Things to add to the tutorial/journal

I’ve heard from a number of people that the tutorial is too hard and the journal is lacking. I’m putting together a list of things for the devs to add that will hopefully help. If you have anything more to add, leave them below and I will add them to the list.

Tutorial

A really big one is there definitely needs to be a reminder that there is a help section. It has a lot of info that would clear up a lot of confusion. I know this is presented at the end but it should be presented at the beginning.

The instructions are not as clear as some would hope leaving them confused as to who to talk to. I think more reminders to check your journal (the popups that show you how to open doors and such) would be helpful. There is also a bug that does not let you talk to Randel when you need to.

A reminder of how to open the menu/inventory to get the pickaxe would be very helpful.

A reminder of how to sheath and unsheathe weapons would be helpful since some people don’t know what that word means.

After you talk to Sicilus and Darius it tells you to go back to Randel. Highsteppe is big and some instructions (the large red arrows) along with instructions to follow those arrows would be so incredibly beneficial.

When told to create a healing potion, there is nothing about what to do with the ingredients or where the cauldron is.

Once again, there are not clear directions to help you get back to Randel after you make your healing/ruined potion.

There is not any clear indicator to wave to Randel that a new player would necessarily be aware of. A red arrow pointing down like earlier in the tutorial would be helpful.

Since this rod is your first purchase and you can’t accept missions, it would be helpful to highlight the rod in blue to tell the player that’s where to buy it.

After you accept the fishing mission, there isn’t any direction of how to get to your house. You have been there once so far so I think the arrows should always exist while in the tutorial. Reminders you can ask players around town would be helpful.

The lure crafting table is not marked clearly so some arrows would be very helpful.

There is not much instruction on how to make a lure at the table so I think a popup (like how to open doors) would be best.

Again, some direction to get back to Fisherman Mugon would be helpful.

A reminder to look at your compass to find places when you are outside (to fish) would be very helpful.

Highlighting the net gun at Pierre Cenn’s shop to remind players how to buy stuff would really help.

Journal

The journal is a very useful tool in the game but I have a few issues with it. The sections at the bottom along with the several recipes and maps are great but the class info could use some work so I’m going to focus on just that.

For the longest time I was unsure what the class abilities were so I think there needs to be some examples of what they look like. There are a few grammar mistakes that caused some confusion for me (the class ultimate section about how to activate it for example).

Warrior

I didn’t find much wrong with the warrior section other than some grammatical errors. When it comes to the small and large shields, it may be helpful to suggest certain shields for certain activities (solo vs group activities).

Shaman

For the hex totem, something about the enemies’ health being regenerated (after being hexed) needs to be added. The shield totem also isn’t included under the shaman abilities.

Bard

Point out that harm interrupts as well as the baton throw. The addition of the cooldown when throwing bard mallets would be very beneficial.

Musketeer

Point out which color is attack/heal on the turret. The “sacrifice turret” is not very clear. Pointing out that some orbs will cause the turret to fire those at enemies/allies would be helpful. Pointing out that when the lifewell orb is spiky you can rez would be smart. Pointing out you can charge the gravity orb to interrupt twice would be great.

Ranger

Pointing out that the ranger trap acts as an interrupt would be so incredibly helpful.

Runemage

Point out you must rub your book on the spell totem to add it in and that some spells (teleports) cannot be added. Add “runemage reagent” instead of just “reagent” to lessen confusion.

Scoundrel

Maybe add “When empowered” for the cards so people don’t think they have to combine those cards to do those things.

Paladin

Point out a hammer charged with energy will interrupt as well when thrown. Please please please say that the libram of blessing “makes you jump on top of the aggro table (if you’re not on top yet) + some extra aggro”. Too many paladins are misinformed about this.

That concludes my rather long post of stuff that could be changed to help newer players. I know I said things like helpful a lot but I was tired so ignore that :sweat_smile:. Please also keep in mind that a lot of these things I suggested are based off of complaints and questions I’ve heard from people rather than me hunting for everything wrong with the game. If you have more suggestions, let me know and I will add them.

@Mathieu_D

5 Likes

Very well done… as a veteran player I am finding points that I was not previously aware of after reading your discourse.

I thought it was Justice that interrupts?

justice does but im like 90% sure harm does as well. I strike then at the same time so I could be mistaken.

Harm crescendo is an interrupt/stun.

2 Likes

Thank you for the list of information - some of them I can definitely add to the journal. The difficulty is always about fitting it all in one (or two) pages. :sweat_smile:

I understand. If it helps, I can try to add in the stuff in the shortest way possible and you can see if that works?

I still think that the game waits far too long before introducing the player to combat. Its very important to hook new players before they call it a day because you need to convince them to come back. I just don’t think talking to a bunch of npcs and getting lost in highstepe city is a good introduction to the game.
I think the tutorial should be changed to very quickly introduce the early game gameplay loop of
[Get Darius Mission] -> [Kill Enemies] -> [Turn in Mission] -> [Repeat]

Yeah finding out that you can fish and dragon race and pvp is cool but these things mean something more to someone who is already invested in the game. Its really important to allow players to get their bearings and explore freely. That exploration is where the hook comes in. Orbus’s combat is really fun and allowing players to play with and discover their class’s toolkit is a much more compelling argument as to what the game is going to be like and why players should keep playing it. Introducing several game mechanics and npcs they will not be able to substantially interact with until much later into the game just unnecessarily overwhelms and confuses players while delaying the part of the game most players actually want to do.

Here’s a solution to the tutorial:
When players first talk to Darius instead of having him give you a lore quest to talk to Sicilius, immediately bring up his normal mission menu and highlight the first level mission. After players take that mission have the big red arrow lead you to the sapling staffrushers. After the player hits gold reward have a tutorial promp come up telling you that you should head back and have the red arrow lead the player back to Darius. Then after the player turns in their first level mission you should have the talk bubble in the corner of his menu light up/highlight very visibly and have the npc lore quests continue as normal when the player clicks on it.

This change would allow players to continue fighting enemies if they really just want to kill things and quells a lot of the anxiety and confusion that comes from not having a gameplay loop and not knowing how to progress. Alternatively if and when they feel like progressing the story and exploring more of the game players can do that when they are ready, on their own terms.

9 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 20 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.