193 replies to this topic

[Lieutenant Hedgehog]

Tenchuu, on 24 November 2020 - 09:47 PM, said:

That experience. That's Noob1.

This is SO accurate. It's punishing and difficult to get started in this game. And without some personal investment and desire to get better it can be very discouraging.

There's little guidance, many things are vague and not explained well.

And rewards are small and infrequent, in an age where many of the best games are almost constantly rewarding you with little things.

[Cluster Fox]

Tenchuu, on 24 November 2020 - 09:47 PM, said:

Noob1 experience

Good job Tenchuu. It's a gigantic wall of text, but describes very well what is currently wrong. Worth the read.

[Mercu]

Definitely need to improve training as it is a drop in the ocean compared to real combat. Maybe then the cadets wouldn't die so quickly, team cohesion, torso twisting, taking cover from LRMS and snipers, etc. This could all be experienced on the training ground.

And why do new players start out anywhere other than at the bottom of Tier 5?????

And why only five tiers? Surely the gulf between the bext and the worst can't be accurately expressed with 5 groups?

[Vorpal Puppy]

I know it's been said many times already, but you have to get the cadets out of Tier 3 NOW! I've seen more cadets in the last few days than I can ever remember. People are trying this game and getting absolutely crushed - they are going to leave fast. I have only seem 1 cadet out of 20+ I've encountered recently break 100 damage and it was clearly a smurf as he was actually torso-twisting and got multiple kills.

[Nightmare1]

Deathshade, on 19 November 2020 - 07:12 AM, said:

That is exactly what I have been talking about.
PGI needs to understand that unit leads like you are the lifeblood of this game. You go above and beyond to help new players. You understand that with good training comes solid players that stick around. There are other units doing the same thing.
PGI needs to do the same thing or facilitate this process further.

Thanks!

[Elizander]

Give trial mechs a template skill tree by default. It doesn't have to be a specialized skill tree. Here's an example of a generic 49 point skill tree that you can slap on to all trial mechs and it approximates about 2/3 of the nodes a standard mech needs to perform in a match such as 40% radar derp (instead of 60%), some heat gen nodes with cdr/range and no specialized nodes, 6-out-of-10 armor nodes and some cool run and heat containment.



Give Cadets goals that relate to getting better and learning the game and reward them for that on top of the cadet bonus.

• Get 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 points of protected light and or medium by sticking to the heavy / assault mechs and supporting them.
  
• Shoot down 200 / 400 / 600 / 800 / 1000 total missiles with AMS systems by positioning yourself between incoming missiles and allies.
  
• Destroy 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 components by targeting specific components on the enemy.
  
• Survive the first 8 minutes of a match or until victory is achieved, whichever comes first and do it 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 times. This is to prevent suicide yolo mentality.
  
• Deal at least 200 damage 5x. Then deal 300 damage 5x. Then deal 400 damage 5x. Then deal 500 damage 5x.

These are just examples and are similar to what already exists in events and achievements. Add these goals to the existing cadet bonus and make them reward a similar total for accomplishing all of them (another 20m or so c-bills). This means new players will always have this event active the moment they join where they are encouraged to play a little better. It gives them some goals and some direction as they are learning the game. These should be very visible and the game should encourage them to complete it if they have not already.

If you are going to keep Ghost Heat as a mechanic then teach them about it! There is no UI indicator of ghost heat penalties or when it's safe to fire extra weapons.

Edited by Elizander, 25 November 2020 - 08:15 PM.

[Krucilatoz]

Q : whats make you come back and play this game again ?

One of the answer is Mech Customization.
And new player (almost) never get this.
Sure they get cadet bonus, then what? which mech to buy? are they sure about that mech? searching on forum / youtube?

I remember first mech i bought using money back in 2015/16ish, the Ilya Muromets, just because it looks cool on youtube. And, when I play it using similar build, it didnt deliver enjoyment as I saw on youtube. I sold that mech. yes, a hero mech, bought with money.

