Hey everyone, We've recently been brainstorming on ways to make our tutorial a more pleasing experience for new players who don't know WHY EMC is so epic yet. What we have now has worked to a degree and in my opinion has done great compared to the other ways there are out there, but we can do better. We do tend to lose a number of players before they even reach EMC, which is sad since they'll never know how awesome it truly is. One idea we have is to let new players actually visit the EMC towns and look around all the residences before actually joining. They won't be able to chat, but will be able to SEE chat with a note telling them they can chat when they become a member. Now, for the actual tutorial part. The maze is effective for a lot, but "boring" for others. So, we want to eliminate the "boring" part completely. What are some ideas you guys might have to make a tutorial experience both informative and FUN? One idea I had was to make stations (rooms or something of the like) dedicated to certain parts of the guide and features with the ability to add new features as we add them. So, you could do something like: /tutorial rts and go to a room dedicated to the RTS system and how to do it. Each of these "rooms" would have a teleport back to a main tutorial lobby (think like our new shop) where they can go to any part of the tutorial they want. We of course would have a set "path" of manditory rooms for new players to show off the basic "need to know" stuff. but each of our features could have it's own optional room to go into as well. Throw any of your ideas out there, even if you think they're silly as they might spring a new EMC idea down the road! Thanks.
Make a separate world for the tutorial. The current confined hallway tutorial is not very pleasing to look at. Maybe make the new world open and epic looking (like the /shop world).
Teleporters back to the area where a question is asked at the end of a wrong answer. I know I got a few wrong and HATED walking all the way back then through another one to be wrong again. I just got my brother to give me answers. It wasn't like I blindly walked either, I thought I was right. This is just a slight edit - It was just something that really bothered me haha, but I understand why it was there.
I agree with this idea and brought it up myself. When we made the shop a new world, it brought up a whole bunch of new ideas for EMC in my head.
My exact thinking. Make it more appealing with glass and glowstone, 'cuz everything looks better with glass and glowstone ;
Making tour guides on EMC may work. The guide could be the only one able to talk to the new member, and give them a tour. Guides could be hand selected by the staff, and not have any new permissions/advantages, just to talk to guests in tutorial. There could be an RTS, like, choose a reading version, or have someone guide you through the Empire themselves. This could encourage our community activity, and show that we try to make it the best experience possible.
This. And, if it gets made, it should look nice. Sandstone is a bit bland. As for the 'boringness', I'm thinking you should keep the maze, but make the hallways a bit smaller and maybe add explanations as to why the incorrect answers are incorrect. I know I was a bit annoyed when I hit the end of a long hallway and it was a dead end. I was expecting there to be a teleport back too.
I think guest mode is pretty much a must. Let people see all the epic reses, but not chat, go to the wild, or basically do anything else outside the tutorial. Maybe even have guests vanished too. Maybe even some kind of storyline for the tutorial could work? Something that gets followed on by the Dragon Tombs, or similar. Dunno if its possible, but I'd also like people to have to look in the guide for a randomly generated code before they can leave the tutorial (have it so it changes daily). /town wouldn't activate until they type this code into chat. It wouldn't be perfect, but would force people to at least know about the guides existence. And finally, a full explanation of /report and /ignore would be nice - including all punishments (such as automatic 2 day ban for report system abuse) and simulated chat messages so people have a better feel for what's okay and what's not. Basically anything that stops me paying to skip it is a plus
I must admit I did not like the maze. In fact I just did the maze again recently, and I am not a fan. Would be great if it was just a long chain of chambers. To get through the next door, you have to pull the lever associated with the correct answer on the sign placed above the lever. When the right lever is pulled, more lights turn on, and note blocks play, and the door opens to the next chamber, until all the questions are answered correctly. You could even put in an inverter and if they pull the wrong lever, the lights dim (redstone lamps) (or they could be teleported back to the beginning?). Just wanted to add that I like the idea of a preview.
I don't think it should be easy to just guess your way through, so that is a good thing about the current system. Rather than making the whole thing a maze, you could have teleporters to the next section for some questions and buttons or levers for other questions. Then if you get a question wrong, at least you could have different outcomes for what would happen. People might try the tutorials just to see what happens when the wrong answers are given. Traps or Mobs could be released on players who guessed wrong repeatedly. Prizes could be given along the way for players who guess correctly on the first try, this would encourage people to read rather than guess. Using books in game to teach the guide seems like a way to go, but not sure how to make that work for repeated use. Maybe make a simple and easy tutorial to gain access to town without any build permissions and another to gain your res and another to get your chat and another to get access to the wild or nether. Restrict new players to the periodic reset area on the junky resetting version of the wild that will be starting soon (is that the wastelands?) Anyway, you said you wanted brainstorm of ideas and i was feeling suggestiony. Take them all or don't, I won't be upset. Thanks as always for making the Empire such a great community and always making improvement like this.
I can only see guests taking a monorail around town xD that would be fun. And that adventure map style sounds good. Instead of only reading, it would be good if people hat to practice the things they learn in order to advance. Making a teleport or a shop could be included here too because most people don't even know it is possible until they explore and meet someone willing to explain it.
