A Day in the Life of a New Player

[Hvyshadows]

I got the feeling that this thread was not even supposed to help new players, but instead help FC when they rewrite the newbie experience?...

Gotcha. In that case a warp to Game Suggestions might be in order.

[sultryvoltron]

Thank you for making this. but i think it might be even more interesting to make one as a froob since most newbies start out as a froob.

The character is a froob NM NT.

I got the feeling that this thread was not even supposed to help new players, but instead help FC when they rewrite the newbie experience?

Since it's not written in the form of a guide. Imho these kind of threads are very good way to point out the flaws of the new player experience to FC. Ofc it would most likely be more effective if the player was an actual newbie without a clue about the game. And iirc there was one thread like that last year, but the guy writing it got to some bigger org and all of the sudden he was 220 and not so newbie... but the first part of that thread was nice.

It's definitely not a guide. I wasn't terribly sure where to post it, but since I figured some of the information could be useful to noobs (as I'm basically going step by step through the game) that it would be good to post it here.

I like the suggestion to interject a bit more of my knowledge and give it a bit more of a "guide" feel. I'll do that.

[kdb1981]

I must be mistaken then i thought you had to have LE to do BS's.

[Redesine]

Froobs can do BS. IIRC, they even get VPs, but can't see them or spend them until they upgrade.

Enjoying this thread lots. I occasionally try to do something similar cause I miss the newbie experience of trying to fend for myself without relying on all my alts for buff/credits/escorts/items etc.

I never managed to do it beyond level 15 or 20. Partly because it's pretty difficult when I know I could easily throw a few million on this toon and not really loose anything significant. It's also difficult because the newbie experience of AO is all about cluelessness.

[Crowena]

I must be mistaken then i thought you had to have LE to do BS's.

You can do them, you just don't get to use the VP without upgrading. I think you can even do the BS daily with froob toon.

[moonshadowe]

To the OP I am enjoying the project youre working on. I have also made alts on a new server to get that fresh start feeling and I get fed up before level 15. TBH I have no clue how I ever had the patience to get started with this game at all except back in the day all games were sandboxes.
To the we-had-to-so-should-they posters, The gaming community of today isnt the same as it was 10 years ago. People have things to do and have realized we cant afford the time sink unless we want to all be living at home with our parents forever, single and jobless. Veterans and new players alike jump on all the theme park features of games. At low level the AO learning curve is staggering and it is not very clear what to do and where to go. If you ask for help you get many more negative answers than friendly or helpful ones. I personally think it takes away from the game experience to have to get a huge hand out that I didnt earn myself in a game. In AO it is next to impossible unless you get player charity. I got my foothold by chance reading an article about the Newland quest to find the girls lost alien doll and sell the reward for 40k creds a pop. I did that quest I cant remember how many times until I had enough creds for implants and armor and buffs to get the damned things on. (God forbid you end up in reclaim). The cash value for the lanterns has since been nerfed to around 6 creds.

So if I were a gamer, and also had a life afk, would I want to spend my 15 dollars/ euros a month on outdated AO or maybe look for something a bit more modern, friendlier community, that I can jump in and play for a few hours and not spend a week scratching up basic junk thats going to need replacing in another 5-10 levels? No brainer o.O

[Dummy]

The gaming community of today isnt the same as it was 10 years ago. People have things to do and have realized we cant afford the time sink unless we want to all be living at home with our parents forever, single and jobless.

Though I agree with your post and most players are as you describe, at least I enjoyed to figure things out. What you basically are saying is that most people want to get to end levels quite fast. I think you are right about that. But you and most people forget that the game start at level 1. And that playing, not leveling, your way to 220 was and is a big part of the game.
Im not so sure that the starter experience is so horrible wrong in this game, I think a big part of the "problems" is that newbies find themselves almost alone and have to do the figuring on their own. They are not learning in groups anymore.
Credits is a problem simply because you level too fast. If the new engine bring a lot of new players then making the starter experience too obvious or too easy with enough credits to everybody we will face the same situation, with people speeding to 220 and nothing else.
Ao is a timesink if you want it to be. If you dont get obsessed with levels however, there is fun to be had from level 1.
I still think my first encounter with Azmuth was more fun then my first beast.

