Hi,
Following on from this
post i have been trying to think of ways to help new players be introduced to PA. If like me you joined PA a while back you may not realise how hard and daunting a game this is to learn, its got harder and harder. I know some may even say "Omg help the noobs, help the noobs, thats all people wanna do, you wanna dumb down pa OMG" Well no i wanna help people who wanna play pa... well.... PLAY IT!
I don't know if this has been suggested before, i did a quick search and couldn't find anything.
Imagine having zero knowledge about what PA is about,what any of the screens do, dunno what IRC is, what ship stats are and what the feck a "roid" is...... o.k
When a new player logs in they are "dumped" into the main player screen with a hold loooooad of options that mean
nothing with very little pointers as to where to start or what to do. So instead of seeing the actual game they would....
The GUI would be presented to the player when they log in for the first time. Lets says you can also skip it / turn it off / turn it on too if you want.
SO the player logs in and gets a screen asking them to take 10 - 20 minutes to learn a little about PA. It actually may take longer so the GUI could be split into PT1, PT2, PT3 so its in more managable chunks. LIke PT1 PA / PT2 IRC / PT3 The Forums? or somit.
The first screen would be a general intro to PA "O.k you have 72 ticks (or hours) to get your planet up to speed before you fully become part of the universe and able to attack enemies and defend freinds..." "PA is all about.. bla bla here is a load of links to get you started, we suggest bookmarking them and keeping them for future reference..." and give bcalcs/links to posts on forums for strategies etc.
The second screen could be "Production" with something along the lines of "O.k now you have signed up you will need to get your minions to work!" Use the sliders to assign priority to the different options. We suggest...
(If you are thinking along the lines of the quests systems then good, but this system you are pushed into and through to learn more so its actually
part of the game and not an option you
choose to start)
Next screen would be say "Mining" and somit like "Now you have to generate resources in order for your planet to grow and dominate. In the begining use your own income to buy more. We suggest...." Click next...
Next screen would be "Construction" "O.k now you need to start building constructions.... you get the idea
On each screen not only would it explain the screen but it would tell them what to do with a
complete (although suggested) 72 hour tick plan.
The screen order is just something i made up to illustrate the concept.
O.k so that may help get people started?
Next - would it be possible to have sign up to Netgamers and registering a PA nick as
part of the game too? Maybe the same as above?
Something like (more screens sorry..) "Most people who play this game use IRC to communicate and have fun. "Now go to Netgamers.org and create an account. Come back here once you have done this!" "O.k you got your user name and password?" "Paste it here.." The reason for this would be that a simple script would take the players user name and password and generate something along the lines of -
/msg
[email protected] login yourname password
/mode yourname +x
/mode yourname +i
/list >5
"Now paste this into your IRC client and use it to connect to the netgamers irc" Then have a list of P commands
IN PA. You get the idea.
Once this has been done then suggest they create a new forum user account and post in the
new users forum. There should and normally is one but i dunno why this is one of the only forums where there
isn't a New Players says HI! Forum?? I mean there is a forum to say goodbye but not one to say Hello! :/
I aint moaning btw. It's just my 2 cents based on difficulties i have seen new players have jioning the game.
Edit - I'll even put myself in the firing line and help do some of this if wanted. Although my "skills" aint, well... "skillful" but i wouldn't be able to do it on my own