Noob Squad Slot

Cosmical · 2012-02-28, 08:35 AM

The main thing that annoys me the most in MMO’s nowadays is the lack of team work. Games that are specifically played online to interact with other people, and everyone will gladly spend 9 hours running about soloing because it’s the fastest way to level (see Star Wars TOR, two weeks after launch). Things will be different on Planetside 2 to be sure, and none interaction with other players will be impossible, but I still propose this idea.

Each squad has an extra Noob slot that will automatically assign a player to your squad who is between level’s 1 and 10. You’re probably saying, what’s the point, people will automatically get assigned to squads anyway.

The point is that the Noob will be easily recognisable to the squad as a new player, if they ask any questions they will be answered accordingly, and will avoid the in game help bar chat spam. And a new player will not have to spend several days before they get in a squad that actually knows what they’re doing. (I spent 2 years on Planetside 1 not being in a squad that knew what they were doing).

The idea is, the squad gets an experience bonus for having a newbie player in their team, so if they want to level fast it’s better to have a new guy around. And similar exp rewards will be granted to the team for doing support actions on that player, healing them, rezzing them, repairing their tank. (Much like battlefields Squad reward, but doubled for the Noob player).

This works in two ways, the new player is enjoying the game more by getting more positive attention because of their Noob status. And other players are getting more overall experience for what is essentially helping a new player to play.

Those of you that are saying “I don’t want a noob player following us around!” which is the kind of unfriendly attitude that annoys me, but hey. All you have to do is uncheck the Noob slot in your squad leader screen, and your fine. Of course you sacrifice the exp bonus, and an extra man on your team (squad lead skill tree allows you to train that slot with a standard player, or something?)

This may not be necessary with the way the game works, but I think it would go a long way to keeping new players a positive aspect to Planetside 2, whereas in most games they’re considered a hindrance or a waste of space.

Warborn · 2012-02-28, 08:51 AM

Battle rank only goes up to 10 this time I seem to recall them saying, so I guess you\'d want levels 1 to 5, although even then not really that noob-ish.

I don\'t know whether it would work out well. I think serious, high-speed squads would be operating on a different wavelength and would have little interest in getting the new player involved. That kind of experience could be very unpleasant for new players.

On the other hand, maybe I\'m wrong. Maybe Planetside 2 players would be different. Maybe the community of serious business players would be welcoming, which in other games they tend not to be. I doubt it, but it\'s possible.

At any rate, getting new players involved with other players is a laudable goal. I think taking steps toward making the game very inviting and newbie-friendly is something that should be a priority, in particular because it\'s often the outfit teamwork that really made Planetside 1 worth playing. So something like this would deserve some kind of test run, but certainly I\'d think having just easier access to squads overall and a very clear and easy-to-use mission setting for both automatic mission assignment by the game and individual or squad mission assignment by the squad leader would be good, too.

Ailos · 2012-02-28, 09:03 AM

I think there is enough of us here to do something like that regardless of whether there is a system for it or not. Over the years, I\'ve played with many outfits, and nearly all will always allow \"greenies\" into the squads. Most outfits are somewhere between total Zerg and total military, so most of them will do this anyway. I know I will.

Death2All · 2012-02-28, 09:07 AM

If you don\'t want to play with people you shouldn\\\'t have to. It\\\'s your choice.

And placing noobs in squads with more experienced squads would be annoying as hell for the better players.

In plenty of MMOs you can toggle a \\&quot;Newbie helper\\&quot; option. If you want to help noobs you can volunteer for it, you shouldn\\\'t be forced to.

Death2All · 2012-02-28, 09:12 AM

And whoa, what the hell happened to my post?

Cosmical · 2012-02-28, 09:28 AM

Originally Posted by Warborn

high-speed squads would be operating on a different wavelength and would have little interest in getting the new player involved.

