Noobville Reconstruction.

I have been playing this game for almost three weeks now. I have been playing long enough to reach level (almost) 33 and have gotten to know quite a few people in this game. Made some friends, am part of the Brethren Faction, and have grown to love this game more than any other MMO I have ever played. I have extreme experience in MMO's, I understand and pick up on game mechanics extremely fast, I have a natural understanding of MMO's in general. But that's just me....

Ever since I have been playing this game and saved up quite a bit of cash through hefty looting, working the markets, and just conserving my Info when I can, I came to a point where I had enough Info that I felt comfortable enough to buy tons of Trench Coats for males and females. What do I do with all of these Trench Coats you ask? I give them away to any new player that enters this game for the first time as a "Welcome to the game" gift. By doing this, I have many many many conversations with people who just logged in for the first time or people who have only logged on a couple times. Hang tight, this is necessary in getting to my point....

After talking to numerous people who have just started playing the game, I came to realize that they most often think they are alone in this game. They think this game is dead and that only a hand full of people play it. One guy I talked to was even *just* about ready to quit the game, because in his nine levels of playing, I was the first person he had seen in the game. He was under the assumption that this game was dead, and he was all alone....Not good.

I can understand why though. I recently came from another game called City of Heroes/Villains. In that game, when you first come out of the tutorial, you come to a place where massive amounts of people like to hang out. The first thing you see is people holding costume contests, socializing, showing off emote binds, so on and so forth. It shows the new players that the game is not only populated, but players do more in the game than just running missions. Players know that they are not alone, and thus stay in the game.

My proposal? Simple. Give Uriah a makeover. Make it a place where people actually want to be. Give it a wide open space where people can PvP. Add benches where people can sit. Give it a nice little place where people can dance. Make it the place everyone wants to be. Make it a place that will encourage players to hang out, this way if new players have questions, they are right where they need to be to get them answered. This game can be very confusing when you first start, and with nobody around to answer questions, it leaves you unguided and lost. Make Uriah the place to be. This way, when somebody logs on the game for the very first time, they know that they are not alone in the game. They will stay longer than a few levels and may even decide to stay long enough to see "Just how deep the rabbit hole goes."

This game has so much potential it is not even funny. But to see the potential of the game, you have to level beyond level ten. Best way to get people to want to level past ten, is let them see the people who also play the game. Let the players take control over the events, put them in a place where newer players can see them. Put them in a place where new players can see all the eye candy of the rewards the higher levels have reaped through their hard work and patience. It will give new players something to look forward to, and it will make the community larger. The game will increase in player numbers, and the game will be alot more social.

I believe if this were to happen, this games population would drastically increase.

Thanks for any opinions and feedback...be it positive or negative.

That's actually a really valid point. In fact, that's an awesome idea. No one really hangs out in Uriah so anyone who's new won't find anyone else. Unfortunately, i don't think there's anyone up to do this. Not to mention, to completely give Uriah a makeover would take a lot of work and manpower MxO doesn't have.

Would like to write a much more comprehensive response to this, but i am dead tired atm.

I don't know how it is at Recursion, but at Syntax it's simple - do something to make everyone who currently hangs at Mara C move over to Uriah SW. Most new people end up at SW since its the closest hardline, and is pointed to by the introductory Idustrial quest. Problem is, even in a game, most people are too lazy, or not arsed to do things like that.

way back in beta Mara C was the place where u started when you "first Jack in" and they moved it a lil after the beta before pre realise or after anyway i really thought Mara should still be the focus point usally everone is there and some one is willing to help.

I would suggest looking into the Coder tree so you can code up all the trench coats you want, im sure it will be cheaper for you in the long run plus all the extra charges can be placed back up on the marketplace for some extra $info. I applaud your comitment to the game and to the newbies.

On Syntax, I'd actually rather see Tabor W, or perhaps the nearby Tabor C, as the new starting point.  Of course, that's not really possible and would require more work than is likely to get done at this point.

