Making the game better for the newbies

[Keighn]

I like the slimes for the extra xp buff. Rememeber, newbie isle used to have more mobs and a lot more slimes. Its trimmed down now for faster egress and it has more text to teach you about the game.

[Holdway]

I started again recently after a few years not playing. I made a mage and fought the first rats whilst trying to remember the controls. I knew there was a way of healing but couldn't remember the key. Managed to survive the rats barely with about 5 HP left and then saw the message about meditation and bandages, it might be an idea to move that before you fight the rats, not sure if I was remembering EUO or another game but I remembered the first few monsters not fighting back at all.

Only other early game thing I found particularly memorable was the disappointment at finding the third floor of Nordhaven jail no longer there. However overall the game felt far better and easier to get to grips with than the first time I started, admittedly I had been through it all before a few years earlier which helped, but it was simpler to learn the controls, and the game just felt more polished.

One suggestion is to perhaps have a shrine and leveling dealt with on the newbie island. One thing I do remember from when I first started was at first being very hesitant about leveling up for fear of making a mistake.

[LordMortiferus]

On Newbie Island, before the rats you get the massages to pick up dropped treasure from monsters. I fear people are picking up dead corpses as well, leading to over encumbrance without noticing it or no idea how to drop them yet.

I doubt an additional wall of text about butchering corpses etc. would be a good start for a game so I suggest to disable corpse drops on Newbie Island. Or have the info text pop up when the rat got killed and actually drops a corpse.

[brentoboy]

maybe even block the ability to pick up monster corpses, and say ... you should butcher that instead.

I know, that there are times when someone might actually want to carry one. Such as when they cant butcher it because they have no knife, or not enough skill, or whatever.

But, if they have enough skill, and they have a knife, why not auto-butcher if they try picking it up. And if they cant auto-butcher it, at least put a big red message down in the message area saying "YOU JUST PICKED UP A VERY HEAVY MONSTER CORPSE .... you probably don't want to carry it"

-my 2 cents

[Keighn]

Butchering on newb isle allows just enough skill if given a little time to make an omelette to do the first quest for extra xp. That's a good thing.

[eggmceye]

On Newbie Island, before the rats you get the massages to pick up dropped treasure from monsters. I fear people are picking up dead corpses as well, leading to over encumbrance without noticing it or no idea how to drop them yet.

I doubt an additional wall of text about butchering corpses etc. would be a good start for a game so I suggest to disable corpse drops on Newbie Island. Or have the info text pop up when the rat got killed and actually drops a corpse.

2 days ago I discovered exactly this!
So I have this update (not live yet - but will post in next couple of hrs) where
- corpses don't drop on newbie island
- in nordhaven jail there is a new npc that gives you a little instructional quest on butchering and roasting

[Keighn]

Can we run into cows, bunnies, and horses on newb isle for taming? Maybe a barn or something?

[eggmceye]

I would move all that stuff somewhere else - newbie is is too overwhelming already

[Keighn]

Hmmm.... I smell a community 4H farm somewhere with Ma & Pa.

[Bugbo]

Nice work with adding Gobbo in the Nord Jail, With a knife and a dish players should never have to worry about running out of food. You may also want to add a NPC that gives the player a magnifying glass and tells them how to use it to identify objects as this will probably be one of the actions most performed by players.

[Keighn]

I couldn't get the quest to work on a new alt.

[Bugbo]

You might want to make it so that players can't attack the guard on newb island. Would be kind of difficult to get off the island if you're flagged as a criminal considering he's right next to the exit portal.

[treos]

far as the graphics go...i could see the pixel art turning away a lot of newer gamers who are more accustomed to modern games. me, i grew up playing nes/snes/genesis games so i love this kind of graphics a lot more than what they typically use in modern games (screw the fancy graphics, long as the gameplay and other things are good square enix could pump out a pixel art star ocean or FF game long as infinity and i'd buy it asap easily)

now the music is actually something i think a lot people would share my opinion on actually. i do like the 1 track that comes with EUO when installed but...that only lasts a little while before i tire of it and mute it only to turn on my own music as i almost always do with any and all mmo's after a while regardless of how good the music is. after figuring out how easy that is to customize i went ahead and swapped the music out with music from other games i like. (i also noticed that if you typically use the updater to launch the game all the time then disregard changing track 0 as the updater will replace it with the default track every time :/ )

for controls, could be because i play emulators a LOT with just the keyboard (oh how i despise the N64 controller with its d-pad, y-buttons, AND joystick worst nintendo controller design EVER imho) but this games controls came to me rather easily once i figured out all the various shortcuts/commands (still figuring out some of the /commands over time). for those more used to using keyboard+mouse or just the mouse (or touch screen in the case of more modern devices like a tablet or whatever), thats could be quite the change if they've never done it this way before. actually had a friend try this game a while back and he was completely clueless as to how everything worked in regards to all the keyboard controls and stuff.

...wow, pardon my text wall... i sometimes rant when i get started on something or things i like ^.^; guess what i'm saying is i'm old-school (not so much as some of you) and modern gamers sometimes just can't keep up with older game styles like EUO