New player's Friendly game

    The game is not new players friendly, it's simple like that this problem has been mentioned a ton of times but u keep ignoring it, how is it not new player friendly? let's go back to why it is, simply relocation system is a great tool and I was happy with it at first, I can make my kingdom invite random people to join easily and be able to compete with premade kingdoms until it was no longer that way and premade kingdoms kind of abused it by having multiple branches......so now premade kingdoms always win and new players have to simply join multiple servers make multiple relations just to be able to create a strong premade and most people cannot be consistent to play on multiple servers in a row to do such thing, we have a life, I'm sure there are simple ways to fix this problem without major system changes, certain time constraints that will ensure that premade kingdoms won't be able to join in all those branches whether size limit, rejoin time limit, certain time limit based on player server join date, you figure it out.

    I am very happy to read your message TheDoctor, I have split part of it into its own thread since I believe that it deserves some attention, specially since you seem to have some ideas on how to improve the game for new players.


    Recently we had a brainstorming regarding how to encourage new players to join a Kingdom, but in this one you are talking about helping new players into the game.


    You mention simple ways to fix the issue for new players, do you have any specific one in mind?


    Anyone else, please feel free to pit in and give your ideas! :)

    TheDoctor What I receive when reading your post is, that teamplay is crucial for winning a game round and no new player can win their first or even second round on their own. That is completely right. It's a must to connect with other players to manage a kingdom efficiently and to have a chance to win the game round. That doesn't mean those teams have to be always premade, though. It's true, if a team works well together, they most likely will do so in a next round as well. But that's not always the case, though. I've seen small teams become bigger and bigger until they imploded and split up again. A standard game round is almost half a year long, it's only human that real life happens and there are changes within teams.

    Quote from TheDoctor

    The game is not new players friendly, it's simple like that this problem has been mentioned a ton of times but u keep ignoring it, how is it not new player friendly? let's go back to why it is, simply relocation system is a great tool and I was happy with it at first, I can make my kingdom invite random people to join easily and be able to compete with premade kingdoms until it was no longer that way and premade kingdoms kind of abused it by having multiple branches......so now premade kingdoms always win and new players have to simply join multiple servers make multiple relations just to be able to create a strong premade and most people cannot be consistent to play on multiple servers in a row to do such thing, we have a life, I'm sure there are simple ways to fix this problem without major system changes, certain time constraints that will ensure that premade kingdoms won't be able to join in all those branches whether size limit, rejoin time limit, certain time limit based on player server join date, you figure it out.

    You are correct that it is indeed not that new player friendly if you want to create your own kingdom. Then you must build relation over time and a lot of the player base already have various premade groups to join. So, the pool of real active/good players is limited. In addition, the menhir system seems to be good at first view for a new a kingdom. However, it could be that you have located yourself at the wrong spot and suddenly you see 30-50 new players close to your borders as they were relocated there.


    Your solution to the "problem" is not a feasible suggestion. Instead, I would propose a new game server where only low prestige player accounts could join in. It could even be the case that some more experienced players were allowed to join as mentors/advisors for the kingdoms. Then they could get something special for their commitment to get new players into the game.


    At least, through that you would not get that many premade as people gain prestige and at some point in time, they cannot join these servers. Further, it would be more fun for new players as they are more likely to do well on these servers.

    If I am not wrong.. the tutorial system finish with the decision to become governor or king. Many new players could try the king for curiosity, or choose be a governor and not search for a kingdom. Maybe if have new tasks to encourage then to chat with other players, invite players, and other kingdom related, and why not, the most important... tasks and tips who include send reinforce to a ally in danger ( king or governor), and to become more offensive even as governor, because many newbies choose a pacific way as governor and forgot to train troops or train just deffence and in some point are incapable to deal with robbers. For then, we need more instructions to how to play in a hope to keep then motivated after the start.

    Thank you @₩Ɽ₳ł₮Ⱨ for the idea... I am concern how feasible or successful could be a game world only for low prestige players, even the technical difficulties of setting up such game world would be difficult.


