Should Tynon be more noob friendly

[Andy]

I started to post this in response to a post on another tread and realised that it would be way off topic there so I started a new tread. This is a partial quote of that post.

As for the noob-friendly feature discussion goes... people shouldn't be able to catch up with less work/skill/money/ (luck? it was the only missing factor). Lots of features are noob-unfriendly though. i.e. if you give me a week on a new server to power up, people will have a hard time catching up to me even if they put in more work/skill/money due to banish, arena, rag awards. Some noob friendly features to balance this could be nice, but nothing that allows for more progress with less work.

The reason that you can move up so fast is because you are experienced and know what to do. When I first started playing the server was a week old and I almost quit because I could not see a way that I would be able to catch up. I made many mistakes even, though I researched things in the forum and the wiki, that I would not make now if I was starting on a new server. The first Guild I joined was pretty much a social club, so I left and was accepted on another one where the people were social but also helped each other. That was the only reason I stayed with the game. I am now ranked 4th in the server but that is partly because several players, that at the time where in the top 20, quit because they became bored with the game. Of course, that is only part of the reason, but it help.

Player that joins our server now has no chance to catch up to the top players for a long time. In the mean time they get pounded in the Caribbean and, even in the wild, now that they can be attacked by some one that is 10 higher that them instead of 3. The great majority of those players will quit within a week or two out of frustration. In my opinion the biggest factor in overcoming the frustration is not having good information on how the game works and how to best spend your resources. I know that there are Guides in the Forum but Noobs do not know that, even though having the Forum tab above the Chat window helps. Perhaps part of the initial quests should be something that takes them into the nooby area of the forum so that they are aware of what is there.

We are in server 7 and, like in mots of the old servers, there is a dominant Guild on every Realm. The rest of the Guilds are pretty much dead with a very few exceptions. In out Realm the Ream chat is used only by one player that every one hates because he continues to attack people in Banish. He mostly talks to himself.

We are the 2nd ranked Guild in the server and we do have, at times, some rivalry (mostly in the Caribbean) with the top ranked Guild (although things are fairly peaceful right now). I would love to bring in noobs into the Guild but we are afraid of having an alt of another Guild com in as a 'spy'. We do have a 'sister' guild that they can come in on, trying to provide advice on that guild chat would require having an alt there and monitoring two Guild chats and that is not practical.

One thing that Tynon could do is to allow for allied Guilds, where both Guilds would agree to become allies. There would be a new chat tab where all the members of the the Guilds in the alliance could chat with each other but still have the Guild chat for the individual Guilds. This would allow the noobs to join one of the guilds and easily receive advice but still be able to chat with the experience players on the other Guilds that are members of the alliance.

Another possibility is to have a 6th realm for noobs where they would stay until they reach a specific power level and then they would be moved to one of the other realms at random like it is done when you first create a character now. There would be no Guilds and they would be able to sail with any one. We could have volunteers mentors that somehow monitor the chat there that would provide advice, but the mechanics of this has to be something that would not require having to have two logons to the server. I have to think about how that could be implemented. My first take is that the mentors could 'log in' to the noob realm when they are available to answer questions and it would be a new tab in their chat window. The noobs would also have a 'mentors' tab that would replace the Guild tab. They can use the Realm chat for socialising and the mentor tab for questions. There would have top be some sort on indication that there are mentors available. Maybe a count of how many mentors are logged into the noob realm.

The benefits of this is that they would initially be competing with other noobs, but unless there is a 'critical mass' of noobs it would not work.

[Joker]

We are the 2nd ranked Guild in the server and we do have, at times, some rivalry (mostly in the Caribbean) with the top ranked Guild (although things are fairly peaceful right now). I would love to bring in noobs into the Guild but we are afraid of having an alt of another Guild com in as a 'spy'. We do have a 'sister' guild that they can come in on, trying to provide advice on that guild chat would require having an alt there and monitoring two Guild chats and that is not practical.

Why are oyu worried about alts from other guilds, if your are the dominant guild of the realm and pirates is also peaceful for you alts from other top guilds will be useless imo.

[Rocco]

I think there is a delicate balance to maintain here, given that the company's sales model is to make money off people "purchasing progress." What they need to do, ideally, is make the game relevant and interesting for everyone regardless of their progress in the game. Look at HP and CW. New players joining an old server can't do much in HP at all. CW has a similar issue, but one that may be easier to address - split CW into server age and set rewards based on it as well. For example: Servers 6 months and older get the current rewards, servers 3-6 months get lower rewards, and servers 0-3 months get even lower rewards. And always group CW into 3 month groups, so in the future, you have have a 9-12 month group and a 6-9 month group, both of which get the same rewards, but stay in separate tournaments. This also means that a certain server could play in the 3-6 month CW group this week, but as the server ages, it gets pushed into the 6-9 month group and this allows newer players in the 3-6 month group to get a better chance (gradually, the newest players in the 3-6 month group will become the oldest (6 months) players in that group). CW could then be to staggered instead of everyone fighting in the same week/time. May get rid of the lag, if that is the cause. I guess the question is whether we have enough active players to split it up.

Also, constantly creating new PVE content requires lots of constant work. It is important to develop PVP content that is interesting and has longevity. Stuff that gets people to work together. Take the lessons learned from the current GW and either re-work or create some new GW/PVP event.

[Andy]

Why are oyu worried about alts from other guilds, if your are the dominant guild of the realm and pirates is also peaceful for you alts from other top guilds will be useless imo.

