Topic

The intro experience, March 18

So, it's been a long time since I started the game... just a few thoughts about what it was like yesterday.

It's hard for me to "forget" things I learned before reset, of course, but I thought the opening seemed to introduce things well and point the user to things they should clue into.

This might be a function of alpha time, but I thought I was getting quests too fast and furiously. As a seasoned player, I kind of appreciated that, because I decided to ignore some of them and pick the ones that meshed with other goals. (E.g., I wanted to get a house ASAP, so I deferred buying a bag. Though, come to think of it, I did not check the reward structure for buying a bag; maybe it sort of pays for itself.)

But. Overload there. There were too many quests early on.

I also think the whole Bureaucratic Hall experience is confusing, and that it would be hard to navigate it without the help channel or experience. (Yes, that intersects with the joke of "bureaucracy", but perhaps too much.) Is there any in-game mechanism short of the help channel that would help a new player find where the Bureaucratic Hall is? I know we walked by it at the beginning, but a new player will not remember that. Maybe the thing is that it doesn't appear on the map, and it should. I also think I walked in there early in the game and couldn't do anything, but it wasn't clear WHY... though possibly I am misremembering that and I was given some information. But I think I just decided to go away on my own and come back later.

Posted 21 months ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • I have to agree with your statement that the I seemed to get so many quests very quickly, had to pick and choose which ones to try. I also found the help channel not too helpful; there was so much chatting going on it was too much to keep up with for me. I did ask a question and someone tried to answer it but then so many other posts came so quickly I couldn't really get a good answer. I had better luck asking someone individually.
    I also found that with some of the quests I didn't really know how to complete them; take mining for instance, I don't know where to go to use the pick I bought to mine with. I realize that as a new player this will all take time; but with the game only open in short spurts I think many of us are trying to do things very quickly.
    Posted 21 months ago by Gizmospooky Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Many of the quests contain details about how to complete the Quest, but you have to open the Quest Log to get to them. For the mining quest, it tells you you'll have better luck mining in Uralia and especially the Ilmenskie Caverns.

    I agree the BH and Subway should be included on the maps. Everything else in a fixed location is on the map, so it's confusing they aren't.

    New Players are always going to get bombarded with new Quests. Between the 4 or 5 social quests, and all of the skill quests from skills you learn in 10 minutes, it leaves the player with plenty of options, and sets them up for a shock when the quests stop pouring forth because the skills take hours to learn.
    Posted 21 months ago by Travinara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Agreed on the too-many-quests issue; I felt this way the first time around as well. I was often interrupted by new badge notifications too, and the overall effect is bombardment. I contributed to this, since I was trying to get through everything as quickly as I could, but it's still a bit much. More disturbing is that focus was automatically moved from the chat panes to the game window when a new quest arrived, which meant that my typing inadvertently fast-forwarded through the quest windows, opened menus, and performed other actions, like jumping. To a new player, this would certainly be even more confusing than it was for me, since I'm already familiar with the quests.

    The map could use some additional symbols. I don't remember what's on it now, if anything, other than vendor and shrine symbols, but I think subways, subway routes, and buildings should be marked. I know that information is probably available on the (unofficial) wiki, and that the (official) encyclopedia will soon have a "Locations" section, but personally, I want to navigate away from the gameplay page as little as possible while I'm playing.

    Overall, though, I loved the introduction. The music is particularly adorable, and I hope it will be added to the rest of the game soon.
    Posted 21 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree, too many quests in the beginning! If I hadn't gone through several resets before it would have confused me a lot.
    Maybe the side-quests like Rainbow Run, Eesti Life/Hairball, Rook Egg etc. should not be provided by the rock out of thin air but should become available once you pass/visit certain places inside the game. Say, you enter the subway and find a rainbow-colored door. Knocking on it would trigger the Rainbow Run quest which will then appear in your log. Once you have finished the quest, the door will lose its color.

    +1 on adding the Bureaucratic Hall and the subway stations to the map.

