93 replies to this topic

[Fate 6]

Soy, on 21 April 2015 - 04:36 PM, said:

When the best way to get a friend to try the game with you is to make an alt account to derp around with... is that a problem to anyone?

Maybe you've never played League of Legends but generally making a smurf to play with new friends is the accepted norm there.

[Saint Scarlett Johan]

Soy, on 21 April 2015 - 08:09 PM, said:

Here's a lil noodle to bake on.

Those of you reading, who have played for more than a year... do you remember your new player experience in MWO? Seriously. Do you?

Yep.

The trial mechs available:
-JR7-D
-HBK-4G
-CPLT-K2
-AS7-D

I played about ten matches and bought my first mech (they were giving 1mil CBills a match at the time, next patch dropped it to 35k), a RVN-2X, kitted it out like this: RVN-2X

played another 10 matches and bought a RVN-4X.

And I played for hours for the next few days and had acquired a set of Awesomes, back when they could still fit an XL400 and 8 medium lasers (the Honeybadger). I had loads of fun. So much fun that I bought into the Founders program and joined a unit, HHoD.

[luxebo]

I dunno if this has been said before, but on a good weekend with maybe a tourney, try to merge with a group to make the numbers higher with LFG. That might work.

Thank god PGI is gonna release that tutorial... sooooooooooon.

Edited by luxebo, 21 April 2015 - 09:42 PM.

[DaZur]

Recall when I first started in CB?

Do like it was yesterday... Got my fool ass in my un-mastered (F)Atlas tore up by a Hunchie with 8 small lasers...

That said... I get what the OP is inferring. The reality is "we" (especially those of us in CB) were effectively on even ground. New players coming in green "today" don't have that benefit.

I still like my idea.

[Zolaz]

In order to get new players the game should give a little "ding" sound when they do something right. A computerized voice should tell them what an awesome pilot they are when they can move their mech. They should get a virtual pat on the back when they are able to keep their lasers on their target. When they win a match they should get a little computer trophy to show how great a champion they are. I hope you can read the sarcasm.

The problem is that new players expect to win. When you are new at something that is difficult, how often should you win? That being said, I dont think you should rub noobs with raw meat and throw them to the wolves. It is a shame that we cant have noobs play with noobs and vets play with vets.

[Soy]

Lord Scarlett Johan, on 21 April 2015 - 09:40 PM, said:

Yep.

The trial mechs available:
-JR7-D
-HBK-4G
-CPLT-K2
-AS7-D

I played about ten matches and bought my first mech (they were giving 1mil CBills a match at the time, next patch dropped it to 35k), a RVN-2X, kitted it out like this: RVN-2X

played another 10 matches and bought a RVN-4X.

And I played for hours for the next few days and had acquired a set of Awesomes, back when they could still fit an XL400 and 8 medium lasers (the Honeybadger). I had loads of fun. So much fun that I bought into the Founders program and joined a unit, HHoD.

So you picked up a few mechs that weren't even serious or anything, and had a lot of fun with em. And then even bought into it with Founders, nice. Good story, Awesomes rock. xD

[Ace Selin]

Theres a group queue for you to teach youre friend the ropes, instruct him to get the better trial mechs & to have fun even on the occasion he gets steam rolled.. because that happens in solo/PUG queue and group queue alike allready.

So nothing needs to change but youre attittude to the game, really.

Edited by Ace Selin, 21 April 2015 - 10:33 PM.

[Romeo Deluxe]

Xetelian, on 21 April 2015 - 04:40 PM, said:

Group queue is punishment for 2 mans.

Which is why I'm for putting 2mans in the solo queue, just like League of Legends does.

2 guys can wreck together but they hardly make any more difference than just 1 good player.

I forever alone since no one I know wants to play group queue with 2.

This seems to be a very good idea. Why not the MM average the 2 man's Elo (kinda still think this elo thing in MM is a myth), perhaps weighted to the higher player, and calculate the 2-man as each one having this higher weighted average. I would stop at 2-man and keep this as another tool for the players to use to get new players into the game or help keep casuals.

[Soy]

Ace Selin, on 21 April 2015 - 10:33 PM, said:

Theres a group queue for you to teach youre friend the ropes, instruct him to get the better trial mechs & to have fun even on the occasion he gets steam rolled.. because that happens in solo/PUG queue and group queue alike allready.

So nothing needs to change but youre attittude to the game, really.

Autism spoke; dynamite drop-in.

[Romeo Deluxe]

Soy, on 21 April 2015 - 08:09 PM, said:

Here's a lil noodle to bake on.

Those of you reading, who have played for more than a year... do you remember your new player experience in MWO? Seriously. Do you?

I don't remember mine. Or, well...

...here's what I remember...

...I spent about a week or two just having a serious woody for a modern online MW. This was spent in 3 Jenners, mastering them. I never even liked Jenners. As far as actual combat recollections, all I recall is running around like a total dingus shooting medium lasers at catapult and atlas buttocks.

There's nothing there that I look back on and go "that was unique, immersive, and memorable". There is no experience. There is only early-game grind. And nostalgic woody cuz it was "fresh MW".

Please, if you have a different story to tell, share it. I'd like to know what was cool about it, no this isn't a snarky comment. Maybe it'll shed insight into things that can be enhanced for newbies or something...

PS - and yes I even chilled and dropped with random ppl like the rest of us goofballs in early beta on Comstar... but we were all still so wet behind the ears, nothing concrete socially yet had come about at least for me, so. Just sayin, I wasn't 'pug life alone man', so that's not an excuse for me at least why the NPE was so meh.

