Newbies

[letigre]

I know trammelizing a game is a very bad play to make on a shard as coo las this
but honestly
I signed up last night
I've been trying to go out and play
have some fun as a newbie
I am the kind of player who's not the best pvper out there
the shard is a free shard so most players are expert power gamers. IMO that in of itself makes the shard much different than T2A. UO had 90% regular players and the rest "uber" power gamers.

this shard is at least 90% power gamers and the rest people learnng how to play again or the first time.
My experience as a new player interest in the shard has been very poor.
You can accuse me of being a pussy (something i heard over and over again as I was harrassed and killed over and over again trying to raise my skills) the fact that I am woman makes it an ironic statement.

I can bet any GM that most players quit playing in a short few days. What is done in that short amount of time is what makes the shard popular or so underpopulated people might start to quit.

so IMO more needs to be done to welcome new players. Not new chars or experienced players. but something that will make a new person sighning up for the first time excited about the new shard. Something to help them with the overwhelming majority of power gaming griefing who want to watch the shard burn.

New players, specially the ones who aren't experts at the game need to be treated as solid gold and helped out. Also something that would group new players together would help. If they had some players at the same level to help eachother out it would grow a community of new players.

[Gandalf]

i agree completely. A more friendly welcome is needed for those new to the shard... its counterproductive to the well being of the shard if newcomers are treated poorly. We need to make their experience a positive one so that they can further the expansion of our community!

[Faust]

The only thing that I can think of that would be related to this in terms of implementation is the young player system. It was era accurate being introduced sometime before September of '99.

[letigre]

I dont wanna mess with the T2A rules
but maybe do something that'll make it more easy for new players to check out the shard
and something that brings em together

make a place for them to go
like Britt GY
where they can meet people
get skills up and gold (some people dont dig power gamin macro stuff)
maybe put a vendor house by britt GY that has weapons, bandages, armor

maybe have some kind of quest up there
and above all do something to keep the griefers off of them
I couldnt do anything up there without getting fucked with or kill

if u want a shard with only power gaming pks then you'll have a shar with at most 100 ppl


the solution of "they should go where there's no people." is not UO
we should do more to encourage growth in a different kind of player.

[BlackFoot]

i think the best way is just for vet players to take a new player under their wing every once in a while, help em understand the game and get startedd
no automated systems will ever be as good as a person

im not familair with the young player system
so if i overlap or osmthing i duno

but just have a system of getting new players in contact with volunteer vets
and let them take it from there
irc has worked for the new guys ive been helping out

[imin]

i think the best way is just for vet players to take a new player under their wing every once in a while, help em understand the game and get startedd
no automated systems will ever be as good as a person

im not familair with the young player system
so if i overlap or osmthing i duno

but just have a system of getting new players in contact with volunteer vets
and let them take it from there
irc has worked for the new guys ive been helping out

I have to agree with this.
I was ganked quite a few times in Brit Graveyard. But it didnt really turn me off. Blackfoot has helped me numerous times, whether it was advice or coming to the graveyard to rid the pk'ers.

And yes, IRC is a valuable tool. Use it.

[Derrick]

I'm very interested in any ideas besides the young system or newbie dungeons that could help new players. I recall my first or second day on OSI in late 1998 being visted by a player counselor to see if everything was working out well for me, which it was, but it was a nice gesture.

[DrFaustus]

Adopt a newbie day:

Veteran players are awarded trophy(s) according to how many newbies they can adopt in a given time period.

Newbie player must vouch for elite player helping them, supporting them, wiping their ass, etc...

[BlackFoot]

schweet i gotta go farm some newbs!

[letigre]

It'll take me a while to get started

the reason other T2a shards blow is because the murdercounts roll off too quick and there's no stat loss.

I just quit a shard with 3 chars I spent months on. It just wasn't fun, it was like Quake or Half Life
no real community. I love pvp but if there's no grouping of players outside of town because its a no mans land. That's not uo, it's just pointless.

like a none-stop server down war or "the test servers"

i am debating on weather to switch shards

I have a lot of stuff and characters on another shard

[Red]

This might not be era accurate, but there was a virtue system thing where you could be in a party with new players, and you'd gain the virtue when they gained skill. Was it Compassion?

I can't quite remember the bonus, but I think it was something like when you resurrected, you would regain a % of your total health, mana, and stamina.

This might also further the cause of the Anti-PK.

[keuse]

Who killed you?

