators are still broken) and when you do, you have no idea whats going on and you die fast. I just don't see this solved at launch.

The problem is the unwieldy, overwhelming, complicated UI and the feeling of being completely clueless on what to do as a new player. You end up in a fire fight around some base and you hear messages like "SCU, compromised" but you have no idea what it means (what the heck is a SCU?) and what you should be doing in this base because the cluttered, hard-to-read maps are still borderline useless in the thick of the fight. No clear direction whatsoever on how to cap a base or complete secondary objectives. Why you particularly should cap this base in the first place isn't clear enough either. The UI is still too messy and it raises questions like: This amp station is helping my turrets but also giving tank resources? Shouldn't this be for tech plants only? And what do these connected benefits mean? Apply these to this base only? Confusing stuff, at least for new players.

I really hope SOE will have this fixed at launch but I'm worried they won't. I have a hard time to understand why they are seemingly not putting enough effort into this. An excellent new player experience is imperative if they want to prevent this game from ending up like PS1 did.

Btw: there is already discussion about this in this topic (http://http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=49901) but imo it's important enough to give it a separate topic with a proper title.

[BouncingCzech]

You could be right, I can see how the game could be pretty confusing for a new player.
Having said that though if you look at something like EVE Online their new player experience has always been notoriously bad and that hasn't hampered the success of the game hugely.

In EVE the complexity and the WTFness of the game encourages you to join a corp. (guild) and learn from the veterans.

Kind of a positive thing in a funny kind of way. I can't comment on the new video tutorial as I've not seen it as yet but there's no way they can explain all the subtleties of this game in one video!

[Rolfski]

Having said that though if you look at something like EVE Online their new player experience has always been notoriously bad and that hasn't hampered the success of the game hugely.

In EVE the complexity and the WTFness of the game encourages you to join a corp. (guild) and learn from the veterans.


I actually think it really has hampered the success of Eve Online and I am the perfect example of that. As intriguing as the game concept of Eve is, I could never get into this game since it launched. I tried 5 times (!) over the years and tried a corp as well (RvB) but in the end that game just feels like work to me and not fun. I don't mind a steep learning curve but in Eve Online that curve just wasn't fun for me.

Anyway, I'm not too worried about the Eve Online type of audience to get into this game. I'm worried about the average gamer that likes to play fps casually to get into this game. This is the critical mass that SOE needs to sustain their F2P model and so far they have not done a good enough job to capture the interest of this audience after firing up PS2 for the first time. Hamma's and Jennyboo's troublesome report from MLG got me worried in particular about this:
AGN PlanetSide 2 Instant Action: MLG Fall 2012 - YouTube

[GhostOneBravo]

As a new player to the Planetside universe I would say you are correct. I really have no idea what I'm doing, where to go, ect.

[SturmovikDrakon]

I'm still confused as to how someone could be so lost. If you've played Battlefield and you see capture points, it should click in your head immediately on where you should be going

But anyway

While I like that they've made the tutorial videos, I feel like the entire message was rushed.

[Crator]

If you've played Battlefield and you see capture points, it should click in your head immediately on where you should be going

The objective is to remove the "ifs" from the equation. They want as many people as possible to pick up the game and play it.

[Babyfark McGeez]

I'm slightly worried about the new player experience too.

They sacrificed so much to make this game "suited" for players who have no idea what planetside is, and yet forgot to also make a proper introduction.

Picture this: New player starts, gets thrown into a hotspot, chaos everywhere and he probably dies quickly. If he's unlucky he ends up in a spot that is being overrun by enemies, thus after being directly thrown into the battle without any "real" tutorial he will now experience being spawncamped (yeah, that's my pet peeve for tonight lol).
Now he allready died atleast twice in a short time, and still has no idea what the heck is going on. Now he tries some other bases, but since nobody really cares defending things the bases are either empty or also under assault.
More dieing ensues, player says "f- this" and logs off.

That may be exaggerated, yeah, but i think that is what the devs should keep in mind when they make a "everymans" game.

Edit: Solution: A proper bootcamp for new recruits where a comical yelling drill instructor gives out a real introduction to the whole game. Additionally a drill instructor / General NPC in the warpgates that gives further informations on specific topics (what the heck is a SCU sire?).

[SKYeXile]

Yea the whole new players thing could have been so much better.

[Kitsune]

As a person who never played Planetside 1 but bought Alpha Squad for beta, it's actually not that bad.

Basically, if you just sit down and think about it, all you have to do is follow the other guys and shoot people without triangles. You will figure out the other stuff as you go along.

Much much easier to explain than EVE Online, that's for sure. There's no real money mechanic besides capping/defending bases for certs, so there's no auction house, no crafting, no inflation, no death penalty, nothing to worry about.

