My New Player Experience

[Kesher]

Left the new area at lvl 6, because that's where the quests took me.
Left with some newcomer armor - not all parts - and some junk armor, unupgraded start-up weapons, a useless tradeskill utils item and no creds.
Learned to make an implant, though I'm sure no new player will repeat the process soon after. Same as always, he will probably buy some premade implants for his class.
Got to ICC, completed the handbag quest in Subway. Awesome quest.
After 2 days, lvl 24 in Subway. 2 backpacks (I cheated, I knew about backpacks) filled with items - 6k creds. Composite nano - 100k. No single expertise nanos to be found. Loot in Subway: Special Ranged Inefficiency.
Left Subway, no directions/quests for new dungeons.
Found an NPC that will teleport me to ToTW. The quest has no waypoint when you pick it up.


New Player Experience is as ****ty as ever, but you guys insist that this new guy is different, the same way people insisted the previous guy was better than his predecessor. Bye again o/


edit: completed the ICC quest for ToTW key: "You've received an item." No item in inventory.

[Wakizaka]

You clearly didn't follow the quests then if you left Arete at level 6 without composite nanos.

[Kesher]

Yeah, I clearly tried to avoid getting composite nanos.

[Wakizaka]

They always managed to show you where to go next.
On my last char I rolled I didn't even the feel to look for a guide in case I missed something.

[Caloss2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtsY...LPQj-AyMtfecAv

[edmaster3]

vodaphony is right, Nothing has changed. While the arete quest are interesting and i guess they do somewhat teach you what to do. I still prefer the old newbie island, cause it gave you more freedom was brighter(for lack of better word). Arete Landing is gloomy and pretty much depressing.
Secondly i finished most of the quest got to icc ran in the subway with a friend for 2 hours and after selling everything i looted, ended up 5k creds richer. Not to mention how you drop le weapons that froobs cant use just to add salt to the wound.
*Shakes head* nothing has changed if you already dont have a high lvl toon, starting out is just depressing. Again you are dropped off with no creds and everything costing hundreds of thousands, even low lvl nanos.

[edmaster3]

Everything is stacked against new people. The sub drop rates are pretty low and sell for low, the nodrop stuff tend to drop a lot. Most of the weapons that use to drop stopped, replaced by the 20cred unusable ofab weapons.
I just dont understand why the devs just dont make a quest outside the sub where a very wealthy Business person is willing to pay a massive amount of creds for an item like morphing memory etc. For completing the quest the new player gets 30k-50k creds, with the business person stressing that it is actually way to much creds to pay for it.

Next easy fix, make implants and nanos cost a ridiculously low amount so people cant actually buy them. They are already level and skill locked, they are part of the uniqueness of the game why make it hard for people to get the items that makes the game unique.
Why do you have a cred sinks for the newbies to the game? Why have a healer that cant afford the nanos/ spells to heal with? Why make begging or looking for handouts mandatory?
It will hurt no one to let store bought advanced nanos and implants cost less than 5k max.

[Dustfly]

They always managed to show you where to go next.

There is one step in the chain where you don't get a pointer (I think the first time you have to visit Stan[ley] Goodman).

Secondly, the composite nanoskill nano is available via an optional quest, but is not part of the main quest line. Instead you get comp tradeskills and comp abilities as part of the profession nano package. Considering how important that nanoskill nano is (and as the TO said already, there are no expertises anymore to take the more NCU costly but cheap route out), this is a major oversight in the design of Arete. The third is dealing with all the upgrade things, which is hinted at, but optional and easy to pass.

[Fusionstar]

Did this new area for the first time yesterday (came back to the game last week, had an advie on newbie island still. Experienced shock and dismay at how quiet the island was - only found out why a few days later ). On the whole, I have found it to be a very enjoyable introduction for a new character (although, my memory of the game is still generally good, so I knew the various ins and outs) and I particularly liked the levelling progress, which has allowed me to gain enough aixp for three alien levels/perks, without too much grinding and frustration, before I leave the place. Also, the cash I am making is far better than anything I remember from before, including the old backyards (quick, nostalgic flashback to the old Arrival Hall!!! ). That said, I still know what to expect, when it comes to nano/implant prices, when I get to the mainland. That much obviously hasn't changed and it's a helluva hike, if you are new to the game. Those aspects of the game's economy have always needed attention, I think.

