Goals for newbies (in General)

I'm implementing a "goals for newbies" features to give new players a little more post-tutorial direction. When they accomplish the goal, they will get a small cash bonus and a pat on the back. Mentors will be able to see what goals their students have accomplished or not.

Here are some potential goals:

CM mentor
train skill to 100
equip ranged weapon
equip a tattoo or rune
rent something
finish a forge cycle successfully
defeat an assigned opponent in the 1k score range

Other suggestions that can reasonably be accomplished in someone's first 24h in CB?

"equip ranged weapon" and "rent something" should not give a reward, if their PR is too much above their MPR (too easy for newbies to fall into that trap).

Have Score>PR is already a reward in itself, but maybe put some cash on that one as well?

Cool feature, I am probably gonna rejoin the mentor ranks because of this.

Perhaps a bonus could be granted for clicking the wiki link?

Perhaps a small 'quest' involving some kind of quiz, where all answers - simple questions and answers - are in the Wiki. Designed to help them navigate the Wiki, and find what they are looking for? In the long run, despite the possibility of inaccuracies therein, that might be the most helpful, if not the most exciting....

Other than that...dunno....you don't want to go too far down the route of hand holding. The only other thing I can think of that would be a help would be some way of guiding them through that lovely moment of training archery with a sling and strength with magic missile.

the forge goal might be left out to avoid encouraging bad forging (below 100k mpr)

How about some of the rewards are B.A.? Might help to show that using all your B.A. is the way to go.

Something like using the Blacksmith, joining a clan, posting in the forums, bid on an auction, or even win one...

I can't think of anything.

Excellent idea Jon! That's exactly what we need: a way to keep new players here by forcing them to find out more about what CB has to offer.

Some other ideas:

-Bid on an item in auctions
-Win an item in auctions (even ammo or a non-rare)
-Sell an item in auctions (might cause auctions to fill up with junk, though)
-Buy 10 BA
-Join a clan (Come on, a great way to get people into them!!!)
-Vote in the black market
-Bid on an item that player has helped to spawn via BM (not in 24hours, but still...)
-Find character's largest stat on the Character Attributes list
-View character's PR graph
-Refer a friend?

:D

Can't think of any to add though :(

Common questions/problems/errors:

"What do I do?" I don't even know what to make of this as a question.

"Wuts ur lvl?" I don't have a level and neither do you. Learning/knowing/understanding the difference between Score, PR and MPR is pretty important. Finding a way to "make" them do this would be lovely. Related issue: insisting on getting "bigger" stuff, without learning/knowing/understanding the NW problem this causes. (Hidden message: get your "training" together and you don't have to concern yourself with massive upgrades to your beaked axe.)

DD spells override weaponry! When the tutorial is "teaching" one to create a mage and a tank -- including the equipping of a weapon -- is it specified that one should put the DD on one minion and the weapon somewhere else? Or choose between them?

Weapons can be used together! One doesn't need separate minions for ranged and melee weapons.

I'd like to see potential goals include "finding information in the Help!" and "accessing the Stats --> Items --> Overview" info for shopping purposes.

I think this would definately help in keeping the new players here to stay.

I was thinking:
-being active in chat for a certain amount of time (30mins or so)
-search by user to ensure items being sent are going to where they should be
-reaching so many wins per set of BA
-verifying email address / being able to post on a thread

~and if I recall, the high score was set with tattoos before the Max Tat, can we get reset

Might be difficult to implement, but maybe:

1. View items>overview, follow wiki link to a "better" (non-rare) item
2. Read wiki entry on item to find out what it does
3. Buy that item from store, and use it on a minion such that it improves their strategy.

love the idea of the finish a forge cycle (aslong as it said that its better to wait until they have a high mpr) ... i've not got a clue how to use the forge :S and im worried i will mess it up and waste the ba ... which i've learnt i shouldnt do whilst i still have my nub so im waiting til its over before i go play

maybe set a target score for them to achieve .. if theyve got a high enough score to aim for they may get sucked into the game if it takes a few days to get :)

As a newbie, I find that the game is rather confusing at the start even with the tutorial. Maybe a brief introduction to the things available in this game during the initial battles would be nice. And also the links on the left frame and chat are not fully accessible so a newbie cannot get help if they are having problems.

i really like the idea. good one jon!!!! +rep for you!!

and to all who are contributing.

myself, before i could help any, would have to read the wiki through and through before i could do anything. ;P

This is a great idea. I'm not sure that they all need to be accomplished within 24 hours...maybe they should be done within a certain PR limit?