The game just SEEMS daunting at the beginning, when all you have to do is move and shoot. If you get lost, just ask a guy nearby or yell out a question, chances are you will get som1 to help you.


And from what everyone says that Ps2 is worse than PS1, you gotta understand, Ps1 has had 10 years of content and stuff. If they did try to implement this game with everything Ps1 had, then this game won't be out till 2014 and new players would definitely have a headache trying to piece it all together.

But it would not hurt to have an instanced training ground of some sort for new people. Like a hands on tutorial of how to play each class to their strengths, like what Star Wars Battlefront 2 did on Geonosis.

[Sifer2]

You could be right, I can see how the game could be pretty confusing for a new player.
Having said that though if you look at something like EVE Online their new player experience has always been notoriously bad and that hasn't hampered the success of the game hugely.

In EVE the complexity and the WTFness of the game encourages you to join a corp. (guild) and learn from the veterans.

Kind of a positive thing in a funny kind of way. I can't comment on the new video tutorial as I've not seen it as yet but there's no way they can explain all the subtleties of this game in one video!


Or you could be like me. I downloaded an Eve trial. Played about 4 hours never even sure if I saw another real player in that time. Those hours were spent trying to figure out what the hell was going on. When I finally got a mission to kill some pirates or something they killed me easily. I uninstalled.

I agree with others in the topic that PS2's new player experience is not ideal. The current version is a half ass video explaining the bare basics then podding you into combat. So SOE's idea of a good new players experience is basically having you feed veterans some free kills.

[Rolfski]

As we speak, literally millions of players are lining up for the new COD Black ops 2 title that is launched around now. These players will be very spoiled after their first hours of game play because this triple A production will undoubtedly take them smoothly by the hand and make their first experience with the game an instant gratification fest.

And make no mistake people, this is for sure audience that SOE is targeting with PS2.

So imagine fast forwarding a week or so. After having played the COD BO2 campaign and some mp, some within this audience are actually opening up to new games along the same line.
After checking the decent reviews (8,2 or so on Metacritic) and hearing some hyped stories, they decide to give PS2 a chance as it is F2P anyway.
After just restoring from the ultra slick COD rollercoaster, what do you think will happen when these players fire up PS2, only to get thrown in into some hastily smashed together tutorial that cluelessly leaves them either to die instantly or desperately looking for any action?

[BouncingCzech]

It's a fair point, if they don't suck in the CoDees then this game probably won't survive long on just a cult following.

[BouncingCzech]

Having said that, one idea might be to have a kind of 'to do list' for new players.

You know how when you sign up to DropBox or some other sites and they give you like 5 steps to get yourself setup on the website.

You could do the tutorial then give new players some basic objectives (with cert rewards) so:

1. Join a squad
2. Take a base
3. Spawn at a sunderer
Etc. etc.

That might be effective enough hand-holding without being intrusive.

[Boomzor]

I think one of the reasons they're not doing a final, set in stone tutorial is that they don't know what the final mechanics are at this point in time.

Just think of it, how many capture mechanics changes have we been through during the beta?
I'm certain that past the 20th of November, what we have now will NOT be the final incarnation, just because we've passed a certain date in the calender.

So how do you make an all encompassing tutorial or boot camp mission on a topic that is constant flux?

Basic mechanics like moving around, shooting, using equipment terminals, spawning vehicles and getting around the map are things I assume is safe to say won't see major changes by now and should definitely be included in a boot camp (or even off line) mission or tutorial, and then add on the things that are too vague to explain right now.

[LostSoul]

I still do not know what a SCU is though :D

[Ghost Runner]

Silly Cat Underneath? lol

[FireWater]

I agree, SOE really needs to vamp this up, otherwise I fear a lot of brand new players will get frustrated and turn the game off.

Remember a lot of FPS gamers may not be MMO gamers. I know I certainly wasn't. So the idea would be to find a way to get them into a fight effectively, with tool tips that can assist.

I think they need to have tutorials for every vehicle, explaining their main purpose, as well as a VR Arena to test things out and get used to them.

Maybe that isn't reasonable, but I think that would be so beneficial to the game.

[MrBloodworth]

Edit: Solution: A proper bootcamp for new recruits where a comical yelling drill instructor gives out a real introduction to the whole game. Additionally a drill instructor / General NPC in the warpgates that gives further informations on specific topics (what the heck is a SCU sire?).

Agreed. I Think what Americas army had going for it was a stroke of brilliance. You have to qualify for roles, and in turn you get very informed.

But this seems to go counter to the "If you are not shooting constantly, we are failing" mentality they have taken with this version of Planetside.

[Babyfark McGeez]

HA, so it WAS Americas Army i had in mind there. I wasn't sure so i didn't name it hehe.

