Best Posts in Thread: Updates to Aid New Players

Greetings and salutations to you all. Yep, I'm suggesting another subject. Even as far back as my first suggestion, I said I would constantly suggest new things based on my unique perspective. Anyways,this has been an issue nagging at me for some time, and I feel it needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

Background​

Alright, so when you first log on to Meepcraft, where do you spawn? Tutorial! The very first thing you see is a hologram listing things you can do (I will attempt to post a screenshot of this as soon as possible). Going on, you read several more holograms, walking down the tutorial path, which then dumps you into spawn. Looking at your inventory, you start with a set of leather armor, a set of wooden tools, some food, $2500 Meebles, and a guide book. From there, players are free to do any activity.

The Problems​

If you pay close attention to the holograms and the guide book, you notice several errors.

• Tutorial Holograms

1. The very first hologram, the one everyone sees the second they log on the server, is wrong! It lists the various aspects of the server, things such as Towny, CTF, Boomo, etc. Know what else is on there? HG . . . Thus, we get loads of players joining, and asking in global, "How do you get to HG?" Guess how staff members and the community are forced to respond? "Oh, that was removed a long time ago. . ." Not exactly the best way to introduce people to the server.
2. The very first hologram, a player's first picture of Meepcraft, also lists Laser (which has been changed to Halo).
3. Several additional holograms could use rewording as well. One tells you to do /money. This could be changed to /bal. Another tells you how to use Global chat: /shout (message). This hinders newer players from interacting with the community, who don't know to use /g.

• The Guide Book

4. The guide book, being old, is pretty outdated as a result. Firstly, it tells you to go to Towny using /warp towns. This is outdated, as we now have Alpha and Beta. Seriously, am I the only one who has read the guide? (I actually have a collection of them) As a result, we have people constantly asking how to get to the Towny world, and the difference between Alpha and Beta.
5. This is more of a glitch than a update, but if you are using 1.9, you cannot open written books. Pretty self-explanatory why this is a problem.
6. Again, HG is mentioned in this.
7. The guide also does not mention events (such as Anvil Drop, Musical Chairs, etc.).
8. Formatting within the guide isn't exactly the best. Yes, it uses the color and font codes, but sparingly. Each page is a different topic, and titles are not centered. Simply put, it doesn't look as professional as it could.

Solutions​

Now, just listing a bunch of problems isn't very helpful, now is it? I have already thought of several fixes to each issue, and would like discussion on these.

• Guide Book Fixes

1. Remove it entirely
Pretty self explanatory, I'd say. Virtually no one even looks at it. Very few new players look at a guide book.
2. Correct Mistakes
Again, this would fix the issues with it; just change wording within the book.
3. Create an entirely new guide
Before you all start complaining staff should be worrying about other things, I will personally create a new book myself, and give it to staff to review and sign and close (putting their name on it).

• Tutorial Fixes

1. Rebuild Tutorial Completely
I think we could build a far better tutorial than what we have. Most players describe just running through it, and asking a bunch of questions later. My idea is forcing players to stop at each area, and have them perform an action (such as checking their /bal, saying "hello" in global, etc.).
2. Correcting the Holograms
I don't see how this would be a nightmare, and would fix the current issue.

Afterthoughts​

As you can tell, this is a very important issue to me, and I feel it should be the same thorn to everyone. Face it, very few new people stay (someone in global suggested approximately 2% of new players stay). And I will attempt to acquire screenshots of each problem if someone does not do so before I can. Thank you all for considering this, and for reading!

 

Alright, I have messed around in Tutorial more while meeting people who just joined. Allow me to elaborate on a possible recreation of Tutorial.

First World​

• Current

This is the very first area you spawn in. It mainly teaches you the very basics. The first hologram displays activities on the server, and tells you to do /spawn to skip the tutorial. The second hologram tells you about /ach. Third hologram introduces you to /money. Fourth in the line, this hologram teaches you how to use the vshop.

• Suggestion

First Holo: As mentioned in the OP, the first hologram displays HG and Laser, still. If Tutorial were to be remodeled, I'd suggest removing the "/spawn to skip the tutorials!"
Second Holo: Get rid of this completely, or at least rework it. It currently displays Dungeon, for crying out loud. Replace this one with what Meebles are, and what they do.
Third Holo: Teach them to use /bal instead of /money
Fourth Holo: Teach how to obtain Meebles, "You can earn Meebles by using your /jobs, selling items to the shop, winning minigames, and so much more!"

Second World​

• Current

Basically, all this world does is teach you communications, with Meep's various chats. The first holo in this world displays how to use Global, Trade, World, Local, TownsA, TownsB, NationsA, and NationsB. The second describes using /msg and /r. Next, you are taught how to use sethomes.

• Suggestion

First Holo: This totally needs to be split up more. It is absolutely overwhelming to look at all these different chats when you are brand new to the server. Instead, Town and Nation chats should be in a section on Towny. Trade chat should be included in the Fourth Holo of the first world, "Use /tr (message) to sell and buy items from other players!" Therefore, this leaves only Global, Local, and World chats.
Second Holo: This does not really need any changes.
Third Holo: No real changes needed for this either.

Third World​

• Current

All this world does, is ask you to select a job by walking down a path to a villager, with a hologram identifying what job.

• Suggestion

Move this world in between the current #1 and #2, therefore going in the order:

Basics->Making Money->Communications->Spawn​

Also, add info that asks you to do /jobs info (whatever job it is under) for additional information about that job, with another telling you that you may change jobs at any time.


Thoughts on my ideas for this?

 

Yesyesyesyes.

 

So I'm not the only one that collects guides
I have 51

 

Here are the screenshots I mentioned of said errors

First Hologram

Guide Errors



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Yes, that is the interior of my home in the background.