I do agree, however, that spending time in Uriah is a good idea for all players, as is giving some sort of gift or whatnot.  Coding can be a great assist to this.  It doesn't need to be anything extravagant, but if someone asks me, for example, where they can get a coat like mine it's much nicer to quickly code them one instead of just rushing them off to find one themselves.

This Is Actually A Really Good Idea But You Should Take THis Up WIth THe Staff Like Viraggo Or Someone Like Him Soo It Can Actually Been Done No Me On THe Other Hand Have A Few People Wait At THe Starting HL ANd Go ANd Help Them Out One At A TIme ANd EVen Give THem a Choice TO JOin My Faction Even Tho Ima Lvl 28 I Still Help THem Out Now Some Of THe Starters Are Stupid Enough To Try TO Attack ME EVERY SINGLE TIME the REcon But That Is A Exelent Idea THat U Have

The glitch is spreading....

It's a valid point but technically this shouldn't be happening.  If a newbie follows the collector trail it will take them through Uriah and leave them very near to Mara Central.  I guess people are getting lost along the way.  Good on you for helping them out though. 

Yeah Again If Someone GEts Lost Then They Are Usally Young And Have No Buisness Being In Mxo Becuz THey Are Too Young And Cant Even Figure It Out

The glitch is spreading....

The game is rated PG13 (or T13 or Teen or somesuch), pretty much anyone can play. 

No te entiendo.

GypsyJuggler wrote:

It's a valid point but technically this shouldn't be happening.  If a newbie follows the collector trail it will take them through Uriah and leave them very near to Mara Central.  I guess people are getting lost along the way.  Good on you for helping them out though. 

The irony is that the next stage of the "Newbie" quests that take you from Uriah then to Tabor, at the end of that you get sent to Sister Margaret in Mara C for an extra Neighborhood Contact mission that looks like it will never come.

But, it would be fairly easy to put up an NPC right at Uriah that says something like, "Don't see anyone?  Check out Mara Central, that's where Redpills usually hang out."  Or something along those lines.

I do not recall anyone sending me to meet Sister Margret. I ran missions like anyone else would, and I honestly can not recall anyone sending me there. I had to find her on my own....and that was pure chance because I like to explore alot. Even so, what you said is also a good solution to the problem...and probably alot cheaper to add a greeter rather than changing a map layout.

   There is an NPC in Mercury's room in Uriah that teaches new players the /who command if they want to find more people. 

   In my opinion the /who command is more helpful in finding people than actually seeing them.  This is the only MMO I've ever played, so I may be wrong about this, but since MxO is a city-based environment there are very few places that give you a sweeping view (at least from ground level).  I assume other MMOs have fields and clearings and stuff where one may have a better chance at spotting others.

I understand exactly where your coming from.

Mara C should be the focal jack in point again like back in beta.

Obviosly the collector trail is meant to lead the new players to areas such as mara C but surely this was more key when the game was at least medium to high population at more times than just events.

I think whoever the DEV or lead person in this game is now should make this very minor change to possibly keep some of the potential new players to this game just by jacking them in, in a populated area eg Mara C.

To be honest I ave been in this game since retail release and the though of running round Uriah still makes me YAAAWWWNNNN!

Cummon guys lets do something to keep these potential players

And as for you giving a welcome gift to the noobies! Good work dude! Glad to see you are coming up with some ideas to draw people in to the game and yur only 3 weeks old and lvl 33! well done to you sir! *Salutes*

Unnecessary imo. Perhaps if that lvl 9 was on Recursion and didn't see anyone around was because there wasn't many people to see at that time?

Of course Uriah makes you yawn, starting areas tend to become boring if you've been playing for a while. Uriah is a great place to learn about the games Mechanics from the get go and it isn't long at all before the collectors send you to Tabor (which, on Syntax, isn't always populated mind you) or the intro missions send you to the vicinity of Mara C (which almost always has one or two people hanging around) or your level greatly surpasses that of the local gangs in which case why hang around Uriah? Why not explore the adjacent areas? Is it such a bad concept to explore places other than the starting area when you've outgrown it? Mara C, probably the most populated area in all 3 servers, is so close to Uriah it makes any suggested game changes a pointless waste of the 1 or 2 Dev's time we have.

