My Concerns About New Players

1st Official Post

    Hello everyone, i want to share my thoughts about new players and returned players. As far as i can see new players are giving up so easily because they cant reach endgame content. They cannot earn any diamonds easily and they also cant find guilds. They cant learn this game and finally they stop playing on this server. And that affects game economy in negative way. Server's population should not be decreased because of these difficulties about newbies. This server's developers should bring more features to help newbies. All minigames must be updated and should give useful items to players. All classic instances should give more mementos. New players should farm mementos and exchange them for diamonds easily. Gold Rate from quests should be increased to help newbies. I am currently not happy with server's population and i would like to see more newbie players in server. Also developers should focus on some content about newbie players not just endgame players. I think this server needs a lot of changes. I am afraid that this server is becoming impossible to play for newbies. Please developers you should update old content for newbies and make things easier for them. I hope you understand me. Thanks. :saint:

    Hi,

    it's true, as a beginner player left without the support of experienced players, you can quickly give up on the game. The various activities the game offers can be overwhelming from the very beginning. I agree that it is worth spending time to improve the introduction of new players to the game world. In my opinion, it will be a good idea to rebuild the packages for beginners - let the packages for players offer items that will actually help them in the game, for example magical perfumes, coupons for the mirror world, coupons for minigames. The reconstruction should also include packages from level 1.

    I support increasing the amount of gold for completing missions. I also want to draw attention to the honor party system, which could be combined with the team search option (I mean the "little guy" icon in the upper left corrner which opens the window with team joining preferences)


    Ps. While browsing the forum, I came across a thread from a year and a half ago devoted to the same issue. I thought it might be worth adding it here as a refresher

    Post
    Newcomers Brain Storm
    Hello,

    We are planning Newcomers Rework patch this year that would make it easier for new players to dive into Arcadia.

    Current ideas are:
    • Guild Recruitment board where you can add your offer as guild or player.
    • Adding interactive tutorial tips during gameplay connected to Wiki.
    • Tutorial instance that explains combat mechanics.
    • Better starting tutorial zone.
    • Newsletters.
    • Referral system for both invited and inviter.
    • Daily rewards for newbies.
    • Additional collectible activities on all zones with rewards.
    …
    grox
    Quote from Stachu13

    Hi,

    it's true, as a beginner player left without the support of experienced players, you can quickly give up on the game. The various activities the game offers can be overwhelming from the very beginning. I agree that it is worth spending time to improve the introduction of new players to the game world. In my opinion, it will be a good idea to rebuild the packages for beginners - let the packages for players offer items that will actually help them in the game, for example magical perfumes, coupons for the mirror world, coupons for minigames. The reconstruction should also include packages from level 1.

    I support increasing the amount of gold for completing missions. I also want to draw attention to the honor party system, which could be combined with the team search option (I mean the "little guy" icon in the upper left corrner which opens the window with team joining preferences)


    Ps. While browsing the forum, I came across a thread from a year and a half ago devoted to the same issue. I thought it might be worth adding it here as a refresher

    Post
    Newcomers Brain Storm
    Hello,

    We are planning Newcomers Rework patch this year that would make it easier for new players to dive into Arcadia.

    Current ideas are:
    • Guild Recruitment board where you can add your offer as guild or player.
    • Adding interactive tutorial tips during gameplay connected to Wiki.
    • Tutorial instance that explains combat mechanics.
    • Better starting tutorial zone.
    • Newsletters.
    • Referral system for both invited and inviter.
    • Daily rewards for newbies.
    • Additional collectible activities on all zones with rewards.
    …
    grox

    Overall I agree with your point,but Item shop packages rebuild is a bad idea tbh yes I understand your idea but as a newbie no one wants to spend few thousand dias or hear from others oh yeah in order to start the game go to the item shop and buy packages.Oh you don't have dias yet? No Problem just spend 30 Euro since you need backspace,prestige if you want to skip that,Transport items,etc etc etc etc..... Tarsq ideas would fit more into a way to make it easier for newbies to make it into the game since the current starter gear that you gain is way to underwhelming at this point especially since the release of corrupted weapons. In my opinion starters should gain a gear that would allow them to fast get to a point where rofl is doable. Very low amount of players like to hear oh yeah in Order to run HM instances or the third lowest 12 player raid you already need to grind your soul out of your life since it will be months of grinding gold and other stuff....

