Input from a brand new player

[ZoneVortex]

Alright my friend was over the other day and he knows what a Neo addict I am. So I tell him to try it out. He makes a character on Uranus.

Name selection + gender selection + class selection = good. He did fine with that.

Next: Faction selection. He did fine with that too. He understood what he was doing.

Then...
Character speccing.
Here's where he had a problem. He made his monk a 'field medic', which is default ppu and starts with 3 basic ppu spells. However, he said to himself "Hrrrm I want to be APU" so he stuck the field medic's points into APU.
Starts his character....(Has fun playing with outfits, he thought the female monks were sexeh)
Bam. Here he is in mc5. Does not know what to do with the psi gauntlet at first. I don't see how any new player WOULD know what to do with it. I tell him what to do and he realizes for some reason everytime he tries to use a spell it says "You can not use this item yet." So he's like "OMG WTF??!?!" If I hadn't explained to him why he could't use them -- because he specced for APU on a PPU character -- he would have never understood it.

My advice: Make a SPECIFIC DETAILED list of what each subclass i.e. field medic, ambassador, blah blah specializes in, and what items they start out with.

So we deleted his character and I showed him the appropriate monk subclass to pick for APU.

Now with his new shiny APU energy ball thing he was quite happy. Buuuuut.....there's always one problem. He got curious as many new players do and decided to attack the MC5 guard. Luckily he's only armed with a weak uzi and somehow my friend managed to escape through the elevator.

He actually had no problem outside of mc5! As soon as he was out of the building, he said the scenery was really cool. He also saw the huge flashing glaring signs down at the bottom of the ramp (Wonderful job KK) and went to check em out. So he heads off to the 'huntin ground' or something area that the signs state. When he's there, it's just a big field with some snakes/flies and whatnot. He really wasn't impressed by it. Here are his not-exact words of criticism (Not a direct quote, this happened yesterday), "More monsters. Bigger monsters. Different monsters besides the ones I find in my stinkin backyard." He mentioned he wished there was more monster variety/bigger monsters basically.

He knew where to go when he wanted to leave MC5 thanks to the big sign pointing to the GR that said "GEEEENNNNNREEEEPLICATTTTTORRRR" :lol: Again, GOOD JOB on those signs. He was very thankful for them.

Well then we ran out of time so he didn't get to play around outside of MC5, but yeah, there're some tips for making this game more newbie friendly.

[GurTjaN]

hehe its handy to let a testdummy play and see through the eyes of a noob so kk can see how they can do better good post hope kk's reads it and get a good idea of how hard it is as a newbie to start playing...

i hear alot that the beginning is tough and mostly not enough explaination i ran into this guy in the sewer who i had to tell what his ranks mean, and he was like 10/11 and he still didnt know now thats not his fault its the fault of the bad explaination in the beginning and maybE thats why alot of ppl hook off cuz they dont get the game i mean how can a game be fun if u dont understand ?

//GurT

[Original monk]

i enjoyed reading this and yeah youre mate is absolutely right (especially the gauntlet and killing the mc5 guard/commander also the small scorpions etc from he's backyard) KK should read this and maybe even let one off their friends that didnt play before do the game. they could learn alot from it. good job 5 stars :)

edit: not to forget the 2 guards outside with their laserpistols :) like very noob dies of em :)

[MjukisDjur]

RTFM?

Edit:

Btw, I have some crap in my bookshelf called Asherons Call, Dark Majesty. There you can talk about sucky instructions / mobs etc. Neocron is god like compared :)

[KidWithStick]

what they need to do is let you pick your OWN starting out items, not just your profession chooses it...

when i was helping that person who knew nothing he wanted to use rifles, and even specced for it, but he started with a pistol... this needs to change.

when i first started playing in beta i chose to be a monk, i had NO CLUE what i was doing, but my friend executor (some OLD people might remember him) told me how to do things, i was shouting things like WTF i cant use nothing, i had no clue that the red spells mean you cant use them....i thought all spells were just red. i had no clue what to do with a glove...etc...

[MjukisDjur]

Let everyone begin with a stiletto :p

[Omni X]

Originally posted by MjukisDjur
RTFM?

Edit:

Btw, I have some crap in my bookshelf called Asherons Call, Dark Majesty. There you can talk about sucky instructions / mobs etc. Neocron is god like compared :)

The manual that comes with the game is useless. It doesn't give you one single bit about the professions, thus you are left totally guessing. The manual doesn't even MENTION MC5, since, at the time of original release, you were just dumped into your apartment. What I find sad is the the manual they have online, is not even updated. The manual is of no use these days.

