The New Player Experience
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I would like to reply on the flip side.
You have to understand that the server only lets you go to 10th level and you start out at 4th. So to start out with you can only go up 6 levels. It's definitely not a powergaming server although powergamers do have a big advantage over roleplayers in the way they build their characters.
On most servers the admins set you to go to top level in 8 months to a year of regular playing. I know this is true for the 8 or 9 servers I worked on as a dm/admin through the years.
the city of arabel encourages pcs interacting with other pcs being that this is a heavy faction based server. It requires the player themselves to take a step back and think about how the server works. It's very different from most other servers and in that is where it's true charm lies. I know myself. I was very confused at first and have worked on or reviewed dozen of servers over the years.
My suggestion is to be somewhat patient. Play your character to the best of your ability and the dms will pick you up and help you have a great experience as you play.
I personally have had such great experiences on this server overall that I'm sticking with it even though am backlogged on several reviews myself for various pws I need to get too. The dms are so generally good on this server that I'm willing to stick around and do my reviews more slowly so as to get some playtime here because it is worth it.
thank you.
Winterhawk 99 -
I appreciate your comments, and I'd like to address a few of them myself.
I'm not certain why powergaming entered the discussion as that's a separate matter so I'm going to focus on your other thoughts instead. Having said that, I'm also not sure where I suggested that "reaching the top level" is the goal here. How long it takes on Arabel to reach level 10 is largely irrelevant to this discussion, as this merely pertains to the new player experience. I'd argue that hitting level 8 is a far more pressing concern (for reasons I won't delve into here), and that progression to level 8 should be relatively speedy while reaching level 10 should take far longer. But I digress, as mentioned above I'm mostly concerned with how it feels as a new player (or in this case, a returning player) to spend their first day on the server.
On that note, I'm glad you brought up that Arabel is a faction-heavy setting that encourages players to interact with each other. I fully agree that is part of the server's charm. However, that is unfortunately a part of every other successful roleplay-heavy Persistent World server's charm as well. It is not unique to Arabel that the DM team works to foster interactions between players (although they do a great job doing so, and are likely one of the main reasons players continue to roleplay here) and have implemented a number of in-game factions to drive conflict. The question then is not "what is Arabel's charm," but rather "how do we get players to stay long enough to experience Arabel's version of this charm?" It appears that we might be having two different conversations.
I'm happy to hear that you've had a positive experience on this server and hope you continue to do so. It's great to see new faces around here. But it's regrettably undeniable that the server has experienced a significant drop in players and I believe some of this can be attributed to the new player experience. There is, in my opinion, nothing lost by making the new player's experience a bit more exciting and streamlined. This helps newer players find their feet and allows veteran players to get past one of the initial hurdles when creating a new character with ease. And it is especially helpful for players new and veteran alike logging on during less populated hours.
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I completely agree with @Acemvi 's idea. Doing all the starter quests should be a milestone, and should be rewarded with level 5. (It can get slower from that on, but you get the idea) The quest giver sending them to another is also a neat idea, to have something to direct the player between quests if they are new to the server.
I think the OOC dialog about discord & forums can come sooner, or being as a dialog option in all starter quests after turning in, like (OOC: I want to know more about the server) or something like this. -
I agree with the comments. To level up fast you NEED to do the ants quest with players at a higher level. It is not that bad, but a lot of lowbie quests are essentially pointless. You get no loot and no xp. There needs to be better progression right the way up to level 8 or 9.
I'd also say as someone who is something of a veteran of v6, I am beginning to get lost in terms of the setting outside of Misrim and Crimson. The setting needs to get back on track asap.
Corvid consortium are still there but cant be interacted with?
Vigilant Sun are not gone but cant be played?
rabble rousers are gone and dont exist?
tower can be interacted with but cant be played?If Rabble Rousers are no more and palace are silent - does that mean misrim and crimson guard call the shots? Is there a lawbook? There presumably is something of a law since if you are a Cormyr loyalist, you will die.
I dont really know how a new player can navigate any of this since none of the text has changed. My own character's concept seems to have been made completely redudant and no longer fitting the setting after being rolled. There is even a mechanical element - I have an item I cant drop because im a member of the rabble rousers, but they no longer exist
My big fear is that apps will become increasingly outlandish and OP (like at the end of v5) instead of flavourful and in line with the setting to compensate for these confusing disruptions in the setting, and we end up with app'd PCs from veteran players with absolutely insane stats and loot wandering around killing everything
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The faction shakeup was ultimately necessary for the health of the server in my opinion, but I have to agree with some of the sentiments here but in a different way.
Everything that is written down about the setting points towards these two factions having a major conflict over control of the city, but nothing in the game represents this conflict. Quests are largely independent of the narrative and rarely even reference the setting (Even less so now that certain quest givers have left factions).
A starting quest chain should, above all else, reinforce the themes of the setting. Making it so that the xp gets you all or most of the way to 5 as an introduction and safety net is a nice bonus, but I think that using this as an opportunity to introduce the setting to new players in an interactive way is just as important.
Existing quests should be considered for a redesign with this in mind as well, but that's a topic for another day.
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Literally no clue what HellzYeah is referring to when he says "everthing that is written down about the setting points toward these two factions having a major conflict". Nothing in-game suggests this.
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I think Hellz brings up a good point that the "New Player Experience" (NPE) should also teach a player about the setting. Starter quests should have dialogue that refers to the houses and other such factions in both positive and negative lights so that when a player is given the option to join one of them at the end of the quest chain, they already have some idea as to which sound like a good fit for their character.
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This is a neat idea. Anyone volunteering to take this on?
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I'd be happy to write down some dialogue and submit it for review. Someone else would have to copy-paste it into the module, though.
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Perfect. If you want to string together an interesting quest progression and some IC guidance from a new player POV we can flesh out the details (if you are unsure) and add it to the module as we can.
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Sounds good. I'll try to write something up over the next few days and PM you on Discord.
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:smiling_face_with_sunglasses:
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Went ahead and updated the dialogues since it was taking a while.
@SpiffyMeister
the real bench mark for success is if you seduce a puffy pc or npc
@Prof-Misclick
Puffy said "Don't you trust me? Then vote yes NERD!"
#scaredofstrongwomen -
Since it seems I’m back for the time being, I’d like to take a crack at this again, unless anyone has objections.
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Puffy said she updated stuff, granted that was in July and maybe things have changed some.
Players still have the option of spawning in the Faceless where there is a fetch quest that gets the player to explore parts of the city.
There are "Help Wanted" signs in the middle of the first area players encounter after leaving the Faceless for the first time. There are also "Help Wanted" signs outside the north gate.
Several other quests say in their dialogue things like Lana (Potion Shop Quest): "Well, I can fix that up in a jiffy! Here's your reward! If you need more work, there is a nervous halfling just to the South of here needing some help."So I think most of your idea has been implemented already.
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Yep, there is a little merry go-around of hints where to go
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Missed that comment, lovely to see.
