The New User Experience (Landmark)

Better customization would be great! I am the kind of person that likes my pointed featured spell casters and Muscled, grizzled Fighters, shady clean-shaven rogues and bright-faced boyish featured good clerics and evil looking evil priests. A lot of customization would help me pull together my ideal characters and make playing the game a million times better for me. Especially if you can change the colors of your armor! That would make my life! Whether it be changing Small sections or just Primary and Secondary, I would be one happy Shadow Knight!

well, I voted for more customization. I come from a bit diferent mmo dna here, I played eq 1 and 2 as well as several other fantasy mmos, but the games that I have played more and more intently were the superhero ones. city of heroes, champions and dc universe, and i had stayed with them from early start to now. now i know fantasy doesnt have the visual variety that superhero has, but for me customization is the number 1 thing that gets me as a long term paying customer, so year, especially for races like the iksar(or the iksar-like variant they wind up putting in eqn), it would be nice to have the looks reflect a broad diversity of appearances to make the characters feel uniquely mine, rather than dwarven paladin number 700 with level x appropriate gear.

The Problem with video games is that the combat is never realistic. The big problem when a developer creates a combat, and combat animation, that 99% of the the developers will think of only the player's combat alone, and the npc's combat alone. What they should really think of is, how to make a combat system between two or even more or alse it will be chaotic. "Interact Action Combat System" is the idea of players while attacking each-other, there will be an interaction between the two or more. Many games when you play it and fight players or npc's when you and your opponent attack in the same time the weapons of you and your opponent will get through and path through each-other which is unrealistic at all. The idea is that when you attack nothing it will make a sertan animation and when you attack a player it will make the same animation, but when you and your opponent attacks in the same time the animation will change depended on what your opponent doing. like if you attack in the same time the weapons maybe will fly away from your hands, block each-other, hit each-other, or if he attacks you can block and then or counter attack or push him. stuff that require interaction, that makes the combat very realistic. Even if the combos are looking great in a game when you fight nothing, but when you make combos againts a player it will look stupid and unrealistic because there is no interaction. that's why the combos need to be interact with the combos of your opponent. BTW, sorry for my english :S

Since the poll specifies new user experience, I voted for character customization. It is the first stop for a new user, and if the character creation doesn't please a player, many will lose some enthusiasm for the game. A part of online games has always been the opportunity to create a (fairly) unique character, or at least one that you are pleased to identify with.

MMOs, and games in general, have had a tough time getting female characters right for female players. Male characters seem to be created for male players and too often, female characters seem to be created for male players. It would be great to have a range of male and female characters so that there would be something for everyone.

If I choose the play a female fighter or archer or magic user, I want to be able to create characters that fit my vision of what my characters might look like. I was able to use Babarbian, Half-elf, and Highelf in EQ2 to create those. I also want to sometimes play against racial type - I've always had a female gnome fighter type since the early days of EQ (warrier in EQ, and Swashbuckler in EQ2). With the exception of my wiry little gnome (perfect!), they are all a bit more buxom than I would create them, but I just try to stay away from armor or clothing that exaggerates it even more. I appreciate they have mature, proportioned, and customizable faces.

The other items in the poll are all important too, but a generous range of options in character creation, portends a generous range of things waiting for the new user to experience in the world ahead.

I would have to choose all 5 options, they all have their own unique strong points....

If it were to be a somewhat detailed character creation experience I would have it be very similar to building a wrestler back in the old WWE video games. There was tremendous variation in building a character through skin tone, hair, height, even changing the size and length of limbs....you could make a normal make human body look like an alien or a sumo wrestler depending on your preference, another big thing for me is hair/facial hair. While the customization in EQ2 was great it still seemed very limited and in the end everyone looked fairly indentical....you couldn't distinguish who was a great player that had achieved greatness or was a level 5 toon.