    Sant7-br#EN I like the idea of adding some tasks, did I miss any:

    • Players are required to reinforce someone
    • Players are required to chat with other players
    • If player selects been governor search for a Kingdom and request joining the Kingdom
    • If player selected been King search and invite someone to his/her Kingdom.

    Did I miss any?


    Any other idea anyone?

    A game with low prestige players? maybe if in future the game can offer some rewards to winning kingdoms, we can tray this idea. a system of league to filter experienced players and who goes up until gold or platinum league. even better, a minimum finished servers ( play until end) can filter even more the experience and let only the new or "play for just few days " players find you way.


    ok.. let me explain and elaborate better this.. not a task from the tasknote to get a reward, but a ingame tutorial to force new players to do the interaction. This need a dialogue included explaining how important this could be. It is a rework job, but could be great if well done.


    Send a message is a old task from the early travian version, if I am not wrong. we just need do a special touch to set this to kingdoms system.

    Let the player know this is a teamwork game, and we need to be part of a group in order to survive and have any chance. How about after deal with robbers the council say to the player who we need a king protection? maybe a new wave of robber atacks, and because they feel not ready this time they ask for allies help. we can force a situation here... because many newbies ask for help about farmers, so this tutorial atack need to be in siege mode, maybe just one ram to put some fear is enough and ensure the help can be good enough to not let the player lost more troops, because at this point they just have about 10 units hero included.


    Reinforce a player is alread a task ingame. it will just be more elaborated. maybe in the tutorial the robbers are going to steal the treasuries who we sell to our king and we are asked to defend the king. the player already learned how to atack using hero and offensive troops, now he are asked to select the def troops and the hero and go reinforce the king. Explain in this task how good is to a kingdom have a well guarded treasuries to grow and exerce inlfuence, and so on.. many players just do know this in a hard way.


    How about secret societies? this is so much unknow, just a way to traitors do the expert job inside a rival kingdom, and others undertable hide things realated. so why not set a new tutorial moment here? maybe a npc character are inside the roobers group and want to share some vital info to you, and you are asked to join they society for a while. after they deliver some info, you are kicked from this society, finished the tutorial.

    What I see as a problem is that, new players cannot learn the mechanics of the game. If someone new joins a server then what he will get is a QUICK tutorial, which won't teach him anything. Like yes, you can learn something, but over all it won't be enough. Create a server, where only players with low prestige can join. Something like a test server, give them some gold and use this to teach them, how to play. Of course, you can't teach them everything, but you can teach them what is better in which situatiuon. And they can try it. However, even expirienced players can have low prestige. Because if you won't accept those rewards you won't "rank-up" with your prestige.

    What I would like to see in that server as a "newbie friendly" change? Remove FL from that server, that will help new players, because they won't be using it, or they won't be using it efficiently. And It would nerf "smurfs". Remove duals, so that new players have equal ground, keep sitters, but restrict their abilities, so that they can only help the owner of the acounty but the owner still needs to do the most for the account to work.

    Thank you Sant7-br#EN for the explanation and the new idea, adding a tutorial for joining a secret society, I will pass that on to the team too.


    D-T I agree with you, a game world for only new players would be great, but how on earth do you make sure only new players join it?


    It would be too easy for expert players to create a new lobby account and enter the new game world... so not sure it would achieve anything... although I am going to talk about it with the team, right now I cannot think of a way to ensure it is really used for the intended purpose...


    Can I ask what do you mean by FL? I am sure it is something simple, but it just escapes me right now.

    Quote from D-T

    What I see as a problem is that, new players cannot learn the mechanics of the game. If someone new joins a server then what he will get is a QUICK tutorial, which won't teach him anything. Like yes, you can learn something, but over all it won't be enough. Create a server, where only players with low prestige can join. Something like a test server, give them some gold and use this to teach them, how to play. Of course, you can't teach them everything, but you can teach them what is better in which situatiuon. And they can try it. However, even expirienced players can have low prestige. Because if you won't accept those rewards you won't "rank-up" with your prestige.

    What I would like to see in that server as a "newbie friendly" change? Remove FL from that server, that will help new players, because they won't be using it, or they won't be using it efficiently. And It would nerf "smurfs". Remove duals, so that new players have equal ground, keep sitters, but restrict their abilities, so that they can only help the owner of the acounty but the owner still needs to do the most for the account to work.