So, for "trauma-reducing-program-for-new-player", I propose that MWO give new player ability to customize trial mech, albeit limited, for example to modify engine, weapon, armor values, of course with cbill price.
Any customization will be kept / saved.
But this mech will not acquire XP/GXP/points (show this on mech bay / end-of-match).
I know as a software-engineer myself, this will be hard to implement, especially on trial-mech rotation, which item are player owned, which are "trial item" that will be deleted on rotation. How to prevent trial-weaponry to be put on player-owned mech, etc

[Horseman]

Elizander, on 25 November 2020 - 08:10 PM, said:

Give trial mechs a template skill tree by default. It doesn't have to be a specialized skill tree. Here's an example of a generic 49 point skill tree that you can slap on to all trial mechs and it approximates about 2/3 of the nodes a standard mech needs to perform in a match such as 40% radar derp (instead of 60%), some heat gen nodes with cdr/range and no specialized nodes, 6-out-of-10 armor nodes and some cool run and heat containment.

Drop the Cool Run, it's tbh only applicable to mechs that run a LOT of extra heat sinks. Use the points to bump up survival and maybe get more heat get in firepower: https://kitlaan.gitl...00000#s=Weapons

[anfadern]

Q : what makes you come back and play this game again ?

A: A good player experience regardless if you are completely new to the game or have been around since the Beta.

Hurdle: There is a portion of the players that are experienced, there is a portion of new players that get completely slaughtered. The experienced players potentially get bored to get drops with the same players over and over, the new ones potentially get turned off because they never get a true chance to succeed/win.

An idea: Make a stock only, no hero, no experience que that also consist of all the low tier players. This will force players like me to play ****** mechs (and surely some good laughs) at the same time introducing the new players to a slightly friendlier environment.

Is it a good idea?
Right now I believe so
=)
Cheers
//Anfadern

[Cluster Fox]

The mechlab is one of the major aspects that make me come back as well. NPE needs to allow for this.

So this is a post regarding STARTER MECHS ONLY, PGI needs to giveaway some of the virtual bucks to interest new players.

New player starts with 0 c-bills, 10 mechbays (2 free mechbays at the end of this...)
New player starts with 1 free Heavy IS mech : 50% pre-skilled.
Why : IS are generally more survivable. Heavy gameplay is the easiest to grasp.
Say a Warhammer, Catapult or Marauder. They are iconic and have a good build variety.

Cadet program progressively unlocks 7 other mechs.
1 of each class for both IS and Clan.
Carefully selected for mechs that are good but not the absolute META, and represent the weight class, yet allow for a good build variety.
Why : A cadet will unlock mechs (that's cool) as well as alternative playstyles.

Note : The free mechs are canned and are not related to the trials.
Why : The trials allow to try other models for later purchase.

As they move along, Cadets will get a total of 8 free mechs by the end of cadet bonus. They should also have enough c-bills to buy a new one of any class.
Why : 8 mechs is next to NOTHING if you're going to stick with the game. Good amount of free stuff at the start will get the new players playing.

Make the Trial mechs painted, but not purchaseable with that paint.
Why : Trials are totally uninteresting as they stand. Making them aesthetically pleasing would go a long way.

Thanks to Tenchuu, I took what he wrote into account for backing this up.

Edited by Cluster Fox, 26 November 2020 - 03:17 PM.

[Krucilatoz]

Cluster Fox, on 26 November 2020 - 03:09 PM, said:

The mechlab is one of the major aspects that make me come back as well. NPE needs to allow for this.

So this is a post regarding STARTER MECHS ONLY, PGI needs to giveaway some of the virtual bucks to interest new players.

New player starts with 0 c-bills, 10 mechbays (2 free mechbays at the end of this...)
New player starts with 1 free Heavy IS mech : 50% pre-skilled.
Why : IS are generally more survivable. Heavy gameplay is the easiest to grasp.
Say a Warhammer, Catapult or Marauder. They are iconic and have a good build variety.