The one thing I loved about Everquest, is if a cleric was in all purple/blue armor you knew they were end game raiders. So while variation/customization on your clothing should be a big issue I think there should be some form of visual acceptance and notoriety that you know you're standing next to a behemoth player without having to inspect them, but in the scheme of things I know you bring in a lot of revenue through buying armor off of the station cash armor sets, which I hope doesn't happen again in eqnext. The armor you would get from end game raid mobs looked horribad compared to something you could buy for $5 - $10 on the sony marketplace.

Character creation shouldn't be limited to a few set faces, a few set hairstyles, and a few set colors for all of those things. It also shouldn't' be restricted by sliders that are often difficult to work with.

My proposal: Start with a Skinny/Fat/Muscular triangle, then extend into being able to mold the character models various body parts directly.

Skin, hair, and eye color should be selected from a spectrum, rather than set numbers.

Oh, and hairstyles should be designed to change when you put on a helmet so that it doesn't completely disappear.

I could use a compass

What has been turning off my friends, thus making me less active than I'd hoped to be in Landmark, has been the amounts of mining and chopping required to access some materials and start building. The limited size of claims would quickly become an issue if I we were able to build as much as we liked without harvesting that much.

The Problem with videogames is that the combat is never realsitic. The

big problem when a developer creates combat, and combat animation that

99% of the games will think of only the player's combat alone, and the

npc's combat alone. What they should really think of is, how to make a

combat system between two or even more. Iteract Action Combat System is

the idea of players while attacking eachother, there will be an

interaction btween the two or more. Many games when you play it and fight

players or npc's when you and your opponent attack in the same time the

weapons of you and your opponent will get through and path through

eachother which is un realistic. The idea is that when you attack on

nothing it will make a serten animation and when you attack a player it

will make the same animation, but when you attack and your opponent

attack in the same time the animation will change depend on what the

opponent doing. like if you attack in the same time the weapons maybe

will fall, block each-other, hit eachother, or if he attacks you can

block and then or counter attack or push him. stuff that require

interaction, that makes the combat realistic.

Camera controls FTW! Right now they suck. Put scroll wheel back on camera zoom (w/o having to press the Shift key) Give us back the camera pan function while holding mouse button. Classic MMO contrlols please. Don't fix what ain't broke.

More races! All human so far is boring! Character customization so people can identify with their toon better.

New player features applicable to EQN/L 1/8
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TLDR: The poll is a little limiting but here is some concise internal discussion starters:

1. EQN/L should consider adapting some of the more efficient mechanisms that previous non-MMO games have utilized to convey new concepts to introductory players as applicable and feasible.

2. EQN/L would benefit from having a modulized-tier tutorial to match the different sub-populations of players who need less/more assistance on different parts of the game.
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Everything that follows is organized by game title with each section describing a mechanic, camera angle, etc. that helps new players get oriented in said game and how it might be translatable to some of the challenges unique to EQN/L.

Subsequent titles may refer to features previously described in others for comparison and clarity. Some concepts have cross-application to later stages of gameplay that are not currently developed in EQN/L, but which will need to have some efficient tutorial mechanism so I have not omitted these.

In the game title expositions I bring many examples together and address how they may apply to a new character experience or at least provide new tools to present information to new players.

Even though it is likely that each of these games have been played by some people in the SOE offices it would be beneficial if at least one person has recently spent some time in each of these to refresh themselves on the new user experience. I have placed the time it would take a Dev to look into each game to see the features I describe next to each title in Red.

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New player features applicable to EQN/L 2/8
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The Witcher 2 (10 min check) has the resource node visualizer by pressing the Z key for a medallion pulse outward from the player character which temporarily places a golden sheen on the surrounding vegetation which are harvestable nodes within a nearby distance.

EQN/L could elect to implement either a temporary (new player experience only) or permanent ability (I’m not sure if that is appropriate in EQNL but it might be nice for EQN) that mimics this noob-proof visualization of harvestables that were reported on the forums here as difficult to figure out / find.
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Civilization V (20 min check) has some unique new player menu themes which could be feedstock for internal discussion on how EQN/L pop up tutorials go or might evolve.

