User Friendly
 

I was over at a friend's house the other day and we decided to log on Graal. My friend was so overwhelmed he didn't know what to do. He had no idea how to talk (Press tab), PM (F7 and double click from there), and he didn't have any real ideas on how to play. This being zone, he also didn't know how to strafe or what class is what.

I know some of these, strafing or knowing which class is which, are just zone problems, but isn't there some way they could make it easier for the players to understand Graal when they first join?

One of the ideas I had was having a tutorial server that teaches you the basics of things like how to talk and to PM and then each server could have its own tutorial from there.

Another thing they could do would be too just have a list of things you can do when playing from the web browser that shows some of the commands, saying,"Press Q to access the inventory."

I hope this is not just me but Graal does not seem to user friendly and it seems like it would be overwhelming and very confusing for a new player. Any ideas on how this could be fixed?

There used to be an offline tutorial for all this stuff... but that was removed with offline capabilities. :/

Perhaps Stefan could have a Beginners Server, where it teaches you basics of Graal.
He could teach stuff like chatting by talking to NPCs, PMs, by sending a PM via NPC server and having the player respond, NPCs that teach you Q = menu, and other basics.

But all servers doesn't use the default systems though, so I don't think there's a point in having a 'beginners server' to teach the player about the default system.
I think it's up to the server itself to make the server user friendly.

The only thing that's not user-friendly is the website. My brother didn't know where to go to re-download the game and he's been playing on and off since 2001.

I can see why the chat-bar is confusing, though. When most of us started there was a big white text bar.

All servers are based around the same system though. Nearly all use Q as a menu, A as an action key, chatting is nearly all the same. M is always map, so on and so forth...

Otherwise, if that's not good enough then there's nothing Stefan can do, each server will have to implement a tutorial. In that case, I say PWA enforce a new rule that forces a server to have a tutorial. Give current servers a month or so to make a tutorial, lacking one will mean removal from the classic list. In the future, make a tutorial mandatory for Classic status.

Either way, I don't see the real loss of having a tutorial server. It's not like it would take a lot of bandwidth, so they can just put it on the machine as Zone or GK. No loss of money hosting it.

Optional plz. I'm one of these people who doesn't read instruction manuals, skips tutorials, and asks everyone else how to do something when all else has failed. I've always been that way and I bet others are similar.

Oh, heh, of course, please be optional!

Same, I refused to do Classic's and know a handful of people who wouldn't even bother with the server because they had/have the whole introductary-town thing.

Ya... Classic's new forced storyline is terrible.
I hate being forced to do quests to progress on an online game. Hell, it's even starting to be phased out of offline games as well.

Way too linear for me... it made me hate it.

Classic has a forced storyline?
So does anyone know what server's have tutorials?

Well, first you start off in a tutorial area. Really annoying, and you have to go through it. Then you start off in big brother's house or something like that. Most of the OW is blocked off. The bridge is blocked, for example. I ran into one of the mines or something and they wouldn't let me leave(had a little message saying, "I should continue to do this blah blah" crap when I try to leave), so I HAD to do the quest. Then you go in the castle and the guards will capture you and you HAVE to do that quest as well.

Either way, you're forced to do a whole bunch of stuff to get anywhere... really annoying. Luckily I still had my warps so I could warp out.

Utopia.

tutorial server i recommend

When logging into a server it should help the player get used to the controls and possiblities. The Graal servers are quite different so it should adapt to each servers environment. Of course it should be possible to turn this off for experienced players.

There are several things on servers which could be resused for this:
- on era it shows the usage and a short description of the weapon that you equip
- on Zone it shows where to go to the battlefield or terminals when you enter a dropship
- several servers have a small tutorial although they tell the player what to do exactly (you need to find out yourself that you need to touch NPCs, there are probably many people who think they need to click on an object or are just lost)
- there should be a global tool for setting your look, although the server weapons for that should still be enabled; using sethead etc. is not user-friendly

I don't know about the other ones besides zones, but I haven't seen a tutorial that tells players how to use the chat bar (Well maybe on the infamous SOG?) or how to PM. Usually if you can tell someone how to communicate, they can ask questions so they can understand how to do everything else.

Maybe a quick Graal basics tutorial could be made that would be mandatory to do once, and after that you would never have to do it again. I know an option to not do the tutorial would be nice for the older players, but the newer players might take advantage of it and then will be lost when they try to play.

I think the playerlist opens automatically when you login to a server?

No?

Yup ^^


We explained how to talk, how to move, and what each of the F-buttons do. Of course, we were a hidden UC playerworld, so would you really buy an account and type that into the bar without knowing the basics ... ?