Mind you, concerning the call for making Uriah the place to PvP, I don't see any reason not to give it a whirl. It'd make a change like the occasions when PvP moves from Mara C to Tabor W, although there have been numerous attempts to permanently drag PvP away from Mara C in the past with little success. 

Still, no need to change the place as it is though, large parking lot, benches, places to run and snipe from etc.. although I very much doubt we'd see a drastic increase of new players. Perhaps retain one or two, fine but the main problem of MxO is that many potential players think it's dead before they set foot in Uriah, before they even install the game.

I disagree. I think a simple move like that could drop players right in the population alot of players from what I have found dont tend to bother with the collectors after the first one. So the collector chain is broken.

Dropping the players in a high population zone would make them see exactly where people are.

And the reason I am around Uriah is the fact I use it to Change Loadouts and Apparel Combos because it is so dead and no interruptions.

And to be honest Uriah serves no perpous now as a good place to start the game as its dead and most people probably think..... Hmm its dead back to WoW. (< Personally I hate WoW)

Anyways this is all my personal opinion and to be honest would anyone actually have a big reason why they shouldnt drop newbies at Mara even if it was mara NW?

Something needs to be done to plug the whole that the new people are leaking out of. They dissapear.

Uriah is a good starting point since the npcs are low, the whole trail starts there with informative npcs & collectors. In the last year the area has been improved to help new players.

There is a decent amount of new people coming to MxO and Uriah each day, this is not the first time I have seen someone who has been playing a whole day come into contact with another player for the first time. I think the answer in this case is a server merge.

i think a recursion/syntax server merge would be awesome, then new players coming into the game would most likely meet each other and be more encouraged to go round together, at the end of the day yes the collectors lead you to mara, but i ignored them and a month later im lvl 35, it just takes dedication, i threw myself in at the deep end and learnt faster, but other people may not be like that and quit because the game seems dead

Ra2za wrote:

Anyways this is all my personal opinion and to be honest would anyone actually have a big reason why they shouldnt drop newbies at Mara even if it was mara NW?

Yes, because the first intro mission has always (for me) taken a new player past Mara NW anyway then on past Mara C. Not only that but it's an area where the NPC's are 2-3 levels above them which would make levelling up harder, they'd miss all the starting info in Uriah and also the collector trail starts there. It makes sense for them to start right at the top where the NPC's pose no threat and their time spent in Uriah, if they're not hanging around, would be fairly short.

Forget that you're bored of the area or that it serves no purpose to you, to new players it's all new, the NPC's give them instructions on how to do stuff and where to go next. If people want to ignore the NPC's then that's their own perogative.

If anyone is truely worried about new players thinking the game is dead when they step foot in Uriah, how about changing your usual HL to hang around at to Uriah SW.

As I said, pointless change imo. Admittedly a Recursion/Syntax merge would go some way to improving the population numbers and perhaps new player retention.

Croesis wrote:

Ra2za wrote:

Anyways this is all my personal opinion and to be honest would anyone actually have a big reason why they shouldnt drop newbies at Mara even if it was mara NW?

Yes, because the first intro mission has always (for me) taken a new player past Mara NW anyway then on past Mara C. Not only that but it's an area where the NPC's are 2-3 levels above them which would make levelling up harder, they'd miss all the starting info in Uriah and also the collector trail starts there. It makes sense for them to start right at the top where the NPC's pose no threat and their time spent in Uriah, if they're not hanging around, would be fairly short.

Forget that you're bored of the area or that it serves no purpose to you, to new players it's all new, the NPC's give them instructions on how to do stuff and where to go next. If people want to ignore the NPC's then that's their own perogative.

If anyone is truely worried about new players thinking the game is dead when they step foot in Uriah, how about changing your usual HL to hang around at to Uriah SW.