Specifically, I was impressed with the options for the Advisor Level (New to Civ, New to Civ V, Experienced, No Advisor) which deepens only certain aspects of the tutorial portions. Additionally, the tutorials are part-voiced with a social-external character (Trade Advisor, Military Advisor, etc.) which can help it feel less like a pop-up and more like someone is helping you. I was also impressed with the delivery of information by Civ V about other combat units (i.e. the Great General information box content) which might be incorporated in some manner to help new players learn about other player classes without having to google it. In effect, Civ V applied the spirit of The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time’s Navi appropriately for their title.

EQN/L has some flexibility on how the delivery of semi-formal tutorials go. Many titles do have the holy pop-up box (Warcraft III / Starcraft II Style) and although they work well for their games I think Civ V’s tutorial tiering could be applied easily to EQN/L by separating help by category (New to MMO’s & need chat channel help, New to EQN but familiar with SOE titles, New to Minecraft type games but not MMO’s, etc.) which could better ‘modulize’ the delivered content to the player beyond what Civ V did with the Advisor Level. For instance I won’t need help with chat boxes but I would definitely need quite a bit of help with the building tools, templates, etc.

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New player features applicable to EQN/L 3/8
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Bioshock Infinite (30 min check) is a game with a compulsory first person camera but there are still some admirable and possibly transferrable concepts that would help new players in EQN/L.

The global difficulty setting available (Easy, Medium, Hard) in BI could be utilized as another means to personalize the experience of exploration/combat in EQN/L by adjusting only ‘parts’ of the game. I also was impressed with the more efficient pathing “N” which had a temporary ghostly/faded arrow pointed on the ground rather than the snaking golden line we see in EQ2.

The presentation of lore for new players via the shimmering (easy to see) voxophones and their side UI presentation was very efficient. The style of the static pop up box looting (rather than the movable ones in EQ2) are quite slick and would reduce the UI variability that could overwhelm newer players.

Localized Kinetoscopes could also be a very effective means to deliver abridged voxel building mechanic tutorials to new players which could easily be applied in EQN/L to help make noob areas really be just high traffic areas with noob tools people pass over later on. When you get dropped in Sigil you don’t get dropped in noob-area 101 and never go back, you get dropped in the thick of it and noob-info is just kind of omnipresent. Don’t be lazy and slam a YouTube video in there either as it will be better if it is an abridged animated cut-out like representation.

The micro-games at the city fair served quite well as ‘cutout combat’ where a new player could get accustomed to targeting semi-static specie and I could also see something more ‘indie’ within a EQN/L to help really noob players get over whatever barrier they have in the game (combat, tools, etc.).

The only one above that needs a little more contextualization is the global difficulty setting. If EQN/L had mixed populations of players (by preferred difficulty) sharing the same space (Casual PC vs PS4 only players) then everyone’s personal preference of game difficulty could be as personal as faction given that there will be few situations where combat/exploration where seeing another player (outside of PvP) will be a detriment to gameplay.

Since competition (outside of PvP) for scarcity is going to be limited in EQN/L there is no detriment to letting some players have a more or less hardcore experience while sharing the same space (i.e. server). I’ll assume that the vertical crafting in EQNL is only a prototype for a more horizontal system that will evolve for EQN so having a hard character variable (Easy, Medium, Hard) for crafting doesn’t really make sense at this time.

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New player features applicable to EQN/L 4/8
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Farcry III (30 min check) is another first person camera FPS that has some features that might help new players in EQN/L.

The current plot target has a circle with a dot in the middle of their pixels to help facilitate proper player attention in possibly crowded areas in EQN/L without resorting to a sea of books/feathers/exclamation marks/etc.

The simplistic sneak mode symbol on the lower right of the screen combined with the directional counter detection sonar/echo bars could be an alternative to Bethesda’s line that turns into an eye for stealth or invisibility detection in EQN/L. Perhaps the symbol fills/empties of color when detected rather than having the little sonar bars to make things even simpler for newer players.