I have been saying for months that killing newbies and people macroing in town will lead to the downfall of upcoming population of the shard (ie stinkfist/lamer) and unfortunately that will fall on deaf ears until the shard has lost 150+ players due to it.

I am a pk (currently macroing off 5 counts as I just died not too long ago) and have been a pk my entire time on OSI - and even I think the penalties for murderers has to be stricter, while making up for it and offering new player incentives...
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I like that the shard stays true to the era but you can see by how the game went to hell that OSI fucked up their murder system and spent years trying to salvage it (statloss, insta wack, etc etc then eventually trammel, then had a HUGE reverse affect that I don't think they anticipated Ie: felucca being a wasteland )and work around it.. and failed.

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The young system is a great idea and here were the era accurate rules:

Young status for 40 hours played or 700 skill cap is what it was.
Young players cannot attack/do damage to other players.

Here are some additions you may want to consider:


- Maybe some quests Ie: Blacksmith asks for 10 bone helmets from the graveyard and will give 1500 gold for them.

- Spruce up the britain sewers (more gold) and give incentives for newbies to go there w/ directions (plus make announcements on the town crier because I never even knew the sewers existed/thought go go in there as a newbie until I was two years into the game) (ie: town crier : Lord british has asked that new citizens of britannia show their loyalty by assisting in cleaning up the sewers! see X npc by the britain inn to begin your mission!")

- Young weapons? (Ie weapons that are blessed, can only be warn by young players, and have GM or possibly force damage with + accuracy?)


Maybe start new players out with more resources? (reagents are fine as they are, they need more bandages, armor and more gold - perhaps base it off of a per ip basis instead of per character if possible? ie instead of 100 gold per char, change it to 1000 gold per char, up to three chars per ip per month?)

- Long shot, but maybe give young players ethereal mounts (That are normal hue) so that they can get around easier and not have to spend their money on horses, plus when they die they don't have to spend all of their money on a horse. I know as a new player after spending ALL my gold on a horse, dieing, the horse dieing, and having to be unmounted again really sucked and drained all of my money.



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Then you have to think of incentives for helping newbies that can't be exploited..


Another thing like Derrick said earlier...
There were 'player counselors' when I first started back in 99 that had the special title in their paper doll and were able to teleport to new players i think under certain circumstances - heavily monitors for exploitation of course.

I think at the end you as a young player, once you were finished your young status, had to write a report about how that counselor helped you, and maybe those reports lead to gm given items? I don't remember.


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Why hasnt anyone started a newbie helping guild/ Guild of Friends type of guild?

[Faust]

This is quite a coincidence that you mention this Red. Those that may or may not know I've developed a PVM event that is pretty significant in size and fully automated. Note that I said developed and not coded.

Anyways, I've also developed a Virtue System that is based on the old Ultima lore that predates Ultima Online. I just have yet to present the idea to Derrick, mainly because I haven't wrote it up in a document in full detail. I think it would be a great addition for roleplayers, pvm'ers, and even possibly pvper's.

I'll write up on some of the stuff that you talked about keuse. First, I want to say that era accurate mechanics are definitely a must. I personally don't think giving out non-accurate items on start up is a good thing. If the young system is implemented than something like that wouldn't be necessary since they can gain resources with a much higher percentage chance of never losing it than they currently would. To be honest I think the starting items are actually off on an accuracy stand point and should be fixed. Starting off during t2a and becoming successful was a major hurdle in the old days. I think giving anyone special items or extra resources would degrade the accuracy stand point. We have to stay on track with this at all times.

On another note I think your idea on starting quests is a very good idea. The great thing about PVM mechanics is that it doesn't necessarily have to follow the same rules on accuracy unlike other features. All shards had their own unique PVM events and quirks. We can do the same thing here at UO Second Age. However, now days we have the technology and resources to automate this type of stuff and make it much more elaborate.

[keuse]

Also perhaps implementing a fix where red cannot recall, only gate?
But my god that would be annoying gating back and forth to every empty location...
Hence more PK's camping spots like the brit gy.

[Stinkfink]

Who killed you?

I have been saying for months that killing newbies and people macroing in town will lead to the downfall of upcoming population of the shard (ie stinkfist/lamer) and unfortunately that will fall on deaf ears until the shard has lost 150+ players due to it.

LOL! You died macroing over 3 months ago and you still cant get over it. It makes you telling people to get a life even funnier.