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Thread: My Experience with AO acting like a Brand New Player - In Progress!

  1. #1

    Exclamation My Experience with AO acting like a Brand New Player - In Progress!

    So after reading someone else's thread I thought be important for me to give me 2 cents on how AO is to a more new player. Thankfully for me I don't remember what I ate for breakfast so it makes it easier for me to get the new player smell and feel. I also am a small Game developer and do a lot of testing for companies as well as played a good million or so MMO's in my time. (The last stat might be slightly made up)

    I also came back to make some videos that I have not published yet due the fact I want to retake because things were quite confusing. I guess I'm getting old.

    First lets talk about the client setup and install:
    The install was fine. I chose the beta version because hell it's beta and why not. I had froze/crash twice but nothing big I also found when I afked I would DC a lot on the new engine client (could been a bad day for my ISP). The biggest issues I had outside that was a few little bugs here and there like the re-sizing my inventory and things not going into it correctly was annoying beyond annoying. The whole Inventory system in AO could really do a rework but I found this to be slightly more buggy in the Beta Client but it could just been my first time experience back and forgetting how annoying the inventory was when it came to moving the UI Around.

    I decided after reading IRC about new vs old client and people gave this sick impression the new client will never get to the point you want to actually use it and it's been left to sort of die.. I'm sure that is not the case but getting that impression I decided to move to the old client again. Right away booting up the game was quite faster. Moving around in the game was a million times better. It felt more alive and fast and boy it did not have the fake and crappy moving with the camera like most games today feel like.

    Verdict Old client runs great on a 780TI 4770k Windows 10 PC. Only downside is if I force any sort of AA my text looks really bad so I end up not having AA

    The UI and Camera Controls etc:
    First off maybe I'm crazy but I swore there was an option to prevent auto attack / rotate but I think after playing so many MMO's one the worst features is if you run off your camera does not move with you and it twists and oh man it's like world war 3 you vs the camera. Either way there should be a better more neutral way of sticking the camera by default for all new players. Clearly give old ways to the current players too via an option.

    Another thing I think should be enabled by default is the control panel at the top right. We all use it we all want it and I think it just makes more sense having it there for a brand new player so they have a better chance spotting it and using it.

    Now lets talk about Arete Landing:
    I love it so much. I like the idea you start here and move to ICC the revamped ICC and borealis sort of retired though tons of people still hang there.

    The biggest issue here is there is a lot of text and a lot to absorb in such a small time. Even with my experiences I sort of was screwing up and running back and forth with my head cut off. Though it was not too bad but having so many quest items going into your inventory and having to use them and give them to NPC's etc. I could see it being quite overwhelming for new players. It was for me and I could just imagine a Brand new player.

    Other then that the bird quest was a bit annoying :P I was for the longest time trying click one of the local reets on the ground and then figured out that super jet of a bird flying in circles. I had competition with an atrox and he won. Then I found out I never bought a cookie and then when I gave him the cookie I tried using the cage and I thought I failed and started to cry then realized I needed to use the tradeskill function to craft a bird into a cage. I think that one was a bit over the top haha.

    I also saw Omni there I don't remember clan but I feel like recruitment should not be that early in the game anymore till the user knows the consequences of choosing. Even more so if I only saw OMNI and I can see that becoming quite bias

    Onto ICC Now:
    The biggest thing is you the players need to get your butt out of borealis and Clan/Omni hideout locations more and spend time in ICC. I know so many people have their old spots and tend to stay there but more and more people afk even in ICC the more of an impression you leave on the players. Starting a new character and walking through borealis use to leave such a mark like walking down the hall of fame or something exciting. You are what leaves an ever lasting impression on these new players. Also if they got through the newbie zone then you could try to gobble them up and add them to your ranks.

    The next thing is the place was confusing. I don't even think I had a quest for the area maybe I did and I was an idiot but this is pretty much where new players come to die. Just watching them come in for the first time seeing them run in circles and then vanish after a while to never return it quite scary.

    From here the best Advice I can say and big thanks to the bot that spams the neutral chat with links to get players started. But sadly lots will click it but a lot more will not even know to click it (thinking it's an item) or maybe their so overwhelmed and confused they just don't even see it...

    Either way at this point I feel the game needs a massive and I mean massive new major chain quest system. Where it helps new players to get to at least level 100+

    The issue here is even then the players might out level a chain quest and such. So maybe some sort of built in guide system to the game. A special button using pure HTML pages written by the community that is implemented by the devs that really shows what a player can CONSIDER doing from level 10-15 15-20 etc etc. Also even have the info there for subscribers and use brackets and yellow and say for subscribed players etc.

    I really feel like if you add some sort of proper system to help guide the player through first 100 levels quests or guide or whatever I think you will keep more players and have a bigger turnaround.


    tl;tr
    • Few Camera sticking tweaks and enable gui control bar by default.
    • tweak the bird capture quest
    • remove the recruiters early in the game (it's too important at low levels to make a mistake at)
    • add some sort of chain quest or special player guide with a dedicated button to the interface to teach players more about the game from level 1-100
    • Old players consider camping out more in ICC and bring back that experience we all got the first time we went to a busy town.



    Please feel free to express your opinions. But remember to put your shoes on in the prospective of a brand new player. Someone who's only MMO Experience is WoW or Guild Wars for example or even better yet CoD and no MMO Experience :P

  2. #2
    You can use your NumPad to adjust your camera at any time.
    There's lots of quests in the game that need tweaks, and add low, non important, but information rich quests for newbies.
    Omni VS Clan and neutrals fencing is the sole game mechanic, and its the foundation of what the game is, removing that feel, instead of adding my #2 for information, is wrong.
    See #2
    I wouldn't mind camping ICC, but first FC needs to fix the stability and the absolute sht lag that happens in ICC.

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  3. #3
    You have camera follow enabled instead of 3rd person lock, not sure how you did that, it's actually more difficult to enable camera follow that any other option.
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  4. #4
    It's the FXAA that makes the text look blurry. I keep that global and max everything else. Still it looks great on the old client.

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