Not sure which forum category to put this in. (Admins move as you see fit) With the latest sale of CP I believe more eyes will look at Entropia, considering if this is the next game worth trying. I'd therefor like to put forward a 500 ped prize to whoever can write the best mini-guide to entropia targeted at the players that did not yet hear about the game at all. Just all the basic info about the game that makes you want to play it, some info about how to sign up, maybe troubleshooting, and then some pointers to the first info you need after starting out. I'm thinking something between 1k and 5k words, but the point is it has to readable (no 10 page essay!) and encouraging. Add your best screenshots or entropia art to make it lively. Post your submissions here, or as separate threads and link to them. After around a week, or whenever a decent quantity of good candidates has been submitted I will post a poll which will decide the winner. :)
Hey :) Just saw this one now. Nice initiative however, I would give people a longer time to respond. Making nice guides etc. takes a while :)
Very funny you make something like this now. I was about to write two support cases to MA with suggestions how to improve the arrival of newcomers without hopefully too much effort on MAs side. The idea about it is spinning in my head for like a week :) Its all still only in my head, but if you are interested I will also submit what I send to MA here and maybe later I could derive a mini-guide from that, which maybe is fit for your competition.
A revisit of the arrival procedure Purpose of this suggestion to MA/FPC: To point out weaknesses in the arrival procedure, but also suggest how to improve or fix these weaknesses with uncomplicated means. Disclaimer: This whole document was written by memory and quite quickly. If there are spelling mistakes or skewed facts please be lenient with me. Also I will of course evaluate everything with my personal taste and do by no means claim that what I observed or want is an impartial view on things. Please notice that this document will also be published on the entropiaplanets forum as it is. Current situation: All new arrivals are presented with the statement that their space ship was shot and their DNA was salvaged so they are free to design their own appearance. I will suggest a different story because I feel this one is weak in regards that really "everyone" was attacked or had an accident of sorts who joins the game. After making the avatar the game directly starts, nothing in between to weaken the impact and only if a beginner is lucky will there be a guide to welcome them. Also there is no tutorial whatsoever, for my ideas towards this purpose you will receive another support case. So there are two weaknesses after avatar creation, one that one is not rewarded after the elaborate process and the other that one is left without any introduction to the controls. Suggestion outline: I believe that with easy means you will be able to smoothen out the complete arrival procedure and give beginners a much better sense of purpose and motivation to explore the possibilities they have. This requires an altered beginning storyline (Point 1) and two additional steps (Point 2 and 3) after the avatar creation procedure is completed before the beginner is cast upon the planet Calypso. Bear in mind that the suggestions as to how to do it exactly are merely my personal ideas and please feel free to adapt, alter or exchange everything as needed. Point 2 will be about the reward fort creating the avatar, there will be a minimal version, 2A and an elaborate example 2B. Point 3 will be about how to introduce the players to the controls. Point 1 (The introductory message): Welcome to Entropia Universe new colonist. Your colonization ship has just arrived in orbit around Calypso. Upon ensigning to become a colonist you were notified that your body will not be transported wholly and you did agree to the fact that only your brain will be shipped to the new world. Don't take this as a loss but as an opportunity as a completely new beginning. We will take you to the designing system and after you decided upon your new appearance your body will be bred and your brain will be inserted. This might hurt a bit but don't worry only 1% failures occur and will have permanent brain damages so you are in good hands. (Now avatar creation happens) Point 2 (The awakening - rewarding the creation) 2A - Minimal version: Show the newly created avatar in some nice landscape on a landing pod or something like that. Fly the camera around him, behind him, zoom a bit to show the scenery and end with a closing in zoom to the face. 2B - Elaborate version: The avatar is shown slowly opening its eyes on a clinic bed only in its underwear. If the avatar is female a handsome doctor will appear, else a handsome nurse and say "This one seems to be ready" to someone off screen. Addressing the avatar "Try to stand up, do you think you are okay?" The avatar stands up and maybe sways a bit or such. Nurse/Doctor to the avatar again "Right! You seem to be just fine. Now listen the mega corporations are running Calypso and don't you expect any generosity. Here take these rags and