Focused Feedback: New Player Experience (NPE) Improvements

[Tatterhood]

45 minutes ago, Lightyears said:

I don't know if they have the tech to - A: Know which tutorial a player completed when they spawn in AP.

-and B: If so, send them to Matthew if they picked Galaxy or their Origin contact if they picked Outbreak.

This is how it works already.

[Lunar Ronin]

Back on live, you were automatically introduced to the invention system tutorial for your alignment when you trained to... Level 10?  Something like that.  The automatic introduction was removed by SCoRE.  IMO, it should be added back.

Edited January 29 by Lunar Ronin

[Jimmy]

37 minutes ago, ranagrande said:

Was this also changed recently?  As I recall, going to the university during The Shining Stars/Hearts of Darkness missions does not start the invention tutorial because they have other dialogue for those missions.

 

You have to talk to them again after the mission to get it.

 

I think so. It may require you to talk to the same person twice though.

 

My partner has recently been playing through the early-game content for the first time (he's barely played the game in the past), and I've been observing. Twinshot directed him to someone in Steel who then triggered the Invention tutorial. I think it's this step. After that we ended up on the Invention tutorial before going back to Twinshot's shocking plot twist. I can't recall the exact series of actions though.

 

Either way, it's buried pretty deep into Twinshot's arc, and could definitely be more discoverable.

[Jimmy]

1 hour ago, Lunar Ronin said:

Back on live, you were automatically introduced to the invention system tutorial for your alignment when you trained to... Level 10?  Something like that.  The automatic introduction was removed by SCoRE.  IMO, it should be added back.

 

So we did a little digging.

 

Turns out it never got removed. The problem is that this pop-up won't show up if you don't "own" the Paragon Market purchase to unlock the Invention system. Obviously nobody owns that product anymore, and the Invention system works without it. The pop-up, however, does not.

 

We'll fix that, and also update it to actually give you the contact (previously the pop-up only told you where to go, it didn't actually give you the contact!).

 

There's also a Praetorian Invention tutorial which has the same gating problem. Who knew 😄

[Bionic_Flea]

13 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

Who knew

 

But Jimmy, why didn't you know?  Isn't that why they pay you the big bucks?

 

[Lazarillo]

14 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

Turns out it never got removed. The problem is that this pop-up won't show up if you don't "own" the Paragon Market purchase to unlock the Invention system. Obviously nobody owns that product anymore, and the Invention system works without it. The pop-up, however, does not.

 

We'll fix that, and also update it to actually give you the contact (previously the pop-up only told you where to go, it didn't actually give you the contact!).

Hmmm, coming back to the talk of First Ward earlier, is it possible that this is why those contacts also don't pop up?

[Wavicle]

2 minutes ago, Lazarillo said:

Hmmm, coming back to the talk of First Ward earlier, is it possible that this is why those contacts also don't pop up?

would love if that was fixed. So weird that we don’t get told where to go to start that, and if you look in Find Contact it becomes even more confusing.

[Bionic_Flea]

It should be part of the dialogue that sends you to Steve Sheridan or Provost Marchand.  "Hey, you can go to Primal Earth now or you can stay in Preatoria's First Ward. "

[Wavicle]

I guess the text preceding Provost Marchand ("This arc takes place after the events of Issue 23", or something like that) is sufficient...

I kinda wish that kind of content was actually locked behind having completed the appropriate iTrials on One character, but I guess it's not that big a deal.

[Yuro]

20 hours ago, lemming said:

And something possibly related.

The p2w in Pocket D, Fort Trident, and The Crucible can be used while in a TF.

The ones in Atlas, Mercy, and Firebase Zulu can not.

 

Can we get the ones that do not talk to "busy" players get over their reluctance?

If I remember right, this is because any NPC that has a dialogue tree can't be accessed during a TF.  The P2W vendors that work have no dialogue tree and simply open directly into the P2W "store" interface.  So -- unless the dialogue tree limitation is removed somehow in the code -- this wouldn't be possible without removing all of the P2W flavor and intro text that the NPCs give.

