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arkship user experience


Wicpar

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Hello,

I cannot help but notice controversy about the starting zone. I would like to give my input.

 

I have noticed there is a lack of planned tutorial, the arkship is ideal for that. You could create faked interactions that cancel out after a certain time allowing you to make npc quests and thus gather enough material and money to get a decent newbie ship and go away onto another planet.

 

nstead of letting the NQ team design the starting area, it would be beneficial to let the alpha players make it and build it organically, with the premise it will be deallocated from their property once in beta to implement npcs and their quests according to the past happenings in the alpha. It would be wise to make a small no edit zone around the arkship itself to make it look like a memorial once things have been built around.

 

I hope you like that proposition.

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Lorewise, humans just arrived on a new, fresh and undiscovered planet. There's no need for a premade starter city, players will build one in the first few days of release. 

A tutorial could just be a robotic vocal assistant, like eveonline, giving you some hints to start. 

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Lorewise, humans just arrived on a new, fresh and undiscovered planet. There's no need for a premade starter city, players will build one in the first few days of release. 

A tutorial could just be a robotic vocal assistant, like eveonline, giving you some hints to start. 

 

may be a good alternative.

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Pretty sure that Aphelia is intended to act as a tutorial.

 

The Alpha Team will be acting as a model. Not quite the same as a tutorial, but, the Alpha Team will be working out how to build cities and how to guide newbies into guided gameplay.

Organizations should want newbies to help complete specific objectives.

I suppose the challenge for the devs will be designing kills in such a fashion that newbie skills retain value.

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A good idea would be to put every player through the same sequence the main character from the short story written for DU went through. in the story, the main character woke from his cryosleep and spoke with the AI controlling the ship. Once able, he left the cryotube and explored a little. After a while, the AI spoke to him again and he was placed into a few 'training exercises'  inside the Virtual Reality zone the Devs mentioned to us. Inside the zone, we will be free to test out builds without the risk of crashing and losing materials as a result. I believe this would be the best place for the tutorial.

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A good idea would be to put every player through the same sequence the main character from the short story written for DU went through. in the story, the main character woke from his cryosleep and spoke with the AI controlling the ship. Once able, he left the cryotube and explored a little. After a while, the AI spoke to him again and he was placed into a few 'training exercises'  inside the Virtual Reality zone the Devs mentioned to us. Inside the zone, we will be free to test out builds without the risk of crashing and losing materials as a result. I believe this would be the best place for the tutorial.

Well, his situation was unique in that he was virtually the first Alpha awoken. But yes - for the masses - the indication (given the story is Canon), is that everyone goes through a sim while they are awaking - probably before they exit the cryo. This is the tutorial as well as character gen. No brainer there. Once you leave the sim (a private instance basically), you're then "in-game", is my read of it.

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Only the first players can have a truly "fresh start" experience, because players who come after will always just see the developed land anyway. So the alpha players creating a city around the Ark ship is inevitable regardless, and new players not getting a truly fresh start on a new world is unavoidable.

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I think NQ should run an org through their community team that basically manages the construction surrounding the arkship, plans roads, allocates plots of land to be rented etc. Totally neutral, all players can participate and build but there needs to be someone preventing too much chaos from occuring and making sure the areas is noob friendly.

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Violet / DU

This is the same thing they did in SL (Second Life). Players maintained everything inworld like Roads,parks. The Devs Do none of that, they can appoint someone to run the maintenance division, that person can choose from residents, who will be a member of said division, good builders, managers.

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I think NQ should run an org through their community team that basically manages the construction surrounding the arkship, plans roads, allocates plots of land to be rented etc. Totally neutral, all players can participate and build but there needs to be someone preventing too much chaos from occuring and making sure the areas is noob friendly.

There is a post somewhere about doing this with a player council. I think that would work best, just make every founder of the organizations that exist at launch, a legate... And control of the safe zone.

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Hello,

I cannot help but notice controversy about the starting zone. I would like to give my input.

 

I have noticed there is a lack of planned tutorial, the arkship is ideal for that. You could create faked interactions that cancel out after a certain time allowing you to make npc quests and thus gather enough material and money to get a decent newbie ship and go away onto another planet.

 

nstead of letting the NQ team design the starting area, it would be beneficial to let the alpha players make it and build it organically, with the premise it will be deallocated from their property once in beta to implement npcs and their quests according to the past happenings in the alpha. It would be wise to make a small no edit zone around the arkship itself to make it look like a memorial once things have been built around.

 

I hope you like that proposition.

Its all hinted in the back story.

Player has memory loss = create character,

Play looks like death warmed up = edit character appearance,

Player has this glowing thing on his hand = VR training,

Player leaves ship at launch = spawn is some distance from ark and the alpha and beta builds will be wiped (but may appear as ruins to be found later. )

Late player enters game = Choice of city or wilderness start. In the latter case someone has moved his cryopod to somewhere JC sanctions probably nearer the edge of the safe zone. The cryopods in the back story are portable!!!

Hard mode. Late player leaves the ark proper = a bambie org or player picks him up in a speeder and whisks him off into the wilderness for a hard zero resources and zero protection start, NQ NPC vendor pays the taxi/ noob bus driver, 

 

There will be player made tutorials in world very quickly. The VR system would include ongoing tutorials.

Designing the start of this game is the easy bit. 

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Hey NQ, What ever you do don't do this to new players:

 

...snip...

Landmark is not a game its a permanent development test server. That was always the stated aim and still is. It has game play and building but it is never meant to be out of alpha. That's what all of us that signed up early signed up to. Not sure I like the style that's developed, too gun like, and Everquest Next may take some time but It is what it said it world be.

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A good idea would be to put every player through the same sequence the main character from the short story written for DU went through. in the story, the main character woke from his cryosleep and spoke with the AI controlling the ship. Once able, he left the cryotube and explored a little. After a while, the AI spoke to him again and he was placed into a few 'training exercises'  inside the Virtual Reality zone the Devs mentioned to us. Inside the zone, we will be free to test out builds without the risk of crashing and losing materials as a result. I believe this would be the best place for the tutorial.

 

This is what I was thinking too. Seems like a pretty obvious solution, given the safezone around the arkship and generally advancing emergent gameplay as well as the suggestive parts in the short story by Alain Damasio.

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