Gameplay: Automatically Assign new Players to open Outfits

hippieschuh · 2011-07-15, 02:51 AM

Problem:

Even there is a Mission system, new Players will feel lonely. They dont have comrades / mates right from the Start and need to find them.
Playing in group makes a lot more fun and the people will stay longer in the game.

Solution:

Give Outfits the option to set their outfit to "open" or "close".
If set to "open", new players are automatically assigned to "open" outfits.
"closed" outfits can only be joined when requesting to join via the player.

This simple System will give new players a warm welcome at its sure that a lot of players will continue playing.

Excuse my bad english.

krnasaur · 2011-07-15, 03:31 AM

I like the idea, so the new people have a sense of belonging as soon as they join, but make it something where you need a cert in the skill tree, so not every bilbo is making an outfit

Bags · 2011-07-15, 06:29 AM

I think they should just make sure players are aware of outfits instead of sticking them in them randomly.

DreaM · 2011-07-15, 06:33 AM

I believe that there should be a screen where it shows outfits that are recruiting with their information on it. This will stop the chat spam (especially since there will be no Sanc now)

Tikuto · 2011-07-15, 06:53 AM

Interesting. I like.

Grimster · 2011-07-15, 07:30 AM

I like this idea a lot. Maybe they could have pre created outfits that newly created characters automatically join instead? This was the case in DAoC so when you started a new character you were automatically member of a pre created guild so you had a lot of people you could communicate with and get advice from. Once the player got more comfortable with the game they usually left for a player created guild.

I think this could be a great thing among several things to make the game more user friendly for new players.

Hamma · 2011-07-15, 08:49 AM

Not a horrible idea, EVE did something similar with an NPC Corporation. As long as it's toggle-able sounds good

Firefly · 2011-07-15, 09:45 AM

In theory it's a good idea. Unfortunately it will encourage zergfits to be even lazier in their already-lazy recruitment efforts. And a lot of uncoordinated outfits, in an effort to beef up their flagging numbers, will use this option. Potentially it can give a new member a bad impression of the game. Unfortunately I do not have a work-around to the issue I raised.

Yet.

Manitou · 2011-07-15, 10:20 AM

A possible work-around would be that generic, unowned Outfits are limited in population. Once that pop-cap is reached, the new recruits spill over into another generic Outfit, and so on. No specialized administration of the Outfit is allowed, encouraging the new recruit to seek a managed Outfit for that capability.

Tool · 2011-07-15, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by Bags

I think they should just make sure players are aware of outfits instead of sticking them in them randomly.

I agree with Bags on this, it may be confusing enough to new players who have not played Planetside in the past without compounding it by auto adding them to outfits while they are still getting used to the game.

Agree with the above post about allowing players to see a detailed outfit list that shows specialty, recruitment status, wants/needs, requirments, etc. Give those new players that feeling of jumping into the game, squading with random players and developing those friendships naturally to perhaps form their own outfits together.

Grimster · 2011-07-15, 11:31 AM

Originally Posted by Manitou

A possible work-around would be that generic, unowned Outfits are limited in population. Once that pop-cap is reached, the new recruits spill over into another generic Outfit, and so on. No specialized administration of the Outfit is allowed, encouraging the new recruit to seek a managed Outfit for that capability.

That was something I was aiming for with my input from DAoC. The difference with DAoC is that you had different guilds depending on which race you picked which also meant that it made a difference on where you started out. Most of the times the guilds had a name which included the city you started in. But I think this would be a better approach than the ability to make your outfit public and instead have these generic outfits you can avoid the problem that was mentioned by Firefly.

Volw · 2011-07-15, 02:44 PM

I'd do it by creating 'newbie' outfits, where players are automatically kicked out after BR10.

Also, I think we should have an easily accessible and VERY VISIBLE outfit list screen - similar to EVE, where people can read a short description and apply*.

*Yes, proper applications in-game, instead of a simple 'join' button.

Firefly · 2011-07-15, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by Volw

Also, I think we should have an easily accessible and VERY VISIBLE outfit list screen - similar to EVE, where people can read a short description and apply*.

*Yes, proper applications in-game, instead of a simple 'join' button.

I'd prefer it if this were optional, in all honesty. That's fine for some outfits. For others, we've been doing this long enough to where we have a little bit of personal preference. My outfit's procedures are a little more involved than spam/invite/spam/invite. It's designed to weed out Fairweather Johnsons looking for a quick and easy home, and also it weeds out dipshits. We put out a broadcast in Sanctuary - people can /tell all they want, but it takes effort on their part. Namely, go post a recruitment app on the forums. When they get to the forums, there's a sample application for them. It says "READ FIRST". If they can't follow the instructions then they don't need to be in our outfit.

Not exactly the friendliest welcome, but we like someone who's enthusiastic enough. And we're not dicks about it - like I'm not going to forum-flame someone and be like "You idiot!". I'll just ignore the app or something along the lines of "Sorry, probably not a good match."

Volw · 2011-07-15, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by Firefly

I'd prefer it if this were optional, in all honesty. That's fine for some outfits. For others, we've been doing this long enough to where we have a little bit of personal preference. My outfit's procedures are a little more involved than spam/invite/spam/invite. It's designed to weed out Fairweather Johnsons looking for a quick and easy home, and also it weeds out dipshits. We put out a broadcast in Sanctuary - people can /tell all they want, but it takes effort on their part. Namely, go post a recruitment app on the forums. When they get to the forums, there's a sample application for them. It says "READ FIRST". If they can't follow the instructions then they don't need to be in our outfit.

Not exactly the friendliest welcome, but we like someone who's enthusiastic enough. And we're not dicks about it - like I'm not going to forum-flame someone and be like "You idiot!". I'll just ignore the app or something along the lines of "Sorry, probably not a good match."

Yep, we do the same and I don't mind it being optional.

*But* the whole idea is to make the process easy and accessible for new players, before they ragequit because they can't solo.

Also it would allow them to read about different outfits in one place, instead of having to rely on forums etc.

Firefly · 2011-07-15, 03:07 PM

Originally Posted by Volw

Yep, we do the same and I don't mind it being optional.

*But* the whole idea is to make the process easy and accessible for new players, before they ragequit because they can't solo.

Also it would allow them to read about different outfits in one place, instead of having to rely on forums etc.

I'm not poopoo'ing the idea, mind you. I think it's great. But it should be optional, because a lot of Planetside veterans are going to be playing this. I like the idea of a generic starter-outfit. This idea was implemented in WAR and it was fairly successful for new people, especially when we hired people to actually serve as guild moderators.