Geez, I see posts like this, just about every day. When will KK get off their duff and update things. How hard is it for a person to spend a day or 2 updating the online manual and adding info, like what is at neocron.ems.ru. How hard is it to put a BIG BOLD link in the startup window telling people to read the NEWLY UPDATED manual and that the printed one is outdated.

[jnky]

Hey i got an idea......

Throw mc5 noob area back into the bin of stupid ideas it came from and do thus:
Let all noobs start in there apt's, tell them how to use the chat system and let them go and ask some one, like the way we all did.

Personally wandering around the city talking to people and wondering what the fuck i was doing had me booking days off work and not thinking "what the fuck is this shit !"

you kept us lot and you are (apparently) loosing noobs, not too hard to work out imo.

but thats just my opinion ô_ô

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by jnky
Hey i got an idea......

Throw mc5 noob area back into the bin of stupid ideas it came from and do thus:
Let all noobs start in there apt's, tell them how to use the chat system and let them go and ask some one, like the way we all did.

Personally wandering around the city talking to people and wondering what the fuck i was doing had me booking days off work and not thinking "what the fuck is this shit !"

you kept us lot and you are (apparently) loosing noobs, not too hard to work out imo.

but thats just my opinion ô_ô

This isn't a bad idea. I think someone has suggested something similar before, but maybe you spawn in your apt, classless with low everything. You can use whatever you're qualified to use and XP is distributed evenly. Classless players cap at level 10 for all attributes. You are not allowed to leave the Plaza, Viarosso, TH, MB, or TG canyon until you visit some sort of training area. Until you have chosen your class, there is a mission-beacon directing you to the closest training center. Yeah, the whole starting equipment thing needs to be revamped too.

[Mingerroo]

My opinion:

The speccing screen should give a description of each skill when you hover over it, what it affects, and which classes need which skills the most.

Then,a after character creation, you can pick four items from a list of default starter items, each with a detailed description of what it does, whether or not you can use it, and which skills it is primarily based on and which classes are best suited to it (kind of like a shop list).

That way, character creation is much more refined to the players needs, as well as being much more effective/useful.

[ZoneVortex]

Really, I'd hope KK would take a look at this thread. Or do what someone suggested of havin a friend make a character and don't give them any help...

It'd make the game much more newbie friendly and that's not somethin you can say it is now when you look at server populations

[msdong]

hmm, i think the only thing that is nedded is a manual included with the D/L version.
i know: "manuals are only for ppl to lazy to try" but this game is not sonic where it dosent matter what char u use.
the bad thing is n00bs dont know about the possibilities of RPOS to get info about items so they dont see how to check stats.
*makes a note to add this to the beginners manual*

btw. any programmers out there wanna do an RPOS simulator :) ??

[Dirus]

Useful websites and resources (http://neocron2.jafc.de/showthread.php?threadid=67327)

List of Startup Equipment is in that Thread. It was in it's own Thread originally but got merged into that one.

As for the manual. It is currently in the process of being re-written. No ETA on it.

[Dribble Joy]

WINNAR!!!!!!

Thats nice to hear.
I like ming's idea quite a lot.
Hera's idea is good, but RP wise suddenly changing your class/genetic makup seems... wrong. Also tanks would have capped PSI far quicker than normal, and before they even left their starting area.

[JiNxY]

i tried to introduce my friend, after many hours of downloading the client (had to do it twice cos first time from file planet it was corrupt)

he then set about getting the patches.. he got the patches, had the same patching problems as every1 gets.

then he had the problem where it says, please use the update launcher thingy, so anyway, as youve all already had before, he has a problem with this aswell. he then got into the game, black synch, came out, went back in, normal synch with all basic character stats (cant move, im sure u know the 1)
logs out, uninstalls....

after all my effort helping him along, and persuading him to play (as he really would enjoy it) he just gave up.
because most games you just click the install button and hey presto.... neocron requires alot of effort, and if you dont have somebody talking you through it, it CAN be a nightmare IMO.

i remember when i first logged on ever, and was stuck in synch, no matter how many times i relogged. i nearly quit then aswell (but id payed my money and i'll be damned if i waste money lol)

but people who are using the trial have nothing to lose by just giving up.

can all the patches not be put into the install maybe?

anyway, my fiends official word on neocron was "to be honest i want to have fun playing a game not spend hours just trying to get the damn thing to work"