[suggestion] update new player residence signs, asap More than once, new players have shown up and ask ''oh a plot world'' or ''great this is creative''. Since the new tutorial is still in process, how about just a simple update of the signs on the res when the new players spawn into town. This is /HOME. Resource world is updated regularly and survival go to /waste Permanent Survival Building World is called /Frontier Wild /Town is safe and for player shops or storage, but not creative I'm sure I am missing something else.
Yes! So many new players don't see past the "plot world" and properly experience all the wonderful features EMC has to offer and it’s a real shame nothing has been done about this sooner. It's imperative that there are immediate updates made to the existing welcoming system - you're not the only one campaigning for change on this Katy . Currently, most new players do complete the tutorial and stay online for average 10 minutes before disconnecting. This suggests that once the tutorial is complete, new players lack the direction and knowledge of what to do next. They get bored and disconnect. What are the solutions? Residence welcome signs could be simplified - nobody wants to read a bunch of signs full of text. Add some color and formatting to make them visually attractive and easy to follow. Adding holographic displays (like in the tutorial) would perhaps be an alternative to signs. They could disappear after a few minutes of the player being nearby. Or, perhaps a GUI opens upon tutorial completion with different worlds and a small description below explaining their usage and functions. This would empower new players with agency to pick whether they want to play survival or be in town, etc. I understand town is unequivocally crucial to EMC but town for new players is pointless if they have nothing to do there. For new players, an empty dirt res limits creativity by setting boundaries and ultimately boredom kicks in. I'd love to hear suggestions from others.
It seems like 95% of all players that are vocal when they join immediately ask "what do I do" and the job of explaining town, frontier, waste, and other important things lies on other players explaining it rather than the server's pre built system. So if nobody online wants to do that they probably just leave ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have mentioned to a few people. That although I agree with the suggestion - for there to be any hope for this to be implemented in a timely manner; I need help. Specifically with what wording actually fits on Signs. The wording, formatting, layout, etc. Without a more specific suggestion - this thread isn't particularly helpful. I can make a list of a 100 things that need improved on EMC. Knowing something improved doesn't really help me. Because it comes back to "me" that has to do it. I know BulkInc has a mockup of a potential sign implementation. I invite them to share it here and have some public discussion on pros/cons/adjustments.
I agree with Bulk, this is urgent that needs to be addressed, as I see lots of players hop on then immediately leave because they don't know what to do. The only thing I would change with his setup, is add a sign between the Town Sign and the Frontier sign, that tells the cpset command to let others build on their residence, aside from that, I would add Buy and Sell in the retrospective places on the shop chest. Other than that, as a newer player here, I believe that would be a great explanation
This is great!! my one suggestion would be the line in the town sign "/v (Res#/Player)." I can totally understand it knowing the command, but if I didn't this would be confusing, I don't recall ever seeing another res/plot system on a server that has numbered addresses, Id replace it with just "/visit Name" or "/visit Player" if memory serves "/pv" is a common command used for a vault like plugin that many servers have, so just having "/v" is more likely to cause confusion than anything, yes this means new players wont instantly know the short version or res addresses, but I think being able to use /visit at all is more important
I will throw out there. An argument against using a bunch of different sign types. Is that they will take a bunch of inventory slots when they go to remove them.
Yes that was the one command particularly difficult to place within a sign. I like the idea of /visit (player) maybe?
but, maybe one is their favorite, and who knows they might keep them up for a while until they get the hang of everything.... i think the difference in sign types is pretty cool, as it adds distinction vs all the same plain jane....
Bulk's design is quite good, and a great starting point for this. We need to keep in mind that the signs need to be concise and not information overload. So we need to look closely at what is actually the most important to have on them. Personally I have pretty much never used /nether. In my mind it's just the other half of /wild, and there are portals at the outposts anyway. I think I'd remove that sign or replace it with info about /spawn, which has portals to all the other worlds. Something missing from Bulk's layout that the current signs have is the mention of /help. As veterans we probably never use it, but I just checked it out and it's actually a really well designed guide. It accomplishes much of what the signs are trying to do but with a navigable menu and way more detail than signs ever can. So I think maybe instead of trying to explain everything on the signs we should hit the highlights and emphasize that /help has everything else. Since we need to keep in mind that the signs need to be concise I think I'd put this in the category of not essential to be on the signs since the vast majority of brand new players aren't going to be setting flags right off the bat. And if they do /help explains it well. +1 I think using lots of text color like Bulk has done adds enough pop to make things distinct. I think the inventory clutter as Chicken mentioned is probably a bigger detriment to multiple sign types than looking a little nicer is a plus.
Also, something that could be useful is the fact that you can write on both sides of signs now. Not sure if that would be good design or not, but perhaps slightly less important things could go on the back? idk
IMO, I would use a letter in the chest that the player can read. It need not be long, just one or two pages. I would also put a box around "/help" to emphasize that the wiki is there to use.
Having a book copy of the entire New Player Guide as a reference wouldn't be impossible. I actually created a copy of it back in 2020 for players who joined and weren't able to access the guide to go through the tutorial. That said, a quick reference guide, rather than full explanations, would probably be more beneficial.
