Game is not user/noob friendly

[VonVolks]

I think the UI and Tutorial will all come together, as there is no point making a tutorial without the UI in place, as it wont make sense at all if its all changed!

 

Perhaps there should be an offical NOOB post made, and there is a direct link to it message that new players get when they first log in? And they  keep getting it for 1st 5 times they log in (so they dont miss it in the excitement!)

[Admiral 8Q]

I agree, this game is not "Noob Friendly". 

That's why I bought it even if it is still in alpha.
I was a clueless noob playing this game for a few days.
I like this kind of game. Not a spoon-fed game.

There are alot of experienced players that will help you out if you have the patience.

[Aetrion]

I kind of feel the same way. 23 hours in, only just got access to a 120 person crew, and due to playing a little bit on PvP and a little bit on PvE my money got divided so I can't afford a ship that makes any kind of meaningful upgrade to my basic cutter in terms of firepower.

 

This game is a total grind right from the start. I don't even know how long it will be before I ever even see a gun bigger than a class 8, and people here still chant their mantra of "Money is easy to make" over and over. Maybe I'm doing it wrong by just doing missions instead of trying to raid trade ships or whatever, but seriously? 20+ hours and still not a single meaningful upgrade?

 

And yea yea, now some hardcore internet tough guys are going to say "You just want a 1st rate right away" or some stupid strawman like that. No, that's not what it is. I'm perfectly willing to work for top end stuff, but so far it feels like the climb hasn't even started yet, and all the ships I can buy are just variants on the 6 gun 8-10 basic cutter with no real advantages other than suddenly having repair costs of 500-1000 up from 0. 

 

It's just a total failure to design a good new player experience. Even all the Wargaming titles which are insanely grindy once you get to tier 6+ get this right and make it so that you can go to tier 2 in two or three matches with the most basic unit, and to tier 3 in maybe six to ten matches with a tier 2 unit, and then after maybe twenty matches in that you hit tier 4 where you start going down a certain tech tree. In this game you can be hundreds of battles in, still not have anything you can call a real accomplishment. 

 

 

The progression system doesn't seem very well thought out to begin with. Earning nothing but more crew implies that the game considers bigger ships to always be better, and the only real progression is to go from smaller to bigger vessels. At no point do you settle into any kind of progression that actually defines how you want to play. You can't level up and gain officers that give bonuses to your ship or gain captain traits that affect your performance, or gain access to special equipment or ships or anything. I don't even know how many hundreds of hours you have to put into the game until you actually have a chance to craft something or really customize a ship. You certainly don't get to make any meaningful choices in the first 20 hours.

[Admiral 8Q]

I disagree. 

Myself I was annoyed and pissed off the first time I played. But after learning the basics of the game, I noticed it's well made. Something different from spoon-fed games.You actually have to think for yourself here, and when grouping up with people.

Instead of worrying about "gain", try just playing the game and see where it takes you.

If you're greedy, then figure out how to make gold. If you want to blast other ships to davey jones locker, then figure out how to get bigger warships. This is a MMO so talking with other people you can make deals to get what you want.

[Aetrion]

What if I actually enjoy doing missions? Then I just get crapped on by having a pathetic dripfeed of money?

 

The basic cutter just sucks. It's not the gameplay with it that sucks, it's that you can't do anything with it. I mean it'd be one thing if I would be upgrading that thing the whole time, do some visual customization, improve it's various aspects here and there, but there is just nothing to it. You buy one set of guns that costs 2000 gold, you can install one single upgrade on it, which can cost more than an entire ship if you want the 5% bonus variety and not the 1% bonus variety, and then that's it. There absolutely nothing else for you to do four hours and hours and hours of just running around trying to raise the money for a ship that is an actual upgrade.

 

To me having that kind of huge dead zone where you're just doing the same thing over and over and over in an attempt to raise money simply doesn't add up to a well made open world experience. It's not that the fights aren't fun, it's just that doing the exact same fight over and over and over gets boring after so many hours.

 

I don't see why I should hold this game to a lesser standard than any other open world game. In Eve Online it didn't take me 20 hours to be able to buy a frigate that was a significant step up from my starter ship and train my character in a variety of skills that set me down a path of progression I could follow for years. In Ultima Online I was immediately exploring a vast world with a huge variety of enemies while training up my skills, and if I ever got bored I could just go to the next town and find a whole new environment with whole new enemies to fight. In this game all I'm doing is fighting the exact same kinds of enemies with the exact same kinds of mechanics with the exact same ship over and over. The mechanics aren't even terrible or anything, they are actually quite fun, but not so fun that they don't get stale after several solid hours of literally doing the exact same thing.