The enemy/plot flagging camera mode is in effect an enhanced version of earlier games like Tomb Raider Underworld, etc. and might be applicable in EQN/L to place a local temporary tag on either PvE or PvP opponents making them easier to see. It could also be useful to find quest target updates in crowded areas where a waypoint or Bioshock style ghost arrow might not be as applicable. This 'temporary' view mode might be superior to the perma-feathers/books that WOW started. Yeah we can turn them off in EQ2 but the game would feel more real if we got meta-data when we need it but not when we don't.

Imagine if the EQNL pub with all those players had 4 PvP-ers who had to find each other and 1 NPC out of 15 (that move around!) someone needed to talk to or find. A mode like this camera toggle can help filter out the signal from the noise very efficiently in dense EQN/L areas. This could help new players immensely.

Alternatively, Assassin’s Creed (youtube check) has the eagle eye system for simplistic color coding and the capacity to ‘golden-ify’ PvE targets so that they can be seen clearly through walls which might help find transient NPC’s without having to resort to a Miami Vice stakeout.

If temporary dynamic faction is going to be part of EQN/L (which is unclear at this stage) then having an eagle eye alternative to find the safe faction blending areas (benches with 2 people, haystacks, group of NPC’s, etc.) to wait for faction to cool down might be necessary to help newer players find where to go.

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New player features applicable to EQN/L 5/8
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Tomb Raider (2013) (45 min check to LC’s first campfire) has several features that might have application to help new players in EQN/L.

The survival sense allows for a greyscale washout of color except for ‘golden-ified’ interactables / targets that dissipates when you move. Unlike the Witcher 2’s medallion pulse it increases contrast by greyscale. This could help new/returning EQN/L players get their bearings (anywhere) as the environment changes over time and game updates. Depending on what EQN/L does with ‘partial physics’ there is going to need to be a ‘sense’ to tell what voxels are vulnerable to change without having them fluorescent orange for everyone.

The mechanism of interaction (e.g. lighting a torch, etc.) has a color filling shape to let the player know in non-numerical terms that they need to hold a key/button which is an effective passive way to communicate to a new player.

I also think it is efficient to reserve discrete events (rare mineral, etc.) to side UI images like TR does xp rather than clogging chat (MMO text to a fault). I don’t know how much EQNL really needs a chat full of thousands of common material harvest events when really don’t most people look in their bags or whatnot to figure out if they have enough? Isn’t it a case of too much detail that might turn newer players off? If I need to see I mined 17 ore in a text your visual delivery has failed.

The diamond milestone target that tells new players where to head is visible through the landscape and could be used in addition to the Bioshock Infinite ghost arrow depending on terrain and distance. In obscure terrain the diamond might be more helpful but in flat areas perhaps the ghost arrow might actually better ‘point’ a player. The fact that the diamond milestone looks like a beam of light under survival sense when it is within player line of sight also helps emphasize where a player needs to be to new players.

There has been some criticism of the first person view of mining in EQN/L. Is it possible that the ‘almost’ first person view of Tomb Raiders ‘archery’ view might be applicable? The avatar is off to the side left a bit and the target point has the growing/shrinking circle to match the draw/hold of the bowstring. In EQN/L perhaps this view might be a better close quarters or ‘target’ sensitive view that still allows positional sensitivity of character surroundings? In pure first person view it’s hard to see ‘around’ either in combat or mining. The bow draw mechanic could add oomph to a EQN/L (either the harvest or traveling) by adding variability to PvE voxel impact. Just because a higher tier tool can eat more voxels doesn’t mean we might not want scalpels when we need them.

The non-numerical character damage feedback doesn’t involve Doom like portraits but the more common splatter on the top/bottom of the screen. This reduction of complexity makes a game simpler and easier to access to new players but to get a lower ESRB rating EQN/L could have tattered cloth/armor to match whatever the class happens to be instead of red splatter. Maybe portraits in the UI are only when grouping?

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New player features applicable to EQN/L 6/8
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Alice Madness Returns [1/3] (10 min check to see these before going to Wonderland) has quite a few approaches that might be applicable in EQN/L.

