HACKED

[Grumbs]

Good initiative. I would make some mention of lvl 30, so people know where they're aiming for. Maybe there could be some suggestions like 21,18 Balanced build (lvl 30, 7 IF, 7 PS, 6 Ath, 3 WM, full WPF in 2 hand or polearm..off the top of my head might need to check that). Also, total gold of betwen 15-30k for reasonable gear while still making money.

We could all put it in spoiler tags in our sigs

[Thomek]

Yeah.. just wanted to shave off the WORST and what I imagine are the most common stupid mistakes.

[Teeth]

The beauty about being a new player in cRPG is that you spend so much time being death, waiting for respawn that you can easily read a beginners guide in that time.

I remember when I started in december 2010 I followed the beginners guide religiously. Get shield skill, hold up your shield, find a shiny guy, follow him. Get a polearm like a pitchfork, help your shiny guy by poking at baddies. Good times, good times. I don't know, for me it just makes sense to go on the forums and read guides when I get into a new, complex looking game.

[Penitent]

Being hard for new players is not a problem.  Actually, its what attracted me to this game in the first place.  I was told there would be a learning curve, and I wanted to tackle the challenge in order to play such a cool looking game.  If it was easy to start, it wouldn't have been as fun to learn.

I'm still learning, still getting my ass handed to me regularly even two years later.  Nothing wrong with that.

[TheAppleSauceMan]

You don't have to read a wall of text just go to beginner forum and make a thread like  "I'm new help me do a sword + xbow character" and you should get some decent responses that are not essays.

Well, to be fair, lots of people don't notice such a thing or think of it. I know when I started playing, I didn't touch the forum before I was playing for like 4 months. And I never even played Native so I was running on no experience. I remember using a build with like 50 proficiency in every weapon class, and all kinds of shit I'd never use. (riding, horse archery, power throw) when all I used was a Bec because everyone in-game said it was best. The only reason I made it through that beginner stage is because I saw the godly plate wearing hero's and wanted to be that someday.

[Haze_The_Hobo]

Best way to learn is to beat your head to wall, either the wall cracks or your head does. There could be ad attached like Thomek's what u have to go through before you can access your character page for first time. Also there could be fast link on char page to "Beginner's Guide".

[Kafein]

The beauty about being a new player in cRPG is that you spend so much time being death, waiting for respawn that you can easily read a beginners guide in that time.

I remember when I started in december 2010 I followed the beginners guide religiously. Get shield skill, hold up your shield, find a shiny guy, follow him. Get a polearm like a pitchfork, help your shiny guy by poking at baddies. Good times, good times. I don't know, for me it just makes sense to go on the forums and read guides when I get into a new, complex looking game.

I must say cRPG looked a lot more rough around the edges at the time, which I think pushed many of the beginners to be more active when learning. Or it's just that it repelled all those that didn't wished to go through the beginner tutorials.

[Kato]

The problem is the promotion of the game itself. It's very unpopular even though it's a very good game.

Copies sold during 2012: 4,539

Compared to a "nice looking" game like Farcry 3 (pc):
393,240 (released 1 dec 2012)

See the problem?

From where you got that numbers, i am quite sure that during napoleonic dlc were sold a LOT more warband copies.

Today 1 month after realese Farcry 3 on steam peak 7351 (great game btw)
Warband 5800 - 2y old game

Also i cant see how game is unpopular, that shitty teaser on M&B 2 was all over the place on most game websites instantly and they probably sold more copies on PC than most AAA games.(1.5-2M - whole m&b series, many sales helps ofc)

I tried multi in M&B with Fire and Sword for the first time yesterday,  thought thats long time dead, but i was shocked how many people was still playing. Was fun dueling there for a bit, 2h sword are gimmick and 1h sword + 2d polearm absolutely rule.

[Tomas]

Here's a few things that are needed

1) A newbies IRC channel, linked on the forums and populated only by the helpful cRPG players.

2) Start all brand new players on previously unused cd:keys off at level 30 with a default shielder build plus a reasonable shield, 1H and armour.