[smiles1k]

This thread is awesome.

Thinking back, I can say that the first few levels, especially as a froob, were pretty hard, but back then, i didn't realize it, being that I thought it was the standard. Being self-sufficient as a noob resulted into me rage-quitting on 3 different toons. The learning curve was hard to adjust to.

The newb island experience could be better. I thought that since I mastered the island, everything would fall into place; but I was totally off. My first day in RK was extremely harsh, and overburdening.

A set of free newbie implants (mission), and a leveling weapon can make the experience a little better. Also, a mission database for the first 20ish levels can save time, too. Last, there should be an ingame link to sites such as aouniverse, auno, and forums that is easily accessible; and the script mentioned by Voltron, should be added, at least something similar.

Keep up the good work Voltron.

[sultryvoltron]

I'll have a new post sometime this week. I've been really busy with work and helping orgmates on my Doc.

[MrAce]

I believe that this thread is relaying a message to the majority of the people who take time playing this game, only to leave after a few hours of gameplay. This is seriously killing the game.

It also is productive in its own right in sending a message to those who try to jump right into the game, eager to get power-leveled to 220 or whatever level they see fit. Some people just want to skip the newbie experience and jump right into the action.

A new level of optimism and enthusiasm for the newbie experience should be encouraged. Just my .02 cents.

[sultryvoltron]

Let me save you all the boring parts.

I rolled concrete cushions until I had over 2m. I think it was over a dozen, don't remember exactly. It was alot, and it took quite a while. I figure, 2m will last me a while, so I'll roll with that.

I finished my elite daily in the subs. It honestly wasn't that hard. I did it on a neutral, froob, nanomage NT in storebought imps and cheap armor. It got me from 17 to 21.

After that, I hooked up with a Froob soldier (my IRL brother) and we headed to TOTW. He showed me how to get there from Newland by talking to that Cultist guy whose name I can't remember. We made our way in, killing cultists along the way. I ran out of nano and health stims (which I have been relying on for my healing and to keep my nano up) and I had to trek what felt like a billion miles on foot to get to the nearest shop. It was a clan shop. Fortunately, someone there was nice enough to buy some for me because I couldn't use the terminals. That was annoying, but I didn't want to use player city wompahs to Newland because I don't really know they exist.

I got back to TOTW. Me and the Soldier headed back in, killing just about everything on the way. It was a good thing he was with me. I could barely kill Cultists on my own. Well, I could kill them just fine, but they hurt me bad. Roots do next to nothing since tons of mobs in there are ranged. Blinds are ineffective since I have pretty crappy evades and they are quite weak at that level.

We hooked up with a team of 3 more people. A Doc, an MA, an Enfo, the Soldier and me. Just out of curiosity, I fired up the damage dump. Oh man did my NT come to life in a team!

The damage dump went something like this. Make sure you read this part Stillkeeping.

1) My brother's Soldier (using a Robust shotgun that he bought for himself, no help from his main) at around 60k damage.
2) Me. Using QL 15 storebought imps, questable armor, a few pieces of carb, and spamming the crap out of my AOE nuke at about 45k damage.
3) The noobrod Enf at about 43k damage.
4) The MA at about 30k damage.
5) The Doctor using MA at about 15k damage (he was healing alot).

I was impressed. In a team, things really came together. We killed Yoda, Exarches, DoT, and a crapton of cultists. I left TOTW at 27 when we got disorganized and wiped on Yoda.

[Thecrow91]

I recently pulled my friend into this game.
We rolled froob NT's because currently my account is locked.
I showed him how to nuke on noob island and farm alien weapons.
We made about 50mil on alien **** farmed on noob island (I know new comers wont know to farm noob island).
He thought the game was dead, and that it was boring.
So I told him we should make pvp twinks.
He had no clue what twinking was (****ing WoW) and just went along with what I said.
Rolled a soldier and a doctor.
Twinked them up with some ql 90 implants and lowbie carb.
Got him that froob dungon rifle and me that nano stick.
It was pretty easy to take down most moderately twinked people (even expansion people) but there were those that pwnd us.
He didn't like the game at all until he got a taste of the fun he never would have gotten without my help.

