Helping New Players

[eqravenprince]

I'm guessing it's probably harder for newbies to find groups and such starting off now than when the server opened. I have some ideas on how to maybe lessen the burden of starting off. One would be have one weekend a month that it is encouraged to start new characters. So that if you are thinking of joining the server or starting a new character, you could time it with this weekend. My second idea that could be combined with the first one is have newbie hotzones with exp increased. For example, you give a group of newbie zones that are close to one another, like Everfrost, Qeynos, and Tox. Or Innothule and Ferrott. Or perhaps just one hotzone like Misty Thicket. This would encourage newbies to be closer instead of a few here and few there continents apart.

Anyhow, just a thought on keeping the server fluid and not top heavy, and help with growth.

[stormlord]

Originally Posted by eqravenprince [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm guessing it's probably harder for newbies to find groups and such starting off now than when the server opened. I have some ideas on how to maybe lessen the burden of starting off. One would be have one weekend a month that it is encouraged to start new characters. So that if you are thinking of joining the server or starting a new character, you could time it with this weekend. My second idea that could be combined with the first one is have newbie hotzones with exp increased. For example, you give a group of newbie zones that are close to one another, like Everfrost, Qeynos, and Tox. Or Innothule and Ferrott. Or perhaps just one hotzone like Misty Thicket. This would encourage newbies to be closer instead of a few here and few there continents apart.

Anyhow, just a thought on keeping the server fluid and not top heavy, and help with growth.

I like the diversity right now. Is nice. People pooled into different areas and they grow up differently. That's nice to see. A better way to approach this problem is for higher levels to pitch in and help out. Instead of twinking your alt, twink a new player or give them advice. Don't help em too much or they won't be able to enjoy themselves, but a little bit goes a long ways.

Another thing you can do is make alts (for fun) and play with new recruits.

Right now i'm playing a bunch of low level alts to get a feeling for the low levels. So far I've really enjoyed myself. Now that peq is up there'll be less people logging on, but I'm hopeful some of the new recruits will remain to keep the low level playing field interesting and unique.

Here's my experience so far up to level 5:
Monk and Warrior are nice.
Bard is a bit harder because dps is lower, but the songs catch up. Still iffy on that part, but we'll see. Is confusing.

Am eager to try more classes. I may try a few in some new homecities. Am a registered altaholic.

I'm also checking out more of the non-players for quests. This has all been more fun than I thought it would be.

One of my goals is to figure out the mess of sewers under qeynos, and eventually, freeport. You might find me there.

Oh, and another thing i'm doing to keep things fun is to stay away from online resources like allahkazam. I'm not looking up quests or looking up items like i do on live. I'm trying to play this the way I did in 1999. I think it's funner this way. Is not so a - z.

[FatMagic]

This is a great idea - I think the biggest thing that would be a help would have some high level "buffers/healers" run around and help newbies with buffs & heals. I know the greatest source of help for myself being a Troll (low population in Innothule), is having a Cleric hit me with an HP buff, or a Druid/Mage with a Damage shield & Regen. These make leveling those early levels a HECK of a lot easier.

When I get my Shaman leveled, I will DEFINITELY go back and help newbies by buffing them to the hilt. It will be my pleasure to help the population of this server that way [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[stormlord]

Another thought occurred to me today. There's already great incentive to start a new player near freeport or to bind there because I see a lot more economic activity over there. WTS/WTB/etc seem to often center around that area. EC, where the old "bazaar" used to be, is very close to freeport. The other "bazaar" tended to be somewhere around greater faydark. Where is the "bazaar" on this server? My feeling is that it's near the freeport area - since it connects to a large continent (dwarves, elves, gnomes), access to evil zones (neriak), and a lot of WTB/WTS activity over there. I am not sure though where it's.

To wrap it up, my point is that there's already at least some incentive to concentrate in certain newbie zones.

Am I wrong about this. Let me know.

[Halladar]

You are right. Plus pretty much everyone in the qeynos area wants to get to Freeport asap.

No one seems to be going to highpass the way it was before.

[Zarniwooop]

My only concern is an influx of new players.

There's simply not enough to support the numbers required to do things when we get to kunark and velious.

And it's a damned shame if HHK is unused. Some brilliant times there in the past. I guess that's because of the exploit-XP that people used in Sol A.

[Halladar]

There is some pretty good loot for the teens in highpass.

I think the problem is you have to go where the people are for groups. The teens seem to be doing Oasis/Unrest right now.

Maybe when I get bind or someone around gets it I can get some people to go with me and we will bind there. We will see.

[Sphynx87]

I will be all over highpass and HHK when im high enough level, used to play there all the time.