A way to interest new players - The great island of the gifted

[imported_Ssilmath]

I have heard that TulgAE is designing a new training island, and I thought I'd put in my two cents for a way I think would capture the interest of new players...It wouldn't be a clone of the current islands, though would have some similar elements...Well, here goes...

First of all, the island would need to be large, maybe even as large as Lesser Aradoth, and be somewhat circular in shape, though of course would be naturally misshapen to keep it seem less artificial...it would be divided into two parts...the crafting half and the adventuring half...in the crafting half and near the entrance to the adventuring would be the town, and in the town would be the trainers for all basic classes...

You start out in a tutorial area much like the current one, except it does not have any trainers...it teaches you movement, speaking to NPC's, trading, /who, different commonly used items and their uses (IBM's, Lore Tokens, tech comps, formulas, techs, food and ambrosia), binding/recalling and some very basic Istarian Lore...From there, you port out to The Great Island of the Gifted...

You arrive in town, surrounded by NPC's, shops, trainers and hopefully other players...Back in the tutorial, you are given a quest to talk to the overseer of the island, an adult Helian dragon (Nothing against Lunus, just less conflict early on)...this dragon will then give you a quest right away, to seek out your races steward...from there, you follow the directions to that part of the town, and talk to your races steward...that NPC will give you lore including history (I would get with the players to work this out), abilities, traits, prefered classes and weapons and will give you the first of your items, a set of racial clothing that gives a small boost to your racial stats...you are then sent back to the overseer...

At this point the Overseer will ask you wether you want to learn about adventuring or crafting...lets say you choose adventuring first...

Now the overseer asks you which adventure class you want to play...they will give you a description of each of the basic classes (Warrior, Scout, Mage, Cleric, Druid, Spiritist andMonk) along with directions of where to find the said trainer...then you get a quest to speak with the trainers and choose a class, then come back...

Now, each of the adventure trainers is in a different part of the town, but they operate the same as a tutorial trainer until you have chosen a class and gotten to level 2...then they become a normal trainer and will start giving quests...Also, they will have plenty of lore for that class (History, role in a group, a story about that class at the Battle of Tazoon) and a breif description of that classes prestige classes and hybrids...Once you have done this and maybe even gone off adventuring for a while, you return to the Overseer and talk about crafting...

The same thing that works for adventure would apply for crafting, with job descriptions, lore, prestiges, etc...you can do either adv or craft first, doesn't matter at all...

Dragons would be sent to the dragon trainers, where they would be introduced to lore, Helian and Lunus trainers for both adv and craft with different quests given out by each...if you ever introduce different dragon classes, it should be alluded to that they are out there, but not accessable for a young hatchling...

Now, at this point you may think that that would be all, but you are wrong, haha... For there are more NPC's that the Overseer will send you too...there will be people like Drevin the Aegisbane, a paladin that gives info on Aegis forces... Grimgnaw the ranger, an expert on animal and humanoid mobs, and Riln thewizard who can instruct you in the art of fighting golems and treants...

Also, on the other side of town, is an eclectic group who call themselves the <Craft> Instructors...Wildin - Miner Instructor is a miner that explains alloys, gemcraftingand stone working...Adria -Gatherer Instructor is a gatherer who will go into detail on how to spin cloth, tan leather, collect woodand gather essence... And Boddykimble the Tinkerer Instructor will explain cargo gear, backpacks, pouches, satchels, cargo disks, and will even be so kind asto give out a free training cargo disk...

The resource areas will be divided into sections of course, with the minerals in canyons and on hills and such, while the organic resources will be in meadows and non harvestable forests...but in addition to having closely grouped spawns, they will have overlapping areas, and have work stations with both finishing machines in the field...also, for the organic areas...have it be one large forest, with quite a few nonharvestable trees, and lots of harvestable cedars spawning all over the place and thick, like Elmnic's spawn...where the two areas meet, have a decent intermingling of the resources...it will help immensly with immersion...oh, and don't forget little things like lore NPC's, teaching NPC's,ponds, huts, the occasional mob spawn and even non harvestable, eye candy only cratures...

Now, on the other side of the island things are different...first of all, a wall has been built to keep the nasties at bay, and guards have been posted so that newly gifted can walk in and hone their skills...

Right at the entrance would be the three adventuring advice givers, who would then point you to their pie wedge of the monster area...just beyond the gate would be the normal maggots and spiderlings, but then they would move out further to one of three areas, the borders intermeshed...

To the immediate left would be the golem/treant area...a cedar forest would be first (Harvestable and non), with several spawn points for cedar treants...these treants would either move to a spot and stand still, waiting in ambush, or they would go on a patrol...interspersed would be a few lesser wood golems...Just beyond would be the Golem Caverns, an underground area filled with stone, metal and gem golems, levels 1-15, and at the end would be a named golem...Of course, there would also be harvestable resourse nodes, and some that are just eye candy...along the edge of the next zone, the Aegis zone, would be blighted golems, just golems with a different skin...