Alts from Guilds in the other realms. At this time it is mostly a moot point since there is no competition between realms, but if they implement cross realm GW in the old servers it would become an issue. We had that problem at the start when there were two Guilds that competed for the cities in GW. I am just thinking ahead.

[g346007_1906957]

Opps... in my example, I meant if I get a week head start, I could get by with doing less work than other people because of all the features that make it harder to catch up (this encourages competition- it's why everyone wants to become first).

I also started near the bottom (completely new to the game) and slowly climbed my way into the top 5, so it's not as if I don't know what that's like. I like the objective of your suggestions, giving new players more knowledge. When other players described noob friendly features, I had the same worry as Matt that it would undo a lot of the work people did to get where they are.
I'm pretty sure when people get moved out of the noob realm, they will still fall behind. My best suggestion to new players is to first learn how the game is played, and then move to another new server. I almost did this a while ago, but then they made it so it would take way too long to get adamanti.

Anyways, I agree with helping new players learn the game. I was against anything that would make it too easy to overtake someone.

[Andy]

I think there is a delicate balance to maintain here, given that the company's sales model is to make money off people "purchasing progress." What they need to do, ideally, is make the game relevant and interesting for everyone regardless of their progress in the game. Look at HP and CW. New players joining an old server can't do much in HP at all. CW has a similar issue, but one that may be easier to address - split CW into server age and set rewards based on it as well. For example: Servers 6 months and older get the current rewards, servers 3-6 months get lower rewards, and servers 0-3 months get even lower rewards. And always group CW into 3 month groups, so in the future, you have have a 9-12 month group and a 6-9 month group, both of which get the same rewards, but stay in separate tournaments. This also means that a certain server could play in the 3-6 month CW group this week, but as the server ages, it gets pushed into the 6-9 month group and this allows newer players in the 3-6 month group to get a better chance (gradually, the newest players in the 3-6 month group will become the oldest (6 months) players in that group). CW could then be to staggered instead of everyone fighting in the same week/time. May get rid of the lag, if that is the cause. I guess the question is whether we have enough active players to split it up.

Also, constantly creating new PVE content requires lots of constant work. It is important to develop PVP content that is interesting and has longevity. Stuff that gets people to work together. Take the lessons learned from the current GW and either re-work or create some new GW/PVP event.

You are correct but it does not invalidate my approach. I am saying that the noobs should have their own 'server' within the server where they can compete with each other before moving into the 5 realms (I have no experience how things work on the 'new' servers). This will actually help their business model because the player retention will increase and by the time that they move into the 5 realms they are more likely to spend money for Gems and use those Gems wisely. Frustrated players do not spend money.

[Joker]

But we need new blood on the old servers if we are going to keep them alive. I started a new tread to discuss Noob friendliness http://bbs.tynon.com/showthread.php?...6742#post36742

That is just wishful thinking man the best way to get more players is too merge servers. What tynon needs to do is when they start new servers players need o stick to that one and play ofr along time instead of quitting soon. Right now the game is mostly just individual performance except for GW they need to bring in more team work in the game and that would help bond players more and making them play longer

[Rocco]

You are correct but it does not invalidate my approach. I am saying that the noobs should have their own 'server' within the server where they can compete with each other before moving into the 5 realms (I have no experience how things work on the 'new' servers). This will actually help their business model because the player retention will increase and by the time that they move into the 5 realms they are more likely to spend money for Gems and use those Gems wisely. Frustrated players do not spend money.

I think your approach is completely valid. My first sentence was really a reply to what started this discussion (giving smaller players some boosts to help them catch up). We're both saying the same thing, I'm just suggesting additional approaches.

[Deucalion]

Having been on server 1 since Day one, and beta before that, watching all the changes come about that make older servers more noob friendly baffles me. Servers 1-10 don't need new players, IMHO. I think new players should go to new servers, and I think Tynon does also. What we need to concentrate on is keeping the current players happy and spending... With NEW CONTENT and features, heroes, etc.
I have no problem with the game becoming more noob friendly, but not if that means they will be on my level soon, by doing less work or spending less money. Alas, this is already happening to a certain extent, just not with brand-new players. I'm seeing players fail on old servers, then go to an empty new server, spend 1/10th as much cash and doing well in CWF... lol that just makes me laugh though. Must be great being the only big player on a 10 player server. That says alot.
This is an interesting topic, and will bring some opinions I look forward to reading.

[Joker]

Having been on server 1 since Day one, and beta before that, watching all the changes come about that make older servers more noob friendly baffles me. Servers 1-10 don't need new players, IMHO. I think new players should go to new servers, and I think Tynon does also. What we need to concentrate on is keeping the current players happy and spending... With NEW CONTENT and features, heroes, etc.
I have no problem with the game becoming more noob friendly, but not if that means they will be on my level soon, by doing less work or spending less money. Alas, this is already happening to a certain extent, just not with brand-new players. I'm seeing players fail on old servers, then go to an empty new server, spend 1/10th as much cash and doing well in CWF... lol that just makes me laugh though. Must be great being the only big player on a 10 player server. That says alot.
This is an interesting topic, and will bring some opinions I look forward to reading.

The game is much more harder outside the first 10 servers in my opnion, I know a few players who have come from the first 10 servers and quit after a few weeks mainly cause of GW, as you can spend all the money you want and have the top account but still lose in GW if you don't have enough members. I have started accounts on a lots of servers of Europe and Asia both, everytime a server starts there are plenty of players playing for the first few weeks they just end up quitting cause they re not having enough fun losing all the time or whatever. I don't understand how spending money would be different based on servers as the game is the same throughout, yes maybe because of the updates in the game some might spend less now than they did earlier