    My partner and I can put together a list of our experiences as both a returning player and a newcomer, if it will help at all. Unfortunately, our daughter has already left as she found it too difficult and boring, despite my help ... I am unfortunately not very knoweldgeable of the game.

    • Official Post
    Quote from Crielle

    My partner and I can put together a list of our experiences as both a returning player and a newcomer, if it will help

    We’d really appreciate your take on things! Hearing from both you and your partner will definitely help.
    Looking forward to your list :)

    We'll gladly do it over the next few days and post on the weekend. Really hope it helps. I feel nostalgic with this game and don't want it to drift away into MMO heaven.

    OK, background first: I'm a returning player (a few weeks now) and I brought 2 new people here (Partner(P), who has never played an MMO, a 10 year-old child (C), who wanted to try something different than Roblox with friends). I've removed gender best I can in this post.


    P and I continue to play. C gave up citing the game as slow, boring, and difficult despite my best efforts. C said C isn't going to recommend the game to friends. I asked C to try again another day before C says anything to them, or bring a friend over and play together under my help.


    I'm no expert in the game, but I enjoy it in my own way. P had a lot of questions when starting and was overwhelmed: how do I kill the spider in the tutorial when there are no skills, what do you mean I can level up to 91 instantly, what class(es) can I have and what do they mean, what weapons/armour do they use, which piece of gear is better as P quested, and so on. I spent a lot of time tutoring, but my knowledge is limited.


    With that out of the way, here's what the three of us came up with.


    TOP THREE ISSUES


    1. Knowledge of the game.

    P said without me, the game would've been abandoned. I suggested whether an instant guild is a good idea, where other people could help. P said I'm the primary source, but without me, other people may need human help or just give up and play something else. P also said the game would be lonely without someone else. I think P's right. It's why I stopped playing a while ago. C didn't care about a guild, admitting the struggle to do simple things was too much. P was interested about free castle buffs to help quest. I'd forgotten about that as it's been so long, and agree with P.


    2. Learning the game

    P also had issues with tutorials as some need an action for it to pop up, eg, pressing "C" for the character screen. P didn't know to press "C" to get that tutorial - chicken and egg, so it seems. I checked P's settings yesterday and all the tutorials were turned off. P wasn't aware! P said they're wordy. I defended them although I see P's point. So, difficult to comment on tutorials as I don't know what the heck P did. Perhaps in itself, there's a lesson. (Honestly, P really needs to click around more, right, but P is a newbie to MMO).


    3. Empty world

    We're Australian in an odd time zone to the rest of the world, and generally the CoA world can be unpopulated. We rarely see people questing when we are, and we think a big problem is going to be finding people to play with, and how the game will attract new people - particularly in our timezone (Australia/south east English-speaking Asia). Maybe we're wrong, and there's a large population - who are on when we're sleeping. It is isolating.



    SECONDARY STUFF:


    1. Upon creating a new character, the Prestige horse is great, but the Prestige screen adds to the overwhelm and maybe could be done later, eg, when the horse runs out. P said it adds to being too much to begin with.


    2. When the Prestige horse is due to expire, a temporary mount would be good as a big complaint from C and P was the travel, particularly as they have no knowledge where to set ink. Fortunately P got a Rune Disk in Wheel of Fortune which was a big help. I bought diamonds to get C a mount to keep C in the game, but C still gave up.


    3. It's lonely when starting as a newbie and nobody to talk to. We all want to interact and share, ask questions, brag even. A newbie guild where we can all figure things out together could've helped. Google and Runes of Magic has been our close friend, but sometimes we can't find anything because it may be CoA content. I don't know, for example, which classes(es) use a spear or which elites have the spear improvement skills (if any). I would've loved to be instantly in a guild when I create a character or have the option now or the future. However, I acknowledge advanced players may not want to lead a guild and answer puerile questions all day. This adds to the player-isolation.


