Tutorial Revamp


#1

I had some ideas lying around from half a year ago about what could be done to improve the currently outdated tutorial. Thanks @Floflorian for reminding me about them.

Q: Why should DECA spend their resources to do this?
A: A tutorial is like the beginning of a book; if the beginning is crappy, some readers are turned off and stop reading. An updated tutorial is crucial for retaining new players, and potentially paying customers.


###Quick Fixes

These are fixes that I think would be pretty quick and easy to implement.

Make a Tutorial Portal (edited as per Nevov’s suggestion)

Reason: New players who wish to revisit the Tutorial will be able to.

Using the /tutorial command is sweet and quick but newer players probably have no idea how to do that. Having a portal is an easy way for newer players to run through the tutorial again lest they forgot something.

Update the vault.

Reason: Purely for the sake of consistency.

I don’t take credit for this idea at all, but now that DECA seems content with the current layout, I’m sure they can make it happen. This includes an explanation for the the Wardrobe and Gift Chests.

Make the two Nexus’s the same.

Reason: Once again, consistency. It’s not appealing for new players to finish the tutorial, only to find out it’s a dumbed-down version of the actual game.

This includes all appropriate portals such as the Pet Yard, Bazaars, Alchemist/Tinkerer, Mystery Box and even Arena and Guild Resignation area.

Show players the options menu.

Reason: Would definitely help players right off the bat to get into good habits.

Watching some videos, like @Neutralman (no offense) using no hotkey for Nexusing makes me shudder. Just another one of those green boxes to show the option button would suffice (or let them know it’s the ‘O’ key).

Show players their stats.

Reason: Would cause less confusion the first time a player gets a stat pot. A link to RealmEye’s stats-explained page would be helpful.

Another one of the green boxes pointing at the stats tab would be sufficient, maybe a sentence saying you can permanently increase these by drinking stat pots. Another reminder what perma-death means would also be good.

Emphasize the perma-death aspect of the game.

Reason: Perma-death is definitely not for everyone, and it’s especially crappy to find out about it without being warned.

I know there’s a tip about it, but it’s kinda the most important mechanic in the game, might wanna warn new player about it? There used to be a one time revival but it was removed probably because of exploits, so now they should give it some emphasis in the tutorial.


###Larger Fixes

Yeah, they’ll take some more time but definitely worth it for DECA.

Make a Pet Yard explanation.

Reason: According MSellers, pets were the largest part of RotMG’s income when they were first introduced. Makes sense to explain/hook new players, so they can spend money on it later.

Personally, I made mistakes when fusing as a newer player and now I can’t have a fully maxed pet. It’d be at least nice to have a link to the wiki. Or a few sentences explaining how to get them, what they do and maybe a little ‘Hey, you can buy food!’ thing.

Side Idea: Another thing that I think would be cool is to give players a ‘free’ pet to try out, only in the tutorial though. Seems like a coding horror though, so not necessary.

Create a dungeon explaining player-player mechanics.

Reason: RotMG is supposed to be coop, might as well let new players know how to interact immediately. Coop makes RotMG fun = maybe higher retention rate?

I have an idea concerning a cemetery-style dungeon that requires a certain amount of tasks to be completed (in order):

  • Upon entering the dungeon, player is greeted by a ‘Skuld-like’ character (for now, he will be known as Arthur). Instead of being an enemy, he will behave just like a player.

  • Arthur will tell the player to press ‘Enter’ to chat. Arthur will then request the player to say ‘hello’. Next, he will show the ‘/help’ command and explain a few commands like ‘/t’.

  • Arthur will show the player how to teleport from the minimap (player will effectively teleport to Arthur).

  • Arthur will show the player how to click on Arthur’s name on the player list (bottom right). He will go through different aspects such as *trading (see next point), locking, blocking, teleporting etc.

  • To illustrate trading, the player could be granted another Ring of Minor Defence upon entrance of the dungeon, and Arthur will trade the player a T0 Armour (+1 defence) for the ring. This makes sense thematically as well; if a player already has a T0 weapon, ability and ring, why not give them an armour as well?

