Starter Planets - Start Points

[Cynar]

Hey guys! This will probably be my last official poll prior to Pub9, and maybe forever.............

New people always seem to have an issues finding other players. Some of this has to do with having to join General Chat, Faction, or randomly running into Celt at the Kaadara BH terminals seeking prey. The other problems is our modest population is spread all over the Galaxy on random planets, tucked away in the their player city hidey- holes. Now as far as the joining Gen Chat channels thats something for the coders to work out, and I don't know if they care too since it's so easy to join.

The other thing that can be easily done is to switch on or off starter areas. When we started Awakening the goal was to try and funnel all new players into faction starter areas. However most people don't stay there long because of some strange draw to Naboo, which oddly draws the same attention for players cities. So the question I pose is how should we handle starter locations? Give us some detail, but don't get too windy!

As always please be kind to your fellow players, stay on topic, and if not prepare to be swatted promptly!

[Lasod]

so the multi planet starting location thing works well if there is all the different pilot squadrons, unless JTL is on the horizon then just one starter location is needed

[Arzzet]

Personally I think Naboo Theed should be the only starting point myself. Most people are drawn to Naboo by default anyway in the beginning plus the Theed starport does not have a wait time on travels so you can go wherever you like from there. Need to leave it up to the community to direct and help newbies. Put them in one spot so we can. Also include something in the ingame email received when you first log in on the server about where server population likes to hangout.

[Hereticzen]

Honestly i think this is a no brainer. The starting cities should simply be the most active at any time. Maybe putting a snippet of code in to spawn new players in what ever Neutral locations are currently occupied by the largest active group. SO if today at 2am New Destiny is active, that should be the new starting point. If three hours later cnet is more busy... that becomes the default starting local. This will become alot more simplified when the starting packages are fleshed out. This would aleviate the starting boredom from solo questing or not having people to buff or just simply in the vicinity.

Naru

[skyhunter11]

I like Corellia. Center world where you can jump to the most systems. Put shuttle time back on theed starport and won't be such a draw for players to Naboo. Other than that Naboo is boring. Only fun thing there is to shoot Gungans and spam "Jar Jar Binks Die!". Or meet Celt at the kaadara starport entrance.

Narrk

[Royan]

Cnet, Theed, ME

[Cynar]

Honestly i think this is a no brainer. The starting cities should simply be the most active at any time. Maybe putting a snippet of code in to spawn new players in what ever Neutral locations are currently occupied by the largest active group. SO if today at 2am New Destiny is active, that should be the new starting point. If three hours later cnet is more busy... that becomes the default starting local. This will become alot more simplified when the starting packages are fleshed out. This would aleviate the starting boredom from solo questing or not having people to buff or just simply in the vicinity.

Naru

No way to do that. You are talking about making backend AI for a 14 year old game.

[Lasod]

if the goal is return players to the npc cites then make npc cities IJM or Science centers and remove the price caps from the bazaar

[lassic]

Have all three. Theed, Cnet, and Mos Eisley. Have it based off of faction choice. As long as they are getting dropped into gen chat, people will be able to direct them.

[gizmowiz]

I voted for the 3 biggies. I was thinking you could run a starter quest line out of Theed, Coronet, and Mos Eisley to get new players acclimated and give them a chance to earn some credits and experience.

[Hammerfrog]

Imo there should be one fixed permanent starting location. Came to think of it reading this post viewtopic.php?f=41&t=8333
Personally Id like to see Cnet as a very busy hub, but there is no point going there, other than traveling.

[Cynar]

My problem with Cnet and Theed were building locations in relation to Starports. While in Theed the Med Center is right across the way, the Cantina is another good jolt around the corner. Some people who have never played would have an easier time in Theed, but Cnet is a layout disaster. Eisley is such as good choice because as soon as you step out of the Starport you see dots on your radar from the Cantina being so close.

[Chrakov]

I personally think there should be only one choice for a starting location. Reason for this is not only will new players have an easier time running into new and old players, but veteran players that enjoy helping new people out would know where to find them and assist them however they can, whether it's offering advice, setting up shops around said location's outskirts dedicated to selling cheap (but still better better than starter) equipment, or even listing them on the bazaar in said city. Active guilds can even advertise in this location to help liven it up.This would also help alleviate the most common question new players tend to ask: "Where is everyone?".

If they log in for the first time to see a populated city, it will give them a much better first impression for the server, it can be very demoralizing for a new player to log in for the first time and see an empty city, especially if it's their first time playing galaxies again in a very long time. Some probably quit the server because of that, without even asking where everyone is.

As for where the starter location should be, I agree with Cynar. Eisley has the medical center and cantina in full view when you first load in, so you will see all the players that use both of those buildings. Mos Eisley also has a fair balance of new player friendly creatures and npcs, you have npcs all over the city and creatures on the outskirts. Eisley also most likely holds a lot of nostalgia for returning players, and to see it populated again would make it feel like live again

[fuz028]

I voted for all except naboo, never did like that place, and rethink the no wait time in theed or drop the wait time on all start ports. That would help making theed so popular for no reason.
As for corellia it has always been my go to planet. Its cental jump point is awesome to move around quickly.
Mos Eisley i like as well it has always been thee starter place.
Rori/talus it would be nice to let new people start on these planets to get more traffic on unused planets. but need some brave explorers to settle there and start a city lol.