Cadet program progressively unlocks 7 other mechs.
1 of each class for both IS and Clan.
Carefully selected for mechs that are good but not the absolute META, and represent the weight class, yet allow for a good build variety.
Why : A cadet will unlock mechs (that's cool) as well as alternative playstyles.

Note : The free mechs are canned and are not related to the trials.
Why : The trials allow to try other models for later purchase.

As they move along, Cadets will get a total of 8 free mechs by the end of cadet bonus. They should also have enough c-bills to buy a new one of any class.
Why : 8 mechs is next to NOTHING if you're going to stick with the game. Good amount of free stuff at the start will get the new players playing.

Make the Trial mechs painted, but not purchaseable with that paint.
Why : Trials are totally uninteresting as they stand. Making them aesthetically pleasing would go a long way.

Thanks to Tenchuu, I took what he wrote into account for backing this up.

I generally agree with this suggestion, and I think this will be easier to implement than my-suggestion above.
This can be tweaked (for example) : first match cadet bonus get Catapult, some cbill, and few GSP to skill it. 10th match get Stormcrow, 25th match get Stalker.
New player will experience the mechlab, customizing the Cat, then feel the difference on Stormcrow. Later they get Stalker for slow-and-powerfull-assault mech. The player will grasp the idea on having IS / clan mech, so they less hesitated when open their wallet for mech-pack

[M A L I G N A N T]

I am a newish player and already looking to move on to other games. Main reason: team balancing is a joke. How is it OK to stack one team with a group of 4 elite players plus decent solo players against a team with 2 cadets, no groups, and only a few good players? I play games for fun and it’s usually fun to win. However, too often there is absolutely no chance of winning, or even coming close to winning, with the current teams set up. If it was a game or two one can brush it off, but I’m talking 10-20 game stomp-loosing streaks. I wait 4-5 minutes before the match actually starts, spend another two getting into position, then do some shooting and whatnot only to loose miserably to a stomp. Take a minute to disco and then do this again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again and again . . .You get the point. I just wasted several hours of my day getting stomped over and over again; very not fun. And just FYI I’m usually somewhere mid to top in damage, kills, and/or match score; feel free to look up my stats. I guess people call it match maker bs, I call it lazy developing. This is a sure way to loose new players very quickly.

[Frabby]

New(-ish) player here, too. My MWO account is ancient but it's only been two months or so since I (my son actually) got a computer that can actually run the game.

And I find that I disagree with a lot of things being said here.
Apparently, I'm a different kind of new player than the new player people are talking about.

For starters, I don't get the gloom & doom. I'm having boatloads of fun. As a new player I never expected to hold a candle to pretty much anyone else out there on the battlefield. And I'm somewhat surprised (in a positive way) that there is a tier system in place that at least attempts to segregate the lambs and wolves into different battlefields.

I am a very causal player. I have a job, a family, and other hobbies - and even when I do BattleTech, I spend much more time on Sarna or pondering boardgame stuff than playing MWO. As a guesstimate, I's say I play MWO one or two hours per week on average. I'm not much of a computer gamer these days.
Being such a casual player means I'm a lone wolf. It would probably be a futile attempt to integrate me into any group because I don't have regular playing times, nor am I willing to spend a lot of time with MWO on not playing the game. By that I mean Mechlab, Skills, or running around on empty trial ground maps to familiarize myself with the maps.

That approach in turn has informed my playing style: As a total noob ("So which button does what?") I did the basic tutorial, and thought it was fine. As soon as I had a basic understanding on how to move my 'Mech and point my guns, I jumped into Quick Play in a learning-by-doing fashion. With the training 'Mechs, obviously. I just assumed the configs would be okay - neither nerfed nor overpowered.

I've never once been trolled for being a noob or cadet. Quite the opposite, a lot of people gave good advice when I mentioned I was green, and in one or two cases someone even made an effort to shepherd me through a quick play battle. Overall, the experience only confirmed my impression that the BT community is a great bunch of people. (There were outliers, but while once in a blue moon people say weird things over comm or seem intoxicated I've experienced only one case ever where another player's comments could be taken as threatening or abusive, and even then it may have been in jest.)

