Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Publish 8 Feedback: Enhanced New User Experience
DeQuosaek
Wed Apr 28, 2004 7:44 pm
#27
Love the new player experience. It's a vast improvement. It also reminds me how fun it can be to just start a new character and see what you've been missing with different species, skills, etc.
One note: Could we get the helper droids to follow a little less closely? They always end up clipping my character, and that just looks bad. Maybe a few meters follow distance would be more appropriate. I don't know if this is an overall pet problem or not. I thought that was taken care of.
Regardless... Great job with this latest patch. Keep up the great work, and thank you for all the hard work that goes into making this game fun. There are more people that appreciate it than you know. 
aphonia
Wed Apr 28, 2004 8:26 pm
#28
all around i like the new publish, but forcing characters to start in mos eisley is the dumbest thing in the world. honestly, if i wanted to friggin start there i would select it. but now if i create a new toon i have to waste that travel voucher right away just to get to tyrena. smooth move.
GonkSevenT3
Thu Apr 29, 2004 10:50 am
#29
WolfwoodCross wrote:
I love the new newbie quests. The fact that they start on my favorite Planet/City is just icing on the cake!
Some things I noticed though.
The Marksman, Scout, and Brawler quests are all relatively easy to complete (which makes sense), but I have a few issues with the Artisan, Medic, and Entertainer quests.
I've never been an Artisan, so maybe I'm worng, but the time it took to mine 75 units of metal and 40 units of chemical took FOREVER. Frankly, it was just boring to me, and took like an hour itself, while the entire course of Marksman, Scout, and Brawler took like 45 minutes each. I'd suggest lowering the number of crafted weapons, or 5 items that take less resources to craft. But once again, I'm no Artisan, so maybe to them this is fun. Get feedback from them too ^_^
With the Medic and Entertainer quests, there are simply no people to help you finish these quests. I can't diagnose a patient in a Hospital if there are no patients in the Hospital. I also can't entertain 7 players in a Cantina if their are no players in the Cantina.
For the Medic Quest, I suggest making a NPC in the Mos Eisley Medical Center that a player can use all of his abilities on, so that they can get a feel for the class, without having to rely on the off chance that a player will be using that Hospital.
For the Entertainer Quest, once again, I suggest using NPCs, in the same vain as a typical Entertainer quest. New Entertainers should be sent to the Mos Eisley Cantina to jam with/for the Cantina Band (which is very Star Warsy, BTW). Once again, allow players to get a feel for the class without having to rely on the off chance that another player will be using that Cantina.
I also have some suggestion for the new helper droid. Basically, I love the little guy, and I'd love to see his usage and lifespan broadened (let me recharge him!), but those are concept posts, so they will go into the In-Concept Forum.
Good Job Guys
Those are good ideas. I admit I thought it would be pretty hard to find so many people to entertain or heal. I don't even remember the last time I saw a doc or medic in a hospital. SO it stands to reason if the healers aren't ever there the wounded sure as heck won't be.
DeQuosaek
Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:06 pm
#30
Also in creating a new character I'm noticing an old GUI bug again. The travel points on the map do not match with the cities on the map. The map is scaled much bigger. I play the game at 1280 x 1024. If you click on the "show galactic map" button and then on the "show planetary map" button it re-aligns them.
DeQuosaek
Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:40 pm
#31
I was lucky enough to have a medical droid given to me and as I completed the last part of the medic new player task I had my helper droid stored and my medic droid out and I healed the 5th patient and afterwards I got the message "You already have the maximum number of droids out" (not exact wording, but you know) over and over and over until I stored my medical droid so that the helper droid could auto call itself to congratulate me. This may confuse new players if they happen to find themselves in this situation.
Incidentally, Intrepid seems to have a very friendly and helpful population.
John773
Thu Apr 29, 2004 8:29 pm
#32
I have a bounty hunter on Kettemoore and started a new wookie marksman toon to check it out. I like it. I wish something like this would have been implemented when the game came out.
hasibert
Sat May 01, 2004 4:26 pm
#33
I have a suggestion:
Now with Mos Esely as the starting city for new players, you're next city revamp should be that city. So new players will find some cool quests or other content just at the beginning of their journey in SWG. You should add quests that are easy (so new players can solve them), but also interesting for elder players.
Think about it
Galtarthc
Mon May 03, 2004 2:40 am
#34
I notice alot of positive feed back on this... now for the annoyances. I'm an experienced player and holo grinder currently. I picked up brawler to continue my grind and I got the little R2 unit. So I though "ok lets try this out" First off there are no unarmed quests or assistance (which is what I was doing first) so I tried out a few of the quests and got bored. Now my problems start. I coudln't get rid of the stuipd droid. I stored it, and it would call itself out. I destroyed it... and it came back. It wouldn't stay gone until I got my first skill box in brawler. I'll admit this was only 15 minutes... but 15 minutes of it trying to get me back on track to learn how to use one handed lunge was more than unpleasant. You need a "go away and never come back" option. Or better yet an option that will prevent them from ever showing up again in the future. How about a flag for experienced players. I've been at this since August at least, I think I don't need a helper droid if I drop brawler and pick it up again in the future.