    (Afterthought: if many people create characters and instantly enter a guild, then instantly leave because it's an alt, that may not look good with a genuinely new player like P.)


    4. We had to figure out housemaids, what to buy, how to level, perhaps something to be introduced after a while. Free buffs! Heck yeah. (Issues like this go back to the tutorials - I still don't know how P turned it all off and missed them, or maybe P sped through them and took no notice.) P doesn't like the house interface as it's too big and unintuitive. I asked for an example. P said: looking for housemaids but they're called servants, and didn't know what to choose. P didn't know what to do with the 15 unbridled enthusiasms after creating a character. I thought it was clear enough.


    5. Upon starting, there's no primary skill in the action bar. P didn't know how to kill the spider, how to level up skills, and what is TP. What skills should P level up, at least until the player understands it more. P is adamant there wasn't a tutorial and doesn't know how to access them.


    6. P suggested the system could suggest skills to level up, until we're around level 55. Some sort of glowing box and the words "Recommended to level" when we hover over it (class/es dependent). P's issue was there's no clear way to determine what skills are immediately useful.


    7. More information about classes and class combinations, even if it's a link to a website. The CoA website is full of information and it's so well maintained. Well done to the game people, really. P suggested in-game links to a website. I suggested P is lazy. P still talks to me ...!


    8. On the CoA website, I don't know what's a primary skill and what's an elite skill. If they were a different colour, I'd be able to compare. https://chroniclesofarcadia.com/skills. P didn't know what some of them meant in the real world, or how combination skills work. I recently tried to compare different mage classes, but gee ... trying to figure out what's a primary and elite skill whilst comparing every single one of them ate time.


    9. An introduction to mini games later on after levelling a while will be good. P said without my instruction, P'd never know they existed, or how to complete them. P now loves the Malatina chest game.


    10. What's a cenedril ... how do we do it and when ... P likes looting them. I don't know why haha. P had no idea about cenedrils and how to start.


    11. QuestHelper is amazing, but as a newbie trying to create an account and start the game, this addon may be ignored. Is there any way to bake it in rather than it be an optional addon? P says it's one of the most important parts of questing.


    12. We don't care about endgame, but we care about having fun, making mistakes, questing, making our characters better every day, and sharing our experiences (P mentioned a guild again). Learning is a huge part, but there's nobody to learn from. Getting from A to B is a big thing that P constantly referred to - back to the mount and what the heck are free unbridled enthusiasms again.


    13. We really appreciate the level 80 starter gear. It allows us to do low level instances like Hall of Survivors, and we can do most cenedrils. We don't think it should be improved any more with an exception to a small weapon damage improvement. P said if it's too easy, it'll be boring, but a little bit more damage will be good - Blame Bendor and Mersi. I've no idea how to do most instances. It's unlikely I'll do them without a guild, which isolates us both.


    14. I want to introduce P to guild war. Can the game can have a guild recruitment interface to make it easier to join a guild and advertise, rather than world shouts? Some sort of easy way to recruit or be recruited, based on what the person or guild is looking for? What if no guild is looking for newbie players?


    15. Where are the free horse rental tickets from Malatina's games? They've disappeared and could be useful. Currently, I use my cenedril shards to buy a 7-day mount. I want to get the 2-person Flame mount, but temporary things on the way to my achievement will be good. P agrees, so that a person doesn't have an even slower game running around everywhere. Rental tickets with an 80% speed - not the 55%.


    16. What about a web page that asks a bunch of questions and recommends what class combination you play, maybe give a percentage for each, and a link to a description and pros and cons of that class and the race to be chosen.


    17. We don't want an increase in currencies, we don't want diamonds other than to buy our perfect mount, or even endgame gear. We just want to play and have fun, and learning what to do is the pathway to that. I'm approaching the end of my limited knowledge with P who, proudly, recently hit level 105/105 but there was no applause or recognition of this achievement.