I refined this idea a bit more to include more goodyness:

You start, a short video shows your freshly made soldier inside a huge ship with many others flying towards auraxis. A narrator gives out the basics about the conflict. Zoom on auraxis.
You exit the ship and find yourself in the Sanctuary of your empire, where the aforementioned drill instructor greets you with "Welcome maggots! We are the VS/NC/TR empire! We will conquer this planet and fight for our main beliefs which are - NC/VS/TR propagande - Take your equipment and move over to the training grounds!"
You are now able to control your character (weapon holstered, it's a sanctuary!). A big indicator above the (VR) training facility shows you where to go.
After arriving there, you are awarded some xp/certs. As a vet you can now opt out of the tutorial at this point and move on. But you will miss out the rewards. In the VR you are asked to try out the guns and tools to find your favorite class / vehicle. If you want to learn about the different (big) base layouts you can optionally also enter an instanced area that lets you walk through each of them (biolab, amp station, tech plant). Big popups at each important objective and the option to turn on a "ghost character / ideal progression line" who shows how to actually attack or defend that base.
When you're done and feel prepared you leave the VR.
The drill instructor wishes you good luck ("Still here soldier? Those TR/VS/NC don't kill themselves!" - pun intended hehe) and gives you some more xp/certs. He ends the tutorial with telling you "I will stay here if you need further instructions! Now use the Hotspot dropping feature to get into battle, or go through that warpgate that leads to our home continent."
With the certs from the tutorial you are now able to buy your first item with which you can allready specialize your character (a scope, ams-sunderer, something like that).
You are now prepared and have been rewarded for showing a littlebit of patience. The Drill instructor will remain in the sanctuary as the only NPC in the game incase you need further instructions / tutorials. The Training facility (VR) will allways be open to you aswell if you want to check something out.

Things to add:
- Sanctuaries
- VR / Training facility
- Drill instructor NPC
- Holstering Weapons

Side effect: Sanctuaries as a place for an empire to form and communicate global strategies ("Let's concentrate on indar people"), and an actual home.

[MrBloodworth]

ARMA II also does it.

[FireWater]

I guess the question is:

How does SOE do an effective tutorial with 0 NPCs in Planetside 2?

[MrBloodworth]

I guess the question is:

How does SOE do an effective tutorial with 0 NPCs in Planetside 2?

You make a VR area that goes over the basics of movement and such, with Training Drones with a tool-set for outfits to customize the training.

That's how you build a community and inform the user base. Again, Improve on what PS1 had right.

[Rolfski]

I think one of the reasons they're not doing a final, set in stone tutorial is that they don't know what the final mechanics are at this point in time.

Just think of it, how many capture mechanics changes have we been through during the beta?
I'm certain that past the 20th of November, what we have now will NOT be the final incarnation, just because we've passed a certain date in the calender.

So how do you make an all encompassing tutorial or boot camp mission on a topic that is constant flux?

Basic mechanics like moving around, shooting, using equipment terminals, spawning vehicles and getting around the map are things I assume is safe to say won't see major changes by now and should definitely be included in a boot camp (or even off line) mission or tutorial, and then add on the things that are too vague to explain right now.You're right, with so many very drastic last moment changes it's hard anticipate with tutorials on this.

But here is where a modular mission system would show its flexibility. As you said it, they already should have missions in place for the basic core stuff. No excuse to have them not implemented at launch. Advanced capping mechanics missions should be added asap.

These missions should all be in your face as well as reward you with certs/unlocks to get you started. You can always opt-out or postpone them of course but then you know you will be missing out on stuff.

[Joshinya]

The New Player Experience is something that concerns me as well. Being the primary recruitment officer for a large outfit is frustrating when all of the greenies that I pull in have no clue what to do, in terms of even attacking the point. They just run around and zerg. Painfully painfully zerg. It is frustrating to get this player into my squad and try to recruit them because I have to be the one to teach them the game from the ground up.

I don't mind doing this, in order to get a serious recruit who is interested in the game and interested in joining my outfit. My outfit gets no reward other than another pair of feet on the ground that is very likely to not be around next week (COD/Beta/game flippers) however this has always been the case.

I guess the overall point I would like to make is that I still love the idea of zero NPC's in this game. It underlines and exclamates the point that we can really make this a player driven game and a player driven experience. We need to keep that and integrate our new player training system into our current outfit capabilities. Give outfits rewards for recruiting new players and training them in the game. A training system that is flexible and adaptable to each different outfits needs? This sounds complex but in reality it could be a simple system which oufits can extrapolate on.

[AThreatToYou]

PlanetSide is about the players, and the vast majority of new players that have even a slight chance of staying with the game are those with friends who are already playing. They'll already have a tutorial waiting for them. No tutorial better than a brother-in-arms.