When we think about the new player experience, it's important to provide information in a way that's: Accessible - Needs to be easy to move through and read for players of all ages and backgrounds Easy to reference - Ability to reference again after being read the first time, for reminders or refreshers. Delivered at a reasonable pace - Don't provide too much information up front, slowly inform players as it's relevant Uses multiple modes of delivery - Don't provide all information in one format, diversify across different formats Fun, but optional - We want players to consume information through fun and easy to consume methods, not because we're forcing them. With this in mind, the new players signs should be focused on what is most relevant to the player in that moment, and consider which of the above bullets is applicable to this delivery method. For example, once the signs are destroyed, that information is no longer available to the player in that format. The information needs to be something they either don't need to reference often or can easily reference in other places, and provide the place to get that information. With this in mind, I think I would propose focusing the signs on: This is the player's Home plot How to get back to /home How to get to Waste to gather resources How to use the Empire Assistant I would remove any references to the Frontier, Vault, other SMPs, or creating a Shop at this point of the player experience. Players will encounter these things as they need/want them, and they can use the Empire Assistant to get more information on these things. _____________________ Also, I think a lot of EMC's guides directs players to use commands, and many veteran players know EMC commands by heart. But for new players, this system can be overwhelming. We should modify many of our guides/tutorials to limit the number of commands introduced, and instead direct players to use non-command options to navigate EMC. An example of this is directing players to just use /town to navigate to Waste, Frontier, SMPs, etc. This is 1 command players can memorize to get to all of these places, rather than trying to teach 5 different commands. Then as players get comfortable, they can start to pick up the commands over time to simplify their gamplay experience.
I wasn't thinking of the entire guide. Only enough that will get them started. I was thinking five pages or less.
there is already a new player guide book that comes with the starter items in their inventory when a new player spawns in town. perhaps your suggestion is to update that book?
I agree with alot of what has been said here. And I was hoping for a dialog of what exactly to put on the signs when I made this suggestion. I was hoping for something polished enough for chicken/moople (someone) to implement when approved. Thank you so much for the feedback. Unfortunately the last time that I was in-game was just after this post, I think. I am assuming that the top picture is the current signs that are seen when someone spawns ( I would have sworn that those were a little different, but ... my memory I guess. It has been awhile since I was on a new player res.) I really like love the switch to the single line of signs, as 2 rows can be confusing to read sometimes. As to Marvel's suggestion about the back of signs: easy. Make the front and the back the same. This lets them build their base on whatever side they like. I have explained the /v is for visit in the command for a long time. It is different from other servers and that seems to be the best way to remember it/communicate it. I have never read anywhere in the wiki that ''visit'' is what the /v stands for. very cool that it seems to be a consensus or correct! or both. I would write: visit a friend with /v playername on the sign. Chat can discuss the fine points of that, if need be. Make the /v playername another sign completely. An edit to the /town sign is that "no mobs spawn here'' and Safe MC (vs Survival MC on the other signs). Drop any sign for creating shops. That isn't a first hour of looking around thing. And there is a whole wiki for shop help and commands. The command /shop is all anyone needs for the first little while of looking around. The /mall or / +mall command(s) is improperly used and/or outdated, so skip it altogether. It isn't needed and the inactive shops need removed more urgently than malls need to be distinguished from the shops. There is a list of active shops at https://empireminecraft.com/threads/shop-directory.86037/ and that is all that is needed in the meantime, in fact it should be discussed in chat as often as possible for anyone who doesn't know. Waste should be listed first for traveling, then /nether waste. Then Wild Frontier, then frontier nether. Not everyone knows that there is a waste nether, but /nether takes them to "a" nether. The next invariably asked question is about the end and if it's a command, too. A useful command to learn all the places to travel is "/go" and can be a little more familiar to other server players. It's roughly the same as using the assistant, but chat instead of clicking the compass and it works when players don't have inventory for the assistant. Also using /spawn as has been suggested and is also very useful, all the smps have tps down the stairs as well as the waste and wild portals. I would like to see a sign added to the town spawns that indicate "regular resets" and "go mining here" to both the waste portals, nether and overworld, as well as "will never reset" and "permanent builds" to both the Wild Frontier portals for nether and overworld. This would be a fine chance to use the new signs to glam town spawns up a bit Add a double chest to the beginning or end of the row of signs, never sure why that first chest was buried anyway. This is double duty, as it helps take care of the inventory worry over the different types of signs and gets them a jump start on their storage collection of .... wonderful stuff that we sometimes throw at them . Also, there are some players who never notice the chest or wonder if they can use it. Also as a suggestion, a waste spawn hologram for /compass show and /compass spawn would be a QOL improvement I do see JD's point about keeping the total sign number smaller and down to the important 4. However there are players who keep the signs for a long time and refer back to them as they become familiar with the server. /help and /go and /assist and /compass spawn are all wonderful reminders, if there is to be a sign for commands. As a reminder for established players (is the command order: /help shop or /shop help) perhaps add a couple of those most pertinent help commands into chat for a couple of months, in order to help put them into our memories and to help new players?