[Canti]

I signed up a long time ago but just recently started playing. So IMHO as a 2 month newbie to server... directing to faction starts totally pointless, day 1 most will not join a faction anyway. Mostly fear of becoming a baby seal and some "Where is the recu.... ohh shinny", maybe the other way around...

Real struggles for a newbie...
1) Starting cash 4k way to little in this economy... travel can eat that up just wanting to see the planets again. Most starter suits are 10-20k, Decent weapon 5k, and Buffs 15k...

2) Waiting... Shuttle waits were/are the most pain in the.... annoying thing about SWG. Does this serve any real purpose? Then, If you can find an ent in a NPC city it takes 15 minutes or more to heal mind. There is no passive healing like at med bay. Worse of all, It is rare to find a medic healing wounds, anywhere. (I know of 1) Passive heals in med bay too slow and depending on wounds can take over an hour to heal.

3) Feeling welcome and that server is populated, the first question I am usually asked when I meet other new players is "Where is everyone?" Second, "Are there Jedi?" and the related jedi questions. Unfortunately the 3rd most asked question along the lines of "is the server fair or just for the mods and friends?"

Addressing these issues is pretty easy, 25k Starting cash, enough to get started not enough to be exploited. Reduce/remove shuttle wait times, add passive mind/BF heals to NPC cantina's, and buff passive heal in med bays. Expand the welcome Message to address those 3 questions maybe even have a way for vets to advertise on the welcome mail. Lastly, reducing to 1 starter city will allow vets that want to help new players to focus efforts in 1 location.

Just this newbies 2 credits....

[Dreamariz]

Corellia, Tatooine and Naboo were my picks.

Those are the main planets people hang around and your more likely to run into active players while they are hanging about or waiting for shuttle somewhere.

Tatooine would be my main pick though, its a friendly planet, it also give good feel to the new player starting out fresh again. You can always find somone running around in Mos Eisley. I'm partial to the sandy planet myself, its my home hehehe.

[Cynar]

I signed up a long time ago but just recently started playing. So IMHO as a 2 month newbie to server... directing to faction starts totally pointless, day 1 most will not join a faction anyway. Mostly fear of becoming a baby seal and some "Where is the recu.... ohh shinny", maybe the other way around...

Real struggles for a newbie...
1) Starting cash 4k way to little in this economy... travel can eat that up just wanting to see the planets again. Most starter suits are 10-20k, Decent weapon 5k, and Buffs 15k...

2) Waiting... Shuttle waits were/are the most pain in the.... annoying thing about SWG. Does this serve any real purpose? Then, If you can find an ent in a NPC city it takes 15 minutes or more to heal mind. There is no passive healing like at med bay. Worse of all, It is rare to find a medic healing wounds, anywhere. (I know of 1) Passive heals in med bay too slow and depending on wounds can take over an hour to heal.

3) Feeling welcome and that server is populated, the first question I am usually asked when I meet other new players is "Where is everyone?" Second, "Are there Jedi?" and the related jedi questions. Unfortunately the 3rd most asked question along the lines of "is the server fair or just for the mods and friends?"

Addressing these issues is pretty easy, 25k Starting cash, enough to get started not enough to be exploited. Reduce/remove shuttle wait times, add passive mind/BF heals to NPC cantina's, and buff passive heal in med bays. Expand the welcome Message to address those 3 questions maybe even have a way for vets to advertise on the welcome mail. Lastly, reducing to 1 starter city will allow vets that want to help new players to focus efforts in 1 location.

Just this newbies 2 credits....

Almost totally off-topic and close to being deleted. You want easy mode, there are servers that cater to that, not Awakening. This topic is about Starter planets and directing traffic to other players and populated area's, not about giving you a set of Comp armor and shiny weapon right out of the gate. If Jedi aren't being seen it's a good thing. They are supposed to be hiding and not running around Theed without a care in the world.

Back on topic...

"Lastly, reducing to 1 starter city will allow vets that want to help new players to focus efforts in 1 location."

This idea I like!

[abnel]

For me Tat was always the starter planet. For starters its the most recognisable place in the galaxy when it comes to associating the 4th movie (first and best in my opinion) as it was the first planet to be shown in the film.

Secondly, most players in their hearts want to be Luke or Anakin based on their rebel/imperial persuasion.Both of these characters are first introduced in the films on Tat.

So lets move away form the movies.

From a game perspective having one planet and one starter location on that planet allows the vets a place to find new players. When Airy buffed in Mos Eisly I enjoyed meeting lots of new players and would like to do that again some day.. However I was horrified to discover new players in Bestine who thought the server was empty based on their chosen starting location.

Even these days Mos Eisly usually has a few ents grinding away most of the time and occasionally a doc.

I keep a vendor close by to Mos Eisly and keep meaning to fill it full of starter weapons, but never seem to have the time.

Just my thoughts..

Airy aka Blazen

[MarkyD]

No Starting points! I'd say a user-friendly resolve could be to place a few named items at spawn locations to just state the server effort to compile into player cities..
Or, perhaps make anything not wanted
A PvP zone. They'll flock fast.

[Drakathos]

I have been a Naboo guy ever since I started back on live, maybe it has something to do with me being a redneck and having to have that green pasture to run around in my hawtpants, I dunno.

But I personally hate Tatooine and Corellia, Tat I hate because of the sand and sandstorm and Corellia's cities are a complete disaster not to mention the terrain who ever designed that planets layout and the cities should be taken behind the sauna and shot.