    The tutorial seemed to be a little buggy. I recall several people mentioning they never were asked to plant the bean. Neither was I.
    Posted 21 months ago by Mina Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Since I am a new player, I found the intro and the quests very helpful! The maps however are not detailed enough for me. At this point, I would like to see a more detailed blow up of each street including patches and trees and subways and buildings.There are so many streets! I wish there would be some sort of coding like UR KT, to identify them more quickly.
    Posted 21 months ago by 1padme Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hopefully the quests will be more spread out wehn the game is live. Skills will take longer and we will actually have more time to play it. The noob achievements are kind of annoying as well, I did get an award for existing after all, they really interfered with my chatting because I jumped around like an idiot a few times.

    You do need more detail on the map, take the start locations off maybe and you should put a little house logo if there are houses off that street. Often I want a house that is near another location and it would be a lot easier to see which streets have housing, unless all streets will eventually have housing.

    I also think you need a better introduction to the Rook instead of "They are evil, kill their children". Maybe it should be after several Rook attacks or a quest where you have to fight off Rook before you try to do the Egg Quest.

    I liked the tutorial for the most part but you really need to teach them how to catch butterflies and/or fix the UI so it doesnt move around. Love how you stressed the keyboard controls though. I was well done but maybe a bit less text.

    On the bright side there were lots of new players who loved the 'Start Here" page and the whole wiki once they got looking.
    Posted 21 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i think new players are going to really need the barrage of new quests to keep them from getting bored, since most won't have an overall strategy apart from completing quests.

    more experienced players might find the quest barrage annoying, sure, but that's an alpha specific problem.
    Posted 21 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This was only my second time playing and both times I felt overwhelmed by quests. Perhaps it was because I knew I was on a time limit? Hard to say. The achievement badges were good though. They are funny, come with some much-needed points and perks for a n00b, and give you a little break from flailing around trying to get used to the navigation controls. The cliff-jumping-for-quoins did give me some good nav practice.

    One of the things I noticed this time around was that when my hoe broke at 50 uses, it said "must be repaired" and I was confused as to whether I should drop it and try to find a new one or how I can get it repaired. Again, I knew I was being pushed for time so a regular player would probably have more leisure to research.

    This time around I hit more places than I did the first time and did more things than the first test (the shops, the trees, the skills) but I noticed that I wanted to click on odd looking objects in the game to interact with them (the telescope on the stairs and the fountain particularly). They seem a natural place to stick a quest or a witty banter about the world.
    Posted 21 months ago by Mistress*of*Fishies Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There was something counter-intuitive about the big black "continue" interface with the rock in the tutorial that I didn't like ... of course, now I'm not looking at it I can't remember exactly. I think it was that I wanted to use the keyboard "enter" to continue, and I had to click on the arrow. Anyone else have this feeling?

    Otherwise, I actually liked all the quests! Maybe I'm just a keener, or ocd or something. By the time the game closed at mid day I'd ripped through all of them except the Amazing Race and one other - in fact, I was getting just a wee bit bored. I might even like more quests, especially when some of the skills take a long time to learn.
    Posted 21 months ago by Tradescantia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Make it like in the Mario games where they show the "A" button at the bottom. If you do it like that it might stop that urge.
    Posted 21 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Am I the only one who thinks that there weren't enough quests? I was wandering around half the time having nothing to do. I really don't think there's an overload of quests, they serve to give newbies guidance and teach them the ropes of the game (as well as the purpose behind each skill).
    Posted 21 months ago by Aldaris Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I quite like all those quest, but would prefer that they be introduced in conjunction with either finishing learning a skill level or finishing a quest that will give you the whatzit you need (example: do not hit me with the garlic kissing until I have finished the dust bunny quest that give me the bear). Having several quests to chose from at any one time appeals to me, as I can then chose the one that suits my mood - but this will only work if I am actually able to do these quests.

    I am in no hurry, I have enough of a rat race going on in real life, and am happy to take my time wandering around or chat; there is nothing I either need/must have. For me this is and will hopefully be a game I can relax with, not do battle with.

