Hi all.

I know it have been discussed before, but i still want to offer more and hope you will not shrug off this offer.

** Tutorial **

I specially made a character and ran through academy, and it's "tutorial". It is good and filled with good information, but there is a problem. Tutorial must lead the players, telling them what exactly they must to do at every step.

For example, when player enters the first room, some NPC-teacher can tell him: "Look at the sign", or "Now, unlock the door to the west" and after - "Go down and head north way, to the caverns", or "Look at the statue here, it will tell you story about...".

When you do not lead player, he is getting lost. Yes, some hardcore/smart players will stay, but a lot less than a common players. MUDs auditory is special, but even they are needed to being guided at the beginning.

** Aggro mobs in common traveled areas **

To make some test, i just ran all west outside of the west gate on level 4-5. I've head all west and ended in sodden march. Maze, hard to get out and aggro mobs are killing almost instantly. Not friendly at all.

There is a protection for newbies to enter some most dangerous areas; i suggest to do same with some rooms, which are dangerous for newbies and which are in common places (such as sodden march). I don't think it's hard to implement, but it will require some time, no doubt.


That is it. Sorry if i have offended someone again (seems all my posts unintentionaly offending immstaff). So i already apology now for this post, don't shoot!

I, as a new player, loved dying. No joke. When I walked into the goblin camp, accidently bumped into the Troll Commander and I was face-raped - I said 'Badass'.

When I wandered into the swamp in Feanwyn, totally lost myself in this oh so complex 3-4 room maze, got attacked, almost died, then died to hunger/thirst? I said 'Badass'.

As a new player, the unforgiving nature of Carrion Fields is what attracted me to it, it was the atmosphere of "Nobody is going to give you anything - WORK FOR IT" that I really liked. I died ranking, I died walking, I died pretty much every way possible (Including the common "hi butcher" and you attack him).


I don't care too much about the tutorial, either way. I had no trouble making my way through the academy as it is now.

But yeah, my main criticism is that I would likely have lost interest in CF as a new player had it not been so aggressive and beastly.

my first character was a necromancer and i learned how to make lots and lots of corpses. Though i ended up meeting stevers for the first time while he played stevers and we went around hunting Stee as he yelled STEE!! though i had no idea where i was or what i was doing...i think i got him and myself killd so many times it was fun. My favorte newbie death was to a sad puppy...three times

Things were rough, it really was CARRIONFIELDS back then. I learned my way around Thera just because it was IMPOSSIBLE to travel down eastern road unless you were a skilled PKer. You had maybe 1% chance to surive.

And all the mazes, death-traps, aggro-mobs I just thought was awesome! Every single time I was like: Oooh, I've got to figure this out, perhaps there's some super badass item to get when I solve it. (Yeah, even back then I was gear oriented...)

N/T

I live with some very intelligent people who haven't been able to figure out CF yet.

The text-based interface is VERY hard to wrap your brain around when all of your gaming experience is graphic or tabletop. They only have a prayer because they play DnD. The nuances of text commands (what does and doesn't work) as well as the mechanical structure of the game (navigating rooms, knowing what's in them, etc) are difficult to master, as well.

For example, I've seen the following commands all attempted by my newbie roommate:

where am i
open the door
go south
what is here
examine the sign
etc.

It takes perseverance and tutelage.

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Or for a first-hand experience

I think it hooked me too, at least somewhat. But everyone who plays now will say the same - other players, who are not so hardcore/challenge enjoying are not staying (or staying a tiny % of them). So, they even won't give a feedback on this system.

There were requests earlier - how to make CF more attractive for the new players. I'm offering a small improvemnt to the system that will make CF more newbie friendly.

MUDs are very hardcore game itself, and making learning curve not so rough is a good way to bring more new players into the game.

For example, we made a tutorial. It ended after first fight - and by statistics, we had only 7% conversion (very low for a game). But when we added quests that were beginning as soon as tutorial ended, we increased conversion up to 11% (which is quite good). Why? Because in the new realm players are getting lost if they don't have direct tasks - "go there", "do this", "bring that", "kill it" and etc.

Do you know how many players are leaving after first mob death in CF? I don't, and you don't know. You think it's good for you and because of it, it's good for everyone else. But for a casual player who is playing MUD first time, it's not good at all. Will CF become "too soft" if they will die not on level 2 but on 11? No. Will new players have a bigger chance to stay if they would spend more time in the game, understanding it? I think so. I don't say i can garantee that, but from my experience i can say that there are very good chances that i'm right here.

But those are also the players who, once out of this soft-no-pk-zone, will likely leave due to the unforgiving nature that the REST of CF has.


I think the death-rooms, the danger of exploration, etc. is exactly what CF is about - And I think the people leaving during the lowbie ranks of this occurrence would likely leave as soon as this protection was gone anyway.

So, in summary, I think the lowbie-dangers (not the tutorial, per say, but specifically your comment about protection from dangerous areas) is exactly what new players NEED to understand what CF is like/about. It's an introduction of the pain to come, of sorts.

A few fingers in the butt before the fist is shoved in. (why did i add this)

There is a term: learning curve. This learning curve means that casual players are becoming hardcore players, if system is working right.

Easy game, easy quests, easy mobs are becoming slightly harder and harder and harder - and so on. Players are being taught of the game mechanics, secrets, rules, algorythms, tricks and etc.

For now, learning curve of CF looks like this: _|

or this (similar to EVE - replace EVE to CF):



Actually, it's a learning angle :)

Good learning curve looks like this:



*Where end game here is a high-level cabal related content.

You say people will meet the first difficulty and leave the game. This is totally wrong not because only of the learning curve. There are a lot of different hooks that bind player to the game and that can be implemented and already presents in CF (this is why CF is so addictive - if you survive most difficult part - beginning).

You can argue with that, if you like, but we have result: newbies are almost not staying in the game, but if they survive, they stay for years.

Maybe it's just me, but I enjoy the insanely-die-a-lot-column. Again, this may not attract the most people. There are many things that could make the game more mainstream - But don't get put into place as it's not part of the atmosphere of carrion-fields.



So I would prefer the safety aspects be minimal at best.



To get and keep people though, I'll continue as I have - Advertisements + flyers.

JOIN ME IN THE QUEST



And yes, I'm being serious, I adore insane learning curves that destroy me and make me feel like I play as well as a rock would

Perhaps we could convince one of the imms to make a newbie quest in the academy that asks the players to kill a few of the mobs. Or maybe even just a specific mob in the newbie academy. With a very minimal reward, like 2 silver. Which would give them in the quest text the suggestions on how to attack/where to go.

If this were coded properly, so that only people who choose the newbie option at creation can get this quest, I think it would help players that are new to MUDing in general. There are a few quests like this but not any in the newbie academy (that I'm aware of). :)

I've learned to tell them to answer "no" to the newbie question on their first/second characters. Most of the features included in this command actually seem to confuse them more than help them.

The exception is: the first character they take past level 10 should answer yes to that question, because of the newcomer flag on the newbie channel.