My first three levels, a new players experience.

[KrakkenSmacken]

Yarrr!

 

I just joined the game on Feb 18th, and logged about 33 hours of play over the weekend. Over that time I almost made level 3 with crafting at 6.  Before I purchased the game I had watched 3-4 hours of videos online about how the game worked, so I did not drop into the game fully green. I started on US2 server as a US player, leveled once, and switched to Pirate, and fairly quickly found a clan to join up with.

 

Here are my observations and suggestions as a new player.

 

I am aware this is very early Alpha, so any suggestion is not a criticism, and I am not going to say anything about the appearance of the UI, just a few possible points about functionality.

 

First impressions.

 

The Good: I love the combat. Single mission or mass battle (I participated in a port defense). Instance entry and exit rules were easy to understand, and getting into the action was fast.

 

The Strange:

The join as pirate warning.  I found it a very odd warning, that only became more odd the longer I played.  The pirate experience from a game mechanics point of view appears identical. NPC's attack you or don't regarless of location and faction. I as a pirate have passed several fleets that should have turned a weak pirate cutter into kindling rather than ignore me an let me hit a merchant ship just a couple of minutes later.

 

Missions are assigned and in essence identical. Pirates do not appear to be randomly attacked by other pirates. So really the only difference is political in nature as it relates to player interaction, success of which is based on population.  In short I think the warning unfairly singles out one "nation" for lower population by unduly scarring away new players.

 

The Bad: Key mapping finding is a pain in the arse.  I had to leave the game to google for key maps on a Wiki.  A current configuration key map that shows what you have changed should be available at all times, and a help note telling you how to get to it should almost be the first thing you see when you log in. Just finding that tool would go a long way to help with early self learning.

 

Getting your first level is a bit of a let down.  The additional crew is not enough to offset the risk of jumping out of your unlimited replacement ship and into a second ship.  Additionally I really focused on crafting, and was still unable to build a ship that could use the additional crew level 2 gave me.

 

I suggest that every level up you be given one of a new ship you are qualified for, at least for the first three levels.

 

Crafting:

 

Good: having every item lead back to it's recipe makes figuring out what you need easy.

 

Suggestion: Have a way to purchase from the local port any items you need directly. Jumping back and forth is a bit of a pain.  Not as in I have a cannon sized hole in my chest kinda pain, more like I have rope burn from the rigging kinda pain.

 

Navigation:

 

Suggestion: Add a compass tool to the map that you can drop and move around.  I don't mind driving by feel, but it would be nice to know what exact direction to set initial headings for. I don't want to have a "you are here" dot, but perhaps a "get bearings" function that you had to stop and sit idle for 120 seconds or so that would then indicate an area you "may" be in, or give you a heading to your last port, or some other aid.  

 

Experience:

 

I personally think it's a bit shallow to hinge XP solely on damage and crew kills. I would like to see a capture bonus of some sort, as it is much harder to board and take a ship than it is to sink, and if your attempting to board a ship you may not want to shoot it up enough to cause leaks, just enough to let the grape work.

 

Nation Stuff:

I think there should also be a Nation XP factor put into play to encourage a larger separation of players joining certain nations, and show this when new players are created.  Neither joining a nation that is so full you can not contribute effectively, nor joining a nation that all the veteran players have abandoned due to population issues, will be a good experience for new players.  Server populations seem to demonstrate that players want to play for "their" country, and that has led to an incredibly skewed nation set up.  

 

Joining as a nation should be something you can switch between without loosing all your items. I say this simply because a new player will happily join XYZ nation and not realize what they just spent 10-15 hours working on was not really what they wanted in the first place. It is also possible to do regardless, provided you work with at least one other person to move items around, so it's really a pointless restriction that only hurts new players.

 

I also think there needs to be either an end game [The Americans won, new server reset in X days], or the addition of perpetual comeback mechanics of some sort to over come the natural slippery slope that nation population provides.

 

http://www.sirlin.net/articles/slippery-slope-and-perpetual-comeback

 

Port Capture:

This isn't me complaining because I am a pirate. I saw all the warnings about it being hard, and I happily singed up for that. That said I think there needs to be some more mechanics that can slow the capture rate available to nations.  Being able to capture multiple ports while the other team sleeps ends up not being fun for anyone. 

 

I would suggest that one possible option would be to capture a port you should need to win four times, once in each 6 hour segment of the real world clock, with production consequences for having lost particular segments until re-captured or fully lost.

 

I would also like to see the nation capital able to move by vote that takes place over 2 or 3 days.  In this way retreat would be possible without having to abandon new players joining in areas that are no longer heavily supported by veteran players.

 

 

Well that's enough for a first post.  

 

 

[walleye]

Yarrr!

 

 

Nation Stuff:

I think there should also be a Nation XP factor put into play to encourage a larger separation of players joining certain nations, and show this when new players are created.  Neither joining a nation that is so full you can not contribute effectively, nor joining a nation that all the veteran players have abandoned due to population issues, will be a good experience for new players.  Server populations seem to demonstrate that players want to play for "their" country, and that has led to an incredibly skewed nation set up.  

 

Joining as a nation should be something you can switch between without loosing all your items. I say this simply because a new player will happily join XYZ nation and not realize what they just spent 10-15 hours working on was not really what they wanted in the first place. It is also possible to do regardless, provided you work with at least one other person to move items around, so it's really a pointless restriction that only hurts new players.

 

I also think there needs to be either an end game [The Americans won, new server reset in X days], or the addition of perpetual comeback mechanics of some sort to over come the natural slippery slope that nation population provides.

 

http://www.sirlin.net/articles/slippery-slope-and-perpetual-comeback

 

 

 

 

I think your Nation XP sounds very interesting. Could be more fleshed out of course, but I think you got something there.