As for those with passing interest and will just try the game out and see how it does, I agree, I think about 1 in 100 of them will even figure out how to leave the warpgate, and 1 in 100 of those who leave the warpgate will actually figure out what PlanetSide is. A better explanation is needed, but so often its too little too late.

PlanetSide 1's tutorial system did a great job of telling me how to get to a battle and how to look for one. SOE being experienced with MMOs tells me they have apt plans for this.

[Crator]

^ Nobody wants to go over the basics of the game over and over again. It will get old fast and people will have to rotate teachers or something to make it work. We are talking about the basics, not outfit strategy and tactics. Outfits should be teaching those things, not the basics.

[flargy]

I agree with the OP.

This is the single biggest problem SOE has at the moment.

I fear new players will try PS2, and either MEH or WTF their way
out the door.

They might come back. They might not.

It is to late to change things now, but I wish SOE had put a little more effort
into making those first 30 minutes in PS2 mindblowing.

First impressions count.

flargs

[Dagron]

It is to late to change things now

It's never too late to improve things. Sure a lack of decent newbie experience will be particularly bad at launch, but they still should do something about it ASAP so those who show up late for the party don't get discouraged too.

[Adventis]

Needs a VR training sort of deal.

OH WAIT.

[Rolfski]

Well, we've just learned this weekend from AGN streaming that tutorial missions will only be added after launch. At launch, RivalXfactor stated that he's working to have 12 YouTube tutorials ready. Nice of course but most people don't bother watching tutorials.

So basically, the new player experience will be bad at launch and the devs are depending on us to ease the pain a bit.

So what can we do in the meantime to help the new guys? Let's brainstorm a bit:

Jump in Galaxies/Sundies and escort new players to the front lines
Form up newbie squads and lead them into battle
Start you local Planetside Military Academ (http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=50039)y
(Temporarily) open up your outfit platoons for new players
Spam Liberators and do some educational sight seeing with the new guys, manning the guns
Have some of your outfit squads spawn as enemy and do base capping trainings/simulations


Any more ideas?

[BlueSmiley]

Definitely. I was mostly running around by myself in the middle of the desert when the beta started. I didn't know where to go, what to do and how to find some teammates when I was not in the warpgate. It took me around ten hours before I knew what to do...

I noticed the tutorials the last few days/weeks, but I don't think they will help the new players much. SOE needs to adress this as fast as possible or they will lose alot of potential addicts/income.

[NEWSKIS]

I think it definitely needs something to explain a lot of not so straight forward game mechanics. The two most important ones being capture and spawn mechanics with the cert system shortly after.

Regardless of whether or not they improve the tutorial, the biggest thing for new players will be vets teaching them and answering questions in game. If people don't bother helping or worse are constantly bashing new players, they wont stick around. The more everyone helps new players, the faster they pick up the game and the longer they will stay. The community needs to make it so new players arent afraid to ask questions about how to play.

[Schalla]

Just to give you the view of a newb, a total newb:

The first time I joined the game was "aha alright here I am."

What a fraction is, was sure. They give you some lore and you decide which philosophy you mostly agree with.

After that - Check out the classes! The classes are normal. A Sniper, A Light Assault, A Heavy, A Medic... Nothing where you gonna get stucked.

The first expierences ingame are like "Whoah! What a big battle!" and you don't feel lost, because you don't have the time todo so. After some time I got into it, because you just get familar to the GUI and Stuff.

I wouldn't say that new players have to worry, I feeled just a bit overwhelmed, but not negative.

[Sunrock]

TBH I think anyone that have played any MMORPG from SOE, Blizzard or any of EA's dev houses won't have a problem understanding the game flow after looking at the map for 30 sec. I also think that anyone that have played BF2, BF3 or BF;BC2 will not have any problem understanding what is going on either.

Only worry is the casual players that play farmville on facebook but then again it's not like you can't ask some one in game what is going on...

[Spoof]

You end up in a fire fight around some base and you hear messages like "SCU, compromised" but you have no idea what it means (what the heck is a SCU?)...

As a PS vet who played beta from tech test, I can heartily state that I don't have a clue what an SCU is either. :)

[Crator]

We don't need anything in-game to help with this issue. People can just go to forums and YouTube!

[Knocky]

As a PS vet who played beta from tech test, I can heartily state that I don't have a clue what an SCU is either. :)

To be honest I don't know what it is other then apparently you want to blow it up when you are trying to take a base.

[PoisonTaco]

The new player experience sucks right now (well as of the end of beta). It gets in the way of helping your friends get into the game. I mentioned this on the Squad Beacon and whenever I got new people into Planetside 2 after they added that tutorial, they were even more lost and confused. They'd start the game, sit through the briefing only to have the game put them into a random squad and drop them into a random hotspot on the map. They'd die, have no idea where or how to spawn.

