I'd like to propose a solution that accounts for several issues listed here, in a tight package, that you'll easily be able to implement with existing programming you already have in just a couple weeks, and it will suit everyone involved.
tl;dr:
You can solve a lot of problems and encourage good behaviours by running a permanent "event" that rewards good behaviour from new players, and ignores bad behaviour.
Buy a light and provide AMS/ECM on your first 10 matches until you can aim? Cadet "event' bonus reward of a mech bay + some c-bills.
Take a 46kph mech "flanking" on a 5-minute detour and lose the match for your team right away? No reward listed.
But staying lance in formation with an assault? Rewarded!
Even just a 1-sentence teaching prompt in the text below each reward when they go to click redeem: "Why do you think PPCs are good for shooting down UAVs?" "Why do you think small pulse lasers are only good for "brawling" rewards at x meters or less"?
(Side note: I'm a regular player of 1 year and I STILL don't know how many meters to get a brawling reward. That's not cool.
I know that hit and run means I do 30 damage and take less than x damage in return, after y seconds... but that's about all I know.
There should be a page of up to date definitions of all those, linked at the BOTTOM of the page for each active event that has such rewards. |
You guys should be able to knock that out in an afternoon. And if you can't, I wonder why the players are confused.)
That's the thrust of most of what follows, and I think it organizes many of the suggestions in this thread in a way that works for basic psychology and works for your available program code. I think ALL parties will enjoy this solution - developers, new players, and old players.
Let's get into it:
It's true that NOTHING ruins expanding the player base faster that brutalizing people their first 25 hours in a new game. Even though I've played other MW games and am a decent gamer, my first few games were pretty meh. If I'd not been in tier 4, I imagine it would have been discouraging.
Move cadets to tier 5 unless they complete training, then tier 4 - GREAT idea.
ALSO: MUST give each trial mech 46 optimal skill points for the build. Same reason as above.
YES! to rewards for playing a reasonable number of light, medium, heavy and assault mechs - preferably making the assault IMPOSSIBLE to unlock (ok to earn but not disbursed) until you complete the other 3.
Because few things draw more salt than a cadet in a tier 3 match wasting an assault by doing 3 damage.
Go even farther, since you have the means to measure their activities! - you play a Wolfhound and you get points for protecting the assaults or staying with your lance. You play a support mech and you get points for ECM and AMS coverage: low-skill but high team-mindedness gets rewarded (but only rewarded the first couple times, since you need to grow after that); taking an assault slot and being useless is your personal choice but is NOT a reinforced behaviour - because it sure ain't popular with us!
This is a PHENOMENAL time to reinforce these behaviours, before any careless habits are learned. This should happen from match #1.
By the way, teaching new players proper teamwork has been degraded by the new spawn points - if someone is placed alongside another backstabber or front-line mech, then they may follow the nearest and monkey-see monkey-do the correct stuff; SLIM chance of two assaults on far side of map grouping up; that presumes FAR too much game knowledge. This has been a real degradation of the new player experience lately.
LANCES should drop where they're supposed to drop. If a group brings 3 assaults and a light, and they want to fight near each other, that light pilot can move their buns over to their friends on the map, no sweat. But really they're probably going to run off with the other lights on the drop and go do light mech things, no?
We're prioritizing the wrong thing right now in where our spawn drops go, and nobody likes the messed up drop locations.
Kill ten birds with one stone by fixing it. Go back to encouraging teamwork with simple psychological nudges again; like you dropping them in proximity, and then them being rewarded for staying that way with cadet event bonuses.
Tutorials: Identify what is NOT covered by the Youtubers, and work on that. For example, map strategy videos, for QP and for Faction especially - everyone is so precious about play that close to their chests, and it makes a real inequity for new players. Why even bother playing MWO if it's going to be like that for ages and ages?
There are good videos for build guides and such, so I would just link to some of those for now.
Instead of spamming cadets with Mk. II-B's in the trials, or terrible mechs, give them good b-tier builds to enjoy, built around themes - this one is great for side pokes, this one for hill pokes, this one for range, this one for support, this one for brawling, this one for capping - and then REWARD correct behaviours. Like an event running 365 days a year - provide ZERO encouragement to go "flank" in a 48kph mech, but give a fat cadet bonus / all year long event for lance in formation for the assault, flanking for the Cicada, shooting down UAVs in the Panther, reward brawling in a pulse laser mech but don't reward shooting pulse lasers at something 900m away; reward LRM use only ONE time (gasp, I said it), and IN FORMATION ONLY - teach the CORRECT use of each tool at hand with reinforcement. And give them the silent treatment, c-bill-wise, for doing sub-optimal things.
Why don't we get rewarded for flanking in an assault? Because that's dumb and everyone hates you for it. Why don't we get rewarded for shooting down UAVs in an SRM backstabber? Because that's dumb. Etc., etc.
If you're going to be cruel enough to give them an IS XL trial mech, have a reward for shooting from range or something. Or heavily reward them for capping objectives in an XL light or medium. Reward Wolfhound pilots for shooting legs off light mechs; reward Annihilator pilots for getting kills on other assault mechs. Really teach and reward and teach and reward; see what it does for teamwork and reducing the sodium.
Starting with 6-8 mech bays is a great idea (but...).
Allow a couple buyer remorse mistakes before they get with the program and get a drop deck's worth. Let them own 2x IS and 2x Clan before they commit to getting a proper set of 4.
EVEN better: you could link to cadet rewards - get 5 kills and 2000 AMS in a light, unlock a mech bay (basically; prove you're READY to take up an assault slot or a slot in Faction without earning ALL the salt in the process - and again, no prohibitions, just positive reinforcement for good or silence for salt-worthy choices). Pilot an IS and a Clan mech for 100 matches each, get another mech bay.
And as an aside, this needs to be said:
Selling scouting decks to new players for real world money if you're not going to run scouting... don't do that.
Much better option: please run some scouting; it's fun when you finally get with someone who can lead you!! (or if PGI puts out a good how-to video for it!)
Actually, you could link teachable event rewards to written descriptions and videos that show how to do it, right there on the same webpage, as a future iteration of this concept.
I think this will fix MANY of the problems commonly listed by new players and old, and since you have the means to track these metrics and issue rewards (like an event that's running for 365 days), I think this is ALL something you can implement before x-mas.
And hey, it'll train them to come to the website and be marketed to and see the latest news, and your business department will like that, right?
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Horseman, on 17 November 2020 - 11:47 PM, said:
