Focused Feedback: New Player Experience (NPE) Improvements

[InvaderStych]

7 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Please do keep all this general NPE feedback coming.

 

Taking a moment to echo an earlier suggestion that Athletic Run be present in the tray rather than buried in the powers menu.

 

Tangentially, having the tray default to all three rows visible rather than collapsed would be a nice QoL change for new toons.

[Wavicle]

1 minute ago, InvaderStych said:

 

Tangentially, having the tray default to all three rows visible rather than collapsed would be a nice QoL change for new toons.

Or at least two.

[lemming]

2 hours ago, electric_emu said:

 

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.  

The ability to use a slash command to place powers in numbered trays and being able to export your tray setup would help a lot.

You can place macros in certain tray locations, I don't think powers can be.

[csr]

On 1/27/2024 at 1:04 PM, Jimmy said:

Hello! I have a request.

 

Currently, Peacebringers and Warshades (hello @Laucianna 👀) show ? for all stats during character creation, like so:

 

 

While this does have some mild thematic significance, it's rather unhelpful for new players. In the next build we'll be adding numbers here for Kheldians, and also potentially updating some other ATs if we think the numbers aren't quite right (for example, Arachnos Soldiers have a pets rating of 2, which is clearly inaccurate).

 

These are the proposed numbers for Peacebringers and Warshades:

 

 

 

Please do let me know what you think. We're definitely open for input on the Kheldian numbers, and for any other ATs that could do with having their numbers tweaked.

 

Keep in mind that the goal here is to better communicate the strengths and weaknesses of each AT to inexperienced players, rather than be a raw reflection of the actual balance of each AT.

 

PB's Ranged Damage isn't that good.  Their crowd control can be decent with a PBAoE Stun and the KB/KD options they have.  I'd drop the Range Damage to a '6' and raise the Crowd Control to '3'.

 

Warshades '3' on Melee could be deceptive, since most of their best attacks (all the Black Dwarf attacks, Quasar, Gravity Well) are melee.  Heck... they even have a damage aura.  Like PBs, the Ranged Damage isn't that great.  Sentinels are listed as a '7'.   I don't think Warshades can match Sentinels damage without mixing in melee attacks and pets (Sunless Mire, Quasar, Dark Extraction).  I think I'd change Melee to '4' and Ranged to '6'.  Also, WS can do a whole lot of -Spd and -Rech, and debuffs should count as support.  So I'd bump that to '3'.

Edited January 31 by csr
Typo

[Shin Magmus]

The issue is that PB/WS damage scales literally change when you shapeshift, so they DO have good ranged damage but only while in Nova form.  Both PB/WS have innate offensive and defensive buffs that they can activate, then swap to Nova and retain for a degree of time: during which you unload a pretty good Targeted AoE and objectively the best Cone in any "blast" set: Nova Emanation.

 

But people who want to play human-only PB/WS have awful ranged damage.  It's really hard to reflect that dynamic on the stat sliders.

 

I think the NPE tweaks should make a concentrated effort to steer new players away from EATs due to their complexity and the ease of building them so wrong that they suck.

[Lunar Ronin]

This obviously will not be for Page 7, but IMO there needs to be some sort of TF/SF/Trial (non-Incarnate trial that is), tutorial for new players.  I've found over the years that new players often don't know what a Task Force, Strike Force, or Trial are.  They assume it to be something like radio/newspaper missions, just that it can take you out of the zone, and think that they can freely leave after a couple of missions.  I can't count the number of times that I've had people either just quit a TF/SF/trial in the middle, DC in the middle, or say, "Thanks guys, that was great!" after the second mission and then quit.  They didn't know that the team can't refill that slot without starting over.

[Lunar Ronin]

Sorry for the double post, but this is a very good example from just this morning that illustrates my point:

 

 

 

 

New players simply do not realize that Task Forces/Strike Forces/Trials are different from regular missions, and that they can't just up and leave or join at any time.  They need a tutorial or something to help explain that to them.

[Shin Magmus]

That's an oof.  Yeah I have to agree that this needs to be explained better very early on to new players, because DFB is a Trial and they're likely to get roped into that before they even know what a TF is.  Some sort of real explanation about Missions, Story Arcs, TFs/SFs, and Trials, has to be included sooner rather than later.

[TygerDarkstorm]

3 hours ago, Lunar Ronin said:

This obviously will not be for Page 7, but IMO there needs to be some sort of TF/SF/Trial (non-Incarnate trial that is), tutorial for new players.  I've found over the years that new players often don't know what a Task Force, Strike Force, or Trial are.  They assume it to be something like radio/newspaper missions, just that it can take you out of the zone, and think that they can freely leave after a couple of missions.  I can't count the number of times that I've had people either just quit a TF/SF/trial in the middle, DC in the middle, or say, "Thanks guys, that was great!" after the second mission and then quit.  They didn't know that the team can't refill that slot without starting over.

