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Posts
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Goblin
Posts: 94So, on a lighter topic, I think we should consider setting up ways to increase player retention.
I wrote this all before just a few minutes ago but it disappeared since I wasn’t logged in, so I’ll write it again but much more briefly. I apologize if it looks rushed, but I want to stress I’d like to keep this clear of the current Mystera political and meta discussion, since I’m sure this is a topic all sides of the argument are interested in.
I don’t like hand outs and when I was new, I wanted to gather and build everything myself. Going off of this, I think the only real fear for a new player would be dying while asleep. To alleviate this, I have two ideas:
1. We need a new player guide that takes them from spawning, to cutting trees, maybe getting stone/silver, and then building wooden walls, floor, and a door.
2. I’d like feedback on setting up a sort of tribe-less safe town. It could take over the current crossroads, but I need input. The rules would simply be that nobody living there could be part of a tribe; if they want to join one, they leave the town and go join it. All players living there would be responsible for stopping break ins in the community ONLY IF the victims are asleep and ONLY IF the victim’s walls were not already showing signs of decay (cracks). Aside from this, no citizen is beholden to another or has any responsibilities and can kill each other on the streets for all I care.
Now, that aside, there’s another problem for new players, and it’s that there’s already a small player base. New players could quit if they join a server and not get to interact with people, thus thinking it’s a dead game. My solutions that need feedback are thus:
1. We need a new, up to date, easy to read map. Ideally it would make use of a third party site or something that multiple people could edit so that the map is always fresh. A library of saved coordinates that anyone could contribute to would help this too.
2. We SHOULD update the wiki. Access to knowledge shouldn’t be a barrier to new players. That said, I’m well aware that there are only a few people willing enough to update the wiki, and also that I am not one of them. If anyone was thinking about volunteering the effort, now’s the time to do it and earn cool points within our remaining community!
This is a great discussion to have 🙂
The current quest system does walk players through building floors and a house but I know JVH is working on improving that. He is changing some things in the upcoming patch I think but any ideas are appreciated.
I like the safe town idea. Usually there is always someone on who likes to help answer questions for new players so they could be directed to the town. Maybe it could be put in a corner or on a coast so you can just tell newbies a direction to walk, or put up signs to guide them. I think it would be cool if there was like a newbie compass or something.
As for the wiki and map I could sticky them on a forum post maybe. I’ll ask JVH if he could add the wiki to the help button too.
Polar Bear
Posts: 48I personally like the idea of a noobie town that newer players would feel safer in.
For some reason when I hit enter, it submitted my post! lol
Anyways, we could post things on the wiki page that would help newer players out. Recipes for making items and building walls etc. I think that would help just about anybody out.
Turtle
Posts: 5That’s already currently on the wiki under crafting =P keeping it updated is good to mention though. The new player friendly town sounds great.
Goblin
Posts: 94The more I think about it, the less I think the village should be placed at the crossroads. This is because there’s already existing players living there that might not want to be a part of this community. So I’d have to start it up elsewhere… More to ponder.
Goblin
Posts: 99Make sure you build it somewhere accessible, and consider building signs around the world to lead newbies to it.
Skeleton
Posts: 119I’ve yet to form an opinion on this, so please consider my criticism just as brainstorming as your input.
Regarding tribelessness: being in a tribe can be simulated with in-game mechanichs, and one could be in a tribe withouth any advantage it provides.
Breaking in decaying homes: one could damage a wall then take a screenshot to let everyone see it was decaying. Or have someone else do that. I think that a policy that encourages lying is a bad policy. An alternative to this would be that before breaking one should ask in /b whether the player was active. If the player is inactive, his attackers don’t have anything to hide after all.
Consider that if someone is being killed in a street, he could disconnect at the last moment in order to count as asleep. If he has loot it can be used as a clue that the murderer is telling the truth, but one could not have loot, and players should be instructed not to touch loot in these cases due to fingerprints.
I would say that the community has a starting core and if someone goes to live near the community, let’s say with at most 2 empty squares between the other building, or even 1 square, it is implied that he is part of it. Players that live there or that become connected by other means can be an exception.
