A guy logged into the game when I was there to help him out – give him some free kills against me, show him what to do, etc.
He got to level 3, bought an energy mine, and killed himself with it trying to use it against me, even though I was letting him hit me. It was because he didn’t know that it damaged yourself first.
Right after that he quit – a grand total of 5 minutes playing under the best conditions.
So I changed it so you can’t kill yourself, and energy mines, being newbie weapons, don’t damage yourself. But this is indicative of a problem I’m consistently having, which is retention. A lot of guys quit within 10-15 minutes of playing. Even the guys that compliment the game, and I do get a lot of compliments, might only play 20 minutes and say they’ll come back later.
What’s funny is this is all true with the zone I setup right now, which is specifically easier for newbies. It’s easier to kill, slower, is team based, and has a simple objective.
I’m going to have to get some inspiration here in a hurry on some way to make the game super accessible so even the most impatient guy will stick around.
One reply on “Game still too hard for newbies?”
Same process SubSpace went through 🙂
I think the reality is you need to prepare newbies before they enter the main game – eg have an Alpha zone. While hte primary ship thrusters etc remain the same, it would be a place where people can learn how to fire mines, missiles, etc. Also a place where you cannot kill yourself.
Once finished with Alpha (say – hit level 4?) you then graduate to and can play any other zone. At this point self-kills can come into play and what not.
I think the most maneuverable ship should remain the primary newbie ship. Missiles and mines are relatively easy to use – the big ship should remain the heavy unwieldy but damage-busting ship it was a few days ago.
The Dauntless is overpowered right now. It should be (imo) a specialist ship – heavy damage or heavy D, but not a primary single-situation ship.