Issue: New player face a rather steep learning curve. Many of them will create a dot, flounder and then end up being told "retire".
Furthermore, because the ideal day to build a dot is day 40-48, you might end up with many days wait until you can really build an effective dot. This is obviously bad when it comes to retention of new players.
Even long term players might want to have a little different fun during the season, and it's never a bad idea to give them something.
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Solution:
Add a "training camp" feature for any newly created dot. After the position selection screen, there would be a popup asking "send this player to training camp?" and a recommendation that new players and players not created during the offseason go to training camp.
At the end of training camp, the player would be remade during the offseason to begin anew.
What is training camp?
An accelerated CPU driven game play that's designed to crash course the player on things like player build, creation and the works, as well as provide a fun place to play around while waiting for the offseason. Think of it like a game tutorial
Step 1: Teaching - Players would see additional pages or PMs, videos, walkthroughs and popup tooltips etc on each page, explaining things like assigning skill points, how to do training efficiently etc etc. There would be some checks and warnings if the player is building completely wrong like "Warning: You are spreading your skill points out to many skills. This is inefficient at the start, are you sure you wish to do this?"
As much of the teaching as possible would be done in ignorable ways. For example, CPU style PMs can be sent from "Training Camp Coach" saying things like "Let me teach you about auto training" etc... as well as the tooltips on the page for quick reference.
The majority of the teaching would take place in the first week. Therefore, a player would get the full benefit of training camp regardless of when they signed up for GLB.
Step 2: Fun - Games would be 100% CPU driven, like a d-league. In training camp, XP would be accelerated, and games would be run every day. This is so that each day the new player can log on expecting things to have happened, and we can set the hook in their mouth for GLB so to speak. It would be nice to automatically pull out any big plays that the player had, and have the "training camp coach" (aka CPU) send them a PM highlighting their players plays. Stroke their ego a bit ya know...
The end goal would be to have these players around level 40 by the end of the training camp, in order to give them a feel of the game at multiple levels, as well as introduce vet points etc.
Step 3: The Pitch - At the end of training camp, players would be told that they will be starting over to use all they have learned to build the best they can. It will direct them to the PLFT and the TLFP forums and get them started on building.
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Conclusion:
The training camp would be a fun place to kill time and play so games. It would be set up so that a lot of the teaching happens quickly, so a new player learns the ropes regardless of what day they sign up. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the older players did it just to have some mid season fun too.
Furthermore, because the ideal day to build a dot is day 40-48, you might end up with many days wait until you can really build an effective dot. This is obviously bad when it comes to retention of new players.
Even long term players might want to have a little different fun during the season, and it's never a bad idea to give them something.
==============================================
Solution:
Add a "training camp" feature for any newly created dot. After the position selection screen, there would be a popup asking "send this player to training camp?" and a recommendation that new players and players not created during the offseason go to training camp.
At the end of training camp, the player would be remade during the offseason to begin anew.
What is training camp?
An accelerated CPU driven game play that's designed to crash course the player on things like player build, creation and the works, as well as provide a fun place to play around while waiting for the offseason. Think of it like a game tutorial
Step 1: Teaching - Players would see additional pages or PMs, videos, walkthroughs and popup tooltips etc on each page, explaining things like assigning skill points, how to do training efficiently etc etc. There would be some checks and warnings if the player is building completely wrong like "Warning: You are spreading your skill points out to many skills. This is inefficient at the start, are you sure you wish to do this?"
As much of the teaching as possible would be done in ignorable ways. For example, CPU style PMs can be sent from "Training Camp Coach" saying things like "Let me teach you about auto training" etc... as well as the tooltips on the page for quick reference.
The majority of the teaching would take place in the first week. Therefore, a player would get the full benefit of training camp regardless of when they signed up for GLB.
Step 2: Fun - Games would be 100% CPU driven, like a d-league. In training camp, XP would be accelerated, and games would be run every day. This is so that each day the new player can log on expecting things to have happened, and we can set the hook in their mouth for GLB so to speak. It would be nice to automatically pull out any big plays that the player had, and have the "training camp coach" (aka CPU) send them a PM highlighting their players plays. Stroke their ego a bit ya know...
The end goal would be to have these players around level 40 by the end of the training camp, in order to give them a feel of the game at multiple levels, as well as introduce vet points etc.
Step 3: The Pitch - At the end of training camp, players would be told that they will be starting over to use all they have learned to build the best they can. It will direct them to the PLFT and the TLFP forums and get them started on building.
==============================================
Conclusion:
The training camp would be a fun place to kill time and play so games. It would be set up so that a lot of the teaching happens quickly, so a new player learns the ropes regardless of what day they sign up. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the older players did it just to have some mid season fun too.