 

Out of all the hundreds of battles I've fought I recall exactly two of them. One 1on1 PvP duel I had that turned into a 1:30+ hour grudge match where I was up against a more powerful ship and was trying to wear it down from long range, and after the timer ran down we both stayed in the match because we were so eager to sink the other player that we fought it out the bitter end, and then the other guy finally sank with my hull half full of water and continuing to fill despite having my crew on survival. And the other match was my first encounter with a 4th rate ship and the butt puckering amount of fire it was pouring in my direction while whiffing every single shot right over my low profile hull while I was trying to run away. Those were the awesome memorable moments in the game so far for me. Every other fight just kind of blends together into one single slow zig-zagging gunnery duel that stretches on for hours.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Aetrion

[Admiral 8Q]

 

To me having that kind of huge dead zone where you're just doing the same thing over and over and over in an attempt to raise money simply doesn't add up to a well made open world experience. It's not that the fights aren't fun, it's just that doing the exact same fight over and over and over gets boring after so many hours.

 

Same here. I was originally playing as USA at Charleston, but I didn't like that as a place to be based on. So I deleted my "character" and started instead as British. The capital is literally central of the map so I can now explore, pillage, plunder, capture, trade, in any direction I want to.

I met up with other people same minded. That's what makes a game enjoyable. Yes I still have the starting cutter, but I've captured 3 trader ships with it. Also sank many more ships. Got myself sunk four times already, haha!

If your goal is "More! More! More!"

Then you will never be satisfied and always complaining.

[Kurshuk]

User experience matters.

 

New users are new money that can be used to develop the game.

 

My goal was to try to get to some kind of midlevel ship with enough, heavy enough cannon to do damage, but still retain some speed and mobility. Light frigates or a step down.

 

After playing the game this goal is way further away than I thought and I wanted to play to see and drive some of the larger craft than a cutter. After seeing the gains I'm making in the economy and the leveling progression it's just way way further away than I thought. So the gap between where I am now and where those ships become viable is the grind.

 

Making the game difficult to learn doesn't help anyone. If you're hardcore, don't look at the help and go figure it out. That's a form of exploration in and of itself. If you like that, awesome. But when a game goes on steam there is a higher standard just from the exposure to that volume of consumers. Especially when the majority of players swings from the alpha to Steam Early Access.

 

tl;dr

Punishing players because you want the challenge of figuring it out creates risk for the product. I want the product to make it and thrive. I don't want to punish new players, but help them become hungry for the challenges of the sea and make some of the progress attainable earlier on.

[Admiral 8Q]

Not to self promote too much, but I cover some of these basic ideas on my YouTube channel. 

 

And those are some good examples things new people need to know, and thus I will create more content on those exact things!

Yes, you did help me out quite a bit. 

Cheers!

[Aetrion]

If your goal is "More! More! More!"

Then you will never be satisfied and always complaining.

 

There is a huge difference between wanting to unlock and use a ship you actually enjoy and are proud of and just always wanting to unlock a more powerful thing. Of course this isn't a game you can play for infinite progress. They aren't going to raise the level cap and put more powerful magic pants in three years down the road, we all know this. However, that doesn't mean you have to be perfectly happy being given no opportunity to pick a ship you like for an absurd amount of time.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Aetrion

[Admiral 8Q]

There is a huge difference between wanting to unlock and use a ship you actually enjoy and are proud of and just always wanting to unlock a more powerful thing. Of course this isn't a game you can play for infinite progress. They aren't going to raise the level cap and put more powerful magic pants in three years down the road, we all know this. However, that doesn't mean you have to be perfectly happy being given no opportunity to pick a ship you like for an absurd amount of time.

True. If unlocking a ship or whatever is a goal, then that's something to try for. Myself, I was doing missions then teaming up with other players and alternating missions. That's a great way to make allies and advance.

As far as I know this game is a one time cost. Perhaps they'll add things like paying real money to buy in-game things later, I don't know. 

 

[Lone Wolf]

Yes, Premium Ships for money would be nice (the Game will need ongoing income to take it into the future). No need for them to be more powerful than the average Ship (no P2W), just something to add to the variety of what can be sailed on the High Seas.

[Tindahbawx]

Bought it expecting it to play like PoTBS ... and it does, so I was pretty much all set to go once someone in chat told me how to actually shoot my guns!

 

I'd been watching a lot of RamJB's videos on Youtube about the game prior to purchase though, so I knew I was going to enjoy the combat.