    18. Tutorials at appropriate times will be good, just like the Robin tutorial. Completing it perhaps gives us a relevant buff (create a housemaid, level it up for the first time - more unbridled enthusiasm, low level food, and a battle/magic buff as a taster) (hitting level 50, we get a mail about elites and old bags, where to go) (hitting level 93 we get an option to take us to the cenedril quest and 5 free golden hammers), (hitting level 105 we get an automatic free world chat announcement of the achievement - and it is an achievement!, plus, 10 free megaphones to talk to the world about it, the transport book was important too), and of course, so much more. These aren't big gifts and relate directly to the achievement, and it's more about introducing content. Tutorials that don't nag but are easily accessible and talk us through it with a link to an external web page for more information, perhaps. P is ambivalent here - P endorses tutorials, but either too lazy to read them properly, or just skips through like clicking "Yes" on the terms and conditions. I don't know if P is isolated with this. Perhaps everybody else reads and learns from them.


    19. We don't need more gold and we get 70-90 million questing to level 105. An important thing P needed was the level 80 starter gear AND knowledge about it upfront (eg, I said when I last played, the NPC was right next to the new character spawn point), P kept going back to a mount (questing all over maps with a slow or no mount is awful), and more transport runes.


    20. Changes in the game: P didn't know what "patch notes" were until I explained it. Changes to the game are lost on P. I thought they were an obvious part of the launcher. P explained P saw them, but just didn't know what it was about. Remember: P has never played an MMO before, and we both rarely play games (except CoA of course!)


    21. Although there are changes in patch notes, the knowledge is lost on newbies and returning players unless we go through endless patch notes. Cenedrils, robots, artefacts, etc - we just don't know what to do - this links back to the primary issue of knowledge and human contact. We are isolated from a lot of game content and knowledge.


    We really wanted to help with these experiences, and we'll really appreciate it if it's taken in good faith and nobody derides us. As you hopefully see, they are our experiences with a sprinkle of balanced complaints based on real-world experiences. We hope everybody enjoys the game. I certainly like the nostalgia and sharing it with people around me.

    Hey Since your post is very long and I readed through everything just let me point out a few things that I noticed that are a bit,well what should I say "eye-catching"? To me. A lot of things you explained is stuff that really is newbiw newbie stuff to Beginn with (basic control of character etc etc...) Chronicles can be a bit overwhelming at start but tbh a 10 year old isn't rly a reference for giving feedback in my opinion that's just to early for a game like Chronicles(even Runes had a FSK 12 I think) While there a not that many beginners,there is a very good amount of people in the Endgame(lvl 105+ content,population could be better with mire newbies and therefore things need to change,If I read through your post it doesn't feel like you really started to progress to even start the real game(lvl up to 105,start building gear etc...) If it would have been the case you would never say "we only need a Mount",70m gold from questing is fine,or "WE need no dias... I could point out A LOT why this is completely out of being close to reality.But instead just let me say one thing,Even if a guild castle is completely maxed out getting guild buffs once for few hours coast -> 13.5million gold ,so if you want to do Ini content higher than stuff from 10 years ago those buffs become very important and well you burn up your sweet 70m gold from questing in less than 5 days.... Same with dias and stuff I could give thousanda of examples why Dia amount for newbies just ist crazy low but I already did a big post regarding introduce of a system that would help in this point and also about Minigames and the idea of getting more memos from dungeons.Nothing I wrote is meant in a bad way.just a hope that you will understand better since your post is designed like a totally beginners that doesn't even reached max lvl.

    Please understand: what we wrote, as a cumulative feedback enterprise, was geared to discuss our experiences in a faithful way to assist the game for the game developers. They're not the experiences of others or yours. They are ours.


    It's healthy to disagree, however, let me make it clear that these are our experiences and not yours. I can't see the point arguing with our experience, on what happened, and how we engaged with the game. We wrote merely to assist the developer understand our experiences.


    We didn't write to be chided.


    I'll try clarify some points in case I was obscure.


    We're isolated from content as we don't know what's there, where, what we need, how to do it, etc. If some of it's, as you highlight: "eye catching", then that's your experienced eye and not our inexperienced eye. All we can do is illustrate from our point of view as faithfully as possbile, so the developer can consider it. I get the feeling the developers run this game "for the love" and we wanted to help.


    We don't know a person will burn through so much gold in high level content simply because we don't know what that content is and we're newbies. How are we supposed to know, and do we really need to? What else would we need to know? How much will be overwhelming for a newbie?