What I remember from this earliest phase:

- Tutorial was okay. I didn't even want to go too deep, I preferred to jump right into the quick play. I made mistake, got pasted for it, and learned something from the experience. When questions came up (like, how do I hit anything with a gauss cannon or even fire the damn thing) I always had the chance to go back and read up on it afterwards.

- Stupid me plainly failed to understand that I could buy a personal 'Mech with Cbills OR MC - I though I need both, so put some money down for MC. Imagine my surprise when I found that I didn't actually need to spend real money for most Mechs. I mention this because I feel paying real money is a barrier, and I thought I could only have a dumbed-down playing experience. This wasn't actually the case and I think MWO needs to point that out somehow, somewhere. (I like the idea to incite players to get a personal 'Mech and perhaps customize it as part of the tutorial.)

- My favorite training Mech, bar none, was the Catapult, because it has only two different weapon systems and because I felt LRMs allow me to stay back and play a somewhat slower game. I play with mouse & keyboard only and handling more than two weapon groups (left and right mouse button) is a chore.

- It took me a long time to realize that this game absolutely expects the player to modify the heck out of their ride, and that because of this, standard boardgame configurations suck. As someone who is well-versed in BattleTech lore, the customisation is counter-intuitive insofar as it is easily possible to basically rebuild the Mech from the ground up with cutting-edge tech. Also, the equipment is tweaked a lot compared to boardgame BT. I've still not quite understood how the MWO weapons are balanced against each other. The availability and tech level concerns from boardgame BT don't exist here where you can buy virtually anything. My boardgame lore mindset seems to be a hindrance more than a boon in this respect.

- That said, once I sat down to mod my personal rides I felt the Mechlab was fairly easy to use. I guess when you've filled out paper record sheets with a pencil for your custom designs thirty years ago then MWO is reeeaally advanced tech now.

- Once I felt I had settled in a bit, I started to get interested in faction play. By that time i felt I wasn't a liability to my team anymore, but other team members' mileage may vary.
In any case, I had some initial trouble understanding the drop deck stuff. But once I got the hang of it friendly players on the team channel answered my questions. I played 4 FP missions so far, my team got creamed every time but it's still fun.

- What's *not* so fun is the FP queue. Most of the time FP just isn't worth the wait because there are too few people in the queue. And I was really... unhappy... the other day when I joined the FP queue as the seventh or so player on my side, waited for two resets of the 2 Min counter until the other team was filled up (being told I was next in queue) while our team quickly rushed past 12 people... and then when both teams were full I was among the 5 people from my team who didn't get into the match after all. I guess what happened is that a team went into the queue and the queue manager threw me out as a lone wolf, instead of cutting someone from the team. I was pissed. If the matchmaker will not work on a first come, first serve basis then queueing is just a waste of my precious time - which puts FP on a downward spiral. I have no problem losing to players (or teams) who are better than me. But losing to the queue manager made me walk away on that day.

[CMDR Sunset Shimmer]

NPE:
Move cadets to 4.5
Upon completion of cadet bonus matches, give new players the choice of 1 mech per weightclass for a total of 4, this gives players a full lance of mechs to learn/skill out, and gives them one of each weightclass to learn the in's and outs of said weightclasses.

[Horseman]

Frabby, on 27 November 2020 - 01:25 AM, said:

New(-ish) player here, too. My MWO account is ancient but it's only been two months or so since I (my son actually) got a computer that can actually run the game.

And I find that I disagree with a lot of things being said here.
Apparently, I'm a different kind of new player than the new player people are talking about.

You're the kind of player who's already familiar with the franchise. A lot of the discussion around new players is about the game's accessibility to people with little to no exposure to the Battletech universe and the associated concepts and who may need to be guided from the ground up.

