Premade Characters for Newbies

[Dar]

Heya.

Here's a suggestion. Pull up a call for new characters. Mdesc, sdesc, Bio. Suggestion for Guild/subguilds. Then allow an option for a new account to have first 5 of their characters be pulled from the list of those premade characters.


I think the playerbase can write up a shitton of these sample character roles and you can store it in the database. This way, a newbie with an attention span of a fish (98% of earth's population, let's be honest) will be able to get into the game with a preapproved character and have a chance to try the game out.

Thoughts?

[Nao]

Great idea. It lowers the initial investment just to try out the game and the bar of entry. Harshlands has something like that.

[Barsook]

Love it!

[Gentleboy]

Name: Amos

Looks: Brown hair, average height, scar over eyebrow.

Background: Mercenary

-----------------------

I think something else that would be interesting is to have some likes and dislikes. To help really make the character feel real. Likes spicy foods. Dislikes sticky things. ETC.

[Dracul]

I would love to see this, lower barrier for entry, and all sorts of customization down the line with a simple request or reapp.

Let's see more of Amos from Yaroch.

[Krombat]

Oh,  I really like this idea! This should definitely be a thing!

[Lotion]

This would be really good but the problem is someone needs to make it.
But in an imaginary world where this exists it would be even better if somehow the game knows what kinds of characters are needed where and gives players pregens that will be in demand.

[xoobie]

Yes Harshlands has this as someone else mentioned. What a fab idea. I imagine many would be willing to submit some.

[Saiseiki]

Outstanding idea!

[Lotion]

Yes Harshlands has this as someone else mentioned. What a fab idea. I imagine many would be willing to submit some.

It would not be a community effort, it would be a procgen

[Dan]

I like it.

I'd be willing to make some characters if it is a community effort during a test phase or something.

[mansa]

How do new players select these premade characters?
Do they need to be inside the game, or can they do it outside the game?

Those questions need to be solved first, in my opinion.

[Dar]

Only a staffer can answer that question, Mansa

Clearly there are people willing to write it. Now a staffer needs to say if it's possible to implement.

It can take multiple forms. It can be a website doc and a player can copy/paste.  It can be a website with a mechanism that creates a character and assigns it to the account. Or maybe the characters are already all created and the website script assigns it account, updates age. Or it can be code within the mud. I don't know. But only a staffer can speak of this at this junction.

It may be that they'll want at least a 100 characters created before they code it up. Which is also understandanle

[Delirium]

Let's update this helpfile and make it more visibly accessible (and more visually readable):

https://www.armageddon.org/intro/sampledescs.php

[Dar]

That 'is' good. It's not enough, no

It gives newbies a good example of what to put for mdescs. Yes. But not character creation, background, or inner purpose. It doesn't help do a lot of things that chargen implies is needed.

There will be people who've read through more and will be able to create something vague. A lot of people will just move on.

I've recently spent two months creating a throw away character. My main desire was to make something tuluk related. But since my last two years I was very infrequent, and previous two I played a rinthi elf who never left rinth. I've literally forgotten 'everythinh' both of luirs.  Don't even know where Morin is at.

And because of that it took me two months to make a character. I can understand a flight by night newbie who wanted to try a MUD out, found the lore too daunting and the need to display a knowledge of it too early and simply choosing to move on.

[Taahir]

How do new players select these premade characters?
Do they need to be inside the game, or can they do it outside the game?

Those questions need to be solved first, in my opinion.

Why would that be so important? I don't get it.

[Jihelu]

How do new players select these premade characters?
Do they need to be inside the game, or can they do it outside the game?

Those questions need to be solved first, in my opinion.

Why would that be so important? I don't get it.

I get staff likes when we 'figure these things out', though Mansa isn't staff, but these are things we can't even speculate on without staffs assistance without giving answers that come completely out of our ass.

It's an idea we have no knowledge of the capabilities of the code on.
I can easily say "It will be a whole other menu just like the 'select a class' screen but you pick characters!" but there's no point if Shalooonsh sends me another threatening letter in the mail (No fingers this time) saying 'That doesn't work. Three hundred thousand more dollars or I send another head'.
(No, I'm not going to send you the money.)

[mansa]

How do new players select these premade characters?
Do they need to be inside the game, or can they do it outside the game?

Those questions need to be solved first, in my opinion.

Why would that be so important? I don't get it.

Because currently, character creation is done within a telnet client, through the character creation steps.

If premade characters are available, how do we give them to the new player, and then ask the new player to type them into the character creation process?

Are we assuming that the new players know how to use the in-game editor?  There is a limit to the number of characters you can send to DIKU for the parser to intrepret, so new players might try and copy/paste the whole thing, and it get cut off.
Do new players know how to type ~ to exit the editor, or .h to get help using the editor?


