Revisiting a prior suggestion that I’m going to revise, since I still believe this is needed.
When newer players join the game, they find themselves a bit confused on where to go. Certainly, this world is open, but without much direction, it’s a bit too open. Information on how to break a boulder and cut down trees is confusing, and some players don’t know where to obtain these HMs without some guidance. Sure, pointing them to the Wikia or the Forums is nice and all, but what if no one was online willing to help these players? Shouldn’t there be a bit of tips ingame to go forward?
Coming from PMU 6, I suggest to bring back the PMUniversity! A place where you can get more information on progressing through the game and having more directed goals than just wandering about. This building should be in the center of town as the center of attention so new players can enter and learn of future goals they can head towards. There could be a list of information about the location of HMs on a blackboard, and NPCs could answer questions about the fundamentals of the game, such as using the menu, functions of the mission board and the ranks you can obtain, and information about using chat and other certain chat commands.
Mostly, I feel like there needs to be more guidance for newer players who don’t know where to look for information. Leave your thoughts in the comments below!~
Generally, there really needs to be any sort of guiding for new people. You choose your starter, do the tutorial, and bam. You’re at the crossroads. Now what?
I had started PMU and then left for months because I was so confused. This was sometime In 2017 where I guess It wasn’t as active as It was now ( It was using the old Installer back then! And I’m pretty sure I was also on at like 12 at night so nobody was really online ). I like to call PMU a literal Guide Dang It. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked “what am I supposed to do” or “Is there a story/plot to follow or…” In global, I wouldn’t be that rich, but you get what I mean. It’s not like people can’t ask questions, when I start any game I always get confused, but with PMU It’s different. There pretty much Is no guidance aside from asking people who all have gotten to the point of the game where they know mostly everything. There’s the Wiki, but It was always outdated. Even still, I feel like things aren’t clear enough for new players. That or they just don’t know the Wiki even exists ( really though, can someone put the link to the Wiki back on the main site ).
I’ve just been rambling, though. Basically, I agree that this or anything similar should be a thing.
Will bring up putting a link to the Community Wiki and more in the next staff meeting.
As for the idea at heart, I am absolutely on board with providing new and current players more direction - whether it’s through a proper storyline, bits of dialogue/tooltips, making existing resources more prevalent, or all of the above.
I’d love to hear more on the potential angles we can take to do this effectively, since right now the most we have is a bunch of information on-hand but no concrete path to follow. Ideally we would want to let the player take in new information piece by piece as it becomes relevant rather than overloading them with too much information all at once.
When this topic was brought up In-game once, It was said that there could be something like “The Guide” from Terraria. Not that It helped me when I played, but the concept Isn’t bad <:) With what NPCs say depending on how far you progressed. But I’m not sure how things will initially “flag” that you’ve gotten to the point you need for the text to change. Maybe when you start completing the “region” dungeons. Maybe each region can have their own university. Or just be simple and have the university have more floors, with a sign explaining what floors try to assist with what, and If they’re pretty “advanced” or not.
General hints can work, “If you want to cut leaves, try a certain cave at north”, “If you want to smash rocks, you’ll need to find a cold area”, “If you want to climb rocks, you can find a mine through a tunnel”. It not only serves as a path to where to go but It still leaves In the aspect of “I need to go explore and find stuff”, which people seem to want players to still do. I think people having no clue how to evolve Is a large problem, evolving Is a major thing and who will run by Cliffside and think “Yeah, I have to do this dungeon and beat a Golem and rip this thing out of a wall to evolve”. Starters are going to be very weak as new players won’t have access to any of the stat boosting Items. Yes you can get family Items early but good luck getting the one of your specific line, or having the Poke to open the boxes when you just started.
Not that It Isn’t often for people to join a game and leave right after but It seems to happen way more often with PMU. You really have to take in this part:
What If you had to figure out all of It yourself. You’d get there eventually, but to a new player there’s so much everywhere, how do they even know where a dungeon Is and what Is a dungeon entrance? I mean I’m not so bright on Ideas but I can’t stress this enough ;-;
Let’s not use the Terraria guide NPC as a role model. As someone who has over a thousand hours clocked into the game, I can say he’s never been useful to me once. (outside of throwing resources at him to learn what I can make from them, but I’m getting a bit off-topic here) The only effective way to learn the game I found was through a walkthrough on the wiki. And while adding a walkthrough of sorts for early levels to the community PMU wiki could certainly help, it’s not the most intuitive solution for someone who doesn’t look to a wiki or something similar for every little thing. (Cough me cough)
I think expanding the game’s “story” to point newer players in the direction of some early dungeons could certainly help, though.