As I said, pointless change imo. Admittedly a Recursion/Syntax merge would go some way to improving the population numbers and perhaps new player retention.

but noone pays any attention to that, your right its their own perogative, but its for a reason, its boring, nobody cares about it, therefore when noone cares about something in a business, they adapt it to suit their customers needs, thats all that would be being done here, changing what people dont bother with, and introducing something everybody would use and benefit from, thats fundemental to a sucessful MMORPG

When it's based on more than one or two occurrences yes. But I've seen plenty of new players running around with the industrial collector items which seems to suggest to me that not all new players think that the NPC intro is boring or they tolerate it enough. Even so, those who do find it boring can either explore around and find their own way, like you did, or they can hang around Uriah not knowing what's going on or what to do next until they happen upon another player who'll tell them exactly what the NPC's point out. Plus the collector objectives also help the player gain some $info and a few levels very quickly.

If new players wanna quit because they can't be bothered following a dead easy intro NPC route or they don't wanna explore the short distance to Mara C to find people, let them. We don't have the population such as WoW so if it's masses of players they wanna find here, even Mara will be a disappointment to them.

My opinion hasn't changed and I've seen no real reason for it to. Besides, I doubt we'd see this happen anyway.

but its a massive city, to try and find your way to mara c is hard knowing that people are hanging out there, you could go 100 ways, thats like saying manchester is only a short distance from sheffield but if you land someone in the middle of manchester and tell them sheffield is only a short way away they arent gonna be able to walk there or find it easily without hyper jump, plus i only found out that Mara C is where people hang out by asking on the forums, and unless a player did what i did and went looking for a map of all hardlines, they are all hidden away, it isnt as easy as you say it is now to start from scratch, perhaps in the old days when the game was heavily populated but now, its a barren wasteland with no help for new players unless they either check the forums or go lookign for the 4 year old guides on what to do

plus, mara C is only populated in certain timezones, if they did manage to synch it there could still be noone there depending on their timezone, this is why you rely on player help, i synched all the hardlines in richlands in one night back when i was level 7/8, and i didnt see a single player, that includes Mara C, i had to be told by someone o nthe forums that people hang out there or Tabor Park

As far as I recall there are only three routes out of Uriah on foot, 2 of them are close to the Uriah SW HL and both go into Mara, the third is in the opposite direction, across the other side of Uriah, and takes the player to the border of Tabor and Mara. The minimap easily shows the vendors and monument so anyone paying attention would more than likely head in that direction.

As for your analogy if I were dropped off in Manchester and was told to make my way to Sheffield I'd follow the roadsigns. Boring but efficient.

Also yes I agree Mara C can occasionally be dead, moreso on Vector and Recursion so assuming a new player would get dropped off there, what makes it any different to Uriah apart from the fact that they won't have any clue what to do as there are no NPC 'signposts' there?

If new players are gonna stick around they're gonna have to get used to desolation else once again they'll be disappointed when it comes to actually realising that there are hardly any other population centres other than Mara and a couple of RP hotzones.

Croesis wrote:

As far as I recall there are only three routes out of Uriah on foot, 2 of them are close to the Uriah SW HL and both go into Mara, the third is in the opposite direction, across the other side of Uriah, and takes the player to the border of Tabor and Mara. The minimap easily shows the vendors and monument so anyone paying attention would more than likely head in that direction.

As for your analogy if I were dropped off in Manchester and was told to make my way to Sheffield I'd follow the roadsigns. Boring but efficient.

Also yes I agree Mara C can occasionally be dead, moreso on Vector and Recursion so assuming a new player would get dropped off there, what makes it any different to Uriah apart from the fact that they won't have any clue what to do as there are no NPC 'signposts' there?

but you dont have roadsigns in mxo lol "11 miles to mara" or whatever so thats not the point, as im saying if you were in an mxo situation its hard to find its way there, and yes there may be 2 routes there but its not direct, theres tons of streets to encounter to get there, you have to go up steps etc and go running round all sorts of corners to get there, so for the route there, theres probably 15 side routes that go elsewhere

and as ive said, this would all mean you would have to know with prior knowledge, that Mara C was the main hang out, new players how are they going to know you all hang out at mara and they have to go there? for all they know you could all hang out in Kedemon, theyre gonna have to go round every hardline in game before they find the place people hang out at?

