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I have been thinking about this for a couple of weeks now and I was wondering if I could get the input of more players both new and vetrans.

Does anyone have ideas of what could be done to make players first characters more...playable?

How do you make each players first character one that isn't a "learning experience" where they create a character only to have to create another one soon after for not having enough energy or skill points.

What I feel should be balanced is that a new player character should be able to reach level ten without any outside influences from other players. It doesn't hurt to have someone else around to ask questions of, but I don't feel that the game is balanced correctly to make this easy for even a small number of players hence the currently low playerbase.

The future goal of Triad City seems to revolve around group play with balanced roles to solve puzzles. I feel that changing some things to make it more enjoyable for new players might help to achieve that goal.

The first thing might be to change the starting stat allocation to a different system. Currently you have 30 points to distribute among your character. Without any leveling gear, which new players have little idea is important, they will lack in many important areas once they reach the more playable stages of the game.

Just a few suggested ideas for changing the current beginning allocation to make play easier on new players.

Give all players a 10 in each stat, which totals 60 points. Then at level 10 give them 30 more points to distribute. I know this might be against the philosophy of the world, but it would allow characters without any level gear an adequate amount of practices and energy without any leveling gear. Also, at level 10 they will choose their role in the world and this is the time to allow them to distribute stat points because they know their characters purpose, what attribute areas they are lacking in, and what will benefit them the most.

Another possible way to do this would be an introduction stage to the world for each new character. They create the name and sex of their character in the player creation page but then go into an area similiar to the tree of life with branching pathways that allow them to choose their statistics not through simply choosing numbers, but by moral, ideological, and philospohical choices. My idea would work similiar to this:

One room would involve a scene in a modern day time, perhaps there are three choices for a player. One might lead to them becoming more evil, gaining +3 to Con and +3 to Str. While another may change them +2 to Int and +4 to Wis. Each room would be a completely different experience, using different points of view and completely different settings. A character would feel more like a character after you have discovered how it would react in different situations. This would lead to more balanced character creation and I would suggest that each ending average out to around 45-50 stat points.

I would definitely appreciate comments, suggestions, and criticism.

This is getting far too long so I will make another post.

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SmartMonsters' Bulletin Boards
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