Edited January 29 by Yuro

[Random Robot]

Not a fan of the changes to how you get the long range teleporter, getting the Atlas Park Tour Guide badge is the first thing I do on new characters after visiting the P2W vendor and setting up my hotbars and I use the LRT to get in and out of my SG base from Atlas several times while doing content there before I ever leave the zone. The whole reason for the LRT to even exist is convenience, why make it less convenient?

Edited January 29 by kidsnowflake

[Doc_Scorpion]

I'm presuming this is a global change and existing origin attacks will exhibit these characteristics?

Tested, they do.  And it was probably a stupid question anyhow.

Edited January 30 by Doc_Scorpion

[Draeth Darkstar]

On 1/28/2024 at 5:16 PM, Jimmy said:

 

This is sort of the point. If you are in Atlas and only have badges from Atlas, where are you teleporting to? 🙂
 

 

Echo Plaza, to participate in events.

 

Supergroup bases, to meet up with friends.

 

Making travel less accessible to new players - or old players' new characters - is not the way to go in the 2024 gaming environment.

Edited January 30 by Draeth Darkstar

[StarkWhite]

I suspect the extra time to go grab Wentworth History Buff and Upgraded (which will mostly be from the monorail ride, not from the actual badge-grabbing) will be more than canceled out by the free jetpack.

And I refuse to believe that anyone who's currently making a practice of getting the Atlas exploration accolade first thing doesn't know exactly where Wentworth History Buff and Upgraded are.

[Random Robot]

x

 

Edited January 30 by kidsnowflake
not worth the argument

[InvaderStych]

As it has been quite a while since I've run any of the tutorials, I did a quick run through Outbreak and had a couple of thoughts.

 

Is it worth mentioning Elite Bosses and AVs in this paragraph of the tutorial? Currently mentions Bosses as "the strongest," which isn't strictly true. Similarly, would it also be worth mentioning Monsters/Giant Monsters in there just to let new folks know about such things, or is that giving away too much?

 

 

Enhancements Tutorial text seemed to lack mention of their relationship to Origins, would that information be useful, or is it doled out later and I've forgotten?

 

Also, is it worth mentioning the Upgrade button as an alternative to Combining? Perhaps with a suggestion that using both methods to keep DO/SO enhancements "current" is a strategy worth considering?

 

 

Apologies, and plz ignore this post if this info is handed out at a later time in the new character journey. Been quite a while since I've really read the lowbie text.

 

 

[Shin Magmus]

On 1/29/2024 at 6:19 AM, Cyclone Jack said:

.Crowd Control:  This mentions "Debuffs enemies when possible" but Dominators don't use debuffs.

I just want to chime in and add that no fewer than 4 Control sets have at least 1 power that is (or used to be) just a debuff and not a Mez of any kind.  Additionally, sets like Ice Control stack -Recharge debuffs to a degree that is completely unmatched by Ice Melee or Ice Blast, and Elec Control is the best sapping set in the game by a mile.  Dominators can still debuff with Control sets... a lot. 

 

But it is true that Controllers have higher Scales on many of these debuffing powers than Dominators do.  It's okay to say that Doms debuff. 

[Paradox Fate]

15 hours ago, Jimmy said:

 

I think so. It may require you to talk to the same person twice though.

 

My partner has recently been playing through the early-game content for the first time (he's barely played the game in the past), and I've been observing. Twinshot directed him to someone in Steel who then triggered the Invention tutorial. I think it's this step. After that we ended up on the Invention tutorial before going back to Twinshot's shocking plot twist. I can't recall the exact series of actions though.

 

Either way, it's buried pretty deep into Twinshot's arc, and could definitely be more discoverable.

 

I am going through the Twinshot Arc right now (and filling missing dialogues in theirs arcs in the wiki), and this is where Dillo tells you to go to the University and talk to the Professors.

Ironically, none of the 'Professors' will actually start the Invention Tutorial, you have to talk Admissions Officer Lenk for that, though they do tell you to go to him.

