How to minimize bad player experience?

[blckfire]

Although I agree with James, another reason is the fact that the player base is almost static and normally new accounts only come from friends of existing players. Not that I'm saying that this is a bad thing but if we have more new blood from other sources it will also help the merchant class.

Going back into topic, getting players to stay passes through creating a nice first experience. When I started Pangaea I didn't knew nobody and I immediately felt good, because I was nicely welcomed by some Wayfarer's that showed me around and I didn't get to taste the robbing or PvP side of it until way later, which eventually led me to quit because I was always getting killed even if wearing shitty gear. I'm talking about a lunar or solar weapon and Radlius plus like 1000 gold in my pocket? I don't think this is worth robbing and in the end it only ruins the gameplay with the added plus of making one more player inactive.

[Thoran]

I have always seen players as an answer for many situations. There often is or at least should be a group of people that have the correct mindset to help the new players. Counselors, The Wayfarers and TBTU have been a good example of this. Though I admit that I don't see any of these as the cure for the pvp experience of a newcomer. For me that was always Law. And when I was starting out I knew who to contact if I had trouble. Whitecloaks for robbers and golden ones for help in retrieving gear from Despise and help in understanding the game. That made me connect with the people I know today and became more active in the community.

I'm not sure if that would have happened if I wouldn't have needed to contact anyone. Or at least it would have taken longer. I'm working to rebuild The Wayfarers once more, even though I know that there might not be so many new players, nor weak characters to begin with. But I have a strong feeling that the guild should exist on the shard, perhaps with some tweaks.

Along with that, I bet there are a lot of players with the same mindset, but who enjoy pvp that could form a "lawlike" guild/religion to hunt robbers and keep Britain area safe.

These player run "answers" to the problems increase activity, chance for social contact / rp , etc. And a total "newbie zone" might not. In addition there might be some simple game mechanic to affect the situation, but the major effect should come from player actions.

[Ivan]

For me personaly I've been much much more solo player than group player always, so everything I've done is mostly trough my own hands. Ofcourse sooner or later I got connections trough item buys etc. started chatting with ppl about the game and so on and used those connections for things like getting help when dying etc.

But so far I've been playing this game completely solo, always taken in as a part of random hunting group or suchs. Same with PVP, usualy I am just drifting around from group to another for pvp etc.

Only group I've tied myself to is wayfarers, so that while I play pvp with Ivan and pvm with my archer, I get to enjoy the RP and get to help newbies trough wayfarers.


Also when I started playing the game and was a complete noob, it was golden age of Exorsus Nox. I got robbed weekly and at bests lost 5 different plate sets in a day on my noob knight back then. Still I've stayed as a player and take part in all aspects of pangaea, so I dont realy get the reason why'd you protect noobies from the reality and sandbox nature of this game too much. (that 72 hour protection on account would be more than enough imo)

Oh and my first expierence was to die to a freaking rat, while trying to gain sms.... after that I did hours of collecting carrots and hitting a dummy and at last I could kill the rat.

[Glarundis]

i remember when this shard was about rp, which had pvp included. surely, pvp was a huge part of it, but i remember when ppl, before pvping in brit gy, spent like half an hour sometimes just exchanging arguments back and forth..even if it may sound ridiculous, atleast there was something other than just the hunger for the kill.

i don't want this server not to have pvp, and i even think no one should be safe from it (ok let's give an excuse to newbies) because no one should also be free from the possibility of dying in a dungeon..you can't really say "damn, that's not the experience i wanted, i didn't want to die in this dungeon and lose my gear"..having half of the characters simply magically away from pvp is not a good idea imo. the solution comes from common sense, and if all the players had it, we wouldn't have all these problems. there used to be robbers before, and i remember exorsus nox, but even when ppl were losing shit, i think the shard had good times. there were the good guys to fight the bad guys, and in this point, i must agree with walac. britain as a no pvp zone is a bad idea. we newbies liked to understand that there was something going on with those guys in black vs the guys in white..

now, i feel that for some reason the shard is not nearly as rpish as it used to be. i would do my best to keep the rp'ers here, like bella, thoran, charha, etc..i know that there can be great fun when you want to play like that..why do we have to be so obsessed with pvp? pvp should be one of the means to achieve an rp end. but now pvp is just the goal...ppl pvp for the sake of pvp..it's like...we are roleplaying characters that actually just want to go to war. maybe there are some fucked up ppl who are like that, but i suppose that in general people don't go to war for pleasure..