In the next area you come across the undead zone, with everything ranging from blights to skeletons to zombies and even some mummies further in...the terain would need to be adequately blighted, with wierd trees and creepy huts...The spawn for this area would be a blight anchor which spits out mobs a little bit after they are killed and sends them to their patrol paths...this would keep the area full of juicy mobs...at the end would be the Aegis Lieutenant and his zombie guard inside their fortress, which would be a decent fight for a group of 10-15's...At the border of the Aegis and animal area would be the tarantulas and Fyakki...

Next is the animal/humanoid area, filled with spiders spawning from nests, beetles spawning from eggsacs, wolves spawning from dens, grass skulks spaning in their encampmentand pygmies spawning from their stone fortress...this area would need to be a combination grass and forest, with cedars, deer, flax and some wisps spawning as well...the named mob here would be an ogre and his pygmy guards...

Now, in order to prevent high levels from walking in and taking out the anchor or the named for loot, if you arerated higherthan 15 you cannot harm any mob, nor heal any characters, nor rez...you can only show the way and speak with the young gifted...

Now, the consigner would need to be much larger than what we currently have...imho, you should be able to put up two full suits of armor of each kind (Plate, chain, scale, ring, cloth, padded cloth, hide and leather)...This would keep the connies stocked (I hope) by allowing the higher levels to put up a mass of goods at one connie and leave it be for a while...this will do nothing but help the beginners...however, you cannot put any higher than tier I goods on this connie, to prevent abuses...

Now comes the final part...volunteer players who will spend perhaps two hours a day, two days a week in this beginner area (Two or three of these people at a time)...rating would have to be above 50, they would have to go through a screening process (Will they just recruit the beginner to their guild and then power level them?Will they roleplay and immerse the beginner with lore and an interest in game? Will they be nice at least to some?)

I am sure there are things I have missed, so if anyone has any suggestion, please add them in...

[Ixalmaris]

I disagree that it should be large. It should be small.

So, the new players will constantly meet other players and so they get the impression that the game isn't completly deserted.

Also it was a problem from the beginning (imo) that the tutorial islands were too "good". Just look where people harvest tier 1 ressources, in the real game or on a tutorial island.

How you describe it, this tutorial island would replace the real game.

[Aquarius]

I like it alot, seems like pretty good layout.

But limiting lvls to 15 seems uneccesary.. atleast if its a beginners island.. i doubt the loot would be all that, nothing a *uber* lvl 30 would want i suspect [:P]

disagree that it should be large. It should be small.

So, the new players will constantly meet other players and so they get the impression that the game isn't completly deserted.

If all things he describes are to fit in there it needs to be pretty big.. maybe like lesser aradoth.. And replace the game.. i dont think so,its only supposed to be for lvl 1-15.

[Kulamata]

There is a another thread, started by David Bowman, asking for suggestions for a Dragon training island; it had someexcellentideas in it too.

I am in favor of one island, for both hatchlings and bipeds. And I agree strongly that it should be very attractive. I beta'd in New Trismus (with various names) so I am partial to that layout. But all four islands have some nice features, and it might save a lot of work to combine the features; the harbor in NB, the graveyard and blight temple from New Trismus, the little skeleton area from NB, etc. etc. I think the island need be no larger, or not much larger, than the current training islands. And it should have some nifty stuff; a little elven architecture, a miniature spiral city??

As above, it needs to be possible to revisit parts of the tutorial. Many hunt for a few days, before starting crafting, and then have forgotten about formulas, scribing them, and a lot of of other details.

The recycled armor vendors that will be coming in will be a great help. Perhaps a title for volunteers who spend a certain amount of time teaching? With levels? Helper, Guide, mentor, guru, savant?

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

First of, yes, yes, yes. I've been thinking about the beginner islands, and threw around many of the ideas Ssil just gave, namely:

-ONE beginner island. Right now players congregate Brommel since elder players love it for tier I resources. (Although Geneva island is much better for bronze and sandstone) Players are spread out enough as is, and right now if a newbie picks the 'wrong' island, and never discovers the chat channels, they think only one or two people play this game.

-Encorperate memorable parts of the previous islands into one large island. The Vassarack Waterfall, the Northern Tip of Trismus, the Cliffs of Brommel, these features are what stick out in my mind from the newbie islands. There is enough themed terrain and models to stuff a single island with, and polish it until the grass shines.

-All machines relatively near resource fields. 'Nuff said

Also it was a problem from the beginning (imo) that the tutorial islands were too "good". Just look where people harvest tier 1 ressources, in the real game or on a tutorial island.

I disagree, I think that if you limited the content of a new beginner isle to about level 15 adventure and about 10-20 craft, you can encourage players to set off for the rest of the world.

One idea would be to make a quest for players that have past the 'range' of skill the island can comfortably support. Say after you hit 10 or 15 in any school, a major NPC starts giving out a quest for you to research Lesser Aradoth, thereby introducing (modified, right now LA isn't so great for tier I) fields on LA that are better than those on the beginner isle, but aren't effective if the player is still in the low sub-ten ranges. Possibly make the resource monsters less dense and weaken them a little bit, at least to the point where a crafter in cargo with about 15 adventure levels can comfortably beat the heck out of any nasties guarding nodes.

All in all, there's a lot of room for improvement in the beginner game, and I don't think it'll be too difficult to make things a whole lot better.