  • Edit: As per @Nevov’s suggestion, a counter to the spam in the nexus could be implemented as Arthur shows the player how to /ignore spamming hobbits or something.


Anything you’d like to see in it?


Nexustutorial
Does RotMG Need a Large Rebalance?
#2

I love the arthur concept


#3

I’ll give [slight] creds to @Floflorian, after seeing his video about having dummies for teleporting :wink:


#4

Very nice, been a while since i was at that stage and i cant remember what it was like, but changes will definately make it better but i dont think it will be high on their priorities list b/c players arent usually asking for better tutorials.


#5

Another thing @Floflorian said on his video and should be mentioned here is the ability to exploit tutorial turrets for accuracy bonuses. I think that should be removed, though that may be more closely related to a fame system revamp than to a tutorial revamp.


#6

Totally agree, removing it would make sense, but still wouldn’t stop fame farmers from using other methods of accuracy farming.

A fame rework + reset would be the only way to make such a currency viable again.


#7

You should add t0 leather armors and t0 heavy armors.
Rest is great.


#8

Chances are that the player is playing a Wizard class since they would be a new player, but yes it makes sense to add the other two armors.
(I’d love to see the first 5 classes always unlocked like the Wizard once we get more classes, that way the beginning is much more appealing as the new player will have a choice.)


#9

Yeah. And that makes wonder: is DECA even thinking about reworking fame?


#10

Fixed.


#11

You hear about this free-to-play bullet hell MMO, so you open a browser window and jump right in. The first things you see are opportunities to spend your money. The second thing you see is the tutorial, where you learn to move and grab itens and pew-pew. You assume that’s enough.
You don’t know which ring to use, because half the stats have no explanation. You pick up all eight T1s just in case.
You wonder how other players get pro itens. Because you’re unnamed, you’ve never seen a purple bag. You don’t yet realize how important teleporting is either.
You finally get to level 20 and wonder why you’re still weaker than everyone else, because you don’t know about maxing. You think “pots” are the HP/MP potions.
You die to lag because you play on Chrome and nobody told you about Flash projector. Eventually you quit out of frustration and manage never to come back.

(This game could stand to be more noob-friendly.)


#12

Much of what you said there is consequence of one RotMG ideals: the ability to start shooting things really hard in the face as soon as possible. The creators didn’t want anything to come before that so they sacrificed a lot to make sure that’s the case.

In a sense, I kinda like that philosophy. In another sense, I hate it. In the end, players that stick to the game are going to get all the information and support they need from elsewhere, which goes against the ideal I mentioned earlier.


#13

I guess.

The simplicity is both a defining aspect and the Achilles heel of Realm, any perhaps one of the reasons why the game hasn’t exploded.

I actually found out about Realm through the Chrome Webstore, but I don’t think there’s been much advertising to get newer players (aside from Kong. and Steam) into the game.

It’s just the nature of the beast. :confused:


#14

It’s one of the things that sets it apart from the rest, which is a good thing. But I wonder how much of a different beast it would be had that principle been avoided.

I found Realm in one the Games You Might Not Have Tried video from Extra Credits. That’s an interesting topic by itself, think I’ll open a thread to discuss how people discovered this marvelous game and stop derailing this one.


#15

Removing the ability to exploit the turrets for accuracy AFTER its been that way for 5 years is a terrible idea. Besides people with good paralyze pets can just farm accuracy from constructs, crystals, that first wall in the epic pirate, the little orc with the circling minions… and lets not forget the most important point of all: the client users have 100% accuracy, why should they be the only ones?


#16

I just mentioned the tutorial turret exploit because this thread is about the tutorial, but I do think that every possible way to exploit accuracy bonuses should be fixed. But then again, this has more to do with a fame system revamp. Could you elaborate on why is it a terrible to remove exploits now?

Also, what do you mean by “client users have 100% accuracy”? You mean people that play on Steam or Kongragate?


#17

floflorian just posted a vid about tutorial revamp


#18

lmao, are u suggesting there was another time it could have been done? and if it’s going to happen, it might as well happen now. no other way to do it w/ out a time machine lol


#19

He is obviously talking about hacked clients


#20

I thought that could be the case… And if it is, it’s not a valid argument.