Droppign them at Mara C would just give them a much much bigger chance of people being there, as Uriah is permanently dead, any new players spawning will have people at Mara C who can help them rather than having to try and find out where everyone is before getting there

ZarlakQUAM wrote:

but you dont have roadsigns in mxo lol "11 miles to mara" or whatever so thats not the point, as im saying if you were in an mxo situation its hard to find its way there, and yes there may be 2 routes there but its not direct, theres tons of streets to encounter to get there, you have to go up steps etc and go running round all sorts of corners to get there, so for the route there, theres probably 15 side routes that go elsewhere.

and as ive said, this would all mean you would have to know with prior knowledge, that Mara C was the main hang out, new players how are they going to know you all hang out at mara and they have to go there? for all they know you could all hang out in Kedemon, theyre gonna have to go round every hardline in game before they find the place people hang out at?

Droppign them at Mara C would just give them a much much bigger chance of people being there, as Uriah is permanently dead, any new players spawning will have people at Mara C who can help them rather than having to try and find out where everyone is before getting there

Heaven forbid new players should explore around a bit. The NPC's direct you where to go next, so yes there are 'roadsigns', all it takes is one to say a large number of operatives can occasionally be seen near the Mara monument (identifiable on the minimap). Out of the two routes into Mara one leads directly to the church, the stairs lead either to Mara NW between the buildings, or again to the church following the road with locations of Mara C's vendors easily seen (again on the minimap). Couple that with the intro missions taking you very close to Mara NW and C very quickly anyway.

Still, whatever. Relocating PvP to Uriah is a lot better idea than changing the first entry location and it's the only one I think with half a (small) chance of happening.

ZarlakQUAM wrote:

Croesis wrote:

As far as I recall there are only three routes out of Uriah on foot, 2 of them are close to the Uriah SW HL and both go into Mara, the third is in the opposite direction, across the other side of Uriah, and takes the player to the border of Tabor and Mara. The minimap easily shows the vendors and monument so anyone paying attention would more than likely head in that direction.

As for your analogy if I were dropped off in Manchester and was told to make my way to Sheffield I'd follow the roadsigns. Boring but efficient.

Also yes I agree Mara C can occasionally be dead, moreso on Vector and Recursion so assuming a new player would get dropped off there, what makes it any different to Uriah apart from the fact that they won't have any clue what to do as there are no NPC 'signposts' there?

but you dont have roadsigns in mxo lol "11 miles to mara" or whatever so thats not the point, as im saying if you were in an mxo situation its hard to find its way there, and yes there may be 2 routes there but its not direct, theres tons of streets to encounter to get there, you have to go up steps etc and go running round all sorts of corners to get there, so for the route there, theres probably 15 side routes that go elsewhere

and as ive said, this would all mean you would have to know with prior knowledge, that Mara C was the main hang out, new players how are they going to know you all hang out at mara and they have to go there? for all they know you could all hang out in Kedemon, theyre gonna have to go round every hardline in game before they find the place people hang out at?

Droppign them at Mara C would just give them a much much bigger chance of people being there, as Uriah is permanently dead, any new players spawning will have people at Mara C who can help them rather than having to try and find out where everyone is before getting there

Back in early release you were actually dropped off at a number of random lowbie areas, like Camon, Applollyn NW, Mara C, Achan, etc.  A the time the districts didn't flow low to high like it does now as you go south.  Thats why you still see little info guys welcoming you to the Matrix at random places like Appollyn which you wouldn't expect a level 2.  Then I think in late 2005 early 2006 we had a district "reflow" and reset the NPC levels from low to high as you went south, with the intro Uriah missions added.

I know people do the Uriah collectors cause occasionally I do see ppl farming keys.  Plus, at some point you will do a regular mission, right?  I don't see how you could miss Mara.

