We have a problem here!

Discussion in 'Player Guides, Tips and Tricks' started by Zbid, Jun 18, 2020.

  1. ok ok don't panic :D

    I think everyone will agree with the fact that newcomers to EMC have two things in common : they get a warm welcome for sure - thumbs up! - then get mired , mill around trying to understand what to do, throw their arms in the air with despair and only the most eager will stay and finally get it. -thumbs down...-
    I think it is because EMC is very specific compared to other servers, and have quite a lot of rules to digest. Which you will eventually have to do, agreed. But let's not kill the fun before it even started, eh...

    Hence, I think establishing something like a very minimalist tutorial addressing specifically this, is in order.
    I have tried to draft something, but english is not my primary language, and I'm not the most versed in EMC subtleties. So, i'll submit to you the draft in the next post. Please, read it and rewrite it all or part of it, comment, propose any changes and rectifications you think are needed and would help total newcomers to experience the fun of EMC as fast as possible. Let's get them hooked as we are all!
  2. Hi ! and welcome to EMC !

    So, you’ve finished the tutorial. Congratulations!
    You probably wonder what to do now. Here is a little reading that will help you get your bearings, and hopefuly save you time and a lot of asking around. I promise you, the time spent reading this will save you much more time in the short run.
    As a newcomer, you are awarded a 64*64 plot of earth in one of the TOWN part of one of the 9 SERVERS.
    To jump to your plot, you do /home from any TP-able place : from anywhere in TOWN, or from a TP-hub in the WILD or WASTE.

    HOPPING BETWEEN SERVERS
    Yes, there are 9 servers + a special VIP one, named Utopia, where plots are bigger and day does not cycle. They are names SMP1, SMP2, SMP3,…,SMP9, and UTOPIA.
    You also have a server dedicated to events and games, named GAMES.
    To hop from one server to another, just put a / in front of the name, like to hop to SMP9, you write /SMP9, and voilà!
    You can hop from one server to another from ANYWHERE. You’ll materialize on the target server at the last position you were at when you last visited it, or in the server’s TOWN area if you’ve never been there before.
    BEWARE! You won’t bring your items with you from one server to another when hopping like that. There is a way to carry items from server to server : the VAULT system (here). You have a different inventory on each server, which is permanent (it won’t be deleted if you hop to another server and pop back in).

    WHAT IS ON A SERVER?
    A server is divided in several areas, each one with its own specs. YOU KEEP YOUR INVENTORY when moving from one part to another on the same server.

    TOWN AREA (/TOWN)
    You have the TOWN area, where each newcomer gets a 64*64 plot of land (and you can have several plots if you have a paying membership like iron, gold, diamond).
    There is no monster spawning there (that affects the possible farms too), the ground is only earth down to the bedrock.
    Your plot is totally under your control, nobody can use items on it unless you gives them the permission to do so, nobody can destroy anything on it unless authorized, etc.
    If you don’t like the plot you’ve been given for any reason, you can always unclaim it first, then find a plot you like more in this town or the town on another server, and claim it. More on this ***here***.
    Players often establish a shop here, some are thriving. Others use their plot as a showcase of their building skill. Or a farming zone safe from monsters.

    WILDERNESS AREA (/WILD)
    This is where you can have a vanilla-like experience : build, explore, hunt, make new friends and/or bring your friends with you. There are also special mobs with their own special drops, that will be challenging, but rewarding to hunt!
    Some people like to establish their own outpost, stuffed with farms, there, and are happy nearly never coming back to TOWN!
    You can jump to the wild from anywhere in town. You’ll arrive in the wilderness randomly at one of the 9 special TP hubs, if you jump with /WILD. You can also aim at one specific TP hub, by indicating which one by its quadrant : N,S,E,W, NE, NW, SE,SW, C (for center). Eg by doing /WILD NE you’ll jump to the north-eastern TP hub of the wilderness part of the server you’re on.
    BEWARE! YOU CAN NOT FREELY JUMP BACK TO TOWN FROM THE WILDERNESS : you have to be at one of the 9 TP hub to be able to jump back to town or to another part of the server.
    If you’re lost in the wilderness, you can set your compass to point toward the nearest TP hub. Your compass is your friend!
    The wilderness do not get reset, ever. So you shouldn’t mine or destroy the environment. If you want to mine, there is another part of the server dedicated to just that : the…

    WASTELAND AREA (/WASTE)
    This is about the same as the wilderness, with monsters and all, but it gets reset periodically. It is there for people to mine everything and as much as they want. You can hunt mobs too, or even build here, establish for example a mining hub somewhere, but you’ll eventually have to salvage it or forfeit it if a reset is scheduled. Don’t worry, you’ll get ample notice if the situation arises.
    As for the wilderness, there are 9 TP hubs, and you can not jump to another part of the server if you’re not standing in one of these hubs.

    SO, WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?
    Well, the world is your cookie! You can decide to make a superb residence in town, or go straight to the wild and establish one, two, or more outposts. Live as an exploring hermit, alone, or with friends. You can make new friends in the chat, meet them in game, and adventure together! You can bring your own friends! Whatever you want, really, as long as you don’t grief and stay respectful of the others, you’ll be fine.