For these new players they couldn't immediately get into our outfit squads because they're in some random squad without any idea of how to get out of it. Not to mention being thrown head first into the game and they are trying to figure everything out all at once. It's too overwhelming, too confusing and ultimately got in the way of us trying to get them into the game.

If folks from SOE are reading this you need to know that while it's important to get people to learn the game, you also need to give them some breathing room. When someone first loads into a game, especially a PC game, they usually like to mess around with the settings. Find what video options work, mess around with the controls and what have you. You should always start people at the warpgate this way friends can help each other out immediately. If the first thing that happens to someone after loading into Planetside is being dropped in the middle of a fight and dying, they're probably going to lose patience.

From a design standpoint, I'm not sure how to handle a new player experience. Maybe it is something that should be left to the community and for players to teach each other. It's definitely tough, but trying different things doesn't hurt.

[Stadulator]

The only problem PS2 will present to new players, is with players that need to be hand held and bottle fed. ADD kids will hurt this game more than anything.

There's a HUGE amount of resources available, in game and on the web. And given the fact that NOBODY has seen the finished product complete with in game tutorial.

If you're new and confused, ASK! Look on the web, make an effort to come to grips with the fact that this is a BIG game and you're probably not going to pick up all the nuances in a week, let alone a month.

[PoisonTaco]

So long as they don't spoon feed players it will be fine Stadulator. Do League of Legends and Dota 2 hold players hands? They have plenty of resources available for people to play those games and they're immensely popular. Minecraft relied on nothing but youtube and wiki's to help new players.

I think most players are willing to learn if they know where to look.

[Bear]

There's a lot that veteran players and outfits can do to help new players along in game. Simply answering their questions is probably the best assist you can give anyone that's new. If someone is yelling "How do I...." take 10 seconds and answer them. Once they find the battle the rest of the game follows.

Let's not act like PS2 is Eve. There's nothing in this game that is that difficult to figure out.

[Jonny]

I know this isn't constructive, but ill do that post when i'm less tired.

I really laughed when after watching the hastily put together, rather cheesy (maby I find it more cheesy because i'm british) TR video about getting ready for the fight, they then drop me above a tower to fall to my death. Actually cracked me up, like I was just pushed out of an aircraft.

I'm guessing they ran out of drop pods, but I at least hope new players won't have that happen to them.

[rTekku]

I'm still confused as to how someone could be so lost. If you've played Battlefield and you see capture points, it should click in your head immediately on where you should be going

But anyway

While I like that they've made the tutorial videos, I feel like the entire message was rushed.

Many people haven't played a Battlefield game believe it or not. There will be a lot of people who've played very little or no FPS games before.

[BigpermCML]

I'm really not worried about it. People who are more likely to stick with a game tend to check things like keybinds right off the bat, or do research on a game.

Those who get too frustrated and bail, would probably be gone as soon as the next BF or CoD game shows up anyways.

[Rolfski]

All terrible ideas apart from letting newbs squad with you, which doesn't really need to be said either way. This is the kind of thinking that belongs in the previous decade.


I'd rather watch xfactor's video's, if only to see if he still has that sweater.Well thanks for the constructive feedback and thanks for letting us know what's so bad about them...

I assume you can enlighten us with tons of your superior ideas.

Btw you do know how brainstorms work, right? In case you don't, its about sharing, not judging, as many ideas as possible and only afterwards picking out the best ideas.

[VaderShake]

Many people haven't played a Battlefield game believe it or not. There will be a lot of people who've played very little or no FPS games before.

Just wanted to point out that the couple dozen guys I played Battlefield with jumped into the PS2 beta and pretty seemlessly picked it up and figured out where to go and what to do. Sometimes .....(GASP) we even had to think or search a forum for anwsers since there was no guide book. I don't think everyone will be hopelessly lost and truthfully you might not want the people who need their hands held every second playing PS2. It would potentially water down the base to very low level.

BF3 catered to the COD crowed and some would complain "OMG this map is so big I don't know where I am supposed to go or what to do" *these were generally the people I wanted to seek out and kill first* my point is PS2 will not be for everyone we just need it to capture those who desire a more complex FPS on a much larger scale.