pull them on, kindness of Omegaton Corporation." The avatar dresses while the nurse/doctor continues "Don't take me wrong this planet is gorgeous and you will find many opportunities here. Just don't expect any gifts. If you need money - and you will - you will have to work hard or ask for funds from earth. Here take this device, its the VSE Mk 1 and will allow you to collect vibrant sweat from creatures on the planet. Ask someone else what that means and now off with you." Turning around already the doctor/nurse closes with "Just follow the exit signs. Oh and good luck out there." Point 3 (The interface introduction): The avatar now is at a holding area like the avatar creation with some labels like "training center" or such. Maybe on one wall is that image showing the evolution of man (ape following pre sapiens and so on until we have a human, but the last picture in it is the "WASD" keys after the human :) Anyhow first there is no interface visible and a message popup with the message "Welcome to the interface training. You may skip this introduction but bear in mind you cannot access it again at a later date." Two buttons, "continue" and "skip" are shown. If skip is pressed a confirmation warning appears again "You won't be able to access the training again. Really skip?" obviously "yes skip" and "no back" are the buttons now. The introduction then will explain the interface elements one after the other and show them. I will point out which and in what order and an examplatory description next, all textboxes shall have a line towards the interface element being described and it shall be highlighted by either encircling it or other means. - The health bar This bar displays your current life energy and if it sinks too much you will die. Don't worry though you will be brought back to life without any losses at a revival terminal. - The PED card balance In your inventory you have your globally valid PED credit card, if you receive cash you can just put it on the card. Also you can always just extract hard cash directly from the card. Currently your balance is 0 so you will have to earn money to buy anything. - The PvP (Player versus Player) danger indicator This indicator shows how much you are in danger in regards to other players. Currently you are safe. It will show an orange symbol if others may kill you, if they even may loot you it will show a red symbol. - The server status indicator If there are less than 3 green bars the server you are on experiences heavy load and your gameplay experience might be reduced. - The radar This shows who is close to your surroundings. Green dots are other players. Red dots are hostile creatures. Yellow dots are your teammates when you are in a team. Violet dots are society mates if you are in a society. Orange dots are NPCs (Non player characters) like the auctioneer and technician. Blue dots are teleporters, visit and acquire those to enable fast travel around the planet. - The satnav toggle This will change the behaviour of the radar. You can either have the radar turn according to your view direction or align it to the north and show your view direction on radar. - The main message window This is the main message window, you will be able to read system messages and various player chats here. You can turn off and on reading the messages with these controls. You can select in which chat to write by this controls, you will learn more about controlling the chat better later. There are the local chat, showing what players in your near vicinity are saying. The next is trade chat which works like local chat but should only be used for trading. When you joined a society you will have access to society chat, if you are in a team to team chat and if you take part in an event there will be event chat. The other 4 are reserved for system messages and are globals (any player lootong over 50 ped), skill (when you get skills), damage (the one you get and hand out) and the last is for all other system messages.
The other support case I made basically describes a library device. Its just how tutorials could be accessed and I guess no matter how this would be solved it would be a helpful addition. Edit: Oh yeah and let me know if you like it.
Not sure I like the idea of people knowingly agreeing to have their brains only transported to Calypso, but the rest of it I liked.
Great contribution Pirx Danford There's a couple other contributions in a sister thread at EF. Are there anyone else working on something atm, or should we take this to the polls already?
Alice also has her contribution here: http://www.entropiaplanets.com/forums/showthread.php?t=839 I have a conceptual introduction halfway formed in my mind and if possible I would love to contribute it also... might take til sunday to get it done, if thats too long start the voting :)
Okay I believe this should be my contribution. https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B0WgIqNR6SGxMTgxNjM3YTYtOTUzMi00YzI1LWEwNTItMjkzZmExMDJkOGEx&hl=de I recommend downloading the PDF so you can use the clickable links of the index and back to navigate.
The poll is up: http://www.entropiaforum.com/forums/general-discussion/178091-best-newcomer-guide-award.html
