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  1. #1
    Shadow Era's Avatar
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    Post Dev update: New player experience



    Coming up in v3.68 we have a lot of new features that probably do not concern most of you here directly, but are designed to ease the transition of new players into the game. This will be particularily important now, as the Waves marketing team is set to drop $30k on us starting in June!

    The first is the new player signup flow. Previously, they were given an intimidating wall of text describing Shadow Era, asked to select one of 10 free starter decks with little information about them, then had to choose a player name and hope it was available, before they were dumped onto the campaign map. Not exactly a friendly welcome...

    In the new flow, after the account creation the player will be ushered into a tutorial battle, where the deck is fixed and unshuffled to avoid the shuffle bug and also so that we can control the outcome. The player will get to play though a battle with simple scenarios explaining the game, including sacrificing, persistant damage on allies, active abilities, shadow energy, and board control. They will have full use of the normal game interface, meaning they can make mistakes and be taught the right thing to do and have their mistake erased. It's designed to be only a few minutes long, with a minimum of text to read, but still feel quick and interesting. (It will also be able to be replayed later from the options menu)

    After this brief taste of the game, with the knowledge they have gained, the player then can choose their free starter deck. Instead of just showing the hero, the player can flip through all the cards included in the deck, as well as read more hints about the play style.

    Instead of choosing a player name, their name will initially be set as "Player4342182" for example, and they can begin playing the game right away. When they are ready to select a name, they can do so for free with the new Edit Account feature. Other players can also use this to change their name, update their email address, or to set a new password without having to use the website support tools.

    What else do you think will help new players get into the game? Let us know!

    As a reminder, you can follow along with the dev progress at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

  2. #2
    Shadow Era's Avatar
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    One thing on my wish list: a built-in commenting system on cards in the deck builder and merchant. Click on a little chat icon beside the card and see all the comments about it. Players can leave a comment and upvote and downvote other comments. Mods can post card rulings that get pinned at the top. It becomes a built-in wiki of sorts to help other players understand the rules and nuances of each card.

  3. #3
    DP Visionary tman507's Avatar
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    Interesting. The new player bits don't mean much to an older player like myself, but in game edit account is handy so no confusion about finding support tools. I also like the idea of an in-game card comment system, that would be quite handy to have easily accessible right in-game.
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  4. #4
    Senior Member tolerance's Avatar
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    a hint of what to do after the initial tutorial would be helpful to new players, including guide them to the forum (global chat or discord if ready)

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    Senior Member Veles's Avatar
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    One thing that comes to mind is that heroes used in tutorial game may skew new player's selection towards those 2 heroes. If that is to be avoided, option could be to use heroes that won't be offered in starter decks. So either shadow hero vs shadow hero, or Rothem vs Loest. Could be cool to include some lore bits as well in the tutorial, similarly to campaign dialogue.
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  6. #6
    Lead Developer / Designer Gondorian's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Veles View Post
    One thing that comes to mind is that heroes used in tutorial game may skew new player's selection towards those 2 heroes. If that is to be avoided, option could be to use heroes that won't be offered in starter decks. So either shadow hero vs shadow hero, or Rothem vs Loest. Could be cool to include some lore bits as well in the tutorial, similarly to campaign dialogue.
    Playing as Loest vs Rothem would be ideal, so hopefully this can happen.

  7. #7
    Member Chuck Morrison's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gondorian View Post
    Playing as Loest vs Rothem would be ideal, so hopefully this can happen.
    I disagree, Loest and Rothem are a little too much for a newcomer. I'd personally pick something like Boris vs Majiya, or Elad vs Banebow.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Veles's Avatar
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    Also reading info on 10 heroes may be too much as well, especially if you will provide more details for each. So maybe reduce choice to 5 starter heroes, one for each class eg Boris, Eladwen, Victor, Lance, Zhanna. This list is missing weapon based hero, but I think these 5 are easier to build decks for and easier to play in general for new players.
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  9. #9
    Chat Mod Ross013's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chuck Morrison View Post
    I disagree, Loest and Rothem are a little too much for a newcomer. I'd personally pick something like Boris vs Majiya, or Elad vs Banebow.
    If the tutorial is on rails it won't matter which heroes get picked as you can explain the basics with any of them, so Loest and Rothem would be fine
    Quote Originally Posted by Veles View Post
    Also reading info on 10 heroes may be too much as well, especially if you will provide more details for each. So maybe reduce choice to 5 starter heroes, one for each class eg Boris, Eladwen, Victor, Lance, Zhanna. This list is missing weapon based hero, but I think these 5 are easier to build decks for and easier to play in general for new players.
    I don't think limiting the starter heroes is a good idea. The info given doesn't need to be in depth, just the hero powers and a brief description of what the class is good at e.g. 'Mage - Burn your opponents to the ground with powerful spells, or create an army of reanimated minions to do your bidding'

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  10. #10
    Shadow Era's Avatar
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    Someone on Facebook commented on the difficulty of new players to understand exactly what to put into a deck and a clear line of sight for how to improve their deck.
    How about in the deckbuilder there is the option to publicly share decks, and view a list of submitted decks for your current hero and be able to import it or get a notification of what cards are missing. Bonus points for offering to buy the missing cards with gold with one click. People can rate decks and leave comments. Makes the deckbuilding process more social, gets players to try out different decks and be buying more cards

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