[Alreech]

Frabby, on 27 November 2020 - 01:25 AM, said:

New(-ish) player here, too. My MWO account is ancient but it's only been two months or so since I (my son actually) got a computer that can actually run the game.

Thanks for providing this feedback about new player experience.

I have 2 questions:

• Do you use the LFG function? If not, what are the reasons ?
  
• Do you visit public teamspeaks or discords of units to find a group to play with?

Edited by Alreech, 28 November 2020 - 04:52 AM.

[AnAnachronismAlive]

# New player experience

Disclaimer: On-going work-in-progress trying to sort and conclude some of the input given here. In case you have proposals / notations aiming to improve the following assumptions or correct misinterpretations: feedback is very appreciated as long as it is provided in a structured and expedient manner - yes, even if this means to agree on what is „expedient / a general goal“ at all. Furthermore the english language ain’t my mother tongue, so lingual flaws can not be ruled out. Feel free to correct misleading descriptions.

General Remarks:
With a (rightfully deserved) scepticism rooted deep in most parts of MWOs community grounded in decisions PGI has taken in the past, transparent, public and goal-oriented communication between the parties involved (between PGI and the playerbase left / still interested in broadest sense), feels essential for the future of MWO (sim-shooter in the BT-Universe). Since PGI seems to be in a state of risk-averseness or feels like having run into some sort of strategic dead-end (for reasons one can (only) assume), re-building and upkeep of MWOs population (this affects new players, former player/exiteers, HopOn-HopOff-Players etc.) via appropriate measures feels crucial.

While creating changes fundamental enough to bring significant parts of the old community back are somewhat harder to achieve (in light of MWOs outdated engine compared to other sim-games available, it’s graphical appeal being old already and the low availability of (affordable) CryEngine specialists on the market), absorbing and catering as much of „new player drop ins“ – via the MW5 release or general marketing initiative - as possible is essential while creating worthwile content for the veteran players mid-term.

Despite the EG7-Deal potentially granting some funds, it’d be wise to still assume PGI is not in funds / is not willed to invest the financial ressources in advance. Low-risk with moderate-reward improvements still seem to be the most likely / promising short-term measures for NOW that could generate the revenue needed to fund further mid- to long-term improvements - therewith hopefully creating some kind of a sustainable upward-spiral of a content-revenue-cycle again.

So whatever potential area of improvement (and there are a lot for sure) is discussed here, will likely profit from a general mind-set tuned to an assessment of a measures impactfulness for the (potential) playerbase and revenue possibilites for PGI.

General question in terms of new player experience seems to be …

======================================================|
(New) Player experience
General Remarks: [...]

======================================================|
Tier-Placement of Cadets / New Players [Source: Several - original Source unkown]
Been talked about for weeks already (gonna be granted in 12-2020 IIRC). Please grant new players a way to learn their ropes in a somewhat safe enviroment, since there ain't no point in throwing players into the depths of more advanced/experienced tiers (be them nascar-heavy or not) where 'em gonna be eaten up while still figuring out maps, builds and a general feel for the speed of the game in general. Unlikely new players will endure getting their buttock-activator spanked over and over again while not even earning a decent amount of CB. As Nightbird mentioned, it shouldn't be as hard to identify and ban "smurfers" via certain stats (am sure he can elaborate on that if not done elsewhere already) - even if they try to shroud their actions by losing / throwing some games voluntarily.

• Measure
  Place new accounts into or near Tier 4.5 as soon as possible. Monitor new accounts / games to some extent, contact and - if necessary - (temp)ban accounts with significantly deviant scores compared to games played etc.
  
• Degree of ressources needed:
  Low in terms of (re)placement of new accounts. Somewhat higher to monitor/review the stats to counter smurf-/farm-accounts.
  
• Assumed Effect
  Higher degree of players staying in the game in their first days/weeks of playing. Although to achieve this effect, flanking measures gotta be added (new player incentives, etc. - see below).