Fair play to Funcom for their refinement of the starting area, but I think there is still a problem, once one gets beyond this. Making money in AO can be daunting if you are a new player, so doing something about nano and implant prices (as someone mentioned before) would be very, very helpful, I think.

[Zekeva]

Hey I felt compelled to reply to this thread and share my new player experience. I'm not a super old player but I was around since the start of AI. I really liked noob island. I've just reactivated my account this week and rolled a new MP.

I thought the Arete area was fairly straightforward to follow along and understand. I managed to find my way through just fine and picked up quite a few useful things without guidance. By the time I was leaving I managed to pick up my nanos (profession and composites), medsuit, poison injector bracelets, range meter and my AI levels. I missed the boat on picking a faction, though so I took care of that when I got to the mainland.

When I got to the new ICC arrival area, I didn't find much around what I was "supposed" to do. Not that I really tried too hard. I just packed up and went to Nascence. Not sure how well a real noob would manage from this point forward.

In all I thought it was a pretty good experience.

[Slynn]

Left the new area at lvl 6, because that's where the quests took me.
Left with some newcomer armor - not all parts - and some junk armor, unupgraded start-up weapons, a useless tradeskill utils item and no creds.
Learned to make an implant, though I'm sure no new player will repeat the process soon after. Same as always, he will probably buy some premade implants for his class.
Got to ICC, completed the handbag quest in Subway. Awesome quest.
After 2 days, lvl 24 in Subway. 2 backpacks (I cheated, I knew about backpacks) filled with items - 6k creds. Composite nano - 100k. No single expertise nanos to be found. Loot in Subway: Special Ranged Inefficiency.
Left Subway, no directions/quests for new dungeons.
Found an NPC that will teleport me to ToTW. The quest has no waypoint when you pick it up.


New Player Experience is as ****ty as ever, but you guys insist that this new guy is different, the same way people insisted the previous guy was better than his predecessor. Bye again o/


edit: completed the ICC quest for ToTW key: "You've received an item." No item in inventory.

This is the true. New player cant make it on his own. Theres no way for him to make creds so he cant go further with his grind. Soon he will realise the struggle this game is and leaves sooner or later because the game itself in all, doesnt worth it.

[Anonimofied]

i have played AO since 2005, few months ago i made a completely new toon to check out the new noob area, long story short i got stucked at the new noob area for 2 months. Then oneday i loged in again because im a hardhead i dont want to give up, and finally i found the entrance to get away from the new area, but i discovered that i dont have enough creds to enter the city, after this i logged out and never login any new toon anymore. Im not a game designer but as a AO player my opinion on the new area is worser than the old noob island

[edmaster]

i have played AO since 2005, few months ago i made a completely new toon to check out the new noob area, long story short i got stucked at the new noob area for 2 months. Then oneday i loged in again because im a hardhead i dont want to give up, and finally i found the entrance to get away from the new area, but i discovered that i dont have enough creds to enter the city, after this i logged out and never login any new toon anymore. Im not a game designer but as a AO player my opinion on the new area is worser than the old noob island

I partially agree with you. I personally still dont like Arete Area. The old newbie island was colorful, full of life, blue, green, and you could just go out and kill stuff. While Arete is gray, very gray, seems sad with a lot of running, mandatory quest, harder to just kill and make creds and not as much freedom.
While I kinda like that they added explanations, they should have added it to newbie island then maybe send them to Arete.

Suggestions
Because others games with cut scenes have spoiled me, I dont read long explanations, At the bottom just tell people what they have to do
Make a choice between arete and Newbie Island.
Lower the cost of ql100 and lower, premade implants, nanos, ncus and belts to almost nothing. People will buy the wrong nanos, implants and ncu's using up all their creds and be stuck cause they resell for nothing.
Let the first mission lady (only mission after leaving arete, unlike the blue missions where the guy automatically talks to you giving alot of missions) give a quest in the sub, where the reward is a nodrop ofab type weapon ANYONE can use.

