New Player Experience Feedback Megathread

[Hazmy]

New Player Experience Feedback Thread


Welcome to Return of Reckoning

New Player Experience is something Developers constantly wish to improve, not only to show the wonderful potential of Warhammer Online to our newcomers and keep you around for the long-run, but also to smoothen the experience and ensure that getting into Return of Reckoning is a fun and engaging experience, not something you wish you could skip and just get to the end.

This is where this Megathread and You come in!

Feedback

We are looking for all Feedback about how is the New Player Experience in Return of Reckoning and how it feels to be a new player on our server. To this end, if there is anything you can or would like to share with us that you disliked or wished to improve, or just to share parts that you greatly enjoyed, please do so in this megathread.

This section is regularly read and maintained and will be vital for us to make changes to the on-boarding process, changes to how new players would experience the beginning hours of Return of Reckoning.

Guidelines

Don't know where or how to start? Let us give a few pointers about which parts of your experience could greatly help us gather valuable feedback:

- Early PvE Experience
"Is Questing fun and straight-forward at the beginning? Do you find the rewards satisfying? Are the Quests clear on what to do?"

- Early PvP Experience
"Do you know how to begin PvP? Are Scenarios fun? Do you find Early PvP enjoyable?

- Tutorials
"Do you find the in-game Tutorials useful? Is there any particular part where you think it could be better or where you are stuck?

- Equipment System
"Do you understand our Equipment System? Do you think you got a good grasp why Talismans are so important?"

- Core Game Mechanics
"Did you understand how to play your class? Are mechanics easy to understand like what is Guard, Morales, Tactics or Detaunt, or how and why to spend Renown Points?"

- Travelling
"How did you find travelling? Could you find where to go easily or do you usually get lost?"

- Playing in a Group
"Was it easy to find groups or guilds to play with? Did you understand how to make a group for PvP for example?"

- Getting into Realm vs. Realm
"Did you try out RvR? Did you find the War Report? Was it clear how to join and how Realm vs. Realm works?

- Experience after Level 15
"How did you find experience after level 15 in PvE, Scenarios are Realm vs Realm?"

- Default User Interface
"Is the default Interface currently for RoR satisfying? What would you change? Which parts did you wish immediately, that they could be better?"

Share Your Experience

Thank you for your Support!

[Shides]

I think there should be more open world pve group content, world bosses for example.

[Omegus]

I think there should be more open world pve group content, world bosses for example.

You want new players doing world bosses?

[Fey]

Tier one is an excellent laboratory to test out some wacky mechanics. There no real reason why a PvP pairing couldn't be turned into a big public quest.

You could even associate a proximal pve public quest. Namely you would have the stage three lord of a particular pq wander from the pve PQ onto the PVP battlefield. The Lord would then proceed to cap BOs and attempt to flip the zone.

T1 is the best place to spice up the gameplay. Then this could easily translate to PvP in zones like Ostland.

[IvanWarhammer]

The least I could really ask for when it comes to t1 is to renovate elf. Over the weekend I've seen so many warbands break up when it came time to do it because it's a miserable experience that nobody likes. Something needs to be done to make it more tolerable.

[Raiyoku]

So, as new player who joined last week, here is a bit of feedback.

I would say overall I'm very happy that I discovered this game I find it unique and fun, and the community is just wonderful! Big shout out to devs and veterans who managed to built such a friendly, helpful community.

As for the game itself, I think what new player experience lacks the most is good tutorials. The current tutorials are very good for ranks 1-5, but they don't explain many important core mechanics. For example, there are block, parry, disrupt and dodge. What is the difference? Should you choose one of those or more toughness? How does crit work? Just taking built-in in-game tutorials and adding extra text can go a long way.

If it is really as simple as adding more text, then it has great value. I found this guide to game mechanics super useful. It goes deep into specifics, with (approximate) formulas, but just saying something general like "There are 4 types of attacks: ... . Parry, disrupt and dodge help to avoid *this and that* attack, and block ..." is already helpful.