First off is the menu screen with the drawer collection of bottles, memories, and weapons to the left of Alice before you load a game. Most MMOs use Baldur’s Gate style journal systems that take time to toggle to the right text based list. If EQN/L kept achievements or class discovery to a primary visual representation then it would make it easier to see progress for both new and experienced players.

The traditional quest journal could be reserved for quests or temporary narrative (which does not clog a chat box!) or any other interactive quest-like concepts. Having 40+ EQN classes in a list might seem a little overwhelming even if there are AA-like mix/match tabs to select abilities per button slot. Maybe I’m not given EQN enough credit and you’ll have an avatar screen with empty shaded slots representing the classes yet to be discovered.

The memory menu screen with the different circles representing each category of discovered plot memory also has plenty of room to run in EQN and to a lesser extent in EQNL. In EQN each major faction ‘sound byte’ (at the end of a major rallying call, HQ, etc.) might toggle in a category instead of the memory category by family, doctor, lawyer, nanny, etc. as is the case for Alice. Memories in game are more akin to the Bioshock Infinite UI display of voxophones although arguably the 2011 Alice title came first but both games efficiently deliver additional lore with audio and a tad bit of graphics. One could say that the indie game Resonance focused on memories in part because of these big budget titles.

The dynamic camera ‘view’ event [prompted for by L1] could be embedded as ‘heroic views’ in EQN and EQNL to help those passing by view a claim/city/etc. as the Devs/player intends it. Whether it’s the dragon head illusion or the dragon head mountain or the super statue that looks like the Antagonist of 300 having a mechanism for a new player to ‘press a key’ to spin their camera to favor said landmark/place as intended would fit well with EQN/L. Honestly, I’d limit the compulsory camera locking (EQ2 DOV the Ascent or TSO NHT) and make a way for an interactive and opt in heroic viewing would be helpful in assisting new players. Yes GOW, etc. also have this mechanic but since I’m using AMR as an example I’ll just leave it at that.

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New player features applicable to EQN/L 7/8
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Alice Madness Returns [2/3] (takes about an hour of play to end chapter 1 where hysteria is introduced but I’m sure someone in the office has played this game so talk with them) has quite a few approaches that might be applicable in EQN/L.

The combat tutorial system with the large ‘chalkboards’ for simplistic concepts as presented in the Vale of Tears are kind on new players and are different than the slight animations in Bioshock Infinite. EQN/L could use the 'chalkboard' approach for very simple mechanics, the 'cutout animations' for more complex, the 'kinetoscopes' for even more complex ideas, and youtube as a last resort for something really really hard to convey.

As an aside, the jump and 3 x float/bounce ‘spin’ could provide something between the grappling hook, floating, gliding, and flying for new players as well. Honestly I find the ‘spin’ in Alice 2nd only to flying as gliding in EQ2 is just awkward as it’s hard to land where you need to. Flying and slowfall are easy to control but gliding just never felt right.

The hydrant jets facilitate non-flying and locally enabled vertical ascent in this platformer but depending on how EQN/L handles water collision it is possible to use this for gameplay. New players would recognize platforming elements easily and it might be possible to ‘Free Realms’ some local areas without having a whole server of low frequency login transients that might feel barren. E rating ESRB flagged accounts could have near zero non-NPC chat capacity to send or receive so there is no need for a Chuck E Cheese or Willy Wonka server per se but you all ran Free Realms and EQ1 so you know your own products better than I.

The combat UI (Zelda-like heart flowers on top left, etc.) is hidden when not in combat. This opens up the screen substantially when exploring and if feasible would make EQN/L more inviting to new players who like to explore. EQ2 chat boxes fade out when not active so why not parts of the UI in EQN/L?

The greyscale hysteria mechanic is clearly displayed on an efficient timer and allows players of any (class) to ‘last chance’ with a short time boost / invincibility to ‘open up a can’ to catch up. New players (or select item / temporary / etc.) could use this as another mechanism of engagement as greyscaling with a character metamorphosis feels more satisfying than non-visual MMO stuff like EQ2’s Dragoon’s Parry, Divine Guidance, etc. If EQN/L are going to be on the PS4 why not take a trick from the console game handbook (Tomb Raider 2013, Alice Madness Returns, etc.) with greyscaling?