So I don't think they'll rollback the district reflows, unfortunately.  But, I see no reason why an NPC can't advise you to go to Mara to let them know that's where most redpills congregate (its even a funny line in one of the old critical missions, I remember seeing a mission NPC when seeing a lot of people saying, "What is this, Mara Cenral?"  hehe).

Also, server merge.

theres good arguments for and against, i say we do a server merge of recursion and syntax, then merge vector and make all of DT pvp flagged with the rest as none PVP flagged so we can run around normally

and i think we should make a banner, of MXO which i can do as im really handy with graphics, and obtain SOE's permission to post it on websites and forums advertising the game, to bring players over to it, we need a huge marketing drive, to get this game active, which i dont think SOE can be bothered to do, i think theywant it to die, but when left in the players hands, can get it going again

ZarlakQUAM wrote:

theres good arguments for and against, i say we do a server merge of recursion and syntax, then merge vector and make all of DT pvp flagged with the rest as none PVP flagged so we can run around normally

and i think we should make a banner, of MXO which i can do as im really handy with graphics, and obtain SOE's permission to post it on websites and forums advertising the game, to bring players over to it, we need a huge marketing drive, to get this game active, which i dont think SOE can be bothered to do, i think theywant it to die, but when left in the players hands, can get it going again

Not sure if you're aware, but it isn't just SoE who has to greenlight any official advertising, its WB too. You could probably do your own banner and put it on blogs facebook etc.. (like Phluff has done). Also I'd say a merge to a single server would be seen as detrimental move for MxO's apparent health rather than beneficial one. Also there are no gurantees that any of the spare servers would be used for any future development (if we ever have any more). 

As for Vector, I doubt many Vectorites would be happy if a single server just had DT as flagged. 

The consensus seems to be a 3 to 2 server merge, not a 3 to 1 server merge unless absolutely necessary.  One hostile one nonhostile, nice and easy.

thats a fair point, i only threw vector around because if syntax and recursion get merged together, the vectorites are going to go down in numbers as the newer server would seem more the place to be, as with a doubled activeness would see more player run events etc that we all long for, but still, theres no denying that to get this game active, work needs to be done, and instead of everyone being useless and throwing up roadblocks, things need to be tried, do something before this game dies, thats the bottom line, something needs to be done, and solutions need to be found, rather than falling back on negatives and saying its not worth it

and MMORPG cannot work, if it isnt massively multiplayer anymore, and that issue needs to be adressed first and foremost, and the game needs to be advertised, otherwise how do you expect to get more players

also the forum needs to be fixed so i can go to the last reply to a thread and not the first page to them click the last page to get to the reply

ZarlakQUAM wrote:

work needs to be done, and instead of everyone being useless and throwing up roadblocks, things need to be tried, do something before this game dies, thats the bottom line, something needs to be done, and solutions need to be found, rather than falling back on negatives and saying its not worth it

And that work would be more effective if put toward official storyline and content rather than squandering it on a Richland/Westview repackage to simply change where people enter from. Hell, even a Syntax/Recursion merge would be time better spent.

i disagree, for the survival of the game long term, more subscribers has to come before anything else, why give new content to a small subscriber base as the first priority? i agree its extremely important, but i think more subscribers come first, the ammount of players you could attract with a marketing campaign, would force SOE to expand their Dev team for MXO anyway to cope with the demand, and newer storyline content would come with this anyway as there would be a lot more peopleon board with the mxo project, as long as it remains a low key game your not going to see anything new, as has been prooved with the lack of content, SOE will just look at numbers and say MXO isnt as important as these other games because the other games dwarf them in subscriber bases, ergo they are more important, when you shift those figures, MXO will become more important to the people that actually matter, and you stand a better chance of getting what you want, as they say, safety comes in numbers

I was comparing a entry point change to the reason why many people started MxO in the first place, the draw has always been the current and continuing story. I didn't say that it shouldn't be advertised.

