Thinking about new players

Having recently gone through the new player experience, I've been trying to think about what is missing for new players.

My thought is that whilst I don't want to hold peoples hands, if a new player buys the game, then they should at least have some kind of information so that they don't just derp the whole way through unintentionally.

The crucible experience has been massively improved, and you now leave with 2 weapons, which is great. Talismans are not really explained at any point, including crafting them. You get to craft a glyph and a weapon, but talismans are not part of that.

Many players have no idea that we run at 1970 hp in NM gear, as in most games hp bloat is just standard - but at no point is there any kind of mechanic or anything that tells them that hp isn't necessarily needed.

There's issues with people thinking that the premade decks are great too :\

I think we should be trying to keep stuff positive, as telling people they are wrong and suck isn't helpful.

What do other people think we should be telling new players - and how?

I'm using this post as a bit of a notepad to get thoughts down as they come to me, please, feel free to contribute and discuss anything which anyone thinks is relevant.

In terms of talismans, we only find out through playing that we don't need much hp. It's not always obvious that a green item is a tank piece or a dps piece.

AoE damage vs single target damage is not really mentioned. If you don't have advanced tooltips, then many of the builders simply say moderate damage for both - like wildfire and ignite both doing "moderate" damage when ignite does nearly double wildfire's damage.

and thinking they can impair the bosses whenever they want...

boss impairing is something that's less worrying, as at least they've managed to get into a group for a dungeon. There are always going to be certain mechanics which have to be experienced to know about, otherwise there's too much hand holding.

Plus frankly there's no reason why the tank has to be the one to handle impairs, it's simply the way that most groups are used to doing it.

I can't comment on what it is like now, I hear they have made the starting zones easier for new players. But before anyway I would have encouraged anyone to complete the whole "town" before moving on. It is tempting for some to want to get to speed with their cabal as fast as humanly possible. However following the main story would lead you into zones with enemies far more powerful than your gear can handle. And at the end of the day it is all good content.

Try and have some order to your inventory early on using multiple bags

Well we can use our site and tswdb to help new players, but without proper GUI in-game that will still be something only a minority will read.

The game should change the decks to community created ones, keep the names and art, but change it to something useful. Then add in-game gear sets to match the decks, a gear set would contain stats needed to be effective with the deck. Improve descriptions, so that it's clear if deck is meant for solo or group play etc. But I think that gear sets would go a long way in explaining the stats to a lot of people along with HP, AR and HR balance.

If we are just going to make some community content to help new players, I'd suggest that we go back and make effective decks and gear sets for the different zones. So we have Kingsmouth deck and gear set, Savage Coast etc. Could be a fun a project for a few people. We can then write it all up and spread the gospel.

Using some of the mods early doors so you are familiar with them when they are more useful, could be a tip too.

a few things that have come to mind as I've observed the daughters play TSW again (they started at beta, but are still very new 🙂 ):

• balance of stats on talis: how much HP do you need? It's not exactly obvious that increasing your health necessarily decreases your damage done - and the natural reaction of the newer player is ' wear more health' when in fact 'wear less health and do more damage' is likely the better option.

• builds. the starter builds are pants; the elite builds (which are decent, at least) don't open up until Tokyo. where to put your points is a question I've received quite frequently of late 🙂

• picking and re-picking up quests, the faction quests in particular. some sort of reminder that there's a paused faction quest would be a good thing.

I've noticed, however, that the new player experience has certainly worked: both daughters have started TSW twice before, neither got past the Ak'abs on either try. Both have now entered Beseiged Farmlands this time round, so that (the new player adjustments) have worked for them.

Hlop's idea for community-built (or cabal-built) region decks/gear sets is a good one: something to give the new player an idea of what sort of abilities and gear they should be aiming for. Failing that, a few decent rules of thumb (like 'between 3k and 4k health' or 'increase all your skills at the same time') would be useful: something easy to remember that the new player can adopt without first having to go all grognard (speaking as an old-school grognard, of course!)

This game has a bit of a learning curve in the beginning compared to a lot of MMOs, I think mainly due to the open nature of the skill building tree.

One thing players often don't realize when starting off is that they can have passives from any weapon, regardless of which they have equipped. A lot of people do get directed to the "My first 60" builds, which I think helps.

I think Kingsmouth is a good place for people to experiment with different weapons, because at this stage of the game it's very cheap to do so. Later while still leveling, it becomes difficult because of an SP barrier. New players can turn around and go back in the Crucible to pick up any weapon they want to try out while in KM.

I think there is also some confusion in the beginning when leveling up gear. I remember being confused when talismans first started dropping, and I didn't know what Major or Minor Talismans were. I'm sure most people figure it out in Kingsmouth, but I've seen posts from people in SC and BM who are struggling because they either have only leveled up weapons and ignored talismans, or have points spread all over weapons and their talismans fall way behind.

I think it would also be useful to introduce people to the idea of having a solo build as well as a dungeon build, and how they can level both with the amount of AP and SP that comes with leveling.

This is all stuff for super new players that are just starting off.
Once people start getting close to QL 10, I think there's another tier of "new player stuff." This is where stats and the 1970 HP become more important. Not to say that stats aren't important earlier on, but at a higher level they need to become more refined.