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Obduction Backer |
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 2:46 am Posts: 34
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Uru is a great game. Unfortunately, it's an MMO stripped back a single player game with a clear goal with some secondary goals added after the fact and then an online component added for experienced players that was then expanded back into an MMO. Which after all that, leads to quite possibly the least intuitive start in the history of MMOs.
So with Uru now free, and about (for a given value of about) to become open, let's try to come up with a to-do list of small changes that might be able to rectify that unfortunate situation and actually make this game playable from the start in a non-frustrating way without someone over your shoulder telling you what to do. All sorts of suggestions to make it a smooth experience.
Let's try and avoid talking about things that would require a long committed rewrite of basic mechanics for the moment, though; those can have discussions all to themselves. This is just for all those little things that confuse people and stop them sticking with trying out this neat game they found for free and thought they'd give a go; things that once it is open we could fairly easily have at and improve, assuming they get approved by whatever mechanism ends up in place to do so that's still to be settled on elsewhere.
Start of the Game
- Return to starting in the cleft
This has been said before many a time, for obvious reasons. Jumping into the game at Relto just makes no narrative sense, and leaves players with no idea how to proceed. Dropping them in at the Cleft gives them a clear purpose, introduces them to the idea of completing ages with journeys, lets them know WHY they end up on Relto, serves as a tutorial, and just plain works well as a start of a game.
Leaves the issue of what to do if you quit or you want to go straight into the city. Possible suggestions:- If you quit in this section you simply return to the desert in the same state upon return instead of to your Relto.
- A button in place of the Relto book presents you with a fourth-wall breaking dialog allowing you to skip this section for the moment, leaving you with the one-pillar starting Relto.
Also, if we are considering this a tutorial section for people who might go 'oh hey a free game let's give this a go', and as considering that it's the only totally single-player portion of the game:
- Consider speeding up the cleft to get them to Relto ASAP, at the very least by moving the evil annoying journey to the other side of the metal sheet where it can be seen.
I predict much disagreement on that last so likely ain't gonna happen though.
Hitting Relto
So in any case, you appear in Relto. This is a Myst game, which means the first thing that you do, the place you think you're meant to go, is the most obvious book available to you; what's currently on the bookshelf. This obviously wasn't an issue in the original Ages Beyond Myst, but now when you first reach Relto you have multiple paths before you, and people aren't going to pay much attention to some weird metal cylinder with no obvious switches or buttons on it. They'll assume the game is in the book, and how often do we have people asking "hay guys I found my way to this weird town place with a fountain but I don't know where the game is"? The solution to this is simple:
- Have the Pillar(s) already open when you first reach Relto
Obvious, displayed and open book in significant-looking holders, it's clear where the game's first puzzles are. Problem solved.
The Confusing-ass instancing
Right now the most confusing point of the instancing is the Hood instance of Ae'gura. Now, I know there needs to be a hood instance so you can have somewhere when the ages link to a city location without hitting up against the 50-person limit, but putting it on the bookshelf means people will assume that that's the main city link and be totally confused when they end up in this empty city, and stay confused until someone explains the distinction to them. The idea of there being two different versions of the city is very counterintuitive, and if we need it we should at least hide it away a bit.
Ergo, I'd like to remove the Ae'gura book from the bookshelf. Personally, I'd prefer to replace it with a book that links to the city, but apparently that'd take some deep engine meddling, as existing book code can't check how many people are in an age. So if we do that the City is reached through the nexus, and the Hood version is only accessed via the various links from the ages (I don't believe any of the age->city links let you wander around the city proper and discover it's empty. Except Kadish, but that could be changed back to how it was (blocked off)
Of course, that brings up the issue of what to do if you want to link into the bits of the city that on the bookshelf book are other pages. Um.
Let's discuss this. I think there'd probably be a quite simple solution to this (maybe use Nexus for those links?) but I really do think that having the Ae'gura book on the shelf linking to the hood instance just invites a massive amount of confusion.
Neighborhoods
When I go to public links at the moment, all I see is a bajillion little "PantaloonConsumer8764's neighborhood population 0"s, and if I don't know PantaloonConsumer8764 then I don't think I would ever really have a need to visit. If I do know him, I can just get a Ki invite into the hood.
That said, there ARE circumstances where you want public hoods, though; specific language hoods ('German hood'), things like the GoG. How about if you want to create a public hood you have to ask for one to be created from the game masters (on the understanding that they'll approve most anything so we don't get into arguments about what's needed) That'd remove the issue of a billion public hoods clogging things up because every Tom, expletive and Harry made a hood and public'd it just because they could, whilst not impeding the creation of a hood when someone legitimately wants to make one. Also fix up having to create a character called GoG to create the GoG neighborhood.