    What will happen in this kind of server, is that experienced players will join it and farm manually (manual farming is really easy if you have time) and it won't do no good for new players development

    Maybe it could be a server without anything to gain?

    so no prestige gained (apart from a badge to say you've played it)

    no weekly stats

    etc

    questionable whether you even need WWs or an endgame?


    just a place to get to grips with all the game has to offer before joining a real server.


    Maybe have it time-locked to the age of the account (say one month) and make it so that every new player/account has to actively play before they can join a real server.

    If you remove stuff like top 10 and rankings all together, then have players get kicked out of the server after being there for let's say 2 weeks of playing where they are prompted to either join a "ranked" server that lasts longer or start over on the "training" server for another 2 weeks. speed should be either 3x or 5x. Server should also be permanent with no endgame since no account sticks around for more than 2 weeks anyways

    You're reading this. Think about it.

    How about giving double verified (email+phone message/ authenticator) players who have below 2 bronze stars the option to extend their beginner protection to a higher population (300). That would give them some more time. By having only double verified users you might get less multi abuse.

    Quote from iribuya

    How about giving double verified (email+phone message/ authenticator) players who have below 2 bronze stars the option to extend their beginner protection to a higher population (300). That would give them some more time. By having only double verified users you might get less multi abuse.

    Would you remove the time limit? No more 7 days. Just whenever you reach 300 pop? Or extend the 7 days too?

    Quote from leo#EN(19)

    Would you remove the time limit? No more 7 days. Just whenever you reach 300 pop? Or extend the 7 days too?

    Yeah perhaps add 50% more time too. 300 pop can also be 400 pop. The only reason to keep this lower is because cheaters will use it to grow their multi's high for tributes etc. Every game system has to be designed around cheaters sadly, and there is a lot of them in this game.


    I think it's incredibly hard for new players who dont have all day to feel strong. There is so many small things to increase production (oasis / oasis-troops / effective robber takeout with siege / treasure claiming). For a new player, especially on mobile, this is impossible to do correct without tons of guidance.


    They are such an easy target for farmers who will have an army 10x the size and wipe them out completely with a singe siege. Would you play a game where you invested 2 weeks and then in one single shot your whole army was destroyed? I would find something else to do.

    How about a more robust tutorial. Something optional, that keeps the player in the "outside game" zone for an entire day. Perhaps has some extra quests, like read the TOS, how to use the farm list, turn silver to gold, complete a daily quest, send 2 attacks in the same second. Most experienced players fast settle, so if this period offers no CP gain, no map access, and essentially operates in a "dream state" it can give a few bonuses that could really help a new player, but also come at a cost that only experienced players would care enough not to pay. I don't really feel like the standard tutorial really teaches players what the game is about and players are shocked when they are raided, catapulted, and just given a bad time.


    Also there was a discussion about noob servers. Perhaps just make a standard speed server that is travian light. No WW, No VP, just whoever has the most treasure on day 30 (60?) wins. Just let it be a new player slog fest. Perhaps make it so new players can only play govs on this server, and anyone with more then 3 gold stars has to play a king or a duke. Also perhaps to keep it non competitive kings are randomly assigned their dukes as "experienced" players join. Have 2 kings and 4 dukes per kingdom, no kingdom merge.

    TheDoctor although some time has passed, I wanted to make sure you knew we have been talking about your original idea.


    Where we stand is that we don't see it as helpful for new players. Right now we understand that the best way of helping new players is expose them to a real game world so they know how the game is actually played with veterans around, but it is interesting to be able to help them survive some how.


    That could probably be a joint effort by the community, that when you see a new player instead of destroying it there is a bit of a helping hand offered, with caution of course, since spies will always be an option in game.


    And then ideas on how the developers can help new players will always be welcome and studied.


    Please keep the ideas coming!

    dual-villages - make em happen so newcomers can clearly see how experienced players operate.


    Or maybe some new role in kingdom, who can access some villages of other players (not just as sitter) and give some advice on what could be done better.


    Biggest factor why newcomers struggle is still the time it takes for a succesful game..so here I suggest again - dual villages.