    Despite your comment, how's a newbie supposed to know that it costs so much gold to get buffs from a castle, assuming they know how to join a guild? The last time I was in a guild was, gee, 10-15 years ago and it was a low-level low-gold guild. You assume we know these things and we don't. Complete newbies are new to the game and know very little. They don't know there's a guild castle or how to enter, what buffs are available and where (assuming they understand what a buff is), how much gold it costs, how a guild is run, and so on. All my partner knows is there's a guild NPC in Atlas - it is literally the extent of my partner's knowledge, and mine isn't so much more!


    Sure, diamonds are a significant currency, but we didn't care as we entered the game, other than getting quickly from A to B, as we discussed. My partner made it clear to me that this was an issue. We liked questing although the world was almost always empty. Yes, we're max level and played for 4-5 weeks before my post. We saw maybe 2 or 3 people questing between the 3 of us. In our experience questing, OUR experience, CoA is a dead game with very few people.


    Our conversation yesterday was: what now, other than level other classes which we had planned. Last night, we became bored for the first time, switched off the game, and did other things including talk about other computer games. I've encouraged my partner to play again today.


    It's okay to be critical about our 10 year-old with your opinion, however, looking at the CoA website was appealing to the child. Dressing up, crafting, allusions to middle earth, magic. Was it not reasonable to let the child try and potentially brings others in? There's nothing obvious on the CoA website to say it's inappropriate. Do you expect newbies to know the age limit in Runes of Magic? (I checked both sites today and can't find anything immediately obvious.) There's nothing to suggest the game is inappropriate or unreasonable for a 10 year-old. Again, our experience and not yours.


    I'm not here to change the game - that's up to the developers. I'm here merely to help CoA by stating our experiences. Not anybody else's.


    Don't point things out. I frankly don't care unless you were in the room with us when we started. There's not much I could add. I'm not gonig to change an experience because you disagree. What I wrote are simply for the developer to consider, and in hindsight, I should've asked if I could message them directly.


    My partner and I agree that more mementoes and other currencies including gold and diamonds are irrelevant to a newbie. If it's not obvious from my discussion to the developer, knowledge is the currency a newbie needs.


    I hope this clarfiies some of the points that perhaps were obscure. I think a big issue with your post is you assume we know things and we don't.

    I think at this point I will quit this conversation,it's quit obvious that your feeling personally offendet by my post and that was not what I wanted. Ik it's your feelings about the game and that's okay.I just wanted to give you information about some points that you did not have/know about and why things I mentioned are important for newbies as well as things Tarsq mentioned in his post.Specifically if it comes to gold/dia amount,its cool if you and your parter dont need any but for most players that start the game it is different and at some point they learn about how to start the game and getting equip/getting their way up to endcontent, that rn is simply to hard because of dia/gold amount given as a beginner or even in general.

    I said it's healthy to disagree and I took my time to provide more information. My main point with your post is my initial discussion was simply our experiences. It doesn't matter what help is available right now, as it wasn't available back then. Look, I appreciate the knowledge now, but as we were starting the game, there was nothing unless we searched for it online. We don't know what we don't know. We played in an empty world. Whatever anybody adds at this point is irrelevant, as the experiences are in the past. Please don't be offended.


    Another thing I could add, now we're leveled up, is the importance of diamonds to some extent. Keep in mind we're not in a guild, not doing instances, and wondering what else to do at this point, so spending diamonds seems futile, except for things like a mount. i got one yesterday haha, a shark mount, and turned my pet into a piranah!


    I'm not commenting on all newbies. It's just what we experienced, and all I can do is discuss them faithfully regardless of other people's experiences and opinions which will probably be very different.