    Talking about battle: I hope it will be possible to opt out of battles or having to kill anything, or if not possible, at least let me know beforehand what I miss out on if I do not join the battle, and do not introduce a battle quest until I am ready (i.e., have the whatzit/skill to deal with it - the rook springs to mind).
    Posted 21 months ago by Lellie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You beat the Roook by hugging stuff, hugging is fun
    Posted 21 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't know that the speed of quests was too fast, but i'm ok with them building up and getting to them when I get to them. (also, part of why they built up for me was that I was donating to speed up skills and "power" leveling. I think a true noob would be a bit of a slower pace.

    My one critique is that I'm still not sure it is clear enough that some of the early skill quests (knife&board, drinks) cannot be done without other players or help. That it was day 1 and the auctions weren't filed with milk/cheese, fruits or buns yet might be a factor, but I feel like I would be at a loss if I came into the game this week and was asked to cook a sammich (no bun yet0, blend some drinks 9no fruit changing yet), or do some alchemy (without having refining I).
    Posted 21 months ago by Another Chris Subscriber! | Permalink
  • HI all, Newbie here. I been in both test this last week.
    Good Points Mizz,
    On Quest needs to be in order. I had bought a bear for kissing garlic before I was given one for the quest I finished. I wasted lot of current doing so.
    I find it hard to know how to make Current in the game, also. Seems you use them up so fast for each new quest, buy a fancy pick and stuff, you dont have any left to play around with. Like buy a house. How do we know how to make more current? What do we do to make current in the game?
    Do I donate things i found for tickets? What are show ticket for that they give me? You may have it on Wiki but leaving the game to go search for stuff you have to do is not for me.

    Quest, cook 3 types of food. How? Do I have to have a kitchen to cook in? We need something to tell us to buy cooking pans and knifes at a street vender in the quest as tips. I must of looked at the quest scratching my head half the time i was playing. Never made a sandwich yet.
    Finding the mining street was easy, I like setting destination to get to each street. Made it so easy to get around. I would like to see other things on our map. Stuff mentioned in above post. Housing map be cool too, street numbers of houses on that street. If I have to get to my friends house, I like to set destination to it. Maybe I am not that far n game yet and missed something there. Time will tell playing more.
    Also I remember my first test planting a bean in a garden, this time i was not asked to. I think others posted they did not either. Was I suppose to plant beans out on streets? In the bare plots? I dug and tented but never seen one open to plant in.

    I like to see in venders when you open up a item, lit more about that item. Like: Fancy mining pick (find the best rocks) I bought a pick and could not use it, it was best so I wasted current buying that and having to resell it to buy the right one. Like kissing lips {put on your bear for big wet kisses) I found lot of newbie not knowing with to do with the lips once they got them. Me being one of them.. everything in vender should have little tip as to what to use them for. In game tip list not a Wiki list.

    As a newbie, this is what I found hard to figure out only playing a few hours and became confused. Help chat went so fast a lot of just funny chit chat it was hard to keep up. I did get a couple things answered, like how to make my lips works again..

    Thank you for the invite, it was fun.. I cant wait to get farther in the game and have more to do. I liked all the quest popping up. I did ones I liked and left other for when i was on that side of town. I would get very board walking around, doing the same old things over an over, I am not big on chatting socially or standing around click on rocks or trees. How boring that would be.
    Posted 21 months ago by Possoms Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yeah I definitely don't think there were too many quests, nor do I really think I felt this way when I started playing...half the fun is figuring out what you're supposed to do anyway..
    Posted 21 months ago by ganjaprincess Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Possoms. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to make a Sammich! I learned EZ Cooking I, bought a knife and board, a bun and I already had meat... but no idea how to put it all together!
    Posted 21 months ago by Pirate Apples Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Good to know, I have cooking 1 and still could not figure out that I had to buy the stuff at vender to make it.. Something needs to be clearer that you have to buy items to do quest. I found it easy to find each different vender and hopped right to them.
    In Fauna we had mixing, cooking stations at our our land/home/sphere. You took your items home to create new stuff. I thought maybe I needed a home with a kitchen to cook in. But was really stump on that one. I think I got cooking 2 and is asking for other things to be cooked too. It is so fun learning..
    Posted 21 months ago by Possoms Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Possome alot of the time you can actually make the ingredients for the cooking quests. eg blending orange for juice. You do not need to buy oranges you can make oranges using a fruit changer. flour you make it using a chopping board. Yes you can buy garlic but you can also make it using a spice mill. Playing around with all the pots/ pans cooking equipment,you will soon learn what you need to buy and what you can make for your self. I think part of playing gitch is the makers want you explore and not just run from a list of how to do. I wanted a how to do list when I first came here but now I understand the concept of Glitch :)
    Posted 21 months ago by Misha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yesterday was only my 2nd time playing and yes, both times I felt the quests were a little too fast and furious, however, I decided that this was probably so that as many as possible could be thrown at me and tested during the relatively short space of time the game was open.