Trials are a little different in this, at least DFB is. You can recruit mid DFB. Though yeah, probably best to treat them all similarly as like a "raid" in WoW where it's something you should be dedicated for the entire time.

[Lockely]

5 minutes ago, ShinMagmus said:

That's an oof.  Yeah I have to agree that this needs to be explained better very early on to new players, because DFB is a Trial and they're likely to get roped into that before they even know what a TF is.  Some sort of real explanation about Missions, Story Arcs, TFs/SFs, and Trials, has to be included sooner rather than later.

 

I swear there used to be an explanation around them somewhere in-game really early on, because it's one of the main reasons I never ran TFs when I played this as a kid. I couldn't guarantee I'd be able to set aside the time. And it wasn't like back then we had all these resources we do now, with three different wikis, a competent forum, and a discord. We had GameFAQs and we liked it. If not in-game, was it in the boxed copy's manual?

[Duuk]

4 hours ago, Lunar Ronin said:

This obviously will not be for Page 7, but IMO there needs to be some sort of TF/SF/Trial (non-Incarnate trial that is), tutorial for new players.  I've found over the years that new players often don't know what a Task Force, Strike Force, or Trial are.  They assume it to be something like radio/newspaper missions, just that it can take you out of the zone, and think that they can freely leave after a couple of missions.  I can't count the number of times that I've had people either just quit a TF/SF/trial in the middle, DC in the middle, or say, "Thanks guys, that was great!" after the second mission and then quit.  They didn't know that the team can't refill that slot without starting over.

The signature story arcs (Who will die? and Pandora's Box) run like task forces and can be changed to add tutorial text.

[ZorkNemesis]

So I know this isn't part of the tutorials you're going through, but seeing as how Twinshot and Dr. Graves stories are meant to be expanded tutorials of sorts, would it be possible to expand their level ranges for all three arcs so that you can do them at any point between 5 and 19?  As it is now if you reach level 10 and haven't started the first arc you get locked out of all three arcs for whatever reason, and the same for not starting part two before 15 locking you out of part three.  Seeing how easy it is to level from 1 to 10 in about an hour, especially if you're being pulled into DFB runs, missing out on those stories can hurt a fair bit.

[Luminara]

 

[gameboy1234]

On 1/30/2024 at 9:09 AM, Jimmy said:

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.

 

This is super minor but could contacts be sorted by relationship by default?  I find that almost always matches what makes sense to me.  Sorting them by name makes the contact I'm working with disappear when I complete a mission, which is what always reminds me I have to switch the default sorting yet again.

 

[SaxyGuitar]

Overall I love the changes, and you guys are already addressing the couple of things I've considered. 

 

One more think I've consider is. I think it might be time to change the name of P2W vender. I know I've had to explain to one person that the P2W vender wasn't a pay 2 win vender. I love the joke but I think a makeover/name change would help players.

 

I also think flavoring them for each side would be cool, but could also confuse people.

[Jimmy]

Build 3 Updates!

Note: The feedback on AT stats / descriptions / etc from this thread will be factored into the next build - didn't get time to go through it all just yet.

 

---

 

New Player Experience (NPE) Improvements

With everything finally becoming official, we're at the beginning of a new era for the game, and it is time we become better stewards of the core game itself. The first step is to start making some improvements to the new player experience (or NPE, as the cool kids refer to it) to remove some of the small "pain points" experienced by new players (you may have noticed a large influx of them recently!).

 

Character Creation Guidance

We cleaned up some of the language and graphics during character creation and tutorial selection to guide new players toward creating their characters in the easier starting areas:

• Updated text to nudge new players to start in Primal Earth, not Praetoria.
• Updated text to nudge players towards Breakout or Outbreak, not Galaxy City.
• RESISTANCE and LOYALIST are now colored blue and gold in the text descriptions (in the same way HERO and VILLAIN are colored blue / red).
  • Updated the RESISTANCE blue to be more... resistance-ey.
• "City of Heroes: Freedom" and "City of Heroes: Going Rogue" graphics replaced with "Primal Earth" and "Praetorian Earth" graphics.
• Kheldians now show stats during AT selection (instead of a series of ?s).
• EAT descriptions updated to state that they are not recommended for new players, cannot access the tutorial, and are locked to (start as) specific alignments.
• Villain EAT descriptions updated to correct poor grammar and remove needless gendering.
• Arachnos Soldiers now have a pets rating of "5" (instead of "3").
• Replaced all the ugly dashes (-) with pretty bullets (•).

Access to Travel

• New characters will automatically start with Athletic Run (players can swap this out at P2W for another version).
• Passport (and Long Range Teleporter) is now unlocked by acquiring any 10 exploration badges, instead of one exploration accolade. This doesn't affect characters who already own Long Range Teleporter, and the Pocket D unlock method is still present.
  • Note: For technical reasons, this only counts exploration badges collected after the patch.
• New characters are given 30 minutes of the P2W Jet Pack when training to level 2. The description informs players how to get more.

