Improving the beginner experience
So these are my ideas for improving the start up-phase of the game. This part needs a lot of improvement if the goal is to bring in some new players, and make them stick. We want them to be able to level with a minimum of extra work at least the first 20-30ish lvls until they can make decent money by themselves, and this also gives them time to get to know the game and meet players that can help them.
I know that the current focus is balancing, but the beginner experience is important for new players to stick around. I´ve tried to make the suggestions as easy to implement as possible, the idea being to make it as easy as possible for the GMs to do this.
Here we go:
1. Dump people straight into their apartments, so they can get straight to doing the Jones mission. Also, specify in the mission text in that the F9 Navray can help guide them to the locations the mission sends them to. Dispense of noob-MC5 entirely, at least until some work can be put in to improve it. A noob starter area is a fine idea when there is actually some stuff to do that is easily understood for new players, but MC5 as it is is just a waste of time. Any experienced player will tell noobs to just leave MC5 at once, so there is a big consensus on this!
2. Station some low lvl quest NPCs in each sector of the city. The missions they give can be exactly the same as the missions that are given on the Citycom. Rat missions, plant missions, you know the kind of low lvl missions that are available.
For instance, near a sewer entrance there can be an NPC that gives out a small sewer rat mission, or a mission for the spiders you find in a lvl 1 sewer. (He could present himself as a shopkeeper that has trouble with rats or spiders in his stores, and asks the runner to help him with his problem for a small compensation. This is to make low lvl missions more accessible, and to populate the city with NPCs that you can actually have some interaction with.
I would also like to see some sort of effort put into the Outzone sectors, where there are almost completely dead caves (sidestreets) that could be populated with mobs to make city levling experience a bit more than just sewers and then aggie cellars in P1 and P2. I would also like to see a few NPCs that give missions relevant to whatever mobs can be found in these sidestreets and in the outzone sector they are in.
3. Anyone who has started from scratch know how much of a hassle it can be getting those first few weapons. If it´s a bitch for players who know what they are actually doing, how much harder is it for the completely green player with no NC experience? Why not make weapons more accessible up to lvl say 30-35-40? I propose to either:
–A Make NPCs that give you a mission with a weapon as a reward (it doesn´t have to be a great weapon, 99% quality or anything, but 70ish with the possibility of a slot to get an ammo mod or a damage mod)
or
–B Place a few "constructing NPCs" around the city. The idea would be that you could bring these guys a shitty weapon bought from a store, and then by doing a mission for them, you get it "fixxed up" to a better quality so it becomes usable.
Of course, there should be some sort of mechanism that makes sure this isn´t exploited for money, so I´d like for the sale prices of these weapons to be very low if they are sold to say Yo´s or whatever.
4. Clean up the starter setups so they don´t force people to LoM. Giving noobs skills they won´t want to keep is useless.
Driver for instance has points in Hacking, weapon lore and implanting under intelligence, noone uses this kind of setup. Some setups give you 6 repair at the beginning, which is going to get you nowhere. Completely pointless.
5. Some sort of introduction to the skill system. Maybe place a few NPCs that are profession coaches. One that tells the basic of what skills affect Heavy Combat, another that explains constructing and researching, one that gives info on rifle combat. Again, this will populate the city with NPCs you can interact with, making it look less dead, and can make information more accessible to new players.
6. Make it really clear that starting a character as City Merc or Twilight Guardian is only advisable if you have experience with the game.
7. Make weapons more accessible. You don´t need to have the smuggler system be as extensive as it is at the moment. Below lvl 60 at least, maybe even 70, you shouldn´t have to search that hard, or traverse the entire map in some cases, for a weapon. Just have them in hews/boobs and guns/archer and wesson. It´s an unnecessary complication for low lvl runners. You don´t have to do it for armor or drugs, why should you for weapons? Smugglers should be high lvl items in my mind.
That´s all I have for now, looking forward to some input.