[Rolfski]

Not judging you say? Well in that case allow me to share some of my own ideas:

- Put pictures of pornstars on Sunderers and Galaxies to attract people to them
- Allow Buzzcutpsycho to use continent-wide VOIP
- Try using prayer and telepathy to reach the minds of the newbs
- Implement corporal punishment for not following orders
- Allow command rank 5's to turn themselves into sheep
- Promise people free healthcare insurance if they follow orders
- Build a system of indestructible trains that go all over the continent, can also be used for sight-seeing (I know some very interesting cultural attractions on Indar that are still kind of obscure)
- Play 2 Live Crew tracks in the Warpgate to scare people into combat (works best on female players)
- Allow players to leave a bread crum trail so they can find their way home when they get lost
- Implement a special perk that allows you to take control over someone else's character
- Build yellow brick roads from warpgates to all the bases
etc.
Very constructive, if I didn't knew better I would assume you're just another forum troll.

[brinkdadrink]

Maybe add later - They are inside a galaxy being told about the 3 empire fight (very short and the galaxy is not on the map)

hotdropped into the sanctuary next to the VR building with a preset waypoint on it and they are staring at the doors with a sign saying VR training.

Go inside building and either auto load VR training like in PS1 or have a equip term but with VR on it where they hit E to get into it.

Have either terms for different training or have the only npc's in the game there giving instructions (This way because you can always restart them at any point where as automatically start you wont know intuitively how to restart them if you wanted - not that you would need to)

Right by that would be a vehicle bay and air bay

in the surounding area would be a 1 of each base:
tech plant
Bio facility
(Blanking on the 3rd one sorry)
A normal tower
one of the random small bases

This is great not only for new people but also for Outfit training because I know several outfits that want to find a random base to train on. Can have the bases auto change to an empire 1 minute after being taken and all terminals, turrets, gens fully repaired on change over and also the capture mechanics would be speed up 2x or 3x.

Have everything unlocked so anybody looking to buy something with certs is able to try it out. This one place will serve 3 main purposes ( New player training, Player weapon experimentation, Outfit / friends training on base capture ).

The tutorials the new player has would be interactive so they would go capture a base with waypoints, pull specific vehicles and so on. Get credit with some XP only for the first time they do it and they can buy there first stuff.

When they exit VR they are back on their own but know where to go if they truly get lost and want to get informed by themselves, otherwise they can always ask.

[SGTalon]

Edit: Solution: A proper bootcamp for new recruits where a comical yelling drill instructor gives out a real introduction to the whole game. Additionally a drill instructor / General NPC in the warpgates that gives further informations on specific topics (what the heck is a SCU sire?).

Sounds like the perfect opportunity to implement the Character that Higby created waaaay back in one of the first PS2 videos!!!

Can they do it in 2 days?

[Bear]

Many people haven't played a Battlefield game believe it or not. There will be a lot of people who've played very little or no FPS games before.

I don't believe that's going to be the case. There are so many fps's out there that it's almost impossible to not have experience in something.

I'm sure there will be some brand new players but the numbers will be staggeringly small.

[Rothnang]

I honestly think the much bigger problem is that getting dropped into a hotzone can easily mean being one of 3 poor sods who got dumped in front of the enemy continental forced sexual penetration of the posterior zerg and it will make them instantly hate the game when they are being spawncamped for easy XP while they still try to figure out which end of the rifle to point at the enemy.

[Rolfski]

As opposed to someone who is so clueless about today's gaming scene that he doesn't even understand the importance of introductory video's on youtube? U jelly that xfactor gets to make video's for SOE while you scrub it up on these terrible forums? Is that why you try to make it look unimportant?

Maybe if you'd be more challenging I'd spend more time talking to you, but unfortunately you're more run of the mill PSU fodder. You probably spend more time debating under the veil of being 'constructive' on these forums than you actually play the game.


P.S. Hamma, this post is definitely grounds for banning me. Can you let your wife do it though? It would make it a lot more worthwhile for me.I'm sorry to hear that you actually are a troll, not sure what made you so angry and disrespectful to other people. At least you have the wisdom to foresee the consequences of your trash talking.

Oh, and in case of YouTube tutorials: They are very useful and valuable but not for anyone. Many people lack the patience for it and want to get right into the action.

[Envenom]

I'm so tired of this these threads. It seems players nowadays have degenerated into completely mindless zombies that need developers to hold their hands and show them every single facet of the game in order to enjoy it.

Christ, use some intuition. Scrape your knees, get out there and just play! Who the F hasn't played an FPS in this day and age??? Come on people. There is so much melodrama in this thread it's sick. FPS's are not that complicated and anyone with a chimpanzee level education and some intuition can figure it out.

It will be ok. :)

[MrBloodworth]

Never assume an ability level of your player base.

[Rothnang]

I'm so tired of this these threads. It seems players nowadays have degenerated into completely mindless zombies that need developers to hold their hands and show them every single facet of the game in order to enjoy it.

Christ, use some intuition. Scrape your knees, get out there and just play! Who the F hasn't played an FPS in this day and age??? Come on people. There is so much melodrama in this thread it's sick. FPS's are not that complicated and anyone with a chimpanzee level education and some intuition can figure it out.