FC probably forgot the froobs where what kept people in the game, cause they were always on rk to help people. And generally were friendlier than paid persons.
Also FC, if yall want to new people to buy the game, let them actually enjoy it first. Without a friend, the struggle and the grind starts off early, no money, bad weapon, no implants, cant buy nanos and yall expect people to buy the game afterwards?

[Lazy]

i dont understand threads like this. does every new player disable ooc chat the second they load into the game the first time? i remember when i first started playing any time i would get stuck i'd ask in ooc and someone would help me out with directions. this is an MMO, not bloody skyrim for christ's sake.

[edmaster]

i dont understand threads like this. does every new player disable ooc chat the second they load into the game the first time? i remember when i first started playing any time i would get stuck i'd ask in ooc and someone would help me out with directions. this is an MMO, not bloody skyrim for christ's sake.

Yes its a mmo, one that most people cant enjoy even at the beginning. New person Experience is not something a vet like you can understand, if i remember correctly you always would say if they cant hack it, then tell them go play wow.

You probably dont realize that not everyone on the ooc is a good person, and helpful people arent on all the time, the term "noob haha" is used a lot. While asking for help is good stuff, for most of the stuff its more funner to figure it out yourself, "Its a game".

If someone is on the ooc and cannot afford implants, profession nanos, or a weapon, what do you (who probably dont have time to help newbies anyway) tell them? Do you run and give them 50k so they can buy one wrong implant they cant return? (Lol, you care about newbies,... good one)

[McKnuckleSamwich]

I dunno about this whininess.

I'm a pretty epic fail at stuff like quests. In fact, I simply don't EVER read the text.

I can't be bothered. I've done school quest probably 15 times, and I don't have a clue what that quest is about except that I'm pretty sure Dr. Darnell is a lesbian with a crush on Dr. Hestiya.

My point is, When I started Arete the first time, there were some pretty epic fails. like one where I didn't have environmental effects turned on and couldn't see the gas fires? Dude, I got stuck on extinguishing the fires for like 35 minutes, I couldn't figure it out.

When I finally figured it out, it dawned on me that I would make a decent tester. So carried on.

Considering I NEVER read quest chat, and the only things I know how to do is 1. tab and 2. follow the compass, it surprised me somewhat significantly that I could fumble my way through and manage to get a pretty reasonable setup by the time I left arête.

Bottom line: If I can do it without reading any of the text, it should be possible for most people.

[Lazy]

If someone is on the ooc and cannot afford implants, profession nanos, or a weapon, what do you (who probably dont have time to help newbies anyway) tell them? Do you run and give them 50k so they can buy one wrong implant they cant return? (Lol, you care about newbies,... good one)

not to toot my own horn but i always kept at least one of my tl7 toons in a newbie friendly org specifically to help out those just starting out. and no, if i'm idling at oag and see someone asking for help i take time out of my busy schedule which consists entirely of waiting for BS to start and actually go and help them with whatever it is they need, be it twinking, nanos, implants or what have you. just because you don't give two tugs of a dead dog's tail about new players doesn't mean we're all like you, so you should probably stop projecting

[Anonimofied]

After 4 months im still stuck at the new area, it looked lim im near icc according to the map so i tried to swim to icc but invisible walls are blocking all directions. GOD if you can see this HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLPPP

[Zekeva]

I don't get it. How can people have such trouble getting out of the noob area? Even if you were totally lost and confused, wouldn't you reach out to the newbie OOC channel?

[Lazy]

I don't get it. How can people have such trouble getting out of the noob area? Even if you were totally lost and confused, wouldn't you reach out to the newbie OOC channel?

apparently people like edmaster like to play this game with all the chat boxes closed and have never heard of typing except when complaining on the forums about imaginary issues only he experiences.