I agree that we could do with some advertising, but without an official continuing story, with what looks like nothing new being planned on the dev side of things past update 66, all that advertising will mean is people coming in looking around a bit, getting bored and heading back to whatever MMO they prefer. Oh we may get an extra few subscribers out of it but nothing that would justify a large expensive marketing campaign spent on a niche MMO that's already had its heyday, especially when that money can be spent on new releases such as the Agency. I think it's more than apparent that SOE is content with having MxO as a filler piece for their Station package rather than it being a large source of income.

Also when I say content I mean a continuing storyline, official events as well as new missions and items. The industrial gloves, hat, jacket, headless glasses were all added in for lower levels. So new content isn't simply focused on established players.

Some free advertising on their website and Fan Faires would be better than none, but as I mentioned, the WB/SOE red tape gets stuck in the middle of that.

Well, I'm not gonna take up any more of this thread, I've done so enough. As for the OP's suggestion of moving the focal area from Mara C to Uriah, good idea and good luck trying, the repackage to drop off in Mara is still pointless imo and I doubt SOE want to put more money into MXO than what they can to simply sustain it, in fact I'll be surprised if we get a Dev to replace Rarebit.

but new players coming to the game dotn need new content, theyve got all the missions for the orgs to do, theyve got all the archives to do, all the hardlines to synch, all the nodes to hack, etc etc aswell as player events that would be brought in for more players, if they bring new content out now, whats gonna happen? theres gonna be 200 regular players that complete the new content in a few days and go back to being bored, its a short term "fix" if you like for everybodies hunger, whereas if they did an advertising job to get more subscribers, theyd make more money, why be content with the current subscribers when you can add more and get more money, then the extra content can come after that from a bigger team of devs needed to run the game

ZarlakQUAM wrote:

but new players coming to the game dotn need new content, theyve got all the missions for the orgs to do, theyve got all the archives to do, all the hardlines to synch, all the nodes to hack, etc etc aswell as player events that would be brought in for more players, if they bring new content out now, whats gonna happen? theres gonna be 200 regular players that complete the new content in a few days and go back to being bored, its a short term "fix" if you like for everybodies hunger, whereas if they did an advertising job to get more subscribers, theyd make more money, why be content with the current subscribers when you can add more and get more money, then the extra content can come after that from a bigger team of devs needed to run the game

At some point soon after the transition to SOE in late 2005, SOE chose for whatever reason not to commit any additional resources to this game, and just make due with the existing team and resources we have.   As old holdouts like Rare go, no one replaces them.  SOE hasn't spent one extra red cent on MxO.

We are worse than an abused stepchild, we are the horrible mutant child locked away forevermore in the attic, with nothing more than bread and water brought up one a day and slipped under the door.

One day (looks to be sooner rather than later now), SOE will come up and put us out of our misery for good.  This is basically death by attrition.

As others have said, the easiest solution to this problem (and yes, it is a problem), is to either put new signpost NPCs in place or alter the "congratulations" text of the first collector NPCs to include the names and coordinates of the most popular hardlines.  If a new player was directed via coordinates to Mara C, Tabor W and Camon C, this would at least be a decent enough band-aid.

There will not be a merge. It is much easier and cheaper for SOE to simply leave the servers as they are and wait for us to die. Deal with it.

LtCmdr_Tsusai wrote:

Simple FIX..
Make a new intro NPC (then you do collector). Talks about Mara C, gives coordinates. Tells person how to open the map, and follow.

/signed

When you walk out of the Uriah Hardline for the firs time, you meet none other than a simulacrum of Dozer. He stands to the left of Clio, as he is Clio's new Simulacrum. When you click on him, he says,

"Hello, red pill. I am a simulacrum of a great man known as Dozer, a monument of sorts. As I am sure you are aware, you are no longer plugged into the Matrix. You are no longer a 'Copper Top." You now are a part of something much larger than yourself, as are all the other red pills that dwell among the Matrix. Sometimes new red pills have a hard time adjusting to the Matrix, sometimes they even feel lost. If this happens to you, then I know of this nice little hang out where other red pills like yourself, congregate for social gathering. If you feel lost, or feel you could use a helpful insight concerning the Matrix, then head over to the Mara Central Hardline. Once you get there, you will find people like yourself who can show you 'just how deep the rabbit hole goes.' I suggest you get moving, hanging around me is not going to earn you experience. Good luck, red pill."