[Esproc]

I still personally prefer the early game experience.
I have frequently played various froob accounts from scratch during periods of being unpaid.
Though I usually 'cheat' the experience by taking omni faction.

Starting out with 2 omni starter pads (clan pads and then switching omni if a caster).
Saving up rollerrat flesh from island to give to OT tailer in omni-trade.
Doing the quest for the assault backpack and helmet to later omnify, makes for a pretty solid start.

If not for the rather large token requirement (relative to character level), and the clan only tag, the belt from subway would be a fantastic starter item as well.
(Maybe this could be looked into.)

[Pomidor]

People, including me, told many times that Newbie island is worse then old backyards.
After leaving NI, each fresh player is given cold shower:
- less revenues from loot
- less xp and harder kills (i.e: subway!)
- Lack of straight, easy quests
- You wont ding just by chating to NPS (Like on island)

So, I really feel new ones, because NI gives weak sense about Clan/Omni fonclit, and when u leave, there is no Guide (which is standing in BY... c'mon!) to help you or answer questions. If you look closely, in BY you had everything to learn basics of the game, including most and vital part: team missions.

Second part is that FC drove ppl into /longue lvling on Borgs/Hecks. Finding team to do missions is close to impossible (unless I dont want to lvl and will bring my twinks to drag along other newbs). And, tbh, borg stuff is teaching player to now move to much, not to walk to much and not do to much to gain lvls, so after this, they dont want do TM, because they need pres buttons and stuff...

For me, the saddest part of AO is moving Arrival Hall and upgrading outdor SK

[Manicmouse]

Interesting read, keep it up

Wish I knew about Concrete Cushions back in 2005!

[hokutonoken]

Granted not a lot of people are doing quest like "Mech dogs outside rome for the sholder pad quest"..(which was how i made my first 1mil..collecting and resaling implants ^_= whne i was a noob) but there are more "Knowledgable" people out there...ie walk thru guides and information. easier to tackle totw or other static dungeon ..even where to farm credits...such guides as AO Froob.

advice for froob...read and read and read!

[Pyroatheist]

As much as the AO startup experience is probably the worst it could possibly be, your example of starting from a complete and total lack of knowledge about the game is probably not the case in most instances.

Personally, before I start playing an mmo, the first thing I do is google for a guide or 2. When I first started AO, I was lucky enough to find THIS guide:

http://www.gamershell.com/faqs/3506/

This is an absolutely amazing guide, the best I've seen in all the years I've played AO...and should be much more accessible.

On a side note, I was chatting with an ARK I ran across helping a noob on the island, and I unearthed some rather ah...disturbing...information.

The ARK was telling the new guy about maps and such, and naturally I pointed out, "hey, use CSP map for rubika, its awesome." The ARK acknowledged that yes, CSP map was better than the basic ones AO comes with BUT (and heres the kicker) ARK are PROHIBITED from discussing ANY THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS OR GUIDES!!! I asked for some clarification. This means that basically, if it wasn't made by AO, they can't talk about it. So they cant give newbs tips about going to auno, or ao-universe, or getting csp map, or clicksaver, or any other online guides. Its a policy that is retarded as hell, and should MOST DEFINITELY be fixed post-haste.

[Crowena]

I would rather suggest Atlas Of Rubi-Ka

[edherbs147]

The ARK was telling the new guy about maps and such, and naturally I pointed out, "hey, use CSP map for rubika, its awesome." The ARK acknowledged that yes, CSP map was better than the basic ones AO comes with BUT (and heres the kicker) ARK are PROHIBITED from discussing ANY THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS OR GUIDES!!! I asked for some clarification. This means that basically, if it wasn't made by AO, they can't talk about it. So they cant give newbs tips about going to auno, or ao-universe, or getting csp map, or clicksaver, or any other online guides. Its a policy that is retarded as hell, and should MOST DEFINITELY be fixed post-haste.

Always thought the policy was that if it was posted by anyone in a place not moderated/owned by funcom?

So technically anything on these forums is fine, as funcom owns them, meaning, ARK could direct people to player guides posted on this forum.

[Esproc]

So while they cannot directly tell new players about third party stuff, they could link them to threads that discuss them, *wink, nudge*