======================================================|
Guided tour / partially overhaul the academy [Source: #25 Ian Dresaire]
Once confronted with the UI right after starting the game, a lot of new players may feel overwhelmed for the sheer multitude of menus/options to browse through. Despite being debatable, if a general re-haul of MWO's UI might be in order to adress the (and several other) issues, another possibility might be to "hard-lock" certain/all other parts of the game for new players until they finish the academy and/or a guided tour explaining the basic options of the mechlab, certain game-modes etc. More detailed options are unlocked once the player has finished the tutorial. Possibility to skip the hard-lock against some warning info-box not to do so.

• Measure
  Take new players by the hand via hard-locking (or guiding through) more detailed aspects of the game with an improved/enlarged tutorial mode.
  
• Degree of ressources needed:
  Medium to high? Would take some coding effort for sure.
  
• Assumed Effect
  Making the entry into (more detailed aspects of) the game more intuitive / less steep for new players.

======================================================|
Trial-mech system
When you have a big enough playerbase to kick off matches with very large amount of cadets or cadets only with close to everyone piloting the trial mechs, the actual design may provide some sense of purpose in terms of being allowed to try different weight classes and loudouts without having to invest your sparse early in-game currency while not having much of a clue how to meaningfully invest it all. Since this ain't the case anymore - and some of the provided trial builds feel like utter garbage / very punitive - an overhaul might help to teach new players some of the basics of "functional" load outs.

Unsure if the possibility to achieve EXP and set skill points on trial mechs will be a helpful addition (assuming the cadet-team-enviroment that is). Would prefer to visualize the difference between having / not having certain skill-trees filled via the academy (if we assume the trees to stay the way they are that is). Might be a subject to discussion.

Furthermore have talks with the community/competitive players to provide solid and beginner-friendly mechs/builds as trial-mechs. Don't necessarily make this into a pure meta-fest though. Mebbe focus on survival, weapon synergy.

• Measure
  Revamp the trial-mechs (and the rotation of their availability) by making them new-player friendly. IS-XL builds on heavy and assaults-mechs or certain weapon loadouts feel too punitive for new players as a base to achieve some sort of functional understanding.
  
• Degree of ressources needed:
  Low. Discuss viable trial-mechs, have their templates set and make em available with a 2- or 4-week rotation.
  
• Assumed Effect
  More viable / rewarding builds resulting in a better game play experience for and supporting general build understanding of new players. More fun, leading to more games played, leading to more new players staying in the game (with flanking measures though).

======================================================|
Cadet / new player incentives [Source: Unkown + #87 - Elizander]
Make finishing the academy / cadet-time more appealing by adding some sort of transitioning in-game incentive. Getting the-cbill-bonus is nice, but new players often do not even realize what this bonus is even about. So why not make their "greenhorn-time" a little more appealing with some sort of "achievement-feeling" in an otherwise awkwardly unresponsive interface / in-game enviroment? Ways to do so might be gifting them a solid medium mech once they finish the whole academy / tutorial. Would even add a little fluff lore-wise (without hampering the general game at all). Cadets being granted some faction-affiliated "hardware" (like a may be even unique workhorse medium, some SP and a CB-Color of choice) to chose from makes some sense and furthermore fits the universe, doesnt it? Counter-check the monetizaton-summary in this matter. Add an automatic cadet-event (like destroy components, shoot down missiles, shoot down uavs, etc.) for new players granting some minor stuff as reward.

• Measure
  Add certain in-game incentives to hook cadets / new players up a little more. Make finishing the WHOLE academy and or cadet-time feel like having achieved something. Actual state is very unresponsive in terms of getting out of "tutorial stage".
  
• Degree of ressources needed:
  Unclear, might imply some coding to add an appropriate hand-out of incentives though.
  
• Assumed Effect
  Granting some feeling of achievement / progression for new players. Depending on how the handing out is implemented (only if reasonable effort though) it might even draw some players in lore-wise once they have the ability/need to choose a mech based on a certain faction.

======================================================|
Referal programm / refer a friend
[...]

• Measure
  [...]
  