also, like it has been said, if there wasn't all this amount of metagaming and muling, we wouldn't have as much pvp. ppl wouldn't have everything always at the ready to log in and pvp. nowadays you get to maximize your profits so easily, if you really commit to it, that in the end all that is left in this terms of mindset is pvp. you log in, you quickly get everything you need from your merchants, or from your group's merchants, and you pvp. and this is a never ending cycle.

pangaea is very different from what it once was

[Prince]

For me when i started and was a noob... Seing red people (robers included) made my heart pops!
Made me excited... and think let me get the hell out... to train harder and someday be like them or face them. That made me play pangaea.
Robberys/pvp are part of pangaea. And it bring activity.
There´s a lot of rules to protect newbies as:
-Not allowed to robbe newbies if they dont show wealth
-no pvp in despise
Theres no need for me (thats my opinion)

[KrondorZuula]

For me when i started and was a noob... Seing red people (robers included) made my heart pops!
Made me excited... and think let me get the hell out... to train harder and someday be like them or face them. That made me play pangaea.
Robberys/pvp are part of pangaea. And it bring activity.
There´s a lot of rules to protect newbies as:
-Not allowed to robbe newbies if they dont show wealth
-no pvp in despise
Theres no need for me (thats my opinion)

This ^^

When i first started UO many years ago, when i saw reds it would make my heart pump too, bit of adrenaline every time i saw a robber, murderer or tek. Some of the best memories are from RPing with Tek or AP when i was a nub at the britain GY and seeing the battles going on, making me want to train so i could join in on those battles. No matter how much people hate getting robbed and killed, it's part of the game, it always made me jump, and i enjoyed the brief rp exchanges when encountering tek or reds, and if you have a horse it's pretty damn easy to run away if you get a head start. And im not saying i enjoyed losing my things, but i accepted it and it just made me work harder and play smarter, not carrying around and excess of crap on me

[Gorath Blackmind]

I also agree whats said above. I've lost all my hard earned fortune as a noob to Nox, but that day made me remember not carry anything I dont need with me. The thrills are a big part of the game, yes, but not pk pk ruskipvp olololohuehue 24/7 fighting over a town and dragging other players in who dont wish to be involved.

[Harlequin]

As above, I agree that the threat of reds is an important part of the game in terms of adding excitement/danger, so I'm against heavily restricting them.

Account-timer-based newbie protection could be okay...

But, as I think it was Ivan was saying, I think the best solution is to code better mechanics for managing reds. Make the penalty of being red somewhat more daunting/exponential, so that the decision to actually murder someone is a more difficult decision to make. It allows robbers to still try and rob someone, and the victims have to decide whether the robber is actually going to follow through or if maybe they can convince the robber not to kill them (thereby increasing roleplay opportunities).

Also, remove indefinite jail as it existed before, as that was just total garbage. Also, don't re-introduce a disproportionately overpowered player group tasked with hunting robbers. If players want to hunt robbers (maybe for a bounty system), they can do this, but the system should be setup so that the difficulty of being a robber isn't related to the activity or lack thereof of a player group.

[Vulcan]

My opinion:


Risk is and always been a part of Pangaea. I disagree with increasing Britain's radius as it has much more visibility than other towns so most big events will and should happen around that town. Placing more guards will have a negative effect on those. At most, I'd go with Imp's idea of patrol guards between sensible areas.

Restricting PvP to guilds has a downside: The ability to freely walk around with indies and auros with a free pass from robbers. I see it the other way around: Powerful guilds can establish treaties to keep their members safe from harm. Players with no intention to PvP can usually avoid it most of the time by staying away from the bigger picture and concentrating on other areas.

Robbers should have it harder. As it stands, we have no system to stop those at all (there is no Law anymore, although any guild could fill in those shoes) and the bounty system is generally open to abuse. Bounties are crap simply because if they were good, robbers and their friends would play accordingly around it to gather the bounties. In order for the bounty hunting system to be any good, there must be another variable that is hurt by being hunted down that would prevent willingness to abuse the system. Manhunts should also start when someone tagged as robber is seen by any NPC or player (except own guild members and/or possible allies).

And, of course, the general asshole rule: If you don't need it, don't take it. That alone has the ability to prevent bad atmosphere and hostile experiences to newbies.

[Cele]

I agree with Bella.

The PVP aspect shouldn't go away but neither should it trump every other aspect of the game. There has to be a balance. PvP should enhance the roleplay experience, not detract from it. Ultimately, it comes down to common sense and common courtesy.