    I too closed some down, but I think it might also be an idea to have an option to abandon a quest, once it's been accepted, as having a long list could be a little overwhelming and it might be an automatic thing for new players to accept all, thinking they really need all! I know I did at first.

    I think the thing that I found a little frustrating was the amount of pop-ups over the screen just at the time I might have been interacting with another player. I am not big on in game bubbling but when someone says something to me and a quest window comes up, it tended to make me feel I should later apologise to whomever tried talking to me. That said, I know that others were experiencing the same thing so weren't offended.

    All in all I enjoyed the session very much but yes, hopefully the quest will be slowed down a little at some point ':)
    Posted 21 months ago by ♥joby♥ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yesterday evening was my first time playing, and I have to say that I didn't know what I was doing. =P I quickly picked up on plant and animal care from the tutorial, but I didn't know why I'd want to collect things like cherries, beans, and pig meat.

    Once I got out of the tutorial and into the open world, I spent a long time trying to figure out where to go and what to do. I didn't know that I should start learning any skills; it was only after the test when I came back to the site and checked out my skills that I realized I should have been training them in-game.

    I went to the Bureaucracy building (by sheer chance of choosing the right direction), and while I thought that having to wait in the lobby to get my papers was a funny, novelty idea (not to mention the depressing water cone I drank from... Bureaucracies CAN be depressing!), I'm not entirely sure why I got said papers (besides that they're somehow important) or if I completed everything I needed to do at the Bureaucracy building.

    Also, I wandered around until about 10 minutes to closing before I was randomly given my first non-tutorial quest. I had just entered someone's apartment, and I thought that going into an apartment triggered the quest. I guess not. =P I've seen people commenting on the quest log, but I wasn't even aware that there WAS a quest log.

    TL;DR Version: On my first run-through, I felt that after the tutorial I was left with little direction in my Glitchy little life. My wish is that the tutorial could somehow elaborate on quests and skill training. I also second the listing of important buildings such as the Bureaucracy on the map, and on that note, I believe places such as the Bureaucracy building don't get a fair shake of explanation.

    Despite my newbishness, I had a lot of fun! Keep fighting the good fight, developers! =3
    Posted 21 months ago by Vexia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't know whether to agree or disagree with the too many quest comment. I did get a bunch of them, read them and tried to keep them in memory as I went about my way. I knew I needed to water trees so I did that on my way to finding the rocks to mine which I had passed. I purposefully went to buy the fancy pick in order to complete that goal and thus wasted all my currants. The comment about not knowing how to make currants is a good one. I don't know how to make currant but do know there are a few places where it seems to "grow on trees". (I'm guessing this is purposefully). I did not get to the subway or Bureaucratic Hall so I can't comment about them.

