Sodshaman1
Dalayan Adventurer
How about making "The Dream" a two part series of tutorials.
Part 1-- Absolute basics. Movement/items/combat/inventory/learning about the /con system....possibly learning that not all zones will have non-aggro ghosts walking around.
The first can be the gloomy sad place that teaches you basics such as movement, using your map(and have the stuff labeled), and acquiring gear earlier in the dream so that when you reach the combat stage you can be be taught how to open your inventory and equip your weapon(and even look at the stats....basic knowledge of itemization for new players is important). The combat area could also deal with magic if you are a caster....right clicking runes as a melee just doesn't make sense. The NPC could explain the differences between melee and casting, and how both systems work(if needed).
After you leave the "combat" zone, you travel down the windy road to where you learn about conning mobs and how that system works. The NPC could explain to you that the green, light blue, blue, white, yellow, and red NPC's all have different colors because they are different levels. The NPC could explain to the play that they should con them and hail them...and each response would be based off of what con they are. The red con would say something along the lines of "Foes like me are the toughest you will find. Don't think about stepping your halfling foot to me" (or something along those lines. I'm not a writer for a reason).
After the player gets a basic idea of how the con system works, the windy road takes him to part 2 of The Dream.
Part 2 -- Learning how to survive in an environment that involves KOS mobs, needing to sit/med/bandage, learning which mobs to pick fights with....that kind've crap.
I'm not sure if you could code in some NPC to follow you around (kind've like a henchman) but you could have your mission be to fight to through this area. Throughout the mission you could be attacked by single mobs or two at a time. You and your little buddy battle these dark blue and even intruders into the dirt, you scoop up some good xp. Eventually you reach the place that people seem to get really confused on -- the stolen good and who to give it to. I say, just remove that in general. Learning your alignment hits doesn't need to be the first hour a noob spends in SoD. They want action. They want progress. They don't want to read quests and have to pick and choose thinking its going to actually affect their character two months later. Just ditch it.
So with that gone, you have a little more space to play around with. Why not have a station that teaches about currency, banking, searching for gear on the listsold, or even just having a free Ring of +2 (random stat depending on the class) sent to them, so they can at least interact with the banker and learn how to withdraw that item from the system and put it on their character. Free things in tutorials are good. Most games you leave the noob island nearly fully geared in noob gear, and believe me, it raises your confidence. And finally, the ending area we can call Part 3.
Part 3 could be interesting. You and your little henchman friend turn the corner into the building and the next thing you see is an NPC standing in the center and starts going on and on about not letting you guys leave this dream. Your little friend gets upset, and pulls out his battle-axe. The NPC could turn into like, I dunno...a dragon(its cheesy but it works) and you and your buddy go to work kicking this things ass. Throughout the fight you could have allies run through the gates to assist in the fight, just so the player gets the feel of what it could be like in a mini-raid. Of course, you'd have to code the dragon to basically never hit the player or he would die instantly and probably get upset, but ya.
Any thoughts on that? I know its long winded and there are a ton of spelling and grammar errors but its 5am and my medication is about to down me. I will clean this up a bit tomorrow and reformat it and do some work on the grammar and spelling. But I hope you guys can at least get the basic idea of what I am looking at. Also, it may not be a bad idea to keep the dream dark and gloomy. I can't remember a positive and brightly colored dream where I learned how to beat up a female, give a stolen trinket back to a thief, and walk away with free books and gear. That sounds like a nightmare to me.
Part 1-- Absolute basics. Movement/items/combat/inventory/learning about the /con system....possibly learning that not all zones will have non-aggro ghosts walking around.
The first can be the gloomy sad place that teaches you basics such as movement, using your map(and have the stuff labeled), and acquiring gear earlier in the dream so that when you reach the combat stage you can be be taught how to open your inventory and equip your weapon(and even look at the stats....basic knowledge of itemization for new players is important). The combat area could also deal with magic if you are a caster....right clicking runes as a melee just doesn't make sense. The NPC could explain the differences between melee and casting, and how both systems work(if needed).
After you leave the "combat" zone, you travel down the windy road to where you learn about conning mobs and how that system works. The NPC could explain to you that the green, light blue, blue, white, yellow, and red NPC's all have different colors because they are different levels. The NPC could explain to the play that they should con them and hail them...and each response would be based off of what con they are. The red con would say something along the lines of "Foes like me are the toughest you will find. Don't think about stepping your halfling foot to me" (or something along those lines. I'm not a writer for a reason).
After the player gets a basic idea of how the con system works, the windy road takes him to part 2 of The Dream.
Part 2 -- Learning how to survive in an environment that involves KOS mobs, needing to sit/med/bandage, learning which mobs to pick fights with....that kind've crap.
I'm not sure if you could code in some NPC to follow you around (kind've like a henchman) but you could have your mission be to fight to through this area. Throughout the mission you could be attacked by single mobs or two at a time. You and your little buddy battle these dark blue and even intruders into the dirt, you scoop up some good xp. Eventually you reach the place that people seem to get really confused on -- the stolen good and who to give it to. I say, just remove that in general. Learning your alignment hits doesn't need to be the first hour a noob spends in SoD. They want action. They want progress. They don't want to read quests and have to pick and choose thinking its going to actually affect their character two months later. Just ditch it.
So with that gone, you have a little more space to play around with. Why not have a station that teaches about currency, banking, searching for gear on the listsold, or even just having a free Ring of +2 (random stat depending on the class) sent to them, so they can at least interact with the banker and learn how to withdraw that item from the system and put it on their character. Free things in tutorials are good. Most games you leave the noob island nearly fully geared in noob gear, and believe me, it raises your confidence. And finally, the ending area we can call Part 3.
Part 3 could be interesting. You and your little henchman friend turn the corner into the building and the next thing you see is an NPC standing in the center and starts going on and on about not letting you guys leave this dream. Your little friend gets upset, and pulls out his battle-axe. The NPC could turn into like, I dunno...a dragon(its cheesy but it works) and you and your buddy go to work kicking this things ass. Throughout the fight you could have allies run through the gates to assist in the fight, just so the player gets the feel of what it could be like in a mini-raid. Of course, you'd have to code the dragon to basically never hit the player or he would die instantly and probably get upset, but ya.
Any thoughts on that? I know its long winded and there are a ton of spelling and grammar errors but its 5am and my medication is about to down me. I will clean this up a bit tomorrow and reformat it and do some work on the grammar and spelling. But I hope you guys can at least get the basic idea of what I am looking at. Also, it may not be a bad idea to keep the dream dark and gloomy. I can't remember a positive and brightly colored dream where I learned how to beat up a female, give a stolen trinket back to a thief, and walk away with free books and gear. That sounds like a nightmare to me.
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