New Player Tutorial Proposal

[Valkorion Baratheon]

Preface

Before I dive into this, I just want to mention that this post is really a rough draft. I won't be mentioning too much about the specifics of the content of the tutorial. Instead, this is a redesign of the implementation of a tutorial. If this idea is popular, I may start adding specific tutorial content into it with a future post. 

 

Main Issue
When new players join P&W, they often tend to leave the game within the first month as there is a lack of guidance and purpose for them in the game. It can be overwhelming and players may feel lost. The current Tutorial and Objectives are inadequate in dealing with this. Thus, the purpose of this post is to create a new Tutorial system that will hopefully increase new player retention and competence in P&W (basic concepts and lingo). The best tutorials are those that integrate gameplay. Therefore, the tutorial system that I am aiming for is supposed to provide a sense of purpose through meaningful objectives for new players in P&W. However, the tutorial is not designed to teach you every single thing about more advanced gameplay. This is not a replacement for a proper Internal Affairs department in an established alliance. 

 

Outline

• Create an alliance solely for new players - The Orbis Defense Initiative (ODI)
• Create a category in the official P&W server for ODI so they can communicate
• Create an alliance solely made of bots - The Sibro Invasion Force (SIF)
  • Sibro is just the reverse of Orbis
• 30-day tutorial that teaches ODI (new players) the basics of how to build their nation, use the market, and fight their "mortal enemies" in SIF.
• Note: These are just random names for referencing purposes.

 

Details

When you join this game, you get assaulted by player-created recruitment messages without knowing anything about the game. Many new players choose not to join any alliances because of this "spam." However, these same players soon lose interest as there is not much for them to do, or so they believe since they have no guidance. Furthermore, in-game communication isn't really enough to keep you hooked on the community, and that is a large part of the appeal to the game. 

My idea is to provide guidance via an alliance for new players only. All new nations will automatically spawn in The Orbis Defense Initiative. As the first part of the tutorial, they will be strongly encouraged, albeit not required, to join the P&W discord server where they can communicate with other players and ODI members. This way, they can get connected to the main P&W community sooner and be less likely to feel lost in the game. This is very important so that these new players can immediately interact with real people. This will increase the likelihood of someone staying in the game. 

Next, there should be a rival alliance to The Orbis Defense Initiative. I think this alliance should be an alliance made out of bots - The Sibro Invasion Force. The Sibro Invasion Force will have lore as the enemy of Orbis. They are a collective of nations that banded together to invade P&W’s planet of Orbis from their home world of Sibro. The Orbis Defense Initiative (new players) are a coalition of nations that have been tasked with the duty of defending the world of Orbis from this extraterrestrial threat. 

Why create the SIF? The idea here is to create a sense of purpose. We want our new players to have a reason to build military units and make sure they have enough income to support them. Before, the Objectives simply gave you a cash reward for buying soldiers. But, if you are a new player, there is nothing exciting about that. We need to create excitement. People play games to have fun. You want to teach new players how to play as well as keep them engaged.

Throughout the tutorial, ODI members will gain cash rewards for completing their objectives. These objectives will be a combination of nation-building, trade, and war that will give new players a well-rounded P&W experience and tutorial. The final payout will be after they have defeated x number of SIF nations in combat. They should be able to reach 10 cities and 1500 infra and land per city, maybe even a few key projects as well. The entire tutorial will last 30 days.

Throughout the 30-day ODI experience, players will receive notifications in-game telling them to complete objectives in preparation for their war assignment against SIF. The tutorial will show them the basics on how to build their nations. It should be easy to go back and access old parts of the tutorial, should a player (both old or new) need to. Eventually, at the 15-20 day mark, there should start to be war assignments against the bots in SIF. From there, the tutorial will teach new players the war system and they will learn by defeating SIF nations (which, again, are bots and so they are guaranteed to win). 

Neither ODI or SIF should show up on the Treaty Web or Alliance Rankings. Nations in ODI should be protected from other players. They can only go to war with SIF. New players should be given the choice to leave ODI, but if they do, they forfeit re-entry into ODI. After 30 days of existence, nations will automatically be kicked out of ODI and encouraged to join a real alliance or do whatever else they wish to do.

 

Alternate Modification

ODI might not have to be an alliance. It could just be the theme of the Tutorial. New players can still join any alliance or no alliance while being part of ODI and its initiative against SIF. So, if I were a new nation, I will have ODI Tutorial notifications. I can still join an alliance and be part of an alliance's community while learning the basics of the game. In this case, maybe new player beige should last 30 days. So, you will still have the protection from other players that the ODI alliance was supposed to give. You can fight SIF while in beige, but once you leave new player beige, you will be vulnerable to player wars as usual. Something like that. Only tutorial players should be able to attack SIF, essentially. Thanks @Lucianus for this modification suggestion.

Edited July 17, 2020 by Valkorion Baratheon

[Sid]

I don't think the tutorial should be 30 days long as it would discourage new players. This because (almost)  noone likes tutorials and just want to play the game. The idea is great in and of itself but it would need some tweaking to keep it interesting for the players. Anyways i'd like to see you go into more detail on this!

[Roger]

We could have more objectives everyone loves getting money.So objectives can help them learn while giving them financial aid.Out of the current 50 objectives 40 are completed in 2 sec.It will be better if we have more.

Or maybe

We can have a in-game guide system that tells them more about the basics of the game like cities,raiding and stuff.

Edited July 18, 2020 by Roger

[Wendell]

Isn't that sweet? Too bad Alex doesn't care enough to actually do this or even read this forum.

Edited July 18, 2020 by Deulos

[Roger]

9 hours ago, Deulos said:

Isn't that sweet? Too bad Alex doesn't care enough to actually do this or even read this forum.

Guess the 2 min I used reading this was a waste

[Sir Scarfalot]

6 hours ago, Roger said:

Guess the 2 min I used reading this was a waste

It was

[katashimon13]

i agree everyone should join arrgh

rawr