- Remove the ability to make your hood public. Make public hoods something that Mods need to create on request.
To make the DRC hoods as effective as possible as general more personal and small meeting places:- Order them with generic DRC hoods at the top then the specific purpose hoods below. Have headers if possible, dividing it into sections.
- Make sure the number of DRC hoods are kept to a bare minimum - preferable that people get into gaps in older existing public hoods rather than endless numbers of new ones be created that soon get mostly abandoned. (No idea if this is what happens now)
And changing your hood is fiddly as fiery abyss. Alternative suggestion?- Make changing your hood a matter of clicking, say, a pile of linking books in the hood and accepting a prompt telling you that taking this book will replace your current hood.
And Just Because- Name the DRC hoods something like and 'Bevin Neighborhood' or 'Seret Neighborhood' or 'Trelen Neighborhood' or other things off a list of d'ni sounding names, rather than DRC Hood (532). (Only would work if we do separate the list into DRC hoods and Other Public hoods)
- Alphabetise the list of hoods so I can find what I'm looking for.
Obtaining the ugh Ki
This, of everything, is the most important change here. The other issues are counterintuitive, whereas the process of getting your Ki at the moment is actively obstructionist for a person without someone to tell them what to do. Especially for something that's so key to the online community. So here's what I suggest:
- Remove the initial neighbourhood book on your Relto bookshelf, and add a Nexus book that's there at the start. When you link into the Nexus book and try to use the nexus without your Ki, an error tone sounds and the Nexus presents you with a link to the Ki-dispensing only version of Gahreesen currently in the hood. After obtaining the Ki, the Nexus works normally and you can use it to reach the City and the Hoods (we remove this Gahreesen instance from the hoods)
Or there's always an alternative that a friend suggested:- Again, have the Nexus as the book that's there from the start. The Nexus is also a Ki despenser. The lesser Gahreesen instance is altogether removed.
They both work, make sense in-canon and out of canon, and are nice, simple solutions.
Speaking of the nexus...
The Nexus
Back when the Nexus debuted, it wasn't something that you'd use THAT often or repeatedly. Nowadays, however, it's a much more integral part of uru, and when you're multiplayering in friends' ages it can be especially annoying every time you panic link or the game crashes to have to go Relto->Bookshelf->Pull out book->Link->Open Interface->Navigate to Age->Call up Book->Link. As a result, the process of reaching and using the Nexus should be much faster. Suggestions for this:- Move the Nexus book to a Pedestal in Relto or some similar "single-click to bring up the linking panel" location rather than the bookshelf (perhaps propped open on the opposite shelf?)
Speeding up the actual use of the Nexus by truncating or removing unnecessary animation and interaction.- Have the Nexus interface already open to the last screen screen it was on and the last entry already selected, ready to hit the top button to bring up the book.
- Have the Nexus always spinning whenever it's not presenting a book so that the animation to actually present a book only requires a (relatively immediate) slow-down and unfold book upon hitting the button, not the full spin-up, spin for a while, slow-down, unfold book.
Also- Reduce Confusion in the Nexus by renaming the categories to something more self-explanatory. Suggestion: "Central City", "Neighborhoods", "[Character Name]'s Books", "Shared Books"
Using the ugh Ki
Has whole threads to itself and I'm not even gonna try and talk about it here. Some of you have seen my suggestion, there are many others, talk about it in those threads. Suffice to say I think something should be done. In the interim, there should be a very simple and explanatory Ki guide in-game that's easy to find. Maybe put one in Relto on the Opposite Shelf when you get your Ki. Or in Gahreesen on a pedestal next to the dispenser with a few explanatory sketches for the basic functions.
Path of the Shell End
At the moment, Ahnonay and Er'cana are multiplayer puzzles, ones you can only complete as a group. But once you complete someone's pair of these instances, the final combination you get for the Cleft imager only works for whoever's hosting the group, and you all have to go and help each member of the group complete their pair of instances. That's just silly. Simple solution to this:- Everyone sees their own combination on the wall, no matter whose wall it is.
Admittedly that'd mean some people could just cheat, but if they'd cheat like that then they'd cheat anyway and get solutions for the two ages (which are extremely simple when you have them)
Debate. Continue. Suggest more. Let's try and make a list that's generally agreed on so that when the Open Uru Era begins and whatever structure ends up being used to develop the game is in place we can get started and have some things to check with it from the go and hopefully get patchin'. Also a convenient list of suggestions for the unlikely scenario that Cyan gets to the point where they can continue to develop parts of the game properly so they can yoink ideas from us if they like them. (And remember, some things may be harder to do than they seem (I'm looking at you, global Ae'gura book), so we'll have to be prepared to accept some ideas as non-viable for the moment.)
Last edited by Bellerophon on Mon Jun 07, 2010 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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