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New player features applicable to EQN/L 8/8
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Alice Madness Returns [3/3] (the first 20 min in wonderland) has quite a few approaches that might be applicable in EQN/L.

The shrink view mechanic brings up the concept of hidden (opt in) static hints for players. Although shrinking has no place in EQN/L the ‘fading purple chalk view’ that allows players to see keyholes (tunnels) through illusionary rocks or invisible platforms or hints as to the hidden mobs (snouts) or upcoming mobs (any) or even direction (static arrows rather than Bioshock ghost arrows) could provide another alternative to Rift/WOW pop up hints.

EQ2 had googles to see purple shinies so really the major difference here is the fact a button (not an equip/unequip) event is required to see more substantial Dev hints for new players. It could be another way to ‘noob’ a zone without having a ‘noob zone’.

The acquisition of a weapon also feels uniquely heroic with a ‘Zelda moment’ using the right kind of camera travel. Picking a class in EQ2 just doesn't feel as satisfying as it did when we had subclasses (although I agree with the decision to remove it) but this 'Zelda moment' would work well for EQN/L. The weapons themselves (vorpal blade, hobby horse, pepper grinder, teapot, clockwork) each upgrade from stage I to stage IV via a ‘card’ interface. The offensive capacity or ‘class’ of Alice changes depending on the chosen item which each level up on their own (most similar to plans for EQNL over EQN). In a voxel-based world (with physics) the rabbit clockwork would really be an interesting for the Rube-Goldberg Apparati in EQNL and another mechanism for travel/exploration in EQN/L. AMR in many ways is a dark adult Zelda 64 without an open world.

The upgrade menu is pretty non-numeric and even the items themselves clearly ‘master sword’ out with greater frequency of attack along with less hits required per enemy. The entire console ‘feel’ of this is very new player friendly. Depending on how EQNL combat ends up going parts of this that ‘feel’ right on EQN/L could be applied as applicable.

Right now we are all in the dark as to your specifics so it’s hard to propose something directly applicable to help new players when we don’t know what you’re doing. If you chose to go all Zelda 64 with Z-ish targeting or Witcher 2-ish autofacing then mobs could be more Zelda/Alice ish with orcs that have shields that require reactive avoidance like the mad caps in Alice. If it’s Rift/Wow/EQ2 mobs that just wander around the world (the new thing to EQN/L) then it’s business as usual.

Then again, you could use the dynamic mobs of EQN/L as part of a new ‘death penalty’ system that is far more Bioshock Infinite (if you die the mob group also heals or increases in members by crying for help). If you did that then new players could have a lesser death penalty in term so of ‘mob recovery’ upon combat failure. It’s far too early to guess what might be and propose what could help newer players have a better experience in certain parts of the EQN/L games that don’t exist yet.

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Easy. Goals and structure for the first few minutes of play. Very easy for a new player (in any game) to be lost and have no direction. Some simple goals (especially if not forced, just recommended so they can go off and do their own thing if they want - like alts for example) can help ease them in to the game while they get used to systems and how they interact with the world. Perhaps a small reward for completing a couple of initial goals (slightly improved tools or something like that, perhaps - faster than manually upgrading it yourself).

Character customization is great... but if a lot of that can be changed after character creation while actually in game (aka, more power in the hands of the people actually playing) then you can streamline the initial character creation process a bit to get people in the game faster. I know there's people that'll spend hours fiddling with a character creator and have a blast doing so, but you just want the options there - no major need to have them all right up front. If going that route, you can have little blurb in the character creator mentioning there's an even wider range of options to discover as you play.

I would have first said that making the controls and tutorials clear and comprehensive was the main thing, but I was struck by the fact that yes, actually when i think about it, having a lot of character customization and options at start does improve a persons outlook and initial feelings about the game. I remeber seeing several reviews opf games where characters were initially very similiar, and they all sounded terribly dissappointed, even when the game did allow for more customization later, it felt likean initial let down.