In my opinion, it would be best to have a new player log into the game, and to create an account name, and then before it asks you to type in your character's main description - you have an option to choose "premade character" and the game fills out the details and submits it, without a player having to deal with the editor itself.

[Dar]

Alright. Well. Off to staff then.

[Nao]

How do new players select these premade characters?
Do they need to be inside the game, or can they do it outside the game?

Those questions need to be solved first, in my opinion.

Why would that be so important? I don't get it.

Because currently, character creation is done within a telnet client, through the character creation steps.

If premade characters are available, how do we give them to the new player, and then ask the new player to type them into the character creation process?

Are we assuming that the new players know how to use the in-game editor?  There is a limit to the number of characters you can send to DIKU for the parser to intrepret, so new players might try and copy/paste the whole thing, and it get cut off.
Do new players know how to type ~ to exit the editor, or .h to get help using the editor?


In my opinion, it would be best to have a new player log into the game, and to create an account name, and then before it asks you to type in your character's main description - you have an option to choose "premade character" and the game fills out the details and submits it, without a player having to deal with the editor itself.

This may depend on what's doable with the current server setup and what staff is willing to implement. Afaik it's a huge pain in the ass to change anything in chargen. I think either option (website or from within the game) would be a huge improvement.

I wouldn't outright dismiss just having them on the website and having new players copypaste. The editor seems like a pretty minor barrier, compared to writing a background when you don't know much about the world. The menu in chargen tells you what to do, you just need to read that.
If available characters were available on the website, new players would have access and get a 'teaser' earlier. They don't need to set up a mud client and create an account before they can even look at what's available to play.

It would be nice if players could have the option to edit the PC and make changes, but that could be done either way.

[Saiseiki]

Let's update this helpfile and make it more visibly accessible (and more visually readable):

https://www.armageddon.org/intro/sampledescs.php

I didn't even know this existed.  Yikes.

I've tried to something like a dozen different people to play Arm.  The barrier to entry is high.  Premade characters would answer at least a good chunk of the feedback I've gotten from them.

[Veselka]

First Time Accounts + First Time PC = Should get a Premade Character Approved and in the game. Make them go to a newbie school. Let them learn the commands.

[Barsook]

First Time Accounts + First Time PC = Should get a Premade Character Approved and in the game. Make them go to a newbie school. Let them learn the commands.

Me like.

Let's update this helpfile and make it more visibly accessible (and more visually readable):

https://www.armageddon.org/intro/sampledescs.php

I didn't even know this existed.  Yikes.

I've tried to something like a dozen different people to play Arm.  The barrier to entry is high.  Premade characters would answer at least a good chunk of the feedback I've gotten from them.

An update would be nice but how many new players read the guide is the the true question.

[Classclown]

This is a handy website for random generated characters. Did you have this in mind? This could be updated perhaps. I'm not sure who runs it.
http://www.generator.synthasite.com/

[Barsook]

Firefox gives a warning about that site but then again it did for the GDB and the main site.  Plus I don't recall if the one who runs it plays anymore.

[Classclown]

Huh. I don't get a warning on Chrome. It's just an example. The description generators tend to be too random for my tastes, though I might tweak one if I want a different look.

[Yelinak]

If this becomes a thing, I'll happily volunteer to write up a dozen or so premade characters.

[Barsook]

If this becomes a thing, I'll happily volunteer to write up a dozen or so premade characters.

[Shalooonsh]

First Time Accounts + First Time PC = Should get a Premade Character Approved and in the game. Make them go to a newbie school. Let them learn the commands.

Since I started staffing if there's a PC in the queue who needs editing, I'll edit it and get it through.  I know I'm not alone as a member of staff and that several others do this as well.

There are a few caveats - I mean if it's a cybernetic cat girl with a lazergun for a foot, that's too much editing and the player doesn't understand.

We have had the discussion about pre-gens before, and the talk will likely come up again.  It's not that we lack the creativity to get twenty or more pre-gens together, it's that it would require a system overhaul in some regards.

[Narf]

First Time Accounts + First Time PC = Should get a Premade Character Approved and in the game. Make them go to a newbie school. Let them learn the commands.

We have had the discussion about pre-gens before, and the talk will likely come up again.  It's not that we lack the creativity to get twenty or more pre-gens together, it's that it would require a system overhaul in some regards.

You could do it with an external website link that generated or contained copy/pastable backgrounds and descriptions without much of a system overhaul. Might make a good stopgap.

[Barsook]

But still the problem is still going to arise so I think doing it in the game is better AND only for first time accounts/characters. Something like what DragonRealms has where you can do it step by step for gender and features.

[Classclown]

Why limit it to new players? Sometimes I would like to just pick a premade as a challenge or if in a slump.