That\'s why it would ne integral to make it a noticable advantage from launch. People wouldnt even question it later on. Even if the noob just got to lag behind, theyre still learning things.

Originally Posted by DeeTwoEh

If you want to help noobs you can volunteer for it, you shouldn\\\\'t be forced to.

I said you wouldnt be forced to, but you will sacifice the benefits if doing so.

The key is to make new players a saught after commodity. You can say that \"there will be a possitive enough atmosphere that we will all chip in\" thats fair enough at the start, maybe even 6 months in. But give it 5 years and the vets will have no tolerence for new players. Atleast this way, mid range players would take it upon themselves to take up the mantel of trainer.

Also, i am yet to find an actual friendly community MMO that wants to help for the sake of helping, without getting something out of it. This is just a mechanic to assure it.

Trolltaxi · 2012-02-28, 09:29 AM

Training recruits into squaddies requires a lots of effort, but it helps building the community. As we have always ran with a lot of recruits I know what I\'m talking about. You do this volunteer work and sacrifice squad integrity, your playtime, your nerves sometimes, in our case maybe the reputation of the outfit too (even though the core of the outfit proved decent in outfit wars).

If the game rewards it in some way, I\'m glad with it. If it won\'t - hell, I think we will do it anyways.

Xaine · 2012-02-28, 09:41 AM

For what its worth, i like this idea.

This is odd as normally i dislike the ideas put up here, but if there is a designated slot for new players in squads, as long as the new players asks nicely, i think people will answer.

Maybe give the new player the ability to award a player with something if they helped them or something. Nothing tangible like an upgrade or anything, maybe a commendation to go on your armour like in PS1 - 'Recruiter' or something.

ringring · 2012-02-28, 10:28 AM

Errr, no.

You're forced to take someone who doesn't know how to play nor to communicate properly on (perhaps) a spec ops? Warning, imminent spec ops failure!

Although training or introducing new players to the game is highly laudable a specific mechanism is not needed, nor wanted at least by me.

When the game kicks off a lot of outfits will be looking for recruits .. if you want into an outfit squad, join the outfit.

Mastachief · 2012-02-28, 10:39 AM

Yeh as Hillfort says, this would be a big no no for spec ops outfits.

We have had it alot in Planetside where a random joins the squad to see what we are doing. Also the speed at which a well oiled outfit moves is something a newbie couldn't hope to keep up with.

Then there is lack of knowledge of the game, such as shooting spitfire turrets when you are trying to prep a base for a hack.

There are always noob friendly outfits for newbies to join whilst they learn the game they will then seek better outfits. When the reserves were first allowed to play for free we ran a recruitment outfit that served to filter the mass applications we got for the main outfit that had a cap of 80players(main outfit). This recruitment outfit took newbies and those that were willing, able and gelled well got promoted to the main outfit. It worked really really well.

Neksar · 2012-02-28, 11:02 AM

You guys don't seem to notice that he's made it optional. You needn't have that slot available at all. If you simply uncheck the option, it won' t be there. The idea is to provide a benefit to having that slot open so that people will want to do it, but still allow them to disable it when appropriate.

I like.

sylphaen · 2012-02-28, 11:06 AM

pro-tip:
in PS1, you could hide your pro-squad to filter out noobs (and other undesirables).

Why discriminate only against noobs ?

Xaine · 2012-02-28, 11:07 AM

You could always add a noob help chat where people can ask questions. It works in Eve Online.

Fenrys · 2012-02-28, 11:17 AM

It would work well enough for pickup squads, but not when you're trying to do something sneaky. You don't want somebody shooting when they are not supposed to, drawing attention to your movements.

Mastachief · 2012-02-28, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by sylphaen

pro-tip:
in PS1, you could hide your pro-squad to filter out noobs (and other undesirables).

Why discriminate only against noobs ?

/who trx?

Not discrimination just more of a pointer that there are outfits out there that specifically recruit noobs, i just don't see a need for this to take development pre release.