Maybe it would be reasonable to limit the size of the houses. Farms are effective if they are very big so I think the current game mechanics encourage common farms. I mean, you are not farming 24/7. Consider giving guidelines regarding farms as well.
Consider having each player build a check wall in an inside corner, and its decay is a signal of the player’s activity. This way other players can’t repair it.
The four buildings right in Central Crossroads are mine. If I’m convinced the project is good enough I could destroy them — I could also change my mind. At the moment Central Crossroads is quite open: the north and the west are open, to the south there is barn Aid on only one side of the road, the east is more complicated. Regarding the east, the two players on the northern side of the eastern road may want to join it anyway, and they have just gone there so I think we could easily convince them or pay them to move.
As Ivana Kutstuf said, the corners and coasts have an advantage over the Central Crossroads. The Crossroads are more visible to anyone in case of an attack. A corner could work if two or three players move there as well, just to start populating it.
Also the less open the place where you start it is, the more likely it will become sorrounded. Again I don’t think it becoming sorrounded is really a possibility, and if it happens it probably means that we are starting to have a lot of players.
On a last note, I suggest not doing anything and not using terms that suggests these are laws. I think it sets expectations that are better not set. I wouldn’t even call it an alliance and the ‘rules’ guidelines, and would rather have them see it as an informal relationship.
Polar Bear
Posts: 46The town idea sounds good… on paper.
building houses for newbies is a great idea but theres a problem. the doors.
you cant expect a newbie to have silver, nor do you want him to be in a clan.
even if the city’s mayor will be online to give him a piece of silver, he could be in some other place and the newbie will lose intrest. the closest we were to a newbie villege was Friendly’s hotel.
Skeleton
Posts: 119I think the idea is that they would have to build their homes themselves.
Polar Bear
Posts: 46oh. thats problematic too. what if they dont have enough wood to build a house?
Skeleton
Posts: 119There’s a line where helping becomes babysitting.
So since I’m the leader of Hotel tribe now, I’ve been either /b or /t anyone that I see that logs in that looks new and I ask them if they’re new. I’ve always asked if they have questions and let them know that they should build a house or they can stay at the hotel until they make a house. I’ve always said they don’t have to stay permanently. I’ve given out the link to the wiki page to many people who have said they are new. I’ve been gathering materials so I can rebuild the Hotel where it would be easier to find. I was going to build it on the main road, but it seems everyone wants to abandon it now. So I’m considering a new location.
The newbie village doesn’t seem like a bad idea. I would be down to help create and maintain the village. I’m not sure if I would to leave the Hotel tribe though. I feel like we’re neutral enough and want to be a help to all newbies until they want to go in what ever direction they want to go in.
Skeleton
Posts: 119Mass Relocaion Project
Let’s pick an area and everyone build his house there. In this way we have both
(1) Safety because we can watch each other property, and
(2) A reference point for new players
Polar Bear
Posts: 48I like the idea behind The Hotel Tribe. I think that is where the newer players used to migrate to as well?
Nusakan pointed out that we have a wiki page. We should update it with a beginner guide and keep the crafting section updated.
Goblin
Posts: 94Hmmm, in general, we’re left with the discussion of how much safety would a newbie want in exchange for being able to build their own house. A hotel is awesome for safety since they can just walk through the doors and stay until they are ready, but there will be ones that will want to build their own little shack, and unless you have them building those inside the hotel or within a community they won’t be safe.
As for moving the Hotel, I’m up for that. We need to condense a little more now that we have less population. I’m highly against building whatever town along an edge or corner though, even if that would make it easier to find. They need to have maximum exposure to other players to keep them interested, in my opinion.
I’m starting to feel like the best compromise is to get rid of the tribeless vilalge idea and allow Tux to build a new hotel near the crossroads with space for newbies to build their own small houses or whatever inside of it. Newbies could join the hotel if they wanted to and live out of it like Friendly’s. Tux has to make very clear that the new hotel won’t take part of politics. Since I plan to live near the crossroads, I could easily help maintain it as I pass by. In addition, we’d encourage new players to build near the crossroads and it’s naturally form a community, hopefully.
I think we can all agree on the beginner guide and crafting section.
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