    Gathering material and buying stuff
    If you plan to build in town, you’ll have to go to the wastelands to mine and gather your material, or buy it from a shop in town with your own rupees. Yes, you have rupees! Check your current amount with /r . More on this ***here***.
    The best and fastest way to earn rupees and very useful enchanted items, at the beginning, is to vote daily. More on this ***here***.
    All the rules are in the wiki, ***here*** but there is the must-read NEW PLAYER GUIDE where you can find all the necessary infos to get a quick great start on EMC!

    Have fun!
  3. It seems a little long, but we do need to do a better job explaining to new players what to do. I think the old tutorial with Marlix and Momentus in cages was the best one, it explained quite clearly what to do.
  4. we should add something about the chat, too, and a link to the proper explanations.
  5. I have never seen that one before Pete. It sounds interesting. Marlix and Momo explaining EMC to the newcomers.... indeed.

    I like this page and I think that it could very easily be condensed a bit. I wouldn't mind giving you a hand with that and doing some editing, but I want to think about it for a couple of days.
    :+1:
    I think there are some players that would really like this. And there are those that will (of course) run right by and not read a thing, but I don't think this is aiming at those :p
    Nickblockmaster likes this.
  6. Cool! Slash and edit, please! :D

    At least that will be a link to give to the hordes of newcomers asking with such regularity "I don't get this game? What do I do?". If they run by and not read the link kindly provided to them, that will be on them.

    Maybe we could also add a line at the beginning to explain this is a vanilla-with-a-tweak-economy-including-PVE server, not a PVP one.
  7. How would you know? ;)

    See, you make a point which has been suggested several times for as long as I've been playing on this server and well... the one thing which I think you're overlooking are the newcomers who simply slip in undetected. And trust me, if you use the /newplayers command for a few times you may notice more of them than you anticipated.

    Which is basically a flaw in your reasoning I think: you're only focusing on those new players you noticed, but what about the rest?

    I've went through the current tutorial a few times and well... IMO it's already at its bare minimum. There are basically 4 or 5 mandatory questions which players need to answer before they may continue and those questions are quite important... Such as the issue of griefing and how to protect your stuff.

    Which another aspect to consider.. we're talking about the regular players here, but what about the bad guys? You know, the likes of: "How was I supposed to know that you cant destroy stupid player buildings? call that a build? tutorial never told me nothing!". Yah, in a tutorial you can walk through, no questions asked, it's an easy argument. But not in the current one.

    Note that I'm not claiming that the current tutorial is perfect, but... I do think it does a fine job in the overal. I base this on an experience I've had a few weeks or months ago; invited a Steam friend over who had barely visited Minecraft servers. He managed easily.

    No, that's not quite the way that worked ;)

    The explaining was done with signs and sign collections (a bunch of signs on a board). Some custom mobs (Momo & Marlix) were only showcased with a sign in front. Basically to show new players what the custom mobs were all about.

    It was a cool tutorial, also because it contained a secret treasure hunt, but at the same time also huge. Plenty of players got bored or lost or a bit of both. And stuck! :D

    Yah, that was sometimes really a problem... having someone stuck in the tutorial on SMP2 and then you had to convince some of them that you weren't just running off, but hopping onto another server because the only active staff at that time was on SMP9 (for example). And of course... no multi server chat in those days ;)
  8. So the newer generation of players is different than the older generation of players? No surprise.

    -- I agree, let's help them out. I think your tutorial idea seems to be fitting. :)
    Nickblockmaster likes this.
  9. I thought I was the real Slim Shady
  10. I hear them squeak.

    Mr ShelLuser, I am well aware quite a few people are not asking for help and probably figure the stuff for themselves. And true, this is where the tutorial is important, and that exploration tutorial with the Momentus and Marlix was a good one imho too. In fact, it is the one i stumbled upon when I first came to EMC.

    Nevertheless, quite a few are expressing their sense of being lost once they finish the tutorial. These are the ones we are aiming at with this mini-introduction. You have seen it IG, always the same bunch of questions, and people trying to help with a flurry of answers that could be a bit unhinging by its randomness in depth of presupposed knowledge.

    As it is always the same bunch of questions -in random order-, and they pop up after the tutorial but before they are able to get into the game, I guess it can be addressed in this organized way. Since I play here, it hasn't been done in this manner, so we might as well try it and see. Basically, the idea is to refer them to this intro when one of the questions it has answer too are asked, hoping it will put them on their path.
    Nickblockmaster and Lily_Lil like this.
  11. thats the one i started in
    Nickblockmaster likes this.
  12. So is that because they were confused, or because they blindly tried options, managed to get through and ended up getting lost?

    IN addition to all this... I need to ask Aya's new friend to be certain, but don't new players still get a booklet for them to read? If that is so (= assumption on my part (for now)) why is it EMC's problem when they don't read it?

    If there's one thing I've learned over all my years in support, and also saw this backed up by Steam (and partially EMC) experiences it's that you cannot protect people from themselves. Period.
    Nickblockmaster likes this.
  13. I don't know. Do you?

    Let's make it a semi-column.
    I beg to differ : you can try to guide them. Different people have different ways of learning a new process, so i think it is worth a try to help these specific ones, that went through the tutorial, and call for help in the chat channel. Once written and posted, that will only be a matter of referring them to the page anyway, not much of an effort, for a potential good.
    Nickblockmaster likes this.