HA ha how about a gold star beside their name when they have used all their first pile of B.A.?

good ideas here, thanks. maybe we'll need an "easy" and a "hard" group of goals -- I don't want to overwhelm new players with a too-intimidating list, either...

bast: "finding information in the Help" -- can you suggest a task that can't just be solved by going to the index of created pages? wiki-lovers have done too good a job with that, I couldn't find a concept that didn't have at least a stub in the wiki. :)

I have no objection to a task that can't just be solved by going to the index of created pages. :) I don't suppose the cash reward for that ought to be impressive, mind.

Really, anything that requires clicking both Help! and the index is good enough. I think too many ignore Help! despite its cute boldness and !. Or they assume that's what you click when you can't make your frames update or your fightlist gets stuck -- that it's perhaps a "technical" help rather than the "game" help.

Though, for sheer usefulness, I think having to dig something out of either the official or unofficial FAQs would be delightful.

I think some simple Play-by-Play analysis would be a good goal. Just have a newbie fight a battle with pbp on, and then ask a simple question such as "Which opposing minion did the most damage to your team?" Then maybe even a follow up question about how to adjust strategy in light of the information learned in the play-by-play. Something like "What spell or skill could you train to reduce that minions effectiveness?" Or you could even have questions with a more subjective answer, and then have a mentor judge the answer, give them points for a good response, or guide them in the right direction for a not-so-good response.

i like it all, especially the "message your mentor to receive a reward" i have almost 30 mentees, anybody want to ask me how many contact me on average?

I'll get 3 mentees contact me on average during the two weeks or so that i am their mentor, I don't see myself as a bad mentor, and i don't think the mentees that i have that communicate with me do either, but thats probably because they don't know all the other smart, great people on our forums and in chat :P

The mentors can't expect the newbies to chatmail them first. Sure you get an automated chatmail, but unless they are familiar with the way it is setup, most of them do not want to do anything they are unsure of. Mentors also have to try to make contact with their mentees

you don't think the automated chatmail is enough? it basically says chatmail me back if you need help and/or questions about gameplay, community etc.

we should send them a CM basically saying the same thing again?

i am surprised at how many of my mentees thought it was I, who sent the CM, i think the automated CM is enough for them to contact you.

Jon, Love the idea of increasing rewards/setting goals for new players....

I think the goals should be extended slightly more long term though. First 24hr goals are great, but I think dangling the carrot a bit farther could keep interest long enough for new players to truly gain the interest in CB to keep them coming back.

I would suggest structuring some small 24 hour goals as have been laid out. Possibly end the tutorial by showing where CM is accessed, and let players know they will receive additional challenges via CM in the future. Additionaly instead of showing the traditional "out of BA page" when they use up their first allocation of BA, how about a "challenge page".... Something like:

__________________________________________

Out of BA.....

There are many other interesting areas of CB to explore. A challenge has been laid down before you to complete any of the following in the next 24 hrs:

- Make some new friends in chat (set a secret goal of typing x ammount of characters in chat and send a reward based on this goal.... Similar to Sn3krs chat contest, only no specific word wins the prize)
- Explore the CB Forums (set a goal of browsing a certain number of forums, or posting, during 24 hours)
- Any of the other great ideas posted by Jon and others for 24 hour goals.

Great rewards await for accepting this challenge and completing the goals listed above...

(Details of prizes here)

A copy of this challenge has also been sent to your Chatmail (link here). Be sure to check your chatmail frequently for additional challenges and information.



