Expanding Guides for New Players

CluelessKlutz

Introduction

Hello everyone, I hope you all are having a wonderful day. Obviously, something which consistently needs improvement is the server's system for guiding and therefore keeping new players. Currently, the staff team has been working on many projects, some of which are known, some you guys don't know yet!

Two of those projects that directly relate to new player retention are the Tutorial and /help. These two things are critical projects which are being addressed as such. The architects have been hard at work on a new map for tutorial due to mechanic changes, and some of the developers are already working on a plugin for it.

However, /help has not been touched at all. It was updated following the reset, but the outline was created during the days of Alpha/Beta/Gamma, so some parts have since become outdated.

In addition, the new Tutorial will bring back the question system. The goal of the new /help is to serve as an expanded guide to display every base command, or at least a guide to functioning in all worlds of the server.

The Project

So with that, I turn this over to the community for suggestions and ideas. To provide the community with an understanding of the current system, here is the link for the document used currently as the outline.

There is no limit to what can be suggested, but keep in mind that it will come down to the administration to decide what is ultimately implemented. On the other hand, we would like to gather as much community input as possible to best ensure its success.

DarkKnight49x

I hope you all are having a wonderful day
~ @CluelessKlutz

im am

many projects, some of which are known, some you guys don't know yet!
~ @CluelessKlutz

i know of a couple of them

So with that, I turn this over to the community for suggestions and ideas.
~ @CluelessKlutz

add a tendie reference in the tutorial pls

administration
~ @CluelessKlutz

so about 10% of suggestion are going to be accepted them
am kidding pls no ban this was for my good boy points

f i r s t t o p o s t

Deinen

add a tendie reference in the tutorial pls
~ @DarkKnight49x

You should not seek the communities opinion until you get a new community.

alex77034

I think you guys will love the new tutorial and it’s new worlds. We’ve all been working hard to figure it out and I’d love to talk about it!

lanekids40

the tutorial really should tell new players how to do towny because at this point getting new players set up is just a massive waste of time.
it should be along the lines of:
"when joining a town, it is important to note that:
some town's will have rules posted and the town staff would appreciate if you read them.
towny is not a mini-game and should not be treated like a single session game, so if you plan on going on a leave of absence, you should notify town staff or if you have built on your plot remove what you have done.
some towns have pre-built plots and clear plots, depending on what you would like, you can claim a plot with /plot claim is there is a yellow price tag that shows up in chat."
this is basically a speech that I give to new residents

I Also have a theory that new players will go to the wild and die, loose all their stuff, and quit.
as a legit suggetion, how about making keepInventory true in wild. It isn't a factions server and tp killing is a banable offence so why can it be done? I have a friend who reinforced this theory for me because he couldn't do /back he lost all his stuff and was about to quit the server but I changed his mind.

FamousZAmos

as a legit suggetion, how about making keepInventory true in wild
~ @lanekids40

the entire point of wild is that it's dangerous. I've made the "minecraft is too easy" rant before and I'll do it again: MINECRAFT IS ALREADY TOO EASY DONT MAKE IT EASIER ok but now that that's out of the way why not just tell new players to be careful in the Wild?

PeriHeika

I suggest making books for the different worlds giving a list of the commands you can use for all the plugins and making it so they're automatically placed in your inventory upon your first spawn in that world (and perhaps a place to recreate them, in case players lose them). More specifically things like shop/job/towny/plotme/skyblock/halo commands.
A book is a different visual aid and it may appeal to players in a way that commands do not.

CluelessKlutz

add a tendie reference in the tutorial pls

~ @DarkKnight49x

You should not seek the communities opinion until you get a new community.
~ @Deinen

Never know when an actual idea will be posted, like this one.

I suggest making books for the different worlds giving a list of the commands you can use for all the plugins and making it so they're automatically placed in your inventory upon your first spawn in that world (and perhaps a place to recreate them, in case players lose them). More specifically things like shop/job/towny/plotme/skyblock/halo commands.
A book is a different visual aid and it may appeal to players in a way that commands do not.
~ @PeriHeika

So you're thinking you spawn with a separate guide book in each world upon entering it for the first time?

lanekids40

telling players to be careful wont help much. famous.
books are a good idea but without commands you really cant customize them like you can with the commandGUI plugin.
however if you use a custom item generator than the books would be easy.
I even think I remember that there was a guide book before gamma was a thing but that was when the server was in 1.8.9
and @FamousZAmos you might think that minecraft is easy but that is your opinion. now go back to the day when you first played minecraft, was it as easy as you say then as it is now?

PeriHeika

So you're thinking you spawn with a separate guide book in each world upon entering it for the first time?
~ @CluelessKlutz

Yeah, like if you warp to the creative world you're given a different book than one at towny or skyblock.
I'd suggest to be careful with an idea like this though because if too much information is packed into a book then it won't be easy to read = people won't read it at all. The main information I'd put in there is how to get commands that lead to other commands, for example, /shop, because I still keep forgetting it is a command so I struggle finding out how to sell things (haha). A command like /shop, /t help, or /plotme isn't as obvious as a command that says /help.

Deinen

Above learning basic commands tutorial and /help will never be sufficient in integrating new players into the community, this must be done by the community itself, more specifically Mayors used to be the ones to take the new people under their wings show them the ropes.

The best stopgap that should be explored is a massive campaign to get warm bodies into the server and a town run by staff specifically for new players until they find a better town. The town shouldn't go crazy with grinders and ammenities but simply teaching the new players how to be a good town resident / assistant / mayor to restore the population with mentors.

FamousZAmos

you might think that minecraft is easy but that is your opinion. now go back to the day when you first played minecraft, was it as easy as you say then as it is now?
~ @lanekids40

I played 100+ hours of roblox so yeah it was easy xD it isn't a hard game, just used to be a complex one. with recipie books, the last facet of "difficulty" (memorizing every single recipie) is gone.

LordInateur

add a tendie reference in the tutorial pls
~ @CluelessKlutz

+1 for tendies

lanekids40

+1 for tendies
~ @LordInateur

CluelessKlutz

Moved to pending, thank you guys for the ideas!

Adrian

/help will be overhauled in upon the launch of the new Towny World