New Player Experience

Work in Progress

2021

Introduction

It has been stated that the New Player Experience (NPE) is the next primary focus of the dev team now that the NSO update is live. This is a worthy cause - we know that many, many players try Planetside 2 and quit within hours due to the steep learning curve. However this is not the first time the NPE has been worked on, to name but a few items; in game tutorial, Kotyr, mentor squads, default complete cert lines, squad auto join, newbie chat and default implants. Despite all this little has worked and it remains a priority to be addressed. This shows that there is no easy fix for the NPE due to the range of the different routes of attack. The old tutorial shows that it is tricky to prepare players for the chaos of the fight on Auraxis beforehand. Koltyr shows the giving new players shelter from vets and vehicles does nothing. Mentor squads show that we cannot rely on veteran players to help. Default implants and cert lines show that they are not a silver bullet either.

Now to be fair few of the above have been iterated on past the initial release, and more default cert lines, better mentor squad rewards and raising the BR cap on Koltyr could work and make a real difference to new players. Perhaps this all suggests that either something completely different must be attempted or that nothing will work as the step change between Planetside and other games is too great.

Ignoring this last pessimistic thought let us set out how we will discuss this tricky topic:

1. Why players start to play

2. Why players give up

3. Fixing it

Why Players Play

Simply put Planetside is the only massively multiplayer first person shooter with servers still out there, bar WWIIO. Players join because they want to experience an FPS on a massive war level scale. The come in expecting to be part of battles that rage across terrain as part of a large coordinated force, pushing back the enemy and storming their strongholds. They see the videos showing battles across alien landscapes utilising vehicles and aircraft, coordinated squads infiltrating enemy bases and carriers hovering over the battlefield and want to be part of it.

New players stream in constantly due to the unique nature of the game, they start new characters but then as we know leave after a few hours. This is not unusual - how many games do you have sitting in your Steam library that you have played less than a few hours? However what PS2 needs to do is hook players in those first hours by giving them experiences that they can get nowhere else, give them what they expect of a MMOFPS.

Why Players Give Up

Players give up for a large variety of reasons, undoubtedly though because of the differences between PS2 and other FPS games. To paraphrase the questions from one of my outfit, who tried PS2 for the first time after not playing since the original (and being the most active leader of V for at least a year of the original's heyday):

• How do you know where to go for a fight?

• What should I do in a base?

• How do I move between bases strategically?

Now these questions are not detail orientated, they are big picture; they should be obvious, and yet they are not. They are not concepts required in most FPS games out there but key to having an entertaining time in PS2. Even after playing the game since before launch I still end up at bases where the fight disappears before I can run from the spawn point, I still do not know all the routes through some bases and I still struggle to move between bases without getting ambushed by enemies. These questions were in addition to him recognising and ignoring the fact that he was dying a horrendous amount while he learnt how to play.

Fixing it

I'm not going to pretend that I have a silver bullet that will radically change the NPE, nor that a single thing will make a large difference. What I do think best is iterating on the existing work that has been done over the years, as well as a bunch of other tweaks the community has suggested.

VR Training Courses

As the first part of the new tutorial a new part of Sanctuary would be added; a training course arena which can be viewed from above by spectators. The intention would be to encourage players to get to grips with weapons and combat without the threat of death, and add challenges for all. The training courses would consist of:

• Firing range with separate challenges and leader boards for each and every projectile weapon. New players would be tasked with using the default weapons for the various classes.

• Multigun course; requiring a player to clear a course in a set amount of time using both primary and secondary weapons. New players would clear these with the default weapons as part of the tutorial. Leader boards available for each empire and overall for veteran players to compete in.

• MOUT (Military Operations on Urban Terrain) course; available to clear as an individual, pair or fire team of 4. Leader boards available for each empire and overall. New players would clear it individually as part of the tutorial, or as a group if there are other new players around or they choose to join a squad.