I pick shielder because it is the easiest class to learn the basics of and offers protection from archers.  If a player wants to change class they just respec or they can get to level 31 and retire.  So what if we give them a 4m xp head start and 15k of equip.  Its nothing compared to what the average player has these days.

[no_rules_just_play]

Here's a few things that are needed

1) A newbies IRC channel, linked on the forums and populated only by the helpful cRPG players.
#peasantsunited
or
http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=peasantsunited

2) Start all brand new players on previously unused cd:keys off at level 30 with a default shielder build plus a reasonable shield, 1H and armour.

I pick shielder because it is the easiest class to learn the basics of and offers protection from archers.  If a player wants to change class they just respec or they can get to level 31 and retire.  So what if we give them a 4m xp head start and 15k of equip.  Its nothing compared to what the average player has these days.

[Strudog]

Here's a few things that are needed

2) Start all brand new players on previously unused cd:keys off at level 30 with a default shielder build plus a reasonable shield, 1H and armour.

I pick shielder because it is the easiest class to learn the basics of and offers protection from archers.  If a player wants to change class they just respec or they can get to level 31 and retire.  So what if we give them a 4m xp head start and 15k of equip.  Its nothing compared to what the average player has these days.

No because we have all had to go through it, deal with it, and just adds to more looms coming quickly to people

[Elindor]

I think something like what Thomek has created could be presented to new players when they create an account on the crpg website.


Main concepts to help new players with would imho be these ::

- Suggestion to start with a STF character to better get a feel, try builds, and to not be at such a severe disadvantage (especially if new to manual combat)
- WHAT PREREQUISITES ARE NECESSARY TO USE WHAT WEAPONS/ARMOR (most commonly asked question from new players)
- A list of the most common/standard builds
- A brief explanation of how the base mechanics work (also the tooltips on the character page could be expounded upon)
- Some common suggestions such as : "Focus on 1 weapon skill (maybe 2 tops)", "Iron flesh is more effective when coupled with heavier armor", etc.
- A link to the beginner's section of the forums and a suggestion to go there and check things out.

[Rumblood]

I don't understand the logic behind: "It was hard for us, should be the same for them."

Give them more organized information so they don't fumble around with broken builds? - Yes.

Dumb down the game to make it easier? - No.

[Kalam]

To be honest, clans used to handle this, but clans don't seem to recruit like they used to in NA. Maybe the newer clans do. That's probably about it. Anyway, if we a saw noob - especially in duel - we'd teach them the ropes via text and then invite them over to voip if it seemed like the person wasn't a douche. There, they'd learn the rest. I'm sure it still happens, but I know I personally don't do it anymore- mostly because the game is more balanced than it's ever been before, so it's harder to tell who's a newbie and who's just bad. People seem to learn the game much more quickly than they used to, anyway, and I believe the regular playerbase understands everything about the game these days.

I've always thought that part of the fun of the game was the learning curve, and, when you finally got all the basics - recognizing individual fighting styles and tracing the lineage of teachers and dueling partners though that style alone.

 I don't really see that individual personality any more, so perhaps people don't feel the need to teach their own method of playing to every newbie who wants to learn. There's no branding, really. Everyone fights almost the same ways these days.

I remember when I started in december 2010 I followed the beginners guide religiously. Get shield skill, hold up your shield, find a shiny guy, follow him. Get a polearm like a pitchfork, help your shiny guy by poking at baddies. Good times, good times. I don't know, for me it just makes sense to go on the forums and read guides when I get into a new, complex looking game.

I think that might've been part of it, too. You picked a skilled/crutching player to hide behind and hoped he killed the bad guys for you. Every now and then you'd poke someone for him, and a relationship would begin in cyberspace. That person usually taught us the basics, I think, even in the form of insults like 'learn to read holds, noob'.

[Firebrand]

Player base never will grow up untill game won't be newb friendly. Professional games never ignore newbies. Game should be easy to learn without tonns of frustrations for new.