Thoughts?

Simple solution to all this...Let's move the party to Uriah NE!

JEasy wrote:

Simple solution to all this...Let's move the party to Uriah NE!

Negative.  Old habits die hard.  Besides, there isn't even a bench or anything

Cyber_Casket wrote:

When you walk out of the Uriah Hardline for the firs time, you meet none other than a simulacrum of Dozer. He stands to the left of Clio, as he is Clio's new Simulacrum. When you click on him, he says,

"Hello, red pill. I am a simulacrum of a great man known as Dozer, a monument of sorts. As I am sure you are aware, you are no longer plugged into the Matrix. You are no longer a 'Copper Top." You now are a part of something much larger than yourself, as are all the other red pills that dwell among the Matrix. Sometimes new red pills have a hard time adjusting to the Matrix, sometimes they even feel lost. If this happens to you, then I know of this nice little hang out where other red pills like yourself, congregate for social gathering. If you feel lost, or feel you could use a helpful insight concerning the Matrix, then head over to the Mara Central Hardline. Once you get there, you will find people like yourself who can show you 'just how deep the rabbit hole goes.' I suggest you get moving, hanging around me is not going to earn you experience. Good luck, red pill."

Thoughts?

Sure soemthing along those lines.  Maybe a bit too wordy but thats the idea. 

Villemar_MxO wrote:

JEasy wrote:

Simple solution to all this...Let's move the party to Uriah NE!

Negative. Old habits die hard. Besides, there isn't even a bench or anything

Good point.  In that case...Let'move the party to Uriah SW!

The biggest problem that I've seen is that most MMO's do not promote reading. Since most others are based on a combination of quests and mob-grinding, most players have a tendency not to bother, or even have the patience, to read quest text (or any kind of in-game text for that matter) anymore.

MxO is the only MMO I've ever played that is almost entirely based on missions and storyline to advance your character (why I love it so much). So not bothering to read NPC dialogue or mission text would horribly handicap new players to the game.

I also agree that asking the devs to change the newbie jack-in spot from Uriah to Mara C will never happen, so we'd need to change our hang-out to Uriah SW (where there are benches, etc)

To be honest, though, the best way for a new player to meet other players is to come here, to the forums and post a hello. We worship the ground new players walk on (well....most of us are happy to see them, anyway) and will always go out of our way to meet them in-game, etc.

This post makes me want to SING!!!

I belive i can fly, i belive i can touch the sky... i think about it every night and day, spread my wings and fly away....

gah.. for once, I didn't feel like reading EVERY post, so pre-apologies if this is redundant.

I think you raise a valid issue. It used to be that people actually hung around Uriah SW, waiting for the new Red's making their way thru the tutorial Collector's. I even remembeer briefly seeing someone with an actual faction that was something like "Redpill Reception Team" or some such.

Course... that was back when you might encounter more than one new player an hour. I used to sit at Uriah SW myself sometimes, till i found that it was extremely boring.

So, to answer this realistically (if there is such a thing, seeing as we have no dev), I don't think a makeover of Uriah is even remotely possible. You are much better off to get people to the location that most people are hangin out anyway, Mara C.

Obviously, it would be awkward to just drop people at Mara C, that might be a little overwhelming, not to mention the added lag. Some people have suggested directions...

I would suggest moving the tutorial collectors themselves to Mara. Maybe the starting HL could be Mara NW, or Mara S? The tutorial characters could be relocated in such a way that they lead players over to Mara C. With all the people running around the Mara area, this would give new players the sense that there are still some players.

Admittedly, this would require a reworking of the collectors. Obviously, Chopper keys would have to be replaced with Onyx Rings, and possibly the Industrial Vendor who does the Mercury trades would need to be switched with one that points you to Sister Margaret.

These are relatively small changes (although, ANY changes without a Dev are no go), so they might be workable with using existing resources.

Just a possibility...