Even in a big game like EVE-O they had to pivot sharp into educating players in-game. And that's a game where every patch comes with dozens of youtubers reviewing each change. In a game with a small community, where most guides are out of date for years, player-retention can be achieved with better dev-made tutorials. Also, when you reach rank 16 the game throws you at people who know those things for years. I imagine a lot of people feel like they are hitting the wall, have no idea how to play and quit at this point.

A quest that teaches tanks to guard and heals to heal would be ideal, but even just text + screenshots distilled from the guide I linked above would be super-helpful.

Also, community-made guides always assume you know these core game mechanics. So it could help bridge the gap for newbies to end-game and help them join other players, most of whom are playing in T2+.

Some tooltips could surely be better. It is not obvious that Detaunt works on players and is actually your main (self-)save CD. What toughness do was also obscure before I read about it online. From current tooltips, it is not even obvious if say parry has 20% chance to avoid 100% of damage from an attack, or 100% chance to reduce incoming damage by 20%. They don't mention that block and parry only work in 180 degree cone in front of you. Does "Speed 3.4" mean 3.4 attacks per 1 second, or 3.4 seconds per 1 attack?

Also default interface doesn't show how much AP you have in terms of numbers. So you percieve your AP as % (by looking at a bar), but all abilities are given by numbers N. If there is a way to see numbers without addons, I didn't find it

One other thing that confused me was that most AOE heal / buff abilities work on your party only. In tooltips it says "group", but it wasn't obvious if it means "party" or "warband". And when tooltip says "allies", does it consider only my party / warband as allies? Or everyone in my realm?

I really really liked the game. People in /advice helped me a lot in understand the game. They are a big reason why I stayed. So I wanted to contribute back by giving this feedback I hope it helps.

[helplessmeet]

The least I could really ask for when it comes to t1 is to renovate elfscratch games. Over the weekend I've seen so many warbands break up when it came time to do it because it's a miserable experience that nobody likes. Something needs to be done to make it more tolerable.

I agree with the way you set it up. Can simulate and execute first to see and detect errors.

[Uchoo]

If it is really as simple as adding more text, then it has great value. I found this guide to game mechanics super useful. It goes deep into specifics, with (approximate) formulas, but just saying something general like "There are 4 types of attacks: ... . Parry, disrupt and dodge help to avoid *this and that* attack, and block ..." is already helpful.

If there's anything else you think should be included in my guide (beyond finishing class guides), I'm interested to know. Thanks for the shout out!

[Vibax]

A quest that teaches tanks to guard and heals to heal would be ideal, but even just text + screenshots distilled from the guide I linked above would be super-helpful.

This is a very good point, especially for some very important abilities.
Guard been probably the most important one to teach to new players, but we could also include the Challenge and Taunt abilities that works in PvP which can be counter intutativ to new players from more traditional MMO.
Res could be touch on aw, since you can use it in combat and dispels wich works on 2 out of 3 different types debuffs.

What I would love to see are some video tutorials on this website covering those core abilities. Work between devs and active members ?

[SpacefishPrime]

"Is Questing fun and straight-forward at the beginning? Do you find the rewards satisfying? Are the Quests clear on what to do?"

I was diving into quests so hard on my first character I basically leveled myself out of T1 RvR before realizing it existed. There are some particular pain points on quests involving using items from the quest item inventory and highly ambiguous location requirements (looking at you, intro quest in the Inevitable City to use that Khaine-cursed crystal in specific areas) but these aren't overly common.

Considering public quests, the early ones that require a kill credit from the last boss to push people into grouping seems to happen a little too early (this is admittedly an opinion and I can see strong arguments against, but just my two Karls). Making these "Participate In" for just maybe ch1/ch2 might be considered, even though the quest does include instructions in re kill credits not being shared. But it's not coupled with a tutorial about how to make an open party/warband iirc, and otherwise that is not going to be on a brand spanking new player's mind imo. Harder is to teach the social convention in the game that joining a group for the PQ and then leaving right away isn't rude (maybe make static area based open WBs on early PQs that prompt to join if this is technically at all feasible?). As a person both on the spectrum and anxiety regarding casual grouping, but with a deep history in old school MMOs, I suggest this be moved down the onramp just slightly.

"Do you know how to begin PvP? Are Scenarios fun? Do you find Early PvP enjoyable?