 

Interestingly, Red Side guides you directly towards the NPC who starts the tutorial in Cap, but you only talk to him about something related to the Heart of Darkness arc, completely skipping the mention of his tutorial. And you only get a brief comment of Enhancements from Zephyr regarding that and the clue about it, but not that you can start the tutorial at this NPC by interacting with him again.

 

I think Gold Side only mentions their 'University' once you reach 10 or so and the trainer throws it in after you finished leveling up.

 

Definitely needs a bigger exposure, everywhere.

 

Edited January 30 by Paradox Fate

[ranagrande]

3 hours ago, Paradox Fate said:

 

I am going through the Twinshot Arc right now (and filling missing dialogues in theirs arcs in the wiki), and this is where Dillo tells you to go to the University and talk to the Professors.

Ironically, none of the 'Professors' will actually start the Invention Tutorial, you have to talk Admissions Officer Lenk for that, though they do tell you to go to him.

 

Interestingly, Red Side guides you directly towards the NPC who starts the tutorial in Cap, but you only talk to him about something related to the Heart of Darkness arc, completely skipping the mention of his tutorial. And you only get a brief comment of Enhancements from Zephyr regarding that and the clue about it, but not that you can start the tutorial at this NPC by interacting with him again.

 

I think Gold Side only mentions their 'University' once you reach 10 or so and the trainer throws it in after you finished leveling up.

 

Definitely needs a bigger exposure, everywhere.

 

If they're fixing the pop-up at level 10, it should be fine.

[Paradox Fate]

44 minutes ago, ranagrande said:

If they're fixing the pop-up at level 10, it should be fine.

 

I know. I am just showing how easy this gets past them.

There's also that there are no contact popups anymore from those that do not require any introduction in general once you are in their level range, other than when you can access First/Last Ward, Cimeroa, reaching 35 for the Patron Arc, reaching 50 for the Incarnate Introduction, unlocking the Alpha slot and Badge contact unlocks in your level range.

 

Dean, Darrin Wade and Vincent Ross in Sharkhead usually send you a message, for instance, once you are Level 20 and are on your active contact tab so you don't have to search for them.

 

Maybe there is something that can be also done about it, like the Invention Contact pop-up?

Edited January 30 by Paradox Fate

[InvaderStych]

Thought of another thing that doesn't seem to be introduced to new players, or at least not that I can recall:

 

Notoriety (difficulty) Settings. Tutorial mentions, as in my screenshot above, that players will encounter Bosses. By default this setting is switched off. Perhaps in that same dialog, or elsewhere in the Tutorial these settings should be referenced?

 

As before, if I've forgotten where these are introduced elsewhere in a commonly accessed/intuitive delivery (early arcs, etc), then perhaps disregard.

 

Edit:

 

Oh, and Badges!

 

Perhaps one of the Tutorial contacts in Outbreak could hint at "Extra Credit" for sticking around and helping to clear up the Contaminated. Either Parks or Hicks?

 

Not sure how an equivalent introduction to Badges could be incorporated into the other two tutorial options.

Edited January 30 by InvaderStych

[Jimmy]

Please do keep all this general NPE feedback coming. We're keeping the scope of the changes for Page 7 fairly limited, but it's definitely useful input for future updates.

[Duuk]

Quick tutorial thought...

 

I've always thought that Twinshot was Tutorial 2: Electric Slide.

 

Maybe have Twinshot/Graves trigger right at level 2 and start their chains?

[Paradox Fate]

Any way to reduce the mess on the hotbars after respecs that can be done? That brings quite a headache to new players and older ones alike. 

 

Also, figure the costume missions could use a brush up, even though their usefulness is kind of obsolete now. I think their meaning and message behind them is still important, however.

 

(If they are not of any new player priority, I am happy to post them in the Suggestion board!)

[electric_emu]

2 hours ago, Paradox Fate said:

Any way to reduce the mess on the hotbars after respecs that can be done? That brings quite a headache to new players and older ones alike. 

 

A pop up indicating /cleartray exists would be sufficient.  I'm not sure it would be possible to attempt to replicate your pre-respec hotbars or place powers intelligently.