_________________________________________________

Equiping a tatoo, and forging in the first 24 hours seem a bit ambitious to me for most new players. Possibly we could modify the existing BS tutorial to be more interactive (allow someone to follow along and do what is shown in the tutorial while it plays without fear of wasting BA or "wrecking" an item) and reward them for completing this additional tutorial anytime during the first week.

I would suggest setting some longterm goals like use "x" BA on 3 consecutive days, or buy all available BA on "x" consecutive days.

Maintain x% wins for a certain number of consecutive days.

Set a goal to purcahse a certain NW weapon or train "x" ammount of DD in a week.

Set a goal to acheieve a certain Score by the end of the first week. (you could have bronze/silver/gold levels even).

My feeling is that by showing the new players where chatmail is found, and encouraging them to use it regularly, they will be "forced" to embrace more of our community. Additionaly these chatmails can be structured to spell out the importance of some of the key fundamentals of CB strategy, and can be retained and reviewed by the new players. Although all of this info is available in help, it is obviously not seen by many new players.
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For instance this could be an example CM:

Congratulations on completing the Blacksmith Tutorial. Your next challenge is to achieve a score of (insert number) by (insert date). Additional information on Score and ranking can be found by reviewing the help sections entiltled Score / PR / MPR (insert links ). For completing this task you will be rewarded with ( some item, or $CB ).

Additional rewards will be bestowed upon you for achieving a score of (higher nubmer) during this period. The keys to success are good strategy, planning, and activity. Some example strategies can be found here (wiki links). Your mentor is always ready to help with any questions you may have, and is a great source of advice reagarding strategy and planning.

______________________________________________

Obviously it would require some polishing, and someone way smarter than myself to work out the numeric details, but you can see how it would accomplish many goals through one CM.

- Encouraging multiple logins
- Encouraging BA usage
- Using the Wiki to understand Score/PR/MPR and strategies
- Following multiple links in the wiki can only lead to "stumbling" across other links of interest
- CM of mentors on a somewhat consistent basis

I don't agree with setting a reward for using chat as there are a fair number of people who play in places where the port is blocked allowing one group an unfair adavantage over another group.
People would not lose the bonus out of laziness but instead out of their restricted access, although they can still be sociable through CM and forums so a "Create a Thread" goal would be a better option than "Use chat"

I couldn't find a good explanation of Score / PR / NW on the wiki. Did I miss one? If not, I nominate Bast to make one in the Score page. :)

Seconded

thirded!

I know the "stats" page is supposed to be it's own reward for most players, but what about some kind of "low level only" rewards that newbies can get? Something like the highest score or PR in 24 hours is cool, but something more involving that a player can participate in right away. Something that keeps their interest while they learn the rest of the game.

How about assign a random character reasonably above their initial score/pr that they have to defeat. Like an auto-assigned "arch-nemisis" which would be pretty cool. When they defeat their arch-nemesis in one fight, they get a reward. Different and new.. :)

Fexy, I like the idea.... possibly we could take a retired character (who would remain static in strength) as the target player?

Sure we could get some donations of low level gear to keep it challenging

Ohh and the way help is layed out now, there are pages for "power rating" , "minion power rating" , and "score"

They all link to one another and "virtual power rating"

The Score page should start with an explanation what Score is. What I also miss is how Score/PR affects battle rewards.

Yeah the Score/PR description is a bit ambigous.....


Thinking Jon may be the only one who could really clear that up though?

And the Arch-nemisis shall be named "Practice Dummy". Well maybe something more menacing but fun ? Maybe 3 different ones at different levels Newby Death? Newby Spanker? Anyway you can tell I like Fexy's idea.

Another thought.... How about quarterly or monthly NUB/Mentor contests?

Set up rewards for fastest advancing new players and/or their mentors?

Could have different criteria (changemonth style) one month for score growth, one for PR, one for forum posts, one for CM's etc....

Could base it on average of all of the mentors mentees from the mentor side....