• Degree of ressources needed:
  [...]
  
• Assumed Effect
  [...]

======================================================|
MWO tutorial videos/streams
Self-explaining: provide some self- or otherwise created content, to explain basic and advanced aspects of MWO in a timely fashion and visibly place it on your web-presence / discord serber. Since there still are a lot of streamers out there, some outsourcing could offer some win-win-situation, as long as the community is allowed to rate the incoming tutorial videos / streams. Even some cross-monetization potential here (check monetization thread), since certain "streamer packs" (voice-packs / fluff-items like a nutty-rat, piranha-sean, chin-ash or beard-dadul as standing items) could be promoted with a degree of the income going to the streamers or into competitive prize-buckets. Furthermore provides low-cost publicity via random people being pointed towards MWO checking onto certain streamers. Might even be an option to contact streamers with huge audiences, make him play the game and pray for some folks to trickle in that way (that was a little mean, sry.).

• Measure
  Provide tutorial videos and streams allowing new players to passively comprehend central / advanced game aspects.
  
• Degree of ressources needed:
  Low-medium. Some moderation needed to contact / communicate with streamers, visibly place the content on the website / discord and hand out some prices now n then. Some cockpit items and/or soundpacks may need minor development time.
  
• Assumed Effect
  Self explanatory: Publicity + Learning effect for new players = win win win!

======================================================|
MWO Wiki-Overhaul

• Measure
  [...]
  
• Degree of ressources needed:
  [...]
  
• Assumed Effect
  [...]

======================================================|
Central MWO Discord
Compared to present possibilities, the social - and community-features the MWO-client provides are bare-boned at best. Creating some low-treshold alternative - assuming a sophisticated in-game implementation of sort is unrealistic at best - as a focal-point for (new) players to communitize, connect with other players and find people to play with / learn from feels reasonable. Even more with the smaller playerbase, a lot of former gathering places (ts-servers etc.) being abandoned and it's tendency to be fragmented unit-/language-wise.

• Measure
  Set up an offical MWO-Discord (or something similar) as a focal point for players in general.
  
• Degree of ressources needed:
  Low to medium. Depends on the cost and administration effort needed.
  
• Assumed Effect
  Some low-treshold gathering point allowing (new) players to communitize will likely ease the first steps.

Edited by AnAnachronismAlive, 03 December 2020 - 07:03 AM.

[AnAnachronismAlive]

Blocked for reasons [max typos etc.]

Edited by AnAnachronismAlive, 28 November 2020 - 05:15 AM.

[Frabby]

Alreech, on 28 November 2020 - 04:52 AM, said:

Thanks for providing this feedback about new player experience.

I have 2 questions:

• Do you use the LFG function? If not, what are the reasons ?
  
• Do you visit public teamspeaks or discords of units to find a group to play with?

I'm aware of LFG. But I'm not looking for a group.
When I self-described as a lone wolf, I tried to say that I deliberately stay clear of player teams. I'm just too casual a player to contribute to any group in a meaningful way, and I wouldn't want to be a liability on their roster. It's not very likely I happen to be online at the same time as other people more than once either. Guess I'm a merc at heart.

I'll also say that I want to spend my limited MWO time in the cockpit (i.e. quick play, or FP when the chance comes up).

[Alreech]

Frabby, on 29 November 2020 - 01:57 AM, said:

I'm aware of LFG. But I'm not looking for a group.
When I self-described as a lone wolf, I tried to say that I deliberately stay clear of player teams. I'm just too casual a player to contribute to any group in a meaningful way, and I wouldn't want to be a liability on their roster. It's not very likely I happen to be online at the same time as other people more than once either. Guess I'm a merc at heart.

I'll also say that I want to spend my limited MWO time in the cockpit (i.e. quick play, or FP when the chance comes up).

That's strange, because the LFG doesn't force a player to join a rooster or keep a time schedule for playing together.
It's a tool for players without organised group (a clan or unit or guild) to team up for one evening without any further obligations.