Help us make the game more newbie friendly

[Captain Jack]

We are open to ideas on how to make the game more newbie friendly.
Post here and we will review your idea

To give you the top reason as we know it:
"I lost everything in 5 minutes!"

This is probably the case when the player rushes to make a second ship without knowing about plunder + danger. It is his fault but also our fault if we cannot keep him in the game.

Any ideas are welcome.

[Hawk]

I just started playing this game and I'm off to a pretty good start (raided a mechant and got 50k gold), but I don't really know how things work.. I've had to search through forum posts to find out how anything works. I have yet to find a guide that clears things up.

[Captain Jack]

I just started playing this game and I'm off to a pretty good start (raided a mechant and got 50k gold), but I don't really know how things work.. I've had to search through forum posts to find out how anything works. I have yet to find a guide that clears things up.

Okay, a guide it is. We will also create mission/quests that will be helpful at start.

How about the in-game help ? Are you aware of Danger mechanism yet ?

[Captain dungeness]

I think 95% of the time new players "lose everything" is when they make a trade route that is shorted than 1 hour so their danger rises and they get plundered. If they spend all their gold on trade goods and/or new ships they wont have the gold to pay ransom for their ship that got attacked.

To fix this, new players should be told to try trade routes longer than 1 hour and if they have high danger then they need to keep X amount of gold in reserve. Besides educating them I think it would be good if safe-fame range was higher. I think a player could trade enough in a day or 2 to get enough fame to be targetable. You could either raise that number or you could make it a length of time: for the first week you are safe from attack. And there would be a highly-visible countdown on the player's login page which, when you click on it, would take you to a list of tips/ links titled "How to Survive and Plunder in Pirates Glory".

[Captain Jack]

Increasing the safety net is a suggestion that needs to be declined.
It is a game that you can lose everything even if you are in the top, why not when you are at the bottom ?

Limitations after all are, generally, something we dislike.

On one hand it is good if they taste failure early, as they will be better prepared (before too late).
On other hand we do not want them to give up.

A thought is that if we entice them to the game before tasting failure, their chances that they will give up will shorten.

This is also one of the primary reasons we increased Work as a Porter amount. Still, I got a friend of me starting as a complete newbie and he was desparate at the number of attacks he got per day. So desperate he was even afraid to open the game screen

And there would be a highly-visible countdown on the player's login page which, when you click on it, would take you to a list of tips/ links titled "How to Survive and Plunder in Pirates Glory".

We can link the Common Newbie Mistakes link there
Good idea!

[Hawk]

lol now I know about it.. I got like 30 danger already though -_-

As for the ingame help I skipped the tutorial when I started. Wasn't a smart thing to do though, cause I was stuck for hours trying to figure out how to get gold when I got no money or crew lol

Think I got the hang of it now though.. btw are warehouses completely safe? Im think I'm gonna convert all my gold into goods and store it.

[Black sparrow]

lol now I know about it.. I got like 30 danger already though -_-

If you got 1 ship, just spend ALL your gold and there is nothing to worry about
You can spend it on warehouse... then buy some resources and store it in the warehouse. This way, you never run out of gold and the enemies take nothing (but fame, which should not be a worry)!

Good guilds have good strategies for everything
You just need to join em!

(Seriously, guilds can play a role here. I had to reject 3 applicants today and I feel a bit guilty for not taking newcomers in, but, I think that the rest of the guilds need to take some people in first...)

[Hawk]

Thanks for the advice that seems like a great idea
I'm feeling like a beast pirate right now.. 22k fame

I think Ima spend the gold I got left on more ships anything I should worry about?

[Talyn]

Maybe make newbies untouchable for a few days? It may encourage players to rush back quickly so they can advance more before immunity runs out...
Also include a countdown timer next to the name link or something so it's convenient.
.... is this more a suggestion topic type idea

[Swj]

lol now I know about it.. I got like 30 danger already though -_-

If you got 1 ship, just spend ALL your gold and there is nothing to worry about
You can spend it on warehouse... then buy some resources and store it in the warehouse. This way, you never run out of gold and the enemies take nothing (but fame, which should not be a worry)!

Good guilds have good strategies for everything
You just need to join em!

(Seriously, guilds can play a role here. I had to reject 3 applicants today and I feel a bit guilty for not taking newcomers in, but, I think that the rest of the guilds need to take some people in first...)

Our Guild has 17 members. Only three are active. I've been trying to pass my limited knowledge on. We have over a dozen members that have not logged in for over 500 hours! It's not my guild either. And now I have the top players gunning for me.

I love it but it is keeping me busy.