Newbie Friendly

[Monger]

So I've tried to get a number of people to start playing Crossfire and I haven't had much luck. The largest complaints are:

- Too fast, you die before you know it.
- OK, What do I do?
- It's not pretty enough.

Personally I don't agree with the graphics, but a prettier interface may get people that otherwise wouldn't play. This may not be a good thing.

I agree that the pace is too fast. If you run into a room that's beyond you, then it's easy to die before you know it. Maybe slowing the pace would be good. Maybe define minimum levels to pass a door. I'm just brain storming here.

The Confusion of what to do next would really help to sort out. Maybe each class has a guild with a few progressively harder quests. This would provide some direction for newbies, much like the Scorn Royalty quests, but a little more progressive. I took me forever to level up enough for the demons. I know there's a lot of info on the website, but a little more in game direction would help.

So if there's any opinions for or against, then feel free to say. Forums need a little more activity lately.

[Rednaxela]

Actually, these are all ideas I have heard brought up before. Personally, I feel the graphics style is good, though the UI could certainly be "prettier". Slowing things down a bit has been brought up before and for the most part seems to be agreed that is a good idea. I would say that level requirement doors would be a good feature, though I'd say one shouldn't put them on every single quest, and just on key places were players frequently go that are far beyond their level. Also, yes confusion would be good to avoid, and each class having a guild with quests would be interesting, however I feel that wouldn't be solving the real problem that some maps that are of higher difficulty are mixed in too much with lower difficulty ones, in Scorn. One idea that I've heard before that might be good to deal with this issue, would be making scorn's inner courtyard larger, and moving the easier maps inside of it, thus giving newbies a bit more direction of where to start.

[Monger]

I was hoping for more feedback, but oh well. So about Class guilds, such as the Dragon Guild, what would make them good without making the game too easy? Dropping a tonne of Dragon Steaks on an altar to gain great Dragon Items could be abused. What's a good quest, and decent reward to follow?

Other Guild ideas appreciated.

[Rednaxela]

Well, the simplest thing would be making quests that require a unique item from a map, not any old Dragon Steaks, but that alone doesn't make a good quest. What I would say is important for making a good quest is making it span over multiple map that aren't directly connected, and giving it a good plot. Making a single map involved with a few quests can be good too so long as the plot works.
In terms of rewards IMHO, think of what level the typical player would be completing it at, how long it would take them, and how much they would have already gotten from loot in the maps. Also, some good example of quest rewards are, unique spells, the ability to use a special alchemy formula, weapons/armor, and I would say that the key, is instead of making things powerful, make the player think "This is a neat thing!"
It's also an option to make it so a player may only complete a quest once, though it's arguable and if done should do so by some plot explanation.

[Mental Mouse]

1) The manuals for the clients, and preferably the survival guides should clearly explain all aspects of the user interface, notably what each kind of click does. (How to "mark" items, dump one container into another, etc.)

2) Marked and identified-normal items should be indicated in the listings.

3) Currently, when you have a bag open, and hit "apply" (say, trying to enter/exit a building) you apply some random item (the last one you touched?). This is very annoying and sometimes wasteful!

4) Even in Scorn, commonplace items are way too expensive in the shops.

5) need a listing of what various spells actually do -- i.e., exactly what is "restoration" good for?

6) Some of the "gotchas" need to be toned down, such as stuff stuck in ice cubes. (Maybe have it melt eventually?) (Note that flint-and-steel, one of the few non-destructive responses, is insanely expensive!)

[Mental Mouse]

A biggie: Tthere should be a single "examine" command, which applies all the object-ID skills as appropriate (smithery, jeweler, bowyer, woodsman, [i]etc.[/i]).

Maybe Mosley's Magic Books should sell some hints for use of spells and items?

Being able to "name" your bags and sacks would be very handy.... It would at least help if they came in more colors/faces! Hmm... maybe ribbons?

[Leaf]

Being able to "name" your bags and sacks would be very handy....

One can do this. See this command: 'help rename

[Mental Mouse]

Thanks Leaf re: "rename"!

More issues for the UI:

The clients should have hotkeys for the "Spells", "Bindings", and "Pickup" dialogs -- having to poke into submenus is for the birds!

Speaking of which, "Pickup" should be a dialog box with checkboxes, and a way to quickly bind the mode to a key. (The current menu interface is not only clumsy, it seems not always to pick up the current mode!) There should also be some way to pick up alchemical "piles" and suchlike, and perhaps a way to exempt corpses (and icecubes?) from "magical" pickups.

Also, "Bindings" should let you [i]replace[/i] a binding when you do a new binding to the same key. Right now, it just adds a second binding, apparently non-functional.

A scripting dialog (with automatic syntax checking and command reference) would also be nice.

[Mickel]

I've had the same results when trying to get friends to play, except so far I haven't got anyone past character creation. The character creation process is pretty daunting, especially when combined with the... less than perfect user interface in the clients.

People wound up picking the wrong race by mistake (is it 'd' to pick the race you want or to change it? And why 'd'?) Perhaps selecting your race in the same way that you select your class would work better.

Also, beds to reality and how they work, and how the quit command doesn't get through, causing those who actually did get through character creation to lose their work, which was the last straw in all cases.

I hate to think of the comments I would have gotten from them if they had actually entered Scorn and looked around...

The suggestions for more guilds, and enlarging the inner courtyard are both good. I was thinking of a "newbie barracks" where new players are given a good start in life before going out the door to the rest of Scorn. Perhaps new players should start inside the castle and not need to go outside until they're level five unless they feel ready for it?

When adding doors that have a minimum level to go through, also add doors that have a maximum level. Newbie areas should be reserved for newbies. I've seen the newbie areas that do exist abused by high level players for exp harvesting too many times. Entering the beginner house when you're a level 1 summoner and finding it flooded with rats because an AFK level 15 summoner is using it to grind exp isn't just annoying - it's lethal.

So more and better newbie areas that are for newbies and only newbies. Redesigned character creation process. Some work on making the clients look and feel better.

[Leaf]

People wound up picking the wrong race by mistake (is it 'd' to pick the race you want or to change it? And why 'd'?) Perhaps selecting your race in the same way that you select your class would work better.

d = done

n = next (as in display the next character race option in line)

Also, beds to reality and how they work.

From the tutorial map:

A bed to reality is the way you quit the Crossfire world.

A bed to reality is the way you quit the Crossfire world to get back to your real life. While you are in real life, your character is asleep. Nothing can happen to it, but beware of losing your items!

Perhaps new players should start inside the castle and not need to go outside until they're level five unless they feel ready for it?

See above. It would seem tutorial maps are not very effective. Sadly, same with online documentation. Seems the only method that works is to have some one stand over their shoulder and answer all their questions and tell them how to play.