    I don't agree with just having one quest at a time running. I do however think that with too many that most new folks will not remember what they need to do to complete everything. Hmm...some kind of happy medium???
    Posted 21 months ago by Holly Waterfall Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hi, my name is RainyRain, and I'm a newb. (hi Rainyrain)

    I thought the tutorial was fine, in the sense it gets you started with a few basics and into the world. I think it would help if the quests would start a little sooner, so that once you're in the real world, you'll have some kind of goal to get you started. I didn't keep track of the time from start to first goal, but I do know there IS a bit of a lag there (enough time to squeeze a chicken or two). Maybe i'm just impatient lol

    I don't think there are too many quests though, I find myself optimizing routes and activities to complete as many as possible. I feel that the quest descriptions in the quest log help out quite a bit. Since I'm a newb, I still have no clue what I'm doing, so a lot of skills (and their strategic order) are still quite foreign to me.
    Posted 21 months ago by RainyRain Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Free form versus proscribed quests: I know I can accept and then decide not to do the quests, which is wonderful. I can still wander around breathlessly looking without having a goal in mind. Fabulous!
    Posted 21 months ago by 1padme Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I didn't think the number of quests was overwhelming when I first start. I was quite relieved to always have something to do in the game, I think I would have been bored without them. Same thing for the badges. It gave me the feeling that there was a lot to do, a lot of achievements. And it made me want to come back and play again.

    I saw quests as a good introducing path to the game mechanics. There's almost one quest for everything (using the map, finding a vendor and buying something from him, finding food, interacting with others + the skill related quests, very important to understand the point of what you just learnt). There should be one quest for each skill btw. I never tried Levitation in the end though I learnt it (before reset). I was expecting a quest, had learnt a lot of other skills in the same day and I just forgot to try Levitation out.

    Don't be too hard on yourselves, it's normal not to deal with every quest at a time. There's no harm keeping a quest undone for weeks. Play at your own rhythm.
    And if the quest appears at a bad time, feel free to just close it and look at it later. There is nothing wrong with that. You decide what you do. :)
    Posted 21 months ago by Moumoushou Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I still have no idea where or what the Bureaucratic Hall is. I agree with what one person said above that the number of quests helps newbies get a feel for the game. I really like having the help chat right there, because it lets me pick up on things that I would never even have thought of to look for, like a house. I'm still not sure what is done with a house, but seeing the concept of it in the help chat made me look around to figure out that they can be purchased.

    Overall I am extremely pleased with what I've seen in the game so far. It is very unique and a great change from what I've been playing.
    Posted 21 months ago by Leafpaw Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I am having a love/like relationship with the game. I love the overarching premise and the world that Tiny Speck created, but only "like" the actual gameplay.

    I understand that social play is supposed to be a large aspect of the game, but I found that I was spending most of my time recently just trying to survive. I found that I was maxing my skills pretty quickly (someone had discovered a while ago that on the mobile version, you could leave a window open to continue learning skills - I would do that on the train ride home and bang out a few skills during the hour and change commute I had home) but then found I had problems trying to actually use the skills.

    I thought mining would be a good starter way to make money, but that typically took a lot of time and energy and knocked the heck out of my mood. Since I wanted to try to save money and feed myself to get more energy, I tried learning cooking - but that took a while to get the handle of the basic things - and the basic things were not that satisfying and didn't really help my mood.

    Also, even after buying some bags, I found that I was maxing out the amount of space that I had, so I sometimes had to eat up a whole stock of some type of food to open space to pick up a valuable gemstone or something that a plant gave me as a reward. Then, I thought getting a house would make things better because it would give me a place to leave extra stuff. But, even getting a small house left me without much money and I had to scrape by trying to make money to get myself away from a current to current existence.

    Perhaps my strategy just stinks (which is probably likely), but I did find it difficult to be a very well rounded Glitchizen (who can bring home the bacon AND fry it up in a pan) and have enough money and space to be able to not have to stress about things.

    I don't think the game makes it very easy to pick up varied skills to try them on because you need to buy equipment, all of which can cost a lot of currants and takes up a bunch of space. I think at one point I had a spice mill, bubble tuner, focusing orb, test tube, beaker, fancy pick, knife and board, frying pan, quill, shovel, hoe, hatchet, watering can, grinder, tinkertool, and maybe one or two other things. I found I wasn't doing anything well.

    I'm rambling, so I think I'll hit the sack. But, I think that Tiny Speck is putting together a wonderful, whimsical world - I just need to figure out a better way to play in it.
    Posted 21 months ago by Green Meanie Subscriber! | Permalink