Newbie direction.

[ozziewolf]

Just an idea but perhaps there could be a small quest or an npc who tells people looking for work to go to different areas. I spent over an hour last night before I stumbled across the trading post and people present in it.
At that point I was getting fairly frustrated as I couldn't find any quests or anything that would give me some kind of direction on where would be a good place to start out and either meet people or find monsters. (All in all I felt very lost for that first hour.) I had a similar experience almost a year ago back then I found some spoon quest which was one of the best quests I'd ever done but after that I gave up and moved on until I decided to give it another try just last night.
I think that even very minor direction on where players hang out might help in newbie retention. (That or maybe it's just me you know what ever! :P)

Outside of that my experience so far has been most excellent.

[Jaeram]

Sundren doesn't really have quests implemented, we do have a lot of DM run events and a grea player base though so don't let that deter you from playing here. If you want a place to meet people and role play a bit I suggest going to the campfire in the exigo trading camp where people tend to gather. Once you meet a few people everything will start to open up more. Also the normal place to start fighting is the Shaharan hills, but depending on your class you may need other people to help you, in fact for any class it's a good idea to bring a friend.

[ozziewolf]

I think you misunderstood my post. I wasn't asking for quests but for some direction for some one who's logging on for the first time. I'm not having any problems now as I've met people and know my way around a little bit.

The problem is a lot of people will just simply log off after an hour of not finding anything and move on to another server. (I did this once with Sundren about a year ago.) Some dialogue giving pointers on where to start out maybe an npc saying the trading post is a great place to meet people or as I was suggesting possibly a small quest to direct them to a couple of areas to get a feel for things.

The easiest solution would probably be to add dialogue to the captain about looking for work and him responding with something a long the lines of he's not sure about work but adventurer's are always looking for like minded adventurers at the trading post.

The first hour is very crucial for keeping newbies and having them roam loss could unintentionally push the less patient ones away. If I hadn't gone to the trading post when I did I probably would have logged off after another 15 minutes and moved on to another server. As up to that point I hadn't encountered any one or anything to do. Granted another option is to send a tell to players asking for help but that doesn't necessarily occur to a lot of people when they're frustrated and trying to find RP or something to do.

[Saulus]

Well why don't you try checking your inventory and reading the Sundren Traveller's Guide?

[joker]

A lot of people throw that book out, without ever reading it. To bad for them!

[Landaren]

Yes sundren does not have newbie quests yet.... Seek out the player base IC for they shall aid you in your quest for glory! ( or perhaps lead you to your totally demise )

[sparkeh]

What's wrong with having a good wander I ask you?

[Silas North]

Push the less patient ones away you say?

At the risk of sounding like a complete (insert your word of choice here), I have to ask if all of you think that such is a bad thing? It is a real question, not a rhetorical one.

Pro: Less impatient people.
Con: Impatient does not automatically equal bad, especially if they write it into their character in a creative way.
Pro: Only so much room to go around.
Con: More people means potential steadier traffic, even in the wee hours of night. And just how often is the server filled to the brim anyway? (again, not a rhetorical question)
Pro: Less chance of DMs getting pestered by people with "Where the hell do I go!?" tells when they are setting an event in motion.
Con: Less potential customers when the Sundren t-shirts, mugs, and plush dolls are available.

[Kangleton]

It is the eventual intention of the Sundren Development team to implement a quest system, though the details of this system are somewhat still undescribed to the player community. However, it is probably likely that these quests will include one or two for newbies, and would be geared towards an introduction into the server.

Until, and including then, you can still always use the Sundren menu, while online. Right click your character and you'll see an option that says "Sundren", and upon entering that new pop-up, you should see an option that says "Find Players" or something similar. If you select that, you'll recieve a list of which areas have the most players, and you can use that to find a few people to RP with, and recieve direction from.

Your search will almost always lead you to the Exigo Trading Camp though, where most people will be located around the campfire near the area entrance. Some of the PC's that have been known to reside there will even give quests to you much like an NPC would. There was a person who had RP'ed putting a bounty on the head of any goblin, and would pay ten gold for each piece of meat you'd bring back to them, as proof of the task being completed. I've seen another person direct a newbie to a place to find a book for them, and would eventually pay the newbie for the services of a delivery boy. These people didn't actually need goblin meat or books, as these items are pretty much worthless, and easily findable if the requirement for them ever did arise, but it provided nice direction for new folks, and provided some extra gold as well.

My quests were the best though. Oh yes.

Go to le' Exigo, I say.

[ozziewolf]

So many servers give you a million different books and 99% of the time it's just pointless stuff you've already and can find easily on the forums. Such as rules, pantheon etc... so after a while you get in the habit of just not bothering with them. One server I played on once gave me 8 different books and some items I never figured out what they did. So as a rule of thumb I don't bother reading the books and I imagine there are a lot of people who are the same way. (I've actually seen the Sundren book on the ground a few times.)

As for impatience I don't think an hour of wandering and getting frustrated because you couldn't find any one or anything is due to a lack of patience. So saying we don't want them is a rather poor attitude.

Seeking out the player base ICly is part of the problem as I wandered for about an hour before I encountered any one. If a player goes to the wrong place he could go a lot longer with out encountering any one.

I talked to the captain all the dockworkers and went to at least 3 maybe 4 inns trying to find people or some direction on where to go. (Inn's and people around a starting area typically being the ones who will have some information.)

The problem with find players for some one brand new is a lot of those areas they wont know where they are and for those who are new to nwn2 they won't even know about find players as I just learned about it on my last server.

Are you guys really saying it's to big a hassle to have the captain or some of the dock workers just say hey if you're looking for work there are always people seeking fellow adventurer's at the trading post or something along those lines?

With some of these responses you'd think the server was trying to push people away and not draw the in.

[Saulus]

Well when you are a new user and register on the forum to complain we don't have quests which we state numerous times that we are developing (again use search) and we remind people we are in beta. I don't see what the big question is?

The FAQ and forums contain a wealth of information already and most people just can't be bothered to read any of it.

And no, the Sundren book itself doesn't contain tons of useless info, in fact it contains the exact things you're here complaining about the lack of info for. You can't help people who don't want to help themselves. You're looking for the easy answer.

[ozziewolf]

If you reread my post I never complained about lack of quests. I was stating that there was a lack of direction for new players. I suggested a small quest or perhaps some dialogue to give pointers.

This entire post has been met with nothing but hostility and I'm starting to question whether or not I should be playing on a server where suggestions are met with such negative attitudes.

Why even have a suggestion forum if all you're going to do is bash them? All in all no one has taken the time to read what my post is actually saying and simply making it say what they want it to say.

I said some direction would help with new players. Being constructive I listed two suggestions.

What people are saying I'm saying is waaa no quests waaaa give us quests. Something that my post clearly doesn't say at all.

[sharringtonm]

*Waves*

[Chiangtao]

Can I suggest that all parties relax their tone a little bit please? Personally I hate how these things get escalated, and I think you can see that happening from more than one party here.

Ozzie, try sending a tell in-game for suggestions if you get lost, I'm sure someone will happily help you out OOCly. It sounds like the devs won't be using this suggestion.

[ozziewolf]

It's sad to see what I've heard about the server is true but better to find out now than later I suppose.

To those people I RP'd with you where a great bunch and there was some great character interaction.

edit: I don't even care if it's used or not I was simply trying to be helpful in retaining new players as I thought it would be a high priority for every server. The amount of hostility I've received for trying to be helpful is ridiculous and it's better I find out how things are sooner rather than later.