LadyCelestine
Tue May 04, 2004 8:42 am
#35
TH, I think this change is FANTASTIC!!!!!
The newbie tutorial is still a great intro, and looks awesome. But the helper droid (and it's bonuses) are the perfect in-game tutorial! It's even better than the orientation sessions held back in beta! I haven't checked, but I would trust this droid does not count against your droid datapad max.
I haven't tested all the options yet, but here's my feedback:
- The rewards (extra xp, money) are perfect for new characters. Plus it teaches them that running missions pays, instead of begging. 
- The bonus items (travel/clone voucher, rental vehicle) are another great way to introduce some of the other aspects that are only touched on in the tutorial (or not at all). However, I don't recall it mentioning the newbie exemption when trying to use the clone voucher. (Admittedly, Imight have missed it.)
- Getting your choice of starter weapon is PERFECT! You know you're still a newbie, but now it's more flexible so you can start on your desired profession without haivng to earn a lot of cash first.
- Getting the basic items for a profession (like a crafter for scout to make camps) is also perfect! Same reason as the weapons.
I don't agree that it's annoying for experienced players with new characters. (A) You get extra xp for the missions, and (B) one button click on "no, thanks,I don't need help" is all it takes for me to get rid of it. However, I do think there should be an optional checkbox for some kind of "don't come back unti I call you" status. I'm not focusing on the missions for the new professions it wants, so having to tell it to go away every time I log on can be a little bit tiresome.
The only other thing I noticed is that it doesn't/can't check your character's history, xp or inventory. I got scout, then ran around harvesting for awhile before starting the scout missions. It wanted me to harvest 3 units each of hide and bone, when I had hundreds of both in my inventory already. Not a huge deal, by any means, but it seemed a little silly. Not sure if it should skip the mission entirely, because then you lose the money and bonus xp. I'd rather keep it as is, if it's an either/or choice. But if it could check your xp/inventory and go "Oh! I see you're ahead of me" and award the bonuses, that would be great. Just wishful thinking I suppose.
All in all, two rousing thumbs up!!
Martinb4
Tue May 04, 2004 9:00 am
#36
Galtarthc wrote:
I notice alot of positive feed back on this... now for the annoyances. I'm an experienced player and holo grinder currently. I picked up brawler to continue my grind and I got the little R2 unit. So I though "ok lets try this out" First off there are no unarmed quests or assistance (which is what I was doing first) so I tried out a few of the quests and got bored. Now my problems start. I coudln't get rid of the stuipd droid. I stored it, and it would call itself out. I destroyed it... and it came back. It wouldn't stay gone until I got my first skill box in brawler. I'll admit this was only 15 minutes... but 15 minutes of it trying to get me back on track to learn how to use one handed lunge was more than unpleasant. You need a "go away and never come back" option. Or better yet an option that will prevent them from ever showing up again in the future. How about a flag for experienced players. I've been at this since August at least, I think I don't need a helper droid if I drop brawler and pick it up again in the future.
Aye, same thing here. This would have been a blessing when I started but you gotta cut some slack for experienced people starting a new character. BTW, if you try to destroy it multiple times, you end up with two droids popping up all the time lol. Please put in a way to bypass it if you no longer need it.
R5X1
Wed May 05, 2004 10:46 am
#38
Bravo Devs for this update ! I love what you did with Mos Eisley ! It has the feel of a living breathing Star Wars city because of the ambient art and several new NPCs.
Hondor64
Fri May 07, 2004 1:05 am
#39
I had gotten bored with my main toon so i was server hoping making new chars and checkin out each server. i noticed that in Mos Eisly in, Radiant, Corbantas, Eclipse, Flurry, Intrepid, Kauri, Kettemoor, Naritus, Tempest, Wanderhome servers there was only noobs in the city. and if any experienced players were there they were just passing through. i felt like i was playing in a brand new game. myself and like 10 other noobs joined up and went hunting Skyks(sp?) we died alot had fun though. But I having played before was slightly curious i did a search. there was only 3-8 people on each server with an eliet tag. most were TKA or Riflemen.
So from my experince it was great we had fun but one problem arised was the cash for training. my group figured it out we had one person go train then teach everyone else in the group it worked but as you had stated you chose Mos Eisly for the familiarity and the people i think we need to re-think the city choice. or the choice for the city. if you want people starting and thinking they are the only players in the galaxie then fine or maybe we should change it to another city that has a few more people around. not Coronet or Theed but maybe another city that has a larger vetren player population.
Great idea i love it. i did all 6 i found the medic very hard cause trying to find 5 people to heal is kinda hard. same with the ent. as stated above not many people were around. also a tip to all noobs don't punch the ST in the cantina you get fined 5k for it
Overal i think it is a great idea, the droid really helped me out and i really enjoyed the 2k from each missions so i recieved 12k-500 for training in each novice profesion. for the people complaining about no unarmed path. just choose a weapon and don't equpi it. then when you kill your first MOB with no weapon the droid will work on you with unarmed.