Scripted Tutorial

Once the new player completes the VR training courses in Sanctuary they would be put into a single player map, in which they have to navigate a scripted battle with real threat and various save checkpoints. The battle would involve drop podding from Sanctuary to a base in need of defence, fighting from the spawn room to the capture point and then destroying the attacker Sunderer. During this they would be taught how to move under cover, how to identify threats on the minimap and how to take down MAXs. Once the enemy Sunderer is destroyed they would be taught how to redeploy, locate fights and deploy to them.

Koltyr

Koltyr is iterated upon to make it an active, new player focused training environment. To this end aircraft, MAXs and most vehicles are restricted to reduce the threats to new players and the fights on the continent. It would also be redesigned to offer linear straight forward fights. Koltyr would be where new players are directed after completing the scripted tutorial mentioned above.

• Reactivated.

• Opened up to all players, but with new players taking priority.

• No vehicles or aircraft apart from Sunderers and Valkyries are able to be spawned.

• MAXs are unable to be acquired.

• Veteran players (>BR30) only able to use pistols.

• Three point bases and facilities removed and replaced with single point territories.

• Central mountain added, with separate routes surrounding it linking the three opposing empires, allowing for simpler two way fights.

Default Weapon Changes

• Empire Specific Tanks have their AP main cannon as default to allow new players to compete in this field. Could also reduce infantry farming.

• NC Gauss SAW switched to the easier to manage...

• NC Bolt Driver switched to the equivalent weapon to the VS and TR defaults, or vice versa.

Automatic Certifications

While certs come thick and fast to new players now compared to the early days of the game new players do not always know what to cert into. By providing initial ranks in certain certification lines and equipping them by default it would decrease the gap between new and veteran players and give them more of a chance. This is especially important with vehicles where they at present require a heavy cert investment.

• Vehicles:

  • Smoke Screen 1 granted to all ground vehicles by default in the Utility slot.

  • Fire Supression 1 granted to all air vehicles by default in the Utility slot.

  • Nanite Auto Repair 1 granted to all new players for all vehicles in the Defence slot.

  • New hybrid Performance certification added which blends the other options into a middle ground. Given to new players by default.

  • Weapons: New hybrid Utility certification added where appropriate which increases both reload speed and magazine size to allow those weapons to compete with veteran's specialised ones.

Mentor Squads

Leading mentor squads is a thankless task and one poorly rewarded (intentionally to reduce people abusing the feature) however I think that these squads could be more helpful to new players if more people were encouraged to fill the role. To that end I would reward mentor squad leaders with cosmetics and perhaps even in game currency if the people they have mentored stick with, and invest in the game.

• Implement the outline highlight system that was discussed previously and found in PS:A.

• Implement the mentor rating system as discussed.

• Disband the squads when thee mentor leaves, avoiding leaving new players leading squads.

Death Screen

The death screen could be a useful tool, but at present does not give you much useful information that could help you to improve, simply being used to show some basic information about your killer and the weapon they used. It also slaps non members in the face with a big graph encouraging you to subscribe, reminding players that they could pay to advance better, probably encouraging the pay to win belief. It could also allay peoples fears of hackers by including more information.

• Add more statistics about your killer, namely:

  • Accuracy percentage

  • Headshot percentage

  • Hours played

  • Kill-death ratio

  • Average life span

• Add written (not just icons) information on your killers full load out; Suit, Ability, Utility and Implant Slots, and similar for vehicles. This would help players see and understand what those players are using to encourage them to use them also. Apparently you can mouse over icons on this screen for tool tips, but I have never thought to do so!

Miscellaneous

• Remove the deaths and kill death ratio from the tab screen to remove the negative aspect of this screen. Replace with accuracy and headshot ratio.

• Simplify the HUD by removing other squad's members and waypoints in your platoon being visible to non leaders. Could be toggled back to the current state in an options menu.

• Remove <BR15 (+ low directive score) players from infantry radar.

• Increase nanite gain for <BR15 (+ low directive score) players.

• Add Containment site style arrow guides to commonly fought at bases. Make them able to be toggled however.