Newbie love!

[Yvonne_Blacksword]

I know, I am not a newbie..

In fact, I would be considered a veteran if I had not waited till the game was in full tilt to join the adventure
and had gotten in on the beta testing like my friends did...oh well.

Here it is.
I have been rolling newbies on other servers and have realized a couple of things. (first, not
having gear and access to 32 point builds is hard...no ...wait!)

New characters spend a lot of time in the harbor, getting familiar with game play, gaining proficiency with spells,
weapon sets etc. and rarely leave the harbor until they are level 2-3. They have no idea what is available to
them in the market and the various houses until they no longer need them.


Potions
Ones needed are often sold in the market and not in the harbor.
Things that are regularly needed require us to pay 20 GP or have completed WW (or the first 2 quests at least)
Lesser restore
remove curse
cure moderate wounds
repair moderate damage


Armor/weapons
There are vendors in house "D" that sell +1 weapons. By the time we would find these they are already obsolete,
we have hopefully found similar items we can use.

Wands
I am in no way suggesting that level 1-2 newbies be required to carry an arsenal of wands. This is not what I
am suggesting. However, it has often been suggested by more experienced players that newbies buy a few wands
to help flesh out their mana.

So this is my silly suggestion.

Upgrade the harbor vendors,
Have them offer a few more items that are usable by level 1-2 available to them without forcing them to leave the harbor.

1.) Move the +1 weapon/armor vendors to the harbor, so affluent newbies (some of us get lucky) can purchase them.
2.) Sell remove curse, restore cure/repair moderate pots at the harbor potion vendor.
3.) Sell newbie friendly wands in the harbor, cure/repair light, sleep,
4.) Move the 1-2 scroll vendor to the harbor.

I just know that there are a few newbies out there frustrated with the mystery of where and how to find the supplies they
might need and many experienced players frustrated that newbies already do not know the advanced mechanics of the game.

5.) Make the Pre harbor quests more tutorial...

Oops! I brought up the last one and did not give a previous reference...
Many of the newbies playing this game have played others. Some haven't. Having some demos on how to do things...other
than the 20 or so helpful hints that pop up before you leave the docks after character creation...(that all experienced
characters turn off in disgust)
Make the newbie quests more useful.

a.) Combat room. Teach them how to make weapon sets. The last iron golem tells you to use tumble and always knocks
you down if you do...why? Why tell a newbie to use something and then punish them if they do?
I know, I am asking for a game breaking change...as all changes are...lol.

b.) Magical combat room. Offer a wand to those without MM, (offensive spells) that has no UMD and drops when you leave.
Let those tank starters that go through the rooms know that when they roll their first arcane they will have a useful place to train
(out of sight of prying eyes...lol) Give everyone the chance to understand the mechanics of combat magic s we won't all be under
the impression that it just happens and works every time.

c.) Stealth room. As it is it is only completable by rogues...Because there are traps to disable...So should it be called
stealth? There are other classes that use stealth but cannot complete this room. If it were less designed to test out the rogue and
more to teach all characters abot how to sneak...(wait till the mob turns its back...like red light green light ...lol) It might help give
players an understanding of the mechanics of sneak...How and when to use... and how easily it is undone by silly tanks charging in.

d.) Healing magic room. Easily completed without healing magic by anyone who can beat down a single skeleton.
Hmmm...Needs work. A least the magical combat room turns you away if you have no offensive spells. This one could be used
(again with a drop on exit 0 UMD wand...) to train newbies on the mechanics of healing. You could also add a NPC party member in
need healing...And maybe an incapped fleshie and an incapped Warforged to train those seldom used skills of repair and
heal...Maybe even give a +1 bonus to the skill on completion. (ooohhhh!!! game breaking...getting a +1 to a skill..I make bad
suggestion)

I know...all of these rooms give just 7 xp (and a bound cure pot). maybe they could give more...or something different than XP.
Nothing huge...Just something to keep us doing them... Something that actually trains the Newbies some useful skills, other than
how to open a chest and grab whatever is inside. If they were given more of a tutorial feel I think that we would have less new
players out there that lack basic survival skills and tactics and more that have some working knowledge of how the game operates.

[transtemporal]

New characters spend a lot of time in the harbor, getting familiar with game play, gaining proficiency with spells, weapon sets etc. and rarely leave the harbor until they are level 2-3. They have no idea what is available to
them in the market and the various houses until they no longer need them.


Nice post Yvonne. I agree. The learning curve in DDO is pretty steep and a little extra help for newbs would be great. This is fresh enough in my mind that I can add:

learning about item slots and what goes where
learning about quest difficulties, what they mean and repeating quests
learning about the mail system, receiving/sending items/cash (I was 8th level before I needed to send anything to anyone but didn't actually know how to)
learning about what bonuses stack with what
learning about selecting other team members, npcs, enemies (a friend quit in frustration playing a cleric because he couldn't figure out how to select team members during battle to heal them)
learning about hotbars (dragging items to hotbars, dragging off hotbars and how that is different to dragging items off your inventory screen. I did that a few times by mistake. :) )
learning about voice chat, chat window tabs, basic commands /tell /invite etc
learning about binding, incap and death (wow, it took me a long time to figure out binding)
learning about buying and selling stuff at vendors, brokers, ah and the differences between


Took me ages to figure out there was a difference between brokers and vendors and that there was a wand vendor in the market place tent. :) Still wouldn't have helped me because I didn't have the plat to buy anyway.