Origin Attacks

• Damage is now more consistent during the early levels. It is now scale 1.00 at levels 1 through 10. This damage declines linearly, starting at level 11, and ending at 0.30 at level 17 (previously the damage began dropping off from level 2).
• Endurance cost removed (like Brawl).
• Recharge reduced from 4s to 3s.
• Range increased from 45 feet to 80 feet to match most ranged attacks.
• Now added to the tray upon character creation.
• Power icon colors updated to Inherent color scheme.
  • Note: The existing icons still exist with their old names if you were using them for macro images.

User Interface Improvements

• The origin attack powers and Athletic Run should be added to the power tray upon character creation.

• All three main power trays are expanded by default, and pre-set to tray 1, 2, and 3 rather than all being tray 1.

• Additional trays added with the + button now default to tray 4, 5, 6, etc.

• The inspiration tray is in its expanded state by default.

• To avoid confusion with Sprint, Prestige Power Slide is now no longer added to the tray upon character creation.

• The "Show Pet Window Option" setting has been removed and is always enabled.

  • This just provides players with the ability to open the Pets window (by clicking "Pets" at the top of the Team window), it doesn't open the window by default.

• Fixed a bug which sometimes caused power trays to be completely emptied if a new character zoned or logged off before moving powers in or adding extra powers to the tray.

Guidance

• When gaining the free Jet Pack at level 2, you are presented with a pop-up explaining how to get more at the P2W vendor.
• Finding your first exploration badge now gives a pop-up explaining that you'll get LRT if you collect 10 in total.
• When training to level 10, a pop-up will inform you how to begin the Invention tutorial (this pop-up will also automatically unlock the Invention tutorial contact relevant to your faction).

[Bionic_Flea]

39 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

• All three main power trays are expanded by default, and pre-set to tray 1, 2, and 3 rather than all being tray 1.

• Additional trays added with the + button now default to tray 4, 5, 6, etc.

• The inspiration tray is in its expanded state by default.

• To avoid confusion with Sprint, Prestige Power Slide is now no longer added to the tray upon character creation.

• The "Show Pet Window Option" setting has been removed and is always enabled.

  • This just provides players with the ability to open the Pets window (by clicking "Pets" at the top of the Team window), it doesn't open the window by default.

 

But Jimmy, I don't care what anyone else says,  you're OK in my book.  These few little things alone will save so much time for each new character created.

[Jimmy]

1 minute ago, Bionic_Flea said:

But Jimmy, I don't care what anyone else says,  you're OK in my book.  These few little things alone will save so much time for each new character created.

 

You can thank @Number Six for those 🙂 

[Sovera]

49 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

Build 3 Updates!

Note: The feedback on AT stats / descriptions / etc from this thread will be factored into the next build - didn't get time to go through it all just yet.

 

 

I need a heart love forum emoticon for when a thumbs up or a thanks, or a like, does not cut it.

[Paradox Fate]

Not bad, however can be something done about the layout of the Chat/Hotbars?

Figure would be better from this:

 

To this:

 

Also to declutter the 'Global' Chat tab:

 

When you use LFG and Help, you probably aren't in a situation where the Global Chat is going fast, like in combat. General is something of a relaxed chat, you engage with it more easily, even when being busy.

[Lockely]

3 minutes ago, Paradox Fate said:

Not bad, however can be something done about the layout of the Chat/Hotbars?

Figure would be better from this:

 

To this:

 

Also to declutter the 'Global' Chat tab:

 

When you use LFG and Help, you probably aren't in a situation where the Global Chat is going fast, like in combat. General is something of a relaxed chat, you engage with it more easily, even when being busy.

 

Please do not move the default hotbars to the middle, some folks like them where they start. I do agree with expanding the chat and making sure General is defaultly added to the main Chat window through. 

[Glacier Peak]

7 minutes ago, Paradox Fate said:

Not bad, however can be something done about the layout of the Chat/Hotbars?

Figure would be better from this:

 

To this:

 

Also to declutter the 'Global' Chat tab:

 

When you use LFG and Help, you probably aren't in a situation where the Global Chat is going fast, like in combat. General is something of a relaxed chat, you engage with it more easily, even when being busy.

This should be user driven.

[InvaderStych]

3 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Additional trays added with the + button now default to tray 4, 5, 6, etc.

 

This might be my favorite change in the entire Page. 🤣

[Cyclone Jack]

The changes the power try is *AMAZING* 😍

 

Jet pack at level 2 with the pop-up is a nice touch.  Also, getting Walk on the tray at L2 is fun.

 

Grabbed the Hero Corp Insider exploration badge and got this popup: "P41648053"

 

[Troo]

2 hours ago, Jimmy said:

2 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

But Jimmy, I don't care what anyone else says,  you're OK in my book.  These few little things alone will save so much time for each new character created.

 

You can thank @Number Six for those 🙂 

 

 

 

It is nice seeing new player experience improvements. Well done.