New Player: First Impression of Discovery and it's learning curve.

[Manu]

DISCLAIMER: The following topic isn't meant to disrespect, bad mouth or insult the work or the mod itself but rather provide raw data from a New Player perspective to the devs and old players in order to provide solutions for the continuous success of Discovery.


First, some things I need to make clear as a New Player into Discovery:


THE NUMBERS:
The sole reason I decided to install Discovery Freelancer was based in numbers. Everywhere I poked around about Freelancer mods mostly pointed out to Discovery active community and most importantly the Multiplayer numbers. Shouldn't surprise anyone really since it seems Discovery has attached itself to the numbers.There are other mods with way better graphics which also have RP Servers. But none have the numbers Discovery can pull.




First thing I noticed:

[SIS], PFI), [MLA], FB|, [UC], [GRP], [KSP], Shura|, [HA], Koa|, SSRT|-, LTT|-, LSF, 15MEU|, /_\, 6th|, LR-, XA-, FW|, [RHA], NO-, AE|, {AC}, >\./<, [Star], Synth|, GMG|, [MFE], (F), [ZoG], >Z|S<, THP|, {ABH}, SCEC|, Canaan|, Gammu|, tC-, ApS, BPA), BAF| , BMF- , Bowex), Gateway|. [M]-, MRG|, [C]-, [KNF], GC|, LPI-, [LN]-, =LSF=, 5th|, [*USI*], Ageira~, [HF], LH~, H|-, RFP, [RM], BDM|, DHC-, Kruger, [ALG], UN|, [TBH], Core|, Order|, OSI-, IRG|, SCRA|, NC-, C::, A/)-, IMG, =CR=, .:j:., JM|-, BHG|, [TAZ], IC|, [FL-ER], K'Hara, Vagrants, Oracles, Wilde., |Aoi

1. PROBLEM: Tags:
So there it is. My first impression of Discovery Freelancer. This hieroglyphical, confusing, sometimes unnecessary abbreviated tags above is what I think is the Learning Curve of Discovery and what new players are faced with right off the bat. Cause Discovery basically urges you to join a faction and RP, it dresses you up, level you up, gives you a nice jump start and throws you into the hieroglyphic wall. And I'm pretty sure I haven't included a bunch of other tags. The thing is, Player list is a necessary tool for rp and the abbreviated tags only serve to confuse new players. There are some who obviously need it but many really don't.


2. PROBLEM: No Challenge, no grind and no immersion for new players.
So as I made my way to the Penn open space I quickly learned what I just pointed out in the first issue. Discovery wanted me become part of the community as soon as possible. Penn was relatively empty with most newbies minding their own business as if they already know what to do. (Prob. already old or experienced players). Of course I was eager to RP but after facing the hieroglyphic wall I decided I needed time, to process, to learn and get acquainted with the intricacies of the factions, but Discovery doesn't really allow much space for it. Enemy NPC's are literally obnoxious flies so challenge is out of the window, I realized you could console your way into a faction so no progression needed, like fixing reputation on your own or simply do things on your own for a while. New Players need time and space to experience, adapt, learn and choose a faction and both the devs and old players need to understand this concept. The confusing tags gave me the initial and wrong impression of "You can't sit with us" or "Don't call us we call you" type of community and in reality is nothing like that.



POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:
So I'm gonna trow a bunch of ideas to make Discovery more suitable for new player and expand its niche for survival. Cause as of now the game is basically tailored for old experienced players. Most of old players are probably doing Elite or waiting for Star Citizen or some other revival game. And I think Discovery will be needing to expand and temper with the times.

1. Simplify Tags: Difficult to identify tags are a real issue for new players wanting to rp. You open the Player Chat window and get lost in a sea of tagged players with need a manual to identify. Both devs and Faction leaders should be aware of this.

2. Challenge:
Bringing challenge to new players as they get acquainted to Discovery on their own is essential to keep them in game long enough for them to finally get into a Faction before getting bored. Starting as civilian with a lower level and find enemies challenging but not impossible. I noticed NPC decrease with the number of players and I think this is something that needs to be told to new players as if I find npc's challenging I would like to connect even more when there's more activity. Even with this feature I think encounters should be decreased lightly to compensate the difficulty.

3. Visuals:
No, I'm not talking about visual overhauls re textures or anything of the sort. I'm talking about slowly giving players more visual tools like for example adding SMAA for the next release or expanded gamma in the options menu, similar the bloom effect feature at install. In a way to keeping the game more competitive with current space games. Freelancer doesn't really need much in this aspect because of it's amazing and cohesive art direction and atmosphere many space game developers today struggle to replicate. It also has a very retro feel which is very appealing. Eventually I think Discovery should start to consider opening more to the idea of enb presents. For now I think Discovery should slowly but steadily provide certain visual enhancements (One by one) that doesn't alter the whole aesthetic as incentive to new players so at least new players don't get the feeling Disco will look the same forever. Even if this stuff can be done in Graphic Cards control panel I'm certain an simple announcement of a visual feature by the mod will attract attention from both new and old players.

4. Draw clear lines and boundaries for new players:
Like buying faction ships and ID. Perhaps removing Official Faction IDs from the game, giving more power to the official factions and or making ships exclusive to that particular faction either by making them extremely expensive, giving some sort of ship purchase bonus to ID and making faction IDs almost impossible to acquire in game. This is obviously more complicated but this would also attract players into joining official factions. Having everything available sort of defeats the purpose of wanting to be part of a group. New players should be able to start from scratch, get rep going, get into a faction, get a ship, get proper Faction Outfit (via console or ID). Without the need of a faction console command jump start. It's better this way since from personal experience after getting a vessel I wanted and eventually learned it belonged to an Official faction made me feel like I was messing up the rp experience for others.

5. Simplify the Forums:
Make new players join in the forums way before they try to join an official faction. Navigating the forum sometimes feel just like navigating Sirus. Refocus the Forum to be more suited for new players with areas for newbie IDs. Give new players stuff to do with their newbie ID cause after all those IDs can repopulate and serve as basis for rp opportunities.
An example here:

Welcome
-Rules
-Help
-Official Announcements
-General

Factions:
-Freelancer
-Miner
-Pirate
-Etc
-Official Factions
-Unofficial Factions

Development
-
-
-

Basically something simple that gives space for new players to post and sort of get the new sheep counted as well as hand holding new players into activities and opportunities to recruit them.

6. New focus and creating new niches: Younger players:
With all the recent and upcoming space games, Discovery may loose even more players in the future. The thing is (And this might sound bad for older players). Freelancer looks and acts like a teenage game. Freelancer looks like a Cartoon Network animated series. This makes contrast with the current and future games to be released which seems to be more focused to a mature audience. I think it would be wise for Discovery to take advantage of this and focus more on the Teen audience.


7. Allow longer idle before kick outs: This feature might have worked when the server was full of players but right now is not doing any favors to the mod as it is, specially if numbers affect NPC count and being the main feature of Discovery. Many would say the main feature is RP but not in my opinion, Numbers are the key element of keeping the Mod Alive.


So basically this is my initial experience with Discovery along some recommendations to balance for rp and solo players so both can have fun with or without a highly populated server as well as branching into new niches and appeal to a younger audience for longevity and activity. I apologize in advance for my English. (Not my first language). Just wanted to write my initial impressions before I forget them.