I know most people just jump in and start playing (myself included) but if you don't have anyone to show you the ropes and some pinhead berates you for being a newb, it would be really nice to be able to go back to a tutorial!

[ErgonomicCat]

[quote]

Took me ages to figure out there was a difference between brokers and vendors and that there was a wand vendor in the market place tent. :) Still wouldn't have helped me because I didn't have the plat to buy anyway.


Agreed! I like the harbor/marketplace division, but really, there's a lot of stuff in the marketplace that a noob needs. I didn't go there forever - once I was there, I said "DUDE! ***?! I just got here?!"

[transtemporal]

[QUOTE=transtemporal;1422721]
Agreed! I like the harbor/marketplace division, but really, there's a lot of stuff in the marketplace that a noob needs. I didn't go there forever - once I was there, I said "DUDE! ***?! I just got here?!"

I'm embarrassed to admit it but when I first started playing, I did all the harbour quests and said over the mic "So is that all the areas in the game? I kinda thought there might be a bit more to it." (to guffaws of laughter from the group) :o

[Yvonne_Blacksword]

Sorry...the post is a little wracked with typos...Had to go to another useless brief/brainstorming/orientation
session with little practical application, present or future...
I fix?

There...better.

I know there are a lot of us experienced ones...who are constantly training people...but some of the newbies are afraid to ask..
Have been bitten.
Have had their feelings hurt.

I know I did.

The whole mentoring new players has been a hobby of mine.
I like helping. It is a vice...
I feel that if they stay with the game that I have accomplished a little, given back to the game.

I also feel the need to reward the learners with little presents...For caring enough to learn the game,
rather than bash it or leave in disgust because they didn't get the complexities and didn't get help.

[Missing_Minds]

Nice post. You may want to PM Q to let him know about this one for him to let the devs have a look at. I don't know how often they come down into this area afterall, and I found it was worth having a look at.

[Aranticus]

what we need are less uber twinked N-th rerolls who would want to storm throught WW for the X-th time under Y minutes. seriously, what the newbies need are not gear or items but rather a helping hand and guidance from more experienced players. sorta like OJT. usually, when i'm in a lowbie group, i'll ask if anyone is new to the game and would help them to the best of my abilities... cept gear. i feel that they should start slowly and learn the basics and thus become better players who'd perform irregardless of gear or build

[transtemporal]

usually, when i'm in a lowbie group, i'll ask if anyone is new to the game and would help them to the best of my abilities... cept gear. i feel that they should start slowly and learn the basics and thus become better players who'd perform irregardless of gear or build

Completely agree, and nice philosophy. Gear is just another thing to get your head around as a newbie and personally, I found it easier just to try stuff out and see what was best. Also, even experienced players don't know all the ins and outs of the most useful gear for all builds. We're not even talking uber gear here but basics like armor and weapons.

[Ghoste]

what we need are less uber twinked N-th rerolls who would want to storm throught WW for the X-th time under Y minutes. seriously, what the newbies need are not gear or items but rather a helping hand and guidance from more experienced players. sorta like OJT. usually, when i'm in a lowbie group, i'll ask if anyone is new to the game and would help them to the best of my abilities... cept gear. i feel that they should start slowly and learn the basics and thus become better players who'd perform irregardless of gear or build
Even the fleshlings?

[isldur]

Great idea

[dwensel7]

Ive only been playing the game for about 9 months and totally agree with your post. Wish someone would have told me some of these things when i started. I try and help out any newbies i happen to group with when makeing a new character. nice to be informed about how easy it is to get cure mod pots when you really need them. I never really ran the tutorial stuff until my second character and have to say it could be better.(my Brother-in -law ran a new toon through it and was still left bewildered. he is a non gamer)

once again great post!

[Yvonne_Blacksword]

*snip* You may want to PM Q to let him know about this one for him to let the devs have a look at. I don't know how often they come down into this area afterall, and I found it was worth having a look at.

Oh...no...I do not toot my own horn...(I heard you could go blind that way!)

If they wanna use my ideas they will have to find it by happy accident!

No Self Tooting!

:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p :p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Besides...she's MAD....MaD I saY!

[Zenako]

One thing I do when running a lowbie in a PUG with some new players, is I offer pretty much anything I pull in a chest on the quest to them. This lets me show them how the trade window works (and more recently, how to reassign treasure to another character).

I will sometimes gift some potions of mine to the new player, but generally not items. Too much twinkage will stunt the learning curve. I am also sure to take them over to Cerulean Hills and expose them to an outside landscape as well. Helps to expand the impression of the game as being more than just sewer tunnels and basements as much of the Harbor quests are.