I joined during open beta, immediately went to the Training Grounds and found it to have practically NOTHING. Well it was Beta and I thought this will get sorted out. I noticed MWOWiki.org on one of the pages and went there. That led me to clicking on links and finding mechspecs.com and smurfy's. I went back to the MWO's site and found a couple of video tutorials that proved to be out dated. Checked the forums a bit. Back to mechspecs and smurfy's and never looked back.

I found those two sites in the first hour of playing MWO. However, I'm an older, college degree'd gamer and researching has always been one of the first thing I do with a game. On an RPG for example I just jump in and rate the game on how it draws me in. MWO is a competitive FPS so research was indeed needed. Not to mention the UI did (and still does) make my eyes bleed.

Here we are today and sadly there is no New Player Experience. None, totally devoid of this. The tooltip's are incomplete. There is no in-game FAQ or wiki. No in-game guided tutorial. I know PGI is under the gun with the pace of releasing things and previous promises but it seems to me this NPE needs to be made a very high priority.

[Soy]

Thank you for your story, I like the part where you gave insight into how you approach various game types with different attitudes, I guess we all kinda do that in our own way. Cool.

[Kotzi]

If you are 2/12 you have to subordinate yourself to the group. There is no problem with that. Dont suicide rush. Play together help the team. Doesnt matter if solo or group if you dont help your team you will get stomped.

[BigJim]

Soy, on 21 April 2015 - 08:09 PM, said:

Those of you reading, who have played for more than a year... do you remember your new player experience in MWO? Seriously. Do you?

Yeah, I cheated. Like a mofo.

I got in a week before the Founder's injection, can't remember much of the first week other than trying to figure out why my cross-eyed K2 was firing it's regular PPCs at crazy angles & not hitting anything, but the second week?

Remember the weekly resets?
Every week you could buy a couple of Atlas K's with MC and strip-out the XL300 - We had no C-Bills, but I had $80's worth of MC that we could pi** away like smarties because we knew it would be reset in 7 days..
Strip the engine for your Cat or Jenner, sell the Atlas K chassis & rake in some easy money.
My mechs back then were always kitted out with the shiniest single heatsinks & fattest engines..

Still got rolled on a regular basis, but I never felt like I was disadvantaged because of my kit, only my (lack of) skill and awareness..


Spent a while playing with random guys on the beta teamspeak (still got many of those names on my friends list, I've never needed to cull), before joining a unit and really getting to grips with the game..

For me what really cemented me as "in" MWO was when I played in a few of the very early RHoD pre matches and tbh never wanted to play another game competitively since..

Edited by BigJim, 21 April 2015 - 11:58 PM.

[Sjorpha]

It is definitely a big issue that the scenario of a good player introducing a new one doesn't work right now. Makes me sad, I want to introduce my kids but I'm holding off on that until I know I'll be able to show them a good time from the get go.

There are some positive things on the NPE horizon though, Russ said in a recent town hall that they have someone working on a proper PvE tutorial. And also there is the 4 player missions in CW that should be a good environment for a veteran leading some newbies.

I found during my own introduction that while dropping with a small group is hell, it is much nicer to run along with a big group. There are lots of experienced groups that are very happy to let a newbie or two join up for a few hours.

So my current advice for someone wanting to introduce a friend to the game is to find a big group to hook up with just for the evening, LFG should help with that as well. Even if that group isn't well coordinated it will still improve your experience to drop with the same people over several matches. You can still keep a separate TS for you and your friend to give personal instructions and casual talking.

Setting up a couple private games for training is highly recommended as well. I've learned a lot by being invited to those.

One thing I'd like to see is the possbillity to spectate friends without being in the match, so you could just help a newbie friend out in solo que by watching, giving advice and answering questions. Many many things can be improved all over.

[Soy]

Right...

Bringing someone into a big group isn't difficult... I can set him down with some of the best players in the game instantly... it's bangbang done ok lets roll... but if the person doesn't want to experience the game that way as their initial impression, that's their prerogative and right and I respect it and actually admire it... more than just bandwagoning with tryhards or underhivelings right off the bat... at least for the first couple sessions of play... that way they can really make their own opinions without people yapping in their ear (both positively and negatively).

Too much white noise - a couple people, that's a good way to experience the game for an initial impression, but I'm not so sure about piggy backing into a full deck of tryers or even casual derpers out the gate, tbh...

Edited by Soy, 22 April 2015 - 12:07 AM.

[Elizander]

Making a new account and playing with your friend isn't a bad idea. Otherwise PGI can allow an ELO drop if you use a trial mech too.

[Soy]

Elizander, on 22 April 2015 - 12:07 AM, said:

Otherwise PGI can allow an ELO drop if you use a trial mech too.

Trial Mech = day0 Elo?

[Widowmaker1981]

Hotthedd, on 21 April 2015 - 06:19 PM, said:

They could conversely allow solo drops and 2-man drops to check off Group queue, Solo queue, or either. That way 10-player (and even 11-player) groups could drop together.

While i personally wouldnt have a problem with 2 mans in the solo, that solution would be the same as disallowing 10 mans, as the queue time would be close to infinite, it would be VERY rare for a 2 man to choose the group queue.

[MadMaxMKII]

yeah, my friend gave up this game due to op's reason.
2 guys should be able to team up in the "solo" queue.

[Lily from animove]

Xetelian, on 21 April 2015 - 04:40 PM, said:

Group queue is punishment for 2 mans.

Which is why I'm for putting 2mans in the solo queue, just like League of Legends does.

2 guys can wreck together but they hardly make any more difference than just 1 good player.

I forever alone since no one I know wants to play group queue with 2.

2 good players however can make a difference and an issue. Maybe allow up to 1 two man grp in the solo queue. and then only if another 2 man rpemade is put in the opponent team as well.