Having the Discordant Scenario and kill players in ORvR quests placed early in the Ch1 areas is great. I would only suggest that mentioning what a Discordant scenario is (Pug vs Pug only), and that T1 RvR is a "do it soon or lose it; you might want to do this sooner than later..." would have saved me some grief. When I finally went to the lakes and started having an absolute blast, only to turn into KFC faster than Sigmar could spit because I had done so much PvE already not knowing CR16 would boot me out of the kiddie pool.

"Do you find the in-game Tutorials useful? Is there any particular part where you think it could be better or where you are stuck?

Could use some more advanced ones that start to pop up maybe around CR 10? Especially how soft-capped stats work when bolstered. How to make an open party/WB beyond just a breadcrumb to the button to press when it's not very intuitive even once you get there. Definitely a tutorial about the separation of tiers T1 RvR/mid tier scenarios/T2-4 RvR, and a tutorial regarding what Wards are.

"Do you understand our Equipment System? Do you think you got a good grasp why Talismans are so important?"

Don't forget potions too. Again a tutorial about how much these matter when paired with the bolster system would be useful. And flooding a player with even more of them from early PvE content might be warranted. Lets be honest, this won't hurt the economy at all. Longbeard players are just dying to GIVE AWAY low pots and talis to improve the new player experience, no one trying to make gold off anyone but twink-level purple talis etc.

"Did you understand how to play your class? Are mechanics easy to understand like what is Guard, Morales, Tactics or Detaunt, or how and why to spend Renown Points?"

I don't think you can possibly stress enough to new players how much Guard and Detaunt matter in this game and are not "PvE spec only skills". The number of arguments that happen in T1 and Mid tier scenarios about tanks not using Guard because they truly believe they are a DPS because they have a 2H equiped and should not be doing so causes more drama than if it were a reality TV setup. Same with healers crying for peel/guard because they don't detaunt and are having trouble dealing with a single attacker because every other game has taught gamers that detaunt in a forgettable PvE skill.

"How did you find travelling? Could you find where to go easily or do you usually get lost?"

Terrain is the actual true enemy in this game, not the other faction. Change my mind. Otherwise, just give newbs the 50% mule, imo. Make the war report visible from level 1 and, again, it needs a Tutorial tip. Especially right when you encounter the Battlefields of WAR quest but your particular pairing might be locked atm (Oh, hey, a Tutorial about pairing locks!)

"Was it easy to find groups or guilds to play with? Did you understand how to make a group for PvP for example?"

This is a real pain point for NA players that trickles down from so much else. Really a second order effect. Only specific suggestion would be again creating an open warband should be a bit more straightforward.

This probably way beyond the scope of this thread, but the Guild Levels system and benefits are going to pulverize the formation of any new guilds at this point. Which is too bad because that's probably just the critical mass needed to goose the population engine. At least being able to rejoin the Forces of * guild, as has been mentioned is in the works, would at least make it less risky to join a guild and find out etc.

"Did you try out RvR? Did you find the War Report? Was it clear how to join and how Realm vs. Realm works?"

There are breadcrumbs, but they should be upgraded to Gromril-Forged Rails/incentives. Covered in early points mostly. I hear many other accounting of new players that missed out on T1 on their first characters.

"How did you find experience after level 15 in PvE, Scenarios are Realm vs Realm?"

I've made whole other posts about this. TL;DR mid tier scenario XP is overtuned. Bolster makes 20-30ish players viable in the combined T2-T4, and while T1 is fun, mid tier scenarios are fun, but being a fresh CR36+ to 40 is a soulcrushing inversion of what the power curve should be ideally.

"Is the default Interface currently for RoR satisfying? What would you change? Which parts did you wish immediately, that they could be better?"

Base UI is very unresponsive to changes in range, LoS, and Wounds status lags (at least on west NA ping) for a healer to play very effectively without an addon. Just downloading Enemy makes you so much more effective it's kind of nuts. Baseline ability to "mark" a friendly target e.g. warband leader to follow easier in RvR ala Enemy, a "Focus Target" feature, and "Target of Target" information would be big improvements.