[Mrdoomed]

Yes, Premium Ships for money would be nice (the Game will need ongoing income to take it into the future). No need for them to be more powerful than the average Ship (no P2W), just something to add to the variety of what can be sailed on the High Seas.

Making them more powerful is instant p2w. If anything they should maybe get a little extra cargo space or OW speed or maybe custom paint or flag etc but power SHOULD never be bought. Just my 5 cents.

[Aetrion]

Making them more powerful is instant p2w. If anything they should maybe get a little extra cargo space or OW speed or maybe custom paint or flag etc but power SHOULD never be bought. Just my 5 cents.

 

Don't really agree there, as long as custom built standard ships are slightly stronger it should be fine. 

[Hyperion74]

My complaint, exp is hard to come by. I getting one prize at a time and still am only half to the next rank. I guess fleeting builds exp fast but I haven't fleeted yet. Not a major complaint. Still having a great time. I'm not really looking for rank right now, just money and a fun fight. Getting both.

[Ghroznak]

26hours of game time is what it has taken  me to level up and hit level 3 and get a decent ship. I made the mistake of buying a privateer and a trader lynx which made me short on money when it came time to buy the snow, yet I just purchased one, gunned it, and I'm not out of money.

 

The game really needs a tutorial. Even now, having played 26 hours over 5 days I still don't really know how to make money other then missions.

 

Since I had to play 40k for the snow and 7-10k to gun it I'm scared to death to even use it for a mission. There has to be a better way to make money other then missions.

 

Any suggestions would be nice, now that I have a snow should I focus on taking down trader ships? What should I be doing for money because judging by what you get out of missions, it would seem I would be better off getting back into the cutter and grinding small battles/missions for money.

 

Keep in mind the game is in alpha. So their main priorities are not tutorials (though they would of course be useful). It's easy to forget it is alpha though cause the gameplay doesn't have much bugs or glitches, and besides the UI being completely placeholder the game runs great.

 

There are many great tutorials on the game though on Youtube, but may require some searching around to find. There are also some guides and such written in the forums here.

 

Feel free to come by my stream (link in the sig) as well in the evening (EU hours) and you can ask questions there where I can try to give answers on the fly or show how the things work inside the game. I'm playing on the US PvE server as Denmark-Norway. If you happen to do the same you can also fleet up with us for missions and capturing traders

 

All in all though, the game being in alpha as it is, the only way to learn is to do some research such as find youtube videos, read guides on forum, jump into streams and ask questions or simple trial and error.

 

I try my best to help out new players though as I know the game can feel overwhelming, with many little quirks that are a bit hidden so they are easily missed out. As an example, while I was lurking in a Naval Action stream yesterday another viewer who was watching and had played the game for quite awhile suddenly exclaims "You can zoom with the spyglass???" ... apparently he had played the game without knowing you can use mousewheel to zoom in/out while holding Shift

 

I guess we all learn as we go though.

[TheGrey]

Everyone plays the game in his/her own way but I will share what i did so far ,

 

From my first minute in the game I left Capital area and went further away from the crowded area . I started capturing npc traders up to brigs with starter basic cutter ( with starter guns ) . After my 3rd brig I got 15k gold so I went and got my first outpost in the town near my hunting ground . From then I started capturing and taking command of all trader ships and send my basic cutter back to outpost . Evaluate what trade goods I got from it then decide whether to save to sell later at ports with demand for or just dump it in my outpost town , your call . I kept breaking captured ships to get material cuz I wanted to get into ship building or u can sell to players .

 

I am now rank 2nd Lt , I have 300k cash and like 200k  worth of assets , my crafting is lv8 and am working to build my own brig from breaking npc traders .

 

I have to mention I play on the PVE server so most time am sailing looking for target and spend less time circulating the camera to not get jumped by a enemy player and believe me it is makes a huge difference .  

[El Capitano]

26hours of game time is what it has taken  me to level up and hit level 3 and get a decent ship. I made the mistake of buying a privateer and a trader lynx which made me short on money when it came time to buy the snow, yet I just purchased one, gunned it, and I'm not out of money.

 

The game really needs a tutorial. Even now, having played 26 hours over 5 days I still don't really know how to make money other then missions.

 

Since I had to play 40k for the snow and 7-10k to gun it I'm scared to death to even use it for a mission. There has to be a better way to make money other then missions.

 

Any suggestions would be nice, now that I have a snow should I focus on taking down trader ships? What should I be doing for money because judging by what you get out of missions, it would seem I would be better off getting back into the cutter and grinding small battles/missions for money.

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