It will be ok. :)


The problem Planetside faces is that people are used to matches where both sides have the same number of players, and spawn locations that can't be camped. Sure, Planetside has considerable upsides that those games don't have, but getting overrun by an enemy Zerg with no chance to fight back or getting spawncamped while the voiceover yells at you that you can't lose the facility is a frustrating experience that you simply don't have in FPSes that are based on matches.

People need to be willing to stick around long enough to see the good, and right now it just looks like you are a heck of a lot more likely to encounter the bad. There are very few locations in the game where you get really good battles going, most of it is huge zergs dancing around each other, and both steamrolling empty bases and getting steamrolled aren't super fun.

[Holi]

Couple short (2-3 minutes max) and to the point tutorial videos that can be launched from the *drum-roll* launcher while you wait for PS2 to install.

First introduces the factions.

Later ones introduce classes and basic capture mechanics, advanced capture mechanics (like Spawn Control Units :P) and lastly vehicles.

Bonus style points if the "after-faction" videos are done with faction specific POV and have some catchy intro and outro phrases like "How to secure and capture an enemy tower. ... And that's how you capture a tower!" also tailored to be narrated by someone who can pull of that faction's style/accent/whatever best.

20% cooler if the narration is available in female and male variants.

[VGLance]

I am as new as it gets. I've never played a FPS in my life before 4 days ago when I got into the Beta. Yes it was at first overwhelming. Yes I died more than I got kills, like a 2:1 ratio. Half the time it was some form of suicide or another (dropping a grenade at my feet, falling off a platform, crashing a plane, etc). It was really frustrating.

But... all I had to do was google: 'planetside 2 tutorial' or any combination of words like 'beginner's guide' and was bombarded with links to forums and amazing youtube videos that gave me all the information I needed. They all stressed the importance of finding a good platoon to join and to not try to lone wolf it.

The videos covered all the basics about navigation, the classes, and the interface. The platoon I joined is hardcore in the sense that they run very sophisticated operations, yet are also very patient, welcoming to noobs like me, and are incredibly friendly and informative to help fill in all the little gaps.

Where did I find such a gem of a platoon? On the forums in less than 10 seconds... the 666th Devil Dogs.

Now there are two philosophies here. You can say well that's wonderful that you took personal accountability and used basic resourcefulness, patience, perseverance and a number of other emotional intelligence traits to find success, but we can't expect the average player to do that. They'll just rage quit. We need to provide for them.

The other philosophy is that we don't keep caving to the progressive ideologies that are decaying the survival traits in the people of Western Society and we give people the opportunity to take personal responsibility for their own success because we know that the greatest feelings of accomplishment happen when we do things ourselves instead of having things done for us.

I got all the information I needed to find enjoyment and success in this game within minutes of firing up google. If that is too much to ask for, then we've already destroyed our society enough to the point that there is very little hope.

And frankly, I don't want to be playing a team-based game with players who are that dependent and unable to summon even the slightest amount of effort. It wouldn't be fun for me.

[Rothnang]

Now there are two philosophies here. You can say well that's wonderful that you took personal accountability and used basic resourcefulness, patience, perseverance and a number of other emotional intelligence traits to find success, but we can't expect the average player to do that. They'll just rage quit. We need to provide for them.

The other philosophy is that we don't keep caving to the progressive ideologies that are decaying the survival traits in the people of Western Society and we give people the opportunity to take personal responsibility for their own success because we know that the greatest feelings of accomplishment happen when we do things ourselves instead of having things done for us.

Progressivism has nothing to do with taking away personal responsibility for your own success, quite the opposite. It's about creating a level playing field so that success or failure are genuinely up to the effort you put in and not your circumstances. It's the ideological response to a bunch of dickish elitists who excuse social stratification by acting as though privilege has no bearing on what you can accomplish.

So, yea, get it right if you're going to make this about politics.

As far as running a profitable game is concerned, nobody comes into the game with special privilege, and people leaving hurts the game, not the player, so it's an entirely different question anyways. Having to look up information and delve deep to learn how to play a game well are perfectly acceptable to have - as long as the game doesn't fail to get people invested enough to do so. If people aren't having fun it's not them failing at Planetside 2, it's Planetside 2 failing to win them as a customer.

[TanknSpank]

I think the starting experience is fine because as it is.

In EVE when you start out you can't even move your ship in an intuitive way. You have no way to see a map that shows you where to go to fight and there's no people to follow (nor can you easily follow when they warp off). If you do manage to find some NPC pirates you stand no chance to kill them in your n00b ship (not to mention you can't even attack them if you haven't learned about locking on targets).