    Hey, I would like to express my experience too. I am returning/new player i played on offical and on some private servers aswell, but here on arcadia i played a very little amount of time, however i really like the character reworks and some of the systems that arcadia implemented. My problem is the price of the "subscritption" it really expensive compared to other mmos, it shouldn't be higher than lik 12 euros (the full one) in my opinion. The second thing is finding a guild, there aren't too much guild which accept english speaking new players. (but on this idk what is the solution, its just the general community)
    Reflecting on the first problem: on the market there are multiple mmos with cheaper subscription which makes this game really overpriced, if it would be a bit less pricy "subscritpion" wise it would be more appealing for new players for sure also more explanation for it how does it works would be nice. I don't mind the P2W aspect of the game and the "subscitpion" option which is given in the game it just too expensive, i am not saying i can't afford it i just saying if i pay that amount i feel i am scammed cause there are mmos which are more cheaper, and the thing which is attracts to this game is the nostalgy (i think i am not the only one).

    I've decided to only to sell what I have on auction house so I have diamonds if I come back on. I hope my comments were of some value, and I wish the server all the best for its future. Thanks so much for hosting this game.

    Hello, i want to share some of my opinions about this server. I think you should definetely change your game policy to help new players. As far as i can see only a few guilds are farming endgame instances like orkham and rest of guilds are farming outdated instances like rofl. I dont see so many new players looking for instances or wanting to buy gear in world chat. New players are really so important for game economy. Because endgame players have already finished their gears and they dont need to buy anything anymore. They dont spend diamonds like new players. I remember 2-3 years ago when RoFL was endgame instance. I used to earn 40k diamonds every week only by selling RoFL weapons in auction house. Nowadays it is imposssible to earn diamonds like this.

    I have a lot of friends who are just bored of this game because of difficulties of this server. There are a lot of things to do in this server. Here is some of things to do to reach endgame content.


    1- Up your classes to 105 lvl and unlock every elite skill for your classes.

    2-Start with Tikal prequests, unlock tikal-inferno-gorge-rofl. And of course you need to run gorge of ice giants once to unlock hekhig npc.

    3-Unlock at least 5 lvl badge title system to use your titles.

    4-Make your normal pet and cenedril pet max lvl.

    5- Play festival events and make all your zodiac pets draco pets, then unlock darkness pet and moon pet.

    6- Finish some quests to unlock Zhargos world boss.

    7-Finish every quest in talaghan map in order to unlock Dark Core, Orkham and some titles in talaghan.

    8-Make yourself some good gear to enter instances. Minimum gear is Final Form set from RoFL

    9- Start with HoTo, run Kalin, Ice Dwarf Kingdom, Forsaken Abbey, Necropolis of Mirrors. And of course you need to run Ice Dwarf Kingdom and Forsaken Abbey 20 times to make a rune and earn your important titles.

    10-Run instances like Dark Core and Orkham to finish your gear.


    These are some things i remember to reach endgame content. Maybe i forgot to mention some things. But i need to ask you developers, without a strong guild, how do new players reach endgame content and enjoy this game ? Almost all guilds want to recruit strong endgame players. New players are simply stucked in a bad situation.


    First you need to give new players a guild.

    Secondly you need to make these players earn diamonds with an easy way.


    I suggested to create a GM- controlled guild before.

    But of course only new players should join this GM- controlled guild and earn their diamonds. This shouldnt be abused by other players

    You can invite all verified new players to this guild.

    Seperate Ancient mementos like you seperated courage coin. Mementos we get from instances and mementos we get from Arcadia coin exchange npc.

    Make Owenstein NPC use only mementos we got from instances. Make it give double amount of diamonds to these verified new players.


    You should also change Sathkur instance. It should always give Splinter of Form and Splinter of Emotion if player doesnt have IDK and FA titles(To Know Every Trick in the Book and Tragedy Builds Character).

    You should also change this Badge Title System. (I know you refused to change it before. But please consider it again).

    And please change IDK and FA runes to be creatable with 10 Cores only. 20 is too much for new players.





    If you apply these changes, i beileve number of new players will increase in this game and server will be more crowded. Game economy will improve and we will have a better server.


    Other players can share their thoughts to help new players.



    Greetings

    -Tarsq

    While you can enter rofl without completing prequest which was changed in one of the Beginnerpatches, I still agree with this Post.


    Regarding Cores needed for Nostalgia:

    I think reducing the amount of Cores from 30 to a minimum of 10 is a fair tradeoff with -5 Cores needed for each instance that is newer than the instance in question.