On the other hand in PS2 you drop at a hotspot. There's people shooting each other. You start shooting at them. Left button, WASD, extremely intuitive controls. You might shoot your side, and you'll get a warning. Eventually you figure out to shoot the guys shooting at you / that have markers on them. You'll probably die, but when you spawn there's a bunch of other people spawning around you and you can follow the stream of friendlies back to some combat. Sure, you won't be the most effective player on the field, but you're having fun fighting. Vehicles, unlocks, boosts, classes, turrets, repair, healing, control points can all come later as fast or as slow as you care to research/learn/ask. But even if you don't, you can still have fun running around and shooting people.

And if you've played other recent FPSs you're already familiar with classes, control points, vehicle stations, weapon unlocks, etc. If you've played an MMO / RPG then you're familiar with 'go here' markers on the map, inventory management, equipment 'vendors', etc.

[Ghoest9]

I'm so tired of this these threads. It seems players nowadays have degenerated into completely mindless zombies that need developers to hold their hands and show them every single facet of the game in order to enjoy it.

Christ, use some intuition. Scrape your knees, get out there and just play! Who the F hasn't played an FPS in this day and age??? Come on people. There is so much melodrama in this thread it's sick. FPS's are not that complicated and anyone with a chimpanzee level education and some intuition can figure it out.

It will be ok. :)


UMM - get a clue.

People have needed to be taught to work together since the dawn od civilization.
Its easy to figure out how to run around and shoot the gun at people.
But its not intuitive to understand the dynamics of the battle and how the general hoard of players moves and reacts.

If you have played PS1 or to a lesser degree some other games youll already have a feel for it - but it is something you learn its not particularly fun for most people to learn it by observation.

[Buggsy]

I'm still confused as to how someone could be so lost. If you've played Battlefield and you see capture points, it should click in your head immediately on where you should be going

But anyway

While I like that they've made the tutorial videos, I feel like the entire message was rushed.

yeah its not rocket surgery.

The only problem I had with teaching a complete noob friend to play was where to spawn and spamming QQQQQQQQQQQ. He figured out the spawn thing eventually but the spamming QQQQQQQQQ thing eluded him till the end of BETA.

[TheStigma]

We can make up a whole bunch of sleek, innovative and immersive ways to make new player experience good - but the fact of the matter is that SOE needs this stuff NOW! (ie. within days of release at the most, preferably ON release, which is hours away now).

If this was left up for me to handle I would simply make some videos. People are used to tutorial-videos youtube-style and you can slap something together damn quick - then send it over to professional post-production and they will polish the videos up for you in a matter of hours so they look a little more professional.

The first thing that should greet you as you enter the game for the first time is a big popup that informs you that you should probably watch these short videos before you play to get the gist of the game. Keep it 3-4 videos of a couple minutes each for the "basics", explaining how to interact with players, find battles, and what your basic goals are - then have a few more (as many as you feel is needed) under an "advanced" heading that explains the more in-detail stuff like certifications, how to deploy your S-AMS ect. People will patience will watch those advanced ones, but hopefully most people in general will stick around to watch a couple of minutes of briefing even if they are casuals.

Also make it real obvious how to find these videos again if you need to (needs to be explained in the very first video, as well as be a big obvious button right on the launch-pad).

The video delivery system can as simple as youtube links honestly... I see no need for anything more complicated - and they will work to gather attention all on their own as people notice them and share them.

I heard a rumor actually that RivalXfactor was actually contracted to make a series of 12 tutorial videos for PS2 - so there is a chance that SOE is something very close to what I just described here... I have no source for this rumor unfortunately (and would like to know if there is a solid source for it if anyone knows).

-Stigma

[Rolfski]

I heard a rumor actually that RivalXfactor was actually contracted to make a series of 12 tutorial videos for PS2 - so there is a chance that SOE is something very close to what I just described here... I have no source for this rumor unfortunately (and would like to know if there is a solid source for it if anyone knows).

-StigmaI am the source of this "rumor". He stated it 3 days ago, it was a top rated comment in one of his PS2 videos:

https://divhyg.bay.livefilestore.com/y1phr0iZVZ2UZTgEoUmI1tzj9hZftJmtOE7Bl49w9iuqiVURgz mAvPr7H01bNFsiGgUtJZ4HWGjDUc/rival%20tuts.JPG?psid=1

Planetside 2: Epic VS Magrider kill farm (40+kills in minutes) - YouTube

[TheStigma]

Yea I actually viewed that video, just never saw that comment.

Wonder when it will be released. Hopefully a little bit before the launch so people who are sitting and waiting for it can enjoy them in good time - even if they are probably mostly geared towards new players. xFactor often drops some small tips and tricks here and there that even experienced players can learn from :)

-Stigma